Sydney by Delia Falconer

Shortlisted

Old brick house with the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge behind it on cover of Sydney by Delia Falconer

JUDGES' COMMENTS

To capture the character of our largest capital city is no small challenge. In this luminous book, novelist Delia Falconer draws on archival research and engaging anecdote to explore the paradoxes that enliven her hometown. Her impressive scholarship and imaginative insights reach behind well-worn images of glitz to retrieve a darker, more haunted place.

Falconer’s vision, conveyed in superb prose, is original, persuasive and everywhere shot through with her fierce love of her subject. Sydney is a miracle of compression and elegance that dazzles on every page.