This book gathers together a compendium of glittering, witty, thoughtful, wild and wonderful-to-read short essays by some of the world's finest writers on books that have inspired and influenced them, but are no longer available, or are hard to find, or sadly under-appreciated.
You will find Margaret Atwood on sex and death in the scandalous 'Dr Glas', first published in Sweden in 1905; Russell Banks on the off-beat travelogue 'Too Late To Turn Back' by Barbara Greene; and Helen Garner on the delightfully sinister Australian children's epic, 'The Journey Of The Stamp Animals'.
Contributors include Murray Bail, Jeff Eugenides, Siri Hustvedt, John Irving, Wayne Johnston, Philip Marias, W S Merwin, Anchee Min, Michael Ondaatje, Caryl Phillips, Michael Redhill, Leon Rooke, Jane Rule, Esta Spalding, Linda Spalding, Colm Toibin, Edmund White, and Rudy Wiebe.