The Magpie Wing

Max Easton

Oct 2022 · Bolinda · Narrated by Gemma Carfi

Audiobook

6 hr 22 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

Helen, Walt and Duncan are looking for ways to entertain themselves in the sprawl of Sydney’s western suburbs. Walt, scrappy and idealistic, wants to prove a point and turns to petty vandalism. His friend, Duncan, is committed to his fledgling football career, and seeks out sexual encounters in unfamiliar houses. Walt’s sister Helen, in search of something larger than herself, is forced by scandal to leave the family home. As they move into adulthood they gravitate to the dingy glamour of the inner-city suburbs, looking to escape their families’ complicated histories, and to find new identities, artistic, sexual and political. The Magpie Wing is set on football fields, in sharehouses, at punk gigs and in dilapidated and gentrifying pubs. Max Easton’s debut novel moves from the nineties to the present, and between the suburbs and the inner city, exploring how communities that appear worlds apart – underground music scenes, rugby league clubs, communist splinter groups – often share unexpected roots.

About the author

Max Easton is a writer from Sydney with work appearing in publications including Mess+Noise, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Science for the People, VICE and The Lifted Brow. He is the creator and host of the underground music podcast and zine series Barely Human, and has played in Sydney punk bands BB & the Blips, The Baby, Basic Human and Romance. His first novel The Magpie Wing was published by Giramondo Books, and was longlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. His second novel is due for publication in 2023.

Gemma Carfi is a professional Melbourne-based actor. As a child, Gemma was constantly on the stage, both as a dancer and performer. A graduate from the full-time program at the Howard Fine Acting Studio, she also holds a Bachelor with Honours of Film and TV from Swinburne University. Gemma has starred in several short films and has previously narrated Out of Tune and Rolling Dice by Beth Reekles, The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay and Days of Innocence and Wonder by Lucy Treloar, among others.

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