Sydney

As I set out from the city's southern end, the sandstone walls beneath the Central railway line still held the day's heat …The moon rose from the invisible harbour into a sky of such a deep royal blue it was almost hard to believe in. The street smelled of low tide. For all its beauty, the city could return in an instant to pulp. And that thought was strangely cheering. Sydney has always been the sexiest and brashest of our cities, but perhaps the most misunderstood. In this new edition of Sydney, Delia Falconer conjures up its sandstone, humidity and jacarandas, its fireworks, glitz and magic. But she discards lazy stereotypes to reveal a complex city: beautiful, violent, half-wild, and at times deeply spiritual. Beginning with her childhood in a decaying '70s Sydney, caught between a faded Art Deco age and mega development, Falconer intertwines her own stories with the wellsprings of the city's history and its literary past. Melancholic, moving, and funny, Sydney is intensely atmospheric and seductive. In a new afterward, Falconer ponders the city's twenty-first century transformations—might it have become a softer, nicer place? Will it be able to withstand the real presence of climate change?

Delia Falconer is the author of three books: two novels and one work of creative non-fiction. Her first novel, the bestselling The Service of Clouds, was shortlisted for major literary awards including the Miles Franklin, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and the Australian Booksellers’ Book of the Year. Her second, The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers, was shortlisted among other awards for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Asia Pacific Division). Sydney was shortlisted for seven national awards in history, biography and nonfiction, and won the 2011 ‘Nib’ CAL/Waverley Literary Award.