Kangaroo Dreaming: An Australian Wildlife Odyssey

"Edward Kanze offers a superb chronicle of the nature of Australia in all the meanings of the word. You won't be able to read it without calling your travel agent." - Bill McKibben. Over nine adventurous months, Edward and Debbie Kanze drove an old station wagon 25,000 miles around Australia, spending nearly all that time in places where wildlife abounds. The Kanzes' odyssey began in Melbourne. Soon they were reeling from the cold, rocky mountains of Tasmania (home of the devil, who appears in these pages) via Ayers Rock and the central deserts to the steamy, crocodile-infested estuaries of the Northern Territory. The couple slept on the ground amid the world's most dangerous serpents. They endured the seductive bonhomie of lotos-eating Australians and hob-knobbed with kangaroos, koalas, wombats, platypuses, giant monitor lizards, kookaburras, and more than 400 species of birds. They ran a gauntlet of epic hazards. All these adventures come alive in Kangaroo Dreaming, a humorous walkabout through the flora, fauna, geography, and history of the surreal over-the-rainbow place Australians call "Oz." Never before has an armchair traveler enjoyed such an engaging opportunity to explore the "Downunderworld," a beautiful and sometimes dangerous land where the air is warm, the beer is cold, and the marsupials outnumber humans. "Kanze speaks with several voices: that of the professional naturalist full of accurate information and scientific observations; the skilled writer with a grand sense of humor; the storyteller with a sense of drama; and the adult who has the capacity to view the world through the eyes of a curious child." - New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Edward Kanze is the John Burroughs of the twenty-first century - except that Mr. Kanze is a better writer. . . . What an amazing continent and what a grand book about it! - Jack Sanders. "This deliberate Odyssey is a beautifully written narrative, rich in natural history observation, woven in a marvelous story fresh off Penelope's loom." - Ann Zwinger