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The Songlines

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The Songlines

By: Charles Bruce Chatwin
Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Bruce Chatwin provides a fascinating background to indigenous Australian life.

The songlines are the invisible pathways that criss-cross Australia, tracks connecting communities and following ancient boundaries. Along these lines, Aboriginals passed the songs which revealed the creation of the land and the secrets of its past. In this magical account, Chatwin recalls his travels across the length and breadth of Australia seeking to find the truth about the songs and unravel the mysteries of their stories.

©2019 Charles Bruce Chatwin (P)2019 Penguin Audio Anthropology Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Music Oceania

Critic Reviews

That Chatwin is one of the most distinct and original writers we have is confirmed by the publication of another quite remarkable book (Nicholas Shakespeare)
The songlines emerge as invisible pathways connecting up all over Australia: ancient tracks made of songs which tell of the creation of the land. The Aboriginals' religious duty is ritually to travel the land, singing the Ancestors' songs: singing the world into being afresh. The Songlines is one man's impassioned song (David Sexton)
Chatwin is not simply describing another culture; he is also making cautious assertions about human nature. Towards the end of his life Sartre wondered why people still write novels; had he read Chatwin's he might have found new excitement in the genre (Edmund White)

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editing and pronunciation issues

i love this book. Hugh's voice was great. i do wish he had done more research on pronouncing the words e.g. not spine a fex but spin a fex. null arbor as in the latin for no trees.
the first line of many of the chapters repeated too which was annoying.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.