Skip to content
  • Home
  • about
  • Our publishers
    • ACT
    • New South Wales
    • Queensland
    • South Australia
    • Tasmania
    • Victoria
    • Western Australia
  • Gift vouchers
  • Information for retailers
  • Wholesale portal
  • Contact
  • DISCOUNTED STOCK
  • architecture
  • art
  • branding & identity
  • business
  • cars & bikes
  • cinema & media
  • comics & manga
  • craft
  • design
  • event design
  • fashion
  • food
  • gift
  • graphic design
  • guides
  • illustration
  • interior design
  • jewellery
  • kids
  • landscape
  • multimedia
  • music
  • outdoors
  • Performing Arts
  • photography
  • popular culture
  • product design
  • queer
  • sound art
  • stationary
  • street art
  • travel
  • typography
  • urbanism
  • writings & theory
  • Log in
  • Create account
  • Instagram
  • Email
Books at Manic
  • Home
  • about
  • Our publishers
    • ACT
    • New South Wales
    • Queensland
    • South Australia
    • Tasmania
    • Victoria
    • Western Australia
  • Gift vouchers
  • Information for retailers
  • Wholesale portal
  • Contact
Log in
Search
Cart (0)
Books at Manic
Cart (0)
  • DISCOUNTED STOCK
  • architecture
  • art
  • branding & identity
  • business
  • cars & bikes
  • cinema & media
  • comics & manga
  • craft
  • design
  • event design
  • fashion
  • food
  • gift
  • graphic design
  • guides
  • illustration
  • interior design
  • jewellery
  • kids
  • landscape
  • multimedia
  • music
  • outdoors
  • Performing Arts
  • photography
  • popular culture
  • product design
  • queer
  • sound art
  • stationary
  • street art
  • travel
  • typography
  • urbanism
  • writings & theory
  • Ruin of Magic, the [non-booktrade customers only] cover

Black Inc.

Ruin of Magic, the [non-booktrade customers only]

$36.99
 
 
This item is a deferred, subscription, or recurring purchase. By continuing, I agree to the cancellation policy and authorize you to charge my payment method at the prices, frequency and dates listed on this page until my order is fulfilled or I cancel, if permitted.
Author: Kate Holden
In 'The Ruin of Magic', award-winning writer Kate Holden joins Katherine May, Maggie Nelson and Andre Aciman in crafting essays of intimate personal experience and sharply informed rumination on life in strange times. In gorgeous prose Holden meditates on her instinctive yearning for long-ago Europe versus the natural belonging she feels to the Australian landscape, and asks, What is a home? The strongest shelter or the most lethal trap, a museum of ourselves or a showcase of fashions?What, then, does it mean to make ourselves at home in an Australia still finding its way amidst old and avoided truths? Is nostalgia a reasonable mourning of timeless lore lost or a dangerous fantasy? And what has happened to magic and beauty in the glare of modern life?Reading Rainer Maria Rilke, Patti Smith, Walter Benjamin and D.H. Lawrence, dreamers and philosophers and poets, pagan history and new criticism, Holden writes with humour and sorrow of all the ways life today warps us under its glare – and how to find a haven in the subtle shadows.'Elegant and whip-smart, The Ruin of Magic is a work of beauty – a sober yet joyful quest to find home and belonging.' —Susan Johnson'Thrillingly erudite, belletristic, yet necessarily raw. Many readers will encounter this "almost private" book as the mirror they've been walking past their whole lives. The Ruin of Magic is a very lucid howl.' —Gregory Day'A shimmering book that teases, enchants and provokes while offering balm through language and memory for our modern anguish and fear of oblivion' —Robert DessaixIs it possible to live wondrously by fluorescent light?
ISBN 9781760644918. Black Inc.. pb. 288 pages. 23.4 x 15.3 cm.
available

Share:

FacebookShare on Facebook TweetTweet on Twitter PinterestPin on Pinterest

Subscribe to our newsletter

Books at Manic

SHIPPING AUSTRALIA

Australian orders over $50 are free of postage charges. Orders under $50 attract a $5 shipping fee. Orders usually ship within 1-5 business days.

International orders are $30, but subject to change depending on destination and weight.

  • Search
  • Privacy Policy
  • Instagram
  • Email

© 2026, Books at Manic.

Payment methods

  • American Express
  • Apple Pay
  • Bancontact
  • Google Pay
  • iDEAL Wero
  • Mastercard
  • PayPal
  • Shop Pay
  • Union Pay
  • Visa
  • Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
  • Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection.