Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion up, down, and over the Appalachian Trail (well, most of it) resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. Now he has traveled across the world and all the way Down Under to Australia, a shockingly under-discovered country with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. In a Sunburned Country is his report on what he found there--a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity.

Australia is a country that exists on a vast scale. It is the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. Despite being the most desiccated, infertile, and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents, it teems with life. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else: sharks, crocodiles, the ten most deadly poisonous snakes on the planet, fluffy yet toxic caterpillars, seashells that actually attack you, and the unbelievable box jellyfish (don't ask). The dangerous riptides of the sea and the sun-baked wastes of the outback both lie in wait for the unwary. It's one tough country.

Bill Bryson adores it, of course, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond the beaten tourist path. Here is a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister lost--yes, lost--while swimming at sea to Japanese cult members who may have set off an atomic bomb (sic) entirely unnoticed on their 500,000-acre property in the great western desert.

Wherever he goes (and Bryson goes just about everywhere) he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging--the beaming products of a land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine. On occasion the Aborigines, a remote and mysterious race with a tragic history, make a haunting appearance in this book. But by and large Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. Published just in time for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, In a Sunburned Country offers the best of all possible introductions to what may well be the best of all possible nations. Even with those jellyfish.

比尔·布莱森,世界知名的非虚构作家,1951年出生于美国艾奥瓦州,曾任职于伦敦《泰晤士报》与《独立报》,同时也为《纽约时报》、《国家地理杂志》等刊物撰文。作品主要包括旅游类随笔、幽默独特的科普作品——比如《万物简史》、《母语》等等,横跨多种领域,皆为非学院派的幽默之作。他的作品诙谐嘲谑的风格堪称一绝、整体上举重若轻,能让普通读者产生很强的认同感,不失为雅俗共赏的典范,深受读者喜爱,也获得很高的评价,每部作品均高踞美、英、加畅销排行榜前茅。

比尔·布莱森之所以能在二十世纪的旅游文学中占据一席之地,并成为目前世界公认的最有趣的旅游文学作家,是因为他擅长用不同的眼光来看待他所游历的世界,他真切地捕捉到了一个旅人的内心感受。自然地理、生活情趣、社会时态,布莱森信手拈来无不奇趣,使普通读者产生很强的认同感。他的尖刻加上他的博学,让他的文字充满了智慧、机敏和幽默。作为在英国生活了二十多年的美国人,他的作品又兼具了开朗风趣、绝不怕粗俗的美式调侃和冷峻犀利、一针见血的英式嘲讽。