Secret Life of Backpackers: A bunk's-eye view of the tourist trail from Bondi to Cairns

Description

Seven days and seven nights in Bondi's backpacker hostel. Sounds easy, sounds biblical ...sounds scary. Barry Divola wrote an article on the Bondi Backpacker Hostel for SUNDAY LIFE magazine. He had no idea what to expect but found himself in an alternate universe. the response to his article was phenomenal and has spurred him on to take the backpacker challenge! In a travel memoir that is a little like George Orwell's DOWN AND OUt IN PARIS railroaded by Hunter S. thompson, this is an insight into backpacker culture like you've never seen it before. From Bondi to Cairns, Barry follows the infamous backpacker trails that lead from Bondi up north to the holiday destinations of Queensland. He tests his strength, his sanity and his liver in a memoir that will make you cringe but compel you to read on to the end.

Barry Divola is a journalist and author born and bred in Sydney, currently living in Perth. He writes regularly for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and Qantas Magazine. He was a senior writer for Rolling Stone (Australia), the long-time music critic for Who, and his work has appeared internationally in Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Monocle and other magazines. Driving Stevie Fracasso is his first novel, but he has published eight other books - four non-fiction books, three children's books and a book of short fiction (Nineteen Seventysomething). He has won the Margaret River Short Story Prize, the FAW Jennifer Burbidge Award, the Cowley Literary Award and the Banjo Paterson Award for Short Fiction (three times). Although he plays in three bands in two cities, he has been informed not to give up his day job.

Travel Writing/Memoirs/Humour/Pop Culture