In a Sunburned Country Return to Book Review Page Return to Home Page

By Bill Bryson

Broadway Books, 2001

Even looking at a world map, it is difficult to appreciate the immensity of the country/continent of Australia. In a Sunburned Country by prolific travel writer Bill Bryson gives a reader an appreciation for the size and unique character of the “land down under.”

Australia is so big, with regions so sparsely populated that many creditable people believe an atomic bomb was successfully tested without official detection in the nation’s vast interior by a terrorist group. Also yet undetected but virtually certain to exist is many fortunes in mineral deposits in the country’s vast interior. But a reader can resist the temptation to become rich by exploiting the resource after reading Bryson’s narrations of the many people who have faced a life of frustration or worse--a life prematurely truncated--in vain attempts to find and exploit Australia’s natural resources.

The book covers much of what a person might want to know about Australia: graphic descriptions of its abundant geography; that in addition to its many unique animals, it is also home to plant life almost as interesting; that many of its water creatures, insects and spiders are deadly poisonous; and its populous, just as unique as everything else about the country.

One of the few things that a reader is likely to feel not fully informed about regarding Australia after reading In a Sunburned Country is the aborigines. Why are so many Australians reluctant to discuss these people except in extremely guarded ways? This is one of the few things Bryson, along with readers of his book, doesn’t seem to find out about Australia.