In the Land of Oz

The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Finkler Question went Down Under - and this is what he found...

On what he calls 'the adventure of his life', Howard Jacobson travels around Australia, never entirely sure where he is heading next or whether he has the courage to tackle the wild life of the bush, the wild men of the outback, or the even wilder women of the seaboard cities.

In pursuit of the best of Australian good times, he joins revelers at Uluru, argues with racists in the Kimberleys, parties with wine-growers in the Barossa and falls for ballet dancers in Perth. And even as vexed questions of national identity and Aboriginal land rights present themselves, his love for Australia and Australians never falters.

'A wildly funny account of his travels ... it actually is a book which makes you laugh out loud on almost every page' - Literary Review
'The most successful attempt I know to grip the great dreaming Australian enigma by the throat and make it gargle' - Evening Standard
'A marvellous read ... he is a comic explorer in the grandest mould' - Financial Times