The collected short pieces of nonfiction from one of Australia’s best novelists.

'And what do you do, Mr Faulkner?' asked Clark Gable after being introduced to William Faulkner at a party.

'I write,' replied Faulkner. 'And what do you do, Mr Gable?'

Collected here for the first time are the very best of Richard Flanagan's wide-ranging, free-wheeling writings on everything from directing film and writing novels to a near fatal kayak trip; from baking bread to bushfires to art to war; from Kosovar refugees on the run to Jorge Luis Borges to his celebrated essay on the rape of Tasmania's forests, credited as a key to halting Gunns' two billion dollar pulp mill.

Sparkling, moving and always surprising, this is exhilarating reading from one of Australia's best writers.