Paperback
Five years after violence erupted between young migrants and local police in Melbourne's inner west, a police-led trip to hike the Kokoda Trail seeks to rebuild trust. But fresh allegations of racial profiling have the community on a knife edge. For wannabe rapper Ali, pride is hard to come by in the commission towers, where friends fill the gaps left by a family secret. Classmate Tyler's anger - at his broken home, and a world that denies his dreams - is close to ignition. With her life in disarray, young and idealistic teacher Anna defies a school system that's failing her students. And Paul, a cop new to the beat, quickly realises it'll take more than community policing to fix relations with local youth. From the vial-studded stairs of the inner-city high-rises to the mud-sucking jungle of Kokoda, No Church in the Wild is a fierce interrogation of contemporary Australian society and the prejudices that still underpin it.