Devanny's novel Sugar Heaven was re-released in 2002 some 65 years after its first publication. The momentous historical and political changes since the time of writing prompts the author of this article to ask : 'what will new readers make of its concerns as socialist realism, its strict genre observances and heuristic political aims, and its portrait of a cosmopolitan yet strongly localised Australian working class as the class of history?' (252). In analysing these issues, the article also considers trends in contemporary criticism and recent Australian fiction.