![]() ![]() I am grateful that she doesn’t hide behind a sense of bravado, or fixate on her trek being a solution. Dempster deals well with the issues around mental health. ![]() She also finished the journey depressed, and in the end, it was the writing of the book that helped. In an interview, she says that she took the journey because she was depressed. Simply, she wants to come to an understanding of who she is and why, and in the process, to shake the despair that has overtaken her life. ![]() Dempster is not after enlightenment as such, but rather an opportunity to invigorate her life. This is the famous 88 Temple Pilgrimage, performed in honour of the ninth-century monk who brought Buddhism to Japan. Even back then, Dempster was not one to shy away from a challenge: so she embarks on a truly daunting 1200km walking trek around the island of Shikoku, Japan. Written long before she became director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, Neon Pilgrim is an often humorous, brutally honest record of a walking expedition taken when Dempster was 28 years old and needed a dramatic change in her life. ![]()
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