THE MAGIC CAFÉ · A NOVEL BY BEALE STAINTON · IBIS PRESS
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Harry Kissinger is thirty years old. He’s part-Maori, alone in the world, and freshly arrived in Sydney with a Kathmandu backpack, a Barry Crump novel, and a private vow to stop drinking. He has just walked sixteen hundred kilometres down the length of New Zealand to clear his head. He has crossed the Tasman to start again.
Then Sydney happens.
The Magic Cafe is a novel about reinvention told from the inside, where the resolution to change keeps colliding with the reality of being human. Set against the pubs and headlands of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, it’s a story about sobriety and its saboteurs, identity carried lightly across borders, and what it means to belong somewhere - or to decide you don’t need to.
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From the novel
Let me tell you why I wasn't going to drink anymore. I’d had many hours for reflection while walking sixteen hundred kilometres across my home country. This time around, my dearest Australia, I was determined to be a changed man. But before the inevitable, I dragged myself into the nearest establishment for a last hurrah. Just a couple before I hit the road of sobriety, I reminded myself. From the following day on, I would transform entirely. I had the lifestyle of a monk in mind: temperance, celibacy, early mornings, prayer, meditation, and cold showers. But before any of that, let me tell you about a visitor who came out of nowhere.
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Who it’s for
For readers drawn to tender, clear-eyed stories of second chances, unfamiliar cities, difficult friendships, and the daily work of becoming someone new.
Ibis Press · Literary fiction · 462 pages · ISBN 978-1-7645680-0-5 · Paperback A$32.99 · Published 23 June 2026
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