Book Description

John Kinsella'smemoir of his rural life takes us deep into the heart of what it means tobelong and unbelong. The joys and travails of childhood, adult addictions,missteps and changing directions are acutely captured in poignant and poeticdetail. While centred on Jam Tree Gully in rural Western Australia, the memoiralso moves between Ohio, Schull and Cambridge, mixing regionalism with an internationalsense of responsibility. What will strike the reader are the detailedobservations of daily life, the engagement with topography and flora and faunathat embody the author's conviction that 'all is in everything and that everyleaf of grass is vital'.In his mostintimate prose work to date, Kinsella never shies from writing about theviolence and intolerance of those scared of difference, and the ways in whichhis ethics have sometimes been met with disdain or outright hostility. But withnuance and humour he also celebrates rural community and its willingness tolend a hand.At once tender, urgent and intelligent, Displaced is ultimately a call to personal action. 'We all have choices to make.' It argues through it vivid accounts of small acts of living for the values of pacifism, veganism, environmentalism and justice for First Nations peoples -- the principles we just might need to heal our world.'Kinsella's work is magnificent, raw; the words comingtogether in form and shape to evoke the essence of the moment in time he iscreating.' -- Blue Wolf Reviews 'Kinsella can seeinto the heart of the country, and the evidence of these taut, complex storiesis that what he sees there is both ferocious and unresolved.' -- The Australian