When You See the Emu in the Sky

When You See the Emu in the Sky is the journey of Elizabeth Fuller - vital, energetic, and free, yet saddled with unspoken grief. At home in Connecticut, she has remarried, happily, after the death of her first husband, and she has found success in her writing. But as her dearest friend, an actor who portrays Bette Davis on stage, begins to waste away from AIDS, a terrible loneliness stares her in the face again. Her response: to gather her twelve year old son and flee to a place she has dreamed of since childhood. Australia represents adventure. But events, uncanny and inexplicable, soon beckon her on a trip she has made no preparation for. It is an adventure of the soul, where the signposts are a large white cockatoo, spirits who visit in the night, and a full-blooded Aborigine named Max Eulo, who becomes her friend and guide to a culture thousands of years old. The tiny Aborigine village of Enngonia, where she is a guest, is worlds apart from everything Elizabeth has known. But when her heart seems most wrenched and she feels most out of place, she senses a gateway opening - and she enters through it. "The unknown paths are the gifts of life," an Aboriginal spirit counsels her. "Stay close to the earth and you will touch the stars." And she does - in a journey that is comforting, transforming, and wonderful.

When You See the Emu in the Sky is the journey of Elizabeth Fuller - vital, energetic, and free, yet saddled with unspoken grief. At home in Connecticut, she has remarried, happily, after the death of her first husband, and she has found success in her writing. But as her dearest friend, an actor who portrays Bette Davis on stage, begins to waste away from AIDS, a terrible loneliness stares her in the face again. Her response: to gather her twelve year old son and flee to a place she has dreamed of since childhood. Australia represents adventure. But events, uncanny and inexplicable, soon beckon her on a trip she has made no preparation for. It is an adventure of the soul, where the signposts are a large white cockatoo, spirits who visit in the night, and a full-blooded Aborigine named Max Eulo, who becomes her friend and guide to a culture thousands of years old. The tiny Aborigine village of Enngonia, where she is a guest, is worlds apart from everything Elizabeth has known. But when her heart seems most wrenched and she feels most out of place, she senses a gateway opening - and she enters through it. "The unknown paths are the gifts of life," an Aboriginal spirit counsels her. "Stay close to the earth and you will touch the stars." And she does - in a journey that is comforting, transforming, and wonderful.

Elizabeth Fuller is the author of nine nonfiction books and a novel. She is the playwright of the Off-Broadway play "Me and Jezebel" which is currently being performed in theatres across the United States and in several European cities. She is an Op-Ed contributor to the New York Times. She lives with her husband in Weston, Connecticut.