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He died a decade ago at 48, but the six extraordinary books of Bruce
Chatwin—anthropologist, aesthete, escape artist and writer—still
inspire and confound. Most compelling of the lot is The Songlines, a novelistic
frame for his great obsession, nomadism. Famously restless himself, Chatwin
believed that the enlightened life is a journey paced on foot. The Songlines is
his proof: a hike at once physical and metaphysical, with Chatwin’s trail
through Aboriginal Oz reflected in his trawl through world literature,
philosophy and sociology. Connoisseurs of the wilder shores of science and art
will rejoice that Vintage has reissued all six books in paperback. The Songlines
is ISBN 0099769913 at £6.99.