Unfinished Woman
Published on 12. October 2023
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-4088-3715-3 (ISBN)
Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA 2024
SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
'The zigzagging life of an adventurer' THE TIMES
'An astonishing, wonderful memoir of an extraordinary life' HENRY MARSH, author of Do No Harm
'Exciting and complex, full of insight and humour' SPECTATOR
'Enthralling, miraculous, clear as the brilliant constellations of the night sky' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
An unforgettable memoir from the author of the sensational international bestseller Tracks: the story of a mother and daughter, of love, loss and the pursuit of freedom
________________________________________
In 1977, twenty-seven-year-old Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea.
A life of almost constant travelling followed. From the deserts of Australia, to Sydney's underworld; from Sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in Tibet, to 'marrying' an Indian prince, Davidson's quest was motivated by an unquenchable curiosity about other ways of seeing and understanding the world.
Davidson threw bombs over her shoulder and seeds into her future on the assumption that something would be growing when she got there. The only terrain she had no interest in exploring was the past.
In Unfinished Woman Davidson turns at last to explore that long avoided country. Through this brave and revealing memoir, she delves into her childhood and youth to uncover the forces that set her on her path, and confront the cataclysm of her early loss.
Unfinished Woman is an unforgettable investigation of time and memory, and a powerful interrogation of how we can live with and find beauty in the uncertainty and strangeness of being.
'In her twenties, Davidson trekked 1,700 miles through the Australian wilderness. This led to the bestselling book Tracks and global fame. Half a century later she has written about what motivated her - including the tragic early death of her mother' Simon Hattenstone, GUARDIAN
SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
'The zigzagging life of an adventurer' THE TIMES
'An astonishing, wonderful memoir of an extraordinary life' HENRY MARSH, author of Do No Harm
'Exciting and complex, full of insight and humour' SPECTATOR
'Enthralling, miraculous, clear as the brilliant constellations of the night sky' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
An unforgettable memoir from the author of the sensational international bestseller Tracks: the story of a mother and daughter, of love, loss and the pursuit of freedom
________________________________________
In 1977, twenty-seven-year-old Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea.
A life of almost constant travelling followed. From the deserts of Australia, to Sydney's underworld; from Sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in Tibet, to 'marrying' an Indian prince, Davidson's quest was motivated by an unquenchable curiosity about other ways of seeing and understanding the world.
Davidson threw bombs over her shoulder and seeds into her future on the assumption that something would be growing when she got there. The only terrain she had no interest in exploring was the past.
In Unfinished Woman Davidson turns at last to explore that long avoided country. Through this brave and revealing memoir, she delves into her childhood and youth to uncover the forces that set her on her path, and confront the cataclysm of her early loss.
Unfinished Woman is an unforgettable investigation of time and memory, and a powerful interrogation of how we can live with and find beauty in the uncertainty and strangeness of being.
'In her twenties, Davidson trekked 1,700 miles through the Australian wilderness. This led to the bestselling book Tracks and global fame. Half a century later she has written about what motivated her - including the tragic early death of her mother' Simon Hattenstone, GUARDIAN
Reviews / Votes
An astonishing, wonderful memoir of an extraordinary life -- HENRY MARSH, author of Do No Harm In a memoir that's as evocative and restless as its author - flitting from Doris Lessing's abode in London to the Indian home of her Rajasthani prince "companion" - Davidson interrogates what family, freedom and home mean when you never truly belong anywhere * GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA, Books of the Year * A triumph * SATURDAY PAPER * An extraordinary memoir ... An enthralling, miraculous story, clear as the brilliant constellations of the night sky * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD * The zigzagging life of an adventurer ... A fine and observant descriptive writer * THE TIMES * Lyrical and beautifully textured ... The book's multi-layered structure allows disparate recollections to interrupt the chronological narrative in evocative ways, and its title suggests an unfinished symphony, with music and the act of writing serving as central motifs ... The strength of Unfinished Woman is its honesty about Robyn Davidson's difficult emotional and creative journey, and it is propelled by her unsparing self-awareness and willingness to confront her past' * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT * In her twenties, Davidson trekked 1,700 miles through the Australian wilderness. This led to the bestselling book Tracks and global fame. Half a century later she has written about what motivated her - including the tragic early death of her mother -- Simon Hattenstone * GUARDIAN * Davidson captures an exciting and complex life with insight and humour ... Davidson's life has been full of adventures, encounters, love affairs and losses. She pulls them apart, examines them and lays them before us so as to question what sort of life we are living * SPECTATOR * This is a beautiful story about finding a home wherever you go and understanding your own narrative * BOOKS+PUBLISHING * Immersive and profound, Robyn Davidson's Unfinished Woman is a portal to understanding a daughter's grief. "We take our mothers into us; that is where they live," she writes. So much of her mother's life may remain unknown, but through memoir, Davidson completes what she considers an impossible task: crafting a moving portrait of her mother. This book will stay with me -- JEANNIE VANASCO, author of The Glass Eye Stunning. Robyn Davidson lives and writes with an explorer's courage, but this book is more than an adventure story. Unfinished Woman is an unfiltered glimpse into the fierce pursuit of freedom and connection, woven with a mother-daughter bond untouchable by time -- KENDRA ATLEEWORK, author of Miracle Country A powerful memoir, and an unforgettable read -- RYAN MURDOCK Searching, captivating and miraculously honest. Davidson has a voice we want to travel with, and to know -- LISA BRENNAN-JOBS, New York Times bestselling author of Small Fry Praise for Tracks: This will rank among the best of the books of exploration and travel and, like them, is a record of self-discovery and self-proving -- DORIS LESSING An unforgettably powerful book, beautiful, thrilling and ferociously brave ... Davidson's timeless story of her astonishing journey gripped me from the first page to the last -- CHERYL STRAYED It gets to the heart of landscape and solitude and becomes a venture to the interior of more than one dimension as its author approaches the hinterland of her own thorny psyche * OBSERVER * An absorbing record of human endeavour and courage, a vivid picture of an extraordinary country by a perceptive and sensitive observer, and the story of an inner journey, of "shedding burdens" * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD * As eccentric, undisciplined, flashily brilliant and pig-headed as its author ... Ms Davidson is a born writer, her book deeply moving * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Vivid and vivacious ... Davidson is as natural a writer as she is an adventurer * NEW YORKER * Davidson's has been an operatic life, punctuated by dramas of love and death, populated with colourful characters and backed by exotic scenery ... I loved reading this book. * THE MONTHLY * Davidson pieces together and attempts to understand who her mother was as a person and, by extension, who she is. This is a beautiful story about finding a home wherever you go and understanding your own narrative * BOOKS + PUBLISHING *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
1380 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-3715-3 (9781408837153)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Robyn Davidson
Unfinished Woman
E-Book
10/2023
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Robyn Davidson was born on a cattle property in Queensland. She moved to Sydney in the late Sixties, then returned to study in Brisbane before going to Alice Springs to prepare for her journey across the Australian desert. Davidson's first book Tracks, her account of this crossing, was an international sensation, and was adapted for a film starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. She has travelled extensively, and has lived in London, New York and India. In the early 1990s Davidson migrated with and wrote about nomads in north-west India. She is now based in regional Victoria, but spends some time each year in India.