The Lost Continent
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  • Published: 1 December 2004
  • ISBN: 9781405697569
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 19 min
  • Narrator: Kerry Shales
  • RRP: $11.99
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The Lost Continent

Travels in Small-Town America

Formats & editions
Paperback
1 Feb 2016
EBook
1 May 2010
Audiobook
1 Dec 2004
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Hardly anyone ever leaves Des Moines, Iowa. But Bill Bryson did, and after 10 years in England he decided to go home...to a foreign country.

In an ageing Chevrolet Chevette, he drove nearly 14,000 miles through 38 states to compile this hilarious and perceptive state-of-the-nation report on small-town America.

From the Deep South to the Wild West, from Elvis' birthplace through to Custer's Last Stand, Bryson
visits places he re-named Dullard, Coma, and Doldrum (so the residents don't sue or come after him with baseball bats). But his hopes of finding the American dream end in a nightmare of greed, ignorance, and pollution. This is a wickedly witty and savagely funny assessment of a country lost to itself, and to him.

Travel through small-town America with Kerry Shale's popular BBC Radio 4 reading of Bill Bryson's comic travelogue.
  • Published: 1 December 2004
  • ISBN: 9781405697569
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 19 min
  • Narrator: Kerry Shales
  • RRP: $11.99
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. His bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. In a national poll, Notes from a Small Island was voted the book that best represents Britain. His acclaimed work of popular science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize, and was the biggest selling non-fiction book of its decade in the UK. His new book The Body: A Guide for Occupants is an extraordinary exploration of the human body which will have you marvelling at the form you occupy.
Bill Bryson was Chancellor of Durham University 2005–2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.

portrait photo of Bill Bryson

Also by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything
A Really Short Journey Through the Body
The Body Illustrated
The Body
The Road to Little Dribbling
At Home (Illustrated Edition)
One Summer
See all

Praise for The Lost Continent

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Luke Scull

Intrigue, piracy and action, Dark Run is a page turning SF romp with with an edge as sharp as mono-molecular blade.

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Mike Brook's Dark Run is a rambunctious, rapidfire rollercoaster of a read. Get signed up and strapped in for a helluva ride!

Michael Cobley author of the Humanity's Fire series

Great fun . . . Golden Age chic!

Stephen Baxter

A fast and wry SF adventure full of the deviousness and wit of Firefly.

Stephen Deas