FREE APRIL 2008 Readings Monthly

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Helen Garner on The Spare Room >> p 4 April book, CD & DVD new releases. More inside >>

Here Is What Is iJacaris de Murcia: Daniel Lanois 18th Century Spanish $25.95 Guitar Music

>> p27 $14.95 The Enchantress Something to The Sum of Hiroshima >> p30 of Florence Tell You Our Days Mon Amour Salman Rushdie Hanif Kureshi Isabel Allende $29.95

$32.95 $27.95 $32.95 $32.95 $27.95 >> p25

>> p8 >> p10 >> p15

April event highlights. More Readings events inside >> DON WATSON TONY JONES LUKE DAVIES AT READINGS AT FEDERATION AT READINGS CARLTON SQUARE CARLTON

!,,3(/03/0%.$!93sCARLTON 309 LYGON 34sHAWTHORN 701 GLENFERRIE RD 9819 1917 s MALVERN 185 GLENFERRIE RD 9509 1952 s PORT 253 BAY ST 9681 9255 s ST KILDA 112 ACLAND ST 9525 3852 s WWW.READINGS.COM.AU s EMAIL [email protected] Readings Events in April All our events are free, unless otherwise stated. For more information, please call the shop where the event is to be held, or the booking number provided.

1 SIMON CLEARY 7 AUSTRALIAN 9 ANDREA SCOTT 12 LEE FOX

LAUNCH INSTITUTE OF INGLIS LAUNCH With the position

The Comfort of Figs(UQP, PB, INTERNATIONAL Andrea Scott Inglis will launch of Aboriginal

$32.95) tells the story of three AFFAIRS FORUM: her new book Summer in the Hills: people – both past young men who worked on a MARILYN LAKE The Nineteenth-Century Mountain and present – so landmark bridge structure, the dan- Join us for a glass of wine and Resort in (ASP, PB, $44). prominent in the gerous conditions they experienced, discussion on Marilyn’s new book Here, she examines these antipo- Australian psyche their close bond, and the moment written with Henry Reynolds: dean hill-stations in detail, drawing at the moment, that altered their lives forever. This Drawing the Global Colour Line: on a wealth of lively primary sourc- Other People’s is the story of the birth of a city White Men’s Countries and the es and opening a window onto the Country (Lothian, PB, $18) and the burden of a family secret. International Challenge of Racial distinctive society that developed provides a compelling insight into Tuesday 1 April, 6.30pm, Equality (MUP, PB, $36.95). in the hills. Wednesday 9 April, life in an Aboriginal community, Readings Carlton. A work remarkable both for its 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. and the issues faced in dealing with Free, no need to book. international breadth and for its Free, no need to book. the conflict between modern sensitivity to local particularity, it is culture and their own history. 3 DON WATSON a model for the new global history. 10 ALAN WEARNE Author Lee Fox has spent time IN CONVERSATION WITH Marilyn will explain the genesis LAUNCH working in an Aboriginal commu- SALLY WARHAFT of the research and then open the Popular Songbook nity, and the fictional story of We are in for a floor for discussions. Mon 7 April, (Giramondo, PB, $22) is a col- Other People’s Country is based on lively discussion. 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. lection where Wearne has tapped some of her own observations. She Sally, editor of The Free, no need to book. deep into our musical culture, will read aloud and talk about her Monthly and Don crafting pure magic from our back wonderful new book. Saturday Watson will 8 DEAR MR. RUDD catalogue. These poems are testa- 12 April, 2.30pm, Readings discuss his new In the lead up to ment to a fierce imagination, where Port Melbourne. Free, but please book American Journeys (Knopf, the Australia 2020 the visual and the aural are dovetail book on 9681 9255. HB, Normally $49.95, our special Summit, Black Inc. into a stunning, original whole. price $39.95). Thursday 3 April, has invited a panel Thurs 10 April, 6pm, Readings 12 DIANA LAWRENSON 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. of Australian Carlton. Free, no need to book. Diana’s delightful book, Parapher- Free, but bookings essential on experts to propose nalia’s Present (A&U, HB, $27.95) 9347 6633. Standing room only. their ideas for a 11 ELLY VARRENTI will be read out loud, with props better Australia. LAUNCH and charm. This is the engaging 5 KIM KANE Join contributors Marcia Langton, Elly Varrenti has story of Dottie and her hen. Kim Kane will be talking about Mark McKenna, Juliana Engberg been in the acting Saturday 12 April, 10.30am, her delightful new book, Pip: The and the editor of Dear Mr Rudd world for many Readings Hawthorn. Story of Olive (A&U, PB, $15.95). (Black Inc., PB, $29.95), Robert years. She has also This is a free event, but please Olive Garnaut likes things in pairs. Manne, as he officially presents spent the past 10 book on 9819 1917. But even with her own perfectly Prof. Glyn Davis with the years as a freelance symmetrical family, body and collection, and leads a discussion radio broadcaster 14 LUKE DAVIES bedroom, Olive has only ever felt on Australia’s political and social for ABC 774 and IN CONVERSATION WITH half. Then, one day, Pip appears, future. Don’t miss this important Radio National and continues to ANDREW WILKINS everything Olive is not ... public event. Tuesday 8 April, make features and write opinion Luke Davies will discuss his latest Saturday 5 April, 10.30am, 6.30pm, Sidney Myer Asia and think pieces for Radio National book with Bookseller & Publisher’s Readings Hawthorn. Centre, University of Mel- and The Age. Her book, This Is Not Andrew Wilkins. God of Speed Free. Bookings: 9819 1917. bourne. Free, but bookings My Beautiful Life (Viking, PB, (A&U, PB, $32.95) is the latest new essential, call 9347 6633. $32.95) tells of the ups and downs novel from one of Australia’s most 6 TONY JONES of a rather ordinary life in one’s exciting literary talents. It is a vividly IN CONVERSATION WITH 9 JOHN HARMS forties: love, marriage, divorce, imagined and riveting portrait of ERIC BEECHER IN CONVERSATION WITH co-parenting, career dilemmas, one of the twentieth century’s most Lateline’s Tony MARTIN FLANAGAN eccentric families, and arguments extraordinary characters – aviator, Jones, editor of John Harms, over the Christmas table. Friday film-maker, and billionaire, Howard The Best Australian co-editor and 11 April, 6.30pm, Readings Hughes. Monday 14 April, Political Writ- creator of The Footy Carlton. Free, no need to book. 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, ing 2008 (MUP, Almanac 2007 but please book on 9347 6633. PB, $27.95) and (John Harms & 11 DIANE FAHEY

media veteran Eric Paul Daffey, eds, LAUNCH 15 KEVIN RABALAIS Beecher dissect the PB, $29.95) and Diane Fahey’s The Mystery of Rosa IN CONVERSATION WITH names, events and the ideas that commentator, Morland (Clouds of Magellan, PB, MICHAEL WILLIAMS shaped 2007. This conversation is reporter and lover of footy, will be $24.95) is a glittering poem/no- First-time author sure to be an incisive analysis of in discussion with Martin vella set in Victorian England. This Kevin Rabalais will the past year in politics and where Flanagan, contributor to The beautiful book will be launched be in conversation we’re headed in 2008. Sunday Australian Game of Football (GSP, by Deakin University’s Frances with 3RRR 6 April, 6pm, BMW Edge HB, $89.95) – with beer and pies Devlin-Glass. This is a fin de siècle breakfaster Theatre, Federation Square, available. A riotous night is to be fantasy of souls in transit. Michael Williams. Kevin’s book, cnr Swanston and Flinders Sts, expected. Wed 9 April, 6.30pm, Fri 11 April, 6pm, Readings The Landscape of Desire (Scribe, PB, City. Tickets $10, available at Readings Hawthorn. Free, but Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. Normally $29.95, our special price all Readings shops and online. please book on 9819 1917. $24.95) is a story that investigates

2 the ill-fated Burke and Wills adven- 22 ROBERT HILLMAN book will resonate with a broad our experts who will share and tures. Alex Miller interviewed audience. Wednesday 23 April, lead discussions on their favou- & NAJAF MAZARI Kevin for the Readings Australian 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. rite books. Passage to India will LAUNCH Feature in last month’s newsletter. Free, but please book: 9347 6633. review books monthly on Indian The Rug Maker Tuesday 15 April, 6.30pm, modern history, society and foreign of Mazar-e Sharif Readings Carlton. Free, but 24 ANN BLAINEY politics. Books lined up to read for (Insight, PB, please book on 9347 6633. IN CONVERSATION WITH the series are: The Last Mughal by $24.95, our BARRY JONES acclaimed UK historian, William special price 16 JUDITH PUGH I am Melba (Black Dalrymple (Bloomsbury, PB, $19.95) is a IN CONVERSATION WITH Inc., PB, $32.95) $26.95) and the 2007 Man Booker beautifully BARRY JONES explores the Prize shortlisted Animal’s People by captured story of Unstill Life: fascinating life of Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster, an exceptional man whose gener- Art, Politics and Australia’s first PB, $21.95). The inaugural speaker ous spirit transcends danger and Living with Clifton international for the series is Professor Robin Jef- heartbreak. Najaf Mazari’s compel- Pugh (A&U, PB, superstar, opera frey from the Australian National ling and inspiring story begins in $32.95) is a por- singer Dame Nellie University. Professor Jeffrey is Woomera Detention Centre in trait of a unique Melba. It traces Melba’s journey an expert in the modern history the remote Australian desert. To partnership. from growing up in the suburbs of and politics of India. He will be be launched by Michael Gordon It is also the Melbourne to performing in reviewing and sharing his views on and Julian Burnside. Tuesday story of a pivotal time and place overflowing concert halls in Tues 29 April, 22 April, 6.30pm, St James The Last Mughal. in Australian art and politics. Europe, and examines the love 6pm, Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Court Conference Centre, 12 This is a fascinating behind-the- affairs, fame and challenges she Room, Sidney Myer Asia Cen- Batman Street, West Mel- scenes look at the Whitlam years. encountered along the way. tre, University of Melbourne. bourne. Free, but email your Wednesday 16 April, 6.30pm, Thursday 24 April, 6.30pm, Free, but please reserve a seat, by RSVP to cathi@insightpublica- Readings Carlton. Free, but Readings Hawthorn. sending an email to Asialink Events tions.com.au. please book on 9347 6633. Free, please book on 9819 1917. at [email protected]. au with ‘Passage to India – Robin 23 GREGORY KRAMER 19 3MBS LIVE 24 READINGS IN Jeffrey’ in the subject line. Gregory Kramer 3MBS radio will be broadcasting PSYCHOANALYSIS is a meditation ‘Music in Melbourne’ live in-store There will be more 30 KEN INGLIS teacher, author from 10am and will conclude with wine poured and IN CONVERSATION WITH and director of the the end of the Accidental Arts pro- more thoughts … MORAG FRASER Metta Foundation. gram at 1pm. Saturday 19 April, join us for a In honour of the He has been teach- Readings Hawthorn. discussion in April release of the third ing Vipassana and on Moustafa edition of Sacred loving-kindness 21 JOAN ACKLAND Safouan’s Why Places by Ken meditation since 1980. He is the LAUNCH Are the Arabs Inglis, (MUP, PB, co-developer of Insight Dialogue Judith Rodriguez OAM, former Not Free? The Politics of Writing $39.95), coming and teaches the practice and poetry editor for Penguin Australia, (Blackwell, PB, $35.95). 10 years after the Dharma Contemplation world- will launch Joan’s new book of Thursday 24 April, 6.30pm, first, Ken has wide. Gregory is the co-founder poetry – At the Wind’s Hands. Readings Carlton. written a substantial new final of the Metta Foundation and a Using a personal voice rich with Free, no need to book. chapter. Wednesday 30 April, visiting faculty member of the vivid imagery and verbal music, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Barre Center for Buddhist Studies these humanly centred, often ironic 29 MERLINDA BOBIS Free, please book on 9347 6633. in Massachusetts and the author poems range widely, addressing LAUNCH of Insight Dialogue. Wednesday universal, at times politically sensi- The Solemn 23 April, 6.30pm, Readings tive issues with profound insight Lantern Maker COMING UP IN MAY Hawthorn. Free, but bookings and sympathy. Monday 21 April, (Pier 9, PB, THE YEARLINGS essential, please call 9819 1917. 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. $26.95) is the playing live in store at Carlton. Free, no need to book. story of worlds Thursday 1 May, 6.30pm. 23 BRUCE MUTARD colliding. Ten- IN CONVERSATION WITH MARY MOODY 22 TANIA LEWIS year-old Noland, BERNARD CALEO at Readings Hawthorn LAUNCH a mute lantern Bruce Mutard has Thursday 8 May, 6.30pm. Join us for the launch of Smart maker, imagines that he sees an been producing $15, includes tastes from her Living: Lifestyle, Media and Popular angel falling from the sky to the graphic novels and new cookbook. Expertise (Peter Lang). What do slums where he lives. But it’s only comics for 15 years. the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the an American tourist who is caught ELIZABETH HONEY He published Street Straight Guy, the Super Nanny and in a drive-by shooting of a political and Sue Johnson (Coco’s Lunch Smell in the 1990s celebrity chef Jamie Oliver all have journalist. Merlinda Bobis is an fame) at Carlton, Hawthorn and and his work has in common? Lifestyle gurus are accomplished, award-winning Port Melbourne. Saturday 10 May. also appeared in the increasingly intruding on everyday Australian author. Tuesday 29 For start time, please check our Small Press Expo. His first graphic life, directing ordinary people to April, 6.30pm, Readings website (www.readings.com.au) novel, The Bunker, was published in see themselves as ‘projects’ that can Carlton. Free, no need to book. closer to the day of the event. the US by Image Comics in 2003. be ‘made over’ through embracing The Sacrifice(Arena, PB, $35) is TIM WINTON an ethos of relentless self-improve- 29 PASSAGE TO INDIA Book One in the Robert Wells at the Melbourne Athenaeum ment. Smart Living looks at the A Book Club Journey through Trilogy. Set in Melbourne in the Theatre. Thursday 15 May, 6.30pm. argumets for and against this new Contemporary India. This event shadow of WWII, this graphic novel Tickets: $10 – available at all form of popular expertise. Tuesday is presented by Readings Books deals with war, ideals, family and Readings shops and online. 22 April, 6.30pm, Readings Music & Film and Asialink. love. With a distinctive cast of Carlton. Free, no need to book. Explore contemporary India with characters and strong themes, this 3 This article proudly supported by Copyright Agency Limited

April Special Feature Reading Helen Michael Williams interviews Helen Garner about The Spare Room, her first work of fiction in 15 years

Helen Garner is one of chips are down’). Through di- Australia’s best-recognised rectness and candour, through (and bestselling) writers. tough love, she pays tribute to Though she first burst onto the friends and strangers whose the scene with her debut novel stories she tells. (Penguin, PB, None of which is to suggest $24.95), in recent years she that Garner’s latest book, The has been best known for her Spare Room is a eulogy. It’s controversial – and undeniably nothing of the sort. Rather, it fascinating – non-fiction books, is a meditation on death and (Picador, PB, illness, hope and belief, on $22.95) and Joe Cinque’s Con- friendship. It is at turns blackly solation (Picador, PB, $24.95). funny and achingly sad, and The latest in Readings series contains that familiar kernel of celebrating Australian writ- anger and unrelenting hon- ers, sponsored by the Copyright esty that has so characterised Agency Limited (CAL), looks at Garner’s oeuvre. It is also a Helen Garner’s return to fiction work of fiction. After 15 years – albeit in a book that appears of writing critically acclaimed to once again blur the lines non-fiction – including The between fact and fiction. First Stone and Joe Cinque’s But she is quick to anticipate It seems like a contradiction Consolation – Garner has re- that the book’s status as a novel that her first work of fiction in might trouble some readers. years feels like the most self- After years of adopting ‘fiction- revelatory, the most exposed of ‘If you’ve got the al techniques’ in her non-fic- all her recent works. It is, after tion (‘I’m not sure what people all, hard not to read Helen as It is somehow unsurprising nerve to describe mean by that,’ she confesses Helen. But Garner is very clear that Helen Garner describes the dark side of as an aside), she has produced that calling the narrator Helen herself as ‘in favour of very a novel with clear links to the fulfils a particular purpose. tough eulogies’. As a writer a person, the real world. The narrator is Hel- ‘Over the last few years five she’s always been one for en, a Melbourne-based writer. people I’ve loved have died. uncomfortable truths and maddening side, She is brilliant and acerbic, a And with four of those people avoiding easy platitudes. then people keen observer, an ex-hippy who I’ve been closely involved with ‘If you’ve got the nerve to demonstrates a healthy balance the care of them right up until describe the dark side of a seem to find between scepticism and open- they died. One of the many person, the maddening side, this enormously mindedness. She seems imme- things I’ve learnt from those then people seem to find this diately familiar. Other details experiences was that being in enormously relieving. If I go relieving’. match recognisable elements that role with a dying person to a funeral and the person is of Garner’s own life. But from brings out all sorts of feelings, described purely in glowing turned to the novel. It sounds the outset, the sheer power of many of which you are ashamed terms, I come away feeling very like a liberating shift: ‘When I The Spare Room renders any of, many of which can be quite sad and cheated, feeling the first wanted to write this book, attempts at autobiographical ugly. And I thought, “I can’t person hasn’t been honoured I didn’t know how I wanted to readings irrelevant. Helen’s be the only person who has properly. Everybody’s selfish do it. I had to sit down with friend Nicola is coming down felt those things. It’s just not and thoughtless and unkind. it to see which way it wanted from to stay as she pur- possible.” But they’re not talked To pretend that somebody to go. Straight away I found it sues a last, desperate attempt at about. So I thought, “maybe wasn’t is just awful.’ This had this kind of springy feeling treatment for advanced cancer. if I talk about them, other world-view seems typical of to it. And I thought “I’d for- Over three weeks together in people will start to talk about Garner’s writing, as does the gotten that!” I’d forgotten that Helen’s home, the two play out them too”. That meant that I ability to confront the ‘dark you could just let the story go the rituals of caring and grief, wanted to acknowledge that side’ and still ultimately write and follow it. That you didn’t and confront the sharp edges those feelings that I’d put into about love and friendship have to whip it into shape like of their friendship. the character are things that I’ve (albeit, as she puts it, ‘when the you do with non-fiction.’ gone through.’

4 Books

The personal nature of the ma- REWIND: THE SPARE ROOM terial makes the sense of naked cooks and cleans and writes; LOOKING BACK Helen Garner honesty all the more remark- she slogs on. Her feelings push ON MONKEY GRIP Text. PB. $29.95 able, but for Garner that’s just up very fast and strong, and Helen Garner’s first novel, Staff Review part of the storytelling contract. she’s often shocked to find that Monkey Grip, was first Helen Garner’s ‘I reckon just about everything what she wants is violence. published in 1977. A gritty new novel I’ve ever written does that … She makes lots of mistakes; urban tale set in inner starts with Every writer has a different rea- that keeps her in pain; but it Melbourne, it told the story a woman called son for writing; a different drive also keeps her where she can of a young liberated single ‘Helen’ putting that pushes them into doing see – where she’s painfully mum and her doomed affair out fresh sheets it. And that’s what I do. interested in – the mistakes of with a heroin addict. It was for a friend I don’t exactly know why. others. She’ll tell you things one of Australia’s first who’s coming to stay, and When I first started out with more cautious, nicer writers modern novels; it explored thinking: what colour should Monkey Grip, some people wouldn’t say. She’ll tell you her the lives and attitudes of they be? Helen’s friend, criticised it because it was too dear dying friend isn’t doing young Australians at a Nicola – lovely, playful, personal, too emotional … and such a good job of dying. particular time when the careless, aristocratic Nicola – I just thought, that’s the only She’ll tell you that, a lot of radicalism of the late sixties needs all the help she can get. way I know how to do this and the time, she’s thinks her dear and early seventies was mani- She has cancer in her liver that’s the way I’m going to keep dying friend is an idiot. doing it. People seem to think festing itself in what seemed and her bones. to the participants to be new Nicola comes from Old that if you write in a really Over the next three weeks, ways of living. The book Money, but she’s always tried personal way there’s something Helen will change Nicola’s still seems extraordinarily ‘alternatives’ – seeds, beads, wanky about it – ‘look at me’, sweated-through sheets again fresh and alive today. Helen vipassana – and now this is ‘look at me’ – but it seems to and again, bring her food and Garner is like a bower bird, leading her into the world of me to be a benevolent thing to drink, and drive her to the plucking people, incidents small rooms where terminally do. It’s not narcissistic. It’s say- shabby little ‘Theodore Insti- and places from the world ill people sit for a PowerPoint ing “let’s go into sore territory tute’ to get the strange treat- around her and refashioning presentation on the ‘High amongst things that we don’t ments that Nicola believes will them on the page. When Dosage’ Vitamin C cure and understand”. make her cancer ‘disappear.’ reading her, you get the the benefits of Ozone Saunas. ‘With Joe Cinque’s Consolation, feeling of walking familiar Much of the special charge The Spare Room is not just an Joe’s parents invited me into a yet slightly different streets of The Spare Room is that of attack on this kind of belief: territory of extreme intimacy and places: Tamani’s is now a fiction that seems to have one of the kindest people in and anguish. Then I had to find Tiamo’s, but the University been made very close to the the book is a boy who gives a way to negotiate that out into Cafe and Readings are still writer’s life. ‘Helen’ in this Nicola some electro-magnetic a public space. That was really there, and Aqua Profunda book is a writer, who lives ‘healing’ patches. This novel hard. It’s one thing to talk pub- still hovers above the deep in Melbourne, next door to helps you imagine how much licly about your own intimate end at Fitzroy Pool. When her daughter, and as ‘Helen’ you could want a dying person feelings and thoughts, but to first published, it caused a does this or that you want to to believe they’re not dying – do that about somebody else’s is storm; two cheeky journal- point at the page and say: It’s and hate how stupid they really fraught with risk. When ists, John Halpin and Terry you! There’s nofiction . I see have to be to keep believing. I showed the book to Joe’s Cleary, even put out a Who’s you, Helen Garner! That’s a Nicola thinks Professor parents I was trembling in my Who in Monkey Grip. As a special kind of pleasure, but Theodore can ‘scoop’ or ‘sweat’ boots. But when they accepted bookseller, it was my first there’s also the harder pleas- cancer out of her body. it and approved it and said Australian bestseller; almost ure of working to stop doing Her bright smiling lies make “yes, go ahead with it”, firstly I every day we’d have to run this. We too often think that Helen angry and sad and very admired them enormously for round to McPhee Gribble’s any writing is – is all of – the tired, but Helen also knows it, but also I just got a sense of offices in Drummond Street person who makes it, but so – she does remember – that “why shouldn’t we talk about to get more copies. I bet we much here has been carefully Nicola is the only one this these things?” sold thousands. Penguin chosen, and so much carefully cancer is going to kill. The have just reissued Monkey left out. Part of the fascination We don’t have to talk about dying should face the truth. Grip in their new Austra- of fiction, especially a fiction them all the time, but Shouldn’t they? Should they? lian Modern Classics series like this, is that it can say both occasionally if we can find the ($24.95). Well worth a look. here I am, and no I’m not. right form in which to talk The Spare Room does what the best fiction does: it makes you about grief and anger and the Mark Rubbo is Managing If you’ve read Monkey Grip or stop arguing, in that flat easy ugly feelings we have, there’s Director of Readings The First Stone, or Joe Cinque’s way, about what people should got to be a safe place where Consolation, you’ll know some do. It reminds us we might these feelings can be contem- of the Helen in The Spare not know what anyone should plated. And I hope that’s Room. She’s good company, do, until we have to watch what my work does.’ good in a book. She’s clever them doing it. and fierce and she laughs; she’s Michael Williams is a freelance anxious and busy; she does her Sean O’Beirne is from literary writer and a member jobs; she rides her bike, she Readings Carlton of Triple R’s Breakfasters

5 This Month’sNews Literary news of all kinds, award winners, guest reviewers, Readings offers and promotions. MILES FRANKLIN Stanley: Africa’s Greatest Explorer relatively small literary culture, and GLENFERN LONGLIST ANNOUNCED (Faber, HB, $49.95) and Auto- the competition from wealthier CONVERSATIONS The 2008 Miles biography winner was Edwidge overseas publications is immense,’ Michael Gawenda will be in con- Franklin Award is Danticat for Brother, I’m Dying reflects Editor Peter Rose. versation with Russ Radcliffe for the up and running, (Knopf, HB, $47.95). The award ‘Reaching 300 issues is quite a feat.’ second in the new monthly series of with the an- for Criticism went to music critic And in other news, budding book conversations at Glenfern Writers’ nouncement of Alex Ross for The Rest is Noise: reviewers should take note: the Studio. Join them for a free-ranging this year’s longlist. Listening to the Twentieth Century ABR Reviewing Prize, worth conversation about politics and Books in the (Henry Holt, HB, $51). $1000, is currently open for journalism, the genius and madness running are: entries. To find out more, visit of the United States, the deep mys- Landscape of Farewell (Alex Miller, LEADING LADIES FOR www.australianbookreview.com.au. teries of US Presidential elections. A&U, HB, Normally $35.00, Our MOTHER’S DAY The event will be on Sunday 20 special price $29.95); Love without Subscribe to BOOK CLUBS April, 3 for 3.30 pm start. Hope (Rodney Hall, Picador, PB, the Readings free AT HAWTHORN $22.95, Orpheus Lost (Janette e-news in the Readings SPECIAL FEATURES Turner Hospital, Fourth Estate, month of Hawthorn Our CAL PB, $33.00; Secrets of the Sea April to go in is currently Australian Feature (Nicholas Shakespeare, Harvill, the draw to running a series title for April is $27.95; Sorry (Gail Jones, Vintage, win a fabulous of book clubs. The Spare Room, PB, $32.95); The Fern Tattoo Leading Ladies The Young Helen Garner’s first (David Brooks, UQP, PB, $32.95); 3 DVD pack for Mother’s Day Adult Bookclub is held on the last work of fiction in The Memory Room (Christopher that includes Ma Mere, Blue Angel Wednesday of the month (5.30 - 15 years. Our focus for this series is Koch, Knopf, PB, $32.95); and 2046. Subscribe to our free 6.30pm) and book clubs for 9-12 usually on new and emerging The Time We Have Taken (Steven e-newsletter online (www.readings. year olds are held on the last writers – but we just couldn’t pass Carroll, Fourth Estate, PB, $28.00) com.au) to make sure you don’t Thursday of the month (5.30 - up on the opportunity to revisit and The Widow and Her Hero (Tom miss out! Only the winner will 6.30pm) and the last Sunday of the one of a previous generation of Keneally, Vintage, PB, $23.95). be notified (by 1 May 2008, month (10.15 - 11.15am). emerging Australian writers, one via email). who was at the forefront of the ‘Chatterbook’ is a new initiative for BEST OF THE BOOKER boom in back booklovers who like to talk about It’s the 40th EMERGING WRITERS in the 1970s. Mark Rubbo looks what they read. Have you been anniversary of the FESTIVAL back on Helen’s first novel, Monkey reading anything good lately? (Man) Booker, one For three days in Grip (Penguin, PB, $24.95) to Want to share the experience with of the world’s May (9-11), the commemorate the occasion. others? We are trialling an infor- leading literary Melbourne Town mal, once a month, get-together to This month, we’re delighted to prizes – and Hall will teem with chat about what has been exciting have three authors as special guest certainly the prize that packs the the literati of us (or not) in the book world. If reviewers – in addition to our biggest punch at the cash register. tomorrow: the you are interested, give Desi or faithful cohort of regular guest and To celebrate, a one-off award will novelists, bloggers, screenwriters, Alexa a call on 9819 1917 or leave staff reviewers. One of Australia’s be given to the Best of the Booker. poets, playwrights, editors, and your details with the Readings best-loved political writers, Mungo A panel of judges will decide a independent publishers who are Hawthorn staff. MacCallum, reviews The Best shortlist of six books and the determining the direction of Australian Political Writing 2008 reading public will then be invited Australian writing in its many TEXT CAMP FOR (p7). Toni Jordan, author of to vote for their favourites (and no, forms. There will be panels, EMERGING WRITERS Addition, reviews Samantha Hunt’s not by SMS-ing the authors names, seminars, performances, a zine fair, TEXT CAMP, presented by Next novel about Nikola Tesla, The but via the Booker website: www. networking and chances aplenty for Wave in association with Express Invention of Everything Else (p11). themanbookerprize.com). The writers of all ages and experiences to Media and un Projects, provides And bestselling writer Lily Brett shortlist will be announced in May. be inspired and to inspire. Programs an opportunity for emerging writ- released the 10th of April. Sign up reviews The Young Widow’s Book ers (aged 30 and under) to work Favourites to win include Salman for the newsletter at www. of Home Improvement (p15). with and learn from established Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (Vin- emergingwritersfestival.org.au. tage, PB, $24.95) – which already writers, to build networks and STONNINGTON JAZZ! won the Booker of Bookers in hon- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABR contribute to critical and creative Win a double pass to the opening th discourse around the 2008 Next night of the 2008 Stonnington Jazz our of the prize’s 25 anniversary Australian Book Wave Festival, and contemporary Festival with Vince Jones and Katie in 1993) – Michael Ondaatje’s The Review is turning art practice more broadly. TEXT Noonan (Thursday 15 May, 8pm) English Patient (Bloomsbury, PB, 300 ... 300 issues, CAMP is a three-stage program in- valued at $70 and an 18 month $21.95) and Yann Martel’s The Life that is. Reviewers volving a workshop, a mentorship subscription to Extempore, a new of Pi (Canongate, PB, $24.95). in the first edition and publication. The program will bi-annual journal of writing and included a certain be led by two prominent young the arts — first issue out November NBCC AWARDS promising young Australian writers, Rosemary 2008. Simply buy any Jazz CD at The winners of this year’s National writer named Don Forde and Nic Low. Applications Readings Malvern throughout April, Book Critics’ Circle Awards (US) Watson ... Fittingly, his most recent are due 5pm on Friday 14 March attach your receipt to a competition have been announced. The Fiction book, American Journeys, gets a 2008 (post-mark date). For more entry form at the counter and sign Award goes to Junot Diaz for The major feature review in issue 300 information, email ulanda@ up to our free Readings Monthly Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar (which also includes contributions nextwave.org.au or visit www. newsletter for your chance to win. Wao (Faber, PB, $32.95). Biog- from Clive James and Inga nextwave.org.au. Visit www.stonnington.vic.gov.au raphy winner was Tim Jeal for Clendinnen). ‘Australia has a for the festival program. 6 April Special Feature Jo Case talks to Tony Jones about The Best Australian Political Writing 2008. Mungo MacCallum reviews the book for Readings.

Q&A WITH THE BEST AUSTRALIAN is perhaps indulgent. Paul Kelly TONY JONES POLITICAL and Noel Pearson get the same Tony Jones, the much-loved anchor WRITING 2008 favoured treatment; Kelly’s first of ABC TV’s Lateline, is at the Tony Jones (ed.) piece, an apologia for Immigra- helm of MUP’s new book, MUP. PB. Normally $32.95 tion Minister Kevin Andrews, The Best Australian Political Our special price $27.95 is frankly bizarre, and Pearson’s Writing 2008. Jo Case spoke to Guest review by second, ‘The Search for the him about the process of selecting Mungo MacCallum Radical Centre’, more an wit, but the journalism more than the year’s best political writing. 2007 was a essay than journalism. compensates for that. Bear in passionate and What was it that appealed to you mind that much political writing That said, there is a lot of very partisan year about working on this book? is pumped out under pressure of good stuff and what will strike the in Australian urgent deadlines. In this collection, general reader is how committed If I was a footy player, I’d describe politics and not therefore, you get a combination most of it is. Readers may say that it as off-season training. Instead just because of of significant pieces from news- they just want the facts, and com- of sitting at the beach through the federal elec- papers and more considered and plain about a lack of what they the summer break with a pile of tion. A number usually better constructed essays see as objectivity and balance. But salt-damaged novels, I carted a of other controversial issues – the from magazines and journals. To in Australia, as elsewhere, the best green Woolies bag around with me climate change debate, Aboriginal my mind, Noel Pearson’s ‘White journalism has long since crossed with a selection of photocopied policy, the cases of David Hicks, guilt, victimhood ... etc’ is the the line between reporting and essays and articles. If that doesn’t Mamdouh Habib and Mohamed purest example of great writing commentary, and generally sound like much fun, you have to Haneef, and the culture wars, to used to convey profound thought speaking is the better for it. think of 2007 as the year when too name only the most newsworthy on a contemporary political issue. much politics was never enough. – also reached critical mass. The other point of interest is that What were the biggest challenges although all the pieces in the Thus, the choice of Tony Jones What emerged for you as the of putting the book together? collection appeared in newspapers to compile a selection of the best major political issues of the past or magazines, almost half the au- The biggest challenge was to journalism from the time was year when you were putting this thors are not full-time journalists. encapsulate the best work that what Sir Humphrey Appleby book together? Some, like Robert Manne, Marcia reflected a truly historic year in might have called a courageous Langton and David Burchell, Leadership was the number one politics. It was not hard, after one. Jones, as presenter of the are academics; others, like Louis issue, with the accompanying a decade of reflection on his ABC’s Lateline, was hardly a dis- Nowra, Tom Keneally and Rich- theme of youth versus age. The leadership, to find powerful and interested observer; as an aggres- ard Flanagan, are writers in other rise of Kevin Rudd and the fast insightful writing on John How- sive and opinionated interviewer, fields. Then there are the political erosion of John Howard are thor- ard, but Kevin Rudd was another he could almost be viewed as a insiders like Clive Hamilton oughly examined. Underpinning matter. In many respects he’s an participant. and Paul Keating. It is slightly Howard’s demise were issues like unfinished portrait, a picture still It is therefore not surprising that disconcerting to find the business Work Choices and climate change, emerging. The writing about him his selection includes very few invaded by so many outsiders but the fates of Hicks and Haneef, the has that same quality. of the right wing warriors who it cannot be denied that they can Iraq war, housing affordability, With the change of government, largely dominated the newspaper do a pretty good job, and their interest rates and education. Then 2008 is already shaping up to be commentariat. Tom Switzer and presence can only enhance the there was the Northern Territory a very different year in politics. Paul Sheahan get guernseys, but status of the ordinary hacks. intervention in response to revela- Based on what you’ve observed Piers Akerman, Andrew Bolt, tions of widespread sexual abuse For this we can thank Jones, and so far, do you think the next edi- Michael Duffy, Greg Sheridan, of children in remote aboriginal he owes us one: his own bullying tion of this book will be Paddy McGuinness, Janet Albre- communities. Responding to that election night interview with significantly different in tone chtsen, Dennis Shanahan, Gerard emergency is one of the most failed Labor candidate Nicole and content? If so, how? Henderson, Christopher Pearson profound moral issues of our time Cornes undoubtedly provided and the rest of the Howard-hug- and, as our authors remorselessly By the next edition, we’ll all have one of the year’s low points. gers miss the cut. remind us, it is born of violence, a much better idea of how Kevin This MUP collection helps drug and alcohol abuse, failing Rudd is evolving and which of Jones could argue that they pro- make up for it. schools, welfare dependency, his ministers grow in the public’s duced nothing worth saving, and decrepit housing and Third World imagination. Given the parlous by and large I would agree with Mungo Mac health standards. state of the Liberal Party, brought him; but their omissions mean Callum’s latest to its lowest ebb by Howard’s that the inclusions from what book is Poll How did you select the pieces – hubris, we are bound to have a might be called Jones’s own side Dancing: The was it based on the most promi- fascinating leadership story to tell. of politics need to be of a pretty Story of the 2007 nent issues, the best writing, or a The tone could be one of great high standard. Election (Black Inc., PB, $24.95). combination of both? anticipation or thwarted expecta- The pieces by Phillip Adams and EVENT In truth it was a combination of tions, depending on what the gov- Matt Price are both FAQ, but Tony Jones will be in conversation both. The ‘best political writing’ ernment can achieve in treacherous not outstanding; perhaps Jones with Eric Beecher on The Best and ‘best writing’ were bound economic conditions. But if things felt he had to include them for Australian Political Writing 2008 to be different animals. The worsen, if we find ourselves in a their names alone. David Marr’s at BMW Edge, Federation Square best analysis is often somewhat global recession, we could even be two entries are both very good, on Sunday 6 April at 6pm. prosaic. Paul Kelly’s writing style, asking the question: Is government but giving him a double chance See p2 for more details. for example, may lack poetry and now, for Labor, a poisoned chalice?

7 BOOK OF THE MONTH individual: amusement, interest, disappointment, disillusion, Fiction THE ENCHANTRESS surprise, amazement, fascination, THE BIOGRAPHER and her boss is missing too. Maya’s OF FLORENCE irritation, pleasure, perplexity, housemate, the enigmatic Cecile, Salman Rushdie Virginia Duigan suspicion, affection, boredom, and Vintage. PB. Normally $32.95 doesn’t know where she is. Maya’s Knopf. PB. Normally $32.95 increasingly, it was necessary to Our special price $27.95 brother, Magnus, has received Our special price $27.95 admit it, fondness and admiration.’ Staff review strange phone calls from her, but Staff review she won’t say what has happened or The relationship between the two This is a sad ‘In the where she is. What has Maya men is tense, at once friendly and book about beginning gotten herself into, and why won’t suspicious, the traveller’s adven- successful there were she come back? As Jacob and Toni tures both captivating and, to the people living three search for Maya and wait for her king’s ears, despicably decadent. in fear of friends, return, the strangeness of their As Mogor dell’Amore’s narrative judgment Niccolo il predicament makes them look at unwinds, Akbar is compelled to and Machia, RICE their own lives, reassessing their examine his heart and conscience, SPECIAL P discovery. SPECIAL PRICE Agostino pasts and their present. Like a as well as what he knows about Duigan has Vespucci missing piece of a jigsaw, Maya’s his own history and kingdom. written about a complex woman and Antonino Argalia. Their disappearance exposes everyone else Will he be able to bear listening in her second book, The Biographer. boyhood world was a magic wood.’ around her as merely fragments of to the whole story? And if he Greer Gordon is a woman who a larger whole. This is a gentle, A blond-haired stranger, Mogor stops listening, what will be the makes deliberate choices. She choos- thoughtful book about the choices dell’Amore, has travelled across the consequences of ignoring Mogor es to leave her husband to live with we make and the little ways in seas to Mughal India with a secret dell’Amore’s tale? sensational artist Misha Svoboda for the king’s ears only. And it is a – and with this, she chooses to leave which those choices live on into remarkable secret he has to tell, a The audacity and scope of Salman behind her past. The arrival of Tony, our futures. It is also about the tale that stretches across time and Rushdie’s newest work is at times a young art critic writing a biogra- ways in which lives can sometimes the sea to the Florence of the Med- breathtaking, as is his attention to phy of Misha, at their Italian hilltop be dramatically changed through icis, a story that is part fairytale, the details of Renaissance Florence home rattles Greer. Greer knows the smallest incidents and part history lesson, and casually lit- and Mughal India. Add to that that Tony has found out about their meetings. Reading this will make tered with some confronting truths bloody battles, runaway princesses, time in Australia and is waiting for you truly wonder about the hidden – if you know where to look. But devoted lovers, dangerous, swash- her, and Misha, to relent and share. lives of your loved ones. who is this Mogor dell’Amore, this buckling adventures, all narrated Using the idyllic backdrop of Italy Kabita Dhara is from cheekily self-appointed ‘Mughal of with tremendous verve and a and of Misha’s paintings, Tony and Readings Carlton Love’, and why has he risked his wicked, wicked sense of humour. Greer wait it out until the truth can- life to reach the king’s side? It is certain that Mogor dell’Amore not be hidden in a diary any longer. DISQUIET is a storyteller after Rushdie’s Duigan takes her time getting the Julia Leigh The king, Akbar, a noble man, own heart. To my mind, The reader to the crux of the story; but Hamish Hamilton. HB. $29.95 is also a man of great flaws. Enchantress of Florence signals a when you arrive, the bittersweetness Guest review Surrounded by wise and not- sort of return to form for Rushdie; of it all is worth it. Disquiet is the so-wise courtiers, mutinuous, the form that garnered him his first Chris Gordon is Events much-awaited potentially patricidal, sons, he fans, those who loved Midnight’s Coordinator of Readings Carlton second novel prides himself on being a strong Children and Shame. After his last from Australian and just ruler. His one obvious two novels, where his message THE GOOD PARENTS Julia Leigh, weakness is his mysterious queen, or politics seemed to sometimes Joan London whose first Jodha, a remarkable woman, never overwhelm his craft, this is the Vintage. PB. $32.95 book The seen by his other wives but envied Rushdie of old – playfully picking Staff review Hunter was nevertheless. Now, however, with over history for incredible stories, Maya has critically the arrival of this enigmatic, elo- turning phrases and manipulating disappeared. acclaimed both here and overseas. quent storyteller, Akbar’s attention language like a magician and creat- Jacob and Toni, While the length of this work may moves to thoughts of Qara Koz, ing an irresistible and formidable her parents, be a disappointment to Leigh’s the vanished princess at the centre cast of characters. The Enchantress have come to admirers (it is a novella), her writing of Mogor dell’Amore’s secret, and of Florence made me fall in love visit her in is as poetic and tightly controlled as the seed of new discontentments. with reading all over again. Melbourne, ever. The action inDisquiet occurs ‘The emperor had experienced Kabita Dhara is from but she is gone. over the period of a fortnight; the many feelings concerning this Readings Carlton The company protagonist Olivia (who is referred Maya worked for has closed down to as ‘the woman’ for the most part

CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS A film by Sarah Gavron After an arranged marriage NAOMI WATTS EDWARD NORTON Shanghai, 1925: to an older man, Nazneen an estranged husband and wife based on the novel by Monica Ali exchanges her Bangladeshi find redemption and unexpected village home for a block THE grace in a very unlikely place. of flats in London's PAINTED Based on the novel by East End. PAINTED W. Somerset Maugham and set against the visually “A film that reminds you VEIL stunning backdrop of China why you love movies” during one of its most The Washington Post Directed by John Curran dramatic periods of upheaval. Make a purchase at SEASON NOW Readings for your chance COMMENCES to receive one of 25 double SHOWING passes to either film. APRIL 24

8 Books of the book) returns to her into the mind of a great and homeland and sprawling family deeply disturbed man, told with While he was in Australia, chateau. Olivia has come from a thoroughly convincing voice. Ian McEwan snatched a few Australia with her two children, and Paul Landymore is Manager moments from his busy schedule the reader is the one who must glean of Readings Malvern to talk to Readings. exactly what she is escaping. The family home, described as ‘austere’, THE DARK LANTERN You’ve just spent an extended is predictably unwelcoming. While Gerri Brightwell period of time in Australia the children try to comprehend Scribe. PB. $32.95 prior to your appearance what is happening around them, Guest review at the Adelaide Festival. a horrible drama unfolds when London, 1893. The Bentleys, Mina Do you have any favourite Olivia’s brother and his wife bring and Robert, are recently returned Australian writers? their newborn daughter home from from France and the old Mrs. Bent- Patrick White, Christina Stead, hospital. Leigh’s writing is highly ley is on her deathbed. 32 Cursitor Richard Flanagan, David Malouf descriptive, and without any hint Road is in flux; above stairs and be- SPECIAL FEATURE and Murray Bail. of judgement she builds enormous low stairs all is not as it seems. The tension. Perhaps best described as young Mina Bentley; beautiful, yet CATCHING UP WITH Your current work-in-progress a ‘modern gothic drama’, this is a elusive, enlists Jane, the new house- IAN MCEWAN is about climate change. book filled with unease – the title maid just hired from the country, Ian McEwan, author of Atonement Do you think literature can is an understatement. to be her eyes and ears below stairs. (Vintage, PB, $24.95), Saturday have an effect on public Annie Condon is a freelance reviewer Both these women have their (Vintage, PB, $23.95) and, most consciousness about secrets: Mina, a terrible first mar- recently, the Booker shortlisted social issues? THE GOD OF SPEED riage that is still haunting her new On Chesil Beach (Vintage, PB, Not directly, at least I don’t expect Luke Davies life and Jane, a dark stain on her Normally $23.95, Our special any novel of mine would lead to a A&U. PB. 32.95 past – raised in an orphanage after price $19.95) was one of the most change in policy. At best, novels Staff review her mother was hanged for murder. popular drawcards of last month’s can hold a mirror up to a situ- The book Mr. Robert Bentley is oblivious to Adelaide Writer’s Week. Before a ation and, by exploring human opens in 1973 the secrets of the household, as he weekday crowd of almost 2000 nature, perhaps illuminate the with Howard is busy establishing himself in the people, McEwan read from his Hughes, new field of anthropometry (the roots of the problem. work-in-progress, a novel about enigma and science of identifying criminals by climate change. What did you think of the film twentieth- body measurements). A burglary version of Atonement? Was century icon, is the catalyst for a curious chain He told the audience that he fig- the end result a recognisable hidden from of events. Unexpected figures re- ured that ‘the way to write about interpretation of your book, the world in a emerge from the past; a mysterious climate change is to write about a for you? Is it difficult to watch London hotel room, where he sits woman appears, claiming to be the deeply flawed person’. The deeply your vision of a book and in bed waiting for the dawn and a widow of Mr. Bentley’s brother and flawed person at the centre of its characters reshaped by meeting with an old friend. Now Jane finds that spying has put her the forthcoming book is Michael the filmmaker? tended to by Mormon carers, this in a compromising position. A fast- Beard, a serial womaniser and a rare intrusion into Hughes’s paced and suspenseful historical specialist in light, and winner of I think Joe Wright and Christo- secluded, strictly controlled and fiction and a fascinating portrayal the Nobel Prize for Physics, who pher Hampton did a very good drug subdued life causes him to of Victorian life. believes that solar energy can save job with the 1935 country house reflect on his past; from his Ingrid Josephine is Program the world. McEwan plans for his scenes in particular, and cut a childhood, struggling against the Administrator of CAE Book Groups scientist to be beset by a scandal very clever and economical path bonds imposed by his over- that will ruin his career. through quite difficult material. protective mother, his early THE LIFEBOAT McEwan’s character, looking Joe Wright has a sure touch with inheritance of the family empire, Zacharey Jane down on London from a plane, the emotional impact of a scene. I through to the decades of his UQP. PB. $23.95 observes that humanity is ‘spread- think the casting in particular was breakneck charge to notoriety. As Staff review ing like lichen’ and likens our excellent. Saoirse Ronan was a history now records, Hughes’s life The Lifeboat is ‘wild success’ to that of spores. great discovery and Keira Knight- was increasingly troubled by a beautiful fable He wonders: ‘how will we ever ley and James McEvoy were obsessive compulsive disorder, and about an old restrain it?’ superb. It’s not difficult to watch it was this that drove him to couple found at – at least not if you believe you’re extraordinary lengths to be master sea. They have McEwan also spoke about the in good hands. You have to stand of all he saw. Hughes is a man who no memory of relationship of his characters back and let the filmmakers do lives very much in the world: every who they are to music, particularly in On their work and hope for the best. sight, sound and smell is keenly felt or where they Chesil Beach. (The intimately and requires attention, his life a have come mismatched protagonists of the Do you have any particular barely controlled maelstrom of from. It is narrated by a young in- book are a classical musician and writing rituals – ways you experience. No aspect is without terpreter from the unnamed island an early rock’n’roll enthusiast.) structure your work day, minute attention, whether it be nation to which they are taken. This ‘When you want to get into the or things you do to get the perfecting his planes, designing a young woman, an orphan of the fine grain of a character, often creative juices flowing? bra for a well-endowed film star or their musical preferences provide war, feels a strong empathy toward Yes. I get at least 7 hours sleep, being a leader of men. And of the key to who they are. I’ve these two people who have lost aim to be at the desk before course, there were the women – met many people of very fine everything. She takes it upon herself 10am, one cup of coffee only, dozens of them – who Hughes moral distinction who have no to try and unlock their memories so resist e-mails and internet, and relentlessly pursued, no less a part interest in reading books, but they can begin their journey home. turn off the phone. of his condition than any other of Their dreams become a central part very few people without music his habits. Davies’ novel is a of unravelling the past – but are in their lives.’ fascinating and intimate insight they revealing truth, desire or fear?

9 Books

The narrator’s sense of self is chal- lenged as she becomes more deeply International ## %##   involved in their struggle, despite Fiction   !!  Canddy being warned by her boss that they may not be what they seem. SOMETHING The ocean is a powerful metaphor TO TELL YOU in this story about identity and Hanif Kureshi belonging, and the hopes and Faber. PB. $32.95 dreams that define who we are. Staff review Like the sea, the language flows Hanif Kureshi with an effortless rhythm that might forever makes this a gentle and be associated absorbing read. with the 90s Michelle Calligaro is Assistant (The Buddha Manager of Readings Carlton '     !      !    of Suburbia, # ! !   ''    ! " ! My Beautiful  #   #   !    SEANCE Laundrette),      !  %  #))  John Harwood but with Some- %%% ""  !!    $ #  % Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.95 thing to Tell You, I am very happy to !!!! %%% !! !    %       ! A novel of report that he’s back(!), with a rich,  ### ""   !  '    $   %% ghosts and immensely engaging and ambitious   "" "%   "     murder in #   !%'    $$ %%   &&"  new novel. The narrator is Jamal, a ((   ## !   Victorian successful psychoanalyst and author England, by OUT NOW (think Adam Phillips!), who, as the interna- he edges further into middle age, tionally finds experience becoming more acclaimed and more confronting – coming to author of The terms with his failed marriage, the Ghost Writer. In 1880s London, a fact that his eccentric sister Miriam young girl, Constance, grows up in has seduced his best mate, and the a household marked by the death coming-of-age of his son, Raji. But of a lost child. Desperate to coax in a stunning revelation early in her mourning mother back to life, the book, we discover there is also she takes her to a séance, hoping a skeleton in the cupboard, dating for comfort from beyond the grave. back to the 70s, which makes But there are tragic consequences. the secrets of the majority of his patients pale into insignificance – THE SACRIFICE namely that Jamal was implicated Bruce Mutard in the sudden death of the father Arena. PB. $35 of his first love, the beautiful Ajita, POLITICS Set in a fellow philosophy student dur- Melbourne ing his uni days. And when she in the shadow reappears in his life 30 years later INSPIRED of WWII, ... What follows is a beautifully this graphic realised series of set-pieces that novel deals alternate between the past and the SHAKESPEARE with war, present – from vivid reminiscences ideals, family of growing up in suburban England (AND PAUL KEATING, NOEL PEARSON, and love. (and a fateful visit to Pakistan), to As the world spins out of control frequently comic accounts of bad PAMELA WILLIAMS, RICHARD FLANAGAN, into World War II, Robert and behaviour amongst Jamal’s very LEIGH SALES & MARCIA LANGTON) his family wrestle with the chal- memorable group of friends. lenges it presents. Robert offers Sex and therapy, drugs and religion, THE BEST AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL WRITING 2008 his apartment to German-Jewish music and multiculturalism, EDITED BY TONY JONES refugees, Artie intends to join up terrorism and philosophy – as soon as the fighting breaks out, all get a look-in – but not for a their mother despairs that another long time has Kureshi made of war will lead to more death in her it such a satisfying whole. family, and Robert’s communist Martin Shaw is Books Buyer sweetheart Elsa answers the call of at Readings Carlton capitalism. When Robert befriends Mata, the precocious young refugee JULIUS WINSOME with a yen for men in uniform, it is Gerard Donovan only the beginning of his journey; Faber. PB. $22.95 a soul-searching journey with an Guest review uncertain ending. Irish-born writer, Gerard Donovan, wanted Julius Winsome, his third novel, to whisper to the reader APRIL @ WWW.MUP.COM.AU – and readers will be seduced by Julius’s quiet wisdom, just as his

10 Books springtime lover briefly is: ‘All that the reader to disappear inside the silence waves across you, Julius, like concurrent stories of Nikola’s life in that she is so like her mother, yet the long grass. You make me feel the 1800s and Louisa’s in the 1940s for most of the novel Maya has like a poet.’ Readers will yearn, too, and not notice time passing, itself been defining herself against Toni. for his quiet life, in a log cabin filled a rare kind of time-travel trick. with over 3000 books, the most Samantha Hunt is a controlled Place seems very important to significant being the entire works and intelligent writer clearly in The Good Parents – the settings of William Shakespeare. But Julius’s love with Nikola Tesla. And who of 1960s Perth, contemporary home is in deeply wooded country, could blame her. Melbourne (especially Rich- popular with recreational hunters, Toni Jordan is the author of mond) and the small WA town and his only company is his beloved Addition (Text, PB, our special Maya grew up in are all richly dog. His father had turned to A price $24.95). Nikola Tesla plays SPECIAL FEATURE evoked. These settings also seem Winter’s Tale in his dying days and, a central role in her novel. Q&A WITH to have been influential in shap- like A Winter’s Tale, this novel has, JOAN LONDON ing the characters. How do you at its heart, the havoc wreaked by THE ABSTINENCE see the influence of place? Joan London won international delusion and the legacy of revenge TEACHER acclaim (and The Age Book of the Perhaps because I’m West Aus- and loneliness. There is something Tom Perotta Year) for her first novel, Gilgamesh tralian, place has always been an else in this novel: a layer of despair Fourth Estate. PB. $30 (Picador, PB, $22.95). Her second issue for me. Perth is called the about the American love affair with Staff review novel, The Good Parents, is out loneliest city in the world. When weaponry, and what this can mean Tom Perotta is this month. Jo Case spoke to her I was a child, ‘over east’ seemed as for someone who doesn’t share this a master of for Readings. distant and exotic as England, the love. Julius says: ‘Before this I knew smart suburban other place people went to. I was the normal happiness in being alone What came first in writing satire (Election, terribly interested to find out if disturbed by one absence’, and it is this book – the characters Little Children), we were the same as other people. the before and after of accumulated or the scenario? specialising in I think I’m always writing about loss that will take the reader on a hot-button I’d often thought I’d like to write ‘here’ and ‘there’. deeply satisfying, poetic and savage issues at the something about parenthood – journey. And then, that log cabin heart of the which after all has been a large Many characters in The Good may not look so inviting after all. American psyche. In The Abstinence part of my experience. And I was Parents are keen to escape the Kylie Stevenson is a freelance Teacher, Perotta takes on the also interested in the parents of my restrictions of their upbring- writer and reviewer evangelical Christian right, pitting generation, and the way we raised ing. To name a few: Toni flees them against a sassy (if weary) our children. But it wasn’t until I her upper-middle-class leafy THE INVENTION OF liberal Sex Ed teacher. Ruth’s ill- saw David Lynch’s Lost Highway suburb and its social mores, EVERYTHING ELSE advised comment about oral sex to a few years ago that the scenario Jacob leaves urban poverty and Samantha Hunt her students (‘some people enjoy started to build up in my mind. a family dynamic that is cold in Harvill. PB. $32.95 it’) causes a scandal when a group In the film, a young man returns its own way, Maya escapes the Guest review by Toni Jordan of churchgoing parents report her home traumatised from a strange confines of a small town where Novels that to the school board. Soon, she is out-of-body experience of which she doesn’t fit in. Do you see reimagine making a public apology and he has no memory, and all his this type of experience as history walk grudgingly adopting the new parents can do is sit on the couch central to the novel? a difficult line – abstinence-based curriculum and watch over him. It was their too much fac- foisted upon her, represented by Yes, in that all these characters are helplessness, their endless worried tual detail and the hot blonde spokesperson of shown at a pivotal time in their waiting on the couch that struck they become an ‘Wise Choices’ – a combination of lives, late adolescence, when they me, that seemed like the quintes- untrustworthy cheerleader, church girl and finally are free to leave their fam- sence of parenthood, and it was biography, too barracuda. Meanwhile, her ily and their parents have to let from that scene that I started to little and they disrespect the frame- daughter’s soccer coach, Tim, a them go. Each time the children draw out the characters and the work of their story. Samantha Hunt reformed addict and born-again hope to recast their lives in a new story, more or less simultaneously. avoids these pitfalls to make The Christian, spontaneously leads the way. It’s part two in the history of a family, and this novel is about Invention of Everything Else a soar- girls in prayer after a moving game The parallel between the that turning point. ing, lyrical tribute to its subject, – and finds himself the target of experience of Maya, the girl inventor Nikola Tesla. The novel Ruth’s bottled-up fury. What whose disappearance is central My favourite thing about imagines Tesla’s later years, living follows is a push-pull attraction of to the story, and her seem- this book was its wonderful alone in the Hotel New Yorker in opposites between the newly ingly conventional mother, is characters and relationships. the 1940s, and a friendship with remarried Tim, who is struggling striking – and, as a reader, it Do you have a favourite a young inquisitive chambermaid, with his demons, and the sexually was unexpected. What was the character? If so, why? Louisa Dewell. Louisa lives with frustrated Ruth. But it’s not all inspiration for these mother/ her father and has her own reasons smart quips and sly observations – daughter journeys? I don’t have a favourite, but some for sharing Nikola’s obsessions: this book is also a surprisingly of the characters seemed to be time travel, electricity and pigeons. nuanced look at a world many I think that children can often re- born clothed and speaking As she learns more about the hotel’s liberals (and most Australians) trace the patterns of their parents’ and I did enjoy writing them – most famous resident and uncovers know little of and understand less. lives, however unconsciously, and Cy Fisher and Kitty and Magnus. the true story of his amazing life, Tom Perotta is the American Nick however much within the very Maya and Jacob and Toni were her own life takes begins to take Hornby – smart, often laugh-out- different circumstances and forms more opaque, more complex and some incredible turns. With vivid loud funny, and deceptively page- of their generation. Perhaps it’s diffuse and had to be worked for, historical detail that makes New turning in style. Good literature is an inheritance of certain ways of to find out what made them tick. York both solidly real and ethere- very rarely this entertaining. reacting to people, certain emo- ally magical, this elegant novel is Jo Case is Editor tional tendencies ... in the end, Full interview available online a mix of love story, science fiction of Readings Monthly Toni’s first husband Cy tells Maya at www.readings.com.au. and magic realism. It’s easy for

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NORTHLINE modelled on him. This poignant the Inner Mongolian grasslands, where he is maitre’d. When his new Willy Vlautin novella is told through the eyes of where he discovers an age-old barman is shot on the job by a Faber. PB. $29.95. precocious nine-year-old Kully, synergy between the nomads, couple of streetkids, Eric finds Includes CD who knows how to roll a cigarette their livestock and the wild wolves himself at the centre of the Staff review and pack a suitcase, that you can’t who roam the plains. But when investigations, and the detectives Willy Vlautin’s enter a country without a passport members of the People’s Republic on the case find themselves charged style of writing or a visa, and that her parents can’t swarm in from the cities to bring with trying to find the truth from is almost return to Germany. She knows that modernity and productivity to the under Eric’s web of lies. While the script-like, war is brewing in Europe (though grasslands, the peace of Chen’s soli- murder anchors the novel, Lush reminding the she can’t understand why) and how tary existence is shattered, and the Life isn’t a crime novel as such – the reader of a to lie for her father. As her mother delicate balance between humans crime is a way into the world of the David Lynch longs to settle down and her father and wolves is disrupted. book. film. The story moves among clouds of women centres around and searches for a new publisher, CHANGE OF HEART OUR STORY BEGINS Alison Johnson, a 22-year-old high the three move from country to Jodi Picoult Tobias Wolff school drop-out with self-destruc- country as their visas expire, money A&U. PB. Normally $32.95 Knopf. HB. $42.95 tive tendencies who lives in Las runs out and hotel bills mount up. Our special price $27.95 Tobias Wolff Vegas, but, through misadventures, ‘Keun has few rivals as a chronicler Bestselling is an acknowl- finds herself pregnant to her of the atmosphere ... or the author Jodi edged master of abusive boyfriend. She arranges to consequences ... of Nazism’s rise.’ – Picoult’s the short story give it up for adoption and skips The Guardian fifteenth form. Here, he town to start a new life in Reno. novel gathers ten new Although Alison has had some bad DEATH AT INTERVALS explores stories with 21 experiences, she has not lost her Jose Saramago religion and classics – a fine RICE genuine spirit. However, she has Harvill. PB. $32.95 SPECIAL P prisoner’s showcase of low self-esteem and is constantly This intriguing rights on some of his very best work. These taken advantage of. Alison’s saviour satire from death row. Shay Bourne is on death stories offer small revelations that is the actor Paul Newman, her Portugese row for killing a small girl and her change the lives of their characters imaginary confidant and advisor. Nobel Prize policeman stepfather. He has no – revelations about biding one’s Alison has been speaking to winner Jose family and no hope of salvation ... time, or experiencing first love, or Newman since she first began to Saramago takes until the girl’s 11-year-old sister burying one’s mother. Characters get blackouts as a teenager and a seemingly needs an organ transplant, and and scenarios include the ordinary, watched his movies as she simple Shay sees his chance to give the unusual and the telling: a convalesced. Some characters are impossibility something back. The problem for lawyer taking a difficult deposition; repulsive. There are also issues of – what would happen if people the desperate family? The donation an American in Rome indulging racism against illegal immigrants, stopped dying? – and follows it would complicate his execution the Gypsy who’s picked his pocket; which are put into context and through to its logical, yet surpris- plans. Meanwhile, on death row, a retired Marine enrolled in college balanced with moments of ing, conclusions. One New Year’s strange happenings are afoot: an while her son trains for Iraq. kindness and strength of the Day, nobody dies. After an initial AIDS victim goes into remission, human spirit. There are very real period of joyous celebration, an inmate’s pet bird dies and is THIS CHARMING MAN scenes of everyday small-town trouble begins to stir. Nobody is brought back to life, wine flows Marion Keyes American life. Vlautin’s writing dead, but that doesn’t mean that from the water faucets. A deeply Michael Joseph. PB. $32.95 style puts you right in that place; the ‘saved’ dying are healed – they moving page-turner. The queen of this is a great little novel with a are stuck in interminable pain and chick-lit beautiful soundtrack of Vlautin’s suffering. The religious leaders are LUSH LIFE delivers another music (he is also a musician in the concerned – no death means no Richard Price sparkling tale band Richmond Fountain) that afterlife, and no need for religion. Bloomsbury. PB. $32.95 about modern keeps the mood just right. Then, seven months after her (yes, Streetwise bard women ... and Michael Awosoga-Samuel is a her) disappearance, death returns, Richard Price is one charming, DVD Buyer at Readings Carlton handing out letters giving the soon- responsible for unknowable to-die one week’s notice. Until one the bestselling man. Four very CHILD OF ALL NATIONS recipient’s unexpected reaction book Clockers, different women are intimately Irmgard Keun changes her in unpredictable ways pool shark affected by the news of Paddy de Allen Lane. HB. $29.95 ... Death at Intervals is funny, screenplay The Courcy’s engagement. Stylist Lola, Much like the touching and blisteringly clever. Colour of his girlfriend (but not his bride-to- surprise hit Money and, be), flees to a cottage by the sea. Suite Francaise, WOLF TOTEM recently, US cult HBO hit The Journalist Grace is in hot pursuit, this novel has Jian Rong Wire. Price grew up in the Bronx looking for the inside story on been resur- Viking. PB. $32.95 projects and has set his previous gorgeous politician, Paddy. Her rected from This stunning allegorical novel was books in the Bronx and New Jersey. sister, Marnie, was Paddy’s first wartime the winner of the inaugural Man Lush Life, while similarly gritty, is love, and is having trouble moving Europe. The Asian Literary Prize, and a publish- set in New York’s newly fashionable on, even with a storybook family author lived ing phenomenon in its native Lower East Side, a place that, while by her side. And the fiancé, Alicia, and travelled with the great writer China. The author spent 30 years most talked about these days for its is determined to be the perfect Joseph Roth from 1936 to 1938 creating the tale, which has struck a hip new eateries and must-have real politician’s wife. But does she know (he died a year later, in 1939). chord with its resounding messages estate, still simmers with culture the real Paddy? Though she has denied it, the about the state of modern China clashes and racial tensions. rumour is that the father in this and Chinese culture. Beijing intel- Thirtysomething Eric Cash wants book – a writer whose books are lectual Chen Zen volunteers to live to be an artist but is, in reality, banned in Germany – is closely in a remote nomadic settlement on mired at the hipster restaurant

12 Dead Write New Crime Fiction with Judith Loriente BLONDE FAITH THE DEATH CHAMBER THE ICE PRINCESS NOTHING TO LOSE Walter Mosely Sarah Rayne Camilla Leckberg Lee Child Weidenfeld & Nicolson. PB. $33 Harper Collins. PB. $32.99 Harper Collins. PB. $33 Bantam. PB. Normally $32.95 Easy Rawlins Calvary. It’s a name with a long In an icy Swedish fi shing village, Our special price $27.95 has lost the history. And, in the case of Calvary Erica Falck, a writer, fi nds the Two small love of his life Gaol, in the north of England, it dead body of Alex Wijkner in a towns in to another is a place imprinted with bleakness frozen bathtub. At fi rst glance she Colorado: man, his friend and despair. Georgina Grey’s family appears to have taken her own life, Hope and is sought for history is interwoven with Calvary’s but Alex’s mother insists that her Despair. murder and he past, and it seems that she and Chad daughter was afraid of blood, and Between has been hired Ingram – television presenter – and would never have killed herself in them, to betray his crew aren’t the only ones for such a manner. When Alex’s par- SPECIAL PRICE nothing but another friend. On top of all this, whom Calvary’s grim stories hold ents ask Erica to write a commem- twelve miles the adoptive daughter of violent fascination. As Georgina and Chad orative article about their daugh- of empty road. Jack Reacher can’t but emotional Christmas Black is begin to further investigate what ter’s life, Erica fi nds herself drawn fi nd a ride, so he walks. All he wants left in Easy’s charge. Lost on a happened in Calvary during the into the mystery of Alex’s enigmatic is a cup of coff ee. What he gets are darkening sea of an impending 1930s, it becomes apparent that life, and the secrets she kept from four redneck deputies who want to nervous breakdown, Easy goes in someone else is fi ghting to ensure her husband. It soon becomes clear run him out of town. Mistake. search of Christmas, leading him to that the truth remains untold; that she was indeed murdered, Th ey’re picking on the wrong guy. visit bars, restaurants, young ladies, someone who will go to any lengths and also that, although supposedly Jack Reacher is a big man, and he’s ex-nuns and even a fi sh market, necessary, even at the expense of the childless, she had at some point in shape. No job, no address, no gradually piecing together his lives of others. An engaging read borne a child. As Erica digs deeper, baggage. Nothing, except bloody- puzzle whilst wrestling with his that fl ips fl uently between past and a tale of abuse, scandal and hidden minded curiosity. What is the secret own demons. present, Th e Death Chamber off ers shame that unfolded more than the locals seem so keen to hide? the narrative viewpoint of several twenty years before is uncovered, Ex-military cop Reacher is today’s DISCO FOR of the protagonists, thus enabling one that links together the fates most addictive hero. Now he pulls THE DEPARTED readers to immerse themselves in of a surprisingly disparate cast of on a tiny loose thread, to unravel Colin Cotterill the very heart of Calvary and its characters. Filled with atmosphere, conspiracies that expose the most Text. PB. $32.95 shrouded mysteries … Journey Th e Ice Princess is another stark and shocking truths. Because, after all, In Vientiane’s there, if you dare! eerie work of Nordic crime. JL Jack Reacher has nothing to lose. Mahosot Penny Windlow is from Hospital Readings Hawthorn morgue, 73-year-old Dr SMALL CRIMES Siri Paiboun, Dave Zeltserman national Serpent’s Tail. PB. $23.95 coroner of Seven years Laos, handles after he was sent the fatalities at the state hospitals – to prison for and the odd murder. His assistants stabbing a – the gorgeous, clever, fat Nurse fellow police Dtui and the slow but irreplaceable offi cer during a Geung – have helped Dr Siri out of robbery, Joe scrapes before in Th e Coroner’s Denton, Lunch and Th irty-Th ree Teeth. one-time Leaving Geung guarding the crooked cop, is paroled, and returns morgue, Siri and Dtui land in a to his home town of Bradley in remote mountain village where a Vermont. Determined to put his past mummifi ed arm is protruding from behind him, he quickly discovers that recently buckled concrete paving. his former underworld cronies are Just how is this arm connected to just as determined to settle old scores. the President of the People’s In grave danger of being killed or Democratic Republic of Laos? sent back to prison, Joe embarks on What will the autopsy reveal? Can a quest to discover the truth about Siri decipher the messages of the those who are out to frame him, and departed souls that fi ll his dreams? to ensure they’ll be in no position to And will they lead him to the destroy him without at the same identity of the arm’s owner and the time destroying themselves. Joe’s answer to the puzzle of his death? ordeal at the hands of his pursuers makes for rather grisly reading at times, but if you don’t mind that sort of thing, it’s well worth reading to see how he eventually − and cleverly − takes sweet revenge on his enemies. Judith Loriente is from Readings Hawthorn

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amples of the genre, and hers was one of them. I admire the pared precision of her language, and her approach to structure, both in her Peter Ewer memoir and in earlier books. Forgotten Anzacs It must have been challenging to Every school child in Australia and write this book. Did the writing New Zealand is brought up on the process act as a kind of therapy legend of the Anzacs. This, though, for you, or did you find it a is the largely unknown story of SPECIAL FEATURE struggle? Q&A WITH another Anzac force which fought Certainly I found it cathartic to VIRGINIA LLOYD not at Gallipoli, but in Greece a write down some of my experi- generation later. Book editor turned writer Virginia ences, and was relieved to find Lloyd has just released her first book, myself at different times laughing The Young Widow’s Book of and crying at things I had written. Susan Faludi Home Improvement (UQP, HB, But reliving some of the most diffi- The Terror Dream $32.95), a beautifully written mem- cult intimate moments of my life From the Pulitzer Prize–winning oir about life with – and after – her with John was harder than I could journalist and bestselling author husband John, who died of cancer ever have anticipated. The struggle to turn the raw material of life into of Backlash comes an unfl inching less than a year after their wedding. Jo Case spoke to her for Readings. a story worth reading was a huge dissection of the mind of America challenge, but an intellectual rather after 9/11 — and of a barely Renovating your much-neglect- than an emotional one. acknowledged cultural drama ed house works as a metaphor shot through with baffl ing for rebuilding your life after You worked as an editor in contradictions. you lost John – both attending the book industry for a period to the things you weren’t able before you wrote the book. How to pay attention to when he was did this experience affect the B.A. Goodjohn ill and finding a way to rebuild writing process, if at all? Did it Sticklebacks and Snow Globes while still holding on to your make you hyper-aware of what memories. What made you you were doing – and if so, did ‘In this magical debut novel, decide to merge these two it help or hinder you? working-class British council-estate things in the book? life becomes a sort of quotidian I have always been my tough- wonderland starring children clever The book became possible only est editor, so during the writing and strange and very real. ... a cosy, after I noticed the metaphorical process I had to hold back from constantly revising and editing richly written delight.’ parallels between my home reno- vation and my grieving. Before sentences as they first landed on — starred Kirkus Review then I kept a few notes sporadi- the page. Editing books takes a cally but had not thought about level of intuitive understanding of Gerri Brightwell attempting a longer work. After structure and pace, so I guess that The Dark Lantern about six months, I realized that knowledge helped me to shape the process of renovation – fixing my book as it emerged over time, Set in nineteenth-century London, the rising damp, rendering the but the writing and editing this page-turning mystery slowly newly plastered walls, and paint- processes are quite different. uncovers devastating secrets, and ing the smooth surfaces – echoed sheds light on the genteel ‘upstairs’ the sorts of movement between Who are your writing of a Victorian home as well as internal and external surfaces, influences? Who do you read? on the darker underbelly of its structural and cosmetic changes, I read slightly more non-fiction servants’ quarters. that I experienced in that first year than fiction – my favourites in- or so of moving through the world clude Joan Didion, Helen Garner, without John. Peter Carey, Henry James, Ian McEwan, Oliver Sacks, John Your memoir reminded me Ross McMullin Banville, W.G. Sebald. I am of Joan Didion’s book about Pompey Elliott endlessly impressed with humour losing her husband, The Year of writers, especially P.G. Wode- Now in a new format and with Magical Thinking – in its hon- house, Alan Bennett, Clive James, a foreword by Les Carlyon, this est, clear-eyed examination of David Sedaris. I’m a big fan of comprehensive, deeply researched the grieving process. Have you structure in writing, which I trace biography tells the fascinating read that book and if so, did it to my classical music training as a story of Australia’s great World influence you at all? young girl. Currently I’m reading War I fi ghting general. First, let me say that I am thrilled Alice Munro’s Views from Castle for my book to be mentioned in Rock and Oliver Sacks’s new book, the same sentence as Joan Didion. Musicophilia. As I struggled with the realisation www.scribepublications.com.au Lily Brett reviews The Young that what I was trying to do was to Widow’s Book of Home Visit Scribe’s website to sign up for your monthly e-news write a memoir, I read several ex- Improvement on p15.

14

Books

GREAT AUTUMN READING vintageNon-fiction And, above all, a book about love. Australian classics Lily Brett’s latest book is You Gotta AVAILABLE NOW FROM UQP All PB. $19.95 each Have Balls (Picador, PB, $22.95). It’s the perfect THE LIFEBOAT opportunity to I Am Melba Zacharey Jane fill in the gaps Anne Blainey in your Austral- Black Inc. PB. $32.95 Take this intriguing journey. ian reading Melbourne- knowledge, born Nellie ëA charming and vivid parable of chance or revisit old Mitchell and romance. Zacharey Janeí s prose favourites. dreamed of shimmers with light.í Mandy Sayer The series fame, despite includes Patrick White’s The Aunt’s the disapproval Story, Mary Durack’s Kings in of her devout Grass Castles, David Marr’s father. She acclaimed biography, Patrick White, continued to Fiction l $23.95 and Tom Keneally’s Three Cheers dream as a young wife and mother for the Paraclete. in the Queensland cane-fields. Travelling in London and Paris, her THE YOUNG WIDOWíS B OOK dreams finally collided with real life OF HOME IMPROVEMENT Biography as she metamorphosed into Nellie Virginia Lloyd The Young Widow’s Melba, Australia’s first international superstar. This is her story; a tale of An unforgettable story of love and Book of Home renovation. Improvement overflowing concert halls, European royalty, swooning critics Virginia Lloyd ëThis tender , funny and sometimes and collaborations with some of UQP. HB. $32.95 achingly painful book is not a book the most renowned composers of Guest review by Lily Brett about death. It is a book about life. her age. This important – and And above all, a book about love.í ‘You can’t compulsively readable – biography Lily Brett be a little bit includes new research and captures pregnant, but the exuberance, controversy and Non-l ction/Memoir l $32.95 you can be a pathos of Melba’s remarkable life little bit dead,’ and career. Virginia Lloyd THE CITY OF WORDS Alberto Manguel says in The The Sum of Our Days Young Widow’s Isabel Allende Book of Home As broadcast on ABC Radio HarperCollins. PB. National. Improvement. This exquisitely writ- Normally $32.95 ten memoir is a remarkable lesson Our special price $27.95 ëManguel speaks movingly and in how to not be a little bit dead. convincingly about the power of First In this heartbreaking and uplifting literature to counter the reductive forces love story Virginia fuses the ordi- published of nationalism, to bridge divides, to heal nary and the extraordinary until in Spanish, rifts, and to liberate citizens from mere there’s no discernible difference. this frank consumerhood.í The Georgia Straight and revealing The ordinary is the extraordinary. Non-l ction l $24.95 Something that for most of us is a memoir is already a little too easy to forget. We know SPECIAL PRICE the outcome of the story almost bestseller in Latin Amer- AT SEVENTEEN from the start. Virginia Lloyd, a Celeste Walters young, highly intelligent, very at- ica. A sequel to the wildly popular Paula, this book is an invitation tractive, jazz-loving, piano-playing What it means to be 17. wine connoisseur and book editor into the life of one of the world’s was single at 32, married at 33 most loved writers: into her inti- Forced to board in her l nal years and widowed at 34. She describes mate circle of family and friends, of school, Catherine struggles to l t in, while the discovery of her dead the death of her husband, the love her writing routine, and the joys and sorrows of everyday existence. grandmotherí s journals leads her to of her life, in painstaking acutely uncover a tragic family secret. observed detail. But death is not When her son discovered she was the oppressive presence you might writing another non-fiction book, expect. Instead, it is the passion, he asked her why. Allende likened the humour, the frustration, the it to the fable about the scorpion Young Adult / Non-Fiction l $18.95 togetherness of two people in love that stings the frog on whose back that permeates the book. That it crosses the pond: ‘because it’s in draws you in. That makes you my nature’. UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS laugh. And makes you cry. This tender, funny and sometimes ach- Celebrating 60 years in 2008 ingly painful book is not a book about death. It is a book about life. www.uqp.com.au

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NOTHING TO BE MIRACLES OF LIFE FRIGHTENED OF J.G. Ballard Under a Starless Sky Julian Barnes Fourth Estate. HB. $40 Jonathan Cape. HB. $55 J.G. Ballard, Banafsheh Serov Staff review the author of From the streets and bazaars of Tehran to Th is is the year for books about cult hit Crash death – how we approach it, worry and acclaimed the moonlit Turkish mountains, Under a about it and prepare for it. And novels such as Starless Sky is a beautiful memoir about while Julian Barnes’s new book is Empire of the a family’s extraordinary journey through not only about death, the grim Sun, has lived the turmoil of the 1978 revolution when reaper is certainly causing Barnes an extraordi- $35.00 the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in some consternation. As is God. ‘I nary life. Th e Hachette Australia Iran, and their escape over the mountains to don’t believe in God, but I miss son of ex-pat English parents in Trade Paperback Turkey, and ultimately to Australia. him’ says Barnes, as he proceeds to Shanghai, he was interned in a delve into the reasons we believe Japanese prison camp as an in God or not. Th is is not an easily adolescent in 1943. On his release, defi ned work; it is part memoir, he was sent ‘home’ to England and part philosophy, part homage to packed off to boarding school, Barnes’s favourite thinkers, such which was followed by a stint The Rose Labyrinth as Jules Renard. However, one of studying medicine at Cambridge, Titania Hardie the most interesting aspects of it then in the RAF, before he became is Barnes’s inclusion of numer- a writer. His young wife died A single sheet of parchment and a silver ous conversations and arguments tragically as he was just beginning key passed down through generations with his brother, the philosopher to make a name for himself as a unravels a mystery of adventure and Jonathan Barnes, about atheism, writer of dark, dystopic novels. revelation. Beautifully presented in a death, the way we remember life. It Th ese seminal events were to form hardback case – The Rose Labyrinth is an adds to the feeling that we are being the bones of who he is, as a writer let into his most personal thoughts. and a person. Miracles of Life puts ideal gift for booklovers everywhere. $45.00 Headline Review Barnes (Julian, that is) is very careful the meat on these bones, telling a Hardback to warn us that this is not his auto- great deal about the twentieth biography, but fans of his work, and century and the legacy of empire at those who are simply interested in the same time. what he is interested in and would like to read an intelligent, articulate POE: A LIFE CUT SHORT exposition on such matters, will lap Peter Ackroyd Shatter this up because this is probably the Chatto & Windus. HB. $39.95 Michael Robotham closest they will get to having a look Th e acclaimed inside this agile mind. biographer of A terrifying psychological thriller, Kabita Dhara is from Readings the city of Shatter secures Michael Robotham’s Carlton London, position as one of the best storytellers among other today. Delivering a book that delves into LIFE IN HIS HANDS subjects, turns the darkest recesses of the human mind Susan Wyndham the spotlight Picador. PB. $32.95 on Gothic $32.99 and our deepest vulnerabilities, this is his Literary master Edgar Sphere most powerful novel yet. Trade Paperback journalist Susan Allan Poe. Poe, long claimed as the Wyndham tells forerunner of modern fantasy, was the story of best known for darkly atmospheric Australia’s most poetry, such as ‘Th e Raven’. Th e celebrated and mystery of Poe’s fi nal days provides controversial a fi tting beginning for the book, Still Waters neurosurgeon, and kicks off the dramatic tale of a Camilla Noli Charlie Teo, short, brilliant life, intensely lived. and his most challenging case – Peter Ackroyd places signifi cance 2008’s most talked about debut. a young concert pianist given only on Poe’s miserably poor childhood Mothers love their children...don’t they? six weeks to live. Just days after Teo with his travelling actor parents, In the suburbs, a young mother is looking operated on Aaron McMillan’s rare then as an orphan following his after her two children. But just because she brain tumour, he was back at the mother’s death from TB. He claims is a mother doesn’t mean she will protect piano, preparing to perform. Years that Poe found his family among later, he was still performing. And writers – not only of his time, but those she is supposed to love...and everyone $24.99 while Teo’s radical techniques have of future generations. is in danger. Hachette Australia Paperback earned him worldwide accolades, at home he is sometimes considered THIS IS NOT MY reckless. A true tale about the fortu- BEAUTIFUL LIFE nate collision of a medical maverick Elly Varrenti and an artist who refused to die. Viking. PB. $32.95 Melbourne broadcaster and writer Elly Varrenti explores the gap www.hachette.com.au between the life she dreamed of and the life she ended up with in 16 Books this frank, funny memoir about campaign, like the last, was where life takes you when you’re inspired by Churchill and badly not looking. It’s a book about men, planned by British authorities. Th is THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE babies, marriage and separation, is the fi rst history of that campaign about juggling work and family, written from a truly Anzac SALMAN RUSHDIE endless co-parenting arrangements perspective – based on rarely and new relationships as a single accessed archives and extensive mother. In between the angst, there interviews with Australian, New The magnificent new are unexpected moments of hilarity Zealander and Greek veterans. novel from Salman Rushdie and joy. A tall, yellow-haired young MEN OF THE LINE UNSTILL LIFE: ART, Pattie Wright European traveller calling himself the Mughal of Love, arrives at the POLITICS AND LIVING Miegunyah. HB. $45 WITH CLIFTON PUGH Th is beautifully court of the real Grand Mughal, Judith Pugh produced book the Emperor Akbar, with a tale A&U. PB. $32.95 tells the stories to tell that begins to obsess the Judith Pugh of the men whole imperial capital. tells the story who were put of a unique to work on the partnership, infamous forged during Th ai-Burma SLOW JOURNEY SOUTH an extraordi- railway, in their nary time in own words. (‘We knew we weren’t PAULA CONSTANT Australian art going to be treated with kid gloves, and politics – but we didn’t expect the fourteen to Everywhere is walking from an insider’s perspective. She sixteen hours a day on bloody 6 met Clifton Pugh soon after ounces of rice.’) Construction of distance if you have joining the Australian Labor Party. the 415 kilometres of railway began the time. He was a famous international in June 1942. Th e men of the Line Paula’s transformation from an artist; 20 years older than her. Th eir died of starvation, torture and decade together was a heady mix of disease at the hands of the Japanese urban primary school teacher painting, policy and pleasure where Imperial Army. Th is moving book into a successful expeditioner the boundaries between political, is enriched by its many interwoven is a true tale of an ordinary social and art worlds were blurred, fi rst-person accounts, most of them woman achieving something refl ecting the rapidly changing face heard here for the fi rst time. extraordinary. It is a journey that of Australian society. But there was begins with one footstep. a darker side to this successful partnership – for the fi rst time, Politics Judith reveals the complexity of a TAKE YOUR IMAGINATION relationship haunted by wartime THE COMMON WEALTH: experiences. ECONOMICS FOR A CROWDED PLANET WITH YOU Jeffrey Sachs Australian History Allen Lane. PB. $32.95 Guest review The first four titles in the new THE FORGOTTEN Jeff rey Sachs’s Australian Vintage Classics series ANZACS much-antici- Peter Ewer pated book Scribe. HB. $59.95 continues his Th is long- distillation of overdue history research from tells the story Th e Earth of the other Institute at Anzacs – not Colombia the famous University. (Associated work with soldiers of the Earth Institute includes Sachs’s ill-fated 2002 Th e End of Poverty.) Unlike Gallipoli popular economic writing on campaign, but the next generation. everyday life, like Freakonomics and In 1941, a reformed Australian and Th e Undercover Economist, this David Marr New Zealand Army Corps faced an book is a sobering report of invading Nazi German army that everyday life under increasing Patrick White had so far been triumphant inequalities worldwide. Th e title Mary Durack everywhere. It was to be a classic reframes the idea of ‘common- example of history repeating itself. wealth,’ asserting how global Tom Keneally Outnumbered and fi ghting in resource distribution is no longer of inhospitable conditions, many of national importance alone. the new Anzacs retreated through Population explosion, poverty, Crete, while others became ecosystem strain and declining Take your imagination with you prisoners of the Nazis. Th is natural resources are intercon-

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nected global problems with serious THE AGE OF implications for world stability. Yet THE WARRIOR The Sum of Our Days - Isabel Allende global resource economics is not Robert Fisk The Sum of Our Days based on suffi ciently viewed as a common Fourth Estate. PB. $30 Allende’s own journals and daily problem for humanity. Symbolic Th e name of long-time Middle correspondence with her mother in alliances aside, its economics is Eastern correspondent Robert Fisk Chile, reveals the author to be a viewed as a divided problem is synonymous with a certain brand dazzling, generous, warm and varying between nations, even of journalism: fearless, in both hysterically funny matriarch within between urban and rural areas, of word and deed, determined, and her swirl of family and friends. In importance only for sovereign this brilliant memoir Allende shorn of bullshit or kowtowing – to recounts the intimate and heartfelt authorities. Sachs provides anyone – governments and editors story of what happened to her and extensive multi-disciplinary facts alike. His name is also synonymous her family in the years that followed from developed and developing with good writing, making this her daughter Paula’s death, as they nations, proposing how national collection of his recent journal- reconstruct their lives following a and local leaders can cooperate ism (from the Independent) highly tragic loss. across resource jealousies and recommended reading for anyone ideological diff erences. His is a interested in the state of the con- The Age of the Warrior – Robert Fisk controversial proposal of dire temporary world – and particularly, Robert Fisk has amassed a devoted importance, an ambitious roadmap the Western-made mess that is the readership over the years, with his redirecting popular economics modern Middle East. While the insightful, witty and always towards global economic concerns. focus of the collection is his home outspoken articles on international Maloti Ray is a freelance reviewer politics and mankind’s war-torn beat, articles on Bush, Iraq and the recent history. He is best known for various confl icts in the region are his writing about the Middle East, WHERE IN THE WORLD complemented by pieces on hand- its wars, dictators and international IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? writing, his soldier grandfather and relations, but these articles cover an Morgan Spurlock the Titanic. array of topics, from his soldier Harvill. PB. Normally $35 grandfather to handwriting to the Our special price $29.95 Titanic - and of course President Morgan Cultural Studies Bush, terrorism and Iraq. Spurlock is the man who THE CRAFTSMAN fearlessly Richard Sennett took on the Allen Lane. HB. $59.95 burger Th e bestselling industry, author of

SPECIAL PRICE manfully Respect overdosing examines why April’s on sugar and fat as he went, for the people work hard and take Best Non-fiction AUSTRALIA smash-hit documentary Super Size Me. In his new fi lm, out this pride in what The Collins Class month, he proves that he is no one- they do. Submarine Story hit wonder. Th is companion book Sennett asks what the true meaning of ‘skill’ is Steel, Spies and Spin is smart, funny and fi lled with in our so-called ‘skilled society’ – By Peter Yule, Derek Woolner facts. It’s also disarmingly compassionate towards both sides and explains why he believes that This is the story of our nation’s most controversial and expensive competition is a poor way to defence project ever. The Collins Class is widely regarded today of the post-9/11 debate, particu- as a white elephant, but the authors tell a very different story larly the Islamic world. Th e gag achieve quality work. Instead, he - one where a world-class Australian achievement was that anchors this enterprise is that suggests that a craftsman – a being unjustifiedly maligned in order to score political points. Spurlock wants to make the world dedicated to producing the best HB 978-0521-86894-5 $59.95 336 pages a safer place for his unborn child, possible work they can – resides inside all of us, and that drive can A History of the so he sets off , like Indiana Jones, to save it (isn’t that usually the job of a drive us, inspire us, but also make English Language driven loner?). His mission is to get us obsessive and frustrated in our Edited by Richard M. Hogg, David Denison rid of the man supposedly at the quest for perfection. Th e book is Now available in paperback, this is the definitive history of our root of all evil. His mission begins divided into three parts: the language over the course of fifteen centuries. Featuring a team in New York, but moves on to craftsman at work, the develop- of internationally renowned experts including David Crystal, this Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Saudi ment and honing of skill, and the book charts the development of crucial aspects of the English argument that motivation counts language in detail. It will be of interest to serious word nuts Arabia, England, France and everywhere. Morocco. Wherever he goes, he for more than talent. Th e Craftsman PB 978-0-521-71799-1 $75.00 512 pages looks into not so much the where shows how our pride in our work of Bin Laden, but the why – and can be nurtured in such a way as to The Normal Personality the answers he comes up with are make our lives more fulfi lling. A New Way of Thinking About People both mercifully complex, and By Steven Reiss rooted in the experience of CITY OF WORDS: Do we confuse individuality with abnormality? Are we over- ordinary people in both the Islamic THE ALBERT diagnosing disorders, where none in fact exist? This award- and Western worlds. MASSEY LECTURES winning author argues that normal motives often underlie many Alberto Manguel personality and relationship problems. This radical new theory presents a true challenge to estabished psychological orders. UQP. PB. $24.95

HB 978-0-521-88106-7 $45.00 216 pages Th is lively, intriguing book looks at the rise of violent intolerance

18 Books in our societies, from race riots a fi lm and the eyesight of an in France to the Bali bombings. octopus with ease. Th e results are far Garden style guides In this book based on his 2007 more memorable than any textbook. new CBC Massey Lectures (Canada, Plenty of left-of-fi eld literary series to be broadcast on Radio National references are peppered throughout These lusciously designed and in 2008), Alberto Manguel asks: too: if you thought the poetry of highly illustrated books make Why is it so diffi cult for us to live John Donne and a female Chinook gardening fresh, engaging together in a multicultural society? salmon had little in common, think and accessible. He suggests that we turn to stories again. A former columnist for Each title provides inspiration to fi nd our answers – stories that adventure travel magazine, Outside, to help create your garden, just might hold the keys to the Quammen also invites readers to whether it is a minimalist human heart. Great authors and examine the evolution of his writing WHUUDFHRUDZLOGÁRZHU works mined for their wisdom and over two decades. If you’ve never garden. resonance include Jack London, been switched on to science writing Don Quixote and the Epic of before, this is a must-read. 3DSHUEDFN‡ Gilgamesh. Sally Keighery is Program Coordinator of CAE Book Groups THE NEW BLACK www.johnwiley.com.au/trade Darian Leader FINDING MOONSHINE Hamish Hamilton. HB. $39.95 Marcus Du Sautoy Natural Acts Acclaimed Fourth Estate. HB. $45 A Sidelong view of Science psychoanyalyst Symmetry and Nature and writer shapes our Darian Leader world in an By David Quammen is wary of intricate variety Engaging and enlightening, modern of ways; it is a Natural Acts examines the unique defi nitions of key concept in aspects of some of the most depression. mathematics, unusual and misunderstood Here, he goes physics, animal species, from one of the beyond the now-standard checklists evolutionary freshest and wittiest voices on to explore the deeper, unconscious biology, art and music. Th is is both nature and science. ways we experience and understand a personal journey and a close look 3DSHUEDFN‡1RUWRQ‡ loss – such as death, separation, at the passion for patterns that and relationship break-up. Human drives all mathematicians. Du beings are more complex than to- Sautoy examines the concept of day’s simplistic solutions recognise, symmetry and its underlying laws, he argues. In picking apart the and outlines his own quest to master deeper causes and manifestations this most intangible concept. But he of our malaise, we may loosen its also tells the stories of some of his grip on our lives. ‘Worth an armful colleagues over the past 4,000 years of vapid self-help tracts, and goes – many of them bizarre, most of beyond the realm of psychology them eccentric, all of them both into sharp social critique.’ driven and fascinating. – Hilary Mantel, Guardian Food & Wine Science AT MY FRENCH TABLE NATURAL ACTS Jane Webster David Quammen Viking. HB. $59.95 Wiley. HB. $33.95 Th is beautifully Guest review illustrated book Science tells the story of writing, says a Melbourne David woman’s move Quammen, can to a neglected be ‘heart chateau in a squashingly small French boring’. Not village – four here. Natural children and all – in photography, Acts is an recipes and stories. Th e setting may immensely enjoyable collection of be picturesque, the pace of life may the author’s work from the early be unhurried, but there’s no time for eighties until now. Quammen’s loafi ng about: Jane Webster juggles exuberance for his various subjects settling the children into a new – anacondas, aphids, Romanian school and a new language, wolf trappers and bushy bearded restoring the chateau to its former paleontologists – is utterly glory and fulfi lling her lifelong infectious. He segues between dream of starting a cookery school. seemingly unrelated fi elds of Th is book is rich with the fl avours interest such as a scene in a book or and rhythms of rural France. 19 Books

BAKE client’s motivations early in therapy Australian Women’s in order to better plan the course of Weekly treatment and to eff ectively prepare Normally $74.95. for ‘unplanned’ terminations. Our special price $59.95 The RSC Shakespeare Th e follow- TREATMENT OF BIPOLAR up to the best- ILLNESS: A CASEBOOK By William Shakespeare FOR CLINICIANS Edited by Jonathan Bate & Eric Rasmussen selling Cook Developed in Partnership with the world famous is the ultimate AND PATIENTS Royal Shakespeare Company, this fresh new guide to getting Robert M. Post Complete Works of Shakespeare combines the most out WW Norton. PB. $75.95 cutting edge scholarship with elegant writing Th e defi nitive book on the latest re- and design. It boasts a wealth of features that of your oven. search on and treatment of bipolar will appeal to students, scholars and lovers of Here are all SPECIAL PRICE Shakespeare everywhere: the classic disorder. Based on over 10 years’ “This new Complete Works from the RSC is a glorious edition of one of recipes for cakes, scones, biscuits worth of research and study, this the world’s most important books. It’s the essential reference book for and muffi ns that you’ll remember book presents the most up-to-date anyone who’s ever been in love, felt jealousy, fear, hatred or desire. All from childhood. Bring the best information on the principles and human life is here—and every home should have one.” practice of treating bipolar illness. —Dame Judi Dench [RSC Honorary Associate Artist] of yesterday’s cooking into today’s kitchen! $65.00 Pb, ISBN 978-0230-20095-1 Publish April 2008, 2552 pages Writing Palgrave Macmillan Psychology Casualty Figures HOW FICTION WORKS Michele Barrett, Queen Mary University of London HELPING STUDENTS James Woods Casualty Figures is not about those millions who died in the First OVERCOME DEPRESSION Jonathan Cape. HB. $39.95 World War; it is about the way their deaths AND ANXIETY: SECOND In the tradition affected the lives of the countless thousands of EDITION of Milan men who did not figure in the official casualty Kundera’s Th e lists. In this powerful new book, Michele Barrett Kenneth W. Merrell uncovers the lives of five ordinary soldiers who Guildford. PB. $54.95 Art of the Novel, endured the “war to end all wars”, and how Now in a revised and expanded How Fiction they dealt with its horrors, both at the front Works is a New from Palgrave Macmillan Macmillan Palgrave New from second edition, this popular guide and after the war’s end. provides expert information and scintillating $49.95 Hb, ISBN 978-184467-230-1 clear-cut strategies for assessing and searching Publish April 2008, 224 pages study of the Verso Books and treating internalising problems in school settings. More than 40 main elements of fi ction, such as specifi c psychoeducational and narrative, detail, characterisation, psychosocial intervention tech- dialogue, realism, and style. In his fi rst full-length book of criticism, THE FEDERATION PRESS niques are detailed, with a focus on approaches that are evidence based, one of the most prominent critics broadly applicable, and easy to of our time takes the machinery of implement. Th is edition has been storytelling apart to ask a series of Defend Yourself fundamental questions: What do Facing a Charge in Court 2nd edition updated throughout to ensure its currency and clinical utility. A new we mean when we say we ‘know’ Tim Anderson chapter addresses prevention-ori- a fi ctional character? What is a Defend Yourself is a concise guide to defending a charge in court. ented social and emotional learning ‘telling’ detail? When is a metaphor It is designed for anyone wanting to understand the criminal curricula for the classroom. successful? Th is book is intriguing process better, both those representing themselves and those in its forensic insights. Suitable for represented by a lawyer. The book introduces common legal TERMINATING writers, critics, students and anyone principles, rather than detailed law, with examples drawn from New South Wales law PSYCHOTHERAPY: serious about their reading. and practice. A CLINICIAN’S GUIDE The book provides a wide range of information about the processes $,%", $$ $ ( $"+ $ 2(()*'+)* %$ $$ "2"-/() William O’Donohue History $)"(&()$** %$2%+(*&(%+(&") ( $)$*( ")2&(&(* %$$ Routledge. HB. $99 , $2)$*$ $$&&") Th e topic of THE MAGICAL CHORUS: The helpful appendices include a glossary and details of where to seek terminating A HISTORY OF RUSSIAN further information. CULTURE FROM TOL- ISBN 978 1 86287 686 6 RRP $29.95 therapy is not one that STOY TO SOLZHENITSYN Serial Survivors clinicians Solomon Volkov Women’s narratives of surviving rape normally Knopf. HB. $30 Jan Jordan consider. From the reign of Tsar Nicholas However, the II to the brutal cult of Stalin to What does it mean to survive an experience often described session limits the ebullient, uncertain days of pere- as “every woman’s worst nightmare”? This book presents the placed on clinicians by managed stroika, nowhere has the inextricable survival stories of 15 women who were all sexually assaulted care require that the end of therapy relationship between politics and by the same serial rapist in Auckland, New Zealand. Their stories be built into the treatment plan culture been more starkly illustrated show how each stage of the aftermath became its own exercise in survival – the assault, than in twentieth-century Russia. In medical examinations, police interviews, going to court. They also demonstrate how a from the onset. A Clinician’s Guide sexual attack can impact not only the woman but also the people close to her; for when will help mental health profession- the fi rst book to fully examine the one woman is raped, a whole community hurts. als to provide the most fi nancially intricate and often deadly intercon- ISBN 978 1 86287 679 8 RRP $39.95 sensible and clinically deep nection between Russian rulers and www.federationpress.com.au treatment for their clients. Th e Russian artists, cultural historian book examines how to identify the Solomon Volkov (who experienced

20 Books

fi rsthand many of the events he Travel Wrap describes) brings to life the human AUSTRALIAN SCHOLARLY stories behind some of the greatest with Kate O’Mara masterpieces of our time. PUBLISHING Working holiday visa imprints Australian Scholarly & Arcadia Travel holders rejoice – Lonely Planet CENTRE OF THE PERIPHERY THE SLOW JOURNEY have fi nally SOUTH Three European Art Historians updated their in Melbourne Paula Constant guide to Bantam. PB. $27.95 Sheridan Palmer Canada! Even 9781740971652 SB $39.95 When more excitingly, London-based former Readings newsletter editor This is the story of three European primary school Virginia Maxwell has penned a new art historians whose convergence in teacher Paula Melbourne in the 1940s resulted in edition of the popular Lonely one of the most fruitful intellectual Constant and Planet guide to Istanbul, due this alliances in Australian cultural her husband month. She is also the author of history. Two of these scholars, looked for an their new Fez Encounter guide. Ursula Hoff and Franz Philipp, escape from the had left their homelands to escape Some people have all the luck ... Nazism; the third, Joseph Burke, daily grind, Dorling Kindersley have been was English. Hoff and Philipp they weren’t after a three-week bus were beneficiaries of Europe’s tour or a resort getaway. Despite going berserk of late – each month intellectual and cultural traditions scholarship. Individually and preferring wine and ciggies to the brings an avalanche of new Eyewit- and modern German scholarship; together, they helped establish the treadmill, Paula chose to walk from ness guides. On the shelves this Burke assumed a more eclectic study of art history in Australia, month are big guns Paris, Berlin, intellectual approach to culture, while Hoff in particular was Trafalgar Square to the edge of the seeking to hinge Ruskinian instrumental in bringing European Sahara – a journey that took one Barcelona and Tokyo. values onto a continental style of art to the Australian public. year and 5000 kilometres (over Finally, Australian travel agent 25km per day) and made unex- Jenny Herbert has penned a great pected discoveries about herself PERILS OF THE STUDIO little guide called Th e Intelligent Inside the Artistic Affairs of and the world. Walking through Traveller, in store now. Full of France, Spain, Portugal and Bohemian Melbourne sensible suggestions for the new Alex Taylor Morocco, Paula learnt all manner and nervous off to see the world. of truths from the locals and 9781740971492 HB $59.95 landscapes she encountered. Melbourne’s grand if dilapidated Italianate buildings, Dickensian warehouses and European laneways were just perfect for the flourishing early 20th century Australian art scene. Impoverished or posh, bohemian or commercial, artists were in their element, and the studio — the focus of this book — was it helped to define the character of their workplace, stage and home. the Australian artist. This large- Alex Taylor reveals the studio’s format hardback includes over 100 romance and mythology and how rarely seen artworks, in full colour.

EUGENE’S FALLS A. Frances Johnson’s 9781740971690 $29.95 A melding of novel and art history in Eugene’s Falls, which is about Eugene von Guerard, colonial painter, failed gold miner, procrastinator. Per Paul Carter: ‘An imaginative and historical tour de force in which the varnish discolouring Australia’s memory is removed …’ Per Brian Castro: ‘fine and dramatically ironic, sumptuous and sensuous, redolent of a living landscape’.

MUSCLE Matthew Schreuder 9781740971805 $24.95 A Vogel-shortlisted verse novel about youth culture in today’s Sydney, by a new writer of exceptional ability and promise. Buckle up with Nick and Samantha. Prepare to fly down night’s highways. You’re taking off in a V8. Windows down. Wind in your hair. You hang with petrol heads … There are no laws worth knowing ... it’s life on a knife edge.

www.scholarly.info 0[email protected] 003 9654 0250 7 Lt Lothian St Nth, Nth Melbourne 3051 www.unswpress.com.au

21 Spanning the museum’s entire Give Yourself Permission to Fly Art & Design history, this delightful book of 87 .LFNVWDUW\RXUOLIHDQGIXO¿O\RXUGUHDPV (Brett Murray) by Margaret Snowdon cartoons culled from the pages of The New Yorker magazine is an Australia’s leading youth motivator Brett Murray knows the challenges facing young DORIS SALCEDO: enjoyable and witty celebration of people in their twenties. Using his mix of real- SHIBBOLETH the museum and the lively public world experience, positivity and a ‘can-do’ Mieke Bal debate it has often inspired. attitude, he shows how to believe in yourself, appreciate your talents, develop a vision for Tate Publishing. PB. $59.95 life and pursue your dreams. RRP $24.95 This book ART & TODAY documents the Eleanor Heartley artist’s Phaidon. HB. $120 Spiritual Compass intervention in Art & Today is an innovative and The three qualities of life (Satish Kumar) the vast space extensive survey of international of the Turbine contemporary art from the 1980s In a world facing an unprecedented global crisis, we need to restore the values of care, Hall, which to the present. Over 400 of the compassion and respect. Drawing on the will be one of most significant contemporary Indian Ayurvedic tradition, 6SLULWXDO&RPSDVV her largest and artists from around the world are is a call for us all to live a more balanced life and one that is in harmony with our most dramatic projects yet. Readers represented in this comprehensive surroundings. Preface by Deepak Chopra. may recall one of Salcedo’s overview – some emerging, some RRP $24.95 haunting earlier works from the mid-career, and others long estab- 1992 Sydney Biennale, consisting lished. Chapters address recurring Tricky Kids of multiple pairs of worn shoes, and relevant themes as diverse as 7UDQVIRUPLQJFRQÀLFWDQGIUHHLQJWKHLU potential (Andrew Fuller) installed behind translucent ‘Art & Popular Culture’ and ‘Art membranes reminiscent of skin. & Globalism’. Lively and up-to- What makes some kids ‘tricky’? They’ve found a way to get what they want every Doris Salcedo was born in 1958 in date, Art & Today explores an era in time, even if it means upsetting a few Bogota, Colombia, and is widely which art defies simple categorisa- parents and teachers. Andrew Fuller, once recognised as one of the leading tion. The result is a surprising and a very tricky kid himself, shows how to understand these kids, manage their moods sculptors of her generation. Over original, yet clear and reasoned, and help them develop positive life habits. the past five years, Salcedo has perspective on contemporary RRP $24.95 increasingly addressed the public art that breaks from prescribed sphere in her practice. Common classifications to offer a survey as  4YFPMWLIVWSJFSSOWSRJEQMP]LIEPXL themes include the destructive expansive as the art it describes.  VIPEXMSRWLMTW WSGMIX] force of violence, personal and  [[[½RGLGSQEY collective trauma, and the tragedy PHAIDON 20TH of human loss: in 2002 over the CENTURY COMPOSERS course of two days Salcedo lowered PB. $16.95 280 chairs down the facade of the This series Palace of Justice in Bogota to pay of clear and homage to those killed in a failed engaging Sexual Decoys guerrilla coup 17 years earlier. illustrated Gender, Race and War in Imperial Democracy biographies by Zillah Eisenstein MOMA CARTOONS showcases FROM THE NEW YORKER the lives and In 2008, the USA is in election mode. The MOMA. HB. $24.95 works of major composers of play of sexual and racial politics is in full sway. the twentieth Zillah Eisenstein’s most recent book, Sexual century with narrative histories of Decoys: Gender, Race and War in Imperial the people and their art, as well as Democracy analyses the ways in which their cultural and political context. women’s rights rhetoric has been manipulated, Each volume features either a particularly by Condoleeza Rice and other single composer or a related group women in the Bush administration, and that of composers and explores a wide this distorts the way women in political life range of musical forms and person- alities. Accessible for both first-time are used by the system and concert goers and specialists alike, that they threaten genuine When The Museum of Modern Art this series is now available at an democratic rule. first opened its doors on November amazing new price. Titles include: 8, 1929 – in less than 5,000 square American Pioneers: Ives to Cage and A very timely book, given feet of rented office space in Beyond by Alan Rich; Bela Bartok the recent shifts in US midtown Manhattan – it was by Kenneth Chalmers; Benjamin domestic politics and the considered a radical experiment. Britten by Michael Oliver; Claude increased likelihood of Who would have thought that a Debussy by Paul Roberts; George museum devoted entirely to presidential candidates who Gershwin by Rodney Greenberg; ‘outrageous’ modern art could be Giacomo Puccini by Conrad fall outside the usual mould successful? But succeed it did, Wilson; Igor Stravinsky by of white male. weathering both the stock market Michael Oliver; Jean Sibelius crash of 1929 just a week later and by Guy Rickards; Minimalists a storm of controversy that did not by K Robert Schwartz and $34.95 www.spinifexpress.com.au dissuade the crowds from going to Sergey Prokofiev by Daniel Jaffe. see what all the fuss was about.

22 seemingly haphazard sketchiness rural England where the townsfolk Kids’ Books and simplicity of the medium. The are immediately suspicious of their feeling of movement and flight is presence. A strong sense of history achieved by the drawings flowing off and of dark secrets long kept hangs TREASURE FEVER: (to quote the blurb). Although the pages and yet there is a calming over the village like storm clouds. SCHOOLING AROUND very simply told – three or four sense of stillness. The sparse text is Here everything is not as it seems! BOOK 1 lines of text per page – and perfectly married to the pictures and When the two kids are linked to Andy Griffiths accessible to very young children, it is profoundly illuminating, and the subtle use of subdued colour the theft of an important local Macmillan. PB. $14.95 suggests secrecy. As an adult experi- historical artefact and an archaeo- Kid’s review indeed thought-provoking. Take this, for example: ‘As we walked encing this book, I felt I was privy logical excavation, the secrets are An adventurous to the innocent imaginations and slowly revealed. History, suspense book, Treasure over country,/We didn’t worry about building houses./You don’t innate knowing of children. Suitable and fantasy are combined in book Fever is some- for ages 6 and up. one of an exciting new trilogy. thing anyone who need a house when you’re alive./ You can move and you can leave Alexa Dretzke is from An entertaining read! likes adventure Readings Hawthorn Julia Jackson is from will enjoy. The it behind.’ If we want to learn to respect a culture so different from Readings Carlton school’s principal, PIP: THE STORY Captain our own, this is a great place to start. It really is nyuntu ninti – OF OLIVE SIMPSON AND Greenbeard, tells the hero of the Kim Kane HIS DONKEY story, Henry, about some buried what (we) should know. A&U. PB. $15.95 Mark Greenwood treasure that his pirate gang dug up. Kathy Kozlowski is from Staff review & Frane Lessac Andy Griffiths usually writes about Readings Carlton With a voice Walker. HB. $27.95 very immature people who are up to fresh as a sea A poignant picture book about mischief and he usually writes about ROSE FOR THE breeze and warm John Kilpatrick Simpson and how himself. This time, you will join ANZAC BOYS as a summer’s day, he and his donkey rescued over 300 Henry on this fabulous adventure to Jackie French Pip is delightfully men during the campaign at Gal- find buried treasure. His teacher, Mr HarperCollins. PB. $15.99 funny, yet lipoli. Backed by detailed research, Brainfright brightens up the book Staff Review poignant. Olive the text includes a brief biography even more than Andy could have We are in World War I and spends many of the man and the little-known imagined. The teacher is a psycho, 16-year-old Midge Macpherson is hours wandering alone through her story of how, without realising, he crazy but happy person who loves to in a conservative ‘finishing school’ large chaotic home by the sea. She’s rescued his childhood friend. breathe, teaches the class all about in England. As the war rages in secretly longing for some order, a history and will also change the the trenches, she feels increas- ‘family full of children and noise’ NIM’S ISLAND class’s lives by making sure that ingly helpless and useless. With while daydreaming about meeting history is no longer boring. But not two brothers fighting, she is soon Wendy Orr her father, WilliamPetersMustard- only Henry is on this mission: meet desperate to do her bit. When her Bloomsbury. PB. $14.95 Seed. It’s not that Olive is unhappy nervous Newton, Clive the big- twin brother goes missing, the urge An irresistible adventure fantasy with her lot; it’s just that she feels mouth, Fiona and David the brains, is irresistible, and with her friends (now a major film) about a young there’s something missing – a gap to gadget-loving Grant, cartoonist decides to travel to France and face girl alone on a tropical island except be filled. She has Mog (who is Jack, and the two cross teachers, Mr the carnage head-on. Jackie French for her three friends: an iguana, a unlike other mums) and her best Spade and Mrs Cross. This book is an amazingly prolific author, sea-lion and a turtle. When a hur- and only school friend, Mathilda. makes me feel like it’s really and one wonders how she found ricane strikes, Nim becomes a hero But when Olive is dumped by happening in real life. A witty, the time to do all the research in a single-handed sea rescue. Matilda for the popular Amelia, life fabulous and funny book, this is she’s obviously done in order to becomes hard. Just when it all seems going to change someone’s life. write this book. The accumulation LEE RAVEN BOY THIEF hopeless, hope arrives in the guise of I think it is suitable for anyone. of details about the war and the Zizou Corder the remarkable Pip – Olive’s Felix Wilkins is in Year 3 period recreates a time and a world Puffin. PB. $14.95 identical twin and saviour when it that are fully realised. Yet French A new book from the team behind comes to successfully sailing the TRUST ME keeps these details secondary to her Lion Boy. Lee Raven, boy thief, treacherous high seas of friendship characters and her story – this is no faces a perilous flight through Paul Collins (ed.) and Year 7. Egged on by the dry study. I found it very involving, London (and the murky sewers Ford Street. PB. $22.95 incorrigible Pip, they embark on an wanting to know what was going below) as he tries to escape capture. This blockbuster anthology fea- adventure of discovery. I loved this to happen next to these inspiring Without meaning to, he has stolen tures contributions from some of wonderfully warm, touching story people trying to survive such a the Book of Nebo, a priceless and Australia’s leading authors – across and was completely captivated by devastating and world-changing peculiar book that has existed for a range of genres – including Olive (and Pip). Highly recom- event. Highly recommended for thousands of years and tells every Isobelle Carmody, Andy Griffiths, mended for girls 11+. teenage to adult readers. story and legend known to man. Shaun Tan, Leigh Hobbs and Athina Clarke is from Bruno Moro is from Can he prevent the most dangerous David Metzenthen. Readings Port Melbourne Readings Malvern ending of them all? NYUNTU NINTI TRISKELLION FIREFIGHTERS Bob Randall SECRETS Will Peterson Sue Whiting & Melanie Hogan Beatriz Martin Vidal & Peter Cocks & Donna Rawlins ABC. HB. $27.95 Lothian. HB. $28.95 Walker. PB. $16.95 Walker. HB. $27.95 Staff review This exquisite picture book explores Staff review Jack, Mia, and their teacher, Based on the award-winning the mysterious magic of birds and Our heroes of this intriguing book Mrs Iverson, zoom through the documentary Kanyini, this quite how children need the space and en- are Rachel and Alex, whose lives playground in their pretend fire stunning book is a sort of pho- couragement to dream, wonder and have been turned upside down engines, and are surprised by a visit tographic prose poem about ‘the explore so that one day they too can with the divorce of their parents. from a real fire engine. An Austra- ancient and spiritual culture that is fly. The beautiful pencil illustrations They are packed off to visit their lian book about role playing games the very heart and soul of Australia’ are a combination of detail and the Grandma in a sleepy little village in and real fire engines! 23 Readings Famous Bargain Table BARGAINS ON THE WEB AND THEY ALL SANG ROUGH CROSSINGS: YEARS OF Our new arrivals are regularly Studs Terkel BRITAIN, THE SLAVES EXTERMINATION: added to our website. Just PB. Was $45. Now $16.95 AND THE AMERICAN NAZI GERMANY click on the Bargains tab at The great oral REVOLUTION AND THE JEWS www.readings.com.au. historian talks to Simon Schama Saul Friedlander musicians such as HB. Was $59.95. Now $16.95 HB. Was $69.95. Now $29.95 Louis Armstrong, Though historians The result of more JAMES HALLIDAY’S Bob Dylan, have known this than 30 years of WINE ATLAS Dizzy Gillespie, story for decades, research and OF AUSTRALIA Ravi Shankar, expatriate British investigation, this James Halliday Woody Guthrie, historian Simon important new HB. Was $79.95. Now $39.95 Janis Joplin and Schama, a volume presents a James Halliday many more. professor at thorough historical analyses the 70 Columbia, brings study of the events wine regions of COLLECTED POEMS: his narrative vigour to the account beyond the usual analysis of Australia in this 1947-1997 of America’s first emancipation. German policies, decisions, and lavishly illustrated Allen Ginsberg measures that led to the Holocaust. and authoritative HB. Was $69.95. Now $19.95 CHANCES ARE: book. For the first time, ADVENTURES ESSENTIAL MEDITERRA- the entirety of IN PROBABILITY NEAN COOKBOOK Ginsberg’s work. Michael Kaplan Wendy Stephen (ed.) TIMES QUOTATIONS Ginsberg changed & Ellen Kaplan HB. Was $39.95. Now $19.95 Philip Howard the course of HB. Was $49.95. Now $16.95 Greece, Turkey, HB. Was $50. Now $15.95 American poetry, However little we Italy, France, This is the only liberating it recognise it, we are Spain, North quotation from closed always chancing Africa, and the dictionary you academic forms. the odds, seeking Middle East all need buy, with out certainty – but share the shores of over 17,000 FREUD’S WOMEN settling, reluctant- the sparkling quotations drawn Lisa Appignanesi ly, for likelihood. Mediterranean from the Collins – conjuring up images of olive database and & John Forrester PB. Was $49.95. Now $16.95 groves, wild oregano, and warm The Times archive This book MALORY: THE KNIGHT evenings spent sipping drinks and of quotations. examines Freud’s WHO BECAME KING nibbling on delicious meze, tapas, ARTHUR’S CHRONICLER or antipasto platters. KITCHEN DIARIES bold collaboration with female Christina Hardyment Nigel Slater patients which HB. Was $49.95. Now $16.95 THE MEANING OF TINGO HB. Was $55. Now $19.95 made psychoanaly- Using evidence AND OTHER EXTRAOR- ‘The food in The sis as much their from new DINARY WORDS FROM Kitchen Diaries is creation as Freud’s. historical research AROUND THE WORLD simply what I eat and deductions Adam Jacot de Boinod at home. The stuff MUHAMMAD from the only HB. Was $35.95. Now $12.95 I make for myself, Karen Armstrong known manuscript Drawing from the for friends and HB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95 copy of Malory’s collective wisdom family, for visitors This biography masterpiece, of more than 280 and for parties, will enable readers Christina Hardyment resolves the languages, a for Sunday lunch to understand contradictions in this brilliant collection of the and for snacks.’ the true origins story. most astonishing and spirituality and hilarious FLYING HIGH TUSCANY of a faith that is THE ENCYCLOPEDIA words the human Antonio Attini often misrepresented OF CHRISTIANITY species has found the need to HB. Was $59.95 Now 15.95 as cruel, intolerant John Bowden (ed.) concoct. This book presents aerial and inherently HB. Was $290. Now $59.95 photographs of one of the world’s violent. Scholars of BORN ON A BLUE DAY favourite places. Presented in a theology and Daniel Tammet small chunky landscape format, SPIKE MILLIGAN: history offer 300 HB. Was $39.95. Now $15.95 this book will get your fantasies THE BIOGRAPHY major articles on A riveting account (and memories) going. Humphrey Carpenter such aspects of of living with PB. Was $24.95. Now $13.95 Christianity as autism. Daniel In this first major regions, denomina- Tammet sees biography of the tions and sects, numbers as shapes, comic genius, theological and moral questions, colours, and Carpenter draws relationships with other faiths, textures and can on Milligan’s people, literature and other media, perform writings and those movements, practices, and women. extraordinary closest to him. calculations.

24 New Release DVDs DVD OF THE MONTH TELL NO ONE STONE: SPECIAL VITUS HIROSHIMA MON $29.95. Director: Guillame Canet. COLLECTORS EDITION $29.95. Director: Fredi Murer. AMOUR Release date: 9.04.08 $34.95. Director: Sandy Harbutt. Release date: 12.04.08 $29.95. Director: Alain Resnais Still devastated by Release date: 12.04.08 Vitus’s parents One of the most the murder of his An Australian Easy hope for him to influential films of wife, Alex receives Rider, Stone is a become a pianist, all time, Alain an anonymous wild combination but the little genius Resnais’ first email. Is she still of biker movie, prefers to play in feature sees a alive? And why gore flick, his grandfather’s French actress and does she instruct whodunit, action workshop and a Japanese architect him to ‘tell no one’? film and remains dreams of flying engage in a brief, the best known cult – and a normal childhood. intense affair in post-war Hiro- RED ROAD exploitation film of the 70s. shima. Utilising an innovative $24.95. Director: Andrea Arnold BUBBLE: flashback structure and an This thriller centres DEATH AT A FUNERAL DIRECTORS SUITE Academy Award-nominated on surveillance $39.95. Director: Frank Oz. $29.95. Director: Steven Soderbergh. screenplay by novelist Marguerite camera operator Release date : 9.04.08 Release date : 9.04.08 Duras, Resnais delicately weaves Jackie, who is A dignified A bizarre love past and present, personal pain and content to be send-off for a loved triangle is born public anguish, in this moody emotionally one erupts into between three masterwork. disconnected. One uproarious chaos women in a day, a face from the when romance, small-town doll past appears on her screens, jealousy, in-laws, factory. Then, a DVD BARGAINS sending Jackie’s life into a spiral of dark secrets, and a murder investiga- AT $14.95 obsession and illicit surveillance. spot of bold tion questions all Kids available for the first time blackmail all collide graveside. assumptions about these characters. in Australia on 2.04.08 Marriage IN THE REALM Italian Style new to DVD at just OF THE SENSES FORBIDDEN LIE$ 4: LIMITED EDITION $14.95! Available from 16.04.08 $29.95. Director: Nagisa Oshima $34.95. Director: Anna Broinowski. DVD & CD Inspiring censor- Release date: 9.04.08 $34.95. Release date: 15.04.08 ship, controversy Norma Khouri In four corners of and critical ire, this won fame and the globe, in each of explicit study of sex fortune with her the four seasons, and death was so ‘true story’ four outstanding controversial in Forbidden Love, violinists guide us Japan that film was about a shocking on an extraordinary smuggled to France honour killing in journey through to be processed. Also available: Jordan. But in July homelands. Empire of the Passions $29.95 2004, her book was exposed as Available for a limited time only! fiction. Now she wants to talk. THE PASSION OF LA CALLAS ASSOLUTA LEADING LADIES: JOAN OF ARC: AWAY FROM HER $29.95 WOMEN IN FILM DISTINCTION SERIES $39.95. Director: Sarah Polley. This film is the PROMOMOTION $29.95. Director: Carl Theodor Release date : 9.04.08 complete story Femmes fatales, kittens, broads, Dreyer. Release: 12.04.08 Indie-darling Sarah of the singer and nymphs, glamour girls and With its stunning Polley’s directorial the woman, with mondaines — celebrate the female cinematography debut is a Callas herself luminaries of the big screen with and striking beautifully moving providing the nar- a marvellous selection of specially compositions, The love story about a ration of her life priced classic films. Passion of Joan of husband and wife; through her many Perfect gift ideas for Mother’s Day! Arc convinced the whose serenity is radio and television interviews. world that movies broken as she could be art. deteriorates from Alzheimer’s. INTO THE WILD $29.95. Director: Sean Penn CONVERSATIONS WITH SEPTEMBER After graduating MY GARDENER $29.95. Director: Peter Carstairs in 1992, a top $34.95. Director: Jean Becker. Set in the West student and athlete Release date: 12.04.08 Australian wheat abandons his After his mother’s belt in 1968, possessions, gives death, a Parisian September tells the his entire $24,000 painter returns to story of two savings account claim the country 16-year-old boys, to charity and house he grew up one black and one hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the in and hires a local white, whose pure wilderness, encountering a varied gardener to knock friendship suffers under a changing series of characters along the way. it back into shape. social and political climate.

25 DVDs

HERZOG ON MUSIC: ELEMENT OF CRIME DISTINCTION SERIES $29.95. Director: Lars von Trier. $29.95. Director: Werner Herzog. Release date: 10.04.08 Release date: 12.04.08 Fisher has returned Death For Five to Cairo after Voices explores the leading a murder tragic life of the investigation in notorious Carlo Europe and Gesualdo, the 16th remembers little century composer. He seeks the help The Transformation of a therapist, and Of The World Into under hypnosis travels back into Music captures the excitement of his memory and pain ... the annual Bayreuth Festival. LOVE IN A MIFFY THE ORIGINAL COLD CLIMATE SERIES: MIFFY’S DREAM $29.95 $19.95. Release date: 9.04.08 This adaption of Join Miffy at Nancy Mitford’s school, celebrating novel follows three her birthday, her upper-class English first time in an from the 1930s aeroplane and through to the war FLK more. Also years, when 8GI@C available: Miffy everything changes The Original Series: forever, balancing the comic and Miffy Goes to the Zoo ($19.95). the sentimentally tragic.

GLASTONBURY HOW ART MADE $34.95. Director: Julien Temple. THE WORLD Release date: 9.04.08 $29.95 Featuring Paul Embark on a McCartney, thrilling journey Coldplay, Primal through time and Scream, Oasis, five continents to Blur, The Cure, the heart of with unique access creativity. Fusing to a treasury of social history, images from the politics, science, BBC archive, this film generates nature, archaeology and religion, an alternative history of our time. this series unravels why the world around us looks like it does. FLK POISON $29.95. Director: Todd Haynes JUDGE JOHN DEED: ALE< This celebrated SERIES ONE debut feature was $39.95. Release date: 3.04.08 inspired by Jean Judge John Deed Genet and deftly is no average High interweaves three Court judge. His tales (Hero, Horror passion for justice and Homo), and his maverick building towards a approach set him at devastating climax. Includes the odds with the Lord rare short film Dottie Gets Spanked. Chancellor’s depart- ment as he avoids the traditional- MERRY CHRISTMAS ism of the system. MR LAWRENCE $24.95. Director: Nagisa Oshima THE JUDI DENCH The first English- COLLECTION language project of $129.95. Release date: 3.04.08 director Oshima, it This collection follows themes of contains classic FLK racism and brutality early performances 8GI@C as a war of wills from Dame Judi unfolds between a Dench, including rebellious POW and Talking to a his camp commandant. Special Stranger (1966), features include interviews with Make and Break Ryuichi Sakamoto and The Oshima (1987), Absolute Hell (1991) and Gang, a behind-the-scenes doco. The Cherry Orchard (1981).

26 New Release CDs

ALBUM OF THE MONTH FOR EMMA FOREVER Ever Wanted) to the ’s closing shows, but also shows the more track that features fellow Ohio seldom-seen sensitivity of the HERE IS WHAT IS LONG AGO native 18-year-old bluegrass singer band’s enigmatic front man, Jimmy Daniel Lanois Bon Iver $24.95 Jessica Lea Mayfield, the Black Keys Stewart. While one is reminded of $25.95 Bon Iver (aka still provide a healthy slab of some current Aussie darlings The Drones, Daniel Lanois is Justin Vernon) of their signature blues rock stomp with perhaps a hint of Tom Waits a bit of a legend has released a (I Got Mine, Strange Times) but also thrown in for good measure, around these fairly startling invite their special guests, such as Clinkerfield have done a great job parts. He has and a little veteran Tom Waits band members in reproducing what has made produced some spooky debut – guitarist Marc Ribot, Pat’s uncle them so endearing to live audiences of my favourite album. He comes across as a kind clarinet/flautist and Gnarls Barkley’s over the years – a distinctly of all time, for the likes of of alt-country Antony Hegerty Danger Mouse along for the ride to original, distinctly Australian Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, U2 (Antony & the Johnsons), with his create a quality album. JP sound. – not to mention his own very high falsetto vocals. Or possibly Peter Spark is from good solo albums. And he even Prince meets Bonnie Prince ACCELERATE Readings Port Melbourne performed one of the best music Billy – as weird as that sounds! He R.E.M in-stores we have ever had the isolated himself for three months in $29.95 THE GREAT pleasure to host at our Carlton a cabin in the woods of Wisconsin Think along HARTFORD FIRE shop a few years back (the whole over winter and recorded the bulk the lines of the By The Fireside band for an hour!). Anyway, we of this album, adding a few touches guitar hooks $24.95 have been looking forward to this months later. One of the most of Out Of Time, Inspired by new album for a year now. And it interesting records to emerge in the Adventures In the tragic events doesn’t disappoint. Officially, it’s a last year. DC Hifi and Green of a circus fire soundtrack to the documentary with the songwriting qualities of in Hartford, film of the same name. Lanois says: EVEN Automatic For The People and Mur- Connecticut ‘The film is a camera following me Even mur. It’s R.E.M at their best and circa 1944 this around over the course of a year, in $24.95 it’s brilliant. Highly recommended. is a wonderful full length debut and out of recording studios Like the view Enough said. JP from By The Fireside (aka Daniel documenting once and for all the from the Espy’s Lea). It is a testament to the man’s way it really happens.’ On the bay window THE GOLDEN AGE talent and vision that he so deftly album with Lanois is Brian Blade, with a cold beer American Music Club manages to evoke the sounds and a well known jazz drummer and or the vibrancy $25.95 imagery of a bygone era through Garth Hudson, the pianist from of Brunswick A more subdued the use of rich instrumentation The Band. The album also includes Street with a coffee from Mario’s, release from a and layered vocals. The main body philosophical interludes and inspir- Even are a bloody great Melbourne band who tend of the record is seen from the ing conversations with Brian Eno, institution we should all enjoy to reconvene perspective of the man who taken from the film. every four or claimed to have started the fire Dave Clarke is from more often. The follow up to more years. and in taking this approach what Readings Carlton 2004’s excellent Free Kicks is full of what Ash,Wally and Matt (plus Only original members Mark Eitzel Lea achieves is at times eerily beautiful and equally haunting. ALAS I CANNOT SWIM special guest contributions by and Vudi remain in the band formed in 1983. Eitzel is an Declan Murphy is from Laura Marling Dandy Warhols guitarist and longtime Even fan Pete Holstrom) amazing vocalist, offering songs of Readings St Kilda $24.95 do best – killer catchy (Walk On), hope, despair and everything in A friend who sun-drenched (Rainbows), nostalgic between in a style that stays true to INVITATION SONGS lives in London pop rock(I Am The Light). Another each song. Not much new here The Cave Singers started telling cracker of an album from one of from this band, but who cares. It’s $24.95 me about Laura this country’s critically acclaimed a great album whose soft tone Another Marling a couple and punter-beloved bands. Highly washes over lyrics of darker intent. fantastic of months ago. I recommended. Buy this album. Lou Fulco is from debut, this didn’t seek her out, until speaking to James Power is from Readings Port Melbourne. time from this friend recently, when she Readings St Kilda. a Seattle three- insisted I track it down. Knowing A HEAD FULL OF RAIN piece whose my tastes in FSS (female singer/ ATTACK & RELEASE AND A HEART FULL sound is somewhat difficult to songwriters), I checked with the OF PUDDLES describe. Think a more folkified local distributor, who forwarded a Black Keys Clinkerfield version of the Stands, White Stripes sample and informed me of its $25.95 $29.95 or the Jayhawks and you may be imminent local release. An Dan Auerbach Heroes of the close. Its sparse, atmospheric stuff un-hyped release from a UK female and Patrick Melbourne live yet has a strange melodic pull is pretty rare at the moment, but it Carney continue music scene which totally enthrals the listener. may just give Marling the chance to along the Clinkerfield And all of this from a guitarist who find her feet and an audience before blues-rock have finally put only recently picked up the instru- expectation overwhelms. If you like soaked path to together their ment. Holler, stomp and shuffle the acoustic pop-folk of Beth follow up their 2006 effort Magic first full-length studio album, and because The Cave Singers have left Orton, or Belle & Sebastian (or our Potion, but this time with some it’s been worth the wait. The album their underground abode and come own Missy H.), I would definitely help from their friends. From the captures the rawness of the live to earth. DC recommend seeking this out. DC slow country blues opener (All You

27 CDs

HEY TROUBLE in English. ‘In Music Hole, I tried The Concretes to mix the storytelling, ‘chansons’ Based on the fi ctional character from $24.95 feel from musicals with something Swedish crime fi ction author Henning more tribal: body percussions, Mankell’s critically acclaimed Wallander Hey Trouble is minimalist trance, sub bass and Mysteries - an international publishing the third studio phenomenon with over 25 million copies album by throat singing,’ says Camille. The sold worldwide . Swedish embracing of new styles is certainly evidenced in the first single released Kurt Wallander is the moody and world indie-popsters from the album, Gospel With No weary detective , head of the special The Concretes, investigation division, CID . The stories are and their first after the departure of Lord, a stripped-back song fi rst-rate and fi lming is set in the rarely lead vocalist Victoria Bergsman. featuring Camille’s voice with seen magical beauty of Southern Sweden . With vocal duties switching to chorus, gospel style and only basic drummer Lisa Milberg, the band percussion. It features collabora- IHDWXUHOHQJWK has refused to dwell on the tions with the body percussion HSLVRGHV troubled saga that gave birth to this masters from the Brazilian band album, instead focusing on the Barbatuques, Jamie Cullum on “His fi ctional sleuth is divorced , piano percussions and beat-box by brooding and cultured . Henning group’s legacy of swirling dark pop Mankell’s crime stories have turned and girl-groups of the 1960s. Sly Johnson. The few tracks I was the enigmatic Swede into a cult Shifting from the piano-based able to hear should certainly excite fi gure.” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD nostalgia of their previous offering Camille loyalists and new fans (In Color, 2006), their biggest sonic alike. SG leap comes in the form of the first single Kids, whilst other tracks retain the drama and spaciousness Jazz of their best past work. The album STANDARDS features collaborations with AND BALLADS members of other indie-pop label Wynton Marsalis mates. For fans of Camera Obscura! $24.95 Sid Grane is from This collection Readings Hawthorn encompasses the HAND BUILT BY ROBOTS trumpet virtuoso’s interpretations $24.95 of jazz standards Well, it had to happen. Each and ballads between the early ‘80s year we have a hot new talent and late ‘90s. Selected from with a sound that appeals to the Marsalis’ vast back-catalogue, the masses, millions of records are album highlights his romantic side, sold and then The Next Big Thing with slow tempos and ballad comes along. Headlines in the feeling prevailing. This is enhanced music press – ‘JUST LIKE LILY by orchestral accompaniment on ALLEN BUT QUIRKIER!!!’ four tracks. The disc, however, ‘He’s even BETTER then Jose mainly features Marsalis in the Gonzalez! WOOOOOOOO company of one of his great small HOOOOOOO!’ Well, Newton groups. An accessible compilation, Faulkner, a young, dreadlocked alt/ Standards and Ballads includes folk/roots/rocker may be fresh in some highly engaging interpreta- his home country of England (this tions of such well known songs as debut album spent two weeks at #1 Embraceable You, April in Paris, and on the UK charts), but here, the Where or When. It is, however, inescapable comparison to Austra- Marsalis’ own Spring Yaoundé, the lia’s John Butler Trio will be made. intimate, soulful duet with pianist Faulkner did, in fact, support the Eric Reed, which is the highlight of JBT on their recent English tour. this retrospective. All the right elements are there Michael Wallace is if you’re into the JBT sound; the from Readings Carlton production is not too slick and radio-friendly, plus a nice cover of JANUARY Massive Attack’s Teardrop, but the Marcin Wasilewski Trio deja vu is a little overpowering. SG V $32.95 MUSIC HOLE ‘In the entire history of Polish Camille jazz we’ve never $ 29.95 had a band like Camille’s third '9'28712: this one. They studio album, just keep getting Strong themes and Music Hole, coarse language better and better.’ After the trio’s Violence shows a key turn ǁǁǁ͘ĂnjƚĞĐŝŶƚĞƌŶĂƚŝŽŶĂů͘ĐŽŵ͘ĂƵ last album won critical praise, these in her career: it comments by mentor and is mostly sung 28 CDs employer, the great Polish guitar and now it is Australia’s turn. the Saltwater Band. He has one of trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, affirm He is appearing at BluesFest and the most soulful voices you will Folk/World Wrap certain truths. January confirms the Point Nepean Festivals as well ever hear and provides delicate by Paul Barr Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz, and as some side shows in Melbourne. finger-picked acoustic guitar There are some other very fine Miskiewicz as one of the most Sounding like a mutant cross be- accompaniment throughout this world music albums out this outstanding piano trios in tween Howlin’ Wolf and Tony Joe album of incredibly moving songs, month that I haven’t had a chance contemporary jazz music. Their 15 White he is the real deal. sung mostly in language. This to fully listen to yet. Kate Rusby’s years’ experience together has remarkable indigenous soul album Awkward Annie ($29.95) is another created a musical symbiosis which is one of the surprises of the year fine effort, with more of a lean is characterised by what could and destined for classic status. PB towards original songs, with her almost be described as mutual Folk & World usual outstanding musicianship intuition. Wasilewski’s composi- DEVOTION OF MILKMAIDS and a Kinks cover thrown in. The tions are accompanied by fine Cheb i Sabbah AND ARCHITECTS ground-breaking Irish instrumental interpretations of, among others, $29.95 Martha Tilston band Lunasa gets the compilation Carla Bley’s King Korn and Prince’s This Algerian $24.95 treatment and re-record a couple Diamonds and Pearls. Subtle born DJ and This recent of their classic tunes in The Story intensity and fluid interaction now long-time visitor (she was So Far. Soul Science (Justin Adams combine to create wonderfully resident of San a standout at and Juldeh Camara) features absorbing music. Highly recom- Francisco has the Port Fairy Afro blues from Pobert Plant and mended. MW made a series of Folk Festival) Tiariwen collaborating on guitar albums featuring Indian classical finally gets a and West African master musi- HOLON music. This one really hits the spot, local release for an album that is cians. Contemporary Celtic singer/ Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin because unlike a lot of world-beat nearly 18 months old. She was songwriter Karine Polwart makes $32.95 albums, Cheb has kept the beats immersed in the British folk scene more modern Celtic sounds in This The most apt under control and lets the music thanks to her performing father Earthly Spell. Polwart has fronted term, perhaps, and the real live traditional (Steve) and stepmother (Maggie leading Scottish combos Battlefield for the music of musicians and singers do their Boyle) and seems to have soaked Band and Malinky. Tree of Patience Bärtsch’s quintet thing. Most of these pieces are long up some of the qualities of their is the new album from Turkish mu- Ronin was and hypnotic, but full of emotion contemporaries (Bert Jansch and sician Omar Faruk Tekbilek, who offered by the – and a couple approach bliss-out John Renbourn). This is a beautiful is about to tour the country. And pianist/composer himself: he proportions. The album closer is a album and a must for fans of Kate kora master Mamadou Diabate is described it as ‘Zen funk’. Bärtsch’s 10 minute soundscape epic, with Rusby or Kathryn Williams. DC playing Womadelaide, Port Fairy music possesses a combination of bells, the sounds of running water and The Brunswick Music Festival woven rhythmic patterns and funk and snatches of voice music and IN THE MOMENT with Douga Mansa. PB for which they have been likened to Alisdair Fraser and sounds. PB Steve Reich and James Brown. Natalie Hass Holon, the group’s second album $29.95 for ECM, presents more of

This CD came out just before Bärtsch’s intriguing modular Christmas, but with the flood compositions. Each work develops of great new music released over wondrous layers of rhythm and the month, I’ve just managed to melody which brood, evolve, and give it a good listen. A couple of interweave to create rich, near- customers who really know their hypnotic grooves. MW Scottish music have raved about this one – and I can see why. Fraser is a traditional fiddle player of some Blues note and Haas a cellist (presum- DOG HOUSE MUSIC ably with a classical background) Merry Christmas In The Realm Seasick Steve and they make beautiful music Mr Lawrence of the Senses $29.95 together. They can also compose The acclaimed POW drama A love neither time nor censors starring David Bowie could kill! CHEAP and the originals fit in easily with Seasick Steve the few traditional pieces that they tackle. This CD has immense cross- $29.95 over appeal, from folk to classical Seasick Steve is listeners. a former train Paul Barr is the Folk/World hopping hobo Music Buyer at Readings Carlton who is finding success very GURRUMUL late in life. Geoffrey Gurrumul According to Steve ‘This whole thing, it’s like crazy. I don’t think Yunupingu Hiroshima Empire of Passion this has ever happened before $29.95 Mon Amour (Aka Ai No Borei) that some old guy comes out Yunupingu is a “One of the greatest feature-fi lm Nagisa Oshima’s follow-up to hugely talented debuts in the history of cinema.” the notorious In the Realm of of nowhere and all of a sudden TVGuide.com indigenous the Senses

gets famous. Some people make CINEMA EXPERIENCE THE KAMIKAZE OF JAPANESE comebacks, y’know, but I never performer and was there in the first place.’ Over songwriter who OUT NOW ON DVD AT ALL GREAT STORES the last couple of years he has been has played with FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO WWW.UMBRELLAENT.COM.AU playing his busted up three string some of the best – Yothu Yindi and

29 Classical CDs READINGS OPERA Melbourne City Opera PROMOTION Beethoven, Fidelio: June 08 Readings is celebrating the 2008 Puccini, Story: September 08 READINGS Opera season by announcing its Verdi, Ernani: November 08 fi rst Opera sale in many years. We will be stocking our biggest DE MURCIA: IJACARAS CLASSICAL CD range of complete Opera sets 18TH CENTURY SPANISH and Opera DVDs, all at GUITAR MUSIC discounted prices. O’Dette, Lawrence-King Some of the amazing specials we $14.95 HMX2907212 MYSTERY have on Complete Operas include: You want dance Mozart La Clemenza Di Tito music? Real (2CDs) with Kozena and dance music? Mackerras; Was $49.95. Th is is it! Our special price $19.95. Paul O’Dette Massenet Esclarmonde (3CDs) with celebrates Joan Sutherland and Bonynge; the baroque guitar with Andrew was $47.95, our special price Lawrence-King (of the famed Harp $19.95. Wagner Tristan Und Isolde Consort), two additional guitar- (3CDs) on DG; was $66.95, our ists and percussion that sets toes special price $24.95. Wagner tapping. Beginning with the hint of castanets, de Murcia blends SALE Tannhauser (4CDs); was $80.95 BEST LABELS our special price $29.95. styles and infl uences from Spain to Wagner Siegfried (DVD) Boulez; France, Italy to Mexico and even the was $59.95, our special price exotic rhythms of West Africa. Add BEST PRICES $24.95. Wagner Making of the Ring in the European baroque and we 1CD SET $9.95 t 2CD SET $11.95 t SET WITH 3CDS OR MORE $19.95 (DVD) was $29.95 our special have a rich tapestry that’s both lyri- OVER 100 TITLES AVAILABLE t WHILE STOCKS LAST price $14.95. Donizetti L’elisir cal, emotive and exciting. A terrifi c D’amore (DVD); was $34.95, album for lovers of guitar and ba- our special price $14.95. roque. Go ahead – have a little leap Th ese and many many more at around the lounge room. Special our Carlton, Hawthorn, Malvern price now, packaged with the 2008 & Port Melbourne stores Harmonia Mundi catalogue. Ruth Gould is from 2008 OPERA SEASONS Readings Carlton

Opera Australia Season JS BACH: JOURNEY THE TO DARK SIDE Bizet, Carmen: April 9, 12, 15, 17, DIE KUNST DER FUGE 23, 26, 29; May 8, 10 Pierre-Laurent Aimard ‘Delightfully Verdi, Un Ballo In Maschera DG Cat. No. 4777345. $29.95 creepy fun.’ (A Masked Ball): April 16, 19, 22, Sydney Morning Herald French pianist 24; May 2, 7, 10 Pierre-Laurent JEKYLL Strauss, Arabella: April 30,; Aimard’s solo Critically-acclaimed BBC TV May 3, 6, 9 series as seen on ABC TV. debut recording Puccini, Madame Butterfl y: Starring Golden Globe Award IN LOVE WITH for Deutsche nominee James Nesbitt. November 11, 15, 19, 26; ADOLF HITLER Gramophon is Packed with extras. December 4, 6, 9, 13 Featuring never-before-seen footage, also his fi rst recording of the music Out 3 April $39.95 captured by Hitler’s lover, Eva Braun. Verdi, Otello: November 18, 22, of J.S. Bach. Aimard is best known A fresh and intimate portrait of one of the 25, 28; December 3, 11 world’s most infamous dictators. for having specialised in interpret- Handel, Orlando: November 27, Includes US propaganda short film, Your ing and recording music of Job in Germany directed by Frank Capra. 29; December 2, 10, 13 contemporary composers, in Out 17 April $39.95 Opera Victoria Season particular Ligeti and Messiaen. ‘So grippingly Monteverdi, Coronation of Poppea: Here Aimard scales the summit of watchable you daren’t July 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 the great eighteenth-century miss a single episode.’ Donizetti, Th e Elixir Of Love (sung composer’s masterpiece, Th e Art of Daily Mail in English with David Hobson): the Fugue. Th rough his staggering LIFE ON August 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, technique, Aimard is able to render MARS 19, 20 ,21 the counterpoint of this music in SERIES 2 all its richness and clarity. But there Melbourne Opera Company BAFTA-Award winning is more to Aimard’s playing than BBC TV drama. DEEP WATER Puccini, La Boheme: on tour technique, as he also brings out the As seen on ABC TV. An unlikely hero. An unthinkable journey. An incredible around the country from deception. From the producers of Touching the Void. character, life and expression of 4-disc collector’s edition April – July 08 featuring hours of extras. Packed with extras each piece, revealing the subtleties Mozart, Marriage of Figaro: Out 3 April. $59.95 Out 17 April $39.95 and diff erent levels of Bach’s music. June-July 08 Catherine Koerner is from

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