The Gold Coast: City of the Future; metropolis of dreams. In less than fifty years a tiny holiday town of fibro shacks and mangrove swamps has grown to become a city of almost a million people and an embodiment of our unquenchable lust for surf, sun and sand. Set against a backdrop of marina developments for the near-dead, a rampant drug culture, the underground porn industry and the anarchy of schoolies week, The Secret Life of the Gold Coast is a disturbing but often comical expose that trawls the underbelly of Gold Coast life while pondering the elusive nature of Paradise and the unexpected consequences of our desires.

Brendan Shanahan is a writer based in Sydney and Las Vegas. He writes regularly for various publications internationally and is the author of The Secret Life of the Gold Coast (2004), In Turkey I Am Beautiful (2008), and Mr Snack and The Lady Water (2013). In Turkey I Am Beautiful was described as ‘laugh out loud funny’ by the Sydney Morning Herald, named ‘one of the best travel books ever’ by the Sun Herald and listed in the year’s 10 best non-fiction works by ABC Radio National.