AMNESIA ROAD: LANDSCAPE, VIOLENCE AND MEMORY

Shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards – Australian History Prize. 'At both ends of the world, I have found confusion and profound disagreement about how to read the story of the past, about who should write or speak it, and what parts of it should be written or spoken about at all.' Amnesia Road is a compelling literary examination of historic violence in rural areas of Australia and Spain. It is also an unashamed celebration of the beautiful landscapes where this violence has been carried out. Travelling and writing across two locations—the seldom-visited mulga plains of south-west Queensland and the backroads of rural Andalusia—award-winning Australian Hispanist Luke Stegemann uncovers neglected history and its many neglected victims, and asks what place such forgotten people have in contemporary debates around history, nationality, guilt, and identity.