A DELICIOUS NEW RECIPE FROM HETTY MCKINNON - READINGS
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FREE OC TO BE R 2020
A delicious
new recipe
from Hetty
McKinnon
page 5
New books by
Richard Flanagan,
Trent Dalton, Craig
Silvey, Marilynne
Robinson, Gail Jones
and more
BOOKS
M USI C
F I LM
E VE N T S
BR UCE
SPR I N G ST E E N
PATR ICK
page 22
G U E ST &
JONAT H AN
R I CH AR D TR EN T HET T Y JE S SI CA
BEN T LE Y
F L AN AG AN DALTON MCK I N NON TOWNSEN D
page 18
page 6 page 6 page 17 page 19
CARLTON 309 LYGON ST 9347 6633 KIDS 315 LYGON ST 9341 7730 DONCASTER WESTFIELD DONCASTER, 619 DONCASTER RD 9810 0891
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NEWS October 2020 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 3
October
by Richard Flanagan describing some of Monthly, which will both be full of gift ideas
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the most up-to-date information about how 25% off Thames and Hudson for Christmas might look a bit different this need to set up an account at LatitudePay.
we’re trading, our trading hours, special To celebrate Thames and Hudson’s 50th year, and we want you to be prepared! com first, and then request to pay with
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an array of local and international authors books, visit readings.com.au/collection/
discussing their books, all accessible and thames-and-hudson. This offer is only
available to watch right from your home. available during October, while stocks last.
Upcoming highlights include Alex Miller
launching his latest book on Monday 12
October, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Win a special edition of Richard
on the latest instalment of the Treehouse Flanagan’s new novel
books on Tuesday 20 October, Rosalie Ham All customers who purchase a copy of
discussing her sequel to The Dressmaker Richard Flanagan’s new novel The Living
on 28 October, and many more! For details Sea of Waking Dreams from Readings before
on how to watch, and to see what’s on offer 5pm, Sunday 25 October can go in the draw
across our whole events program, visit to win a unique signed first edition of the
readings.com.au/events novel, replete with handwritten annotations
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Writing a Novel Stage 1 and 2
The writing school inside Australia’s (Six months)
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Get started writing, stay the distance Writing for Children
and learn from publishing experts (Three months)
For creators of picture books or middle-grade fiction.
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4 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY October 2020 C O LU M N S
Mark’s Dear
About Love, will be looking forward to
her fiction debut, Ghosts. So many people
discovered Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Say with Mark Rubbo
Reader with Alison Huber
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi last year, and
will be eager to meet four new customers
of its unusual café. Plus, there are new
books from Nick Hornby, Hari Kunzru,
Nir Baram, Cory Doctorow, and Naomi
You might be surprised to As Mark has pointed out, Novik, as well as a paperback edition of
know that year-to-date this month’s avalanche of last year’s hit doorstop, The Eighth Life:
books sales in Australia brilliant new releases for Brilka by Nino Haratischvili.
are up 7.7% on last year, provokes mixed feelings Our Nonfiction Book of the Month is
despite Victorian for the bookseller in Unseen by broadcaster Jacinta Parsons,
bookshops being pretty much closed for the lockdown. There are so many fabulous an intimate memoir that shares her
last two and a half months. It’s good news books entering the world, but we do so long journey with Crohn’s disease, as
for the Australian book industry, and miss introducing them to you through well as speaking more broadly to the
heartening to see books being embraced as conversations in real life, in the lively experience of living with chronic illness,
a means of inspiration and escape in the bustle of our shops. We can’t wait to which affects a staggering portion of
Netflix age. At Readings, our shop sales are welcome you back to our shops – and when the Australian population. Our staff
down around 80%, but it’s not as bad as it we can, you’ll see the huge piles of The also review the wonderful new books
sounds as our online sales are up 450%. Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard from Ramona Koval and Gabrielle
That’s nowhere near enough to make up the Flanagan, our Fiction Book of the Month, Carey. Josephine Rowe has written a
shortfall, but it’s enough to mean that most which Mark calls Flanagan’s most contribution to Black Inc.’s Writers on
of our staff have some shifts to keep them audacious and accomplished work to date Writers series on Beverley Farmer. And
engaged and employed. Thank you so much (don’t forget to enter our competition to check out some of the other folks who
for your support. win a very special first edition of the book have books out this month: Jerry Seinfeld,
As I write this, wonderful new annotated by Richard himself: see page 3 Hilary Mantel, Alex Miller, Jimmy
October books are streaming into our for details). You’ll also find Himalayan Barnes, David McAllister, Robert Dessaix,
shops. Yesterday, Richard Flanagan’s stacks of Trent Daltons, Craig Silveys, and David Attenborough, Claire Messud, Bill
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams and Gail Joneses. In amongst these books by Bailey, David Chang, Natalie Haynes,
Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies authors whose names you know well, don’t Robert Macfarlane, Kim Gordon, and
arrived, today Craig Silvey’s long-awaited overlook debut novels from Nardi Anne Applebaum, plus new cookbooks
Honeybee is being unboxed, as is middle- Simpson, Tobias McCorkell, Claire from Hetty McKinnon, Shannon
grade fiction sensation Hollowpox, the Christian, and Daniel Davis Wood. Martinez, and Bill Granger. I absolutely
latest in the Nevermoor series by Jessica International releases are just love the nostalgia trip that is Warren
Townsend – and that is just to name a few! as exciting. The more I think about Kirk’s Northside: A Time and Place, a
It is a wonderful selection of books for the Earthlings, Sayaka Murata’s completely book of photos documenting Melbourne’s
Christmas season, one of the best ever. bonkers follow-up to her hit English northern suburbs, with an introduction
Sadly, our doors are still more or less closed language debut, Convenience Store written by Christos Tsiolkas.
and there’s no one to see this cornucopia Woman, the more I adore it. (NB: it is And finally, dear reader, it is publisher
of delights, however, it does look like if actually quite hard to stop thinking Thames and Hudson Australia’s 50th
everything goes according to the metro about it.) I can’t wait to revisit Marilynne birthday in 2020, which means it was
Melbourne public health plan, we’ll be able Robinson’s Gilead, in the final of four established the year after Dot and Ross
to reopen around the 19th of October. novels set in that town, Jack. We also Reading set up the first Readings shop in
When the Victorian Premier announced recommend new work from William Boyd, Carlton: that makes Thames and Hudson
the second lockdown, my heart sank; it Akwaeke Emezi, Clarissa Goenawan, and Australia a local institution too! To mark
was worse than the first. I spoke to Richard Jess Walter. Martin Amis does autofiction the occasion, we have a selection of books
Flanagan about his book on the morning in Inside Story, which means characters at 25% off, including fine examples of their
after the announcement and told him I will include Christopher Hitchens, Saul art and design, gardening, fashion, and
thought I couldn’t go on. A few hours later, Bellow, Iris Murdoch, and Elizabeth children’s publishing. See readings.com.au/
he rang back to say that the thought of a Jane Howard. The many readers of Dolly collection/thames-and-hudson for a list of
depressed Rubbo had been preying on his Alderton’s memoir, Everything I Know the books on offer.
mind. That call helped lift me. Once we
get through this, then we’ll be in the clear, I
On
thought. The spectre of a third lockdown program that I hope allows everyone an
was (and is) too terrible to contemplate, and opportunity to be part of our community.
I embraced Dan’s strategy despite its pain. Were you there listening to Andrew
Events
In the Writers on Writers So, now we are coming out the other side; O’Hagan (Mayflies) talking about the
paradox of the Scottish author? Did you
series, leading authors it will be so nice to see people in the shop
looking at books, talking about books and hear Steven Conte (The Tolstoy Estate)
reflect on an Australian engaging with our booksellers. But it will
with Chris Gordon confess that he has never been to Russia,
despite setting his epic novel in its very
writer who has inspired be different. Social distancing will still be
in place and that’s going to mean that we’ll ‘I’m on Zoom,’ I yell to my wintery heart? Perhaps you joined me
and fascinated them. all have to plan how we shop for Christmas. daughter. to celebrate a recent release by a local
Last Christmas, at our Carlton shop, in the ‘It’s okay,’ I say to my son, author? Have you joined an online cooking
ten days before Christmas we had on average as he waits to walk past discussion with us? (Perhaps for To Asia,
4000 customers a day; with social distancing my desk to his bedroom, With Love by Hetty McKinnon?) Have you
we’ll only be able to accommodate 1200 ‘I’ve turned the video off.’ considered how a place can be a character
customers a day – that’s 70% fewer I whisper to my partner, gesticulating at with Jane Harper (The Survivors)? Did you
customers. So, if you love books and love the screen in front of me, ‘I’m talking to an cry a little when hearing Sarah Wilson
giving books as gifts, I urge you not to be like author!’ (This One Wild and Precious Life) talk
me and leave everything to the last minute. And so, another evening of the about finding light and calmness in our
The global supply chain is under immense Readings events program commences. tremulous world? Have you been part of
pressure, so the books that you want may sell After the final words are said, I shut down the collective experience of an audience
out. We are planning ways to make it easier my computer and reflect on how incredibly spread as far as one can imagine?
for you to shop early. Our Summer Reading fortunate I am to chat with people from all Each event is extraordinary. On my
Guide will be out in early November, and our over Melbourne, Australia and the world. turn of the emotional rollercoaster, I find
BL ACKINCBO OKS.COM enews will give you up-to-date news about My horizons keep expanding, even now in deep solace in listening to other people
books and what’s happening – if you haven’t lockdown. talk about their craft and the reasons
already, you can sign up at readings.com.au/ Coming up in our events program, we why so many people continue to carve an
sign-up. You can also continue to shop from have Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton existence out of words. Communication is
home – as long as you get your online orders answering questions sent to me by their the foundation upon which all humanity
in by the 6th of December to allow enough fans; we have Paul Jennings talking with thrives. And it is literally a click away.
time for shipping! So, as I am reminding his son; Louise Milligan in conversation
myself, remember to think this when with Annabel Crabb; Trent Dalton on All To find out more about the Readings events
planning your Christmas shop: October and Our Shimmering Skies; Craig Silvey on program, or to book your place at one of our
November for December! Honeybee – and more! It’s a full and varied Zoom events, visit readings.com.au/events
E X TR AC T October 2020 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 5
To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon,
published by Plum. Photography by
Hetty McKinnon. Find out more about
To Asia, With Love on page 17.
A delicious recipe from
To Asia, With Love, the new
cookbook by Readings’ favourite
Hetty McKinnon.
Hetty
McKinnon’s
Nepalese ricotta and
spinach momos with chilli
and tomato relish
Makes 20
When we lived in Sydney, we often visited a modest little restaurant called
The Nepalese Kitchen, an institution in our local neighbourhood. Inside,
140 g baby spinach leaves
it was warm and familiar, with rich aromas of spice that hugged us as we
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
entered. At that time, and perhaps still now, traditional Nepali food was hard
220 g ricotta
to come by in Sydney. Their menu featured traditional street-style snacks
3 tablespoons grated pecorino
like pani puri (crispy bite-sized semolina puffs stuffed with potatoes and
2 shallots, finely chopped chickpeas), a curry made with nine different legumes called kwanti, and, of
20 round store-bought or homemade course, momos, Nepal’s take on dumplings. It was here that I first tasted
dumpling wrappers
cheese in a dumpling. Filled with spinach and ricotta and served with a spicy,
sea salt and black pepper
tangy achaar, it was an exciting interpretation of a food I knew so well. These
Chilli and tomato relish
momos are impossible not to love, a total crowd pleaser and probably the
dumplings I make more of than any other at home.
1 teaspoon black or brown mustard To Asia, With Love
seeds, toasted For the chilli and tomato relish, place the mustard seeds in a frying pan, cover and Hetty McKinnon
dry-fry over medium heat until aromatic and the seeds have popped. Add a drizzle of Plum. PB. Was $39.99
vegetable oil
vegetable oil to the pan, then add the tomato, turmeric, garlic, curry leaves and a pinch of $34.99
500 g tomatoes, roughly chopped
sea salt and cook, covered, for 8–10 minutes, until the tomato mixture is thick and mushy. Available now
1 teaspoon ground turmeric Stir in the tamarind, chilli and sugar and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Season with
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1⁄2 teaspoon of sea salt. Take off the heat and stir in the sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of
6 curry leaves (fresh or dried) vegetable oil. Store in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
3–4 tablespoons tamarind puree In a large saucepan, add the spinach leaves, garlic, a pinch of sea salt and a splash of
1 long red chilli, roughly chopped water. Cover and cook over medium heat until the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes.
Drain the spinach and allow it to cool, then squeeze it with your hands, wringing out as
2 teaspoons sugar
much liquid as possible.
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Roughly chop the spinach and combine with the ricotta, pecorino and shallot. Season
sea salt
with sea salt and black pepper.
If you are using store-bought dumpling wrappers you will need to wet the edges, so set up
a small bowl of water. With each wrapper, rotate the edge in the water until it is wet all the
Substitute way around. If you are using homemade dumpling wrappers, there is no need to do this.
spinach: kale or chard Hold a wrapper in the palm of your hand and place a small teaspoon of filling in the
middle. Fold the wrapper over to form a half-moon shape, then, starting from one corner,
pinch together and pleat until you get to the other corner. Gently flatten the dumpling to
Veganise
form a level bottom so they can sit upright.
use crumbled firm tofu instead of ricotta As you finish each dumpling, place it on a sheet of baking paper and cover with a damp
and pecorino
tea towel to stop them drying out.
Place the momos in a steamer that has been lined with baking paper or wombok cabbage
leaves. Steam over a large saucepan of boiling water for about 10–15 minutes. Serve hot,
with the chilli and tomato relish.
Hetty McKinnon is a cook, food writer, publisher and podcaster with a passion for vegetables.
McKinnon is the author of three bestselling cookbooks: Community, Neighbourhood and the
award-winning Family.
6 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY October 2020 FIC T IO N
New
be. Dalton’s writing will mobilise you Everything in Its Right Place
to reflect on this country’s epic human Tobias McCorkell
past, and also to remember what it is to
Fiction
Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99
be young and hopeful and certain. All Available now
Our Shimmering Skies offers a wonderful Ford’s father left his
array of characters, and then there mother when Ford
is the weather, there is more history was five years old. Over a
(Darwin has just been bombed), and decade later, the fallout
Families are funny things; they can be the source of there is a search for goodness. As you from that separation is
great strength, but also great cruelties, humiliations, meander through the landscape of
BOOK OF THE northern Australia following Molly
still haunting the
and sadness. In a soulless Hobart hospital, Francie’s three McCullens. A financial
MO N T H adult children gather round her bed. The prognosis for and her companions, Greta and Yukio, bequest has seen Ford
Australian Francie is not good; she is coming to the end of her life. It allow yourself to be seized by Dalton’s uprooted from his local high school in
Fiction has been a good life in the eyes of Tommy, an unfulfilled life celebration of Australia. Coburg and sent to a private school in
according to Anna, and a wasted one according to Terzo. Read this novel because you need to Toorak for his last years of secondary
Tommy is the bumbling ‘unsuccessful’ child, a failed believe in happily-ever-after stories; because education. There, he struggles to cross the
artist who gets by with odd jobs; he’s the sibling his brother you want to be taken into Australia’s red class divide and make friends.
and sister rely on to affirm their apparent success. Anna is a dust, into its rivers and its waterfalls; and At home, he has the loving (but
highly successful Sydney architect with a hidden sadness. because you desperately need to clamber to sometimes claustrophobic) support of
Terzo’s in venture capital; he’s bombastic, overconfident, the highest point to see the horizon. Read his mother and her parents. With their
and a charming bully. Haunting them all is the untimely this novel because Dalton’s vison ensures passion for the Carlton Football Club and
death of their brother Ronnie. you can see the daylight. plenty of frozen pizza on offer, they do
Chris Gordon is the programming and events their best to encourage Ford to find his
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is manager for Readings place in a world far removed from their
own. However, Ford’s lack of ambition, his
Richard Flanagan’s most audacious,
Song of the Crocodile mother’s mental illness, and the effects
most accomplished work yet. It will of the abuse he may have suffered at the
challenge the reader, but the rewards will Nardi Simpson
The Living Sea Hachette. PB. $32.99 hands of his father’s ex-boyfriend, all
Of Waking be great! Available now
stand in the way of him ever becoming
Dreams Song of the Crocodile
the man he thinks he ought to be. Instead,
Richard Flanagan Tommy is the only child who has remained in Tasmania Ford’s teenage years are confused
was the winner of
Knopf. HB. Was $32.99 and has, in his clumsy way, cared for their mother. For Anna and awkward, fuelled by alcohol and
the 2018 blak&write!
and, especially, for Terzo, there is a powerful sense that they hormones.
$27.99 writing fellowship, which
Available now can redeem themselves for abandoning their mother by The setting of this story will feel
serves to find and develop
keeping her alive now. Tommy’s pleas for mercy are treated familiar to many. Located in Melbourne,
outstanding unpublished
with disdain, ignored, shouted over; it’s the way the siblings with occasional visits to Shepparton,
manuscripts by
have always been with Tommy. As Francie’s condition deteriorates, their obsessive need certain parts of the book felt like coming
Aboriginal or Torres
to stop her from dying grows. They demand, and get, via influence and money, excessive home. This reader spent many of her
Strait Islander writers. Song of the
interventions that needlessly keep Francie alive. Before she drifts into a catatonic state, childhood holidays with family in
Crocodile is Nardi Simpson’s first book,
Francie’s last words to Anna are, ‘Let me go’. Anna’s heartless response of ‘Go where?’ regional Victoria and my grandmother’s
and 2020 has also seen her debut her first
comes even as she demands more interventions. Sunday roasts were legendary, just like
play at the Sydney Festival.
Meanwhile, outside the hospital, the world is falling apart. Bushfires rage near Ford’s grandmother’s meals on scorching
The characters are at the heart of
Hobart, through areas that have never seen fire; later, fires encroach upon the very summer days.
Song of a Crocodile. As an epic multi-
outskirts of Sydney. It is as though the world is drifting away. Things start happening to It is also a story that can be crude,
generational story, we follow the lives
Anna’s body that are a metaphor for what’s happening outside: first a finger disappears, uncomfortable and lacking in depth. Ford
of the Billymil family in Darnmoor (as a
just vanishes without pain or scar, then a knee, then a breast, then bits of her son, then is self-absorbed, he is a teenager, after
fictional town in which the Yuwaalaraay
other people. all, but as a reader I wanted to be shown
people live, it might be thought of as
There is great sadness in this book, but it is also bleakly comical. Richard Flanagan more of the characters surrounding him,
rural north-western New South Wales).
is pushing his writing to new limits. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is his most to be allowed access to the backgrounds
Beginning with Margaret, the story
audacious, most accomplished work yet. It will challenge the reader, but the rewards of those who hurt him as well as loved
then follows her daughter Celie, then
will be great! him. Tobias McCorkell’s debut novel does,
Celie’s daughter Mili, followed by Mili’s
nevertheless, capture the essence of a
Mark Rubbo is the managing director of Readings husband Wil and their children Paddy
young man trying to figure out his own
and Yarrie. The sharpness of these
identity in a world which appears to fight
characters reminded me of Elizabeth
him at every turn.
Jolley’s writing, and, more recently, the
Win a special edition of Richard Flanagan’s new novel Kate McIntosh is the manager of Readings
work of Tony Birch. Simpson skilfully
All customers who purchase a copy of The Living Sea of Waking Dreams weaves in Dreaming and demonstrates Doncaster
from Readings before 5pm, Sunday 25 October can go in the draw to the connection between the present and
win a unique signed first edition of the novel, replete with handwritten past through ancestral stories and care Honeybee
annotations by Richard Flanagan describing some of his thoughts in for nature. Craig Silvey
writing the book. A&U. PB. Was $32.99
This is a novel that deals with the
For details about how to enter, see page 3. violence acted upon the Billymil family $29.99
with such delicacy, that although the Available now
novel depicts rape, sexual assault and Originally, Craig
other violence, this is often described Silvey wanted to be
Australian able to pull together music, mythology,
landscape and emotion into a type of
with careful metaphors that place the
reader into the characters’ dissociative
a palaeontologist, but by
the time he was nineteen
Fiction evocative fairytale through which their states of mind. In many ways this years old he had
readers are transported to a new place – a mirrors the era Simpson is describing – published his first novel,
place of creation and of endless where the massacre of Indigenous Rhubarb, to great acclaim.
All Our Shimmering Skies possibilities. Trent Dalton is this type of people is seemingly in the past, but the Then, of course, he wrote
Trent Dalton writer. Who that has read his bestselling Billymil family and the other families Jasper Jones and now, eleven years later,
Fourth Estate. PB. Was $32.99 debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe, will of the Campgrounds outside of town we have Honeybee. But, if we consider
$24.99 forget it? Now, with his second novel, his are ultimately rejected by the people of Silvey’s first love of discovering and
Available now prose will sweep you up into our Darnmoor and are subject to ongoing digging and reflecting on the past, and
It seems to me that ‘shimmering skies’ and take you on an racism. This is a book that, to some bundle all of that passionate need for
some authors work adventure perhaps not considered in extent, explores the anger, boredom and answers with his innate ability to tell
desperately hard to popular adult fiction since Alice fell down frustration that rigid race relations and stories, well, then we understand why the
ensure that their readers that hole and emerged into a wonderland. colonisation bring to Darnmoor. The results are so brilliant.
deliberate on who they All Our Shimmering Skies celebrates Billymils do what they can to survive, Silvey is an author who wants the
are in relation to a that wonderland, that place of pushing against this system just a little reader to understand that each story is
particular character. possibilities that lies within the heart of further in each generation. larger than its own self. Each character
Other authors want their Australia. At the centre of this fairytale Simpson presents a promising debut, and in his work carries the weight of the past,
readers to consider history, or an is Molly, a gravedigger’s daughter, and readers who enjoyed The Yield, The White holds history in their heart and considers
alternative narrative of humanity. And her quest to find a family, a home, and Girl, and Carpentaria will be drawn in. the ramifications of being present
then there are the authors that seem to be some understanding of who she could Clare Millar is from Readings Hawthorn against the backdrop of reality. We saw it
F I C T I ON October 2020 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 7
especially with Jasper Jones, and now, as a Our Shadows
treat to all of us who have suffered through Gail Jones
this year, we have Honeybee. Text. PB. $32.99
The novel centres on fourteen-year- Available now
old Sam, who is in search of a home. Sam Nell and Frances
meets old and tired Vic late one night Kelly are raised by
on a bridge, as they both contemplate their grandparents after
suicide. They save one another, but their mother dies in labour
not without considerable vulnerability and their father abandons
and, indeed, empathy. Honeybee is them in a fit of grief. The
about identity, and about elements of sisters grow up with a
masculinity being ostracised; or, at least, special bond cemented by
definitions of masculinity being caught, a shared language, a love of stories and a
if you like, at a type of crossroads. The mutual fascination with Hokusai’s The
novel hosts a roll call of characters with Great Wave. This closeness dissipates in
diverse backgrounds. Many of these are adulthood as they individually struggle
men we know. with the legacy of their orphanhood and
This is a big, brave, wonderful novel. the loss of their grandparents. Following
It will not disappoint fans of Jasper Jones, the death of her husband, Frances becomes
but it will also make you reflect on what determined to excavate the past and travels
it means to have a moral compass, what home to Kalgoorlie in search of answers.
it means to be brave and how we, as a Our Shadows largely focuses on the
community, can make Australia a true stories of these three generations of
place of freedom. We have so far to go. the Kelly family: Fred and Else, their
Reading this tremendous novel will help. daughters Mary and Enid, and Mary’s
Chris Gordon is the programming and events daughters, Nell and Frances. Woven into
manager for Readings their stories is the tale of real-life miner
Paddy Hannan, the man responsible for
discovering gold in the West Australian
It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni
goldfields. The novel moves between
Blake
nineteenth century Ireland and the
Claire Christian
Australian goldfields; mid-twentieth
Text. PB. $32.99
century Australia and World War II
Available now
battle sites; and contemporary Sydney,
Claire Christian
Melbourne, and Kalgoorlie.
was one of the
This might sound like quite a lot to fit
finalists for our 2018
into one 300-page novel, but Gail Jones
Readings Young Adult
deftly and sensitively brings together these
Book Prize for her
disparate stories into a meditation on grief,
impressive debut,
loss, estrangement, identity and, strangely
Beautiful Mess. Now, this
enough, mining and underground rescue.
talented young writer is
The concepts and feelings tackled here are
back with an entertaining novel for
beautifully universal, but told in a context
adults that has just as much heart, but
that is uniquely Australian. Jones’s novel
considerably more sex.
is an inventive blend of contemporary
It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake begins
and historical fiction, real and imagined
with our titular character agonising
characters. This is required reading for
over the one-night-stand etiquette of
anyone interested in the state of literary
leaving a note as you’re sneaking out
fiction in Australia today.
or not. It’s been a tough couple of years
for Noni: her long-term relationship has Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton
disintegrated, her career has stalled,
and she’s drowning in grief. A drunken At the Edge of the Solid World
night of soul-searching reminds her of Daniel Davis Wood
the many what-ifs from her past – missed Brio. PB. $32.99
opportunities, rejected invitations ... Available 7 October
un-loved lovers – and Noni decides In a snowbound Swiss
to embark on a (possibly misguided) village, a husband and
campaign to tick off some names from wife find their lives
her should-have-boned list. breaking apart following
This is a frank and funny novel that the death of their
is refreshingly, unabashedly, queer and firstborn. Meanwhile, in
inclusive. Noni is many things: witty, the couple’s hometown of
self-deprecating, fat, loving, considerate, Sydney, a man commits
and bisexual; and the fact that Christian an act of shocking violence that galvanises
has managed to include almost every international attention. As the husband
iteration of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum into recognises signs of his own grief in both
this delightful book without making it the survivors and the perpetrator, his
A Book About Being Queer is actually fixation on the details of the case feeds
kind of radical. For readers struggling into an obsession.
through a quarter-life crisis, a Saturn
rising, a breakup, a tough year, It’s Been The Godmothers
a Pleasure, Noni Blake is the romantic Monica McInerney An unforgettable new novel ‘Hands down, it’s the most
comedy you want to lose yourself in. Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 by the award-winning author comprehensive assessment
As Noni embarks on her life-changing Available now
of the international French of Australia’s lack of parental
pursuit of pleasure, you’re taken along on Eliza Miller grew up in
a joyous, absurd, and sex-filled ride. But, bestseller The Godmother. leave equality to be written’
Australia as the only
underneath it all, there is a great depth daughter of a troubled —Emma Walsh, Women’s Agenda
of feeling. young mother, but with
Ultimately, It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni the constant support of
Blake is a book about growing older, two watchful
trusting the voice in your head, and godmothers. Thirteen
learning that the most important love years on, an enticing
affair isn’t with someone else; it’s the one invitation from one of her godmothers
that you have with yourself. prompts Eliza to leap into the unknown.
Lian Hingee is the digital marketing manager Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in BL ACKINCBO OKS.COM
for Readings the middle of a complicated family in
8 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY October 2020 FIC T IO N
Edinburgh. Yet, amidst the chaos, she The Death Of Vivek Oji extremes. This book is a roller-coaster; and critical about religion, to describe
seeks to solve the biggest mystery of Akwaeke Emezi parts made me want to puke, but I wound those experiences so often indescribable,
all – the identity of her father. Faber. PB. $29.99 up hysterical and itching to go again. and to show real humanity, proves her
Available now When we meet Natsuki she is a child to be at once exceptional and exemplary
Too Much Lip The Death of Vivek and suffering cruelty and abuse from the of contemporary fiction. For all of us,
Melissa Lucashenko Oji is the third novel adults in her life. Natsuki finds comfort living in the breach of insidious political
UQP. PB. $24.99 from Nigerian-born Igbo in believing magical powers have been individualism and pandemic-generated
Available now and Tamil author bestowed upon her by her friend Piyyut: isolation, Robinson affirms the value,
Wise-cracking Kerry Akwaeke Emezi in as an alien who is visiting earth in the form of transcendent or not, of turning to someone
Salter has spent a lifetime many years. It opens with a small, plush hedgehog. During visits to and asking, ‘What are you going through?
avoiding two things – her the death of Vivek Oji and, a family home in the mountains, Natsuki How can I help?’
hometown and prison. with graceful deftness, forms a deep bond with her cousin, who Jeremy George is from Readings Malvern
But now her Pop is dying, weaves back and forth through time and admits that he too is an alien.
so she heads south on a multiple perspectives to reconstruct As a grown up, Natsuki is vehemently The Perfect World of Miwako
stolen Harley. Kerry plans Vivek and the space his shocking, against becoming part of the ‘baby Sumida
to spend twenty-four too-soon death has left behind. factory’. She is married for convenience
Clarissa Goenawan
hours, tops, over the border. She quickly This novel is a portrait of grief. It is also only, to a man who also resents and resists Scribe. PB. $29.99
discovers, though, that Bundjalung a portrait of a person whose very existence the pressures of society. When Natsuki and Available now
country has a funny way of grabbing on to is confounding to the patriarchal, ultra- her husband take a trip back to the family
It only takes a few
people. Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too conservative community of his childhood home a reconnection with her cousin
lines of reading to
Much Lip offers redemption and in regional Nigeria. mutates into an all-out rejection of society
discover that the
forgiveness where none seems possible. Throughout The Death of Vivek Oji, and shedding of trauma. The book spirals
character of the novel’s
we get flashes of Nigeria in the wake of into absurdity and horror, but the tone is
title is dead; she has
never anything but matter of fact. Violence
International
the death of dictator Sani Abacha, with committed suicide,
people rioting in the streets and tensions and sexual assault are described boldly
leaving behind a young
Fiction often turning bloody over ideological
disagreements. Within this space of
and briskly; though it reads like a bizarre,
grotesque fantasy, Murata keeps it real for
coterie of confused and
devastated friends. They each think they
unrest, Vivek dies. her characters by omitting any niceties.
knew her, but none can make sense of her
Written with a quiet reserve, the Earthlings is an outrageous book and I
ultimate decision. The narrative is
absolutely loved it.
The Cold Millions novel pivots from the notion of self as organised into three sections, each
Jess Walter an unfixed definition. Vivek’s parents, Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda focusing on one of Miwako’s friends. The
Viking. PB. $32.99 wider family, and girlfriends are defined first is Ryusei, her not-quite boyfriend,
through the prism of Vivek and how who has received letters Miwako sent
Available 20 October Jack
The free speech fight Vivek is refracted through their lives. after her disappearance, but they give
Marilynne Robinson
of 1909 in Spokane, Despite the multi-perspective structure, him few clues. The second, Chie, is a
Virago. PB. $29.99
Washington, was a civil no character feels fleshed out, alive … friend from school days, party to a
Available now
disobedience action except for Vivek. number of secrets on which Ryusei has no
The love of our
staged by the Industrial A murder-mystery-esque tension perspective, but these fragments don’t
neighbour in all its
Workers of the World, also is stoked by Vivek’s grieving and solve the puzzle either. The third, Fumi, is
fullness simply means
known as Wobblies, under determined mother, Kavita, who is Ryusei’s sister, who has come to know
being able to say, ‘What
the charge of the then restless until she understands what Miwako at one step’s remove through her
are you going through?’
nineteen-year-old firebrand Elizabeth has happened to her son. Unusually, brother, and she waits back in Tokyo
states French philosopher,
Gurley Flynn. During this action, and most interestingly to me, liminal while he goes on a journey to get closer to
mystic and political
Wobblies would mount a soapbox and themes – such as love as amorphous and what happened.
activist Simone Weil, a
begin to speak. Each orator was arrested boundaryless; love’s intersection with This novel is both familiar and
thinker who, like American novelist
immediately. Within a month, Spokane’s sex; and sex and its ability to give shape unusual. It is written in English by an
Marilynne Robinson, properly considers
jails were full to overflowing. to the non-verbal, the inexpressible – Indonesian-born Singaporean author, but
the charge religion makes on us to be taken
This is a fertile period in US history override the logic of a murder-mystery summons the atmospheres of Japanese
seriously. To be taken seriously, of course,
and one that serves as the backdrop to novel. Emezi explores taboo as a jarring fictions (both written and cinematic),
is the precondition to be taken critically.
Jess Walter’s wonderful The Cold Millions. by-product of intersecting cultures; and is set in the recognisable urban and
In Marilynne Robinson’s latest book,
Peppered with real characters such as family as simultaneously alive and dead, rural locations of Japan. It tills the known
Jack, we return to the world of Gilead,
the aforementioned Gurley Flynn, police genetic and chosen; the unsaid as toxic emotional fields of early adulthood and
Home and Lila. Readers of her previous
chief John Sullivan and labour lawyer and inevitable; and grief as possessive. the individual’s search for the self, and
books will know Jack as the White,
Fred Moore, Walter introduces orphaned This novel proffers the unnameable and the moments of heightened feeling that
troubled son of Robert Boughton, named
brothers Gig and Rye Dolan. At the ages the world of emotion, impression and characterise the relationships of these
after John Ames, who narrates Gilead. A
of twenty-three and sixteen, the brothers spirit as alternate spaces in which to formative years; yet this familiarity
friend of mine only half-jokingly refers
are subsisting on seasonal work while seek truth and knowing. At times, the is unsettled by its mysterious plot,
to Jack as ‘a bad egg, sure, but a fallen
sleeping rough. When the handsome and evocations feel heavy and obvious where and the unfolding story about who
star too’ – prophetic. In Robinson’s latest
idealistic Gig joins the IWW and both they might be encompassing and sensual Miwako was, as the facts of the book’s
instalment, Jack gets a story that is
brothers are locked up during the free- – fleetingness could be a feeling as well paradoxical title are revealed. Clarissa
properly his own, and structured around
speech action, Gurley Flynn employs as an idea. Goenawan is an emerging talent, having
his long-term meditative, romantic and,
the acquitted, and underage, Rye to her The Death of Vivek Oji is written in a won the 2015 Bath Novel Award (a prize
frankly, tortured relationship with Della,
cause. He accompanies her on a speaking generous, accessible manner. Emezi has for unpublished, self-published, and
a young Black schoolteacher. It is an
tour whose main purpose is to raise given us a portrait of intersectionality independently published novels) for her
unlikely pairing, and Robinson does not
enough money to engage the legendary which celebrates life as fragments of first novel, Rainbirds (published in 2018,
shy away from the complications that
lawyer Clarence Darrow and release the time. It will appeal to readers who liked and also set in Japan), and her writing is
arise for them in racist 1950s America.
protesters. But with Gig in jail, the naïve Orlando, Americanah and In the Dream intriguing. The ripple effects of suicide
But their friendship is more than the
Rye finds himself in the spotlight and House. I look forward to what Emezi on a community’s collective psyche are
adversaries they face in the street, in part
open to manipulation. offers us next. carefully handled here, and her portrayal
because of their shared recognition of
The titular ‘Cold Millions’ refers Kalinda Vary is from Readings St Kilda of people inhabiting the aftermaths of
the value of faith, even if the institutions
to what we call the 99% today, and trauma is compassionate and compelling.
that practice it prove to be a sometimes-
it’s a novel that shows us that a lot of Earthlings antagonistic force. Alison Huber is the head book buyer for
the social injustices of 1909 are still Sayaka Murata (translated by Indeed, for the novelist concerned Readings
being perpetuated. Walter alternates Ginny Tapley Takemori) with (to risk a cliché) an account of a
chapters with occasional deep dives Granta. PB. $29.99 certain ‘human condition’, a recourse Trio
into the backstory of its secondary Available now to the language of faith is difficult to William Boyd
characters, such as business-savvy Sayaka Murata has avoid. It is simply more apt at expressing Viking. PB. $32.99
show-woman Ursula the Great, French- really ramped it up values and experiences that cannot be Available 20 October
speaking Native American man Jules, with Earthlings. Her newly reduced to tasks to complete, things to As the title
and the aging Pinkerton detective Del translated novel shares buy or boxes to tick. Faith is necessarily suggests, William
Dalveaux, who has seen it all and doesn’t themes with Convenience rooted in community: grace, redemption, Boyd’s new novel Trio
suffer fools gladly. To juggle as many Store Woman; Murata salvation and love – none of these can follows the
characters as Walter does, yet provide again writes about people be possible without recognition of the interconnected fates of
genuine surprises, is masterful. This is a who can’t or won’t meet fact that you live your life around other three characters. Elfrida
brilliantly lucid historical epic. society’s expectations. In Earthlings, she people. This register of Robinson’s Wing is a novelist
Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton takes these ideas to shocking, exhilarating work – her ability to be at once serious formerly celebrated as
F I C T I ON October 2020 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 9
‘the new Virginia Woolf’, but she’s mired variety of comic get-rich-quick schemes.
in a ten-year writer’s block, a displeasing When Edgar re-enters Felicia’s life at a
marriage, and alcoholism. Talbot Kydd is typically inopportune moment, the book’s
a successful film producer, husband and exhilarating final act is set in motion.
father, former soldier and, in a secret
parallel life, an amateur photographer Before the Coffee Gets Cold:
gradually reconciling with his hidden Tales from the Cafe
self. Anny Viklund is a talented young Toshikazu Kawaguchi
American actor of considerable renown, Picador. PB. $18.99
but her unfortunate relationship history Available now
refuses to stay in the past. A film project In a small back alley in
brings all three – and the conflicts Tokyo, there is a café
between their secret and apparent which has been serving
personal lives – to Brighton, England coffee for more than a
during the eventful summer of 1968. century. But this coffee
It’s a pivotal year globally: student shop offers its customers
protests across the world (with notable a unique experience: the
fallout in nearby Paris); the Vietnam chance to travel back in
War and backlash against it; the time. From the author of Before the Coffee
civil rights movement, unrest, and Gets Cold comes a story of four new
assassinations in the United States; customers, each of whom is hoping to
revolutions and invasions in Europe; take advantage of Cafe Funiculi
war and famine in Africa – in short, Funicula’s time-travelling offer.
a year too historically significant to
summarise here, or indeed in the novel.
Pizza Girl
As creatives at work in an English seaside
Jean Kyoung Frazier
resort town, Boyd’s trio are mostly
HQ. PB. $24.99
distant observers of these events, but
Available 7 October
the outside world does creep in. Some of
Eighteen years old,
these intersections are expected – none
pregnant, and working
are impervious to the enormous social
as a pizza delivery girl,
changes of the era. Other incursions from
our dysfunctional
beyond Brighton are unexpected, such
heroine is deeply lost
as the threatened arrival of an estranged
and in complete denial
ex-husband, who is now a fugitive
about it all. Her world is
wanted by the FBI for terrorism.
further upended when
While the trio and their crises
she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a
anchor the novel, the cast is varied
stay-at-home mother. As one woman
and numerous, and there are amusing
looks toward motherhood and the other
subplots aplenty. As habitual Boyd
toward middle age, the relationship
readers would know, the author can
between the two begins to blur in
inimitably convey enormous amounts
strange, complicated, and ultimately
about his characters’ inner lives and their
heartbreaking ways.
interpersonal dynamics in just a single
scene, with a few choice insights and his
knowing yet compassionate wit. In this The Eighth Life: For Brilka
enjoyably careening novel, you never Nino Haratischvili
READ IN 2020
quite know where you are going, but you’ll Scribe. PB. $26.99
find yourself on board and helplessly Available 20 October
laughing throughout the ride. At the start of the
twentieth century, on
Elke Power is the editor of Readings Monthly
the edge of the Russian
Empire, a family
At Night’s End prospers. It owes its
Nir Baram (Translated by Jessica success to a delicious
Cohen) chocolate recipe, passed
Text. PB. $32.99
down the generations.
Available now
This compelling family hears echoes and
A writer wakes up in a sees reflections. Great characters and
hotel room in an greater relationships come and go and
unfamiliar city. When he come again, and the reader rejoices to
attempts to reconstruct have found at last one of those glorious
his lost days, Yontan old books in which you can live and
learns that he told people learn, be lost and found, and make
at the festival he was indelible new friends.
attending that his best
friend had died. But in fact, his friend is
Fifty-Two Stories
still alive. At Night’s End is a
Anton Chekhov (translated by
The Tales of Heartfelt and
compassionate and personal novel about
Richard Pevear and Larissa breathtaking adventure, hilarious, this is a
an extraordinary friendship between two
Volokhonsky) new picture misadventure, book for anyone
men haunted by a shared past.
Penguin Classics. HB. $49.99 book from the love and loss - who has tried to
Reproduction
Available 20 October creator of this collection imagine what their
Chekhov’s genius left an
Ian Williams Here We Are. of non-fiction dog was thinking.
indelible impact on every
Dialogue. PB. $32.99
literary form in which he
short stories is
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wrote, but none more so vintage Jimmy.
Felicia, a nineteen-year- than short fiction. Now
old West Indian student, renowned translators
and Edgar, an impetuous Richard Pevear and
heir of a wealthy German Larissa Volokhonsky give
family, meet when their us their superb renderings of fifty-two
ailing mothers are Chekhov stories. These stories reveal the
assigned the same extraordinary variety of his work, from
hospital room. An the farcically comic to the darkly
odd-couple relationship blooms between complex. Including several never-before-
Edgar and Felicia. Fast forward, their son translated stories, this is a collection that
Armistice is a teenager fixated on a promises to delight.
10 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY October 2020 FIC T IO N
Atomic Love data on her side, she realises she might not writerly interest and sends her digging reminds us that there are more
Jennie Fields be as powerless as she thinks. A sharp, into the tragic past of the Salviati family. I important things than survival.
Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 witty, modern debut, Hench explores the Give It To You is a riveting novel about
Available now individual cost of justice. who owns a story, and whether we have a Afterland
While Rosalind Porter right to what we inherit. Lauren Beukes
was working as a Inside Story Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99
physicist on the Martin Amis Red Pill Available 20 October
Manhattan Project, she Johnathan Cape. PB. $35.00 Kunzru Hari All Cole has left in the
was also in the depths of Available now Scribner. PB. Was $32.99 world is her boy, Miles.
a passionate love affair His most intimate and $29.99 With men now a prized
with colleague Thomas epic work to date, Inside Available now commodity, keeping him
Weaver. Five years later, Story is the unseen, When a Brooklyn writer safe means breaking
the FBI wants Rosalind to spy on Weaver, semi-autobiographical wins a residency on the hastily written new
whom they suspect of selling nuclear portrait of Martin Amis’ shore of Berlin’s Lake rules. But is one person
secrets. Rosalind’s assignment launches extraordinary life, as a Wannsee, he arrives with enough to save Miles
her on a mission to find the truth … no man and a writer. What romantic dreams of days from the many who would kill to get their
matter where it leads. begins as a thrilling tale devoted to total artistic hands on a living boy? Together, Cole
of romantic entanglements, family and absorption. However, and Miles embark on a journey across a
City of Spies friendship, evolves into a tender, witty rather than writing, he changed, hostile country, towards a
Mara Timon exploration of life’s hardest questions: how spends much of his time watching an freedom they may never reach.
Bonnier. PB. $29.99 to live, how to grieve, and how to die. ultraviolent cop show. This kicks off a
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After escaping from Just Like You that threatens to destroy everything he Cory Doctorow
Nazi-Occupied France, Nick Hornby holds most dear, including his own mind. Head of Zeus. PB. $32.99
SOE agent Elisabeth de Viking. PB. $32.99 Available 7 October
Mornay must infiltrate Available now The End Of The Day Masha works for a
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the war, and discover which of them is a have nothing in common arrives at a hotel to regimes spy on their
traitor. But in a city that is filled with spies, and yet, somehow, it feels introduce his estranged citizens with a night-time hobby where
how can she tell who is friend, or foe? totally right. Nick Hornby’s new novel gets father to his newborn you help those same citizens evade
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Ghosts with the best possible person – someone collapsed on the floor. A Pacy, passionate, and as current as next
who is not just like you at all. week, Attack Surface is a paean to the
Dolly Alderton taxi driver receives a phone call that jars
Fig Tree. PB. $32.99 her back to a traumatic past. Deeply drive to make the world a better place.
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Nina Dean is a successful
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Poetry
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into dementia, her estranged daughter by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
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with whip-smart observations about the gathered a broad and
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way we live today. representative selection
stories in Modern Times are unlike home and realises how
of the best Australian
anything you’ve read before. little she knows about
prose poems written over
Help Yourself her mother. Through the
the last fifty years. This
Curtis Sittenfeld Stalingrad intimate lens of a mother and daughter
anthology includes
Doubleday. HB. $19.99 Vasily Grossman who have struggled all their lives to
numerous distinguished prose poets and
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documents prose poetry’s growing appeal
Suburban friends fall out Available 20 October Mina’s story unravels the unspoken
over recent decades, from the poetic
after a racist encounter at In April 1942, Hitler and secrets that can drive two people apart,
margins to the mainstream. This
a birthday party is posted Mussolini plan the huge or bind them closer together.
collection reframes our understanding
on Facebook. An offensive on the Eastern not only of this dynamic poetic form, but
illustrious Manhattan Front that will culminate
film crew are victims of in the greatest battle in Fantasy/ of Australian poetry as a whole.
their own snobbery. A
group of young writers
human history. The war
will consume the lives of
Sci-Fi The Fire of Joy: Roughly 80
Poems to Get by Heart and
fight about love and narrative style as a huge cast of characters. Say Aloud
they compete for a prestigious bursary. Stalingrad is a magnificent novel not only
A Deadly Education Clive James
Full of tenderness and compassion, these of war but also of all human life. It is
Naomi Novik Picador. PB. Was $34.99
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Enter a school of magic The Fire of Joy was the
Hench: A Novel I Give It to You unlike any you have ever final book Clive James
Natalie Zina Walschots Valerie Martin encountered. Once completed before his
HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 Serpents Tail. HB. $29.99 you’re inside, there are death in 2019. In this
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After a bad encounter Jan Vidor seems like the graduation or death. El a succession of English
with a so-called ‘hero’, ideal houseguest for a Higgins is uniquely poems, exploding in
Anna is laid off. With only summer holiday in a prepared for the school’s sequence from Chaucer
her anger and internet Tuscan villa: unobtrusive many dangers: she possesses a dark to the present day. In offering these
research acumen, she but not antisocial. But an power strong enough to level mountains. poems to you, the main purpose of this
discovers her suffering at offhand remark about a Except, she might accidentally kill all the book is to provide ammunition that will
the hands of a hero is far violent death at Villa other students, which she wants to avoid. satisfy your urge to discover, learn and
from unique. And with Chiara piques Jan’s This wry, witty, endlessly inventive novel declaim verse.You can also read
