The Young Nick Cave: Mercy on Me - Mark Mordue

Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave by Mark Mordue is a detailed biography of Nick Cave’s formative years, tracing his childhood in rural Victoria through boarding school, the Melbourne punk scene of the late 1970s, and the beginnings of The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party. Mordue digs into Cave’s family, friendships, literary influences, music, drugs, rebellion and the people around him, including Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard and Tracy Pew.

Rather than attempting to cover Cave’s entire career, the book concentrates on the experiences and obsessions that shaped the artist he would become. It’s also a vivid portrait of 1970s Melbourne and the strange, volatile little world of Australian punk that Cave emerged from. Thoroughly researched over many years, it mixes biography with the social and cultural history surrounding Cave’s early life, ending as he leaves Australia for London.