The Ruin of Magic (Kate Holden, Black Inc.)

In The Ruin of Magic, Kate Holden (In My Skin, The Romantic) examines enchantment, displacement and homesickness for places both real and imagined through a series of intimate essays. Blending memoir, cultural criticism and philosophical enquiry, the collection feels both deeply personal and culturally urgent. Holden draws on the wisdom of Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, John Berger and Annie Dillard, weaving their insights with her own deft observations to create an elegantly braided collection that shimmers with intelligence. Holden examines what we have lost through modernity, such as the possibility of magic, personal treasures and a relationship to the land, and ruminates on how to bring a sense of mystery back into our daily lives. Written with a poet’s attention to rhythm and image, the essays trace a yearning for a Europe romanticised through literature and art, even as she discovers a deeper, more visceral belonging to the Australian landscape beneath her feet. This tension, between inherited cultural nostalgia and present-tense connection, is the book’s central preoccupation. The Ruin of Magic is for anyone who has ever felt displaced in their own time, has mourned the loss of enchantment, or wondered whether nostalgia is a poison or a balm. Readers who enjoyed Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, Katherine May’s Enchantment and Olivia Laing’s To the River will find much to appreciate in this book.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Chloe Cooper is a freelance writer who has worked in the book industry for nearly 10 years as a librarian, bookseller, and publishing sales manager. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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