An enthralling exploration of roots, ancestry and the search for belonging, this memoir in triptych form begins with Carl's early life in Flanders, the conflict with his father and his departure, leading to years of travel, his attempts at growing roots as a hippy pioneer farmer on the east coast of Australia and as a music star in Brazil, the discovery of love and the mending of old wounds in Greece, Spain and Belgium, culminating in a cathartic ancestral reburial ceremony on the island of Madagascar.

Dancing with the Bones is in turn philosophical, funny, adventurous, lyrical and insightful.