Book Details

Leaving Paradise

My Expat Adventure and Other Stories

Sonia Harford

In this entertaining and thoughtful personal investigation, Harford explores the boom in Australian expatriatism-the ideals, reality and dislocation of being an Australian living abroad-and the often heart-wrenching decision to return home.

Opinion

“Sonia Harford is a fine journalist with a good eye and ear for her surroundings. Her freshness of vision engages the reader in the day-to-day as well as the extraordinary aspects of making a new life in another country.”
(Sydney Morning Herald, 20/5/06)

“This account of [Sonia Harford’s] professional and emotional odyssey will strike a chord with every Aussie who has itchy feet.”
(TravelLink, 1/6/06)

About this Title

‘He was just metres away, and I tried not to meet his gaze. Slobodan Milosevic, one of the world's most malevolent men, was on the other side of the bulletproof glass, watching journalists take their seats.’
—Sonia Harford

Sonia Harford hooked one of the biggest assignments of her journalistic career when she covered Milosevic's war crimes trial in The Hague. Like many other Australians who move overseas to live and work, Harford was on the journey of her life.

Leaving Paradise is in part the story of Harford's five-year expatriate adventure in Amsterdam and Rome. It also investigates the experiences of a host of other Australians including best-selling author Peter Carey, East Timor human rights campaigner Katrina Langford and lawyer and deputy registrar at The Hague International Criminal Tribunal, John Hocking. Frank and intimate interviews reveal why they—like almost one million of their compatriots—have uprooted their lives, families and careers to join the global community.

In this entertaining and thoughtful personal investigation, Harford explores the boom in Australian expatriatism—the ideals, reality and dislocation of being an Australian living abroad—and the often heart-wrenching decision to return home.

Regardless of whether you're a business professional, artist, waiter or student, this book is an exploration of the glamour and the grumble, the lure of the bewitching big city and the pain of nostalgia.

About the Author

Sonia Harford is a journalist and author. In Australia, she has worked for The Age and Good Weekend magazine. Overseas she has worked as a foreign correspondent in the Netherlands and as a freelancer in Rome. She currently lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.

The following appeared on the back cover:
Sonia Harford has been a staff journalist for The Age and Good Weekend. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.

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978-0-522-85242-4