from David’s Desk So, a warm, if both bedraggled and belated, welcome to the 2022 Gleaner. Apologies for the delay: we had a wonderful long-term editor (thanks again, Viki), a quick-fire fill-in (thanks, Sarah), a new editor who quit the day she started (anon) and another quick-fire fill-in for this issue (thanks, James, our unflappable and ever up-for-a fresh challenge manager). We do have a new editor (Akshaya), who will introduce herself with the bumper April-May issue, where we'll again celebrate the annual Sydney Writers' Festival, taking place this year in the week of May 16-23. In the meantime, looking on the bright side, a tough thing to do in these difficult and troubled times, it's been great to hear that cry, "what's happened to the Gleaner?" There's some significant, and exciting, developments this year for Gleebooks, and we'll bring news of them as soon as we've clarity about timing and processes. Stay tuned. Regardless, we hope we can return, in a rewarding and uninterrupted way, to our full program of writers in conversation and discussion, as well as a rich and varied offering of the best books we can find, and our personal recommendations. More, next month, and thanks for sticking with us, and thnaks to those whoe noted with approval, our move to a plastic-free packing of the last issue. It's back to a cottage industry hand-packing, but we know it was overdue and necessary. Cheers, David Gaunt
Australian Literature Son of Sin by Omar Sakr ($30, PB)
Loveland by Robert Lukins ($33, PB)
In this extraordinary work, Omar Sakr deftly weaves a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet’s eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human..
Amid the ruins of a fire-ravaged amusement park and destroyed waterfront dwellings, one boarded-up building still stands. May has come from Australia to Loveland, Nebraska, to claim the house on the poisoned lake as part of her grandmother's will. Escaping the control of her husband, will she find refuge or danger?
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu ($26.95, PB)
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Aboriginal & Australian Studies Philosophy & Religion
pg 20-21 pg 22
The Arts
pg 23
When the river runs dry, the town runs red.
The first book of fiction by young queer Indonesian writer Norman Erikson Pasaribu. Happy Stories, Mostly is a playful, charged and tender collection of twelve stories – a blend of speculative fiction and dark absurdism, often drawing on Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Batak and Christian cultures.
This could be any small town. It aches under the heat of summer. It flourishes in the cooler months. Everyone knows everyone. Their families, histories and stories are well-known by all. Or at least, they think they are. But no-one sees anything quite the same way. Perceptions differ, truths are elusive, judgements have outcomes and everything is connected. For better or for worse.
The Sorrow Stone by Kari Gislason ($33, PB)
Sadvertising by Ennis Cehic ($33, PB)
In a society where betrayals and revenge killings are rife, all Disa has is her pride and her courage. Will it be enough for her and her son to escape retribution?
An electrifying collection of stories from the febrile imagination of a young writer who traverses culture, genre and form. Short, punchy and direct, Ennis Cehic’s satirical fables are box-fresh and shot through with pitch-black humour, existential dread and late capitalist yearning for meaning. They grapple with love and loneliness, art and commerce, dream and reality, and reflect the absurdity of the modern condition.
Dramatic and urgent in its telling, The Sorrow Stone celebrates one woman’s quest, against the dramatic backdrop of the Icelandic countryside. In this gripping novel, the co-author of the bestselling Saga Land takes a sidelined figure from the Viking tales and finally puts her where she belongs – at the centre of the story.
The Islands by Emily Brugman ($30, PB) Contents Australian Literature International Literature Crime Fiction Poetry 2nd Hand Rows Biography Performing Arts Psychology & Self Help Food & Health Garden Children’s Books Events Politics & History Cultural Studies, Criticism Science, & Nature Specials
Australiana by Yumna Kassab ($33, PB)
The Islands is the sweeping story of the Saari family: Onni, an industrious young man, grappling with the loss of a loved one; his wife Alva, quiet but stoic, seeking a sense of belonging between the camps of the islands and the suburban lots of the mainland; and their pensive daughter Hilda, who dreams of becoming the skipper of her own boat. As the Saari's try to build their future in Australia, their lives entwine with those of the fishing families of Little Rat, in myriad and unexpected ways.
Home and Other Hiding Places by Jack Ellis ($33, PB) A clear-eyed, big-hearted work of literary fiction, Home and Other Hiding Places is a stunning portrait of a boy navigating the world of adult secrets. When Finn returns to Sydney to spend Christmas with his Gran, he discovers that his new home is a harsh and unfriendly space. As the life he has known crumbles around him, Fin learns that no-one is coming to his rescue, and he sets off on a journey to find his way home.
The Competition by Katherine Collette ($33, PB) Katherine Collette, author of the hilarious The Helpline, returns with another sharply observed comedy of manners and a cast of loveable underachievers, headed for self-improvement despite themselves – set against the backdrop of the SpeechMakers annual national conference and public-speaking competition.
Leaving Owl Creek by Sandy Gordon ($32, PB) Nick MacLean, heir to an old Australian farming family, is captured by mujahideen fighters while on a trek in the mountains of Kashmir. Waiting against hope to be ransomed, Nick is shackled to profound memories— of his parents’ unrealistic expectations of him, and of his sister, Lilly, left solely responsible for a property now in drought and decline. Most of all he is haunted by his youthful friendship with Richard Connolly, the able son of a stockman, who watched with frustration as Nick denied himself the advantages of his birth.
Hovering by Rhett Davis ($33, PB) A spectacular debut novel from one of Australia's most exciting new writers. Winner of the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award, Hovering crosses genres, literary styles and conventions to create a powerful and kaleidoscopic story about three people struggling to find connection in a chaotic and impermanent world.
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au ($24.95, PB) A young woman has arranged a holiday with her mother in Japan. They travel by train, on guard against the autumn rain and the prospect of snow. All the while, they talk, or seem to talk: about the weather, about the mother’s family in Hong Kong, and the daughter’s own formative experiences. But uncertainties abound. How much is spoken between them, how much is thought but unspoken? Cold Enough for Snow is a reckoning and an elegy that expresses both the tenderness between mother and daughter, and the distance between them.
On D’Hill For the first time since we opened over 11 years ago (!) I've taken a huge swathe of accrued leave – the whole of January and February - only to learn how much you can sleep if only you have the time. And of course, how much you can read when 'certain circumstances' make leaving the house an unattractive option, if not downright dangerous. I often use the holidays to read books that have come out earlier in the year but which I missed at the time. This summer, it was Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle, an epic narrative centring on the marvellous Marian Graves, an aviatrix in the early 20th Century. From poverty-stricken upbringing, to marriage with a domineering and abusive bootlegger, who buys her her first plane, to flying during WWII, then her 'disappearance' as she escapes her husband, Marian's story is full of adventure. It's interspersed with the contemporary story of a disturbed Hollywood actor who will play Marian in a movie. The Hadley Baxter sections aren't quite as riveting as Marian's, but the contrast between the two women, and what Hadley eventually learns from Marian's life, make it work. A fabulous, if somewhat old-fashioned, narrative to totally immerse yourself in. Who doesn't love a plucky heroine, whose life choices are way ahead of her time? Quite different in structure and tone is The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (Manhattan Beach, Visit from the Goon Squad). Some of the characters from Goon Squad reappear here and like that book, the story jumps from character to character. The downside of this, for me, is that it's hard to get to know or 'root' for any one of them, but as usual with Jennifer Egan, they are all beautifully drawn. The futuristic setting in which there is new technology which allows people to download every memory they've ever had and share it with others, creates the intellectual and philosophical crux of the novel, without it being overly dystopian. 'Knowing everything...' Egan writes '...is too much like knowing nothing; without a story, it's all just information.' A rubric for the 21st Century perhaps. In the purely theatrical sense I can go along with 'willing suspension of disbelief', where the audience is in a compact with the actors to accept that what is happening on stage is 'real'. However I have much more trouble with it in the narrative sense – whether it be science fiction, fantasy, or one of the many dystopian books now being published, so I was hesitant, even somewhat scared (after the horrors of A Little Life), to pick up To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara. But of course, I am in the hands of a masterful writer and was immediately entranced by her alternative history of America. I have only just started the book though and have heard that the last dystopian section is quite brutal. It may be a literary crime and a grave disservice to the book, but I may just skip that bit. continued
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