Victoria Hannan: I Love the Whole World!

Join us to celebrate the launch of Victoria Hannan's I Love the Whole World! Hannan will be in conversation with Benjamin Law.

WHEN: Wednesday, 19th August 2026, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Please arrive at 6:45pm for a prompt 7 pm start. The event concludes at 8:30pm. after the book signing.

TICKETS: 

Admission: $25.00 (excluding external fees). Includes admission for one to the event and wine (or beverage) upon arrival.

Admission + Book: $55.00 (excluding external fees). Includes admission for one to the event and a copy of I Love the Whole World! (RRP: $34.99), and wine (or beverage) upon arrival.

When Leslie McDonald wins a trip to Las Vegas, an absurd holiday becomes a pilgrimage; one that leads her back to joy, back to herself, and to the astonishing realisation that her life still belongs to her.

Leslie had felt for some time that life was a series of things that just happened to her. When her physiotherapist husband dumps her for a woman with superior posture, she finds herself lost without a map.

A ticket out of her misery comes in the form of an all-expenses-paid trip to the bright lights of Las Vegas.

Wonder, Leslie discovers, can be found in the most unexpected of places. Soon she falls in love with the beauty of the desert, its art and its people – and finds her way back to herself.

I Love the Whole World! is a celebration of life and self. Hilarious, joyous and beautifully observed, it is a novel about friendship, ageing and the extra/ordinary act of deciding to begin again.

About the Author:

Victoria Hannan is a photographer and writer who lives in Melbourne/Naarm. Her previous novels are Kokomo and Marshmallow.

About the Host:

Benjamin Law is an Australian writer and broadcaster. He is the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia (2013), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). An AWGIE Award-winning screenwriter and playwright, he is co-executive producer and co-writer of the Netflix comedy-drama Wellmania (2023), playwright of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Torch the Place (2020) and Dying: A Memoir (2025), and creator of the award-winning SBS series The Family Law (2016–2019). As a broadcaster, he has hosted ABC TV documentary Waltzing the Dragon and co-hosted ABC Radio’s Stop Everything.

About Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore

Rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic, Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore is an oasis for writers, readers, and coffee lovers. Books overflow from the shelves of their store, featuring a mix of new, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books. Stay a while & enjoy some homemade chai, and amazing coffee, and unearth a book treasure or two. Read more about the bookstore's story here, and about the real Gertrude & Alice here.

'Hannan’s writing glitters and fizzes and leaves the reader with an afterglow.' - KATE MILDENHALL