Book launch: Paradise Estate by Max Easton w/ live bands Zipper & Mope City

Join us to celebrate Max Easton’s new book, Paradise Estate, an ‘exhilarating’ novel set in Sydney share-houses, which ‘always punches up’ (Guardian Australia), and which has drawn comparisons to Monkey Grip, Helen Garner’s 1977 classic. 

The launch will feature live bands playing new-wave pop and downer rock, and book readings from Max, all taking place on a casual Sunday at Ashfield’s Pratten Park Bowling Club. Paradise Estate is Max’s second novel following The Magpie Wing, which launched at the same venue in late 2021 and went on to be long-listed for Australia’s most prestigious literary award, the Miles Franklin.

Doors open at 3pm, with proceedings kicking off around 4pm, and live music from Mope City and Zipper from 5pm. Copies of both of Max’s books will be available for purchase on the night, as will a selection of food and beverages.

This event is ticketed to support live music and independent publishing, with all proceeds going to event costs. Please book your ticket early to avoid missing out.

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ABOUT PARADISE ESTATE

It’s 2022 and Helen is starting again. Newly single, dogged by grief, adrift in a hostile rental market, she finds a four-bedroom house flanked by apartment blocks that stare into the yard. Despite the lack of privacy, she fills its rooms with an unlikely group of residents looking for communal belonging: zine maker, activist, disaffected artist, part-time rugby league player – each looking to build a future, each haunted by their recent past. But if a rented house in Sydney could ever promise salvation, it would come with a coating of black mould.

Set across the course of a year, against the backdrop of pandemic and war, of climate and housing crises, Paradise Estate documents the struggle against generational confusion and social malaise. When isolation and atomisation are all we’ve been given, what can be built from common ground?

Written with ironic wit and an eye for contemporary events, the follow-up to Max Easton’s acclaimed debut, The Magpie Wing, sets the pessimism of its times against the optimism of the will.

Order the book.

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ABOUT MAX EASTON

Max Easton is a writer from Sydney. His work has appeared in Mess+Noise, The Lifted Brow, Meanjin and Sydney Review of Books. He is the creator of Barely Human, a zine and podcast series exploring underground music’s ties to counterculture and subculture. His first novel, The Magpie Wing, was longlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. His second work of fiction is Paradise Estate.

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ABOUT ZIPPER

Zipper play new wave pop with Japanese/English vocals and duelling guitar, like Chica Sato of The Plastics fronting Magazine. Special soft and spiky sounds. Listen here.

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ABOUT MOPE CITY

Mope City's new LP 'Population 4' projects the band's distinct strain of ‘downer-rock’, with comparisons made to 90s indie rock bands such as Galaxie 500, Low, Slint, and Polvo…a despondent collage of sound. Listen here.

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