'It's been five long years since violence erupted between young migrants and local police in Melbourne's inner west. A police-led trip to hike the Kokoda Trail hopes to rebuild relationships in the community, but as training gets underway, fresh allegations of racial profiling have everyone on a knife-edge.
'For wannabe rapper Ali, pride is hard to come by in the commission towers as both gentrification and his best friend's court date creep closer.
'Classmate Tyler's anger - at his dysfunctional family, and a world that denies his dreams - is close to ignition, and the way out is dangerously narrow.
'Young and idealistic teacher Anna's life is in disarray, but she knows she has to take a stand against the school system that's failing her students.
'And Paul, a cop new to the beat, quickly realises that it'll take a lot more than community policing to repair the mutual mistrust with local youth.
'From the vial-studded stairs of the high-rises to the melting pot classrooms of secondary schools, to the mud-sucking jungle of Kokoda, No Church in the Wild is a deeply researched, richly imagined novel that interrogates the jaggedness of contemporary Australian society and the prejudices that still underpin it.' (Publication summary)
'Before commencing Murray Middleton’s new novel – the follow-up to his Vogel Award-winning debut When There’s No Where Else to Run (2015) – some readers might be taken aback by the title, which evokes a song of the same name.'
'A complex and confronting story about migrant youth from the towers of Melbourne's inner west, their teachers and the local police.'
'A complex and confronting story about migrant youth from the towers of Melbourne's inner west, their teachers and the local police.'
'Before commencing Murray Middleton’s new novel – the follow-up to his Vogel Award-winning debut When There’s No Where Else to Run (2015) – some readers might be taken aback by the title, which evokes a song of the same name.'
