Gleaner August 2023

From David’s desk

I’ve always liked the phrase “August is a wicked month”, although I know it only as the title of an early Edna O’Brien novel. And that novel from the ’60s (banned in some countries when published) I found completely underwhelming when I read it 50 years ago. So it must have been something to do with the forbidden magic of those long northern hemisphere summer holidays.

Anyway, for me it’s wicked because the year catches up and threatens to run away from me. Not least because we find ourselves juggling normal life and duties with the complexities of major renovation (and thanks to all those who’ve asked, we expect to be back “home” in the early new year).

But also, the rush of seasonal publishing schedules means that a small avalanche of books has taken over my office and bedside table, daring me with their “read me next” demands. (There is lots of multitasking in bookselling, especially the capacity to read more than a book at a time.) Here’s a small taste of what I’ve read and what I am reading.

Jane Harrison’s The Visitors is an adaptation from the stage by the Muruwari playwright (The Stolen). It’s an audacious and moving reimagining of that pivotal moment in Australian history when the first fleet arrived in 1788. Audacious because it’s seen entirely through the eyes of the Indigenous Elders confronted by the sight and forced to make decisions that will determine the fate of their peoples. And audacious because the language of their interactions is that of contemporary white Australia, blended with fragments of their own language. There’s a lot of ironic inversion at work. This makes for a witty (if at first, disconcerting), way of presenting what we know will be a deeply tragic transformative moment in time. Original, meaningful, distressing.

Kate Grenville’s 2015 novel One Life: My Mother’s Story was a work of delicacy and insight and in Restless Dolly Maunder, she mines the rich territory of her family’s past once again. She has imagined and fictionally refashioned the life of her grandmother, Dolly (the great granddaughter of Solomon Wiseman, who was at the centre of The Secret River). Beautifully written, thoughtprovoking and moving.

It seems amazing that two prominent, and remarkably different, women novelists, might be working on fictions incorporating Charles Dickens at the same time. Yet less than a year after Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer-winning Demon Copperhead, a grim but uplifting contemporary version of David Copperfield set in Virginia, we have The Fraud, the first historical fiction from Zadie Smith, which goes the whole hog and brings Dickens in as a character. Alongside the great writer is a now forgotten but once enormously popular novelist, William Ainsworth, and Smith has pointed fun and satire at their expense. But this long and intricately plotted novel is so much more. It’s about race and class, authenticity and truth, colonialism and

imperial crime, love and loyalty, and it’s a rich social history. I’m a more enthusiastic admirer of Smith’s awesome critical intelligence in her razor sharp contemporary writing, but this is brilliantly conceived and written. Next month, I will talk about Charlotte Wood’s much anticipated Stone Yard Devotional (October), and pay my devoted respects to the much-loved Richard Ford, as he (finally) farewells that most iconic of American characters, Frank Bascombe in Be Mine

Last, but certainly not least, David Marr’s, Killing for Country, a Family Story (October). I am part way through what the publisher overview summarises astutely as a “ gripping personal reckoning with the bloody history of Australia’s frontier war”. That it is, it’s a work of great insight and forensic investigation. David is coming to talk about it in October for us, so keep an eye out, and come along if you can.

– David Gaunt

DON’T MISS

The 34th Glebe Music Festival is back with a month-long celebration of music. The program features early music through to works by contemporary composers such as Elena Kats-Chernin. Artists include pianist Aaron Chen, the Acacia Quartet and Josie and the Emeralds.

When: 27 October – 26 November

Where: Glebe Town Hall and Margaretta Cottage More information www.glebemusicfestival.com

Restless Dolly Maunder

Kate Grenville

Text $45

Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the 19th century, when society’s long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women. Growing up in a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, Dolly spent her restless life pushing at those doors. In this compelling new novel, Kate Grenville uses family memories to imagine her way into the life of her grandmother, a woman whose battles and triumphs helped to open doors for the women who followed.

The Unearthed

Lenny

Bartulin

After decades-old human bones are discovered in the Tasmanian wilderness, Antonia Kovács returns home with questions for her father, a retired police inspector in Queenstown. Meanwhile, Tom Pilar receives news of an inheritance, from a man he barely remembers. Set amid the harsh terrain of the timber and ore industries of the west coast, The Unearthed is a haunting novel that reveals the tragic connections between the disparate lives of post-war migrants and local workers, and the fallibility of memory, the illusion of truths and the repercussions on real lives.

Vincent & Sien

Silvia Kwon

The Hague, 1882. A howling winter’s night, Sien and her daughter are on the brink of surrendering to the bitter cold, when a good Samaritan appears. Vincent van Gogh, a struggling artist, provides them with warmth and food for the night. Fascinated by Sien, Vincent offers her work sitting for him. From model to muse, the two soon become lovers in a relationship that draws hostility from the town. This is the breathtaking and visceral intertwining of one woman’s need for survival and one man’s road to genius.

Thaw

Dennis Glover

In 1912, five British explorers struggle across the freezing Antarctic landscape seeking the safety of their camp. Today, as the world’s ice sheets begin to melt and surrender their secrets, renowned glacial archaeologist Missy Simpson works to discover the true cause of the explorers’ deaths. Her colleague Jim Hunter is working on his own scientific mysteries. Drawn from the pages of history and cutting-edge science, Thaw is a gripping read that will forever change how you see the frozen continent – and those who seek to conquer it.

The Sitter

Angela O’Keeffe

A writer is confined to her Paris hotel room during the early days of the pandemic, struggling to finish a novel about Hortense Cézanne, wife and sometime muse of the famous painter. Dead for more than a century, Hortense has been reawakened by this creative endeavour, and now shadows the writer through the locked-down city. Heartbreaking and perfectly formed, The Sitter explores the tension between artist and subject, and between the stories told about us and the stories we choose to tell.

Black Inc $32.99

Pan Macmillan $34.99

Allen & Unwin $32.99

UQP $29.99

West Girls

Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Luna Lewis is white. But her friends aren’t, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia-finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to “exotic” beauty, Luna reinvents herself as “Luna Lu”. However, as her international modelling career approaches its expiry date, Luna must grapple with what she has sacrificed – and who she has become. Featuring an intersecting cast of WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, West Girls examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia.

Fanatic Heart

Tom Keneally

John Mitchel is one of the most celebrated of Irish rebels. In the middle of the dreadful famine of the 1840s, his exhortations to his countrymen to stand up against the British were as controversial as they were compelling. Charged with treason felony, he was transported to Van Diemen’s Land. In this vivid reimagining of Mitchel’s life, Tom Keneally, proud Irishman and descendant of convicts, confronts some of the biggest conflicts of our time – slavery, industrialisation, dispossession of land and famine.

WHAT WE’RE READING

The Wind Knows My Name

Isabel Allende

Here, Allende tells the stories of four people displaced from their birthplace and families as children and how they survive the trauma, through determination and the kindness of others. Going from past to present, Europe to Central America and then all coming together at the end in the US, this book is poignant, relevant – and a really good read. -

Victoria Bloomsbury, $34.99

Firelight

John Morrissey

A wildly imaginative, page-turning collection featuring ghost stories, science fiction and satire, with Aboriginal characters at its heart. An imprisoned man with strange visions writes letters to his sister. A controversial business tycoon leaves his daughter a mysterious inheritance. A child is haunted by a green man with a message about the origins of their planet. In this striking collection of stories, the award-winning John Morrissey investigates colonialism and identity without ever losing sight of his characters’ humanity.

God Forgets About the Poor

Peter Polites

“I will tell you why you should draft my story. Because migrant stories are broken. Some parts in a village where we washed our clothing with soot. Some parts in big cities working in factories. How we starved for food in Greece and starved for Greece in Australia.” In this stunning new novel from Polites, a son reflects on his mother’s life, from the mountain village in Greece where she was born to her arrival in Sydney in the ’80s and her experiences in her new home.

Translation State

Ann Leckie

I devoured this book. A standalone novel set in the same universe as Leckie’s Imperial Radch Trilogy, it is vast and detailed, with fascinating politics and species dynamics. It quickly picks up into a moving adventure about identity and belonging. Part of its beauty is watching how these personal journeys impact the larger political turmoil at play, and characters come into their own in the face of governments denying their existence.

- Tilda Hachette, $32.99

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Pip Williams

Williams effectively encapsulates the misogyny in the academic world during the late 1800s and early 1900s. She investigates the complexity of life as a woman juggling her personal and professional lives and how the political situations of the suffragette/suffragist movements and the first and second world wars impacted the women of England. -

Lars Affirm Press, $19.99

Penguin $22.99

Scribe $32.99

Text $32.99

Ultimo Press $34.99

Pan Macmillan

$34.99

The Vitals

Tracy

Sorensen

As a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, Tracy Sorensen underwent risk-reduction surgery to try to dodge the “death sentence” that has stalked so many of her family members. So her 2014 cancer diagnosis came as a shock. Her cancer memoir is an actionpacked dose of speculative fiction narrated by her internal organs. It will make you infinitely more aware of the peculiar world inside your body, and illuminate all the hidden parts that make you human.

Judas Boys

Joel Deane

Pat Pinnock is a Judas Boy – a private schoolboy gone to seed. He’s lost his job as a political staffer. He sleeps in the garage of his estranged wife. He has finally run out of friends and must face his accusers – both the living and the dead. Judas Boys is the eagerly-awaited new novel from Joel Deane: a searing de profundis that reads like the secret history behind today’s political headlines.

Good as Gold

Justin

Smith

But the Girl

Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

Penguin

$32.99

From the acclaimed author of Cooper Not Out comes a novel set in the goldrush era that reimagines the running of the inaugural Melbourne Cup. The story is told through the adventures of Jesus Whitetree, an escaped orphan with no knowledge of his new world; Jack, a little-known bushranger; and police constable Harry Logan with Mary, a young Aboriginal girl in his custody. With the announcement of the first Melbourne Cup, all three parties descend upon the town. Good as Gold is a heart-warming story about triumph and the things that mean more than riches.

The Things that Matter Most

Gabbie

Stroud

Allen & Unwin $32.99

The staff of St Margaret’s Primary School are hanging by a thread. There’s serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration, and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they’re trying to remain professional, as people they’re unravelling fast. A powerful and moving debut novel about a school community in crisis.

Girl is spending the spring at an artist’s residency in Scotland. Far from her home in Australia and her tight-knit Malaysian family, she is working on a PhD on the poetry of Sylvia Plath. But she can’t stop thinking about the stories of her parents and grandmother who raised her. How can she reconcile their dreams for her with her lived reality? Did Sylvia Plath have this problem? What even is a “postcolonial novel”? But the Girl is a story of belonging, alienation, and the exquisite pleasure and pain of girlhood.

The Hummingbird Effect

Kate

Mildenhall

An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault. What is the link between these women separated by decades and geography? Could the mysterious Hummingbird Project hold the key? Propulsive, tender and engrossing, this genre-bending novel is a feast for the heart as well as the mind and senses.

Simon & Schuster $32.99

Hunter Publishers $27.95 Penguin $32.99

Butter

Gayl Jones

Gayl Jones’s long career began with her blistering 1975 debut, Corregidora, which was edited by Toni Morrison, and she is increasingly recognised as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. In this new collection of short fiction, Jones tells tales of spies, baristas, cartoonists and revolutionaries with sharp observation, wit and poignancy, exploring complex identities and unorthodox longings

Hachette, $39.99

Crook Manifesto

Colson Whitehead

From two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead comes the thrilling sequel to Harlem Shuffle. Set in ’70s New York, Whitehead chronicles a city that runs on cronyism, threats, ego, ambition, incompetence and pride – through the eyes of those caught in the crossfire. In scalpel-sharp prose and with unnerving clarity and wit, Crook Manifesto is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem, and a searching portrait of how families work in the face of chaos and hostility.

Hachette, $32.99

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

Michiko Aoyama

Sayuri Komachi is no ordinary librarian. Sensing exactly what someone is searching for in life, she provides just the book recommendation to help them find it. In this uplifting book, we meet five of Sayuri’s customers, each at a different crossroads – can she help them find what they are looking for? This novel is about the magic of community libraries and the discovery of connection.

Random House, $32.99

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theatre company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Both hopeful and elegiac, Tom Lake explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply

Kate Atkinson

In the first story collection from Kate Atkinson in 20 years, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him. Atkinson presents these 11 interconnected stories with clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, conjuring a feast for the imagination, a changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems.

Random House, $32.99

Lost on Me

Veronica Raimo

Vero has grown up in Rome with her eccentric family: an omnipresent mother who is devoted to her own anxiety, a father ruled by hygienic and architectural obsessions, and a precocious genius brother at the centre of their attention. As she becomes an adult, Vero’s need to strike out on her own leads her into bizarre and comical situations. Narrated in a voice as wryly ironic as it is warm and affectionate, Lost on Me explores the slippery relationship between deceitfulness and creativity.

Hachette, $29.99

Zero-Sum

Joyce Carol Oates

Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers. A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmanoeuvred; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators; a young woman is morbidly obsessed by her unfamiliar new role as “mother”. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.

HarperCollins, $32.99

The Details

Ia Genberg

In the throes of a high fever, a woman lies bedridden. Suddenly, she is struck with an urge to revisit a particular novel from her past. Inside the book is an inscription: a message from an ex-girlfriend. Pages from her past begin to flip, full of things she cannot forget and people who cannot be forgotten. In exhilarating, provocative prose, Ia Genberg reveals an intimate and powerful celebration of what it means to be human.

Hachette, $29.99

Bloomsbury RRP $32.99 Gleebooks price, $29.95

Granta 163

Best of Young British Novelists

Sigrid Rousing

Since the first Best of Young British Novelists issue in 1983, Granta has championed the work of authors who have changed the landscape of British literature. In 1983, featured writers included Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Martin Amis and Pat Barker. Granta 163 introduces readers around the world to a cohort of outstanding new British voices – and some from Canada, Australia and the US – including stories from Eliza Clark, K. Patrick, Tom Crewe and Saba Sams. Granta, $29.99

The Invisible Hour

Alice Hoffman

Sixteen-year-old Ivy is pregnant and alone. Cast out by her family, she runs away and finds safety in the arms of Joel Davis. He offers a simpler life than the one she had in Boston. Little does she realise that Joel is the charismatic leader of a cult, and soon she is trapped and isolated in a rural community with brutal rules. Her daughter Mia one day secretly commits a transgression – reading. Discovering a world beyond the edges of her cloistered life is intoxicating. But breaking rules carries serious consequences. With two fiercely wonderful heroines, The Invisible Hour is an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery and the enduring magic of books.

Simon & Schuster, $32.99

Silver Nitrate

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Montserrat is a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend Tristan, even though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristan discovers his new neighbour is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, whose claims of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. Urueta believes he is cursed and wants Montserrat and Tristan to help him shoot a missing scene and lift the curse. Silver Nitrate is a breathtaking blend of Mexican horror movies and dark occultism from the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic Hachette, $32.99

Perfect books for Dad

Nick Cave’s

The latest Hirsch novel by bestselling Australian author Garry Disher, now in a smaller format.

A restless inquiry into the cultural and psychic sources of insomnia. ‘The only book I know that concedes to sleep its proper majesty.’ J. M. Coetzee

A wildly imaginative collection featuring ghost stories, sci-fi and satire, with Aboriginal characters at its heart. ‘Superb.’ Tony Birch

The fascinating story of the largest and most mysterious predator that ever lived, told by a father–daughter writing duo.

Crime and thrillers

Marple: twelve new stories

Anthology

It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by 12 Christie devotees will be a timely reminder of why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery. Contributing writers include Jean Kwok, Val McDermid and Kate Mosse.

Consumed

Greg Buchanan

On a lonely farmstead, a 70-year-old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs. It seems like a tragic accident, except the woman was well-known photographer Sophia Bertilak – and inside her house, someone has removed all her photos from their frames. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is drafted in for the postmortem – and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes she brought to light decades ago. A slick, smart, stylish thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.

The Good Daughter

Laure van Rensburg

Kairos

Jenny Erpenbeck

They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art. But when she strays for a single night, he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. This is an intimate and devastating story of love and betrayal set in Berlin during the years before and after the fall of the wall.

Penance

Eliza Clark

Penguin

$32.99

Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world. When she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family’s home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident. Until a discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in. Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat – or did danger lurk within the community’s walls?

It has been years since the horrifying murder of 16-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time. That story is Penance, written by true crime journalist Alec Carelli, determined to uncover the mystery of this cold case. Carelli builds his case around hours of interviews, painstaking historical research, and correspondence with the killers. The only question is: how much of it is true? Eliza Clark’s second novel is a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling. It’s a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy and a town left in turmoil.

Faber $32.99

Hachette $32.99

Granta $34.99

HarperCollins $22.99

WHAT WE’RE READING

The Daughters of Madurai

Rajasree Variyar

Nila, daughter of Indian parents growing up in Australia is torn like many children of migrants between the desire to live her own life and parental expectations. Having little knowledge of her parents’ lives before migration Nila lives with a sense of loss and the secrets her parents hold. But she also keeps a secret of her own that she longs to disclose. I was captivated by this book and read it in one sitting. As always it opened my eyes to a world and experiences that enriches my understanding of the world I live in. - Anna

Reykjavík

Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdottir

In 1956, 14-year-old Lara spends the summer on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, she disappears without a trace. The mystery becomes Iceland’s greatest unsolved case. What happened to her? Is she still alive? Thirty years later, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara’s case and it’s soon clear that this is a mystery someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved. A heartstopping crime novel co-written by Ragnar Jonasson and Iceland’s prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir.

12 Steps to a Long and Fulfilling Death

Sarah Smith

Stacey was trying to live her best life, but now she’s dead. Could it be that her fatal car accident was actually murder? Detectives Ed Beaufontaine and Rosie Garafino certainly think so. As the detectives dig deeper, so does Stacey. She forensically examines her past relationships, realising she might have been better off without them. She’s hoping she can steer the detectives in the right direction before she’s doomed to wander for eternity. A dark comedy about how to live your best life, even when you’re dead.

Taste of Blood

Lynda La Plante

Day’s End

Garry Disher

Day’s End is the latest novel in the Australian rural crime series featuring beloved local copper Hirsch. On his rural beat, he deals with everything from unlicensed driving to arson. Today he’s driving an international visitor around: Janne Van Sant, whose backpacker son went missing while the borders were closed. Then a call comes in – a suitcase has been soaked in diesel and set alight. As the pair investigate together it becomes clear that Janne knows more than Hirsch about forensic evidence. And the body in the suitcase is not her son’s. Text, $22.99

The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction

Robert Goddard

Umiko Wada never set out to be private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. After a mysterious businessman asks her to track down his estranged son, she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy with links to a 20-yearold investigation. Soon those she loves most will be sucked into the orbit of one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction is another tour de force from the cunning mind of master storyteller Robert Goddard.

Random House, $32.99

Detective Jane Tennison has transferred to the quiet, local police station in Bromley, keen to escape the relentless pressure of her former West End department. Then a complicated domestic assault case lands on her desk – one that may still result in a murder charge. When Jane discovers a handsome young boy recently disappeared after the tragic death of his girlfriend, every family in the private close becomes a suspect. As she hunts for the link between the crimes, she uncovers a truth more shocking than she could have contemplated.

Bonnier, $32.99

Hachette $32.99

Ultimo Press $34.99

Penguin $32.99

Penguin

$32.99

Sir Hereward and Mr Fitz

Garth Nix

From the award-winning author and bestselling creator of the Old Kingdom series and The Left-handed Booksellers of London comes this must-have fantasy collection for fans and those about to discover the witch knight and his puppet sorcerer for the first time. This collection of all eight stories – plus a neverbefore-published story – featuring Sir Hereward and his mysterious companion Mister Fitz, are gathered in one magical volume for the first time ever.

For the First Time, Again

Sylvain Neuvel

When you don’t know The Rules it’s hard to stay safe. After a traumatic incident, Aster finds that her blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she’s the last of an alien race called the Kibsu. Immediately, Aster finds herself the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. Whoever finds Aster first will hold the fate of the Kibsu – and our world – in their hands.The closing chapter in the acclaimed Take Them to the Stars trilogy.

Prophet

Helen Macdonald and Sin Blache

Immortal Longings

Chloe Gong

Immortal Longings follows the story of two lovers in San-Er, a place where people have the ability to take control of one another’s bodies. Every year, thousands flock to the city where a set of deadly games is held by the palace. Those confident in their ability to jump between bodies can enter a fight to the death – for the chance to win unimaginable riches. Chloe Gong’s adult epic fantasy debut, inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, is a fiery collision of power plays, spilled blood, and romance.

Hodder & Stoughton, $32.99

Pink Slime

Fernanda Trias

Random House

$34.99

Something is bringing memories to life, then stifling innocent people with their own joy. This is a weapon like no other. But nobody knows who created it, or why. Investigator Sunil Rao is chaotic and unpredictable, the antithesis of his partner Colonel Adam Rubenstein, the model of a military man. But Sunil has the unique ability to distinguish truth from lies – in objects, words and people, in the past and in real time. As they battle this strange new reality, they are drawn closer than ever to defend what they both hold most dear. This is a fresh, thrilling page-turner from a dynamic new duo in genre fiction.

WHAT WE’RE READING

The God of Good Looks

Breanne

Mc Ivor

A port city is in the grips of an ecological crisis. The river has filled with toxic algae, and a deadly “red wind” blows through its streets; much of the coast has been evacuated as the wealthy migrate inland to safety, leaving the rest to shelter in abandoned houses as blackouts and food shortages abound. The unnamed narrator is one of those who has stayed. With striking prose and vivid characters, the multi-award-winning Pink Slime offers profound reflections on motherhood, marriage, and caregiving, set against the backdrop of a crumbling city.

Scribe, $29.99

I didn’t know I needed this book, because it focuses on two things that I know hardly anything about: makeup and Trinidad and Tobago. McIvor’s debut novel follows Bianca, a young woman who is scrambling to work her way back up the social ladder, struggling against political corruption and facing a new career in makeup art. On top of social ostracisation, she has to deal with the struggles of a new job and the everyday hardship of living in a poor area of Trinidad. McIvor skillfully integrates the less glamorous aspects of life in Trinidad, like gunfights, robberies and water supplies that frequently fail, as well as white-collar crime amongst politicians - Imogen

Allen & Unwin $32.99

Penguin $32.99

The Wilder Aisles

Some time ago, Sophie Hannah, an award-winning writer of crime novels, started writing new Hercule Poirot stories, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s estate. So far she has written five, and I am reading the latest, Silent Night. No Hastings in this, instead he has the help of his long-time friend, Inspector Edward Catchpool.

The story starts as Poirot and Catchpool are contemplating a lovely, relaxed Christmas with just the two of them, when the door flies open, and Catchpool’s mother, Cynthia, bursts into the room.

She is staying at Frellingsloe House in Norfolk, which is crumbling to bits and threatens to fall into the sea at any moment. She is very anxious for the pair to come to Frellingsloe, because a man has been murdered at the local hospital and she is worried about who might be next. Poirot and Catchpool have a week to solve the mystery if they are to have Christmas in Whitehaven Mansions. I have enjoyed all of Sophie Hannah’s Poirot books. To me they seem to have captured Agatha Christie’s voice very well.

By now, I think most followers of Donna Leon will have read the latest Guido Brunetti crime novel, So Shall You Reap. I was a bit late coming to this, too many other books to read, I guess. As usual, Leon doesn’t disappoint and I admire the consistency of her ability to keep the stories alive and full of wonderful Venetian atmosphere. Having been to Venice, I love to walk with Brunetti around the narrow streets, cross the many bridges and catch the same vaporettos.

This story starts with a hand found in one of the canals. Brunetti is up late when he receives news of the finding, and when the body is found soon after, he is put in charge of the case. In trying to solve the murder, Brunetti is drawn back to his student days and his involvement in university politics. I love the Brunetti family life, the way the children are being brought up, the way they relate to each other, especially around the table during meal times. I also love the relationship between Paola and Guido. Her acceptance of the difficulties of his job, and that Brunetti always tries to be home for lunch, so he doesn’t have to eat trimestri standing at a bar. The fact that this is the 32nd Brunetti, and that Leon hasn’t lost her touch, is to me absolutely amazing. Here’s hoping for the 33rd – may she go on forever!

On a lighter note, I want to mention The Disorganization of Celia Stone by Emma Young, the author of The Last Bookshop Celia Stone lives her life by the book, or rather a spreadsheet. She is married to Jes, who puts up with her demanding lifestyle because he loves her. To Celia it is important to be in control, to know what will happen throughout the day, week, month. She is convinced that being in charge of all aspects of her life leads to a happy marriage and a successful career. Her mantra is hard work, the right attitude, and planning. The only release from this is in the pages of her journal. To Celia, everything is proceeding smoothly, until Jes asks a question which shakes her to her core. This makes her question whether she is on the right path with her well-regulated life, or if there is another path to follow. I think this book is either a self-help book in the guise of a novel or vice versa. I really enjoyed reading it and, being the emotional crybaby that I am, shed a few tears at the end.

– Janice Wilder

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR

Putin

Philip Short

He has the power to reduce the West to nuclear ashes. He invades his neighbours, meddles in western elections and orders assassinations. Yet many Russians continue to support him. Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has once again become a force to be reckoned with. Philip Short’s magisterial biography explores the personality of Russia’s leader and demolishes many of our preconceptions about Putin’s Russia. Penguin, $29.99

Prehistoric Joy

Andrew Sneddon

At the age of 11, Andrew Sneddon found himself living in the criminal underbelly of Queensland’s Gold Coast. He spent his time ricocheting between domestic violence and homelessness as his mother fled his stepfather. Sneddon reflects on the often frightening and sometimes farcical journey of his teenage years through the contemporary eyes of an archaeologist. Told with candour and refreshing humour, Prehistoric Joy explores the importance of family and the timeless search for happiness.

UQP, $32.99

MEDIA

Life Keeps Me Dancing

Eileen Kramer

“I am not old. I’ve just been here for a long time.”

Eileen Kramer has lived the most extraordinary life. Born just after Australia entered the First World War, she embraced creativity and adventure from an early age. She danced and painted murals in Karachi; worked as an artist’s model in Paris and London; and learned the twist from Louis Armstrong. In 2013, aged 99, Eileen returned to Australia. Now, at 108, she is still dancing. Eileen has led a bold and vibrant life, and here, she shares her inspirational story and wisdom, showing others the gift of the dance of life.

You Called an Ambulance for What?

Tim Booth

Tim Booth is shocked when his first emergency callout for someone short of breath turns out to be an adult man with a blocked nose. Between the obligatory stories of objects lodged in body cavities and grown men who can’t look after themselves when their wives are away, Booth finds that the promised lifesaving moments are far outweighed by the trivial, frustrating and bizarre ambulance callouts. You Called an Ambulance for What? is a comedic look at the challenges, absurdities and shocking reality of life as an Australian intensive care paramedic.

Pan Macmillan, $36.99

Sleeping on Islands Life in Poetry

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion has been close to the centre of British poetry for more than 50 years. In this tender, revelatory memoir we see in close-up the significance of Motion’s formative relationship with W.H. Auden and his subsequent friendship with Philip Larkin. And during his time as Poet Laureate, we witness memorable encounters with royalty and prime ministers, and discover the costs and complications that accompany such a high-profile role. By turns moving and humorous, this is the intimate story of a rare poetic life.

Faber, $39.99

Young Rupert: the making of the Murdoch empire

Walter Marsh

For half a century, the Murdoch media empire and its polarising patriarch have swept across the globe, shaking up markets and democracies in their wake. But how did it all start? In September 1953, 22-year-old Rupert Murdoch landed in Adelaide, South Australia. Fresh from Oxford with a radical reputation, the young and brash son of Sir Keith Murdoch had arrived to fulfill his father’s dying wish- for Rupert to live a ‘useful altruistic and full life’ in the media. Drawing on unpublished archival material and new reportage, Young Rupert pieces together a paper trail of succession, sedition, and power - and a fascinating time capsule of Australian media on the cusp of an extraordinary ascension.

Scribe, $35.00

Pan Macmillan $36.99

Unheard Voices

Dawn Mauldon

In this poignant and powerful memoir, the author tells the story of both her mother’s childhood and her own childhood with Deaf parents. Through intimate and evocative prose, Mauldon explores the challenges and joys of living in a world of difference, navigating the difficulties that come with being a child of Deaf parents as well as the strength and resilience that comes with love and belonging. She shares her unique and deeply personal perspective on what it means to be a part of Deaf culture.

Fremantle, $34.99

HISTORY AND POLITICS

Jali

Oliver Twist

Comedian Oliver Twist was four years old when he and his family fled the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda for Malawi, their exile for the next 14 years. Twist has turned the turmoil he and his family endured into a thrilling adventure of a hero’s journey. A natural-born storyteller, propelled from the cold alleys of a Malawian refugee camp to the warm spotlight of the Australian stage, he vividly describes what it’s like to leave your homeland behind and to have to wait your whole childhood for life to begin.

Penguin, $35

Donald Horne

Ryan Cropp

In the 1960s, Donald Horne offered Australians a compelling reinterpretation of the Menzies years as a period of social and political inertia and mediocrity. His book The Lucky Country was profoundly influential and, without doubt, one of the most significant shots ever fired in Australia’s endless culture war. Ryan Cropp’s landmark biography positions Horne as an antipodean Orwell, a lively, independent and distinct literary voice. Black Inc, $37.99

Africa Is Not a Country

Dipo Faloyin

So often Africa is depicted simplistically as an arid red landscape of famines and safaris, uniquely plagued by poverty and strife. In this funny and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective. He examines each country’s colonial heritage, and explores a wide range of subjects, from chronicling urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollof rice, to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture.

Random House, $24.99

Crack-Up Capitalism

Quinn Slobodium

No Silly Questions

Zara Seidler and Sam Koslowski

Everyday Utopia

Kristen R. Ghodsee

Historian Quinn

Slobodian follows the most notorious radical libertarians – from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel – around the globe as they search for the perfect home for their free market fantasy. The hunt leads from Hong Kong in the 1970s to South Africa in the late days of apartheid, from the neoConfederate South to the medieval City of London, and finally into the world’s oceans and war zones, charting the relentless quest for a blank slate where capitalism and democracy can be finally uncoupled. A propulsive history of the recent past, and an alarming view of our near future. Penguin, $55

You care what’s happening in the world – but you can’t help feeling you missed the part where the key stuff got explained. What’s a budget deficit? How does voting actually work? What’s the deal with the UN? And what does net zero mean again? Thankfully, No Silly Questions is here with jargon-free explainers on everything from emissions trading and crypto to interest rates and human rights, so you can avoid the anxiety of asking the “silly” questions and get on with your day feeling more knowledgeable and assured.

Penguin, $35

Kristen R. Ghodsee whisks you away on a tour through history and around the world to explore the places that have boldly dared to reimagine how we might live our daily lives: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own. Everyday Utopia offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to living the good life each and every day. Penguin, $36.99

The Eagle in the Mirror

Jesse Fink

Part biography, part forensic jigsaw puzzle, part cold-case detective investigation, The Eagle in the Mirror is the astonishing untold story of an Australian-born intelligence officer accused of being the traitor of the century, Charles Howard “Dick” Ellis. The longest serving spy for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Ellis was considered one of the top three secret agents in MI6 but in the 1980s he was posthumously accused of having operated as a “triple agent” for Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Was Ellis guilty or was an innocent man framed? The Eagle in the Mirror is not just a long-overdue biography of the unheralded Dick Ellis; it’s a gripping real-life international whodunnit.

Penguin, $34.99

Love in a Time of Hate

Florian Illies

As the Roaring Twenties wind down and the world rumbles towards war, the great minds of Europe have other concerns. Jean-Paul Sartre waits anxiously in a Parisian cafe for his first date with no-show Simone de Beauvoir. Marlene Dietrich slips from her loveless marriage into the dive bars of Berlin. Father and son Thomas and Klaus Mann clash over each other’s homosexuality. Love in a Time of Hate skilfully interweaves some of the greatest love stories of the 1930s with the darkening backdrop of fascism in Europe, in an irresistible journey into the past that brings history and its actors to vivid life. Profile, $39.99

The Chipilly Six

Lucas Jordan

On 9 August 1918, at Chipilly Spur overlooking the Somme River, an entire British Army Corps is held up by German machine gunners. The battle has raged for 30 hours and more than 2,000 men have fallen. Two Australian sergeants, Jack Hayes and Harold Andrews, go absent without leave and cross the Somme ahead of British lines. Seeing that the British advance is stopped, they re-cross the river, gather four mates and return to drive the Germans off the spur. Historian Lucas Jordan weaves a compelling tale of the lives of the soldiers, chronicling their return home and years after service.

NewSouth, $37.99

21st-Century Virtues: how they are failing

Lucinda Holdforth

Authenticity. Vulnerability. Humility. Transparency. These are some of the 21st-century virtues proselytised by mindset gurus, paraded (if not practised) by big corporations, and lauded by professionals on LinkedIn. In this provocative book, Lucinda Holdforth questions the new orthodoxy. She suggests that these virtues are not only unhelpfully subjective and self-referential but also, in the absence of broader civic values, fail to serve our democracy. This matters when experience around the world, especially in the United States, shows us that no democracy is guaranteed. If we agree that Australia needs confident, rational, optimistic and outward-looking citizens to shape our future, then Holdforth challenges us to reconsider the contemporary virtues shaping our society.

A Line of Blood

Craig Horne

Alfred Howitt first made his name in Australia as a bushman and explorer: Mt Howitt and Howitt Plain in the Victorian Alps are named in his honour. He led the salvage mission that retrieved the remains of Burke and Wills at Coopers Creek. Throughout his exploratory expeditionary career, Howitt encountered First Nations peoples, evoking in him mixed feelings of contempt and curiosity. This book challenges Howitt’s anthropological conclusions, coupled with his social and political influences, in legitimising the murderous advance of white settlement upon the Australia landscape.

Black Inc, $34.99

The Shrinking Nation

Graeme Turner

Leading cultural historian Graeme Turner examines a wide range of social and cultural change, including the role played by a media environment swamped by misinformation, the social consequences of neoliberal economic policy, and the divisive legacy of the culture wars, before considering how we might strengthen the bonds of community and belonging that tie our nation together. This timely, important and provocative book presents an original and compelling assessment of the state of the nation today

UQP, $32.99

NewSouth $19.95

Talking Heads

Shane

O’Mara

We are social animals and talking is a defining part of what makes us human. Chatting with friends or debating the future, we move through life in a state of near-constant dialogue, bridging the gap between our inner and outer worlds. But what purposes does conversation serve? In this revelatory tour of the science of talking, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara explores how and why we communicate, what is happening in our brains when we do it, and what it means for us as individuals, groups and societies.

Big Meg

Tim and Emma Flannery

When Tim Flannery was a boy he found a fossilised tooth of the giant shark megalodon at a Port Philip Bay beach near his home. This remarkable find – the tooth was large enough to cover his palm – sparked an interest in palaeontology that was to inform his life’s work. Tim and his daughter Emma, a scientist, have written a paleontological tour de force on the super-predator of the prehistoric marine world.

Text, $34.99

Many Things Under a Rock

David Scheel

The octopus is a highly intelligent and deeply mysterious creature. It can change colour as quickly as it can move, “think” with its tentacles and communicate in sophisticated ways. Marine biologist David Scheel recounts his intrepid adventures with these mysterious, charismatic creatures.

Hachette, $34.99

Teacher, Teacher

Edited by Megan Daley

The power of an exceptional teacher cannot be overestimated. Sometimes it is not about what they taught you, but about how they made you feel as a person.

Teacher, Teacher is an anthology of stories showcasing those brilliant educators who have nurtured, inspired, championed or created change - in one student or in a community. Edited by award-winning teacher-librarian Megan Daley, and with contributors including Jessie Tu, Tony Birch, Rick Morton and Jacqueline Harvey.

Affirm Press, $34.99

GENDER STUDIES

Russia’s War Against Ukraine: the whole story

Mark

Edele

In February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a fellow East Slav state with much shared history. Mark Edele, a world authority on the history of the Soviet Union, explains why and how this conflict came about. Since the implosion of that state in 1991, Ukraine has developed a vibrant, if often troubled, democracy. Humiliated by the degradation of Russia’s international standing, Putin and his allies have increasingly retreated into a resentful ultra-nationalism. Dreams of past imperial glory stand in place of any attempt to solve the problems of the present.

Camp!

Paul Baker

Fabulously unrestrained and everevolving, camp has captured the cultural imagination for at least 150 years. Used to define or deride young heterosexual men, the upper classes, Black people, older women and gay men, camp has also played a key role in equality movements. Baker traces the history of camp from the courts of Louis XIV and trials of Oscar Wilde to the archetypical dandy Beau Brummell; from Harlem’s drag balls to the modern day divas of Donna Summer, Madonna and Britney Spears.

Bonnier, $39.99

Random House $36.99

Reid all about it

Mid-year reading 2023 part one: fiction.

This Bird Has Flown

Susanna Hoffs

Based on the author’s favourite novel –Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre – this is a charming, (very) spicy-sweet, gently funny, joyful debut. Featuring Jane Smart, a 33 year-old, single, one-hit wonder musician, sent by her manager from California to London, to rediscover her musical muse after a decade-long hiatus.

She also finds a life-changing relationship with elegant, handsome Tom Hardy, an Oxford professor of literature. This pitch-perfect novel is no surprise. As co-founder and lead singer of 1980s pop group the Bangles, we already knew Susanna Hoffs could write.

PS. The title comes from The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood. The chapter headings are some of her favourite song titles. See how many you know.

The Good Soldier Svejk

Jaroslav Hasek (1883-1923)

“And so, they’ve killed our Ferdinand,” said the charwoman to Mr. Svejk who had left military service … and now lived by selling dogs – ugly mongrel monstrosities whose pedigrees he forged. “Which Ferdinand, Mrs. Muller? I know two Ferdinands. One is a messenger at Prusa’s chemist and once by mistake drank a bottle of hair oil. The other is Ferdinand Kokoska who collects dog manure. Neither is any loss.”

“Oh no, sir, it’s His Imperial Highness, the Archduke Ferdinand, from Konopiste, the fat, churchy one.’”

After recently binge watching 1917, the latest version of All Quiet on the Western Front and Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, I thought it was also time to revisit – after three decades – Jaroslav Hasek’s unfinished (and probably unfinishable) comic, anti-war masterpiece The recounting of the enthusiastic, simple soldier Svejks’ military

escapades broadens into a satire on the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. Published between 1921-23, the author planned six volumes with three completed.

As proof that one literary masterpiece may inspire another, Joseph Heller said that reading Hasek led him to write Catch-22

The Cthulhu Casebooks

James Lovegrove

Prolific author Lovegrove crafts three enjoyable Holmesian pastiches covering the years 1880 to 1910.

Including Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities, and Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea Devils, these see Conan Doyle’s famous detective –aided by the faithful Watson – confront H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Ones: ancient, pitiless beings from a universe of eldritch horror, who wreak havoc on hapless humans.

And lastly, I re-read two contenders for the title of The Great American Novel:

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing in particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”

– Herman Melville (1819-1891)

– Moby Dick or, The Whale (1851) And:

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.”

– Mark Twain (1835-1910) – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

After several readings of both over the decades, I still can’t decide which one wins the laurel. You decide.

Next Month: Non-Fiction.

– Stephen Reid

ESSAYS FOOD AND DRINK

A Very Easy Death

Simone

de Beauvoir

This profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother’s death from cancer has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpieces. She writes of her mother’s final weeks and reflects on their complex relationship. Powerful, touching, and sometimes shocking, this is an end-of-life account that no reader is likely to forget.

Fitzcarraldo, $27.99

Quietly Hostile

Samantha Irby

After fleeing Chicago to quarantine at home in Michigan, Irby finds herself bleaching groceries and wondering if her upper lip hairs are visible on Zoom. Her career reaches new heights: she gets to work with the iconic ladies of Sex and the City but behind the newfound glam, Irby is just trying to keep her life together. Our friend in print is back, on point, and ready to take us with her, from adopting Abe (her scrawny, wateryeyed firstborn dog) to her favourite, extremely specific porn searches (including two old nuns).

Faber, $23.99

Griffith review 81: The Leisure Principle

Edited by Carody Culver

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes said work will become a thing of the past: man’s greatest challenge would be “how to occupy the leisure which science ... will have won for him”. So where did this vision go? Griffith Review 81 sets out to scrutinise how we came to cede so much just to amuse ourselves to death.

NewSouth, $34.99

5 Ingredients: Mediterranean

Jamie

Oliver

Oliver goes Mediterranean in this mouth-watering follow-up to 5 Ingredients: Quick & Easy Food

With more than 125 easy-to-follow recipes, 5

Penguin $55.00

Ingredients: Mediterranean is about making everyday cooking super-exciting, with minimal fuss – all while transporting you to sunnier climes. You’ll find recipes that empower you to make delicious food, but without copious amounts of ingredients, long shopping lists or loads of washing up. Most of the recipes are meat-free or meat-reduced, and all offer big, bold flavour.

Halliday Wine Companion 2024

James Halliday

A best-selling annual, the Halliday Wine Companion 2024 has been completely revised to bring readers the latest wine ratings, regions, best varietals, winery reviews and a curated selection of the best wines in Australia. The Halliday Tasting Team, now led by Campbell Mattinson in the role of chief editor, shares their extensive knowledge of wine through detailed tasting notes with points, price, value, and advice on best-by drinking. The book provides information about wineries and winemakers, including opening times, contact details and advice on family and dogfriendly vineyards.

How to Drink Australian

Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross

Centuries of innovation and determination have led to an era of exceptional achievement in Australia, yet it is a country whose output is not matched by its scholarship. How to Drink Australian brings together global experts to offer insight into all aspects of Australian wine, including exhaustive analysis of every significant region, stunning and detailed maps, bespoke illustrations and artwork, individual wine recommendations, hundreds of producer profiles, a fold-out region-by-region grape table and more, all curated with a reverence for Australia’s first custodians.

The Food Fix

Yumi Stynes and Simon Davis

Since its launch, the 5 Minute Food Fix has consistently been among the most downloaded food podcasts in the country, and has spawned a vast collection of fans who tune in religiously for dinner inspiration. This book pulls together the best hits from the pod and some never-before-seen recipes, all of which have been tested – and re-tested – on the world’s most unforgiving critics, and cooked under the most trying circumstances (during life or whatever). Every recipe has been developed to be quick, fussfree and most importantly, delicious.

Hardie Grant $45

Murdoch $79.99

Murdoch $39.99

SELF-HELP, PSYCHOLOGY AND HEALTH

The Attention Fix

Anders Hansen

In the always-on age of notifications, emails and the news cycle, it’s easy to waste the majority of our days mindlessly scrolling. But according to psychiatric specialist and mental health guru Dr Anders Hansen, being tethered to our devices 24/7 is taking its toll on our mental wellbeing. Sleeplessness, anxiety, depression and burnout are just some of the consequences of feeling digitally overloaded. In The Attention Fix, Hansen shares an informative guide to what unrestricted social media use is actually doing to our brains, and the practical steps we can take to break the addiction cycle.

Penguin, $35

Your Name Is Not Anxious

Stephanie Dowrick

With consummate insight and compassion, Stephanie Dowrick offers a new way to look at anxiety (and yourself) that is accessible, supportive and immediately effective. Drawing on decades of professional experience, her own story, plus the latest in mindbody-brain insights, she puts workable knowledge into your hands.

Allen & Unwin, $29.99

How to Hangover

Stephen Wildish

Headache? Confusion? Waves of nausea and regret? Luckily, thanks to this handy book, a hangover no longer has to mean a ruined day. Use infographics and flowcharts to diagnose which hangover type you are suffering from and find the best treatments to help you on the road back to full health. With simple hangover cures and advice on how to tackle the cleanup (social and physical) this book is the perfect remedy for all your “morning after” regrets.

Random House, $29.99

Back up

Liam Mannix

One in 10 people will develop chronic back pain and there is a multi-billion dollar industry that claims there is a cure – by shrinking discs, melting nerves, cutting spines up and putting them back together. Liam Mannix is one of the many who experiences back pain, and he takes this as a starting point for this compelling and urgent work of investigative journalism. A theory has emerged, born from cutting-edge neuroscience, that claims back pain is all about the brain. This new science offers new solutions – including evidence that by teaching people this theory of pain we can reduce it.

NewSouth, $34.99

Better than Happiness

Gregory P. Smith

Fake Love

Nova Gibson

Nova Gibson has helped thousands of people in their struggle to understand, extricate themselves and heal from toxic relationships and narcissistic abuse. In this life-changing book, she brings unparalleled insight into the lived experience of victims and helps identify the behaviours of narcissistic abusers, such as coercive control and gaslighting, pathological lying, and more. Gibson offers comfort, knowledge and powerful strategies to help you identify, navigate and survive this extremely covert, confusing and dangerous form of abuse.

HarperCollins, $34.99

Sleepless: a memoir of insomnia

Marie Darrieussecq

What is it like to live with chronic insomnia? For Marie Darrieussecq, not sleeping began after the birth of her first child and continues more than 20 years later. In Sleepless, she recounts her own experiences alongside those of fellow insomniacs, some of whom claim a connection between not sleeping and creativity. With her inimitable humour, she describes her countless attempts to find a remedy, including consulting a somnologist.

Text, $34.99

When Gregory Smith stumbled out of a New South Wales rainforest in 2000 he was close to death after living as a hermit in the wild. Today, he has overcome a life of homelessness and despair to become one of society’s great teachers. He is a senior lecturer in the social sciences at university, a government policy advisor and an advocate for the dispossessed and downtrodden the world over. And yet he doesn’t consider himself to be happy. “It is far more attainable, satisfying and fulfilling,” says Gregory, “to simply be contented.”

Penguin, $35

From the Heathens

While any kind of weather is, of course, perfect book-reading weather, winter in the mountains is an especially good time to mull (is that a thing?) some wine, heat up your hot water bottle and curl up with a great book! The gorgeous Tilly Pamment – Wentworth Falls-based author of The Plain Cake Appreciation Society – stopped by recently to sign copies, along with a VIP delivery of her citrus madeleines (pg 182). After some arduous quality control on our part, we can attest to their deliciousness ...

From more locals comes Black Cockatoo with One Feather Blue, a stunning children’s picture book from dynamo author/ illustrator team Jodie McLeod and Eloise Short.

We’re also excited to report that the program for the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival 2023 was announced on August 10, with day and weekend passes on sale at bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au. Keep the weekend of 20-22 October free – it’s going to be another great festival and Gleebooks Blackheath looks forward to seeing you there.

What we’re reading in the mountains

Victoria spent an afternoon beside the fire with Ann Patchett … which she says is like sitting with a dear friend as they tell you a story about their life. And, so she says, that pretty much sums up Ann’s new book, Tom Lake. Lara is hounded by her three daughters to tell them the story of when she was an actress in a play showing for a summer season at the Tom Lake theatre company. It is a love story with characters that are beautifully crafted, as always by Patchett. Another winner from this awesome author.

Tiff adored The Librarianist by the super talented Patrick deWitt. This is the story of the life of an unassuming retired Librarian, Bob Comet. Subtle, charming and very funny, she found herself reading some of the wonderfully crafted dialogue out loud to savour just how good deWitt is. Champion of the underdog, deWitt raises up and celebrates the lives of ordinary people. An absolute joy!

And Jane read Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland, thinking it would be a lightweight weekend read but was so glad she picked it up. Set half in Sydney, half in France, it tells the story of a woman dealing with anxiety, medication and a domineering husband. When she discovers she has been left part ownership in a villa in the south of France, her history comes back to haunt her ... The atmosphere is nostalgic and wistful, while the writing is unexpectedly powerful. It covers some very sensitive topics with grace. Definitely worth a read, she says.

Ava recently read two books that featured protagonists whose latent homosexuality causes them a great deal of inner turmoil, largely as a result of their rigidly unsympathetic environments. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers is the story of Miss Amelia Evans, a strong but unpleasant woman who is the richest and most powerful person in a tiny town in Georgia. Her

lonely existence is interrupted by a strange hunchback from out of town who claims to be her distant cousin. While everyone finds him repulsive, Amelia takes him in and provides him with a comfortable existence, a kindness which is repaid by a devastating act.

George Haddad’s Losing Face was a compulsive page turner. Joey is a young man from western Sydney whose Lebanese family has always managed to sweep its ugly secrets under the rug: one family member has a gambling addiction while a second committed a serious crime. When Joey finds himself entangled in a tragic incident late one night, he discovers that this latest event might be the thing that finally tears down the facade that has been holding them all together.

See you on the mountain!

– Victoria

PERFORMING ARTS

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Jeff Apter

In early 1980, 21-year-old Neil Mullane Finn wrote I Got You, which became the biggest hit for the Kiwi band Split Enz, co-founded by Neil’s big brother Tim. Over the next four decades, Neil crafted hit after hit for his own chart-topping band Crowded House, and as a solo act. Don’t Dream It’s Over is the first biography to focus exclusively on the work and life of the most successful singer-songwriter of his generation from this end of the planet – and probably the most respected.

Allen & Unwin, $34.99

Season of the Witch

Cathi Unsworth

As Margaret Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street, four bands born of punk – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure, and Magazine – find a way to distill the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Season of the Witch is the story of how goth was shaped by the politics of that era and how its rock ‘n’ roll outlaw imagery and innovative, atmospheric music resonated with a generation of alienated youths. Bonnier, $49.99

Faith, Hope and Carnage

Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan

Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave’s inner life. Created from more than 40 hours of intimate conversations with Sean O’Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave’s own words, of what really drives his life and creativity. The book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave’s life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years.

Text, $34.99

Abbey Road

David Hepworth

It may have begun life as an affluent suburban house, but it soon became a creative hub renowned around the world as a place where great music, groundbreaking sounds and unforgettable tunes were forged. Abbey Road tells the story of the infamous studios through the eyes of all those who have walked through its doors and includes much unpublished material. With a foreword by Paul McCartney.

Penguin, $29.99

Shake Some Action

Stuart Coupe

For more than four decades, Stuart Coupe has been at the heart of the Australian music scene. When he wasn’t writing for myriad publications, he was manager of Hoodoo Gurus and Paul Kelly. When he wasn’t trekking to Paris to interview Springsteen or consuming too much cocaine before interviewing Bob Dylan, he was writing books about the burgeoning new wave music movement or collaborating with Tex Perkins. Shake Some Action tells the story of Coupe’s remarkable life as a music obsessive, one that would take him into the orbit of some of the greatest artists of our time.

Text, $35.99

Loaded

Dylan Jones

Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen, The Velvet Underground represent ground zero. They were avant-garde nihilists, writing about drug abuse, paranoia, and sado-masochistic sex at a time when the rest of the world was singing about peace and love. Drawing on interviews and material from Lou Reed, John Cale, Mo Tucker, Andy Warhol, Jon Savage, Nico, David Bowie and more, awardwinning journalist Dylan Jones breaks down the band’s whirlwind of subversion in a narrative rich in drama and detail. Hachette, $34.99

Ballet Confidential

David McAllister

Beyond the formidable combination of tulle and lycra, how much can an audience ever truly understand about the demands of being a ballet dancer? Here is your tell-all guide, an all-access pass for ballet lovers and the ballet-curious by internationally acclaimed dancer and former artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister. From toe acting, to the perils of partnering and onstage/ offstage romances, McAllister answers everything you have ever wanted to know about ballet but were too afraid to ask.

Thames & Hudson, $34.99

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Milton Moon

Rebecca Evans

Milton Moon: crafting modernism explores the life and career of one of the most important Australian potters of the 20th and early 21st centuries. A pioneer of the modernist approach to ceramics in the postwar period, Moon had an enormous impact on Australian art and craft throughout his career as an artist and educator. An avid diver and bushwalker, his work in ceramics explored the elemental and textural nature of the Australian environment. This book examines the influence of Australian modernism and Japanese art on his work, as well as introducing his lesser-known work in painting and drawing.

Thames & Hudson, $34.95

Illustrations of the Book of Job

William Blake

The Illustrations of the Book of Job were Blake’s last masterpiece of printmaking. Commissioned by the painter John Linnell, they were based on watercolours Blake had made around 1805. Three hundred copies were printed in 1826, and they earned Blake high recognition from fellow artists. This book presents 21 prints in actual size.

Peribo, $24.99

Being Bardot

Douglas Kirkland and Terry O’Neill

Peribo

$125

Ron Mueck

Brigitte Bardot is arguably the most familiar face in French cinema and one of the most loved stars of the 20th century. She is recognised the world over for her work in film, as a singer, and as an animal rights activist. The photographers Douglas Kirkland and Terry O’Neill both worked with Bardot at the peak of her fame in the 1960s and early 1970s and they have delved into their archives to reveal stunning and never-beforeseen images of the star, from on-set to behind the scenes and candid captures.

Norman Foster

The artistic career of Australian artist Ron Mueck began in 1996 when artist Paula Rego commissioned him to do a sculpture of Pinocchio. A year later, his work Dead Dad (1996-97) was one of the stars of the London exhibition Sensation. First published in 2013, this book covers his 30-year career from sculptures through photographs and unpublished documents. Artist’s notes, studio shots, preparatory drawings and photographs of models allow the reader to discover Mueck’s creative process and understand the intimacy of his work.

Thames & Hudson, $100

Norman Foster is a globally recognised figure in architecture. His agency has created more than 300 projects around the world, many of which have profoundly transformed cities and landscapes. This new monograph presents more than 80 of Foster’s key projects, from the Cockpit (1964), a private house in Cornwall, through to Spaceport America (2006-2014), the world’s first terminal for space tourists, built in the desert landscape of New Mexico. Each project is illustrated with drawings, sketches and photographs, alongside insightful text.

Peribo, $99

HR Giger: the oeuvre before Alien 1961-1976

Beat Stutzer

Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger (1940-2014) achieved international fame in 1979 for designing the fantastic creatures and eerie environments that terrified moviegoers in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Alien. Yet before these iconic creations won him an Oscar for visual effects, Giger was already highly regarded in the international art world for his unique freehand painting style and biomechanical dreamscapes. A lavishly illustrated volume tracing the development of his ink drawing and oil painting technique and his breakthrough as one of the foremost artists of the fantastic realism school.

Peribo, $95

Frederic Migayrou

Victor, the Wolf with Worries

Catherine Rayner

Victor the wolf has lots of worries. He worries that he isn’t brave enough, that he isn’t big enough and that he isn’t fierce enough. In fact, Victor feels anxious about almost everything. But when he shares his concerns with his best friend Pablo, he starts to feel a bit better. And with Pablo’s help, Victor learns even more ways to deal with those pesky worrying thoughts. As the worries grow smaller, Victor feels a bit bigger, a bit braver, and bit fiercer inside. Victor, the Wolf with Worries is a beautifully illustrated story with a gentle and encouraging message to help children deal with their worries.

The Quickest Bedtime Story Ever

Louise Fitzgerald and Kate Hindley

Welcome to the quickest bedtime story ever! Your little one will be asleep in seconds. But wait! There are some VERY important things you must do first. Have you plumped up the pillows? And colour-co-ordinated the teddy bears? Getting ready for a story is a very important business! This hilarious and engaging bedtime story will help to settle down even the most restless readers.

Nothing Alike

Zewlan Moor

Author Zewlan Moor was continually mistaken for another Asian writer colleague, despite them looking nothing alike. In a curious twist of fate, Zewlan’s son came home from his new school and could not tell his two Asian classmates apart. And so her idea of this picture book about race, perception and stereotyping was born. A masterful picture book about race and perception, Nothing Alike tackles the tricky topic of micro-aggressions and stereotyping with a warm and wry humour.

Count the Stars

Raewyn Caisley and Gabriel Evans

From the parallel lines of moonlight pouring through her bedroom blinds, to counting daisy petals in the garden, Maddie adores maths. If only she had a friend who marvelled at it as she does. Then Dad takes Maddie, along with her new classmate Priya, to the observatory where the unfathomable numbers of stars take their breath away. A STEM-themed picture book celebrating the love of learning, the magic of mathematics and the joy of finding a kindred spirit.

I Am Lupe

Sela Ahosivi-Atiola and Yani Agustina

When a little girl with brown skin and curly hair notices she is different from her classmates, she asks her mother what she is. Her mother’s answer is a celebration of all the wonderful differences that make each of us who we are. This is a warm-hearted story that will inspire big and little readers to embrace the things that make them who they are.

Lothian, $24.99

Concrete Garden

Bob

Graham

From master storyteller Bob Graham comes a charming, and gently post-pandemic story about finding optimism after a dark spell, and the nurturing power of community friendships in an urban setting. The Concrete Garden will resonate with anyone who has been apart from their loved ones, and will encourage us all to find the brightness and colour within ourselves. A timely, inspiring and uplifting story about hope and the power of creative expression.

Walker, $27.99

GLEEBOOKS BOOK CLUB

Calling all bookworms: we want to hear about your favourite reads! We’d love to feature more of our wonderful book clubbers in our Gleaner magazine. So if you’ve got a book you’d like to review or if you want to write about an author that’s visiting, send us an email at rachel@gleebooks.com. au. We have exciting giveaways waiting for you!

Pan Macmillan, $26.99

Hardie Grant $22.99

Walker $25.99

Nosy Cow $24.99

EARLY READERS

Hello Twigs

Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood

The world is big when you’re a twig! Follow the adventures of Stump, Noodle, Ziggy and Red as they hunt for treasure, learn the secret of creativity and discover the meaning of friendship in this series by Andrew McDonald and illustrator Ben Wood. Hardie Grant, $10.99 each

Leaf-Light

Trace Balla

This beautiful graphic novel is a stand-alone companion to Landing with Wings by award-winning author Trace Balla. Join Miri on her quest to help a rescued baby emu find its feet in the world, as she connects to her community in joyful and unexpected ways. From the multi-award-winning creator of Rivertime and Rockhopping comes a beautiful ode to working together to make the world a better place.

Allen & Unwin, $27.99

AGES 8-12

Magic Awry

Sarah Armstrong

Eleven-year-old Tulsi comes from a long line of women magicians. Every night in her family’s circus show, she turns twigs into trees, flies like a bird, and even disappears into thin air. But one night, in the middle of a show, she loses her powers. In her search for answers she travels to a parallel universe, where she discovers that the natural world is falling out of balance, and a band of rogue magicians are stripping magic from women. This thrilling sequel to middlegrade fantasy adventure Big Magic is a compelling read full of twists and turns. Hardie Grant, $19.99

Scar Town

Tristan Bancks

Seven years after Old Scarborough was drowned, a house is emerging from the water. Will and his friends Dar and Juno dare each other to explore it. But when they find bones - and a stash of cash – they realise they’re not the only ones interested in its secrets. Now they’re fighting for their lives against the men who want what they found. Will can’t leave the mystery alone, though. What if the bones belong to his missing dad? He is on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth in a town that wants the past to stay buried.

Penguin, $16.99

Honey and the Valley of Horses

Wendy Orr

When Honey was four and her brother Rumi was a tiny baby, her family loaded up their converted ice-creamvan-camper and drove away from all they knew, as an illness swept the sad wide world. High in the mountains, they crossed a bridge to follow a mysterious herd of enchanted horses into a sheltered valley. The bridge and the track disappeared behind them – and now they are trapped in paradise. An enchanting adventure full of wonder, resilience and hope.

Allen & Unwin, $17.99

YOUNG ADULT GRAPHIC NOVELS

One Song

A.J. Betts

Aspiring singersongwriter Eva has one last chance to enter Triple J Unearthed High and break into the music industry. After three failed attempts, she needs some help. Cue the band: perfectionist Eva, charismatic Cooper, easy-going Ant and moody Ruby. Plus fly-on-the-wall Mim, who’s filming them for her school media project. Five people who have nothing in common but music. One emotionally and creatively charged weekend. Can they record the most important song of their lives? This novel explores the tumult of the teen years with humour and insight. Ages 13+

Pan Macmillan, $19.99

Spider and Her Demons

Sydney Khoo

Between surviving high school and working at her aunt’s dumpling shop, all Zhi wants is to find time for her friends ... and make sure no one finds out she’s half spiderdemon. Moving and funny by turns, this is a story about what it takes to make peace with your demons – literal or otherwise. An urban fantasy spin on growing up as a secondgeneration immigrant, struggling under the overwhelming pressure to make others proud, while feeling trapped inside your own body. Ages 14+ Penguin, $19.99

NONFICTION

You Are a Story

Laura Dockrill and Lotte Cassidy

Celebrated writer Laura Dockrill knows that the best writing comes when you are speaking your own truth, with your own voice. Expressing yourself honestly is a powerful way to know yourself and grow to celebrate the exciting, creative, unique person you are. Laura’s stress-free invitations to creative writing encourage you to find your voice, celebrate it and use it. Ages 5+ Holiday House, $17.99

Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Hiromu Arakawa

In a world where certain humans command mighty supernatural duos called Daemons, it is the birthright of “the children who sunder day and night” – twins Yuru and Asa – to rule over these powerful entities. Separated from a young age and unaware of the truth of their birth, brother and sister must fight to make their way back to each other, claim their birthright, and save the world. Hiromu Arakawa, award-winning manga creator of the best-selling smash hit Fullmetal Alchemist, draws readers into an intricate new web of magic, intrigue, and life-or-death stakes. Ages 12+.

Ghost Book

Remy Lai

July Chen sees ghosts. When she saves a boy ghost from being devoured by a Hungry Ghost, he becomes her first ever friend. Except William is not a ghost. He’s a wandering soul wavering between life and death. As the new friends embark on an adventure to return William to his body, they unearth a ghastly truth – for William to live, July must die. Inspired by Chinese mythology, this resoundingly hopeful tale about friendship, sacrifice and the unseen world of ghosts is a dazzling heir to beloved Studio Ghibli classics

Squire & Knight

Scott Chantler

Squire is brainy, bookish and terribly under-appreciated by his boss, the brawny, inept knight, Sir Kelton, who somehow always gets all the glory. So when the two mismatched heroes find themselves in a cursed village, plagued by a demonic dragon, Kelton rides off to slay it, and Squire stays behind to catch up on some reading. But Squire starts to notice that something isn’t quite right about this town ... can he uncover its secrets? Ages 8+

Foodwise

Lucy Bell and Lucy Leonardi

Each year in Australia, households throw away 3.1 million tonnes of food. That would fill almost 17,000 jumbo jets! But there are so many simple and delicious ways we can stop our food from ending up in landfill. Find out where it comes from, how it’s grown, how to buy and care for it, ways to cook it, and best of all, all the ways you can share it with your family and friends. Ages 8+ Pantera, $32.99

SquareEnix $24.99

FirstSecond $26.99

Allen & Unwin $19.99

100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs John Hill

World Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff

Flaubert: A Life Geoffrey Wall

1989 Val McDermid Give Unto Others Donna Leon

Smith Jackie Kay

The Free World: art and thought in the Cold War Louis Menand

Apples for Jam Tessa Kiros

The World’s Most Extreme Challenges Paul Moore

Easy Homemade Bread Beverly Hudson

Austrailan Native Gardening Made Easy Dick Chadwick

The Atlas Cookbook Charlie Carrington

Fish: the complete fish & seafood companion Mitch Tonks

Creole Kitchen Vanessa Bolosier

Was $30 NOW $14.95

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Recollections

Was $40 NOW $19.95

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Indian in Six Monisha Bharadwaj

In Search of the South Pole Kari Herbert

Painting the Ancient Land of Australia Philip Hughes

The Unfolding A.M. Holmes

Cook Japanese at Home Kimiko Barber

Sympathy for the Devil Paul Trynka

Planthunter: Truth, Beauty, Chaos & Plants Georgina Reid

Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald

Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts Karen Armstrong

Tel Aviv: Food, Stories, People Haya Molcho

The Ratline Philippe Sands

The White City Karolina Ramqvist

Young Mungo Douglas Stuart

Between Two Fires Joshua Yaffa

of My Nonexistence Rebecca Solnit

Writing in the Dark Will Loxley

The Body Country

Susie Anderson

A Wergaia and Wemba Wemba woman, Susie Anderson captures profound meaning in moments often lost in the busyness of a day, encouraging us all to stop and allow ourselves the space to notice. To notice the shape of a mouth as it says goodbye; the colour of the sky as you fall in love; the crunch of dry ground after drought; the smell of fire on the wind. These are poems that take us across rural and urban settings; from the personal to the universal, always bringing us back to the Country that connects us all.

Hachette, $26.99

Divisible by Itself and One

Kae Tempest

Divisible by Itself and One is the powerful new collection from our foremost truth-teller Kae Tempest. Ruminative, wise, with a newer, more contemplative and metaphysical note running through, it is a book engaged with the big questions and the emotional states in which we live and create. Some of the poems experiment with form, some are free, and yet all are politically and morally conscious. Taking its bearings – and title – from the prime number, Divisible by Itself and One is concerned, ultimately, with integrity: how to live in honest relationship with oneself and others.

Pan Macmillan, $24.99

ABN 87 000 357 317

Devotions

Mary Oliver

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Devotions is a stunning, definitive and carefully curated collection featuring work from more than 50 years of writing. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

Hachette, $34.99

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