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In his grandmother’s dining room in England, Bruce Chatwin grew up looking at a scrap of skin in a glass cabinet that the family called a “piece of brontosaurus”. It had been sent from Patagonia by a relative, Charley Milward, and in fact came from a mylodon, an extinct giant sloth. In late 1974 Chatwin, a former Sotheby’s expert who had left the art world to study archaeology, flew to South America to look for the place it came from. The book he wrote, In Patagonia (1977), made his name. In the twelve years he had left he published novels set in West Africa, on the Welsh border and in Prague, and a book about Aboriginal Australia, The Songlines. He died in 1989, aged 48. This guide covers his 9 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 key books · 1977–2010 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Bruce Chatwin’s best-known books are In Patagonia (1977), The Songlines (1987), the novel On the Black Hill (1982) and Utz (1988), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Start with In Patagonia, the journey through southern Argentina and Chile that made his name; below are the other 8 key books, the debate about how much of his travel writing is true, and a reading path.
Where to Start with Bruce Chatwin
If you want the book that made his name
→ In Patagonia (1977) — a journey to the bottom of South America.
If you want his ideas about nomads
→ The Songlines (1987) — Aboriginal Australia and the urge to keep moving.
If you want a novel
→ On the Black Hill (1982) — twin brothers on a farm on the Welsh border.
If you want something short
→ Utz (1988) — a porcelain collector in Cold War Prague.
9 Bruce Chatwin Books, in Order
In Patagonia
Chatwin flew to Lima in November 1974 and spent about six months in Patagonia, looking for the cave where his relative Charley Milward had found the remains of a giant sloth. The book is told in 97 short sections and wanders into the stories of Welsh settlers, anarchists and strikers, and Butch Cassidy’s years in Argentina. It won the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Viceroy of Ouidah
The rise and fall of Francisco Manuel da Silva, a Brazilian who becomes a slave trader in Ouidah, on the coast of the kingdom of Dahomey, now Benin. He is loosely based on the real trader Francisco Félix de Sousa. Chatwin was caught up in the violence of a coup in Dahomey while researching it. Werner Herzog filmed it as Cobra Verde (1987), with Klaus Kinski.
On the Black Hill
Identical twins Lewis and Benjamin Jones spend their lives on The Vision, a hill farm on the border between Herefordshire and Radnorshire. Lewis wants to get away; Benjamin stays close to their mother, and the First World War pulls him into the army. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread award for best first novel, and Andrew Grieve filmed it in 1987.
The Songlines
A narrator called Bruce travels around Alice Springs and the Central Australian outback with Arkady, a man hired to map Aboriginal sacred sites ahead of a new railway, and learns about the songlines, the sung paths across the land. In the second half, stranded for weeks in a remote settlement, he reflects on nomadic and settled life. It was a bestseller in Britain and the United States; Chatwin himself called it fiction.
Utz
Kaspar Utz collects Meissen porcelain in Communist Czechoslovakia. He is allowed abroad once a year and thinks of defecting each time, but he cannot take the collection with him, so he always comes back. It was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize, and George Sluizer filmed it in 1992 with Armin Mueller-Stahl.
What Am I Doing Here
A collection of his shorter pieces — profiles, travel essays and stories — published in 1989, the year he died, gathering writing from across his career.
Photographs and Notebooks
A posthumous selection of the photographs he took on his travels, set beside extracts from the notebooks he carried with him. It was published in the United States as Far Journeys.
Anatomy of Restlessness
Essays, articles, short stories and travel pieces from his twenty-year career that had not been collected before, edited by Jan Borm and Matthew Graves.
Under the Sun
His letters, edited by his widow Elizabeth Chatwin and his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, covering his life from school and Sotheby’s to his travels and the writing of his books.
In What Order to Read Bruce Chatwin
Chatwin’s books do not continue from one another, and there are only six from his lifetime, so you can read them in any order. Publication order is still the clearest route: In Patagonia sets out the restlessness that drives everything else, the three novels test it in very different places, and The Songlines is his fullest attempt to explain it.
The posthumous books are for readers who already know the main work. What Am I Doing Here is the best of them to start with; the letters in Under the Sun are worth reading after a biography or alongside the books they describe.
A reading path
1. In Patagonia (1977)
2. On the Black Hill (1982)
3. Utz (1988)
4. The Songlines (1987)
5. What Am I Doing Here (1989)
Everything Else Bruce Chatwin Published
Beyond the 9 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Shorter and posthumous books
2
2 books · 1985–1998
- 1985Patagonia Revisiteda short book written with Paul Theroux
- 1998Winding Pathsa further posthumous collection
The years · 1940–1989
Quick facts about Bruce Chatwin
- Known for
- Bruce Chatwin is known for travel writing that mixes journey, history and storytelling, above all the search for a scrap of giant-sloth skin that became In Patagonia.
- 1940
- Born in Sheffield
- 1966
- Leaves Sotheby’s to study archaeology
- 1977
- In Patagonia
- 1989
- Dies in Nice, aged 48
- Born
- 13 May 1940, Sheffield, England
- Education
- Marlborough College; studied archaeology at the University of Edinburgh from 1966 but left without a degree
- Worked
- Sotheby’s, from porter in 1958 to junior director in 1966; then adviser on art and architecture to The Sunday Times Magazine
- Married
- Elizabeth Chanler, in 1965
- Prizes
- Hawthornden Prize and E. M. Forster Award (In Patagonia); James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Whitbread First Novel award (On the Black Hill)
- Died
- 18 January 1989, Nice, France, aged 48
The red mark is 1977: In Patagonia, the travel book that made his name.
How Bruce Chatwin Writes: Short Sections and Long Distances
Chatwin builds his books from short pieces. In Patagonia has 97 sections, some no longer than a paragraph, and moves from his own journey to stories he heard on the way, then back to settlers, strikers and outlaws. The structure follows his subject: a book about wandering wanders.
His training was in objects. At Sotheby’s he became an expert in antiquities and Impressionist paintings, and his books are full of precisely described things: the piece of skin in the cabinet, Utz’s Meissen figures, the farmhouse at The Vision. His sentences are plain and compressed, and he relies on scenes and anecdotes more than on argument, even in The Songlines, his most argumentative book.
The same habits are behind the long debate about his accuracy. He reshaped real people and conversations for effect, changed names, and moved freely between reportage and fiction, which is why The Songlines is sometimes shelved as a novel. His three novels, by contrast, keep close to real places and real histories: Dahomey’s slave trade, a Welsh border farm, a collector in Prague.
Frequently asked questions about Bruce Chatwin’s books
How many books has Bruce Chatwin written?
Six books came out in his lifetime, including Patagonia Revisited (1985), written with Paul Theroux, and What Am I Doing Here appeared in 1989, the year he died. With the posthumous collections of photographs, writings and letters, this page lists eleven: nine key books and two shorter ones.
What are Bruce Chatwin’s books in order?
In Patagonia (1977), The Viceroy of Ouidah (1980), On the Black Hill (1982), The Songlines (1987), Utz (1988), What Am I Doing Here (1989), Photographs and Notebooks (1993), Anatomy of Restlessness (1996) and Under the Sun (2010). Patagonia Revisited (1985) and Winding Paths (1998) are shorter books.
Where should I start with Bruce Chatwin?
In Patagonia (1977), the journey through southern Argentina and Chile that made his name. If you prefer fiction, start with On the Black Hill, or with Utz if you want something short.
What is Bruce Chatwin’s most famous book?
In Patagonia, which won the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award. The Songlines (1987), about Aboriginal Australia, was a bestseller in Britain and the United States.
Did Bruce Chatwin make things up in his travel books?
It has been debated since In Patagonia appeared. People in Patagonia disputed some of the events and portraits in the book, and Chatwin later spoke of “counting up the lies”, while saying there were not many. His biographer Nicholas Shakespeare found few cases of outright invention and more of embellishment. The Songlines was criticised for relying on white Australians and a short stay; Chatwin asked for it to be withdrawn from the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, saying it was a work of fiction.
Is The Songlines fiction or non-fiction?
Both, in effect. It is based on Chatwin’s trips to Central Australia and on real people, with names changed, but he presented it as fiction and asked for it to be withdrawn from a travel-book award for that reason. The narrator, Bruce, is a version of himself.
Which Bruce Chatwin books have been filmed?
The Viceroy of Ouidah became Werner Herzog’s Cobra Verde (1987), On the Black Hill was filmed by Andrew Grieve (1987), and Utz by George Sluizer (1992). Herzog, a friend, also made a documentary about him, Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019).
Did Bruce Chatwin win the Booker Prize?
No. Utz was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1988. His prizes were the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award for In Patagonia, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread award for best first novel for On the Black Hill.
When did Bruce Chatwin die?
On 18 January 1989, in a hospital in Nice, France, aged 48. He died of an AIDS-related illness. What Am I Doing Here was published later that year.
Footnotes
- Bruce Chatwin — Wikipedia
- Bruce Chatwin — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- In Patagonia — Wikipedia
- The Songlines — Wikipedia
- The Viceroy of Ouidah — Wikipedia
- Utz — The Booker Prizes
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“In my grandmother’s dining-room there was a glass-fronted cabinet and in the cabinet a piece of skin.”
— Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia (1977), the first line
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