Woman Alone

For fans of Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.

At twenty-seven, Laine Cunningham seemed to have it all: tons of friends, a college degree, plenty of all-night parties, and a secure job. Yet every morning she dragged herself through a life that was corporatized and overly industrialized, a life that falsely glamorized everything she was supposed to want.

Guided only by a map pulled from an old copy of National Geographic, she camped in the Australian Outback for six months…and she did it alone.

Traveling in a time before Expedia or Travelocity, and without any guidebook or travel guide from Lonely Planet, the trip was never intended to be a vacation. Instead, it was a search for something deeper, something that lay inside. Cheap plane tickets or the cost of the airfare were far less important than the investment Laine made in herself.

The self-guided adventure tour around the country covered nearly 17,000 miles. Hostels were preferred to hotels, and then only when camping under the stars wasn't an option. Otherwise, her best accommodation was the red sand and her only travel guide was her instinct about where on the map to explore next.

Told with warm humor and sparked with suspense, the search revealed a woman's most important discovery: herself.

Laine Cunningham, a three-time recipient of The Hackney Award, writes fiction that takes readers around the world. Her debut novel, The Family Made of Dust, is set in the Australian Outback, while Reparation is a novel of the American Great Plains. She is the editor of Sunspot Literary Journal.

Auteur

Laine Cunningham is a novelist and a three-time recipient of The Hackney Award. The Family Made of Dust, set in the Australian Outback, considers how indigenous lives thrive despite oppression. Reparation is a contemporary novel of the American Great Plains. Her short prose has been published by Reed, Birmingham Arts Journal, Fiction Southeast, Wraparound South, and a forthcoming edition of Military Experience & the Arts. She is the senior editor and publisher of Sunspot Literary Journal, a multinational publication seeking to change the world.

Contenu

Introduction Touchdown, Sydney Orphan The Way to a Galah's Heart Road Robbers Woman Alone Opal Fever Crystal Fire Seventy Feet Under Frontier Justice Death in the Fields Noodling Burgers and Donuts Krispy Kreme Dingo Fence Lady Emu God's Girlfriend Snack Food As Bad as All That Taking Flight Camp Tunes Uluru An Education A Wild Companion The Locals Mapping the Wilderness Temporary Companion Aussie Fables Precious Gifts Beautiful Sites with Beautiful Sights Cradle Rocker Bloody Tourists The Clever Man Stolen Children Silence Killer Caterpillars Bush Tucker Witchetties Waiting Man Alone Road Crew White Ants Red Glow Lakeview Steaks and Snakes Assistant Rancher Tipping at Windmills Thirst A Killing Muster The Good Life Shag on a Rock Cat for Dinner Stinging Nasties Paradise Grandfather Careless Breaths A Helping Hand American Dreaming Frog Juice A Manly Yam 133 Fifty Million Bushflies Crocodile Snack Sea Snake Guerilla Travel Please Don't Squeeze the Dolphins Razor Fish Car Park Saying Goodbye A Free Sample From Seven Sisters: Spiritual Messages From Aboriginal Australia Desert Dreaming Seven Sisters The Message of Seven Sisters A Free Sample From The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback 1 The Precious Dead Other Works by Laine Cunningham About the Author