A Country in Mind: Memoir with Landscape

by Saskia Beudel

The chunk of land bordering Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland is known as Namatjira. For most of us it is remote; geographically and metaphorically it is the heart of Australia. After a period of loss and much change, Saskia Beudel was inspired to begin long distance walking. Within 18 months, she had walked Australia's Snowy Mountains, twice along the South Coast of Tasmania, the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs, the Arnhem Land plateau in Kakadu, the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, and in Ladakh in the Himalayas. Throughout the course of her journeys, she experienced passages of reverie, of forgetfulness, of absorption in her surroundings, of an immense but simple pleasure, and of rhythm. The book that emerged contrasts her internal landscape with the external landscape, considering her relationships with her family in the context of environmental and anthropological histories. It champions the history of Australia's Namatjira country and conveys social and environmental issues. A Country in Mind is a narrative memoir of one woman's reflections on home, family, and belonging, while traversing remote and ancient landscapes. *** "The Australian Outback is depicted with such gorgeous language in Beudel's book that it almost feels as though you're seeing it with your own eyes. There is, however, more to this book than just description. The history and spirituality of the region is the glue that binds this alluring memoir together and turns it into a journey through Australia unlike any other." - World Literature Today, Jan/Feb 2015Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

Genres: Nonfiction

378 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2013

Reviews

[Gretel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.
A wonderful exploration of her family's history woven amongst histories in Australia. Wonderfully written.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Country in Mind is in part about the author's father who, as a child, was interned as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. Early chapters explore how this experience shaped the author's father's psyche and affected his family, and make fascinating reading. As the book unfolds, its focus expands to look at how human populations are shaped by historical forces and by the environment, and follows the author's travels in Central Australia, which are also given in vivid detail. A Country in Mind is particularly original in its drawing together of diverse narrative and cultural threads: it is interested in the displacement and environmental changes experienced by aboriginal people, as well as the experience of colonists. Towards the end it looks at ecological changes wrought by colonists on the landscape of Central Australia. It's a well written, inventive and interesting read. Disclaimer: Saskia is a friend of mine, and because I know her, it's hard for me to be entirely objective here!

[Caroline Griswold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book while traveling in Australia and I absolutely adore it. It focuses on the personal relationship people have with the land they occupy and combines personal narrative and family history with fascinating information about aboriginal australians' relationship to the land. I've recommended it to anyone who seems remotely interested in the subject, and sent a copy to my grandmother for Christmas. She loved it as much as I did. It absolutely deserves far more praise and publicity than it seems to have received.

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the January/February 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...