In 'Tracks', Robyn Davidson recounts her extraordinary journey across the Australian desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. The memoir details her two-year preparation, including working with a camel breeder and training her camels, and her subsequent nine-month trek through some of the harshest terrain. Davidson faces numerous challenges such as sweltering heat, poisonous snakes, and lecherous men, while forming a deep bond with her camels and dog. The journey is also marked by her encounters with the Pitjantjatjara indigenous community and her reflections on Aboriginal culture, modern society, and personal transformation. The book is a powerful exploration of self-discovery, resilience, and the human connection with nature and animals.
Robyn Davidson's "Unfinished Woman" is a deeply personal memoir exploring her complex relationship with her mother, who died by suicide when Robyn was young. The book delves into Robyn's childhood experiences, her travels across Australia and the world, and her eventual reckoning with her mother's death. Davidson's evocative writing style captures the emotional landscape of grief, loss, and self-discovery. The memoir offers a poignant reflection on family dynamics, mental health, and the search for meaning in life. It's a powerful and moving story of resilience and acceptance.
Set in the closing months of World War II, 'Catch-22' is a satirical novel that follows the story of Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier stationed on the island of Pianosa off the coast of Italy. The novel explores the absurdity and inhumanity of warfare through Yossarian's attempts to escape his flying duties, thwarted by the bureaucratic rule known as 'Catch-22'. This rule creates a paradox where a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous missions, but if he requests to be relieved of duty, he is proven sane and thus ineligible for relief. The novel is known for its nonchronological structure, circular reasoning, and its critique of military bureaucracy and the illogical nature of war.
Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years.
Robyn Davidson on her adventures high in the Himalayas, her love affair with an Indian prince, and her late in life reckoning with her mother's story.
In 1977, when Robyn Davidson was in her twenties, she set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea.
Her book about the journey, called Tracks, brought her a taste of fame. But that life wasn't something Robyn was seeking.Instead, she continued adventuring, living amidst Sydney's underworld, the London literary scene, and with nomads in India and Tibet before marrying an Indian prince.
In her ceaseless travel, the only territory she avoided was the past.
Now Robyn has begun a reckoning with the loss of her mum at a young age. When she neared the age that her own mother was when she died, the past suddenly drew very close.
This episode of Conversations contains discussions around travel, trekking, deserts, Australian outback, camel trekking, solo travel, Western Australia, Indian Ocean, farming, families, family relationships, mother-daughter relationship, isolation, depression, mental health, suicide, music, piano, Queensland, Europe, India, Himalayas, Afghanistan, adventure, Tracks, National Geographic, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, cattle stations, boarding school, Brisbane, Sydney, gambling, nomadic culture, Tibet
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