Bypass: The Story of a Road

A classic in its own right, this personal and public memoir by one of Australia’s most observant and genial writers graces our bookshelves once again.

Forty and flabby, Michael McGirr hits the Hume Highway on a cheap bicycle. Having stopped working as a Jesuit priest, he is on a quest to find heaven knows what. Along the way, he is joined by Jenny.

Bypass is the story of Australia’s main street, the much-unloved highway between Sydney and Melbourne. The Hume has plenty of tales to tell-of bushrangers and bus drivers, publicans and poets, runners and refugees-and McGirr discovers he has one to add to the swag. The road is a source of wisdom and comedy, and maybe even a fine romance.

One of the most popular books by the author of Things You Get for Free and Books that Saved My Life, Bypass is both a personal memoir and an unconventional biography of the road most travelled. This edition includes ‘Passing By’, a new afterword bringing the story up to date.