Description
8vo, XXXIX, 293pp. Hardcover of black cloth with gilt titles to a spine in excellent condition.with d/w in glossy grey with painting on front cover and author photo on rear cover in a very good state with a small stain on the verso of lower edge not evident on d/w front and minor soiling on interior edges front and rear.Now protected in clear archival covering. text is clean and unmarked throughout being in overall excellent condition. A”novel of ideas”, set among the Aboriginal camps of Central Australia. ‘Songlines’ or ‘Dreaming-tracks’ are what Europeans call the labyrinth of invisible pathways that meander all over Australia. These trails are both intricate sources of personal identity and territorial markers and the author has been able to trace a great deal about an Aboriginal culture as complex at it is different from our own. Disputes over the right to excavate land that is sacred to wandering tribes highlight the importance of myth and instinct in the human psyche. Money from big business can corrupt tribal loyalties which have endured since time immemorial. Few other places on earth reflect so dramatically the clash between material and mental well-being.. An eye-opening, challenging semi-philosophical work.