Summer Reading Guide - This season's best books selected by your favourite independent bookseller - Riverbend Books
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Summer
Reading Guide
This season’s best books selected by your favourite independent bookseller
2 AUSTRALIAN FICTION
ALL OUR SHIMMERING SKIES DOOM CREEK FACTORY 19
Trent Dalton Alan Carter Dennis Glover
Trent Dalton took Australia by storm with December Release A satire on past, current and future
his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe. Those readers who didn’t discover Alan political ideologies, Factory 19 imagines a
Two years later, he has given us All Our Carter’s Marlborough Man on its release in David Walsh–like character transforming
Shimmering Skies. There are similarities 2017 will be in for a treat when they read his MONA-ish site in Hobart into a town
between the two – both feature the both that award-winning crime novel and straight out of 1948, complete with factory,
perspective of a young person, consider life this equally impressive follow-up. Set in economy and society. Why 1948? It was
on the margins, and are interwoven with New Zealand’s South Island, Doom Creek the last year it was possible to be fully
elements of magical realism. But in his new follows former Geordie policeman Nick human, the eccentric billionaire declares,
HarperCollins PB novel, Dalton transports the reader into the Fremantle PB Chester as he and his family, all part of a Black Inc PB a time when we weren’t under the thrall
Was $32.99 past (Darwin, 1942), where the fantastical witness protection programme, continue of Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg and their ilk.
elements of his writing are amplified. $32.99 to establish a new life in the Marlborough
Was $32.99
Our narrator heads up the factory and
Now $26.99 This is the tale of Molly, a gravedigger’s Sounds. Nick is now a policeman with Now $29.99 takes deep pleasures in this new 1948,
daughter. On her way to lift a family curse, the NZ force, and when a gun-toting where any digital technology is banned.
Molly meets Yukio, a fallen kamikaze pilot, group of American survivalists move But this (very white-bread and blokey)
and Greta, an actress, and the unlikely trio into his patch, he suspects trouble will Arcadia falters. It seems that little people
travel through the outback together. With ensue. Add this to the murder of a miner won’t be able to win back the world…
prose as lyrical as its title, this sweeping, (for which Nick himself is a suspect),
upbeat work will burnish Dalton’s already and a particularly nasty cold case to be
glittering reputation. investigated, and it becomes apparent that THE FIFTH SEASON
Nick has an awful lot on his plate. Philip Salom
CONSOLATION Twice shortlisted for the Miles Franklin
Award, Philip Salom again shows his
Garry Disher THE DRESSMAKER’S SECRET serious novelistic intent with The Fifth
The third volume in Garry Disher’s Hirsch Rosalie Ham Season. If you love metafiction and
series cements both the likeability of its At long last we can welcome this intellectual play mixed with weighty
laconic protagonist and the excellence sequel to Rosalie Ham’s bestselling The themes, this is the book for you. This
of its author’s plot-driven narratives and Dressmaker. We last saw a vengeful Tilly especially applies if you’re already a
pared-back prose. Consolation opens Dunnage fleeing Dungatar in despair. In Salom fan, because The Fifth Season
with Hirsch tracking down an underwear The Dressmaker’s Secret, she is working in Transit Lounge PB references some of his previous work. Its
thief and acting on a report of a child in Melbourne as fashionable Melburnians main concern, though, is missing people.
danger. And that’s just in the morning. are gearing up for the coronation of $29.99 Jack, an author staying in a small coastal
Text PB Later, he must deal with a stalker, Irish Queen Elizabeth II. Tilly is desperately town to write a book about unidentified
Was $32.99 conmen, embezzlers, allegations about trying to conceal her past, but Sergeant
Picador PB bodies, meets Sarah who, driven by the
financial irregularities on the part of one Farrat from Dungatar manages to find
Now $26.99 Was $32.99 loss of her own sister, paints large murals
of the region’s big shots, and a murder. For her. And so, the adventure begins. Ham of the missing in public spaces. As well as
a sparsely populated rural town, Tiverton Now $29.99 is adept at leavening serious themes (eg, the focus on the missing and the found,
certainly seems to be a hotbed of crime bullying and ambition) with humour and Salom demands that we confront ideas
and it’s a big load for a small-town police warmth, and here she demonstrates just about art, mortality and identity.
constable to cope with. But if anyone can, how sweet having the final word can be.
it’s Hirsch. Top-drawer Aussie crime, from
a master of the genre. HONEYBEE
EVERYTHING IN ITS Craig Silvey
DEATH IN DAYLESFORD RIGHT PLACE Western Australian writer Craig Silvey
Kerry Greenwood Tobias McCorkell fulfils the promise of his much-loved
Based in Melbourne but beloved Ford McCullen’s life is complicated. Jasper Jones with this poignant novel
globally, Kerry Greenwood has written He lives in the working-class northern of despair and tenuous hope. Sam and
21 Phryne Fisher novels and seems to Melbourne suburb of Coburg with his Vic are both contemplating leaping off
have no trouble conjuring up new plots, mum and grandparents, in a pair of units a bridge when they first meet, and a
characters and settings in which to plunge right near the looming figure of Pentridge friendship begins when each wants to
her intrepid, generous-spirited and Prison. His dad has moved away to live save the other. Ageing Vic is grieving
wonderfully chic lady detective. Heading in country Victoria, having left the family Allen & Unwin PB the loss of his wife. And 14-year-old
to the Victorian spa town of Daylesford Transit Lounge PB to be with a new, male partner. Through Sam has had a rough start to life, with a
Was $32.99
Allen & Unwin PB in this outing, Phryne and Dot must $29.99 his paternal grandmother, Ford gets a mother whose love and good intentions
deal with the mystery of disappearing chance to attend a private school south of Now $29.99 are overshadowed by her frequent
$29.99 local women, a series of murders and a the river. It may be only a few kilometres absences. The care and compassion
particularly incompetent local policeman. away from Coburg, but St Anthony’s is the two show each other makes Sam’s
Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, Phryne’s a completely different world that Ford tentative steps to self-realisation
adopted daughters Jane and Ruth must learn to navigate. Everything in its possible. As we revisit Sam’s childhood,
investigate the death of a schoolmate, Right Place is a powerful and nuanced Silvey’s portrait of a troubled teenager
impressing Dot’s intended, Detective debut novel about class, growing up, and shimmers. So too do questions around
Sergeant Collins, in the process. figuring out your place in the world. masculinity and gender identity.
Literary Award Winners
THE DISCOMFORT HAMNET SEE WHAT YOU THE WIFE AND
OF EVENING MAGGIE O’FARRELL MADE ME DO THE WIDOW
MARIEKE LUCAS RIJNEVELD Tinder Press PB JESS HILL CHRISTIAN WHITE
Faber PB $29.99 $32.99 Black Inc PB $32.99 Affirm PB $16.99
Awarded the 2020 This fictionalised Australian investigative A dual narrative and
International Booker Prize, account of the short journalist Jess Hill was awarded brilliant plot twist are the
this Dutch novel is an life and death of the 2020 Stella Prize for this hallmarks of this Australian
extraordinary portrait of a Shakespeare’s son powerful book, which both novel, which won the 2020
farming family distorted by Hamnet was the winner draws attention to and suggests Ned Kelly Award for Best
grief, as seen through the eyes of this year’s Women’s ways of resolving the national Crime Fiction.
of its 10-year-old daughter. Prize for Fiction. crisis of domestic abuse.
GOOD GIRL BAD GIRL THE NICKEL BOYS TIBERIUS WITH THE YIELD
MICHAEL ROBOTHAM COLSON WHITEHEAD A TELEPHONE TARA JUNE WINCH
Hachette PB Fleet PB $22.99 PATRICK MULLINS Hamish Hamilton PB
$19.99 This harrowing tale of Scribe PB $32.99
With this novel, Australian two boys sentenced to a $35 Wiradjuri woman Tara
crime writer Michael hellish reform school in Winner of this year’s June Winch was awarded
Robotham became one of 1960s Florida garnered National Biography Award, this year’s Miles Franklin
the few writers to win the the author of the this book deals with the Award for her novelistic
prestigious British Crime widely acclaimed The life and career of William exploration of the legacies
Writer’s Association Gold Underground Railroad McMahon, the man often of colonial violence, shame,
Dagger for Best Crime a second Pulitzer Prize described as Australia’s intergenerational trauma and
Novel twice. for Fiction in 2020. worst prime minister. environmental destruction.AUSTRALIAN FICTION 3
INFINITE SPLENDOURS OUR SHADOWS Highly Recommended
Sofie Laguna Gail Jones BLUEBIRD
The latest novel by Sofie Laguna (The Eye of Despite having written eight novels, MALCOLM KNOX
the Sheep) is a poignant, heart-wrenching Sydney-based writer Gail Jones has flown Allen & Unwin PB
read. At 10 years old, Lawrence enchants his below the radars of many readers. Despite Was $32.99 Now $29.99
teachers, anchors his adoring little brother being highly regarded by her peers – she Set in a beachside suburb in
and provides solace to his bone-weary mother. has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Sydney, this quintessentially
But when Lawrence’s world is shattered, so on multiple occasions – she is yet to hit the Australian novel addresses
too is all this optimism and sparkle. Trauma bestseller lists. Readers new to her work the myths that come to define
snatches away Lawrence’s ability to function, will find Our Shadows an excellent entry families and communities, and
Allen & Unwin PB and reverberates through the lives of everyone Text PB point. The multilayered narrative traces the lies that uphold them.
in his orbit. Laguna’s portrayal of childhood the lives of three generations of a family in
Was $32.99
borders on literary ventriloquism; she is a true
$32.99 Kalgoorlie but focuses predominantly on
Now $29.99 master. Grown-ups cannot be trusted, but the sisters Nell and Frances, who grew up in the THE BURNING ISLAND
solace of art promises glimmers of hope. west but now live in Sydney. Jones addresses JOCK SERONG
Q
weighty themes here – generational trauma, Text PB
grief, loss, dispossession – but her tightly $32.99
1. Who ‘couldn’t lead a flock of homing pigeons’? constructed plot and lyrical prose make this
novel as accessible as it is enjoyable.
This literary thriller set in 19th-
century Australia involves an
exciting sea voyage taken by its
strong female protagonist and
IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE, SONG OF THE CROCODILE her ageing father.
NONI BLAKE Nardi Simpson
The Billymil family have lived in the small THE MORBIDS
Claire Christian town of Darnmoor for three generations.
At the age of 36, Noni Blake has just faced the EWA RAMSEY
Through the years, the family has been Allen & Unwin PB
end of her long-term, supposed-to-be-forever watched over by ancestral spirits as the
relationship. Despite returning to the dating $29.99
world around them shifts and changes. Song
world and pursuing encounters with all kinds An assured debut, this story
of the Crocodile is the debut novel from
of people, she’s still in a funk. So Noni decides about Caitlin, a 20-something
Yuwaalaraay woman Nardi Simpson. As well Sydneysider battling mental
to travel to Europe to try and reconnect as being a writer, Simpson is a musician, and
with a past flame, Molly. They were at school illness, is in turn confronting,
Text PB
Hachette PB this fact is apparent in every page – her prose funny and deeply compassionate.
together, and had a brief dalliance that seemed has a rhythm to it. This is a powerful story of
$32.99 very promising, but didn’t go anywhere. Now $32.99 community, language and, above all, family.
Noni wants to find out what might have been.
This joyful queer rom-com is a wonderful THE MOTHER FAULT
KATE MILDENHALL
tribute to pleasure in all its forms. THE SURVIVORS Simon & Schuster PB
Jane Harper $32.99
LIFE AFTER TRUTH In her strongest novel since the global Taking place in a near and
Ceridwen Dovey phenomenon that was The Dry, Jane Harper terrifying future, this fast-paced
Having been an undergraduate at Harvard travels to the fictional seaside settlement of literary thriller follows Mim
University, writer Ceridwen Dovey is well Evelyn Bay on the north coast of Tasmania. as she and her children take a
qualified to use the storied university as the Harper is known for her meticulous plotting perilous journey in search of
setting in her third novel. Life After Truth is and strongly delineated characters, and The her missing husband.
set on a 15th-reunion weekend in 2018, in Survivors showcases both of these skills.
the middle of the term of a Trump-like US The story centres on Kieran, who returns
Macmillan PB to his childhood home for the first time in THE NIGHT WHISTLER
president. We join five former dorm mates – GREG WOODLAND
famous actor Jules, successful businessman Was $32.99 three years. Tragic and mysterious events
have unfolded in Evelyn Bay in the past, and Text PB
Viking PB Jomo, academic Eloise, teacher Rowan and Now $27.99 $32.99
homemaker Mariam – as they weigh their another is about to occur. Are they related?
$32.99 glittering academic careers against the reality With plot twists and turns galore, as well as a Set in a small rural town in
strong and sympathetic protagonist, this novel 1960s Australia, this crime-
of their present-day lives. Then the most fiction debut has a gripping plot
infamous member of the class of 2003, the cements Harper’s already stellar reputation.
involving stalking and murder,
president’s obnoxious son, is murdered and with themes of domestic abuse,
the reunion takes a decidedly strange turn…. THE TOLSTOY ESTATE racism and official corruption.
Steven Conte
THE LIVING SEA This powerful and romantic novel is set on POLY
OF WAKING DREAMS Tolstoy’s estate Yasnaya Polyana during the PAUL DALGARNO
Richard Flanagan German invasion of Russia in WW2. Conte Ventura PB
In this surreal, dread-soaked novel, Booker was clearly inspired by War and Peace, $32.99
Prize winner Richard Flanagan sets a family and though he doesn’t include as much Replete with black humour,
drama against the backdrop of the climate military detail in this novel as Tolstoy did, Poly follows Chris Flood, a
crisis. After her ageing mother ends up in he powerfully evokes both the horror of the father of two with plummeting
hospital, Anna returns to Tasmania, where battlefield and the deprivations suffered by self-esteem, and his bored wife
she and her two brothers attempt to take Fourth Estate PB people on both sides of the combat. Most of Sarah as they embark on a new
charge of the situation despite their mother’s Was $32.99 the action occurs at the military field hospital polyamorous life in Melbourne.
Knopf HB resistance. Around this domestic unease, the set up on Yasnaya Polyana and revolves
Now $27.99 around the relationship of German surgeon
Was $32.99 world is in rapid decline and nobody seems to A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES
have any answers. Meanwhile, Anna has been Paul Bauer and the estate’s Russian custodian,
Now $27.99 Katerina Trusbetzkaya. Reminiscent of KATE GRENVILLE
experiencing a medical drama of her own: the Text HB
unexplained disappearances of her body parts. Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, Conte’s novel is a
moving and satisfying read. Was $39.99 Now $34.99
Exploring themes of grief and loss, Flanagan A return to the territory of
delivers a topical and moving work. The Secret River, Grenville’s
TRUST richly detailed historical novel
LUCKY’S Chris Hammer takes the form of an imagined
memoir by pastoralist
Andrew Pippos Journalist Martin Scarsden and his partner
Elizabeth Macarthur.
When British journalist Emily travels to Mandalay Blonde could be forgiven for feeling
Sydney to write an article on a defunct chain that life is unnecessarily complicated and –
of diners named Lucky’s, she knows that her frankly – that they’re overdue for a break. After SORROW AND BLISS
life is connected to the restaurant – her father making it through the murderous scenarios MEG MASON
had mysteriously given her a painting of a of Hammer’s previous novels Scrublands and Fourth Estate PB
Lucky’s storefront right before his death by Silver, they have settled down in the coastal $32.99
suicide. But as she interviews its founder, a town of Port Silver and are hoping for a Fans of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s
story of coincidence, converging paths and Allen & Unwin PB quiet life. Alas, they hope in vain. Mandalay Fleabag will enjoy this sharp
Picador PB serendipity is revealed. Spanning most of the Was $32.99 is kidnapped, and her past is about to come and savvy novel set in London
Was $32.99 20th century and conjuring up a detailed and back to hurt them both. Set predominantly in and Oxford, which recounts
fond vision of migrant Australia in the years
Now $29.99 Sydney and dealing with corruption within that Martha’s battle with mental
Now $29.99 following WW2, this debut novel from a city’s political, judicial and business elites, this illness and the disintegration of
Greek-Australian writer is a total delight. rocket-paced thriller is a riveting read. her marriage.4 INTERNATIONAL FICTION
THE BETRAYALS THE DEVIL AND THE MILKMAN
Bridget Collins DARK WATER Anna Burns
With obvious parallels to today, The Stuart Turton Set in a city in Northern Island during
Betrayals is both enigma and allegory. The year is 1694, and renowned detective The Troubles, an unnamed young
Set in an increasingly fascist European Samuel Pipps is confined aboard a ship woman attracts unwanted attention
state, where discrimination and travelling from the Dutch East Indies to from an older married man known
persecution are rife and power is sought Amsterdam. When his journey ends, he simply as the ‘milkman’. Written in a
at all costs, Leo, an ex-politician ousted will be tried and potentially executed. But distinctive style that feels unhooked from
from the party because of his (mild) as the ship prepares to leave the docks, reality and defies easy categorisation,
HarperCollins PB
scruples, is exiled to the country’s a curse is laid upon it, setting off a series Milkman bristles with black humour and
foremost university. Here students Bloomsbury PB of demonic occurrences. With Pipps in Faber PB adolescent angst. The young woman’s
$32.99 are taught the grand jeu, a mysterious
$29.99 shackles, his companion Arent Hayes and Was $29.99 attempts to renounce the world in which
discipline that is at once game, music, noblewoman Sara Wessel must solve a she resides are understandable, yet
maths and philosophy. Very soon, the mystery – one that could send them all
Now $13.95 become increasingly futile as the novel
personal, the philosophical and the to the bottom of the ocean. This Sherlock unspools. Anna Burns made literary
political collide. Holmes–esque mystery is the second history with this brilliant novel when she
book from the award-winning author of became the first Northern Irish writer
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, to be awarded the Man Booker Prize
BOX 88 and it does not disappoint. for Fiction in 2018, and its provocative
Q
Charles Cumming exploration of surveillance and power will
December Release continue to resonate with readers today.
A spy thriller with the velocity of a fast 2. Which book is set in Evelyn Bay?
train, this novel by the author of the
award-winning A Foreign Country has a MR WILDER & ME
plot that opens in Britain and France in Jonathan Coe
1989 before moving to Britain in 2020, JACK In 1977, Calista travels to a Greek island
when intelligence operative Lachlan Marilynne Robinson to work for Billy Wilder, the famous
Kite, recruited straight out of boarding Hollywood director of Sunset Boulevard
In 2004, Marilynne Robinson’s novel
HarperCollins PB school in 1989 and a trusted employee and Some Like It Hot. Young and naive,
Gilead was released. Now, 16 years
of the shadowy intelligence agency Box she has no idea who he is, nor that, more
$29.99 88 ever since, is kidnapped by a group
later, she brings this magnificent series
and more, he is being rejected by the
to a close with Jack. This fourth and
of Iranians. They’re after information industry and audiences that once loved
final Gilead novel focuses on the life of
about Ali Eskandarian, a businessman him. As she, Billy and screenwriter Iz
Reverend Boughton’s son Jack. Here we
implicated in the Lockerbie terrorist Viking PB Diamond travel across Europe on shoots
find Jack having just been released from
attack. But if there is one thing that for his creatively funded film Fedora,
Box 88 stresses to its employees, it’s
prison, and committed to removing $32.99 Calista learns much about the art of
Virago PB himself entirely from the lives of
that they should never, ever divulge filmmaking and about life. Jonathon
$29.99 anyone he believes he will harm. As he
operational information to anyone Coe, author of the bestselling Middle
attempts to withdraw, Jack falls in love
outside the organisation… England, clearly enjoyed researching and
with Della – but in 1950s Missouri,
writing this tender and often amusing
their interracial relationship is illegal.
fictional portrait of one of Hollywood’s
Thoughtful, engrossing, moving and
THE COLD MILLIONS full of humanity, Jack is further proof
most important filmmakers, and readers
Jess Walter will respond in kind.
that Robinson is one of the greatest
A very different – but even more American novelists working today.
impressive – novel by the author of the
bestselling Beautiful Ruins, this story OLGA
set in Spokane, Washington, in the first MAGIC LESSONS Bernhard Schlink
decade of the 20th century proves that Alice Hoffman Orphaned and raised by her
Jess Walter is a prodigiously talented A prequel to her popular 1995 novel- grandmother, Olga is an idealistic, clever
storyteller and wordsmith. The Cold turned-film, Practical Magic, Alice young teacher with limited options when
Millions follows the travails of orphaned Hoffman’s latest book shares with the she meets and falls in love with Herbert, a
teenager Rye Dolan and his older reader the origin of the famed centuries- wealthy, adventurous aristocrat. Although
Viking PB
brother Gig, part of the community of old curse of the Owens family. Following they are separated by differences in
$32.99 itinerant impoverished workers adrift the lives of Maria Owens and her class and by Herbert’s travels – first to
in America in the years after the 1890s daughter, it’s also a gripping historical colonial war in Africa, later to attempt to
depression. With a richly delineated adventure tale in its own right, complete conquer the Arctic – their bond remains
Weidenfeld &
cast of characters including hobos, Simon & Schuster with a tantalising dash of magic. Opening Nicolson PB
unbroken. Told partly through Olga’s
tycoons, burlesque performers, corrupt PB in 1664 with an abandoned baby in rural letters to Herbert, this new novel from
cops, sinister PIs and revolutionaries England and encompassing the heights Was $32.99 the bestselling author of The Reader is an
(including the real-life suffragette and
$32.99 of the Salem witch trials, Magic Lessons Now $29.99 intimate, yearning portrait not only of a
firebrand Elizabeth Gurley Flynn), this is an immersive story about love and relationship, but of German progress and
is one of 2020’s great novels. heartbreak, revenge and forgiveness. ambition throughout the 20th century.
Highly Recommended
THE ABSTAINER BETTY A DEADLY EDUCATION THE EIGHTH LIFE
IAN McGUIRE TIFFANY McDANIEL NAOMI NOVIK (FOR BRILKA)
Scribner PB Weidenfeld & Nicolson PB $32.99 Del Rey PB NINO HARATISCHVILI
$32.99 Inspired by her complex $32.99 Scribe PB $26.99
Set in Manchester in 1867, family history, McDaniel’s Described as ‘Hogwarts A global bestseller, this
the latest novel by the harrowing coming-of- with higher stakes and sweeping saga recounts the
author of the acclaimed age novel set in the Ohio sharper claws’, this first triumphs and heartbreaks
The North Water is set Appalachians in the 1960s volume in a new fantasy of multiple generations
against the backdrop of deals with issues including trilogy is set in a magic of one family amid the
the underground war for rural poverty, sexual abuse, school and features a political turmoil of Georgia
Irish Independence. racism and the healing hilarious female anti-hero. and Russia throughout the
properties of nature. 20th century.
AGAINST THE BLUE IN CHICAGO EARTHLINGS FIFTY-TWO STORIES
LOVELESS WORLD BETTE HOWLAND SAYAKA MURATA ANTON CHEKHOV
SUSAN ABULHAWA Picador HB Granta PB $29.99 Penguin HB
Bloomsbury PB $29.99 $34.99 From the author of the $49.99
This story of oppression, A collection of sharp, cult hit Convenience Store Spanning the full arc of
resistance, resilience and wry and bittersweet stories Woman, this confronting the great Russian writer’s
love by the author of written by American author novel follows alienated and career, this collection
Mornings in Jenin is narrated Bette Howland (1937–2017), abused Natsuki as she tries includes a number of tales
by Palestinian woman Nahr, described by Saul Bellow to carve a non-conformist translated into English for
imprisoned in a high-tech as ‘one of the significant path through a drab, the first time.
cement cube in Israel while writers of her generation’. morally vacuous world.
awaiting trial as a terrorist.INTERNATIONAL FICTION 5
THE PERFECT WORLD OF A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES Highly Recommended
MIWAKO SUMIDA Ian Rankin THE INHERITORS
Clarissa Goenawan When his daughter Samantha calls in the HANNELORE CAYRE
Miwako Sumida is a student with a dead of night, John Rebus suspects it’s Black Inc PB $29.99
seemingly bright future. But after she not good news. He’s right – her husband Set in Paris in a period
leaves college without notice to volunteer Keith has been missing for two days. Rebus spanning 1870 to the modern
for a medical clinic in a rural town, she fears the worst and as a retired career-long day, the latest novel by the
tragically dies by suicide. Miwako’s three policeman he knows that his daughter will author of The Godmother tells
closest friends Ryu, Chie and Fumi are left be the prime suspect if his fears prove true. the darkly gripping story of a
heartbroken by her death. Shocked, they Set on the windswept north coast of Scotland tainted family legacy.
Scribe PB can barely believe that Miwako would take Orion PB and in Rebus’ usual patch of Edinburgh,
her own life, and try to figure out why she Rankin’s 23rd Rebus novel follows two
$29.99 did it. Through the eyes of those closest
$32.99 storylines – one following the aged and THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS
to Miwako, Clarissa Goenawan paints an ailing detective as he works to vindicate his ELENA FERRANTE
intricate portrait of this young woman – the daughter and another following his friend Europa PB $32.99
secrets that she held close and the troubles and former colleague Detective Inspector The latest novel by the author
that drove her to an untimely death. Siobhan Clarke as she investigates the of the Neapolitan Quartet is
murder of a wealthy Saudi student. another coming-of-age story set
in Naples, this time set among
PIRANESI the upper echelons of Neapolitan
Susanna Clarke
TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS society in the early 1990s.
Piranesi lives in the House, a vast labyrinth Christopher Paolini
of cavernous halls and marble statues. He This epic novel comes from bestselling
author Christopher Paolini (Eragon). MAYFLIES
knows its contents precisely, but has no ANDREW O’HAGAN
knowledge of the wider world, and his only Breaking away from classical fantasy tropes,
his newest work instead focuses on Kira, Faber PB $29.99
visitor is the enigmatic figure of the Other. Underpinned by nostalgia
As messages and memories start to filter a young xenobiologist on a bustling space
station. While doing a routine planet survey, for the 1980s (especially its
into the House, Piranesi begins to question music), the latest novel by one
the nature of his existence and the true Kira discovers a decaying artefact and
Bloomsbury HB
unwittingly releases an ancient power. This of the UK’s most acclaimed
motives of the Other. Clearly inspired by novelists deals with themes of
$27.99 Jorge Luis Borges, Susanna Clarke, author
Tor PB throws her headfirst into an ancient and
friendship, masculinity, ageing
deadly battle, one in which her family’s past
of the global bestseller Jonathan Strange $32.99 seems to play an inexplicable role. Paolini and mortality.
& Mr Norrell, fuses fantasy, gothic and
supernatural elements in this dark and explores the core of what makes us human in
otherworldly mystery. this epic galaxy-spanning novel, which will MONOGAMY
appeal to both YA and adult readers. SUE MILLER
Bloomsbury PB $29.99
RED PILL THE TOWER OF FOOLS Miller’s nuanced narrative
Hari Kunzru focuses on newly widowed
Andrzej Sapkowski Annie, who discovers
With this provocative work, Hari Kunzru This first volume in a long-awaited English something about her late
joins the list of writers attempting to make translation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s 2002 dark husband that makes her ponder
sense of the Trump era through fiction. Set fantasy Hussite trilogy will be a hit with fans what makes a strong marriage
in the months leading up to the 2016 US of the renowned fantasy writer’s The Witcher and a fulfilled life.
election, this tense, atmospheric and wildly saga. Set in medieval Silesia, it follows young
intellectual literary thriller explores ideas academic Reinmar, who finds himself on
of surveillance and paranoia, authenticity the run after being discovered with his pants STATE HIGHWAY ONE
and morality. The story follows an unnamed down (quite literally) in the company of SAM COLEY
writer as he leaves his family in Brooklyn Gollancz PB the daughter of a powerful noble. Pursued Hachette PB $32.99
Scribner PB
to attend an unusual writing residency in and caught, he is thrown into the notorious Dealing with themes of grief
Was $32.99 Berlin. Suspicious of his host’s motives, he $32.99 ‘Tower of the Fools’. Trapped within this and what makes a home,
Now $29.99 stays in his room watching episodes of a ruthless prison society, Reinmar uncovers a Coley’s award-winning debut
violent cop show. Eventually, a meeting with sinister plot and must deal with the possibly novel follows siblings Alex and
the show’s creator provokes a full-blown catastrophic impact of his previous actions. Amy as they road-trip along
descent into darkness. New Zealand’s main highway,
coming to grips with their past
TRIO along the way.
THE SEARCHER William Boyd
Tana French One of Britain’s most prolific writers of TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM
A Chicago ex-cop throws a handful of cash character-driven literary fiction, with 16 YAA GYASI
at a real-estate website and finds himself on novels including the marvellous Any Human Viking PB $32.99
the West Coast of Ireland, breathing fine Heart to his credit, Scottish writer William This epic novel by the author of
mist and stripping wallpaper from a mouldy Boyd deserves the many accolades that have the masterful Homegoing is set
90-year-old house. It’s a transatlantic been sent his way. In Trio, he follows three in contemporary America and
seachange in the land of rolling green. But protagonists associated with a film shoot focuses on Gifty, the daughter
the idyll doesn’t last: his spidey-senses are – producer Talbot, actor Anny and writer of Ghanaian immigrants, as
tingling. It’s not long before the retired Viking PB Elfrida – as their lives spiral out of control. she comes to terms with her
Viking PB detective is roped into the mystery of a Set in the seaside town of Brighton in 1968, complicated heritage.
missing local teen. The eighth offering from $32.99 the action unfolds against a backdrop of civil
$32.99 renowned Irish-American crime fiction unrest in France and the US, and balances its
writer Tana French, this fast-paced thriller rumination on important questions (eg, what V2
about an outsider unwrapping a remote is it that makes life meaningful?) with an ROBERT HARRIS
village’s secrets won’t disappoint. underpinning of humour. Hutchinson PB $32.99
Set against the backdrop of the
V2 rocket strikes on London
THE SILENCE UNQUIET in the tail end of WW2,
Don DeLillo Linn Ullmann this thriller by the author of
Fatherland and Enigma is
When this sparse, evocative novella begins, In the 1960s, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
further proof that Harris is a
a group of old friends are preparing to took Swedish director Ingmar Bergman
master of the genre.
watch the Super Bowl together in a New as a lover. Their only child together, Linn
York apartment. A plane crash and a global Ullmann, is now a Norwegian author and
blackout send their plans careening off journalist. In this, her sixth book, ‘the WHAT ARE YOU
course, heralding the quiet approach of mother’, an up-and-coming actress in her GOING THROUGH
apocalypse and plunging them into a state twenties, gets together with ‘the father’, an SIGRID NUNEZ
of alienation and existential confusion. auteur 20 years her senior. With plain and Virago PB $29.99
Don DeLillo is one of America’s greatest Hamish Hamilton
declarative prose, this autobiographical novel In her new novel, much-
Picador HB
living writers, and in The Silence he offers PB
is based upon six conversations recorded admired writer Sigrid Nunez
$29.99 a surreal meditation on paranoia, mass in Bergman’s home on the Swedish island (The Friend) addresses themes
consumption and the way our obsessive $32.99 of Fårö. Translated into English by Thilo including the meaning of life
reliance on technology eclipses our Reinhard, Unquiet is a beautiful, fragmentary and death, and the value of
connection to reality. exploration of structure, memory and family. companionship.6 LANGUAGE, POETRY & ESSAYS
ANTHOLOGY HOME BODY ROOTED: AN AUSTRALIAN
OF AUSTRALIAN Rupi Kaur HISTORY OF BAD LANGUAGE
PROSE POETRY After writing, illustrating and self- Amanda Laugesen
Cassandra Atherton & publishing milk and honey, her first F***ing hell, what is it about Aussies and
Paul Hetherington (eds) collection of poetry, aged only 21, swearing? We’ve got an international
Poets and academics Paul Hetherington Indian-born Canadian Rupi Kaur went reputation for using bad language and
and Cassandra Atherton present this on to release a second volume, the sun letting rip with a choice swear word
selection of some of the best Australian and her flowers. Both became global or two. From the defiant curses of the
prose poems written over the past 50 bestsellers. Now that this third volume convicts to the cheeky, often foul-
years as their argument for the value has joined their ranks, it will no doubt mouthed, humour of WW1 diggers and
MUP PB Simon & Schuster be given the same rapturous reception. NewSouth PB
of the prose poem. A literary form on to the increasingly prevalent use of the
$39.99 that has been underrepresented across
PB Written using her trademark lower $32.99 previously taboo ‘c word’ in contemporary
mainstream literary platforms, it has $24.99 case and minimal punctuation (only Australian conversation, the chief editor
nonetheless been flourishing in recent full stops are employed), home body of the Australian National Dictionary here
times. An impressive and diverse range muses on themes of love, acceptance, takes us on an engrossing journey through
of writers features, including Ali Cobby community and family, and again the tumultuous history of Australia’s bad
Eckermann, Shastra Deo, Bella L, features illustrations by the poet. language. Is it a form of liberation and
David Malouf and Omar Sakr. subversion? A source of humour and
creativity? Or something that should be
THE MADMAN’S LIBRARY countered with the reintroduction of that
Edward Brooke-Hitching age-old punishment, washing the
BLUEBLOOD The life of rare book collector Edward mouth out with soap?
Malorie Blackman Brooke-Hitching has been steeped in
CINDERELLA LIBERATOR words and books. So who better to
compile a book about books so peculiar, RUPI KAUR BOXED SET
Rebecca Solnit Rupi Kaur
they could fill The Madman’s Library?
DUCKLING Masterfully researched, this curated Dubbed the ‘queen of Instapoets’ by
Kamila Shamsie Simon & Schuster
collection is a century-spanning hunt Rolling Stone in 2017, Rupi Kaur has left
HB
for the strangest works committed to the her poetical mark on million of readers
HANSEL AND GRETA page and elsewhere. Alchemical scrolls, from all over the world. This eminently
Jeanette Winterson $45 books written in blood, books that can giftable slipcase contains her first two
kill and books you can eat are just a published poetry collections: milk and
These retellings of classic fairy tales by few examples of what you might find. honey and the sun and her flowers. Kaur
major literary figures are part of Vintage Always fascinating, and packed with is interested in what it means to be a
Books’ ‘Fairy Tale Revolution’ series, strange facts, stories and images, this is a Andrews McMeel person in the world, and in both these
Vintage HB
which is designed to breathe new life compendium worthy of its title. PBs works she uses words and images to
$27.99 each into old stories for the enjoyment of Was $49.99 explore universal themes: love and sex,
both adults and children. heartbreak and loss, trauma and healing.
MANTEL PIECES Now $29.95
This is poetry for the internet age:
Hilary Mantel fragmented, confessional and inclusive.
EX LIBRIS: She may not have been shortlisted for
100+ BOOKS TO READ this year’s Booker Prize as expected, but
AND REREAD English literary superstar Hilary Mantel is WATSONIA: A WRITING LIFE
Michiko Kakutani featuring on the book pages of broadsheet Don Watson
December Release newspapers regardless – courtesy of this Celebrated historian, beloved essayist
Long-time New York Times literary volume of 20 reviews, essays and pieces and former political speechwriter: Don
critic Michiko Kakutani sees books of memoir originally published in the Watson is one of Australia’s wittiest and
as magical objects that transport us London Review of Books. Her subjects most thoughtful writers. Watsonia brings
through time, memory and space. They Fourth Estate HB range far and wide, and include the together a wide-ranging collection of his
HarperCollins HB illuminate, teach and bring us shared highly personal diary entry ‘Meeting articles gathered from across a very full
Was $39.99
joy. Ex Libris collects her favourite My Stepfather’ (2003), her excoriating writing life. Topics traversed range from
$34.99 titles that deserve to be read (and Now $34.99 review of Christopher Anderson’s 1991 Mark Twain to the Loch Ness Monster;
Black Inc HB ABC to Anzac Day; biography, travel,
reread!) by everybody. Her selection book Madonna Unauthorized (her review
of fiction, nonfiction, children’s books is titled ‘Plain Girl’s Revenge Made Was $49.99 nature and sports. Essays are peppered
and poetry surpasses the androcentric Flesh’) and her much-publicised 2013 Now $39.99 with sensuous details of Australian
Western canon, incorporating essay ‘Royal Bodies’, which explores the landscapes – 200-feet-tall blue gums,
contemporary works and writing by place of royal women in society and our gullies full of tree ferns, red-bellied
women and people of colour. With imagination. Also available: a boxed snakes – and are underpinned by a life
beautiful illustrations by lettering artist gift set of Mantel’s acclaimed Thomas compelled by democratic socialism. With
Dana Tanamachi, this is a sensuous, Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up a conversational tone and firm grasp of
life-giving reading experience no the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light the Aussie vernacular, this collection is
bibliophile will want to miss. (Fourth Estate HBs $139.99). both entertaining and insightful.
Highly Recommended
A BODY OF WATER THE FIRE OF JOY LIVES OF HOUSES MAAR BIDI
BEVERLEY FARMER CLIVE JAMES KATE KENNEDY & ELFIE SHIOSAKI &
Giramondo PB Picador PB HERMIONE LEE (eds) LINDA MARTIN
$29.95 Was $34.99 Now $29.99 Princeton HB $44.99 Magabala PB
This new edition of a Written in the last months Eminent novelists, poets, $24.99
long-out-of-print classic of Clive James’ life, this biographers and historians write A new collection
by the late Australian anthology includes 84 about the homes of prominent of writings by a
author mixes essay, poems that he knew by figures including Auden, Yeats, diverse group of
memoir, fiction and folk heart and loved to speak Churchill and Sibelius, pondering young black Australian
tale to portray one year aloud, accompanied by what these houses can tell us essayists, critics,
in Farmer’s life. his commentary on each. about their former inhabitants. novelists and poets.
THE DICTIONARY OF GRIFFITH REVIEW 70: THE LOST SPELLS REBEL WITHOUT
LOST WORDS GENEROSITIES ROBERT MACFARLANE & A CLAUSE
PIP WILLIAMS OF SPIRIT JACKIE MORRIS SUE BUTLER
Affirm PB ASHLEY HAY (ed) Hamish Hamilton HB Macmillan HB $24.99
$19.99 Griffith Review PB $27.99 $35 The former editor of the
Dealing with the Writers including This sequel to The Lost Words Macquarie Dictionary
compilation of the very Kristina Olsson, is a collection of acrostic poetry offers an entertaining
first Oxford English Thomas Mayor, Claire G and artwork by landscape- and idiosyncratic
Dictionary, Pip Williams’ Coleman, Kate Veitch and focused writer Robert take on common
debut novel is one of the Allanah Hunt write on December Release Macfarlane (The Old Ways) usage (or should that
December Release
biggest-selling Australian the themes of generosity and illustrator Jackie Morris. be misusage?) of the
books of 2020. and compassion. English language.BIOGRAPHY 7
BOY ON FIRE LOWITJA Highly Recommended
Mark Mordue Stuart Rintoul BACHAR HOULI
This biography of Nick Cave focuses on the Veteran journalist Stuart Rintoul tells the BACHAR HOULI WITH
young musician’s life-defining early years. story of a remarkable woman in this engaging WALEED ALY
Starting with his Wangaratta childhood, biography of activist and Yunkunytjatjara Ebury PB
it moves to his boarding school days at woman Lowitja O’Donoghue. A member of Was $34.99 Now $29.99
Melbourne’s Caulfield Grammar and then to the Stolen Generations, the first Aboriginal The AFL’s most-prominent
the formation of The Boys Next Door with woman to become a nurse in South Australia Muslim player talks about
schoolmates Mick Harvey, Tracy Pew and and a prominent figure in Australian politics the experiences and beliefs
Phill Calvert in the mid-1970s before arriving since the ’60s, O’Donoghue has borne that have underpinned his
Fourth Estate HB at 1980, when the band left Melbourne for Allen & Unwin HB witness to many pivotal moments in our sporting success and made him
Was $39.99 London. Mordue’s book is discursive and Was $45 nation’s history, even playing a role in some a leading voice for inclusion,
anecdotal, rather than strictly chronological, of their outcomes. Anyone with an interest understanding and tolerance
Now $34.99 Now $39.99 in Australian sport.
and also dips into the four decades that have in history, politics or social justice will be
since transpired. Nuanced and unflinching, intrigued by her story, and the frequent use
this conversational collection of stories and of direct quotes from O’Donoghue imbues BELIEF
reminiscences paints a compelling picture Rintoul’s telling of it with authority. MARLION PICKETT WITH
of Cave, drawing on the friendships and DAVE WARNER
Simon & Schuster HB
creative influences that helped shape one of
Australia’s most enigmatic sons.
MARY’S LAST DANCE Was $39.99 Now $34.99
Mary Li The talented Indigenous
Many Australians already know the AFL player tells the story of
CATHY GOES TO CANBERRA remarkable tale of Li Cunxin, ‘Mao’s last his transformation from a
Cathy McGowan dancer’. Now, his wife shares her own story. troubled young man jailed in
Although she served as the member of Mary describes her childhood, career and rise Western Australia into a star
parliament for the federal seat of Indi in to fame alongside Cunxin – right up to the of Richmond’s victorious 2019
north-east Victoria for two terms, Cathy point when they learn their daughter, Sophie, Grand Final team.
McGowan doesn’t consider herself as Political is deaf. Determined to help Sophie succeed
with a capital ‘P’. As an independent running in a hearing world, Mary steps away from the A DIFFERENT KIND
on behalf of the grassroots organisation Voices Viking PB spotlight and plunges into unknown territory. OF SEEING
for Indi in a traditionally safe Liberal seat, Was $34.99 This dramatic decision, and the years that MARIE YOUNAN WITH
she was more concerned with representing follow, are described with a candour that is JILL SANGUINETTI
Monash PB Now $29.99 Scribe PB $29.99
the people and making sure democracy refreshing and endearing. Mary’s Last Dance
Born into a family of Assyrian
$29.95 was actually working than with becoming was written with Sophie’s approval and the
refugees and accidentally
involved in the tit-for-tat nonsense beloved loving, occasionally combative, relationship
blinded as a baby, Marie
by Australian politicians. This warm-hearted between mother and daughter lies at the heart Younan’s journey from Syria
memoir – subtitled ‘Doing Politics Differently’ of this moving memoir. to Lebanon, Greece and on to
– tells the story of McGowan’s campaign to Australia is recounted in this
win Indi and her time as a parliamentarian.
In so doing, it provides a manifesto for an MAX inspiring memoir.
alternative community-based politics. Alex Miller
In fragments of memoir, travelogue, history FOR NOW
and reflection, renowned Australian novelist EILEEN MYLES
DOLLY PARTON: SONGTELLER Alex Miller tries to reconstruct the life of his Yale HB
Dolly Parton friend and mentor, Max Blatt. Max rarely $26.95
Here, the perky queen of country music talked about his past as a politically active A raucous, erudite and witty
(aka The Smoky Mountain Songbird, Iron Jew in Germany in the years of Hitler’s rise meditation on life from
Butterfly or Backwoods Barbie) looks at her to power, and years after his death, Miller American poet, writer and
life and career through the lens of lyrics to Allen & Unwin PB searches for Max’s story knowing that it can’t performance artist, Eileen
Myles (Chelsea Girls, Inferno).
150 of her songs. Illustrated throughout with $29.99 be told in fiction. But even nonfiction cannot
memorabilia and previously unpublished give a full and unbiased history – hence the December Release
images, Dolly Parton: Songteller shares the fragmentary nature of this book. As much as
Hodder & Stoughton
personal stories, candid insights and many Max’s story, this is Miller’s story of the search HEALING LIVES
HB Was $59.99 memories behind the songs that made her for the elusive past of a great friend. SUE WILLIAMS
Now $54.99 famous. It is sure to delight her many fans. Macmillan PB $34.99
The extraordinary story of
OLIVE, MABEL & ME Mamitu Gashe, whose life was
FACE IT Andrew Cotter saved at Addis Ababa Fistula
Debbie Harry After COVID-19 left sports commentator Hospital and who, encouraged
In this tell-all memoir, the co-founder and Andrew Cotter at home and virtually by the hospital’s co-founder
lead singer of Blondie pulls no punches when unemployed, he shot a light-hearted Catherine Hamlin, went on to
charting her early life and her formative 90-second video of his two Labradors eating become an acclaimed fistula
years immersed in the New York punk breakfast, gave it a sports-style commentary surgeon herself.
Q
scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. voiceover and semi-reluctantly uploaded it
Harry reminisces about her time rubbing to Twitter. Several million likes and shares
shoulders with figures such as Andy Warhol, Text PB
– and a few more videos – later, Cotter tells
the back-story of the dogs that went viral
3. What is Iz Diamond’s
Iggy Pop, William Burroughs, David Bowie, profession?
HarperCollins HB Joey Ramone and the New York Dolls, $32.99 and describes daily life with the two Labs.
Was $45 before writing about how fame and the Olive, Mabel & Me is a love letter to all things
relentless stress of life on the road led to the canine, with plenty of doggy stories and
Now $18.95 adventures along the way. HYSTERIA
breakdown of her relationship with Chris
Stein, bankruptcy and an addiction to what KATERINA BRYANT
she calls ‘the great consolation’ (heroin). NewSouth PB $29.99
ONE DAY I’LL REMEMBER THIS: Bryant’s account of dealing with
DIARIES 1987–1995 chronic illness blends memoir
IS THIS ANYTHING? Helen Garner with literary and historical
Jerry Seinfeld The second volume of Garner’s diaries analysis to investigate the
Writer and comedian Jerry Seinfeld will provides glimpses into her hectic personal marginalisation of women in
forever be associated with the long-running life, living in Sydney but still travelling to their own medical diagnoses
sitcom he co-created and wrote with fellow Melbourne and retreating to Primrose Gully. and treatment.
stand-up comedian Larry David. But before She falls in love, marries again and regrets
the phenomenal success of the TV series, it. She buys a piano and begins lessons. The JUST IGNORE HIM
Seinfeld cut his teeth on stand-up and the film of The Last Days of Chez Nous is released ALAN DAVIES
TV chat-show circuit. Since those early Text HB to mixed reviews, and Cosmo Cosmolino Little, Brown PB $32.99
Simon & Schuster
days, Seinfeld has filed away all the material $29.99 and her controversial The First Stone are The English comedian and actor
he’s ever written. In this book – a kind of published. Throughout these events, Garner’s (QI, Jonathan Creek) recounts
HB
autobiography built around gags – he brings whip-crack commentary flicks through his traumatic childhood,
Was $49.99 together his favourite joke writing, condensing the fields of philosophy, art, music, theatre blighted by the death of his
Now $39.99 45 years of observational gag writing into a and literature. As always, her responses are mother and subsequent sexual
450-page master class in stand-up. incisive and acutely observed. abuse by his father.8 BIOGRAPHY
ONLY HAPPINESS HERE THE ROCK AN UNCONVENTIONAL WIFE
Gabrielle Carey Aaron Smith Mary Hoban
Most literature, Gabrielle Carey points December Release Historian Mary Hoban tells the forgotten
out, is miserable. Elizabeth von Arnim, The author of this entertaining memoir story of Julia Sorell Arnold, the colonial
then, is a rarity – an author who sought was the last editor of Australia’s most belle who fascinated Hobart society in
out, expressed and celebrated happiness. northerly newspaper, The Torres News, a the mid-19th century. The prominent
This Australian-born author who was small independent regional tabloid that men in Julia’s remarkable family tree
writing in the early 20th century has folded in late 2019 after functioning for six have been written into history books
fallen from view but in Only Happiness decades. Until its closure, the newspaper, – from her grandfather, the Lieutenant-
Here Carey, perhaps best known for which was published out of Thursday General of Tasmania, to her grandsons,
UQP PB writing Puberty Blues with Kathy Lette, Transit Lounge PB Island, catered to a predominantly Torres Scribe HB author Aldous Huxley and biologist
$32.99 brings her back into the light. Giving
$29.99 Strait Islander and Aboriginal readership Was $39.99 Julian Huxley. But Julia’s own story, while
glimpses into Carey’s life as well as von scattered across some of the most remote lesser known, is equally fascinating.
Arnim’s, this is a guide to happiness that communities in Australia. Smith recounts Now $16.95
Though she enjoyed immense privilege
Q
bears no resemblance to a self-help book. how, after being transplanted from his and educational advantages, she
white-boy privileged suburban life, he nonetheless railed against the forms of
became embedded in island life, albeit
4. Who boarded at Caulfield Grammar? as an outsider from a racial and
cultural minority.
societal and marital disempowerment
she experienced as a woman of her era.
UNSEEN
A PROMISED LAND SOAR: A LIFE FREED BY DANCE Jacinta Parsons
Barack Obama David McAllister One of a number of illness memoirs
In the highly anticipated first volume of The release of David McAllister’s that have been published in Australia
his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama memoir coincides with his retirement as this year, Unseen is about chronic illness
tells the story of his improbable odyssey artistic director of the Australian Ballet rather than the short sharp kind of
from young man searching for his identity and, while it will naturally be of interest disease that might come with a cure. ABC
to the 44th President of the United States, to ballet lovers for its many behind- Melbourne presenter Jacinta Parsons
the first African American to hold this the-scenes insights, the fact that it is an writes about her experience with Crohn’s
office. Obama describes both his political engaging yarn means that it will have disease as a way of showing how chronic
education and the landmark moments of a much wider appeal. McAllister is a Affirm PB illness affects every aspect of someone’s
Viking HB the first term of his historic presidency, Thames & Hudson natural storyteller: warm and charming life – relationships, friendships, work.
offering a unique and thoughtful HB with a self-deprecating sense of humour $32.99 But most of all she portrays how chronic
Was $65
exploration of both the reach and limits Was $39.99 that feels decidedly Australian. Soar illness affects someone’s relationship with
Now $54.99 of presidential power, as well as singular describes his dance journey, from a themselves – not just their body but their
Now $34.99 ballet studio in Perth to his golden days
insights into the dynamics of US partisan very identity. Parsons skilfully captures
politics and international diplomacy. as a principal dancer for the Australian the physical and emotional reality of
Ballet. It is both a candid account of being sick, of being in hospital, of dealing
the resilience and single-mindedness with doctors who may or may not see you
ROBERT MENZIES required to be an elite athlete, and a as a whole person, of how other people
Troy Bramston personal reflection on McAllister’s respond to illness. And in doing so, she
Many books have been written about struggles to embrace his sexuality. makes the unseen seen.
Robert Menzies. Some have been
hagiographies, others more diffident
treatments. What they all have in THE TIME OF OUR LIVES WOMEN’S WORK
common is an agreement that the Robert Dessaix Megan K Stack
longest-serving prime minister of our The latest book by novelist, essayist and Subtitled ‘a personal reckoning with
country left a considerable and lasting journalist Robert Dessaix is a long, witty labour, motherhood, and privilege’, the
political legacy. In this book, journalist and intellectual conversational essay latest book by exceptional writer and
Scribe HB Troy Bramston focuses on the man and about ageing. Literally conversational, journalist Megan K Stack (Every Man
Was $49.99 his political manoeuvring. In Bramston’s because Dessaix reconstructs chats with in This Village Is a Liar) is a riveting
opinion, Menzies was ‘…more substantial friends and strangers to talk directly to read that asks the reader to consider
Now $19.95 than his critics allow and [had] more his reader – and it seems, to himself as their own position on the great gender
faults than his admirers accept’. Known well. Browsing a cornucopia of topics and class divide of domestic labour. By
for his healthy ego, Menzies had a higher Brio HB related to growing old, including death, Scribe PB exploring her own story of motherhood
opinion of his leadership skills than did the soul, sex, other pleasures, the arts, and the endless cycle of work it creates
most of his colleagues (Billy Hughes said $32.99 travel and religion, he takes a nuanced
Was $32.99
with breathtaking honesty, Stack raises
that he ‘couldn’t lead a flock of homing and often unpredictable approach to Now $12.95 necessary questions about the inescapable
pigeons’) but was sensitive about some all. In typical Dessaix fashion, he roams (and often hidden) work of a family
criticisms, most notably that he didn’t sign across many thinkers and writers while home. Brutally honest, Women’s Work
up to fight in WW1 and later joined with doing so. And his conclusion? An inner reinforces the facts that the personal is
Chamberlain to advocate appeasement life, born of curiosity and playfulness, is political, and that this truth cannot be
with Hitler. A fascinating read. key to growing old well. ignored when considering our choices.
Highly Recommended
KRISTIAN FREDRIKSON: PHOSPHORESCENCE SON OF THE BRUSH UNTWISTED
DESIGNER JULIA BAIRD TIM OLSEN PAUL JENNINGS
MICHELLE POTTER Fourth Estate HB $32.99 Allen & Unwin PB $34.99 Allen & Unwin HB $34.99
Melbourne Books HB $59.95 Drawing on her The son of Australian Reflections on writing,
This celebration of the life and work own memories and artist John Olsen tells of teaching and living
of acclaimed stage designer Kristian experiences, Australian growing up in an artistic from the author of
Fredrikson is replete with drawings journalist and writer Julia milieu, overcoming much-loved Australian
and photographs of magnificent Baird ponders how we can alcoholism and building children’s books
costumes and sets created for find and nurture within a career as a prominent including Round the
companies including the Australian ourselves that elusive gallery owner. Twist and Unreal!
Ballet and Australian Opera. thing known as happiness.
MEMORIAL DRIVE A REPURPOSED LIFE TRUTHS FROM AN THE WILD SILENCE
NATASHA TRETHEWEY RONNI KAHN WITH UNRELIABLE WITNESS RAYNOR WINN
Bloomsbury PB $27.99 JESSICA CHAPNIK KAHN FIONA O’LOUGHLIN Michael Joseph HB $35
Two-time United States Poet Murdoch PB $32.99 Hachette PB $32.99 After walking the
Laureate Natasha Trethewey, A candid and inspiring Australian comedian 1000km South West
the child of a black mother and memoir from the Sydney- Fiona O’Loughlin Coast Path in England
a white father, writes about the based founder and CEO of writes of love, (The Salt Path),
murder of her mother in the OzHarvest, which works marriage, motherhood, Raynor Winn and her
1960s, pondering issues such as to support economically melancholy and terminally ill husband
sudden loss and absence, white vulnerable members alcoholism in her wry Moth follow new
racism and domestic abuse. of our community and and uncompromisingly paths towards natural
address Australia’s food- honest memoir. healing in Cornwall
waste problem. and Iceland.You can also read
