The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2019 shortlist
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FREE SE P T EM BE R 2019
The Readings
Prize for New
Australian
Fiction 2019
shortlist
page 6
Our annual
Father’s Day
gift guide
page 11
B OOK S
M USI C
F I LM
EVENTS
MAR T I N
SI M PS ON
page 23
T H E F I N AL
J OE Y B U I MAR G AR E T T YSON F IONA H AR DY Q UAR T E R
page 7 AT WOOD YU N KAPOR TA page 21 page 22
page 9 page 16
CARLTON 309 LYGON ST 9347 6633 KIDS 315 LYGON ST 9341 7730 DONCASTER WESTFIELD DONCASTER, 619 DONCASTER RD 9810 0891
HAWTHORN 701 GLENFERRIE RD 9819 1917 MALVERN 185 GLENFERRIE RD 9509 1952 ST KILDA 112 ACLAND ST 9525 3852 STATE LIBRARY
VICTORIA 285-321 RUSSELL ST 8664 7540 | SEE SHOP OPENING HOURS, BROWSE AND BUY ONLINE AT READINGS.COM.AU
The Wheeler Centre presents
MIND.
FULL.
Season Two 2019
SUBSCRIBE NOW
to our podcasts and e-news
at wheelercentre.com
TOXIC FEMININITY KRACK!N THE INDUSTRY
White Tears/Brown Scars Inclusion on Screen
In 2018, Sydney journalist Ruby Hamad wrote an article for the Finally, Australian comedy is seeing a broader range of
Guardian that touched a nerve with readers around the world. voices represented in writers’ rooms, on screen and behind
The article, ‘How white women use strategic tears to silence the scenes. For season two of Get Krack!n co-creators
women of colour,’ was about the special and dangerous claims Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney made inclusion and
white women make to victimhood and how these adversely accessibility a production and creative focus.
affect and are wielded against women of colour.
In this discussion, hosted by Alistair Baldwin we’ll feature
She has since adapted the article into a new book, White artists who worked on that hilarious and game-changing
Tears/Brown Scars. Hosted by Hella Ibrahim, Hamad will be series. They’ll address how the screen sector can, more broadly, MON 30 SEPT
joined by Arrernte activist and social commentator Celeste go about making space for people who have not traditionally at the Wheeler Centre
Liddle for a discussion about what happens when racism and WED 25 SEPT been represented across, and behind, our screens. Time: 6.15pm – 7.15pm, FREE
sexism collide. at the Wheeler Centre 3 This event will be Auslan
Time: 6.15pm – 7.15pm, FREE Presented in partnership with The Other Film Festival. interpreted.
DOUBLE BOOKED CLUB WRITING IN EXILE BLAK & BRIGHT
Sarah Bailey and Mark Brandi Hawzhin Azeez Read a Blak Book Lately?
Meet two talented Australian crime writers for a fascinating When there is no home to return to/no safety known/and not We open this year’s Blak & Bright festival with a Welcome to
hour-long conversation, hosted by crime-fiction buff Christian an inch of this world/that you can call your own Country, ceremonial song and speeches. Then, hosts Daniel
White. Then flee the scene. Browning and Evelyn Araluen discuss and review some of the
The haunting refrain from Hawzhin Azeez’s poem, No Home latest – and some of the greatest – Blak books. Hear excerpts
Sarah Bailey is the author of three riveting crime novels, all To Return To, encapsulates the sense of absence and loss and, if you’re lucky, glimpse an author or two.
starring the young detective sergeant Gemma Woodstock. that drives much of the poet’s writing, research and activism.
The third novel in the series, Where the Dead Go, sees Gemma Born in South Kurdistan (north Iraq) during the first Gulf War, Visit blakandbright.com.au for the full festival programme.
investigating a murder in a small coastal town. Azeez’s family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime and lived for
This event is presented in partnership with Blak & Bright First Nations
eight years in Iran.
Mark Brandi’s new novel, The Rip, is about a young Literary Festival and Melbourne Writers Festival.
woman sleeping rough, it’s set in inner-Melbourne and With Sami Shah, this exceptional young writer, poet and
it draws on Brandi’s own experience from working in the creative powerhouse will discuss what it takes to reconstruct
criminal justice system. cities – and stories.
FRI 13 SEPT
at the Wheeler Centre THUR 12 SEPT
Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm, FREE at the Wheeler Centre FRI 6 SEPT
Lunch available for purchase from the Moat when booking. Time: 6.15pm – 7.15pm, FREE at the Wheeler Centre
This event will be live-streamed. 3 This event will be Auslan interpreted. Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm, FREE
BOOK NOW at wheelercentre.com
NEWS September 2019 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 3
September
by Alice Robinson. This year’s guest judge sale includes recordings from Australia’s of four recipients for the Booksellers in
is author (and 2018 Readings Prize winner) own ABC Classics label as well as DG, Residence program, an initiative run by
Jennifer Down. She will join our staff judging Decca, Signum Classics, Sony Classical, the Melbourne City of Literature. Ellen will
News
panel to select a winner from the shortlist. Brilliant Classics and DVDs from Australian spend a week, early next year, at Third
The winning book will be featured in the Opera. The sale is available in all Readings Place Books in Seattle sharing ideas,
November edition of Readings Monthly and shops (except Readings Kids and Readings observing and learning how things are done
the author will receive a $3000 prize. Read State Library Victoria) and online from now on the other side of the world.
more about the shortlisted titles on page 6, until 30 September, while stocks last.
and at readings.com.au/the-readings-prize-
Indigenous Literacy Day for-new-australian-fiction Booker Prize shortlist dinner
This year Indigenous Literacy Day is on Australian Reading Hour Join us on Monday 14 October for our
Wednesday 4 September. The Indigenous The Australian Reading Hour is an initiative sit-down Booker Prize shortlist dinner at
Literacy Foundation (ILF) aims to raise 2020 Readings Diary that encourages all Australians to take Tolarno’s, St Kilda. Discuss which Booker
literacy levels and improve the opportunities We have created a limited edition diary an hour out of their day on Thursday 19 Prize-shortlisted book you think should win;
of Indigenous Australians living in remote for 2020 that is ideal for booklovers. The September to pick up a book. Reading is which book you think probably will win; and
and isolated regions. Ten per cent of funds Readings Diary has a week-to-a-view proven to reduce stress levels even more which book will win over your dead body
from books sold in our shops on Wednesday layout, a monthly literary trivia question, than activities like going for a walk or (chances are, that’s the one that will get the
4 September will be donated to the ILF. For and is full of first lines from some of our listening to music, and it increases empathy. gong!). Mark Rubbo, Readings’ managing
more information about the ILF, please visit favourite Australian books, photographs See our events pages for information about director, will be your host du jour and Jane
indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au. from our seven shops, and even sections to what we’re doing for Reading Hour. Sullivan, literary journalist from The Age,
keep track of your reading (and who you’ve will give you her insider knowledge on how
lent books out to). The Readings Diary awards work and what judges look out for.
Readings Kids’ Book Subscription is available from all Readings shops, and Booksellers in Residence Tickets are $125 per head and include wine,
Our Kids’ Book Subscription is the perfect online from 29 August. We are delighted to announce that Ellen food and a $50 donation to The Readings
gift for the little people in your life – a book Cregan, our talented marketing and events Foundation. For more information see
in the post every month to share. There coordinator, has been selected as one readings.com.au/events
are two options to choose from: a six- The Melbourne Writers Festival
month subscription ($185) and a ten-month The 2019 Melbourne Writers Festival
subscription ($300). Each book will be runs from Friday 30 August to Sunday
selected monthly by our expert children’s 8 September. Some highlights of this
booksellers, and then posted out by us. We year’s festival include international visitors
recommend this subscription for children Tayari Jones, Becky Albertalli and DeRay
aged 0–4 years old. The subscription Mckesson, as well as local authors Bruce
is available for purchase exclusively Pascoe, Andrea Goldsmith, Clementine
in the Readings online shop. For more Ford and many more. You can browse the
information about the Readings Kids’ Book full program and make bookings at mwf.
Subscription, please see: com.au. This year, MWF will be held in
readings.com.au/the-kids-book-subscription multiple venues within walking distance of
Melbourne’s iconic State Library Victoria,
and you can find books from the artists
The Readings Prize for New Australian featured at the festival at the Readings
Fiction 2019 Shortlist State Library Victoria shop (open daily).
This year’s shortlist for the Readings Readings is proud to be the official
Prize for New Australian Fiction has bookseller of Melbourne Writers Festival.
been announced. The shortlisted books
are A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop,
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman, The Flight Classical Music Sale
of Birds by Joshua Lobb, A Superior Spectre The Readings classical music sale is on
by Angela Meyer, This Taste for Silence by again, with discounts of up to 60% on CDs,
Amanda O’Callaghan, and The Glad Shout classical box-sets and DVDs. This year’s
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY EDITOR EVENTS & PROGRAMMING P R I C E S A N D AVA I L A B I L I T Y
Free, independent monthly newspaper Elke Power Chris Gordon Please note that all prices and release
published by Readings Books, Music & Film elke.power@readings.com.au dates in Readings Monthly are correct at
ADVERTISING time of publication, however prices and
SUBSCRIBE E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T S Ellen Cregan release dates may change without notice.
You can subscribe to Readings Monthly Judi Mitchell and Ellen Cregan ellen.cregan@readings.com.au Special price offers apply only for the
and our e-news by visiting our website: month in which they are featured in the
readings.com.au/sign-up PROOFREADERS GRAPHIC DESIGN Readings Monthly.
Judi Mitchell, Ellen Cregan and Marie Cat Matteson
DELIVERY CHARGES FOR Matteson Readings donates 10% of its profits each
M A I L- O R D E R P U R C H A S E S FRONT COVER
year to The Readings Foundation:
$6 flat rate for anywhere in Australia K I D S / YA C U R AT O R S The September Readings Monthly cover readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation
Angela Crocombe and Dani Solomon and Father’s Day Gift Guide feature
DELIVERY CHARGES FOR artwork by Carla McRae. See more at
ONLINE PURCHASES M U S I C C U R AT O R thepaperbeast.com.au
$6 flat rate for anywhere in Australia for Dave Clarke
orders under $100. Free delivery on orders CAR TOON
$100 and over. C L A S S I C A L M U S I C C U R AT O R Oslo Davis
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D V D S C U R AT O R
Lou Fulco
4 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY September 2019 E V EN T S
September
including The Last Dragonslayer series,
Tuesday 10 September, 6.30pm which has been adapted for television. Hear Thursday 19 September, 6.30pm
Fforde talking about his new standalone
Events JANE GILMORE IN SARAH THORNTON IN
novel, Early Riser, and more, with award-
winning writer Alison Croggon.
CONVERSATION WITH CONVERSATION WITH
CLEMENTINE FORD Readings Hawthorn SARAH BAILEY
701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
Join us to hear journalist Jane Gilmore Together with Sisters in Crime, we are
discuss her powerful new book, Fixed It: Tickets are $5 per person, redeemable off a delighted to have Sarah Thornton joining
Event times and locations are subject to change. Violence and the Representation of Women Fforde title on the night. us to discuss her debut novel, Lapse, with
For the most up-to-date information on in the Media, with Clementine Ford. Please book at readings.com.au/events award-winning crime writer Sarah Bailey.
events, please check readings.com.au/events
Church of All Nations Readings St Kilda
Please note, for our free, in-store events, your 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton 112 Acland Street, St Kilda
booking may not always guarantee a seat. Friday 13 September, 6.30pm
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
ANTONY LOWENSTEIN IN
Wednesday 11 September, 6.30pm CONVERSATION Friday 20 September, 6.30pm
Antony Lowenstein’s Pills, Powder and,
IES JOSEPHINE ROWE IN Smoke is an incredible investigation into the ANNELISE NIELSEN ON
STOR
LIA
N CONVERSATION WITH never-ending global war on drugs. Join us
MONEY SPINNERS
RA as Lowenstein discusses his new book.
ST 50 Australian JUSTINE HYDE Annelise Nielsen travelled the country
Stories event series Readings St Kilda
AU
Come along to hear acclaimed Australian covering the Hayne Royal Commission
author Josephine Rowe in conversation 112 Acland Street, St Kilda and then did a deep dive into the history of
about her new short-story collection, Here Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events financial advisers in Australia. Join Nielsen for
Readings is celebrating our 50 year Until August, with fellow writer Justine Hyde. a discussion of her book, Money Spinners.
history in 2019. To honour the stories
Readings Carlton Readings Hawthorn
that have emerged from the books on
309 Lygon Street, Carlton Monday 16 September, 6.30pm 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
our shelves, we are hosting 50 special
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
events that illustrate passion, artistry
and Australian literature.
CLARE G. COLEMAN IN
CONVERSATION WITH
Wednesday 11 September, 6.15pm TONY BIRCH Saturday 21 September, 10.30am–11am
46
Claire G. Coleman’s second novel, The Old
Monday 9 September, ELIZABETH JOLLEY Lie, asks what we have learned from the STORY TIME WITH EMMA
6pm–7pm
SHORT STORY PRIZE past. Hear Coleman discuss her new book MIDDLETON
with fellow author Tony Birch.
ANNABEL CRABB IN AWARD NIGHT Join Emma Middleton as she performs a
Readings Carlton puppet show while she reads from her
CONVERSATION WITH The Australian Book Review Elizabeth
Jolley Short Story Prize is one of Australia’s 309 Lygon Street, Carlton delightfully interactive book for energetic
VIRGINIA TRIOLI leading prizes for an original short story. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
young readers, Can You Guess?
We are thrilled to be hosting the celebration Join us as Maxine Beneba Clarke, one of Readings Kids
of the 75th Quarterly Essay. Join us to hear this year’s judges, awards the prize for 2019. 315 Lygon Street, Carlton
renowned political commentator Annabel
Readings Hawthorn Tuesday 17 September, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
Crabb in conversation about her essay
701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
‘Men at Work – Australia’s Parenthood Trap’
with the ABC’s Virginia Trioli. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events JANE R. GOODALL ON THE
The Athenaeum Theatre
COMMON GOOD Monday 23 – Monday 30 September
188 Collins Street, Melbourne Hear Jane R. Goodall discuss her book, The
Thursday 12 – Monday 30 September Politics of the Common Good, in which she KENNY PITTOCK ART
Tickets are $45 per person and include a
copy of Quarterly Essay 75: Men at Work –
argues that the principle of ‘the commons’ EXHIBITION
Australia’s Parenthood Trap. MELBOURNE FRINGE should be restored to the heart of our politics. Visual artist Kenny Pittock makes ceramic
Please book at readings.com.au/events FESTIVAL: KRISTAN Readings Hawthorn
sculptures of his favourite books and takes
EMERSON 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn them to book launches to show the authors.
To help celebrate Readings’ 50th birthday,
We are delighted to play a small part in the Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
fifty ceramic books will be on display from
Monday 9 September, 6.30pm 2019 Melbourne Fringe Festival by hosting an
Pittock’s collection. Just this once, come
exhibition by Kristan Emerson, a legally blind
along and judge books by their covers!
DENNIS ALTMAN IN photographer. His ‘Blurry Borders’ exhibition
Tuesday 17 September, 6.30pm
aims to promote access and inclusion for those
CONVERSATION WITH with visual impairment and other disabilities.
Readings Carlton shop window
309 Lygon Street, Carlton
ANDREA GOLDSMITH GABRIELLE JACKSON IN
Join us to hear Dennis Altman chat with
Readings Carlton side wall (Tyne Street)
309 Lygon Street, Carlton
CONVERSATION WITH
fellow author Andrea Goldsmith about VAN BADHAM Monday 23 September, 10.30am–11.15am
his memoir Unrequited Love: Diary of an
Join Guardian journalist Gabrielle Jackson
Accidental Activist.
Thursday 12 September, 6.30pm–7.30pm
as she discusses her potent new book, Pain A DRAWING WORKSHOP
Readings St Kilda and Prejudice: A Call to Arms for Women WITH NICKY JOHNSTON
and Their Bodies, with writer Van Badham.
112 Acland Street, St Kilda
MATT SIMONS ON MORAL Under the Same Sky by Robert Vescio and
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
CHOICES Readings Carlton illustrated by Nicky Johnston celebrates
309 Lygon Street, Carlton friendship transcending cultural differences,
In Dancing with the Bull, Matt Simons
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events language barriers and distance. Join Johnston
examines the fundamentally flawed ways in
Tuesday 10 September, 6.15pm–8.30pm for an interactive drawing workshop.
which large organisations often thrive at the
expense of the people working for them. Join Readings Kids
DOGS IN SPACE us for a discussion about corporate culture. Thursday 19 September, 6.30pm–7.30pm 315 Lygon Street, Carlton
Readings, Melbourne Books and Cinema Tickets are $25 per child and include a copy
Readings St Kilda
Nova invite you to enjoy a conversation 112 Acland Street, St Kilda AUSTRALIAN READING of Under the Same Sky and a drawing to take
between director Richard Lowenstein, Ann home. This workshop is suitable kids aged 4–7
Standish and Helen Bandis about their new
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events HOUR WITH BENJAMIN years old. Places are limited and bookings are
book, Dogs in Space: A Film Archive, and a LAW essential at readings.com.au/events
screening of Dogs in Space afterwards. To celebrate Australian Reading Hour, join
Thursday 12 September, 6.30pm us for a glass of wine and to hear Benjamin
Cinema Nova
Law reading opening lines from his favourite Monday 23 September, 2.30pm
380 Lygon Street, Carlton
JASPER FFORDE IN books, with prizes up for grabs for those
Tickets are $10 per person, redeemable off
the price of Dogs in Space: A Film Archive if
CONVERSATION WITH who are able to guess the books’ titles.
STORY TIME WITH STEF
purchased at the event. ALISON CROGGAN Readings Carlton GEMMILL
Since his debut with The Eyre Affair, Jasper 309 Lygon Street, Carlton We are delighted to have author Stef Gemmill
Seating is limited, and bookings are essential at
readings.com.au/events Fforde has written another twelve novels, Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events joining us to read from A Home for Luna, her
E V E N TS September 2019 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 5
gorgeous book for readers 8 years old about Tahbilk, together with author Richard of Things, discuss her new novel, The two young boys and the first prison for children.
friendship, migration and fear of the unknown. Allen and photographer Kim Baker, as we Weekend, with Sophie Cunningham. This Wednesday 4 September, 6.30pm
launch Australia’s First Families of Wine. It event is supported by the Stella Prize. Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required.
Readings Kids
celebrates eleven of Australia’s iconic wine
315 Lygon Street, Carlton Church of All Nations The Rising Tide by Tom Bamforth
families and the businesses they have built.
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Tom Bamforth’s The Rising Tide tells true stories
Readings Hawthorn Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events of the people and cultures at the frontline of
701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn climate change in the Pacific Ocean.
Tickets are $70 per person, or $100 per couple, Thursday 5 September, 6.30pm
Tuesday 24 September, 6.30pm Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
and include tastes and a copy of Australia’s
Monday 28 October, 6.30pm–8pm
First Families of Wine.
PEGGY KERN & KELLY- Bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events
Hasina by Michelle Aung Thin & Lyn
White (series ed.)
ANN ALLEN ON BOOSTING CLARE BOWDITCH ON New to the Through My Eyes series, Hasina by
SCHOOL BELONGING YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL Michelle Aung Thin is the story of one child’s
Boosting School Belonging provides In her new, no-holds-barred memoir, Your experience of the refugee crisis in Myanmar.
Thursday 26 September, 6.30pm
activities that help secondary students Own Kind of Girl, ARIA Award-winning Thursday 5 September, 6.30pm
develop a sense of belonging. Join authors singer–songwriter and actress Clare Readings Kids | Free, no booking required.
Peggy Kearn and Kelly-Ann Allen as they
SPRING POETRY READING Bowditch confronts her inner critic and
When You’re Not OK by Jill Stark
discuss the evidence-based strategies that We are delighted to host an evening of reveals a childhood punctuated by grief,
Jill Stark’s When You’re Not OK: A toolkit
make this book an invaluable resource for poetry at our beautiful State Library shop. anxiety and compulsion. Join Bowditch as
for tough times is an emotional first-aid kit
teachers, psychologists and counsellors. Join us as poets Rosalee Kiely (Creature), she celebrates this heartbreaking, wise and
written by someone who’s been there too.
Henry Briffa (Walking Home) and Edward playful memoir.
Readings Hawthorn Tuesday 10 September, 6.30pm
Caruso (Blue Milonga) read their work.
701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn The Athenaeum Theatre Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
Readings State Library Victoria 188 Collins Street, Melbourne
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Abandoned Australia by Shane Thoms
285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne Tickets are $45 and include a signed copy of Ingrid Josephine will launch Shane Thoms’
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Your Own Kind of Girl. Abandoned Australia, which chronicles an
Bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events evolving Australian story with photographs.
Wednesday 25 September,
10.30am–11.30am Thursday 12 September, 6.30pm
Monday 30 September, 6.30pm Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
A WEAVING WORKSHOP Wednesday 30 October, 6.30pm The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling
WITH PILGRIM LEE CHRISTIAN WHITE IN by Wai Chim
We are delighted to have Readings’ own CONVERSATION CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS ON The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by
Pilgrim Lee taking us through another Set against the backdrop of an eerie island DAMASCUS Wai Chim is a nourishing YA novel about the
crevices of culture, mental wellness and family.
wonderful arty workshop. This time: town in the dead of winter, Christian White’s We are delighted to have Christos Tsiolkas
Thursday 12 September, 6.30pm
bookmark weaving. second novel, The Wife and the Widow, is a joining us to discuss his new novel, Readings Kids | Free, no booking required.
thriller told from two perspectives. Join the Damascus. It’s a work of soaring ambition and
Readings Kids We Refugees
author of the bestselling The Nowhere Child achievement, taking as its subject nothing
315 Lygon Street, Carlton
as he discusses his new book. less than the establishment of Christianity. We Refugees will be launched by Julian
Tickets are $10 per child and include materials. Burnside and is the third anthology in a series
Suitable for children aged 7–10 years old. Readings Carlton Church of All Nations to spark conversation, promote awareness,
309 Lygon Street, Carlton 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton and amplify the voices of the marginalised.
Bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Monday 16 September, 6.30pm
Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required.
Coming
Wednesday 25 September, 6.30pm–8pm What We Tell Them by David Blumenstein
Thursday 7 November, 6.30pm–7.30pm Cartoon artist David Blumenstein’s What We
BILL HENSON IN Tell Them illuminates the words and actions of
ARCHIE ROACH ON TELL
Up
CONVERSATION Australia’s most accidental PM, Tony Abbott.
Join us for an evening of food and wine
ME WHY Wednesday 18 September, 6.30pm
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
in the cellar at King and Godfree with Tell Me Why is the intimate, moving and often
eminent Australian artist Bill Henson as he shocking memoir from legendary singer– The Economics of Arrival by Dr Katherine
discusses his recent exhibition and book, songwriter and storyteller Archie Roach. Trebeck
The Light Fades but the Gods Remain. Celebrate the publication of this stunning A pioneer in the global ‘beyond GDP
Sunday 6 October, 3pm account of resilience – and great love movement’, Dr Katherine Trebeck is visiting
King and Godfree, Cellar story – by hearing from the author himself. from the UK to launch her book The
293/297 Lygon Street, Carlton Economics of Arrival.
Tickets are $45 per person and include a glass
HILARY MCPHEE IN The Athenaeum Theatre Thursday 19 September, 6.30pm
of wine and shared antipasto plates. Bookings CONVERSATION WITH 188 Collins Street, Melbourne Readings SLV | Free, but please book at
are essential at readings.com.au/events KATE LEGGE Tickets are $50 per person, and include a copy readings.com.au/events
of Tell Me Why.
We are delighted to have publishing legend Drawing Power
Hilary McPhee joining us to discuss her Bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events A collection of nonfiction comics from female
Thursday 26 September, 10.30am–11.15am memoir, Other People’s Houses, with cartoonists, Drawing Power will be launched
author Kate Legge. Fleeing the aftermath by Mary Crooks (Victorian Women’s Trust)
A DRAWING WORKSHOP
WITH BEN SANDERS
of a failed marriage, McPhee embarks on
a writing project in the Middle East, and Book and contributors Sarah First and Rachel Ang.
Friday 20 September, 5.15pm
Launches
from apartments in Cortona and Amman Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
Illustrator Ben Sanders will take us through and an attic in London, she watches other
an interactive workshop while he reads Nobody’s Soldier by Peter Antonenko
women managing magnificently alone as
from his hilarious new book, My Book, Nobody’s Soldier: The Life of Andrii
she flounders through extreme loneliness.
about a bewildered sloth who just wants Antonenko by Peter Antonenko gives a
McPhee’s memoir is full of insights into
to express himself, and a sly old fox who snapshot of a glossed over yet critical time
different worlds, and of the friendships
keeps stealing the limelight. About a Girl by Rebekah Robertson in the history of Ukraine.
which sustained her.
Rebekah Robertson’s About a Girl is her Wednesday 25 September, 6.30pm
Readings Kids Cinema Nova profoundly moving true story of raising her Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required.
315 Lygon Street, Carlton 380 Lygon Street, Carlton transgender child, activist Georgie Stone.
Special by Melanie Dimmitt
Tickets are $25 per child and include signed Tickets are $30 per person, and include Tuesday 3 September, 6.30pm
copy of My Book and all art supplies. Suitable for Lee Kofman will launch Melanie Dimmitt’s
champagne and afternoon tea. Readings Hawthorn | Free, but please book at
children aged 4–8 years old. Places limited and Special, an uplifting and candid companion for
readings.com.au/events
bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events Bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events those new to the special-needs community.
Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui Wednesday 25 September, 6.30pm
Jennifer Down will launch Joey Bui’s debut Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
short-fiction collection, Lucky Ticket, which
Thursday 26 September, 6pm–7.30pm Wednesday 23 October, 6.30pm–7.30pm How to be a Big, Strong Man by Samuel
prompts us to think differently about cross-
Leighton-Dore
cultural differences and migrant experiences.
WINE TASTING AT CHARLOTTE WOOD IN Wednesday 4 September, 6.30pm
JOY FM’s Dean Arcuri will be in
conversation with artist Samuel Leighton-
READINGS HAWTHORN CONVERSATION WITH Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
Dore about his tongue-in-cheek book of
Come along for a wine-tasting event with SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM The Lost Boys of Mr Dickens by Steve Harris illustrations, How to be a Big, Strong Man.
family members from iconic Victorian Join us to hear Charlotte Wood, the Stella Geoffrey Blainey will launch The Lost Boys of Thursday 26 September, 6.30pm
wineries Brown Brothers, Campbells and Prize-winning author of The Natural Way Mr Dickens by Steve Harris, the true story of Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
6 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY September 2019 C O LU M N S | FE AT U R E
Mark’s Dear
2019
The Readings
Prize for
Say Reader New Australian
My father was a scientist
and head of the University
Deborah Levy is a
favourite author of many
Fiction
shortlist
It has been a privilege to judge this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction during
of Melbourne’s of our staff. Her last two
our 50th Birthday year. I would conjecture that no one in Australia other than the annual
Department of books (the novel, Hot Milk
judging panel reads this group of books together – all the eligible first and second novels
Bacteriology, (2016) and the memoir,
or short story collections from Australian authors in a year period (amounting this round
affectionately known as ‘The Bug School’. It The Cost of Living (2018)) both featured on
to nearly fifty works) – and so it gives us four judges a unique perspective on publishing
was located in an old building on Swanston Readings’ ‘best of the year’ lists, which are
in the emerging writing field. We can report that this year’s offerings included many
Street (now the Ian Potter Museum of Art). compiled from staff votes. It might be
works that were original, daring, challenging, and extremely accomplished, and it was a
He assembled around him a dedicated and, presumptuous to suggest so at this early
genuine challenge to make a shortlist of only six books. There were tears of passion in our
from memory, eccentric, team. It included stage, but I foresee The Man Who Saw
meeting (no, seriously, there were!). I extend this year’s shortlisted authors the sincerest of
Holocaust survivors, Nobel Prize winners, Everything (Levy’s new novel and our
congratulations from the judging panel, and from the Readings family at large.
and aspiring musicians. For us kids, visits Fiction Book of the Month) making it onto
The 2019 judging panel is Christine Gordon (events & programming manager for
were a source of stationery, test tubes and 2019’s list with ease. Just read our brilliant
Readings), Sharon Peterson (manager at Readings St Kilda), Amanda Rayner (senior staff
other exciting paraphernalia, as well as the review and believe the hype. This month we
member at Readings Carlton), and Alison Huber, Readings’ head book buyer. Our managing
occasional rabbit or guinea pig rescued also recommend many fine books,
director, Mark Rubbo, and 2018’s winner, Jennifer Down, will join the panel to select the
from an experiment. One of his colleagues including from Lucy Treloar, Claire G.
winner. The winner will be announced online in late October, and will be featured in the
was Adrien Albert. When Uncle Adrien Coleman, Salman Rushdie, Nicole Dennis-
November issue of Readings Monthly. The winner will receive $3000 in prize money.
moved away to the ANU, he would often Benn, Amanda Niehaus, Joey Bui, Marcy
send me a carefully chosen book. They Dermansky, and Josephine Rowe. I’m
didn’t seem to mark any particular pleased to see that one of Sigrid Nunez’s
occasion, but I remember the intense earlier novels, The Last of Her Kind, is being
A Constant Hum A Superior Spectre
excitement and pleasure when the parcel reissued; we all loved The Friend so much.
Alice Bishop Angela Meyer
arrived. I can’t remember many of the titles It was sad to learn of the death of
Text. PB. $29.99 Ventura. PB. $29.99
but Orlando The Marmalade Cat and This is Andrew McGahan in February this year.
A riveting collection of This novel is weird in the
Rome by Miroslav Sasek stick in my mind. His writing inspired a genre (1992’s Praise
stories assembled around best kind of way. Taking
When my grandchildren were born, I is perhaps the defining ‘grunge-lit’ novel),
the aftermath of the 2009 readers on a trip through
wanted them to experience the delight of won numerous literary prizes, including
Black Saturday bushfires time, space, and
that surprise parcel arriving. So I’d ask our the Miles Franklin in 2005 (for 2004’s The
and told with a poignancy consciousness, A Superior
wonderful children’s booksellers to select White Earth), and has been part of the
that respects both reader Spectre is an
something for me, as Uncle Adrien probably Australian cultural landscape for going on
and subject, A Constant unconventional story
did, but I was disorganised and erratic. I thirty years. McGahan’s final novel, The
Hum is short fiction at its starring a flawed
longed for someone to organise it for me. Rich Man’s House, is published this month.
best. This skilful and assured debut protagonist. Lush with the detail of its
Each month our booksellers sift through September also brings us the
explores themes of loss and renewal, and period settings in Scotland and beyond,
hundreds of new titles. I wondered, could international event that is the publication
what it means to survive when so much, this genre- and mind-bending piece of
they pick one outstanding book for me each of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments,
and so many, did not. writing is utterly unique.
month? Ever accommodating, the response which takes up Offred’s story twenty years
was yes! It occurred to me that I probably after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale.
wasn’t alone in this desire, that there are Even we at Readings have to wait until the
lots of other grandparents, uncles, aunts or worldwide embargo is lifted to read this
other people with special children in their new work from one of the most important Inappropriation This Taste for
lives who are busy, but would also love to writers of our (or any) age. Be sure to Lexi Freiman Silence
have a beautiful book delivered to that child preorder your copy! A&U. PB. $29.99 Amanda O’Callaghan
once a month. So, if you are one of those Our Nonfiction Book of the Month, Inappropriation is a sharp UQP. PB. $22.95
people, you can now have a carefully Sand Talk, has a compelling and urgent and uncompromising A seamlessly curated
selected book sent every month with a subtitle: How Indigenous Thinking Can feminist satire of identity collection of short stories,
special message from you. It’s a great deal Save the World. This book is challenging politics in the new This Taste for Silence
and we have six- and ten-month packages and exhilarating in its scope; hearing millennium. It is also a showcases the talents of a
that include delivery. You can arrange a the author, Tyson Yunkaporta, speak campus novel of the writer in complete control
subscription online at readings.com.au/ was a highlight of this year’s Australian highest order. Set in a of her craft. Inventive in
the-readings-kids-book-subscription. Booksellers Association Conference in prestigious girls school in its themes and by an
It’s been five years since we established June, and I think his book couldn’t come inner Sydney as a group of teenage girls try to author unafraid to enfold
The Readings Prize for New Australian at a better time. Also out this month are work out who they are and how they can be, her readers into unsettling reading
Fiction. Since then, we’ve added a prize anticipated books from Ruby Hamad, Jane this clever, funny, and incredibly confident experiences, this is an exceptional debut,
for books for younger readers, and most Gilmore, Chloe Higgins, Sally Rugg, and debut novel lays bare the anxieties of our age. featuring startlingly effective
recently, an award for Young Adult writing. Annabel Crabb’s new Quarterly Essay, plus microfictions alongside longer stories.
As you may have noticed, this year’s winner a major intellectual biography of Susan
of The Readings Young Adult Book Prize Sontag which appears mid-month. Neal
was Eleni Hale for her remarkable novel, Drinnan’s The Devil’s Grip promises to be,
Stone Girl. As you can imagine, running in the words of our reviewer, ‘unlike any
The Flight of Birds
Joshua Lobb The Glad Shout
the prizes takes a lot of effort, particularly other true-crime book [you’ve] read’. I can’t
Sydney University Press. Alice Robinson
on the part of our staff judges, and a not wait to get myself a copy of Meera Sodha’s
PB. $35 Affirm Press. HB. $32.99
inconsiderable cost as each winner receives new cookbook, East. It has been twenty
The Flight of Birds is an The Glad Shout is a
award money. We started the prizes to bring years since the publication of Naomi
affecting novel whose topical and thought-
new Australian writing to the attention Klein’s No Logo, a book whose message
narrative arc unfolds provoking second novel
of readers and to encourage new and was both timely and prophetic in ways we
across twelve short that explores themes of
emerging writers in their endeavours. We couldn’t see clearly at the time; her new
stories. Thoughtfully motherhood and the
think we achieve this, but were all very work is On Fire.
exploring the myriad survival of family in the
pleased to get a lovely message from Eleni: And finally, dear reader, I’m delighted
ways in which humans chaos generated in the
‘… please know it has been a great gift. Some to congratulate our talented ‘Dead Write’
interact with nature, this near future of our
of the ways the Readings’ Book Prize has columnist, beloved Carlton staffer, and
exploratory and at times melancholy book climate crisis. Warm and benevolent, and
had a positive impact includes: the many 2016 Text Prize shortlistee, Fiona Hardy,
challenges the conventions of the novel, and with a heart-stopping ending, this is a
emails I have received from new readers, new on the publication of her debut novel, How
shows how creative practice can intervene generous book about love and how
speaking engagements including The Today to Make a Movie in 12 Days. This book is
in debates around climate and extinction. essential it is in the darkest of hours.
Show and Jon Faine, multiple producers just like Fiona: funny, smart, warm, and
have been in touch since the prize to discuss hugely imaginative. Joyous in its portrayal
an option to turn Stone Girl to film and it has of friendship and family, and an unabashed
Alison Huber, Readings’ head book buyer and chair of the 2019 judging panel, on behalf of the judges.
raised the profile of the Make it 21 campaign championing of popular culture’s role in
that seeks to increase the age foster kids are giving our lives shape, this book marks the You can find more information about The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the 2019 shortlist at
pushed out of home from 18 to 21.’ start of a brilliant new career. readings.com.au/the-readings-prize-for-new-australian-fiction.
F I C T I ON September 2019 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 7
New
and it has been taken by the sea. All the experience a late-term pregnancy loss and
islands are slowly submerging; most of the are plunged into despair. Both have
landscape is now only accessible in Kitty eagerly anticipated baby William’s arrival
Fiction Hawke’s memories.
Kitty is from Wolfe Island; her people
have been there for centuries and she is the
into their lives. The question at the heart
of this emotionally complex novel is: can
they find a way to come together, and offer
last remaining inhabitant. An artist, Kitty each other comfort after the loss?
prefers solitude with her wolfdog, Girl, and Elise, a biologist, returns to work as
There is nothing ordinary about Deborah Levy’s new her memories, to what is happening on the soon as possible, telling Dan she needs to
novel, her first since 2016’s Booker Prize-shortlisted Hot mainland. But she is pulled back into the complete important fieldwork. She sets up
BOOK OF THE camp in the bush near the Sunshine Coast,
Milk. As a result, it isn’t an easy one to condense here, but world by the arrival of her granddaughter
MO N T H what I’ll say, with little difficulty, is that it’s one of the finest and her granddaughter’s friends. They are trapping and tagging small mammals;
International novels of the year – deep with ideas, rich with sensual, running from a world Kitty has already doing the work she is renowned for –
Fiction specific prose, elegant in its construction, mysterious and left. This world is an America in which recording breeding patterns.
moving in its execution. As soon as I closed The Man Who climate crisis is literally eating away at the In alternating chapters, we learn about
Saw Everything, I wanted to start reading it again. coast. It’s a world in which people seeking Dan. He still struggles with the loss of his
The Man Who Saw Everything tells a similar story, refuge from ‘down south’ are called first love, and of his mother. But it is the
twice. In its first iteration, the year is 1988 and Saul Adler, ‘runners’, and are locked up. father-figure he never had whose absence
a twenty-eight-year-old historian, is preparing to visit East If this sounds like a climate-change is most intense. Dan is a writer struggling
Berlin for research when he’s struck by a car while crossing dystopia – well, it is, and it isn’t. It is to complete a commissioned biography of
Abbey Road. His injuries are minor, but his heart takes a foremost a story of individual separateness his reclusive, controversial artist uncle.
beating when his girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau, dumps him. In and grief, of strength and love, and of the Elise urges Dan to abandon the project
Germany, Saul falls in love with Walter Müller, the translator way seismic change happens and people and return to writing fiction, but he feels
assigned to him by the university, and fails to deliver a tin choose to look away. It is a story of now. I compelled to finish, especially when he
of pineapple to Walter’s Beatles-obsessed sister Luna. In the loved it, and I loved the grief it brought me. meets and is entranced by his uncle’s
second version of events it’s 2016, and Saul, in his fifties, is Marie Matteson is from Readings Carlton much younger muse, Hannah.
again hit by a car while crossing Abbey Road. This time, his Elise propels herself further away from
injuries put him in hospital, where he drifts in and out of Dan – emotionally and geographically –
Here Until August: Stories
The Man Who consciousness, haunted by spectres from his past.
Josephine Rowe
and her traumatic past is revealed. With no
Saw Everything This synopsis really doesn’t do Levy’s achievement justice. Black Inc. PB. $29.99
family to reach out to, she buries herself in
Deborah Levy The Man Who Saw Everything has a rapturous, exhilarating research, and fellow scientists.
Available 3 September
Hamish Hamilton. HB. effect that extends well beyond story or structure. Central here The Breeding Season is comparable
In Here Until August, a
Was $32.99 are ideas about looking – Jennifer is a photographer – and to the works of Emily Bitto, Jennifer
young man rows across
$29.99 what is seen and hidden. Saul is a self-absorbed narrator; there Down and Peggy Frew in its emotional
an azure lake above a sunken
Available 3 September are events and people in his life that he has forgotten or failed complexity. While Niehaus can be a little
town, carrying the ashes of
to see. Enveloping it all is history, especially the personal and heavy-handed with the darker themes,
his mother in a biscuit tin;
the intimate, which Levy subtly elevates to the status of world- metaphors and plot turns, her writing is
an insular couple weathers
shattering events. History is a hefty burden – its injuries ricochet through time. I love that lyrical and descriptive. She also creates
an icy Canadian winter,
no book by Levy is like the last, and this one is quite simply unforgettable. credible multi-dimensional characters for
listening to the comings and goings of their
Joanna Di Mattia is from Readings Carlton whom the reader cares greatly; an enviable
neighbours as they wait for spring; a taxi
skill, especially for a debut novelist.
driver drives a once-drowned man cross-
country; and a prodigal son returns home to Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn
a broken city. With these stories, and others
The Old Lie
Australian Fiction Vietnam at all, but with other migrant
communities. In a writing culture that is
like them, the internationally acclaimed
author Josephine Rowe weaves a Claire G. Coleman
often awash with tales of middle-class, beautifully crafted collection that leaves Hachette. PB. Was $32.99
Lucky Ticket white suburbia, Bui centres on people the reader breathless with its beauty. $29.99
whose lives have been touched (and Every sentence in this book, in fact, Available 27 August
Joey Bui
Text. PB. $29.99 oftentimes totally reshaped) by migration. every word, feels carefully considered Claire G. Coleman’s
Available 3 September This is a welcome, and much needed, and delicately placed, and the result is a debut novel, Terra
shift. While many true stories have been collection of stories both individual and Nullius, made waves as it
There is nothing quite
fictionalised here, imbuing the book with cohesive as a collected work. These stories was shortlisted for the 2018
like reading a
real-life histories gives the collection a are elegant, intimate, dreamy – and they’re Stella Prize, along with
wonderful collection of short
sharpness and sense of unease that makes best savoured, not devoured in one hit many other awards. This
stories – I believe that the
scenes from its pages hard to shake. (although, that’s tempting). Each story is year she’s back with a new
power of fiction to mentally
Bui is an incredibly talented young unique, with its own style, its own voice, science-fiction novel, exploring belief in
transport us is at its strongest
writer, and we should all be taking note of and yet it is testament to Rowe’s skill as one’s country, war, and Indigenous history.
in this shorter, punchier
her name. a writer that they are all unmistakably The title comes from a poem by
format. Joey Bui’s debut collection is
polished, wide-ranging, and absolutely has Ellen Cregan is the marketing and events hers, and all unmistakably belong to this Wilfred Owen, a poet who fought in World
the capacity to transport the reader. coordinator for Readings collection. Rowe is a writer fully coming War I and died a week before Armistice.
into her strength; her writing is subtle, but He was a pacifist and wrote his poetry
The stories here engage with themes of
Wolfe Island devastating – she speaks to those truths in part as protest and also as a record of
migration, expected roles within families,
Lucy Treloar universally felt but little spoken; shines what happened. The ‘old lie’ is that it is
race and class privilege, and loneliness.
Picador. PB. $29.99 a light in dusty, still corners; finds the honourable to die for one’s country, that
Bui writes with great intelligence, and has
Available 27 August unspoken in the gaps between words. It’s a war is a part of nationalism. Coleman
a precise ability to balance the good with
strong writer who can craft a collection that uses this poem, and others of Owen’s, as
the bad, and the abject with the banally There is a lyrical sense
feels so cohesive. inspiration for the war in her latest book.
familiar – some of her stories have a that is not to be
feeling of passed-down family tales, but Stand-outs are ‘Post-structuralism for This war is fought largely in space,
hurried in Lucy Treloar’s
under her authorial hand, they manage to Beginners’, ‘The Once-Drowned Man’ and between the Federation (Earth) and the
writing. She writes you
be simultaneously contemporary and real. ‘Sinkers’, but you’d be hard-pressed to find Conglomeration (other planets). Everything
slowly into the world of her
a story in Here Until August that doesn’t is almost like life as we know it – but not
The prose here is juicy, polyphonic, novels and you need to
sing with its own power. quite. Human characters interact with
and refreshing – so many sentences spend some time and pay
warrant underlining. Bui writes what she attention. In her first novel, Salt Creek, she Georgia Brough is the digital content other species during the war. The story
knows, but applies this aphorism with wrote us into the world of a young white coordinator for Readings begins with several different characters in
flexibility. She is a Vietnamese–Australian woman moving to the Coorong in the different places, and it takes the narrator a
who has studied in Abu Dhabi and the US, nineteenth century, learning to live in an The Breeding Season while to weave a sense of how everyone fits
and this lived experience runs through unfamiliar landscape and growing in to her Amanda Niehaus together. Shane Daniels and Romany Zetz
the book, but in ways you might not awareness of all that the presence of her A&U. PB. $29.99 are two strong women thrown together in
expect. Some of the stories in Lucky Ticket people destroyed. In Wolfe Island, we start Available 3 September the unfortunate war, and these characters
are based on interviews she conducted again in an estuary, we start again with a Debut novelist are the highlights of the book.
with Vietnamese people who have refugee woman of hardy mind and strong spirit, but Amanda Niehaus is Ultimately, this is a novel about
backgrounds. There are stories set in we are at an end point now, the destruction both a scientist and a writer, connection to family, Country and culture,
Vietnam and amongst the Vietnamese has been wrought. Though a date is never and she brings these and how these connections cannot be
diaspora. Some are gritty, some are fable- given, it is sometime in the very near future. passions to The Breeding forgotten. It is a novel that questions the
like. All of them have something to say. Wolfe Island is part of the Chesapeake Season. Elise and Dan, a lengths to which people will go to protect
Others don’t have anything to do with Bay estuary off the east coast of the US couple in their thirties, their country – and Country. It forces
8 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY September 2019 FIC T IO N
us to bear witness to the truth of how
Indigenous peoples in Australia have been
secret that has poisoned the lives of three
generations is finally revealed.
International Jamaica and New York City as Patsy’s story
alternates with the story of her daughter
treated across the Stolen Generations, Fiction Tru, who must fit in with her father’s
how Indigenous Australians have been The Rich Man’s House family and navigate her own conflicting
erased from Australian war history Andrew McGahan experiences with sexuality and gender.
and mythology, and to the little-known This is a rich novel that
A&U. PB. Was $32.99 Patsy
histories of nuclear testing sites on this challenges cultural expectations of
$29.99 Nicole Dennis-Benn
continent. It is a book without many Available 3 September motherhood, gender, race and class. It
Oneworld. PB. $29.99
surprises, but it uses the form of science- is a sharply observed story and, in the
In 2016, at the foot of an Available 3 September
fiction to masterfully explore its themes. acknowledgments, Dennis-Benn thanks
unearthly mountain in Nicole Dennis-Benn
Clare Millar is from Readings Hawthorn her homeland of Jamaica ‘for the lush,
Tasmania, a controversial dedicates her second
but mostly untold stories’. We don’t hear
and ambitious dream home, novel to the ‘memory of the
Wild the Observatory, is untold stories of
enough stories about women like Patsy and
Nathan Besser I would urge everyone to read this one.
painstakingly constructed undocumented immigrants’.
Vintage. PB. $32.99 by an eccentric billionaire. We first meet Patsy in 1998 Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton
Available 3 September When cataclysmic circumstances in Jamaica; she is standing
Broke author Daniel Defoe intervene to trap a handful of guests in the in the hot sun in a long queue at the U.S. Quichotte
visits Newgate Prison with Observatory, they slowly begin to learn an Embassy. She is waiting for an interview to Salman Rushdie
the intention of chronicling unsettling truth. This is Andrew gain a tourist visa and knows she must Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.99
the stories of its inmates. McGahan’s eleventh and final novel, a convince the American behind the glass Available 3 September
There he meets a young novel he found himself writing with the partition that she will return to Jamaica. This book is one wild
man with a story to tell extraordinary knowledge that it would be Patsy has a five-year-old daughter, and ride: a hectic riffling
about Jonathan Wild – a his last. It is a poignant, gripping and what mother would leave their child with through the back catalogue
wealthy and feared official. Wild is a unique thriller from an already much- no intention to come home? But life is not of literature, a throwing of
delightfully outrageous period drama that missed Australian literary talent. so simple for Patsy and many others like her books into the back seat of
charts the rise and fall and rise again of who dream of a different life but whose an unglamorous car, and a
two men whose lives become intertwined Meet Me at Lennon’s options are limited. helter-skelter drive across
in the most surprising of ways. Melanie Myers Patsy’s childhood friend and lover, an America heaving and straining under
UQP. PB. $29.95 Cicely, lives in New York City and she is the the forces that gleefully assemble to tear it
The Collaborator Available 3 September one person who really understands who apart. Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte is, yes, a
Diane Armstrong As university student Olivia Patsy is and who she wants to be. Patsy re-writing of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, set in
HQ Fiction. PB. $32.99 Wells sets out on her quest arrives in Brooklyn, but Cicely has made a current-day America and starring, like the
Available now to find an unpublished new life for herself and there is no place for original, an elderly gent deranged by TMS
Annika Barnett sets out manuscript by Gloria Patsy in it. We then follow Patsy over a ten- (too many stories) Syndrome. Rushdie’s
from Sydney on a journey Graham – a now obscure year period as she experiences the poverty Quichotte has had his mind
that takes her to Budapest mid-twentieth century and racism that undocumented workers discombobulated not by an oversupply of
and Tel Aviv in search of feminist and writer – she are relentlessly subjected to. tales of chivalry and knights-errantry, but
the truth about the man unwittingly uncovers details about a young Dennis-Benn’s debut novel, Here by an over-viewing of daytime and reality
who rescued her woman found murdered on the banks of the Comes the Sun, is set entirely in Jamaica TV. Our new Sancho is not a faithful
grandmother from the Nazi river in wartime Brisbane. Can Olivia and received widespread praise for its retainer but Quichotte’s phantom son, a
regime in 1944. By the time her odyssey is rewrite history to bring justice to the river thoughtful examination of sexuality, class quest for filial contact reminding this
over, past and present collide, and the girl, whose life was so brutally taken? and race. This second novel shifts between reader of Rushdie’s 1990 Haroun and the
F I C T I ON September 2019 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 9
Sea of Stories. This book, like that one, is a The Testaments rediscover strengths they have forgotten. back, and in this escalating game of cat
picaresque adventure tale, tumbling freely Margaret Atwood and mouse, there can be only one winner.
from one madcap episode to the next. C&W. HB. Was $42.99 The Institute
As with Cervantes, the writer of $34.99 Stephen King The Peppermint Tea Chronicles:
Quichotte’s story also makes it into Available 10 September H&S. PB. $32.99 A 44 Scotland Street Novel
Rushdie’s book, as the character Brother. When the van door Available 10 September Alexander McCall Smith
His story is given its own chapters and we slammed on Offred’s future Deep in the woods of Maine, Polygon. HB. $34.99
observe how Brother’s life (estranged sister, at the end of The there is a facility where kids Available 27 August
prodigal son, etcetera) mirrors and shapes Handmaid’s Tale, readers are incarcerated and It is summer in Scotland
Quichotte’s. This doppler structure gives had no way of telling what subjected to a series of Street (as it always is) and for
Rushdie a rich vein to work in terms of lay ahead. With The procedures meant to the habitués of Edinburgh’s
implied and overt observations regarding Testaments, the wait is over. enhance their telekinetic favourite neighbourhood,
written fictions and the fictions within Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the ‘gifts’. Twelve-year-old Luke extraordinary adventures lie
which we live. story fifteen years after Offred stepped Ellis is their latest super-intelligent recruit. in wait. Take a few minutes
Quichotte is both joyous and deeply into the unknown, with the explosive But he also has another gift they want to to relax with a cup of tea and
melancholy in its treatment of familial testaments of three female narrators from use. Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, savour the affairs of the world in microcosm,
relations and the state of the union. It Gilead. This book is not to be missed. The Institute is a stunning novel of teeming with life’s loves and challenges.
steers vertiginously between despair for a childhood betrayed and hope regained. Little dramas writ large by the master
broken world and hope for the possibility chronicler of modern life and manners.
Arturo’s Island
of forgiveness and love amongst the
Elsa Morante & Ann Goldstein Lampedusa
pieces. Quichotte is a dance to the crazy Steven Price Polite Society
(trans.)
syncopation of an America lumbered with Picador. HB. $29.99 Mahesh Rao
Pushkin. PB. $19.99
an idiot president, manic lying (‘errorism’), Available 10 September Tinder. PB. $32.99
Available 3 September
and a plague of opioids. There’s an awful Set among the decadent Available 27 August
In this little-known classic
lot to like in this overstuffed armchair, Italian aristocracy of the late
of Italian literature, young Ania is the beautiful, clever
this elegant echo-chamber, this polyglot, 1950s, Lampedusa explores
Arturo grows up in near- and very slightly bored scion
messy, infinitely literate book. the final years of Giuseppe
isolation on the island of of a rich Indian family
Bernard Caleo is a member of the Readings Procida in the Bay of Naples. Tomasi as he struggles to whose machinations soon
events team complete his only novel, The lead her down the primrose
The boy’s world is upended
when his father arrives from Leopard. Adhering intensely path of match-making – first
Very Nice Naples with his new wife Nunziata. Their to the facts of Lampedusa’s life, but moving for her aunt, and then for her
Marcy Dermansky presence shatters Arturo’s childhood idyll, deep into the mind of the author, Lampedusa friend Dimple. Rich with stiletto-sharp
Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 drawing the family towards painful inhabits the complicated interior of a man observation, this novel is a delightful and
Available 3 September conflict. This is a moving and dramatic struggling to make something of lasting poignant social comedy set against the
Booksellers are portrayal of the loss of childhood and the worth, while there is still time. background of ‘polite’ Delhi society.
frequently asked for inescapable force of desire.
recommendations for Lie With Me Sarong Party Girls
‘uplifting’ books. Whether Chances Are Philippe Besson & Molly Ringwald Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
as an antidote to turbulent Richard Russo (trans.) Corvus. PB. $19.99
times, for a relative in Atlantic. PB. $29.99 Penguin. PB. $22.99 Available 3 September
hospital, or for a holiday Available 3 September Available 5 September Just before her twenty-
read, a novel with wit and levity is a Just outside a hotel in seventh birthday, Jazzy
One beautiful September
wonderful thing. Bordeaux, a famous writer hatches a plan. This year,
day, three sixty-six-year old
Marcy Dermansky has delivered a men convene on Martha’s chances upon a young man she and her friends will all
panacea for booksellers. Very Nice explores Vineyard. Each man holds who bears a striking have spectacular weddings
the world of the Klein family. Rachel is his own secrets, in addition resemblance to his first love. to rich ang moh – Western
home for summer in Connecticut after her to a mystery that they have What follows is a look back to expat – husbands. As Jazzy
first year of college. She has fallen in love puzzled over together since Philippe’s teenage years, and fervently pursues her quest, the
with her creative writing professor, Zahid, 1971. Now, forty-four years later, the a carefully timed encounter between two contentious gender politics and class
and hopes that dog-sitting his beautiful distant past confounds the present. seventeen-year-olds. Dazzlingly rendered by tensions thrumming beneath Singapore’s
poodle, Princess, will lead to something Chances Are is an absorbing saga of how Molly Ringwald, in her first-ever translation, shiny exterior are revealed. Vividly told,
more between them. friendship’s bonds are as constricting and Besson’s exquisitely moving coming-of-age Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the
Zahid is a migrant from Pakistan. rewarding as those of family. story captures the tenderness of first love unique voice of a young, striving woman
Despite winning accolades and a and the heart-breaking passage of time. caught between worlds.
substantial literary prize for his first novel,
Devotion
he now has writer’s block. His two-year
Madeline Stevens Lost in the Spanish Quarter Shelf Life
teaching contract is over and he has run
Faber. PB. $29.99 Heddi Goodrich Livia Franchini
out of money. HarperVia. PB. $29.99 Doubleday. PB. $32.99
Available 3 September
Improbably, Zahid comes to stay in the Available 10 September Available 3 September
Lonnie is twenty-six, rich,
beautiful Connecticut home with Rachel Several years after leaving Ruth’s fiancé has just broken
talented and beautiful – with
and her mother, Becca. Becca is pleased to Naples, Heddi receives an up with her, and all she has
a husband and son to match.
have some adult company since her husband email from Pietro, her first left of him is their shopping
Ella is also twenty-six, but
has left her. Soon Becca and Zahid settle into love, admitting an old list for the upcoming week.
lonely, hungry and far from
an easy rhythm of swimming in the pool, wrongdoing. Immediately Looking over that list, Ruth
home. Their fates intertwine
eating Becca’s gourmet lunches and walking Heddi is transported back to realises that her identity has
the day Ella is hired as the
the dog. Zahid finds himself able to write her college days in that been crafted from the people
family’s nanny. She finds herself mesmerised
again, and inevitably they begin an affair. heartbreakingly beautiful city. In this she serves: her patients, her friends, and,
by Lonnie, but soon resentment grows too.
Dermansky’s novel is clever and poignant, atmospheric coming of age tale of most of all, her partner of ten years. Who is
Devotion is a dizzying thriller in which roles
comedic. Zahid falls into the role of first love – of a place, of a person – she when she stands alone?
are confused and reversed and nothing is
the hapless author; he’s also incredibly languages and cultures collide while
ever quite as it seems.
narcissistic. Rachel and Becca are vying dreams soar and crash in spectacular ways. A Single Thread
for the same suitor and this sets up tension Tracy Chevalier
Doxology
between them. Rachel’s father begins to
Nell Zink Never Have I Ever HarperCollins. PB. $32.99
realise living with his younger girlfriend in Joshilyn Jackson Available now
Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99
a cramped apartment in the city is not as Raven. PB. $29.99
Available 2 September It is 1932, and the losses of
idyllic as he imagined. Available 3 September
As Pam, Daniel, and Joe the First World War are still
Dermansky turns political correctness Amy Whey has done keenly felt. Violet
struggle to make it in the
on its head, and plays with issues of race something she shouldn’t Speedwell, mourning for
’90s punk scene of NYC,
and sexuality. She introduces a large cast of have. And Roux, the both her fiancé and her
they are waylaid by
people into the story, yet manages to make glamorous newcomer to brother, is regarded by
surprising arrivals – a baby
each person multi-dimensional. There Amy’s suburban society as a ‘surplus
for Pam and Daniel, and a
are touching moments of connection and neighborhood, knows woman’. So, she resolves to strike out
solo hit single for Joe. The
disconnection between characters, and this exactly what that is. Roux alone. But as the almost unthinkable
years pass, and the three friends share in
combined with plenty of plot builds to a promises she will go away if Amy plays by threat of a second Great War appears on
one another’s successes. When the country
dramatic and satisfying conclusion. her rules, but Amy isn’t prepared to lose the horizon, Violet collects a few secrets of
faces an astonishing new threat, this
Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn family will have to look to the past to everything she’s built. She’s going to fight her own that could just change everything.
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