Sophie Cunningham

A rich and insightful collection of personal essays about life, death and our connection to the environment from bestselling Australian author Sophie Cunningham

Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest

City of Trees

Dave Eggers

Karen Joy Fowler

Alexander McCall Smith

DBC Pierre

Marina Lewycka

Francine Prose

Lloyd Jones

Fiona Kidman

M J Hyland

From Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel guide publisher, Better Than Fiction 2, the follow-up to 2012's Better Than Fiction, is a second serving of true travel stories told by some of the world's best fiction writers including Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Karen Joy Fowler. Varied in place, plot and voice, these are stirring and evocative pieces that all share one common characteristic-they manifest a passion for the precious gift of travel, from its unexpected but inevitably enriching lessons about other peoples and places, to the truths, sometimes uncomfortable but always enlarging, it reveals about ourselves. By turns comic, dramatic, and moving - from Francine Prose's confrontation of the mysteries of India to DBC Pierre's search for Hemingway's muse in Italy - these 30 short tales reveal the joys, perils, and surprises of travel, and that truth can often be stranger (and better) than fiction. Whether on a plane en route to your own travel adventure, or at home settling in for a vicarious experience of world adventures, embark on this literary journey around the world and explore your passion for travel now! Authors: Lonely Planet, Don George, Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley, Karen Joy Fowler, Stefan Merrill Block, Francine Prose, DBC Pierre, Fiona Kidman, Alexander McCall Smith, Keija Parssinen, MJ Hyland, Catherine Lacey, Rebecca Dinerstein, Lloyd Jones, Porochista Khakpour, Jack Livings, Marina Lewycka, Lydia Millet, Suzanne Joinson, Sophie Cunningham, Christina Nichol, Mandy Sayer, Steven Amsterdam, Marie-Helene Bortino, Shirley Streshinsky, Steven Hall, David Shafer, Avi Duckor-Jones, Lily King, Aliya Whitely, and Natalie Baszile About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. Lonely Planet's award-winning list travel literature anthologies include An Innocent Abroad (Independent Publishers Award, Silver for Essays, 2015) and A Fork in the Road (Lowell Thomas Award, Bronze for Travel Book, 2014; James Bear Award, Nominated for Travel Fiction, 2014). 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' -- Fairfax Media 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times Lonely Planet guides have won the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Award in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

True adventures from 30 great fiction writers

Better than Fiction 2

M. J. Hyland

Jane Smiley

D. B. C. Pierre

From Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel guide publisher, Better Than Fiction 2, the follow-up to 2012's Better Than Fiction, is a second serving of true travel stories told by some of the world's best fiction writers including Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Karen Joy Fowler. Varied in place, plot and voice, these are stirring and evocative pieces that all share one common characteristic-they manifest a passion for the precious gift of travel, from its unexpected but inevitably enriching lessons about other peoples and places, to the truths, sometimes uncomfortable but always enlarging, it reveals about ourselves. By turns comic, dramatic, and moving - from Francine Prose's confrontation of the mysteries of India to DBC Pierre's search for Hemingway's muse in Italy - these 30 short tales reveal the joys, perils, and surprises of travel, and that truth can often be stranger (and better) than fiction. Whether on a plane en route to your own travel adventure, or at home settling in for a vicarious experience of world adventures, embark on this literary journey around the world and explore your passion for travel now! Authors: Lonely Planet, Don George, Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley, Karen Joy Fowler, Stefan Merrill Block, Francine Prose, DBC Pierre, Fiona Kidman, Alexander McCall Smith, Keija Parssinen, MJ Hyland, Catherine Lacey, Rebecca Dinerstein, Lloyd Jones, Porochista Khakpour, Jack Livings, Marina Lewycka, Lydia Millet, Suzanne Joinson, Sophie Cunningham, Christina Nichol, Mandy Sayer, Steven Amsterdam, Marie-Helene Bortino, Shirley Streshinsky, Steven Hall, David Shafer, Avi Duckor-Jones, Lily King, Aliya Whitely, and Natalie Baszile About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. Lonely Planet's award-winning list travel literature anthologies include An Innocent Abroad (Independent Publishers Award, Silver for Essays, 2015) and A Fork in the Road (Lowell Thomas Award, Bronze for Travel Book, 2014; James Bear Award, Nominated for Travel Fiction, 2014). 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' -- Fairfax Media 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times Lonely Planet guides have won the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Award in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

True Travel Tales from Great Fiction Writers

Better Than Fiction 2

Melbourne

Sometimes you need to delve into the past, to make sense of the present Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague. Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the last hundred years becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is Sophie Cunningham’s most important book to date – a dazzlingly original novel about what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.​ PRAISE FOR THIS DEVASTATING FEVER ‘This Devastating Fever is both timely and timeless, a sophisticated work of fiction that addresses the anxieties of the present moment as well as the most profound questions of history, art, love and loss. A magnificent novel.’ – Emily Bitto author of The Strays and Wild Abandon ‘It takes a phenomenal control of craft, and a keenly honed intelligence, to do what Cunningham has done with this novel: to interrogate politics and art and culture, to take on love and sex and suffering and loyalty, while all the while ensuring that the reader remains buoyant and captivated by narratives that leap across space and time … I loved this book. I absolutely loved it.’ – Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and 7 ½ ‘Deeply humane, full of humour, and delightfully gossipy about the sex lives of the Bloomsbury Group, This Devastating Fever is innovative in format, chatty in tone and will seduce readers with its simple, direct voice.’ – Books+Publishing ‘This Devastating Fever is thrillingly audacious fiction. Sophie Cunningham’s entwined subjects are profound – Leonard Woolf and colonialism, the crises of the present day, the challenges of creative work – and she writes commandingly and inventively about them all. The result is an extraordinary novel.’ – Michelle de Kretser, author of Questions of Travel and Scary Monsters ‘This Devastating Fever is remarkable: a thrillingly original, deeply emotional exploration of the complex echoes of history set in the shadow of the looming catastrophe of the future. Sinuous, strange, utterly compelling, it is like no other book you’ll read this year.’ – James Bradley, author of Ghost Species and The Resurrectionist ‘Brilliant and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It draws on archived letters and diary entries and the edges of what is real and what is imagined are delightfully blurred. It’s sharply layered, clever and darkly, dryly hilarious.’—Eliza Henry-Jones, author of Salt and Skin and In the Quiet ‘A book of big ideas that reads as a page turner. I was thrilled to keep returning to the page.’—Kate Mildenhall, author of Skylarking and The Mother Fault

This Devastating Fever

Lonely Planet

Well-known authors include Dave Eggers, Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Smiley, David Shafer and Francine Prose Cultural insights give you a richer understanding of the world - including customs, history, art, architecture, politics, fashion, literature, cinema, and music Stories journey through Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas

True Adventures from 30 Great Fiction Writers

Kathryn Heyman

James Bradley

Carrie Tiffany

In sparkling prose and with a desire to express essential truths of life in stories ranging from historical sagas to incisive observations of contemporary life, the distinct voices of the students of Faber Academy at Allen & Unwin are united in this volume. Under the expert guidance of course directors Kathryn Heyman, Sophie Cunningham and Carrie Tiffany, a group of talented new writers embarked on the six-month creative writing course in Sydney and Melbourne in 2013. They shared their challenges and achievements, enhanced their creativity and practiced their craft. With witty, poignant and thrilling narratives, this anthology offers the work of these emerging Australian writers to the world. Contributors are: Jenna Frost, Dave Verey, Maria Haughey, Ayla Sunday, Andrew Doyle, Shay Ongan, James Walden, Mandy Geddes, Barbara Hughes, Julian Canny, Kathryn Coughran, John Salmon, Samantha Sharpe, Hilary Badger, Hwei Oh, Robyn Harris, Ellen Rodger, Meredith Tucker.

Writing a Novel Anthology, 2013

In early 2012 in Sydney and Melbourne, forty-one new novelists embarked on 'Writing a Novel' - a six-month creative writing course, under the auspices of Faber Academy at Allen & Unwin. Course directors James Bradley, Sophie Cunningham and Kathryn Heyman walked alongside these new writers as they risked metaphorical life and limb, to reveal their determination, commitment, willingness, courage and importantly their talent. This anthology is a taster of the new writing growing in Australia. Writing which is marked by its energy, insight and range. The diversity of genre, subject and style in this volume is an eloquent reminder of the fact that despite our contemporary anxiety about the future of books and writing, literature hasn't gone anywhere. There are new and exciting voices emerging all around us, possessed not just of the desire to tell stories but to say something that matters, to articulate something new and important about the world. Contributors are: Marita Hastings, Sally Abbott, Deborah Biancotti, Margaret Meran Trail, Elizabeth Cunningham, Julie Morgan King, Laura McAuliffe, Rowena Robertson, Paulene Turner, Lisa Breeze, Jo McKay, Kerri Turner, Stephanie King, Chris Brophy, Linda Dement, Nik Rodden, Peter Ward, Jill Gientzotis, Caroline Beecham, Sienna Brown, Gita Mammen, Bethany Adams, Elisabeth Passmore, Keith Whalley, Steph Little, Catherine Horan, Cynthia Pretty, Stuart McCullough, Becky Keft, Isabel Noriega, Elizabeth Jones, Birgit Daller, Maria Boyd, David McMahon, Hannah Bent, and Louisa McGauley.

Writing a Novel Anthology, 2012

Sometimes you need to delve into the past, to make sense of the present. Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come. Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague. Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is a dazzlingly original novel about what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.

Warning is the definitive account of one of the most frightening extreme weather events our country has ever seen. When Cyclone Tracy swept down on Darwin at Christmas 1974, the weather became not just a living thing but a killer. Tracy destroyed an entire city, left seventy-one people dead and ripped the heart out of Australia's season of goodwill. For the fortieth anniversary of the nation's most iconic natural disaster, Sophie Cunningham has gone back to the eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the devastation, and those who faced the heartbreaking clean-up and the back-breaking rebuilding. From the quiet stirring of the service-station bunting that heralded the catastrophe to the wholesale slaughter of the dogs that followed it, Cunningham brings to the tale a novelist's eye for detail and an exhilarating narrative drive. And a sober appraisal of what Tracy means to us now, as we face more - and more destructive - extreme weather with every year that passes. Compulsively readable and undeniably moving, Warning is the essential non-fiction book of 2014. Sophie Cunningham is the author of two novels, Geography (2004) and Bird (2008) and the non-fiction Melbourne (UNSW Press, 2011). She is a former editor of Meanjin and was until recently the chair of the Australia Council's Literature Board. ‘The strength and beauty of this book is the way it delves into the lives of the people affected and tries to understand their responses, their courage and their failings. Cunningham argues that these kinds of natural disasters are going to become more prevalent as the effects of climate change make extreme weather conditions more likely. This book is no polemic: it’s a gripping and visceral tale.’ Mark Rubbo, Readings ‘Highly accomplished...compelling.’ Age/SMH ‘Cunningham has pieced together a pacey and energetic insight into the build up, experience and aftermath of the cyclone...It’s a great read and, given the subject, it is strangely hopeful.’ Big Issue ‘Along with an eye for good stories and a knack for telling them, Sophie Cunningham brings a contextualising political intelligence. What she is interested in is how natural disasters are also social and political events, and the period details amount to more than the sideburns and lairy shirts...What happens in natural disasters depends on how communities work; the effects and aftermaths of those disasters are in fact man-made. As the future promises more and more extreme weather events whose causes as well as effects are anthropogenic, Cunningham’s gripping book contributes to new ways of thinking about them.’ Sunday Age/Sun Herald ‘Sophie Cunningham has done a tremendous job in gathering the voices - from then and now - of those who were there and during the clean-up [of Cyclone Tracy]. The result is vivid storytelling, gripping from beginning to end.’ Townsville Bulletin/Cairns Post ‘Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy is a brilliant book and on the anniversary of such devastation, it is a timely reminder to cherish everything you have in your life because in one night it could all be blown away.’ Salty Popcorn

The Story of Cyclone Tracy

Warning

(Read Now - 3 week loan, renewable, non reservable).

This devastating fever

Melbourne's a city you get to know from the inside out - you have to walk it to love it. My favourite time to do this is at night. That's when you capture glimpses of people - eating, laughing, talking, arguing, watching TV and reading - through half-open terrace house doors and windows ... It is a city of inside places and conversation. Of intimacy. Melbourne begins on Black Saturday, the day that bushfires tore through the outskirts of Melbourne, destroying the townships of Marysville and Kinglake, shattering thousands of lives. Sophie Cunningham writes about what happened over the year that followed. Sit through a heatwave, visit the drains underneath the city, participate in a letterpress workshop, wander beside the Yarra, cycle alongside tram tracks and cheer at the footy. Live through the drought before the storm, the rain before yet more fire and days of searing heat. Along the way, be captivated as Cunningham shares her Melbourne, its stories and its characters. In a new introduction, Cunningham returns to Melbourne after a period away and reflects on how much her city has changed since Melbourne was first published in 2011: it is hotter, greener and has endured the rollercoaster ride - from boom times to economic depression - that defined 2020. 'Cunningham has successfully captured the dynamics of a city in constant flux, while focusing on the essence of its inner life, which gives it an ambience quite unlike that found in any other Australian city.' - Robert Hefner, The Canberra Times 'It would be nice to imagine that the gift of this book to Melbourne is its greater capacity to understand itself and its webs of connection.' - David Sornig, Melbourne Review 'An admirable response to the impossible task of writing about a city its history, its present, its characters, its stories, its politics and its personal meaning in a single, accessible volume when any one of these themes should take several. Cunningham is communicating this city's soul as though it's a person, full of contradictions but with an essential character.' -- Waleed Aly, The Sunday Age 'This beautiful book provokes nostalgia and deeper thinking about the events, places and people who have defined Melbourne.' -- Herald Sun 'Cunningham is communicating this city's soul as though it's a person, full of contradictions but with an essential character.' -- Waleed Aly, Australian Book Review

Peter Wilmoth

They sit in the physical and emotional heart of our city, and have done so for 175 years. Most of us have spent time there, and they mean different things to each of us. The Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne have been a place of calm, a site for reflection, creative inspiration, discovery, romance and even refuge. Anyone who has visited has a story. Now a range of these stories from Victorians from many fields is gathered in the lavish publication Wonder: 175 Years of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Told through conversations with writers Sophie Cunningham and Peter Wilmoth, there are stories of Nick Cave conceiving the first lines of a novel there, of actor and writer Michael Veitch being taught the classics on its lawns, of a marriage that took place just days before COVID-19 began its grim sweep across the world, closing sites such as the Gardens for the first time in history. Boonwurrung Elder Aunty Carolyn Briggs tells stories of Country that reach back through millennia, while Landscape Architect Andrew Laidlaw shares the inspiration for some of the Gardens' more recent landscapes. Horticulturalist Gemma Cotterell tells us about her work on the Australian Forest Walk; architect Kerstin Thompson reminds us of the secrets the Gardens hold and the way those secrets transform landscape into dreamscape; and botanist Neville Walsh shares his excitement on the discovery of a new species of wattle. The important matters of plant extinction and climate change (including water usage) are also addressed, reminding the reader of the critical role played by our public gardens in securing the future of the planet through its science, irreplaceable collections and conservation action. With superb photography by Leigh Henningham, the book is about the people's gardens, and these stories will resonate with readers who cherish their own experiences there.

175 Years of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Wonder

Anil Tortop

Tippy and her baby Jellybean live in a beautiful eucalyptus forest. One day, they wake up and sniff the air. It's smoky, hot and windy. Kangaroos and wallabies are bounding. Wombats are heading to their burrows. The cockatoos take off in an enormous flock. Tippy can't hop. Or run. Or fly. So she shelters her baby in the only way she can... This is the uplifting true story of a koala who saved her baby from a bushfire, and the dedicated vets who looked after them until they were healed and ready to go home. The publisher will donate $1 from every copy sold of this book to the Bushfire Emergency Wildlife Fund, to help fund emergency veterinary assistance and scientific intervention.

Tippy and Jellybean - The True Story of a Brave Koala who Saved her Baby from a Bushfire

2020 began with firestorms raging through the country, followed by floods, and then a global pandemic that has changed how Australians think, feel and live. We all experienced this year differently, but one thing rings true for all of us: this is a year we won’t forget. This anthology brings together original work from a diverse collection of Australian voices, from writers to scientists, journalists to historians, all expressing what 2020 meant to them. They write of ash falling from the sky, fish dying on riverbanks, loved ones lost, loved ones reunited, the historical resonance of fire and plague for Indigenous Australians, geopolitical tensions, the changed nature of travel, friendships rekindled on Zoom, the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, the state of the arts and the media, the importance of nurturing our inner lives, communities destroyed and communities rebuilding. FIRE FLOOD PLAGUE is a vital cultural record of the resilience and humanity needed in these extraordinary times. Including original pieces from Lenore Taylor, Nyadol Nuon, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko, Billy Griffiths, Jess Hill, Kim Scott, Brenda Walker, Jane Rawson, Omar Sakr, Richard McGregor, Jennifer Mills, Gabrielle Chan, John Birmingham, Tim Flannery, Rebecca Giggs, Kate Cole-Adams, George Megalogenis, James Bradley, Alison Croggon, Melanie Cheng, Kirsten Tranter, Tom Griffiths, Joëlle Gergis and Delia Falconer.

Australian writers respond to 2020

Fire Flood Plague

Melbourne's a city you get to know from the inside out – you have to walk it to love it. My favourite time to do this is at night. That's when you capture glimpses of people – eating, laughing, talking, arguing, watching TV and reading – through half-open terrace house doors and windows … It is a city of inside places and conversation. Of intimacy. Melbourne begins on Black Saturday, the day that bushfires tore through the outskirts of Melbourne, destroying the townships of Marysville and Kinglake, shattering thousands of lives. Sophie Cunningham writes about what happened over the year that followed. Sit through a heatwave, visit the drains underneath the city, participate in a letterpress workshop, wander beside the Yarra, cycle alongside tram tracks and cheer at the footy. Live through the drought before the storm, the rain before yet more fire and days of searing heat. Along the way, be captivated as Cunningham shares her Melbourne, its stories and its characters. In a new introduction, Cunningham returns to Melbourne after a period away and reflects on how much her city has changed since Melbourne was first published in 2011: it is hotter, greener and has endured the rollercoaster ride – from boom times to economic depression – that defined 2020. 'Cunningham has successfully captured the dynamics of a city in constant flux, while focusing on the essence of its inner life, which gives it an ambience quite unlike that found in any other Australian city.' – Robert Hefner, The Canberra Times 'It would be nice to imagine that the gift of this book to Melbourne is its greater capacity to understand itself and its webs of connection.' – David Sornig, Melbourne Review 'An admirable response to the impossible task of writing about a city its history, its present, its characters, its stories, its politics and its personal meaning in a single, accessible volume when any one of these themes should take several. Cunningham is communicating this city's soul as though it's a person, full of contradictions but with an essential character.' — Waleed Aly, The Sunday Age 'This beautiful book provokes nostalgia and deeper thinking about the events, places and people who have defined Melbourne.' — Herald Sun 'Cunningham is communicating this city's soul as though it's a person, full of contradictions but with an essential character.' — Waleed Aly, Australian Book Review

Sophie Cunningham

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