Book Reviews

TORREY PETERS, BABY C hange My Mind is an invitation, a challenge and a promise of intent,” says Sydney Writers’ Festival artistic director Michael Williams of the festival’s theme this year. “Because uncertain times – a world divided and ruptured, at odds and in crisis – require a willingness to be open-minded, and a commitment to generosity and reciprocity.”

Running from 16-22 May and featuring almost 400 writers across hundreds of events, there’s something here to grab even the most casual reader by the heart – and mind. My picks? Art Spiegelman, the singular talent behind Holocaust memoir Maus (1991), will be reflecting on his life, writing and what freedom of speech means in an era of censorship – a topic he is uniquely placed to speak on, since the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel was banned from the Tennessee school curriculum earlier this year.

Go see Torrey Peters talk Detransition, Baby, her exceptional 2021 novel that won the PEN/Hemmingway award for debut fiction. Savvy, sparky and completely original, it tells the story of three people – trans and cis – who forge a family and raise a child together. Her energy and wit suggest she’ll give a real fun talk.

And do not miss the opening night address, featuring Ali Cobby Eckermann, Jackie Huggins and Nardi Simpson. In a hard-hearted world, these storytellers will move you. MF

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Jonathan Bazzi’s debut novel captures an attempt to reckon with the “tiny, unforgettable, omnipresent stain” of HIV. Fever, which is translated from Italian by Alice Whitmore, opens as its 30-year-old protagonist (who shares the author’s name) is suddenly struck down by a pervasive sickness. Jonathan navigates the labyrinthine medical system and receives a diagnosis of HIV. The novel not only captures Jonathan grappling with the virus’ physical effects, but with its cultural construction as well. Bazzi employs a parallel structure shuttling us back to Jonathan’s working-class upbringing in every second chapter. Here, we learn how as a young queer person coming of age, learning the skills of “avoidance [and] evasion” was a matter of survival. But despite the importance and intensity of Bazzi’s subject matter, Fever is strangely uninvolving. Its structure feels undisciplined; its short chapters often concluding before they make an impression. And Bazzi’s prose itself is clipped and uninspiring, holding the reader at arms-length. JACK ROWLAND

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An astonishing true story of forbidden love set in a time of scientific and social flux; The Natural History of Love inventively fills the gaps in historic records, and gives voice to figures who might otherwise be forgotten. In 1852, Carolina Fonçeca is 16, on her family’s sugar plantation in Brazil. Her relationship with François, Count de Castelnau, the married explorer, naturalist and diplomat, is the consummation of both passion and intellect. The tale of their illicit love affair unfolds in dual diary entries compiled by a Melbourne lawyer some 50 years later, when he is enlisted in a bitter inheritance trial between the couple’s illegitimate sons. From Brazil to Paris to Melbourne’s early settlement, Petit’s novelistic scope is ambitious, but the philosophies shaking the world are touched on only in snatches, with greater focus on the domestic dramas affecting the family. The richness of Petit’s research is unquestionable, yet the novel’s diary format, bookended by the trial, doesn’t afford depth of focus to the taxonomic explorations that united the lovers. DASHA MAIOROVA

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Paradais is a fierce and fast-paced novel by award-winning Mexican author Fernanda Melchor. Translated by Sophie Hughes, the story follows two teenage boys: Franco is a lonely, angry incel who is addicted to porn, and unhealthily obsessed with one particular woman; and Polo wants nothing in life but to drink and be free of his own particular pain. The two are angry with the world. Their guttural hatred of women, of their circumstances, and of the people around them is overwhelming. In a revolting and misguided attempt to level the playing fields of their lives, the two hatch a scheme to take what is owed to them. Melchor is a masterful writer. Her sentences are long yet breathless, and she will make your heart race. She skilfully captures class, violence, misogyny and intrusive thoughts with incredible detail, and offers a glimpse into inner worlds you might not otherwise see. Hard to read at times, it’s also a powerful story and one you won’t want to miss.