Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave

Boy on Fire is an intensely beautiful, profound, and poetic biography chronicling the formative years of the dark prince of rock 'n' roll. It serves as Nick Cave's creation story, a portrait of the artist first as a boy, then as a young man.

This deeply insightful work meticulously charts his family, friends, influences, milieu, and, most importantly, his music, revealing how Nick Cave forged himself into the extraordinary artist he would become. A powerful account of a singular, uncompromising artist, Boy on Fire also offers a vivid and evocative rendering of a specific time and place. It transports the reader from the fast-running dark rivers and ghost gums of country-town Australia to the torn wallpaper, sticky carpet, and manic energy of the nascent punk scene that struck staid 1970s Melbourne like an atom bomb. Boy on Fire is truly a stunning biographical achievement.