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Some Melbourne-inspired reading

The Grand Final weekend is upon us again. For those who are eagerly awaiting the game — or for those who are just glad to have a day off — we have some Melbourne-based books to share with you on this uniquely Victorian holiday.

The books in this list explore fictional Nunawading in the 1940s and the CBD in the ’50s; archival photography from the ’60s through ’90s, fiction and photography from the present day which span across the city and the western suburbs; they will take you on a tour of Melbourne through both time and space.

Flip through a few pages during the ad breaks, or maybe just curl up and read if you’re not watching the game at all — either way, prepare to be immersed in Melbourne at its most vivid. 

The Orchard Murders

A novel about revenge, obsession, and the dangerous gullibility of religious fanatics.

In 1944, in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, a brutal triple murder heralds the return of a long-forgotten cult. A man named Anthony Prescott has declared himself the Messiah and has promised his followers immortality. There are those who believe him and who are ready to kill in his name. Inspector Titus Lambert of the Melbourne Homicide unit, whose detectives are over-stretched, requests the discreet assistance of Helen Lord and Joe Sable, once members of his unit, now private inquiry agents. The investigation…

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Marlo

The stunning new novel from the author of Ironbark.

It's the 1950s in conservative Australia, and Christopher, a young gay man, moves to ‘the City’ to escape the repressive atmosphere of his tiny hometown. Once there, however, he finds that it is just as censorial and punitive, in its own way.

Then Christopher meets Morgan, and the two fall in love — a love that breathes truth back into Christopher’s stifled life. But the society around them remains rigid and unchanging, and what begins as a refuge for both men inevitably buckles under the intensity of navigating a world that wants them to refuse…

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Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990

A sequel to Old Vintage Melbourne, this collection invites you again to turn back time and revisit the diverse past of the much-loved city of Melbourne.

 

This captivating compilation of photographs taken between 1960 and 1990 provides a fascinating glimpse of a time that is familiar and yet different, when significant changes started to affect the city and its suburbs. As historic city buildings were demolished and streetscapes altered, Melbourne embraced modernity. The skyline grew, and so did suburban shopping centres. Under the impact of a rapidly rising population and large-scale migration, the…

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A Room Called Earth

A brilliant debut from a neurodiverse author that explores a young woman's magical, sensitive, and passionate inner world.

A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and always honest.

And by the end of the night, she’s shown us something radical about love, loss, and the need to belong.

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Westography

A new edition — with additional images — of Warren Kirk’s bestselling and beloved first book of photography.

In Westography, the renowned photographer Warren Kirk gains exclusive access to the homes and businesses of the last of a generation, capturing once-bustling industrial areas and the old inhabitants of back-street suburbia, along with garages, barber shops, fish and chip shops, milk bars, front gardens, sheds, and everything in between.

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The Orchard Murders

Robert Gott

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Marlo

Jay Carmichael

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Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990

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A Room Called Earth

Madeleine Ryan

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Westography

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