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More copies of this ISBNeBook editionsThrowim Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums, and Penis Gourdsby Tim Flannery
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Tim Flannery is a scientist of international standing, a world expert on the fauna of New Guinea with twenty new species and seven books to his credit. In Throwim Way Leg, he takes us into the field and on an unforgettable journey into the heart of this mysterious and uncharted country. The result is a book of wonder and excitement, brimming with marvelous stories. Flannery's scientific voyage leads him to places he never dreamed of: he camps among cannibals and befriends Femsep, a legendary warrior who led the slaughter of colonial whites decades before. He enters caves full of skeletons of long-extinct, giant marsupials, scales mountains previously untouched by Europeans, and is nearly killed when tribes people decide to take revenge for their prior mistreatment by his "clan" (wildlife scientists). And Flannery writes movingly of the fate of indigenous people in collision with the high-tech world of late-twentieth-century industry. In New Guinea pidgin, "throwim way leg" means to thrust out your leg on the first step of a long journey. Full of adventure, wit, and natural wonders, Flannery's narrative is just such a spectacular trip. Like Redmond O'Hanlon's classics Into the Heart of Borneo and No Mercy, Throwim Way Leg is a tour de force of travel, anthropology, and natural history. Review:"What an extraordinary book this is....Flannery provides a magical polychrome of [New Guinea]. You can hear the cataclysmic thunderstorms, smell the hunting dogs, taste the roast possum. No one else could have written this book....The themes he elucidates are the largest themes available to any writer: life and death; religion and questions of belief; greed and the havoc that the pursuit of money can wreak; the politics of colonialism and oppression; the cultural specificity of morality....Flannery is a fiercely intelligent and perceptive guide. He is also courageous. This is a journey through and beyond fear....Flannery's book is as fertile and fascinating as New Guinea itself. It deserves to be read widely and often." Michael Winkler, Sunday Age Review:"This book combines an irresistible author with an irresistible subject: Tim Flannery, a great zoologist and writer about science, relating his explorations of New Guinea, a vivid tropical universe....The result is a dangerous book that you pick up at your peril, because it is so hard to put down." Jared M. Diamond, professor of Physiology, UCLA, and author of Guns, Germs & Steel Review:"An enthralling introduction to the mountain people of New Guinea — unimaginably remote, charming, cunning, cruel, subtle, and appealing — and to their magnificent land." The New York Times Book Review Review:"A gripping tale about the most remote areas of New Guinea...[a] wild and adventurous literary ride." The Christian Science Monitor Review:"Throwing Way Leg tells the story, in a disarmingly wry and unpretnetious way, of how Flannery made his great discoveries....All of this makes for great reading — the thrill of the unknown, rare enough these days, combined with a scientists's true passion for his work and for the creatures he studies." The Washington Post Review:"Whether literally going out on a limb to capture an 'extinct' bat, nearly getting killed when a hostile group identifies him as a member of the hated 'wildlife' clan, or solving the mystery of a tree-kangaroo with a white man's face, Flannery combines diligent science, heart-pounding adventure, and a respect for ancient cultures to create a compelling tale." Sierra, The Magazine of the Sierra Club Review:"As vivid and compelling as being landed in a helicopter in a high valley among the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya, some of the wildest country left on earth." Geoffrey Dutton, The Bulletin About the AuthorTim Flannery was born in Melbourne in 1956. He is a principal research scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, where he lives. He is also the author of seven other books, including The Future Eaters, which won the Adelaide Festival Award for Non-Fiction, the Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the inaugural South Australian Premier's Literary Award. He has made contributions of international significance to the fields of paleontology, mammalogy, and conservation. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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