Perth
Alone

SAMPLE

The Most Isolated City on Earth

The isolation is the point, not the obstacle. Perth’s light is different because there is so little between the city and the horizon in every direction that matters: the Indian Ocean to the west, the outback to the east. Afternoons here have a clarity that cities packed against other cities rarely produce. The Swan River, wide and unhurried, runs through the middle of downtown and out to the sea, and the light off its surface in the late afternoon is the kind of thing photographs undersell. You come to Perth for that light, for the river, for a short ferry ride to a small island where nobody drives a car, and for the port town at the river’s mouth that still smells faintly of the sea and of coffee. You do not come to Perth to check off a list of world monuments, because there is not one here. What there is instead is a city built for living well: wide beaches a short train ride from downtown, produce and seafood that need almost no dressing up, a climate that gives you sun on most days you would want it, and space: physical space, in a country that has plenty of it and a capital city that has never had to build upward or apologize for spreading out.

A free excerpt from Perth Alone.