Welcome to Roaring Stories
Roaring Stories Bookshop (formerly Brays Books) is Balmain’s only independent bookstore.
One of Sydney’s longest trading bookstores, Brays Books opened in 1969 under the ownership of Philip and Margaret Bray. Brays Books celebrated its 50th year of independent bookselling in 2019, proudly serving multiple generations of the Balmain reading community.
Following Philip Bray’s retirement from bookselling, Dan Jordon and Claire Gorman purchased Brays Books and undertook a complete store redesign and refurbishment and reopened for trading in October 2019 under the new brand, Roaring Stories Bookshop.
Jordon and Gorman set about maintaining the independent spirit of the bookshop and retained the bulk of the bookselling team from Brays Books, including Bronwyn, Tim, Sylvia and Nell.
Roaring Stories Bookshop remains an independent bookshop that is set on providing an even broader range of new release and backlist titles.
Alongside our extensive handpicked range and our team of passionate and experienced booksellers, we are also looking forward to bringing you exciting and engaging reader events, in store, and in some of the great venues that the local area has to offer.
Books are the heart of what we do. As an independent bookshop, our largest sections are devoted to children’s books, fiction, current affairs, biography, food and wine, history and Australian non-fiction. If we don’t have the book you are looking for, we’d be more than happy to order it for you.
Otherwise, if you require the expertise from our expert team of booksellers to help you find that perfect book for yourself or a gift, pop in and say hello.
What our readers are saying…
From the blog
‘My life literally had to happen in order for me to write these books’: Q&A with Michael Mohammed Ahmad
We talked with the Miles Franklin shortlisted author about his new book, The Other Half of You.
Getting in sync with the wilder world: Q&A with Claire Dunn
Ahead of our July 19 author event with Dunn, we asked the eco-activist a few questions about her new book.
What We’re Reading in May
From Rachel Cusk’s latest novel, to a gorgeous picture book, to an anthology collection from Western Sydney writers. Here’s what our Balmain bookshop staff are reading this month.