Great spring reads by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books at Port Elliot

by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books, Port Elliot.

by Ross Garnaut

Published by La Trobe University Press in association with Black Inc. and the University of Melbourne ISBN 9781760642822 $32.99

Calm, rational, authoritative and optimistic, Ross Garnaut presents a persuasive case for a very new approach to Australia’s socio-economic policy settings in a world growing accustomed to new norms. Responding to the very real challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and the deteriorating relationship with an increasingly bellicose China, Garnaut encourages us to see the opportunities available to re-make Australia for the better. Core prescriptions include grasping the renewable ‘superpower’ opportunity explored in his previous book, establishing a universal basic income, and seizing the opportunities available from carbon sequestration in our vast landmass. These are supplemented by a fairer, more transparent approach to corporate taxation, suggestions for navigating new international trading pathways and some helpful thoughts on interest rates and monetary settings for our Reserve Bank. There is of course no ‘snapping back’ to the pre-pandemic past and Professor Garnaut identifies several reasons we shouldn’t try to do so. Suppressed wages and heightened resentments from high levels of 457 visa labour, reduced capabilities and declining international prestige resulting from de-funding and devaluation of our universities, along with increasing inequality and disenfranchisement fuelled by rewarded rent-seeking and politicised public spending are but some examples. Gently he removes any rose-coloured glasses from the ‘Dog Days’ of our more recent past. It would be uncomfortable reading for libertarian denialists, if there are any left, and those to whom the political class is presently captive will want this book burned. Eye opening and hopeful for the rest of us, it should occupy the night tables of all Canberra’s hotels.

by Mark Brandi Published by Hachette Australia ISBN 9780733641145 $32.99

This new novel from Victoria’s Mark Brandi is written as a diary recording the constrained, claustrophobic existence of its owner, Jacob, in a remote rural area of the country. Jacob’s mother has died, and he lives alone with his father on their small, decaying farm, entirely removed and protected by him from the outside world. That outside world, portrayed by his father, is a post-pandemic, postapocalyptic zone of societal breakdown and roaming infection to be feared and repelled. It allows ample space for youthful imagination. Compounding this, the hard scrabble life they live leaves little room for wide-eyed innocence as Jacob navigates the uncertain territory of self-sustained survival and his father’s capricious moods. The threats, it seems, are both within and without. There are terrible things in the world, things that Jacob recognises should neither be written down nor remembered but which will forever make everything different. Jacob seeks solace in learning and recording, as well as companionship with some of the animals who share his existence (those inching towards vegetarianism are likely to find their journey fast-tracked by these pages). That these small, fiercely burning lights can shine amid such swelling malevolence, unpredictability and dread is testament to the resilience of youth and no small literary feat. The author’s growing reputation will be enhanced by this latest offering, with its careful pacing and compelling narration. As Jacob diarises, ‘you can’t look away, even when you want to.’

by Favel Parrett

Published by Hachette Australia ISBN 9780734420633 $19.99

The first children’s book written by Favel Parrett – and the first such book reviewed in these pages – is a novel for middle grade children (and everyone else). It’s a worthy break from our adult tradition. Parrett’s tale is based on the true story of a young purebred alpine dingo dropped from the sky by an eagle into a suburban backyard in 2019. The real-life pup has become a valued ward of the Australian Dingo Foundation and a much-loved international media superstar. A volunteer at the Foundation, this award-winning author is adding her voice and considerable writing skills to the calls for better understanding and treatment of these intelligent, beautiful and endangered animals. The story is told by Wandi and traces his extraordinary journey as a small pup plucked from his family den in the snowy alpine ranges to the fully grown member of the Foundation’s growing dingo family and eventual ambassador for his kind. Themes of family, acceptance, place and belonging are explored in a simple, sensitive way as Wandi struggles in strange new environments far from his family and home. Naturally, the relationship between humans and dingoes forms an important part of the narrative, mirroring our best, and our very worst. A clear aim of the book is to build empathy and understanding among our children, moving us on from instinctively harming that which we don’t understand. Simply and beautifully told, Wandi is a worthy torch bearer to the traditions of Blinky Bill and Storm Boy. I’ve already read it twice.

by Sarah Winman

Published by 4thEstate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 9780008283360 $29.99

Sarah Winman’s latest novel is a refreshing literary take on the historical family saga. Rather than bonded by genetic ties, here ‘family’ is gathered by or coalesces around friendships based upon kindness, openness and trust. The story begins with a brief meeting in Italy towards the end of the second World War between Ulysses, a young, optimistic English soldier, and Evelyn, a sixty-year-old art historian drawn to Florence by art restoration work, a past love and the ghost of E.M. Forster. It goes on to span four decades, crisscrossing between London and Florence. Much of it is a love song to the latter, a ‘knowable city’ and its people, history and art, with grimy post-war London employed in counterpoint. While Florence is undoubtedly given star billing, it’s the rich ensemble of characters (both human and other) developed by the author and the relationships between them which elevates and memorialises the narrative. Grief lurks inevitably where so much love, care and history has been caught within the interlocking story arcs of its protagonists. However, time heals even if ‘sometimes carelessly’ and this ode against disdain and disregard celebrates how we might better live with one another. It’s a book of laughter and remembering, a tenderly and beautifully told story of connection and love. The author urges us to seek and embrace the ‘moments in life, so monumental and still, that the memory can never be retrieved without a catch to the throat … (and) … rumbling disquiet of how close that moment came to not having happened at all.’