An extensive and detailed history of the city's early years.

A disturbing account of the dispossession of Australia's indigenous populations, such as Melbourne's Wurindjeri.

An illuminating guide to a little-known side of the city's history.

If Melbourne seems a little tame to you, this is your kind of book: a fascinating glimpse into Melbourne's political past, as seen through red-coloured glasses.

This realist epic chronicles the thinly-disguised true story of the rise and rise of a Melbourne Irish-Catholic gangster. One of world literature's underrated classics.

Garner's influential debut painted an alternately romantic and tragic portrait of inner Melbourne's arty-junkie scene.

What Garner did for Fitzroy, Tsiolkas repeated a generation later for Brunswick, relating the odyssey of a young gay Greek-Australian.

A dying man's stunning memoir about growing up gay in Melbourne's leading Catholic boy's school.

The autobiography of the fascinating creator of Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone.

A surprisingly affecting memoir of growing up in one of Melbourne's most famous football dynasties.

Another Australian literary classic, another thinly-veiled true story, another coming-of-age tale.

This book shows that a city's development is not always a pretty portrait.