A reissue of the late master travel writer's magnum opus, with a new introduction by Jane Smiley.

Jonathan Raban's enthralling journey into the history of the Great Plains of Montana – the least populated, most uncharted region of the United States – to uncover the heart and soul of the country.

Bringing to life the extraordinary landscape of the prairie and the homesteaders whose dreams foundered there, and reaching through history to the present day, Bad Land uncovers the dangerous legacy of American innocence gone sour. Reissued with a new introduction from Jane Smiley, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres, this is Jonathan Raban at his finest.

'Bad Land should be recognized as a blazing classic' – Sunday Telegraph

"Raban’s journey, made through empty landscapes that once brimmed with optimism, reveals what happens when American innocence begins to curdle. The tale, borne along by its superlative writing, is a riveting one" - Observer

"A blazing classic" - Sunday Telegraph

"There is a temperateness, a patience, here that makes Bad Land quite unlike anything else that Mr Raban has written . . . an affectionate reasonableness about this perplexing nation that reminds the reader how much America ha always been nourished by the optimism of its immigrants" - New York Times

"Raban's journey, made through empty landscapes that once brimmed with optimism, reveals what happens when American innocence begins to curdle. The tale, borne along by its superlative writing, is a riveting one" - Observer

"The appearance of a new book by Jonathan Raban is a bit like the arrival of an unheralded comet. The heavens gently part and suddenly, here in orbit, shimmering with novelty, is a distinguished newcomer from an unimagined world . . . Bad Land is the finest sort of travel book: scrupulously well researched, sensitive, intelligent, compassionate, humoursome, and, always, stirringly well written . . . a triumph" - Financial Times

"A haunting inquisition into the fate of those immigrants who settled in eastern Montana at the beginning of [the twentieth] century. It is a classic tale of the American Dream turned, literally, to dust" - Telegraph

"It is a remarkable tale that Raban uncovers, one that encompasses the best and worst aspects of the American Dream" - Sunday Times

"Subtly ambitious, full of ironies and a tough sympathy" - Telegraph

"[Raban] turns Montana into a profound symbol for America's sense of displacement; for its tragic romance with rootlessness, its search for identity under that big blue sky. . . One of the great literary stylists at work today" - New Statesman

"[Bad Land] abounds with acute observation allied with ebullient wit. His exploration of the tragic episode of homesteaders is of exceptional historic value" - The Times

"Jonathan Raban [was] a writer of extraordinary gifts . . . and no one has evoked with greater power the marriage of land and sky that gives this country both its beauty and terror" - Washington Post