Lech Blaine

After a month on sale, Australian Gospel is going to a reprint. I’m grateful to everyone who bought a copy or came to one of the events. You can order the book online here. Or better yet you can get the book from your local bookshop. Many of them have been doing it tough this year, and they provide enormous support to Australian authors. The audiobook is available from Audible here.

“Lech Blaine has written the most remarkable family saga with Australian Gospel. The reader constantly has to remind themselves they are, in fact, reading a work of stunning, hilarious, harrowing non-fiction and not an Australian fiction classic.” – Trent Dalton, Sydney Morning Herald Best Books of 2024

I’m going to donate $1 from the sale of each book to the Pyjama Foundation, a charity that provides mentorship and literacy programs to foster kids. The Project did a story on Australian Gospel, which you can watch below:

I did an interview with The Guardian, which you can read here. I had a chat with David Marr on Late Night Live, which you can listen to here. I went back on ABC’s Conversations program, which you can listen to here. I’ve also been lucky enough to get some really insightful reviews. Quotes with links below.

“It is to Blaine’s enormous credit that he tells this sensational story with compassion, intelligence and great wit. Australian Gospel is a captivating work of narrative nonfiction.” – Catriona Menzies-Pike, The Guardian

“A bloody good yarn … At the heart of this book lies, well, a whole lotta heart. Lech Blaine’s family love one another ferociously.” – Luke Johnson, The Conversation

“The Blaines feel like an ur-family of the national mythos: Patrick White’s Parkers or Christina Stead’s Pollits, overlaid with humble heroism … The bottomlessness of the Blaines’ compassion and forbearance – not just sainted Lenore, but bolshie Tom and the siblings as well – made this flinty-hearted reader emotional.” – Michael Winkler, Australian Book Review

“Ultimately, this is a surprisingly heartwarming story about love: how a lack of it can irreversibly derail someone’s life but how, in turn, a life can be saved by it.” – Katherine Smyrk, ABC’s Best New Books

“Journalist Lech Blaine’s family memoir Australian Gospel tells a compelling story at a breathless pace … It’s a story that will stay with its readers for a long time.” – Mark Dapin, The Australian

“It is the two intertwined stories that makes Australian Gospel: A Family Saga such a propulsive, compelling tale … It is full of hope, humanity and the everyday joys and struggles of family life.” – Luke Horton, The Saturday Paper

“Despite the nightmare-inducing creepiness of the Shelleys, Blaine’s writing maintains a light and sometimes comical tone. This emotionally charged book reads partly as a thriller and partly as a literary memoir.” – Nadia Heisler, Books+Publishing

“What an extraordinary family story Lech Blaine tells … That the family survived is a testament to Blaine’s remarkable parents.” – Jason Steger, Sydney Morning Herald