Product Description

'That dumbshit map. I'd been seduced by it. Seduced by its possibilities. That map had brought me here ...That map had been a serious mistake' The map in question is of Australia, stumbled across in a second-hand bookshop by American journalist Nick Hawthorne, en route to another dead-end hack job in Akron, Ohio. Seduced by all that wilderness, all that NOTHING, Nick decides to put his midlife crisis on hold and light out to the ultimate nowheresville - where a chance encounter throws him into a sun-baked orgy of surf, sex and swill, and a nightmare from which there is no escape. 'Douglas Kennedy might never be allowed into Australia again. This is a crazy, compulsive ultimately serious thriller and a bravura fictional debut from one of our best travel writers' Philip Kerr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27030 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
**'Pulls off that most difficult feat of being hilariously funny and frightening at the same time' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY **'Fluent and entertaining ... a highly accomplished debut' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH **'His story-telling is so deft, and the build-up so detailed and convincing, that the denouement proves to be heart-thumpingly effective' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY **'A comic triumph' TIME OUT

About the Author
Douglas Kennedy is the author of THE BIG PICTURE, THE JOB and three travel books, BEYOND THE PYRAMIDS, IN GOD'S COUNTRY and CHASING MAMMON. Born in New York City in 1955, he lives in London with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

A great (but quick!) read
Every book I've read written by Douglas Kennedy (The Job, The Big Picture and this one) has been a can't put down experience -this bloke knows how to grab you quickly and keep you engaged throughout the story!

In this one an American ventures to Australia looking for adventure, and gets a whole lot more than bargained for. A bit more surrealistic than his other novels, but equally as entertaining.

My only complaint is that I read this in a day, and was left wanting more. If you're travelling this is the ideal book, a captivating quick read that never fails to entertain.

Scary stuff
Douglas Kennedy has such a knack of making you want to keep turning those pages well into the night. I have seldom come across an author that has had the ability to actually make me feel as the characters do (suspense, tension, nerves etc) and yet this is what he does best. Infact with The Dead Heart I felt so trapped and uncomfortable in the middle of this book that I actually considered shelving it. Of course, I didn't and I'm glad I didn't.

This is the story of an American Journalist who buys an old map of Australia and sets off on a whim. His plan is to travel in an old campervan he buys in Darwin through the outback alone. What happens next is quite terrifying and you find yourself wondering how on earth he is going to get out of this. Having travelled myself overseas (and alone for some of the time) I often think back to the sticky situations I got myself into but, crikey, this beats all.

I also highly recommend The Job and The Big Picture also by Kennedy.

Enjoy!

I've got to get out of here!
good backpacking advice - sex on holiday is not always healthy! - especially when combined, as here, with inbreeding, and a certain inaccessibility of the landscape. A gripping tale with its full share of black humour and grim moments.