Stretching from the formation of the Australian continent 600 million years ago to the 2002 hunger strikes in the Woomera detention camp, this is both a beautifully described journey across Australia's desert and a descent into its shocking history. Sven Lindqvist travels through the south of the country, lyrically describing its landscape, flora and fauna, and geology, while also cataloguing such abuses as the rounding up of Aborigine women for transportation to the "Isle of the Dead" for inappropriate and often fatal syphilis treatment, and the forced removal of "halfblood" children from their families to squalid camps.
"Terra Nullius is the latest installment in Sven Lindqvist's confrontation with the genocidal consequences of Western advancement.... Lindqvist's strength is the sheer heat of his passions and the boldness with which he attacks complacency.... A work of urgent necessity and a heart-warming marvel."—Independent (London)
