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F R EE APR I L 2021
20% sale
at our St Kilda
shop
page 3
New books from
Haruki Murakami,
Stan Grant, Emily
Maguire, Kate Ellis,
Rachel Kushner
and more!
B OOK S
M USI C
F I LM
EVENTS
CH R IST I N A
Å ST R AN
MAR C MAR T I N page 22
page 18
H AR U K I LE CH BL AI N E MON ICA D U X KATE ELLIS
M U R AKAM I page 12 page 12 page 13
page 6
CARLTON 309 LYGON ST 9347 6633 KIDS 315 LYGON ST 9341 7730 DONCASTER WESTFIELD DONCASTER, 619 DONCASTER RD 9810 0891
HAWTHORN 701 GLENFERRIE RD 9819 1917 MALVERN 185 GLENFERRIE RD 9509 1952 ST KILDA 112 ACLAND ST 9525 3852 STATE LIBRARY
VICTORIA 285-321 RUSSELL ST 8664 7540 | SEE SHOP OPENING HOURS, BROWSE AND BUY ONLINE AT READINGS.COM.AU
20%
selected cookbooks
OFF
in shops and online
Purchase in-store for your chance to
win a cookbook library.
See Sales & Promotions column for details.
NEWS April 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 3
April Sales &
News Promotions
The Stella Prize 2021 shortlist 20% off all books at Readings
The Stella Prize shortlist for 2021 has been St Kilda
announced, celebrating Australian women’s
We’re offering 20% off all books at
contribution to literature. The six books on
our St Kilda shop from Monday 19 to
the 2021 Stella Prize shortlist are: Fathoms
Sunday 25 April. This special 20%
by Rebecca Giggs, Revenge by S.L. Lim,
off sale is available in-store only at
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean
Readings St Kilda, and is not available
McKay, Witness by Louise Milligan, Stone
online, or at any other Readings
Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe and
shop. The discount applies to the
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. The prize
recommended retail price, and is not
awards $50,000, and both fiction and
valid with any other offers or discounts.
nonfiction books are eligible for entry.
The 2021 Stella Prize will be awarded on
Thursday 22 April. Buy all six books on the 20% off selected cookbooks
Stella Prize 2021 shortlist to receive $45 off
If you read one thing on this page,
in-store and online. Not valid with any other
make it this. For all the beginner cooks,
offer. While stocks last.
devoted foodies and aspirational
R E A D I N G S M O T N H LY C L A S S I C A L M U S I C C U R AT O R
masterchefs out there, we have two
Free, independent monthly newspaper Phil Richards exciting offers on a range of essential
published by Readings Books, Music & Film The Women’s Prize for Fiction cookbooks. Throughout April, take
EVENTS & PROGRAMMING 2021 longlist 20% off selected cookbooks and go
SUBSCRIBE Chris Gordon The longlist for the Women’s Prize for in the draw to win a cookbook library!
You can subscribe to Readings Monthly Fiction has been announced. The 16 books There’s something for everyone, with
and our e-news by visiting our website: ADVERTISING on the longlist are: Because of You by Dawn instant classics from Ottolenghi, Natalie
French, Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, Consent Paull, Hetty McKinnon and many more.
readings.com.au/sign-up Lucie Dess
by Annabel Lyon, Detransition, Baby by This offer is available until 30 April on
lucie.dess@readings.com.au
Torrey Peters, Exciting Times by Naoise select in-stock, full-priced items, online
DELIVERY CHARGES FOR
Dolan, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps (use the code 20COOKBOOKS) and
O N L I N E , M A I L- O R D E R & O V E R - CAR TOON
THE-PHONE PURCHASES Her House by Cherie Jones, Luster by Raven in all Readings shops. Buy any of the
Oslo Davis Leilani, No One Is Talking About This by selected cookbooks in store and go
$6.50 flat rate to anywhere in Australia for
Patricia Lockwood, Nothing but Blue Sky by into the draw to win a cookbook library:
orders under $120. Free shipping for orders FRONT COVER Kathleen MacMahon, Piranesi by Susanna 10 more books of your choice from the
$120 and over. The April Readings Monthly cover Clarke, Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, selected titles.
features an image of our St Kilda shop. Summer by Ali Smith, The Golden Rule
EDITOR by Amanda Craig, The Vanishing Half by
© Chris Middleton Photography Buy two Vintage Classics and
Jackie Tang Brit Bennett, Transcendent Kingdom by
jackie.tang@readings.com.au Yaa Gyasi and Unsettled Ground by Claire receive a FREE vintage tea towel
P R I C E S A N D AVA I L A B I L I T Y
Fuller. The Women’s Prize awards £30,000 From 15 to 30 April, buy two Vintage
Please note that all prices and release to a work of fiction written in English by a
E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T S Classics and receive a gorgeous vintage
dates in Readings Monthly are correct woman of any nationality. The winner will be tea towel. Offer available in-store only
Judi Mitchell & Lucie Dess at time of publication, however prices announced on Wednesday 7 July. until stock runs out, and not available
and release dates may change without online. Valid on in-stock items only.
PROOFREADER
notice. Special price offers apply only for
Joanna Di Mattia
the month in which they are featured in Clunes Booktown Festival
Save on the Stella Prize 2021
Readings Monthly. The annual Clunes Booktown Festival is back
K I D S & YA C U R AT O R S
in 2021 and will run over three weekends in shortlist bundle
Angela Crocombe & Dani Solomon May. Each event is ticketed across the three Buy all six books in the Stella Prize
Readings donates 10% of its profits each weekends, with tickets starting at $15. To see shortlist to receive $45 off in-store and
M U S I C & D V D C U R AT O R year to the Readings Foundation: the program and for more information, visit: online. Not valid with any other offer.
Dave Clarke readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation clunesbooktown.com.au While stocks last.
Melbourne’s favourite independent cinema!
SUPERNOVA Opens April 15 (M) THE DISSIDENT Opens April 22 (CTC) NT LIVE: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Opens May 1 (E)
A heart-rending modern love story about a couple struggling From Academy-Award winning filmmaker, Bryan Fogel, comes Filmed live onstage from London’s West End, Arthur Miller’s
with a diagnosis of early-onset dementia, Sam (Colin Firth, A the explosive story of the murder that shocked the world. When dark and passionate play A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE returns to
Single Man) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci, The Children Act) have Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears in the Nova screen. In Brooklyn, longshoreman Eddie Carbone
spent twenty years together, and are as passionately in love as Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world piece (Mark Strong, The Imitation Game) welcomes his Sicilian cousins
they have ever been. Featuring stunning cinematography, together the clues to his murder and expose a global cover up. to the land of freedom. But when one of them falls for his
SUPERNOVA is an intimate drama about love and mortality with Chillingly powerful and heartbreakingly candid, THE DISSIDENT beautiful niece, they discover that freedom comes at a price. Ivo
beautifully tender performances delivered by Firth and Tucci. is an intimate portrait of a man who sacrificed everything for Van Hove (All About Eve) directs this ‘magnetic, electrifying,
freedom of speech. astonishingly bold’ production (Evening Standard).
- The Guardian "Riveting" - Variety - The Times
"A masterfully directed ode to the power of love." - Deadline "Emotionally devastating. Unforgettable” - Independent
Visit our website for film information and tickets, plus
Australia's largest selection of quality cinema and special events.
4 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY April 2021 C O LU M N S
Mark’s Say with Mark Rubbo
Lygon Street in Carlton and Acland Street in St Kilda were vibrant local
shopping strips and wonderful areas to hang out. Sadly, they’ve lost
some of their vitality. Both derived much of their energy from the wave
of immigrants who came to Australia after the Second World War.
THE 2021 In Lygon Street, Italian immigrants opened small businesses and
brought Italian food culture, and especially the espresso, to Melbourne and Australia.
STELLA PRIZE They attracted the university and arts communities and made fertile ground for places
such as Readings, La Mama Theatre, the Poppy Shop and Professor Longhair’s Music
SHORTLIST Shop to grow. Iconic businesses with an Italian heritage such as Donati’s, King & Godfree,
Jimmy Watson’s, Bottega Tasca and Tiamo still continue and have been joined by D.O.C.
CELEBRATING AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WRITING In St Kilda, the Jewish refugees escaping from the horror of the Holocaust tried to
recreate a bit of the society they had lost in the safety of the wide tree-lined walkway
of Acland Street, opening cafés and delicatessens where they could gather and meet
and endlessly argue and shop. The most famous was Café Scheherazade that was
immortalised in Arnold Zable’s beautiful book of the same name. The delicious food
and the European exoticness also attracted the Australian community to Acland Street,
as well as the thrills of Luna Park. It was no accident that the Melbourne Film Festival
made its home in St Kilda’s grand Palais Theatre in the 1960s and 1970s, and its first
director, Erwin Rado, was a Hungarian of Jewish descent. In 1960, Gerhard Sawatzky,
another European, opened Cosmos Bookshop which later became Readings St Kilda.
But today, if you walk down Acland Street, there are only a few signs left of its heritage.
Monarch Cakes survives as does the Europa Cake Shop. Readings (formerly Cosmos) is
still there, as is the wonderful Cicciolina a few doors up.
What is notable about these streets now is the number of vacant shops; just a few
weeks ago the café Trotters closed after almost 40 years in Lygon Street. Some of the
shops have been vacant for two or three years. I often wonder why these great streets
are going through such a rough patch now. Obviously the pandemic hasn’t helped but
in these successful streets, rents have been rising at astronomical rates forcing out
the interesting businesses that made the streets vibrant and ironically making them
less attractive. Rents are now starting to come down; that might encourage a rebirth
but I think it requires more. In my experience both the local councils and the State
For author interviews, judges’ notes and Government have been missing in action while these two important streets, which have
given so much to Melbourne’s culture, stumble towards possible collapse.
more, visit thestellaprize.com.au
Another factor of course is the growth of online shopping. Danny Caine, the
owner of the Raven Bookstore in Kansas, America, has been railing against the
#2021StellaPrize
‘Amazonification’ of our communities for several years and has combined those
thoughts in a new book, How to Resist Amazon and Why. He argues that while you
might save a few dollars buying from Amazon and their like, you are ultimately paying
for it with the degradation of your local communities. It’s an interesting read. While
the reach of Amazon is not yet as great here, Danny’s book sounds warning bells for us.
On Events with Chris Gordon
We are keeping our events program out of our shops for the time being.
This is good news for those of you who want a guaranteed a seat at our
discussions and book launches or indeed, for those of you who would
prefer to stay at home. Our events will be staged at external venues near
our shops, as well as continuing online via Zoom. My hope is that by
offering this hybrid style of programming, there will be no excuse for you not to join us as
we set about tackling the meaning behind the words.
We have never been afraid of change here at Readings. We want our events program
to ignite discussions and consider the experiences we all grapple with. I am delighted to
tell you that we have some exceptional thinkers and leaders coming up, whose insight will
hopefully provide you with some clarity around the issues facing our beautiful country.
For example, we are delighted to have our own managing director Mark Rubbo talking
with Stan Grant about Grant’s new book With the Falling of the Dusk. Grant is one of our
foremost observers and chroniclers of the world in crisis. His new book combines his
personal experiences reporting from the world’s flashpoints with his deep understanding
of politics, history and philosophy, to explore what is driving the world to crisis and how
it might be averted. To be honest, he does fear the worst, but he also provides ideas for
our future. Those of you interested in thinking about the future should also book into
our event with Hugh Mackay and Paul Barclay. Together they will examine the ideals of
kindness, forgiveness and indeed, hope, asking us to imagine how different our society
could be if we applied those ideals more widely.
Reading novels can also give us fodder for examination. I recently read journalist
Jacqueline Maley’s book The Truth About Her, in preparation for her event with Melissa
Fyfe in April. This is a tender, intelligent and moving exploration of guilt, shame, female
anger and motherhood, with all its trouble and treasure. Mostly, it is a story about the
nature of stories – who owns them, who gets to tell them, and why we need them. Books
like Maley’s are the reason Readings events are so very good. Hearing the author speak
about the stories behind the book gives us an extraordinarily lucky opportunity to reflect
on our own positions, beliefs and reading choices. It can give us the stories to share at
dinner parties, at book groups and at work. It can give us more than we ever bargained for.
Do keep abreast of our programming by signing up for our e-newsletter or by checking
our events page on the Readings website (www.readings.com.au/events). You’ll find an
answer there, I promise.
F E AT U R E April 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 5
Preserving the Italian Way
by Pietro Demaio, published
by Plum, is available at all
Readings shops and online.
© Chris Middleton Photography
Anita’s green olives
Le olive della Signora Anita
Autumn is the perfect time to start pickling and preserving. This delicious
recipe is from Pietro Demaio’s cult favourite Preserving the Italian Way.
Select larger green olives (verdale or kalamata) for When you want to use the olives, remove them from the brine,
this recipe. Once you have prepared them with the place in a sieve or colander and wash quickly under running water
to remove as much salt as possible.
flavourings, you can place them under olive oil in jars,
freeze them, seal them in vacuum bags, or just eat them Place the olives in a large bowl and add a good splash of olive oil,
straight away. (I prefer the last suggestion!) the garlic, oregano and a little chilli, if you like. Eat straight away
or transfer to clean jars (ensure jars are properly sterilised) and
1 kg hard, fresh green olives completely cover with olive oil. Seal and store in a cool, dark place
for 1 month before eating. The olives will keep for up to 2 years
100 g table salt
unopened. Once opened, store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
Variation
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional) As with so many Italian recipes, the ingredients might be the same but
it is the person’s method that is special! This is Tony Fedele’s variation
Special equipment on the above recipe. Tony got in touch with me after I self-published
the original version of Preserving the Italian Way – it turned out that his
Preserving the Italian 10 litre plastic container father, Pasquale, and my father were both interned as Italian prisoners
Way of war during World War Two, where their job was to cut wood for a
10 kg weight (about 4 bricks is ideal) local hospital in Warburton, Victoria. Our mothers’ villages in Calabria
Pietro Demaio
were 10 kilometres apart too.
Plum. PB. $39.99
Available now Place the olives in the 10 litre plastic container. Cover with cold, The amazing twists life brings!
fresh water and allow to stand for 3 days, replacing the water every
For Tony’s variation, follow the recipe above but once the olives are
day. under the salt, agitate them every day and they will be read to use
after 14 days.
After 3 days, drain the olives and crush each one with an empty
beer bottle (the indention in the bottom of the bottle will stop the
olives flying in all directions). Remove the pits from the crushed
olives. (Ideally have someone else on hand to do this for you!) Pietro Demaio is a Melbourne GP with a passion for the traditional
preserving recipes from his homeland of Italy.
Place the pitted olives back in the plastic container and cover
with the salt. Cover with a plate or wooden tray, then place a 10 kg Throughout April, we are offering 20% off Demaio’s book and a range
weight on top. of other essential cookbooks including titles from Ottolenghi, Natalie
Paull, Hetty McKinnon, and many more. This offer is available in-store
Now comes the hard part. Leave the olives in the salt for 3 months, and online (use the code 20COOKBOOKS). Read more about this
agitating them every 2–3 weeks. You can leave the olives like this offer on page 3.
for up to 1 year, until you want to use them.
6 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY April 2021 FIC T IO N
Fiction
she meets her beloved niece Lena – the addictive tale is not your ordinary love
person she is closest to in the world – for a story. There is romance, but it is mainly
lunch out. One Sunday Nic doesn’t show an exploration of the love between
up. Lena travels back to Nic’s house which mothers and their daughters, a love which
she hasn’t visited since she was a child. She can last a lifetime.
gets the shock of her life – finding her Kate McIntosh is the manager of Readings
A traveller takes a drink with a melancholy monkey aunty unconscious among what appears to Doncaster
working in a run-down inn. A writer stumbles across a
B OO K OF T H E be a lifetime of junk and rubbish.
fictitious jazz record he made up for an old review as a joke. A
M ON T H man finds himself drawn to a mysterious woman based on
Emily Maguire’s Love Objects is a A Million Things
character-driven novel, and the three main Emily Spurr
International their shared love of Schumann. Haruki Murakami’s singular
characters – Nic, Lena and Lena’s older Text. PB. $32.99
Fiction blend of the ordinary and surreal is on full display in this
brother Will – are all beautifully formed,
collection of eight mesmeric short stories, all linked by their Available now
with the help of dialogue that is both funny
shared use of the first-person perspective. Some of these Emily Spurr’s A
and heartbreakingly sad. This tight focus
stories have previously appeared in literary journals, while Million Things is an
on character lends psychological insight
others are available here in English for the first time. enthralling, devastating
and empathy to each unfolding scene of
debut. Shortlisted for the
upheaval: Nic cannot see that her stuff
Unpublished Manuscript
Murakami’s singular blend of the almost killed her, and this sets in motion
Prize in the 2020 Victorian
ordinary and surreal is on full display. events that will prove deeply distressing for
Premier’s Literary Awards,
all of them.
this is a story about love,
Fans of Murakami will undoubtedly enjoy this grab bag Maguire spent a year researching family and letting go.
of many of the writer’s repeated motifs and themes: baseball, the science behind hoarding and its
Ten-year-old Rae has a terrible secret –
memory, loneliness, the capricious path of fate, youthful approaches, and her insight enriches the
it’s the reason she’s all alone, and the reason
longing, and the sweet airs of music. One of the collection’s work with startling observations around
she sleeps on the couch at night. Except for
highlights, ‘Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova’, unfolds like what types of behaviour are considered
her dog, Splinter, Rae has never had anyone
a score; at times the prose cranks the tension with neurotic safe or unsafe, and why we choose to
really look out for her before. But when
First Person staccato beats, others it swells with nostalgia-infused make something our business. This allows
Rae inadvertently befriends Lettie, the ‘old
Singular dreaminess. In just a few, fleeting pages, it had me fully Maguire to layer broader societal questions
goat’ living alone next door, her carefully
Haruki Murakami & immersed – ‘Go back!’ I was mentally shouting at the narrator around possession and intervention, not
constructed façade begins to crumble.
Philip Gabriel (trans.) – and left me grinning at its punchy blast of a final line. only with regards to Nic’s behaviour but in
The complex, genuine friendship
Harvill Secker. HB. Lena and Will’s lives as well: Lena’s private
That immersive quality and masterful control of prose is, of between Lettie and Rae is the absolute
Was $39.99 life becomes very public, exposing her to
course, what makes Murakami’s magical realism so transfixing soul of this book and prevents it from
$34.99 public objectification and abuse, while a
and what keeps his devotees camped out for more. Murakami becoming relentlessly bleak. Spurr brings
Available 6 April past mistake encroaches on Will’s present.
seems fully aware of (and wryly bemused by) his cult-like the reader in on Rae’s secret early on, and
status, and stories like ‘The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection’ Unapologetic, yet compassionately
so it is there, lurking in the background for
and ‘With the Beatles’ raise tantalising questions of how closely they hew to autobiography. written, Love Objects is at its core about
the entirety of the novel. Despite this, she
Murakami has his detractors as well, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that some of these family, betrayal, forgiveness and love, and
has found an elegant balance between the
stories are taking playful shots at his critics – particularly those who have commented on what we do to fill the empty spaces.
book’s inevitable consequences and the
his portrayal of women – but to varying degrees of success. However you feel, First Person Carolyn Watson is from Readings Doncaster small moments of wonder and care between
Singular contains much to discuss and savour. Readers new to this fascinating writer’s work Rae and Lettie. Like Rae, Lettie struggles
will find these short, odd pieces an inviting and accessible entry point. to come to terms with past grief and loss,
The Truth About Her
Jackie Tang is the editor of Readings Monthly Jacqueline Maley hiding painful memories beneath stacks of
Fourth Estate. PB. $32.99 hoarded objects. Through their friendship,
Available 7 April Spurr explores themes of aging, motherhood
and grief with great compassion.
When I reached the
Spotlight swings between aloof and emotionally
wounded, just one element of his end of this book and A Million Things recalls books like
on a Classic read the author bio on the The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna in its
unreliability as a narrator. As he moves
back page, I was not in the depiction of childhood trauma and neglect.
between the boarding house where he lives,
least bit surprised to While the voice of Spurr’s protagonist
his job at the local mechanic and the pubs
doesn’t come alive with quite the same
This Is How around town, the reader is hardwired into discover Jacqueline Maley
sparkle as Laguna’s, Rae is spunky and true.
M.J. Hyland the grim volatility of his interior life. This is, just like the main
character in her debut Her attempts to stay under the radar in a
Text. PB. $23.95 closeness between reader and narrator
novel, an award-winning journalist. Maley world she’s been taught to believe doesn’t
Available now creates an uneasy feeling of complicity
can, without doubt, tell a story. Not only care are desperately sad. A Million Pieces is
This Is How is M.J. as things fall apart. Hyland subtly
that, she has created a recognisable and a shattering novel that perfectly captures
Hyland’s third and manipulates this compact with the reader,
intimate world filled with characters I the fractured moments between loss and
– though over a decade having us confront questions of blame,
could have lived with a great deal longer. letting go; between childhood and growing
has passed since its circumstance, crime and punishment. This
up, in which anything could change once
publication in 2009 – most Is How – despite its seaside setting – is not The Truth About Her centres on Suzy
the pieces fall.
recent novel. It received a ‘beach read’. Patrick’s lonely fate lingers Hamilton, an award-winning Sydney
high critical praise upon long after turning the final page on this journalist who writes an article exposing Bec Kavanagh is from Readings Kids
its release, including Australian classic. a social media influencer as a fraud.
superlative reviews from Helen Garner and Tracey Doran, the fraud in question, then Smokehouse
Michael Skinner is from Readings St Kilda
Hilary Mantel, but in the intervening years kills herself, and so begins a summer of Melissa Manning
it has become something of a forgotten unfortunate events for Suzy. Single mother UQP. PB. $29.99
classic. This is perhaps due in part to the
prize-winning status of Hyland’s first two
Australian to adorable pre-schooler Maddy (I’m not
one to get sentimental about other people’s
Available now
One of the joys
novels – How the Light Gets In and Carry Fiction children, especially fictional ones, but of a collection of
Me Down – which have entered the Maddy really is adorable), Suzy keeps most interlinked short stories
Australian canon, as part of Penguin and people, especially men, especially the two is that it illuminates
Text’s respective classics series. Love Objects men she is currently sleeping with, at arms- different aspects of
Of all her work, This Is How deserves Emily Maguire length. However, when her affair with one character and location
to be remembered as Hyland’s true A&U. PB. $32.99 of them results in the loss of her job, the from multiple
masterpiece. It is an unnerving portrait Available now poverty line moves uncomfortably close perspectives. Two of the
of a young man slowly lurching towards Nic is smart, proud and she has some difficult choices to make. best examples of this are Pulitzer Prize-
tragedy and its aftermath – a deliberate and quick-witted. Working at a bar in the evenings and winners Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth
and worthy reply to Camus’s The Outsider. She is 45-years old and as a freelance writer during the day only Strout and A Visit from the Goon Squad
It was also a stand-out novel for me during sees her home as a just pays the bills, so when the opportunity by Jennifer Egan.
Melbourne’s lockdown. The book’s tightly sanctuary, yet to the to write the story of Tracey Doran’s life Melissa Manning’s Smokehouse
wound narrative seemed to tap into last outside world it becomes presents itself, the money is hard to resist. examines a close-knit community living
year’s collective anxiety, with both reader something else entirely. It may also help assuage some of the guilt in Kettering and on Bruny Island in
and narrator bound up claustrophobically Nic could tell you the Suzy feels about the young woman’s death. Tasmania. The stories that bookend the
in Hyland’s artful use of the present tense. story about each ‘special’ thing in her As Suzy begins to discover the truth about collection feature Nora and Tom, and in
Patrick, her young narrator, moves to collection, even as those memories lie Tracey, she also starts down a path of self- the initial story, their focus is on building a
a holiday town on the English coast after buried under piles of newspapers, toys, discovery, a journey which will lead her to house. Nora hopes that moving away from
his fiancée calls off their marriage. On the furniture and enough clothes and shoes to some unexpected places. the suburbs in Hobart will repair the rifts
question of this inciting incident, Patrick fill Big W three times over. Every Sunday This rewarding, enjoyable and utterly in their marriage, and give her and Tom
F IC T ION April 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 7
something to work on together. Without quite as they seem at this mysterious
the routine of work each day, however, she estate. With echoes of Rebecca and The
feels lost, while Tom goes interstate for his Secret River, this is a tale of survival written
work, and her daughters settle into their in Gemmell's signature lyrical prose.
new school quickly.
Another critical character, Ollie, features Tussaud
in many of the stories. Escaping a string of Belinda Lyons-Lee
losses in Germany, he moves to ‘the bottom Transit Lounge. PB. $32.99
of the earth’. The person he is closest to – Available 1 April
his uncle Herman – encourages Ollie’s new Haunted by the French
life and supports him from afar. Walde, a Revolution, Marie
stonemason living in Kettering, builds Nora Tussaud has locked
and Tom’s fireplace. He is a solitary figure herself away in her shop
dealing with a history of trauma. He is good with her wax figures. On a
with his hands but not with people. Walde disastrous tour to London,
features in a number of stories yet remains she meets the eccentric
alone, even when he finds out he has a son Duke, William Cavendish,
with an old girlfriend. who invites her to stage a show in his
Much is made of the chasm between underground ballroom in exchange for a
Tasmania’s main island, where Kettering private commission: a wax automaton of a
is located, and Bruny Island. Characters beautiful girl who disappeared. This
drive to the water’s edge to contemplate delicious novel of twists and turns is full of
the lives they’d wished for. The ferry secrets and assumed identities.
dictates the timing between the main
island and its satellite. This divide is a
Where the Line Breaks
metaphor for all the ways characters don’t
Michael Burrows
connect – for ruined relationships and
Fremantle Press. PB. $32.99
losses that can’t be rectified.
Available now
Smokehouse contains 11 stories, and
The Unknown Digger is
part of the joy of an interlinked collection
Australia’s most famous
is fitting these stories and characters
WWI poet. But for
together like jigsaw pieces. The book is
decades, his identity has
enhanced by the beautifully described
remained a mystery. Enter
Tasmanian landscape and weather. There
PhD student Matthew
are multiple themes running through the
Denton who believes the
book, and the depth of characterisation
unknown digger to in fact
makes it a perfect choice for book clubs.
be one of Australia’s greatest war heroes:
Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn Lieutenant Alan Lewis VC of the 10th Light
Horse. This debut is an enticing blend of
The Last Reunion literary detective story and moving
Kayte Nunn historical fiction.
Hachette. PB. $32.99
Available now Sincerely, Ethel Malley
Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Stephen Orr
Bubbles, Joy and Lucy are Wakefield Press. PB. $34.95
attached to the Fourteenth Available 1 April
Army, running a mobile Miles Franklin longlisted
canteen and fighting a author Stephen Orr
forgotten war in the delivers a surreal, dryly
jungle. A half century funny fictional take on
later, on the eve of the new the infamous Ern Malley
millennium, the women reunite at a party affair – perhaps EMILY MAGUIRE
held deep in the Irish countryside, where Australia’s most infamous
friendships will be tested as secrets kept for literary hoax – in a novel A clear-eyed, heart-wrenching and deeply
more than 50 years are spilled. that expertly blends fact and fiction, and compassionate novel about love and family,
questions the very nature of authenticity betrayal and forgiveness, and the things we do to
Like Mother fill our empty spaces, from the acclaimed author
and creativity. A dark literary mystery, of An Isolated Incident.
Cassandra Austin Sincerely, Ethel Malley explores freedom of
Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.99 speech and the blurred line between truth ‘Bold, furious, unapologetic and
Available now and lies, tradition and modernism. deeply insightful.’
It’s 1969 and Louise SOFIE LAGUNA,
Ashland is exhausted. author of Infinite Splendours
With a screaming baby, an International
absent husband and a
mother who won’t leave
Fiction
her alone, she is on the
edge of unravelling. One Ariadne
suspiciously quiet Jennifer Saint
morning, Louise wakes and discovers her Wildfire. PB. $32.99
baby is missing. Over the next 24 hours, her Available now
desperate search will lead her straight to There’s been a
old secrets her mother – and perhaps her flush of novels
own mind – have buried. based around feminist
retellings of ancient
The Ripping Tree myths lately. The Silence A World War II story of female friendship,
Nikki Gemmell of the Girls by Pat Barker longing and sacrifice, bringing
Fourth Estate. PB. $32.99 and A Thousand Ships by together the present and the past.
Available 7 April Natalie Haynes depicted
Early 1800s. Thomasina is the fall of Troy as seen through the eyes ‘An epic novel about women, love
bound for Australia, when of women. Circe by Madeline Miller and heartbreak. A triumph!’
a storm wrecks the ship reimagined Homer’s oft-misunderstood SALLY HEPWORTH,
and leaves her washed up witch from The Odyssey. Now debut author of The Good Sister
near a grand European novelist Jennifer Saint has turned her
house, Willowbrae. A attention to the legend of Ariadne,
who gave Theseus the means to defeat
OUT NOW
chance for a new life
opens up, but things aren't the Minotaur.
8 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY April 2021 FIC T IO N
An immersive and engaging novel that storylines Resi imagines for her friends and a wolf mask with an intriguing mission: if read the original too. This book truly is
brings to life the story of the Labyrinth, family, recollections of past events, and Kokoro can find the special key that unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and I
Ariadne also seamlessly includes many imaginings of three significant moments in unlocks the Wishing Room she will be doubt I’ll read anything like it again.
familiar Greek myths including the fall of her mother’s life. Resi’s mother was skilled granted any wish her heart desires. But Alison Huber is the head book buyer at
Icarus, Midas of the golden touch, and the at keeping the peace but lacked agency, Kokoro is not the only one on the hunt for Readings
terrible story of Medusa’s transformation space or visible desire for more from the key. Six other teenagers with
into the gorgon. life. Resi’s own writing space is a broom mysterious pasts and their own reasons for No One Is Talking About This
Ariadne leans harder into the fantastic cupboard and she wonders how many avoiding school have also been transported
Patricia Lockwood
aspects of the mythology than some of the learned behaviours she has unintentionally to the Lonely Castle. There is, of course, a Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99
other books in the genre: Saint’s Greek gods passed on to her own children. But fear not, catch. The seven students only have the Available April 2
and goddesses are unambiguously present, this novel is not all judgement and dread. length of the school year to find the key and
Patricia Lockwood is
malicious, capricious, and all-powerful. There is hope in new understanding and they all have to leave the castle at 5pm
known for – among
Humankind – particularly womenkind – is acceptance – in the choices we make and everyday or else be eaten by a big bad wolf.
other things – saying very
very much at their mercy, as revenge for the desire to forge ahead. Will any of them be able to find the key
clever things on the
the slights and sins of men are visited upon Suzanne Steinbruckner is from Readings before time runs out?
internet. The unnamed
their wives and daughters with impunity. Carlton Already a bestseller in Japan, Lonely
protagonist of her highly
This concept of women suffering for the Castle in the Mirror is bound to delight
anticipated first novel
sake of male pride and ego is a timely one, Hot Stew English-language readers as well.
seems to have the same gig:
and it’s unsurprising that the Greek myths Fiona Mozley Drawing on European fairytales and the
she reckons she’ll be best remembered for
are providing a rich strain of inspiration for John Murray. PB. $32.99 painful moments that are universal to all
asking the denizens of ‘the portal’ if ‘a dog
authors who want to unpack the origins of Available now adolescents, Mizuki Tsujimura crafts an
can be a twin’ and for photoshopping bags
our centuries-old patriarchy. Ariadne does absolutely beautiful book about the power
‘And I’m just fed up with of peas into photographs of historical
this, and more. of human connection and belonging. Like
the hypocrisy. People have atrocities. But her existence online doesn’t
Blood-soaked and visceral, Ariadne many books with fantastical elements, it
sex for loads of different prepare her for the crisis that hits her family,
isn’t simply the story of the naive princess has great crossover appeal: an amazing
reasons. And, well, we have and after receiving urgent texts from her
of Minos who betrays her family for love read for teenagers and adults alike. Dark,
sex for money.’ mother – ‘something has gone wrong … how
and is betrayed herself. It is the story playful and so full of heart.
Precious didn’t ask soon can you get here?’ – she’s shaken out of
of a girl who grows into adulthood and Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton her online life and into a much more
to be the figurehead
learns her own strength. It’s the story of unsettling reality.
of a movement. But when
two sisters who are bound by the violence
the brothel where she lives and works is No One Is Talking About This is written in
committed against their mother. And it’s On the Line:
under threat of demolishment from its fragments, operating as a sort of prose poem,
the story about how history celebrates Notes from a Factory
billionaire owner, she has no choice but to and these moments of poetry, humour and
the glory of men, when perhaps it should Joseph Ponthus &
stand up against the gentrification that is anecdote build towards something greater
remember the sacrifices of women. Stephanie Smee (trans.)
rapidly changing her Soho community. than the sum of its parts. In many ways it
Black Inc. PB. $27.99
Lian Hingee is the digital marketing manager Precious’s livelihood (and the livelihood of reminded me of Jenny Offill’s Weather: an
at Readings Available now
the women she lives with) isn’t the only exploration of the fragmented pieces that
I’ve been thinking a lot
thing at stake. The brothel is the centre of a make up modern American life. Like many
Higher Ground about On the Line since
neighbourhood composed of dying contemporary American novels, Lockwood’s
I read its final pages. Written
Anke Stelling & Lucy Jones (trans.) restaurants, struggling artists and activists, debut can’t resist engaging with ‘the dictator’.
Scribe. PB. $29.99
in French (À la ligne) this
people experiencing homelessness and Much like the protagonist, ‘the dictator’
book is a piece of autofiction
Available 15 April drug addiction, and men with dark pasts remains unnamed but it isn’t difficult to work
in verse. Its narrator, like its
I have not been who populate the run-down pubs nearby. out which recent American leader stares
author, is a social worker by
able to stop Fiona Mozley has crafted a novel that directly at eclipses.
education, who finds himself needing to
thinking about Anke is Dickensian in scope but without all This is a novel fully steeped in the
labour in Brittany’s factories of industrial
Stelling’s brilliant novel the exhaustive (and exhausting) detail. alarming present (although there are no
food production and animal processing,
Higher Ground. In trying Hot Stew is populated by a broad cast of mentions of COVID) in a way that reminded
including at an abattoir and a fish and
to nail down just what instantly memorable characters ranging me of Ali Smith’s Seasons Quartet. It’s not
seafood plant. It is also an unusual
made me want to pick it across the entirety of the social spectrum. a book that could have been written ten
contemporary record of a kind of workplace
up again and again, I’d This Soho is a bustling, dirty, exciting, or even five years ago. I’m always going
and work practice that is largely unfamiliar
say the primary reason is the protagonist seedy and, at moments, fantastical place. to be a Lockwood fangirl, but I admit her
to the middle classes, but upon which
Resi’s voice – a voice that is unapologetic in It is a much more intriguing portrayal of work isn’t for everyone. It may not suit
access to everyday commodities depends.
its anger and rage. This is a character who the infamous London city sector than I those with more traditional tastes, but for
Most striking in the narrative are the
knows she sees the world though her own personally remember – the Soho I worked those willing to brave it, No One Is Talking
many descriptions of the mechanics of a
particular lens but is adamant this does not near during 2014–2016 seemed to mostly About This is richly rewarding – equal parts
long day’s hard work in these factories.
diminish her right to speak on what she consist of themed cocktail bars and farm- pathos and hilarity. More importantly, it’s
This very long-time vegetarian found
sees and feels. to-table vegan restaurants. an indication of where the novel is heading
some of the scenes pretty challenging,
Resi is a 40-something writer living in Is it possible to be shortlisted for the in the 21st century.
but also oddly compelling, partly because
Berlin with her artist partner Sven and their Booker Prize and still be underrated? Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton
they go some way toward explaining the
four children. Her latest book, a savage Mozley has fashioned a completely
detachment that is required for workers to
critique of Berlin’s urban gentrification different story here to her 2017 Booker-
encounter the death of animals as routine We Run the Tides
and of aspirational models of family, nominated debut Elmet. I can only hope
– something I’ve always struggled to Vendela Vida
motherhood and success, was poorly that she will continue this trajectory of
understand. Alongside this is the internal Atlantic. PB. $27.99
received by her dearest friends; they felt it constantly reinventing herself and her
voice of a person whose ambitions and Available now
read too much like a criticism of their own writing, reimagining what contemporary
imagination are elsewhere; as his aging Coming-of-age
middle-class lives. Following the book’s fiction can and should do. She deserves a
body enacts the repetitive tasks on the novels about female
publication, Resi receives emails severing much larger readership.
line, he thinks about literature and history, friendship are always
lifelong friendships and an eviction notice Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton about films and war and Marx, about his going to the top of my
for the apartment in which her family
wife and his desire for his shift to end, reading pile, especially if
live; the lease is controlled by one of these
Lonely Castle in the Mirror about the exploitation of this casualised you add in a mysterious
friends. Having grown up observing how
Mizuki Tsujimura & labour force which is often employed via a disappearance, and tie the
societal, patriarchal and class structures
Philip Gabriel (trans.) third-party agency, about the camaraderie whole thing together with
permeated and shaped her parents’ lives,
Doubleday. PB. $32.99 with his fellow workers. All the while, a wickedly funny 13-year-old narrator. I’ve
Resi has spent her adulthood trying to live
Available 13 April he expresses the contradictory feelings been eagerly anticipating Vendela Vida’s
free of these constraints. But she has learnt
Kokoro doesn’t want of being trapped by, but reliant on and latest, We Run the Tides, since the release of
far too late how little she was prepared for
to go back to school. complicit in, late capitalism. her previous work The Diver’s Clothes Lie
the realities of life. And her hope now is
After enduring painful This book was a bestseller in France Empty five years ago. That novel confirmed
to save her daughter, Bea, from the same
bullying at the hands of and won many literary awards in the year Vida’s assured, inventive skill; it was a joy to
mistakes using the best tools she has at her
her classmates, her whole following its publication. It’s confronting read and a book I still recommend eagerly
disposal – words.
body seems to rebel at the and awash with sadness, but also the and often. So I’m thrilled to report that We
Stelling’s writing doesn’t shy away
idea of returning to hope of the things – books, love, ideas, Run the Tides is another novel that I’ll be
from Resi’s feelings of inadequacy,
Yukishina No. 5 Junior companionship – that give life shape, while enthusiastically pressing into the hands of
inefficiency, revenge, helplessness or
High. Barricading herself at home, one day acknowledging the essential work of the friends and strangers.
shame with the world she’s inexpertly
her mirror begins to emit a strange glow body that helps feed the mind and soul. It’s 1984 in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, an
constructed for herself and her family.
and, in a Narnia-like sequence, Kokoro is Stephanie Smee’s sensitive translation oceanside neighbourhood with views of
Structured as a letter to her daughter, the
transported through the mirror to a magical of this unique work made me wish my the Golden Gate Bridge, where teenage
book is a mix of day-to-day observations,
castle. On arrival she meets a young girl in schoolgirl French were better so I could Eulabee and her magnetic best friend,
F IC T ION April 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 9
Maria Fabiola, roam the streets. They walk Common Ground
to and from their fancy all-girls school with Naomi Ishiguro
a group of firm friends, scramble around Tinder Press. PB. $32.99
the cliffs that surround their local beaches, Available now
and keep their eyes wide open for boys who Starting over at a new
might notice them. ‘Separately we are good school isn’t easy for Stan.
girls. We behave. Together, some strange That is until he meets
alchemy occurs and we are trouble.’ Charlie. Fearless and
The trouble in question starts with clever, Charlie infects Stan
a disagreement about what they did or with his bright curiosity.
didn’t witness on the way to school one When they cross paths as
morning: Maria Fabiola claims they were adults in London years
harassed by a stranger on the street, later, their fortunes are reversed: Stan is
Eulabee contradicts her and suddenly revelling in city life while Charlie seems to
finds herself socially outcast. When Maria have hit a wall. Can their friendship survive
Fabiola disappears suddenly, We Run the a world that seeks to divide them?
Tides expands into a compelling mystery.
Where this novel shines is in its witty and Temporary
constantly surprising narrative voice.
Hilary Leichter
Eulabee is the most engaging character I’ve Faber. PB. $27.99
spent time with in years – I laughed out Available 13 April
loud at her wry observations, and found
‘There is nothing more
myself utterly swept away by the dreamy
personal than doing your
yearning of girlhood she conveys. This slim
job’. So goes the motto of
novel will leave you thinking about the
the Temporary. Happy to
complicated nature of friendship and the
fill in for anyone –
grey space between truth and lies, and I
Chairman of the Board, a
couldn’t recommend it more highly.
ghost, a murderer, a
Stella Charls is from Readings Carlton mother, even you and me –
the Temporary takes job after job, in search
How Beautiful We Were of steadiness, belonging, and something to
Imbolo Mbue call her own. A smart, humane story of what
Canongate. PB. $29.99 it is to work and live, here and now.
Available mid-April
The villagers of Kosawa How Do You Live?
are living in fear amid Genzaburo Yoshino &
environmental Bruno Navasky (trans.)
degradation wrought by an Rider. HB. $29.99
American oil company. Available 13 April
Left with few choices, they The streets of Tokyo swarm
decide to fight back. Told below 15-year-old Copper
through the perspective of as he gazes out into the
the generation who grow up amid the city. Struck by the crowds
struggle, How Beautiful We Were explores of people, he begins to
what happens when the drive for profit, wonder, how do you live?
coupled with the ghost of colonialism, He turns to his uncle for
Great Stories Uncovered
comes up against one community’s advice, and the old man
determination to reclaim its ancestral land. guides the boy on a journey of
philosophical discovery. This 1937
Another Life Japanese classic offers a poignant
Jodie Chapman reflection on what it means to be human.
Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99
Available now Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd.
Responsible, sensible Nick Jonas Jonasson
falls in love with Anna HarperVia. PB. $24.99
over the course of one hot Available 14 April
summer. But when Anna’s Victor Alderheim has a lot
strict religion threatens to answer for. Not only has
their relationship, Nick is he tricked his young
too scared to fight, letting ex-wife, Jenny, out of her
Anna walk away. Years inheritance, he has also
Get out. A bright and funny
later, Anna is drawn back into Nick’s life, abandoned his son, Kevin,
Before they save you. romantic comedy about
just as his relationship with his brother to die in the middle of the
small lies and big mistakes
reaches breaking point. A tender story Kenyan savanna. When
about dysfunctional families, and what it Kevin and Jenny meet up, they naturally
means to truly love another. bond over a shared desire to get even. So
it’s convenient when they run into a man
Civilisations selling revenge services…
Laurent Binet &
Sam Taylor (trans.) An Ordinary Wonder
Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99 Buki Papillon
Available 13 April Dialogue Books. PB. $32.99
1000 AD: Erik the Red’s Available now
daughter heads south Richly imagined with art
from Greenland. 1492: and folk tales, this moving The story of one woman’s One of Australia’s leading
Christopher Columbus and modern novel follows attempt to exorcise her commentators on our world
does not ‘discover’ 14-year-old Oto through religious upbringing, told and the crises, challenges
America. 1531: the Incas life at home and at with wry humour and and opportunities we face
invade Europe. The stage boarding school in razor-sharp observations
is set for a great war that Nigeria, through the
will change history forever. A stunningly heartbreak of living as a
ambitious and entertaining novel that
gives us a counter-factual history of the
boy despite their profound belief they are
a girl. An extraordinary literary debut Out now from
modern world, fizzing with ideas about from a Nigerian-born author, An Ordinary
colonisation, empire-building and the Wonder is a story of the courage needed to
eternal human quest for domination. be yourself.
10 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY April 2021 FIC T IO N
Touring the Land of the Dead she forms an obsessive friendship. own experiences.
Maki Kashimada & Unsettling and compulsive, The Girls Are This collection drew me into the
Haydn Trowell (trans.) All So Nice Here is a gripping exploration poet’s experiences of her grandmother’s
of the brutal lengths girls will go to, to take passing, cancer, miscarriages,
Europa Editions. PB. $27.99
what they think they are owed. hysterectomy, but most of all, the
Available now
complexities of love. The collection
Taichi was forced to stop
working almost a decade The Black Cathedral: presents a story of family love – a
ago and since then he and A Novel love that often goes unspoken and is
Marcial Gala & enveloped in cultural differences through
his wife Natsuko have
Anna Kushner (trans.) the effects of migration and language
been getting by on her
Picador. PB. $34.99 barriers. At times I felt Chong’s immense
part-time wages. When
Available 1 April anger and grief for the lives she wanted
Natsuko sees an ad for a
to live, but her carefully considered
spa, she decides to take In a neighborhood that
words also convey a sense of healing and
Taichi, despite the cost. But the spa’s roils with passions and
acceptance: ‘my soul will find my body
connection to her past triggers buried conflicts, at the foot of a
/ and my body will wake’. In one poem,
memories, and Natsuko is forced to cathedral that rises
Chong says, ‘I am without shell’, and this
confront her family’s history. higher day by day, there
vulnerability and exploration of self is
grows a generation
true of the whole collection.
Raft of Stars marked by violence,
cruelty, and extreme These poems are not needlessly
Andrew J. Graff complicated; while they reward rereading
selfishness. Told by a chorus of narrators
HQ Fiction. PB. $29.99 for the serious poetry reader, they are
– including gossips, gangsters, a ghost,
Available 7 April also inviting for the less confident or
and a serial killer – who flirt, lie, argue,
Tired of seeing his best and finish one another’s stories, The experienced reader. Perhaps this is
friend Dale Breadwin Black Cathedral is a darkly comic because each image Chong presents
(Bread) abused by his indictment of modern Cuba. is so layered in emotion that I cannot
alcoholic father, Fischer help but be held captive. In ‘Spring
Branson (Fish) takes Festival’, Chong muses that she often
action. A gunshot rings
Invisible Ink: writes poems in tercet form: one line for
out, and Bread and Fish
A Novel the past, one for the future, and one ‘for
flee into the woods. They
Patrick Modiano & the hours / I do not notice as they pass’.
build a raft, but the river quickly leads
Mark Polizzotti (trans.) Through this, Chong invites the reader
Yale University Press. PB. $32.99
them into even greater danger. A group of to wander through these tenses with her
Available 2 April
adults, determined to save the boys, follows and to perceive time and memory as she
in pursuit, but the further they travel, the The latest work from perceives them.
more the wilderness starts to change them. Nobel laureate Patrick As a reader of poetry, I feel it is an
Modiano, Invisible Ink is a immense privilege to be trusted with a
spellbinding tale of
Fidelity poet’s life, albeit a curated presentation.
memory and its illusions. A Thousand Crimson Blooms is a treasure,
Marco Missiroli &
Private detective Jean and has prompted me to read more of
Alex Valente (trans.)
receives an assignment to Chong’s work.
W&N. PB. $32.99
locate a missing woman.
Available 13 April Clare Millar is from Readings online
While the case proves fruitless, the clues
Carlo and Margherita, a
along the way continue to haunt Jean.
happily married couple in
Decades later, he resumes the Homecoming
their mid-thirties, are Elfie Shiosaki
investigation for himself, compelled by
perfectly attuned to each Magabala. PB. $24.99
reasons he can’t explain to follow the cold
other’s restlessness. They Available 1 April
trail and discover the shocking truth.
are in love, but they also Homecoming pieces
harbour flickering desires together fragments of
and secrets. After eight The Missing
stories about four
years of repressed desires and the birth of a Dirk Kurbjuweit &
generations of Noongar
son, when the past resurfaces in the form of Imogen Taylor (trans.)
women and explores
books sent anonymously, will love be Text. PB. $32.99
how they navigated the
enough to save them? Available now
changing landscapes of
Hanover’s boys are
colonisation,
Verge vanishing, one after
protectionism and assimilation to hold
another, without a trace.
Lidia Yuknavitch their families together. This seminal
Police suspect political
Riverhead. PB. $25.99 collection of poetry, prose and historical
motivations – perhaps the
Available 13 April colonial archives tells First Nations truths
missing boys are
Lidia Yuknavitch’s short of unending love for children – those that
communists, or victims of
story collection, Verge, is were present, those taken, those hidden
the rising Nazi Party.
peopled with characters and those that ultimately stood in the
Soon, however, Inspector Robert
who are innocent and light. Elfie Shiosaki has restored
Lahnstein begins to believe even more
imperfect: an eight-year- humanity and power to her family in this
sinister forces are at play. Can Lahnstein
old black-market medical beautifully articulated collection and has
track down the murderer before he takes
courier, a restless lover given voice to those silenced by our
another victim? A dark portrait of justice
haunted by memories of brutal past.
during the Weimar Republic.
his mother, a teenage girl gazing out her
attic window at a nearby prison. Clear- The Hill We Climb:
eyed yet inspiring, this mosaic of human
resilience on the margins challenges us
Poetry An Inaugural Poem
Amanda Gorman
with moments of uncomfortable truth. Chatto & Windus. HB. $19.99
A Thousand Crimson Blooms Available 13 April
The Girls Are All So Nice Here Eileen Chong On 20 January 2021,
Laurie Elizabeth Flynn UQP. PB. $24.99 Amanda Gorman
HQ Fiction. PB. $29.99 Available now became the sixth and
Available 7 April Poetry can be so youngest poet to deliver
When Ambrosia first incredibly personal, a poetry reading at
arrives at prestigious and Eileen Chong’s A a US presidential
college Wesleyan, she’s Thousand Crimson inauguration. Taking the
desperate to fit in. But Blooms is no exception. stage, Gorman captivated
Amb struggles to As a writer, Chong audiences worldwide. Her poem ‘The Hill
navigate the rules of this describes needing poetry We Climb’ can now be cherished in this
strange, elite world – in order to process the special gift edition – a keepsake that
until she meets the world, and there is almost nothing off celebrates youthful promise and affirms
charismatic but troubled Sully, with whom limits here as she works through her the power of poetry.You can also read
