Set around a Sydney share house and the loose cultural world orbiting it, Paradise Estate is a novel about artists, writers, musicians, scenes and friendships. 

Easton is interested in the little ecosystems people build around themselves: house shows, editorial committees, political commitments, grudges, borrowed aesthetics, mutual projects, half-serious utopianism. There’s a strong subcultural intelligence to it. Punk, DIY organising, online discourse, small magazines and contemporary art aren’t used as backdrop so much as social machinery: the novel watches what happens when people who think of themselves as politically or culturally alert still behave badly, become territorial, plagiarise, posture, compromise and occasionally manage genuine solidarity. It’s funny in a dry, unpleasantly recognisable way.

A very contemporary Australian social novel, especially good on the distance between the language people use to describe their values and the muddier business of actually living them.

Edition & condition: Giramondo, 2023. First edition. Paperback. Very light shelf wear; clean and unmarked. Near fine condition.