Free JULY 2009 Readings Monthly your independent book, music and DVD newsletter • events • new releases • reviews ) see page 9 Image from jeff sp[arrow's new book K ILLI NG ( M U P ) see page

Jeff Sparrow on Killing p 9

July book, CD & DVD new releases. More July new releases inside.

fiction fiction fiction NON-Fiction NOn-fiction DVD POp CD CLASSICAL $32.95 $27.95 $32.95 $29.99 $32.99 $35 $34.95 $29.95 $21.95 $34.95 >> p4 >> p5 >> p6 >> p9 >> p10 >> p16 >> p17 >> p19

July Event Highlights at Readings. See more Readings events inside. andy griffiths helen garner brian castro anne summers At westgarth At READINGS At readings At READINGS theatre, hawthorn carlton hawthorn Northcote

All shops open 7 days. Carlton 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 Hawthorn 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 Malvern 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 Port Melbourne 253 Bay St 9681 9255 St Kilda 112 Acland St 9525 3852 State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston Street 8664 7560 email [email protected] Find information about our shops, check event details and browse or shop online at www.readings.com.au 2 Readings Monthly July 2009

From the Editor ‘Magical’ review ThisNEw-look Month’sMarilynne News Robinson Lord Mayor’s Creative for House of Exile readings monthly wins Orange Writing Awards Evelyn Juers must be Readings Monthly has had a makeover! Our The Orange Prize for the best novel written The City of Melbourne and Melbourne delighted with the rave new tabloid format, printed by The Age, gives by a woman was awarded to Marilynne Rob- Library Service are proud to announce the review her book The House us the space for more news, reviews and fea- inson’s Home (Virago, PB, $25), in a unani- inaugural Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing of Exile (Giramondo, PB, tures – and what's more, we're now printed mous decision by the judges. Following on Awards, marking the City of Melbourne’s $32.99) recently received on recycled paper. If you didn't receive your from the Pulitzer prize-winning Gilead, Home status as the second UNESCO City of Lit- in the Times Literary Supple- Readings Monthly in the mail, you must have takes up the story of wayward son Jack who, erature. Project partners include CAE, DA ment, which called it ‘scintil- forgotten to resubscribe. But it's never too after decades away, edgily, uneasily, but finally, Information Services and Readings. Closing lating and rather magical late! Please email [email protected]. returns home. Fi Glover, chair of judges, said: date for entries is Monday, 31 August, giving ... an extraordinary book, and a really rare au or call one of our shops to update your ‘The profound nature of the writing stood entrants three months to submit work and accomplishment’. It’s an ambitious biogra- details. In the meantime, why not accidental- out, as has the ability of the writer to draw have the chance to win a prize in one of four phy of Heinrich and Nelly Mann and their ly-on-purpose take this copy home from your the reader into a world of hope expectation, award categories, or the $5000 grand prize. diverse cast of fellow European artistic and local cafe or your friend's coffee table ... misunderstanding, love and kindness.’ Visit http://www.melbournelibraryservice. intellectual exiles in America, while World com.au/whatson8.htm for more info. War II raged at home – ambitious not just 2009 miles franklin IMPAC winner in the originality and scope of her subject, goes to tim winton An American debut novelist who’s ‘never My Friends, My Loves but in her evocative, intensely creative, The winner of this year's really had a real job’ has won the 2009 competition novelistic approach. Helen Garner and Miles Franklin Award - Tim IMPAC, the world’s richest literary prize, Hopscotch Films has organised an exclusive David Malouf were among the book’s vocal Winton for Breath (Hamish worth £100,000. Man Goes Down by Michael screening for Readings subscribers to the film fans when it was published here late last Hamilton, PB, $24.95) is Thomas (Grove Atlantic, PB, $24.95) spans My Friends, My Loves. For your chance to win year. TLS reviewer Michael Hofmann both a big surprise and no four days in the life of a black man from Bos- one of 100 double passes to the screening at wrote: ‘I would wish it many thousands surprise at all. A surprise ton, married to a white woman, broke and Cinema Nova on Tuesday 14 July at 6.45pm, of readers … she plays a grandiose and because Christos Tsiolkas's estranged from his family, with just four days go to http://hopscotchfilms.com.au/RSVP/ suspenseful game of literary pooh-sticks word-of-mouth bestseller The to find the money to keep them afloat. The readings. When Mathias moves from Paris to under the arches of the years; she offers a Slap, overall winner of this year's Common- New York Times called the book ‘an impressive London’s South Kensington to join his best detailed and evocative faits divers of exile wealth Prize, had become the clear favourite success’ and praised Thomas’s ‘exceptional eye friend, the divorced Antoine, they decide to (which after all, as Joseph Brodsky claimed, to win. And not a surprise because Winton for detail’. In Dublin to receive the award, establish a new household for their kids by is a tragicomedy). It is amazing how those started the race as prize favourite, because Thomas said: ‘I'm stunned. I had a hard moving in together. With a nod to the warm years, and those people, and those dramas Breath has already been awarded last year's time believing I'd made the shortlist – or the humour of screenwriter Richard Curtis (Not- all live in her pages.’ Age Book of the Year Award, and, well, longlist, for that matter – so I'm still waiting ting Hill, Love Actually), My Friends, My Loves because it's a very fine piece of writing indeed for the punch line.’ is tender, light-hearted entertainment. Nick loves Sonya by one of Australia's leading novelists. Fans of Nick Hornby – Reviewing Breath for Readings, Mark Rubbo Thames & Hudson Victorian Community whose name is almost a wrote: 'Winton's descriptions of the sea and Turns 60 History Awards 2009 byword for intelligent, funny the act of surfing are magical and represent In July 2009, Thames & Hudson will cel- The Victorian Community History Awards, popular novels (High Fidelity, some of his finest writing ... Breath is a power- ebrate 60 years of proud independent pub- sponsored by Information Victoria, help to Fever Pitch) – no longer have ful disturbing novel, beautifully written; it lishing. Coincidently, it is their 40-year an- keep our true stories alive. This year’s overall to wait for his next book. must be one of Winton's best works yet.' In niversary in Australia! To celebrate, Thames winner is The Chinawoman (Ken Oldis, PB, The pop culture scribe blogs The Age,James Bradley concluded: 'In a way, has chosen 20 of its most influential titles $34.95), published by Arcadia in association intermittently at nickhornby. of course, Breath is a curious novel for a writer from across the years and will publish them with the State Library of Victoria. Though campaignserver.co.uk. In a recent-ish post such as Winton to be writing, not least as special limited edition collector’s items. this book reads like fiction, the copious, about the joys of getting to sample books because at its heart it is the sort of coming-of- These are limited to 1000 sets worldwide. verifiable endnotes attest to its authenticity as and music ahead of the general public, he age story one might normally expect to find And for July only, the top 40 bestsellers from Melbourne history. The novel investigates the gave quite a rap to Sonya Hartnett’s Butterfly in the work of a much younger and less-expe- the iconic World of Art Series will be reduced 1856 murder of the prostitute Sophie Lewis, (Hamish Hamilton, PB, $29.95). ‘You rienced writer. Yet its seeming simplicity is to just $12.95! For almost 50 years, these known as ‘the Chinawoman’ because of her should buy it, because it’s beautiful. Butterfly deceptive, for beneath its pared-back surfaces high quality red-and-black books have been association with Chinese men. is a dreamy, lyrical, sad novel about the lies all the steel of a major novelist operating the essential reference for visual arts and cul- relationship between a lonely girl and her at full throttle in a territory he has spent 25 tural history. One lucky Readings customer State Library of equally lonely next-door neighbour in the years making his own.' will win a set of World of Art titles and an Victoria Foundation Australian suburbs. It’s exquisitely written – exclusive sixtieth anniversary prize pack. Just you end up re-reading sentence after The State Library of Victoria Foundation Alice Munro wins Man answer the question: ‘Who founded Thames raises funds and attracts support to help sentence – and unforgettable.’ I absolutely & Hudson?’ and email your answer to clare. concur. Incidentally, Hornby's next book, Booker International the State Library to deliver services and Canadian short story writer [email protected] by 31 July. programs to the community and to pre- Juliet, Naked (PB, $32.95) will be released Hint: visit www.thameshudson.com.au. late this year. Alice Munro has won the serve Victoria’s cultural heritage. Anyone Man Booker International MIFF 2009 can support the Foundation. For only $75 Sign of the Times Prize, awarded for a body of (inc GST), Foundation membership is an work, aged 77. ‘Her work is The Melbourne International Film Festival enjoyable way to engage in the cultural life The death knell of the book is an iconic event in Melbourne’s cultural of the Library. Members are also entitled to has been sounded so many practically perfect,’ said judge Jane Smiley. ‘Any writer has to gawk calendar. Screening almost 300 films from a number of benefits including 10% of all times that no one pays world-class festivals including Cannes, Sun- full-priced books at Readings at the State Li- much attention any more when reading her because her work is very subtle and precise.’ Another judge, writer and dance, Berlin and Toronto, MIFF runs from brary. For more information, call 8664 7280 – but a new trend in US 24 July to 9 August. MIFF is also Australia’s or email [email protected]. bookshops does strike a critic Amit Chaudhuri, praised Munro’s commitment to the short story form. ‘Lesser largest showcase of new Australian cinema disquieting note. More than one author and the most vocal champion of emerging We want your pictures! reports being asked to sign e-book devices writers would have produced a good or and established local film-making talent. Readings turns 40 this year. To com- like the Kindle at book-signing events. mediocre novel, or three or four, over the Guardian For further information and ticket sales visit memorate, we are putting together an image David Sedaris, the literary world’s aficionado years,’ he told the . Munro – who, www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au. You retrospective! We would like any photos you of the bizarre, told the New York Times ironically, has spoken of her desire to write a can win a double pass to MIFF Opening may have in Readings, about Readings, with recently that he’d signed ‘at least five’ novel – is the author of 11 short story Too Much Night Screening and Gala at Hamer Hall a Readings bag that you would be happy Kindles, ‘a fair number’ of iPods ... and last collections. Her newest collection, Happiness on Friday 24th July. Email your name and to share with us. We'll take a copy and give year in Austin, a woman’s leg. She later had , will be published this year – and contact details to clare.mckenzie@readings. yours right back – and we'll certainly be his signature tattooed into her flesh. That’s will hopefully attract a new wave of prize- com.au with a reason why you should attend thanking you publicly. Email chris.gordon@ committed fandom for you. related interest, in addition to her many loyal the Opening Night Screening & Gala in 25 readings.com.au, ring (03) 9341 7740, or —Jo Case fans (some of whom work at Readings). (See our Alice Munro bargains on p15). words or less. Entries close Monday 13 July. send them by post to Chris Gordon, 309 Only the winner will be notified. Lygon Street, Carlton, VIC 3053.

CINEMA NOVA GARY DONALD CHIPS JACK The sixth film in JK Rowling’s blockbuster series RECOMMENDS: BOND PLEASANCE RAFFETY THOMPSON Make a purchase at Readings for FOR GROUP your chance to receive one of 25 WAKE IN FRIGHT BOOKINGS double passes to either film. The fully-restored Australian classic directed visit our website by Ted Kotcheff from the novel by Kenneth Cook. cinemanova.com.au C I N E M A CANNES FILM FESTIVAL and follow the OFFICIAL COMPETTION 1971 group bookings CANNES FILM FESTIVAL link for details OFFICIAL SELECTION 380 LYGON ST CARLTON NOVEMBER 20 www.cinemanova.com.au CANNES CLASSICS 1971 NOW SHOWING STARTS JULY 15 Readings Monthly July 2009 3

ReadingsAll our Readings book and music events are Events in July free, unless otherwise stated. To see more events 10 17 26 or for updates on new events please visit the david sornig the stillsons catherine deveny events page at www.readings.com.au. Berlin, New Years Eve. A young architect From the band’s first recording, Birds, in conversation abandons the apocalyptic heat of a Mel- recorded in a run-down back-packers in St with mirka mora bourne summer for the streets his grandfather Kilda, The Stillsons have risen from humble 4 Catherine and Mirka will chat about sex and once walked. The Spiel (UWA, PB, $26.95), beginnings to releasing one of the most creativity. Mirka Mora is one of Melbourne’s andy griffiths has begun. David Sornig was the 2008/09 fresh, intense releases this year. Friday 17 best known and loved artists. Mirka’s 50 Much loved children’s writer Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East July, 6pm, Readings Carlton. Free, no need years of creative energy have resulted in a Andy Griffiths is back with Anglia. He lectures in creative writing at to book. prolific output of work across a range of his new book – Just Macbeth Flinders University. Novelist Michael Meehan media. Not to be missed. Sunday 26 July, (Pan, PB, $14.99). Crazy will launch. Friday 10 July, 6.30pm, Read- 4-6 pm. North Fitzroy Star Hotel, cnr of times ahead … ings Carlton. Free, no need to book. 21 Newry & St Georges Rd South, Fitzroy Saturday 4 July, 10am, kings way North, Mel ref 44 A2. Please book on Westgarth Theatre, High Duro Cubrilo, Martin 9553 6810 or email [email protected]. Street, Northcote. Book 13 Harvey and Karl Stamer, au. $25 Full $20 (Concession) now on 9347 6633. Limited seats! brian castro have created a comprehensive Marion Campbell will account of the first decade of launch Brian's new novel, the graffiti writing subculture 27 7 The Bath Fugues (Giramon- in Melbourne, Kings Way: michael mcgirr gretel killeen do, PB, Was $29.95, Our The Beginnings of Australian Michael McGirr was a Jesuit for 20 years In The Night My Bum Dropped (Viking, PB, price $24.95), a meditation Graffiti: Melbourne, 1983-93 and a Catholic priest for seven. After $29.95), Gretel Killeen takes a long, hard on melancholy and art. In (Miegunyah, HB, $64.99). Kings Way tells leaving the church, he went on to become a and hilarious look at herself in the wake of the form of three interwoven the story of the development of a hard core founding staff member of Eureka Street. In her generation’s next obstacle course – the novellas, centred respectively underground scene of local writers. Tuesday The Lost Art of Sleep (Picadore, PB, $32.99), looming shadow of the Female Midlife on an aging art forger; a Portuguese poet, 21 July, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. McGirr muses on the many benefits of sleep, Crisis. Tuesday 7 July, 6.30pm, Readings opium addict and art collector; and a doc- Free, but please book on 9347 6633. and explains aspects of its strange personal- Hawthorn. Free, but book on 9819 1917. tor, who has built an art gallery in tropical ity. Monday 27 July, 6.30pm, Readings Queensland. Monday 13 July, 6.30pm, Hawthorn. Free, please book on 9347 6633. Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book. 22 7 the intimate archive steve wilde & The Intimate Archive (Maryanne Dever , Ann 28 Michelle mackintosh 14 Vickery, Sally Newman, UNSW Press, PB, fellowship of Steve Wide and Michelle Mackintosh are a peter sutton $34.95) recounts journeys through the private australian authors: creative duo working in Carlton. Their new in conversation with literary papers of three quite distinct Austra- Helen garner lian literary figures: Marjorie Barnard, Aileen children's book is It’s a Jungle in Here (Windy marcia langton Helen Garner will speak of her successful Palmer and Lesbia Harford. Professor Deirdre Hollow Books, HB, $14.99). This is a a fun, Well-known anthropologist, Peter's new book writing career, from her first book 1977’s Coleman, Robert Wallace Chair of English, lively book that will be a hit with both kids is The Politics of Suffering(MUP, PB, $34.99). Monkey Grip to 2008's The Spare Room. The Tuesday 7 July, 6.30pm, University of Melbourne will be launching and parents. This is an important book about the decline Fellowship is the oldest writing organisa- Readings Carlton. the book. Wednesday 22 July, 6.30pm, Free, no need to book. in indigenous health and conditions in the tion in Australia. Tuesday 28 July, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. last 30 years. Given that we are coming up to Readings Hawthorn. Free, but please book the two-year 'anniversary' of the NT Inter- on 9819 1917. 8 vention, this event is very timely. Tuesday 14 sean dooley July, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but 22 Following on his success with The Big please book on 9347 6633. jeff sparrow 29 Twitch, Sean is back with his new story – How hard is it to kill an judith lanigan animal – or a human? In Cooking with Baz: Getting to know my Dad Judith Lanigan is an international freelance 15 Killing (MUP, PB, $34.99), (A&U, PB, $27.99). Join us for a night of circus artist, Her debut novel, A True History Wednesday 8 July, these questions lead Jeff tales and domestic joy. terrI psiakis of the Hula Hoop (Picador, PB, Normally 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Sparrow on a physical and Free, but please Part-memoir, part-guide, Tying The Knot $29.95, Our special price $24.95), is about psychological journey of book on 9347 6633. Without Doing Your Block (Ebury, PB, two women born centuries apart but joined discovery across Australia and $24.95) documents the experiences of come- by the spirit of adventure and a quest for true the US, talking to veterans, dian Terri Psiakis during the planning of her love. Wednesday 29 July, 6.30pm, Readings slaughtermen, executioners and writers about 8 wedding. Most wedding guides are formal, Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. dr morris jones stuffy and contain little or no information one of the last remaining taboos. Jeff is editor The Australian Institute of International for soon-to-be-married blokes. Not this one! of Overland. He writes regularly for Crikey. Wednesday 22 July, 6.30pm, Readings Affairs is proud to present Dr Morris Jones Wednesday 15 July, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, please book on 9347 6633. 29 speaking about his new book, The New Carlton. Free, no need to book. steven isserlis Moon Race (Rosenberg, HB, $49.95). We are delighted to have one of world's Wednesday 8 July, 5.30pm–7pm, Dyason House, 124 Jolimont Road, East 16 23 most acclaimed cellist in the shop, signing copies of his books (Why Handel Wigged Melbourne. Please book on 9654 7271. nick earls henry jackson & patrick mcgorry the Wig and Why Beethoven Threw the Stew, Nick Earls is back with The True Story of But- Faber, PB, $14.99) and CDs. Wednesday terfish (Vintage, PB, Normally $32.95, Our The Recognition and Management of Early 29 July, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. 9 special price $27.95). With his chart-topping Psychosis: A Preventative Approach (CUP, Free, but please book on 9819 1917. justin clemens band, Butterfish, Curtis Holland lived the cli- PB, $99) looks at how psychotic illness is In Villain (Hunter, PB, $19.95), Justin chéd rock dream. Later, Curtis is ill-prepared managed and treated with best results. The Clemens invokes the spirit of infamous for his neighbour, a 16-year-old schoolgirl Hon. Lindsay Tanner will be launching this 30 French poet, vagabond and thief François who’s a confounding mixture of adult and book. Thursday 23 July, 6.30pm, Readings anne summers child. And he is surprisingly drawn to her Carlton. Free, no need to book. Villon. Justin Clemens teaches at the The Lost Mother(MUP, HB, $34.99) is a University of Melbourne. Thursday 9 July, remarkably unremarkable family. Thursday 6pm, Centre for Contemporary Photogra- 16 July, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. poignant, interweaving narrative about author Anne Summers’ relationship with phy, Fitzroy, 6pm. Free, no need to book. Free. RSVP to [email protected]. 24 adrian parr her mother, told through her search for a lost painting of her mother as a child. Anne In Hijacking Sustainability Summers is a bestselling Australian author, 9 16 (MIT, PB, $51.95), Adrian patrick allington journalist and speaker on political and social andrew mcdonald Parr attacks Hollywood (especially women’s) issues. Thursday 30 Tony Wilson will launch What if you saved a man’s life? What if that environmentalism, sustain- July, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, The World’s Greatest Blog- man went on to play a leading role in the ability in politics, and the but please book on 9347 6633. ger (Hardie Grant, PB, bloodiest revolution of modern times? In greening of junk space. The $16.95) by new young adult Figurehead (Black Inc., PB, $29.95), Patrick convergence of popular Please see our website for advance news on our writer extraordinaire Andrew Allington takes readers deep into the world culture and the sustainability August events, including James Halliday on McDonald. This lively book of power politics and agents of influence. movement has given corporations an Tuesday 4 August, 6.30pm, Hawthorn shop makes the ordinary extra- He enters the worlds of Nhem Kiry and Ted opportunity to ‘ecobrand’ their products. (Tickets $15 per person includes tastes and ordinary, as seen through Whittlemore, and with humour, intelligence But that branding-often makes no more cheese) and Peter Bakowski in conversation he eyes of one’s of life’s observers. Thursday and an unfailing moral sense, brings them to than superficial gestures to sustainability. with Justin Clemens, also on Tuesday 9 July, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, life. Thursday 16 July, 6.30pm, Readings Friday 24 July, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. 4 August (6pm for 6.30pm, Carlton shop). no need to book. Carlton. Free, but book on 9347 6633. Free, no need to book. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. 4 Readings Monthly July 2009 New Australian Writing Feature Axing the Frozen Sea Within Gregory Day interviews internationally acclaimed Irish-Australian novelist M.J. Hyland

comfort zone. She describes the book as ‘a people have a whole suite of generic precon- monster, like a 100,000-piece jigsaw I had to ceptions. These preconceptions are important put together without a picture on the box’. ingredients in what Kafka famously called the But she is adamant that the disturbing nature ‘frozen sea inside us’ and Hyland does see it as of the subject matter had nothing to do with her job to take an axe to that ice. She is very the difficulties of the process. ‘Maybe I’m clear when asked if there is a social justice unusually dissociative or something, but the agenda behind what she writes. ‘There’s a content is neither here nor there,’ she says. ‘I great deal I want to say, yes, but fiction can set out to write interesting drama, and for my go very wrong if an author is on a moral campaign. It’s got to be about what happens to people when they rub up against each ‘It’s got to be about other, when they fuck each other up, and fuck themselves up. Life is intense right? No-one what happens to would argue with that. But first and foremost, it has to be drama, a good story, and enter- people when they rub tainment. God forbid, a book should be fun.’ Such a comment may seem a bit rich from up against each other, a writer who is fast becoming the laureate of everyday damage, but the slightly perverse when they fuck each fact remains that for the most part, This Is How, while not exactly fun, is peculiarly other up, and fuck entertaining. Indeed, it is hard not to read the novel fast, such is the sawn-off intensity of its themselves up. Life rhythms, its terse dialogue and compulsive is intense, right?’ narrative traction. At the end of our interview, on a hunch, M.J. Hyland was born in London, spent her but recently widowed landlady. There, things money it’s always been the case that the best I asked Hyland whether she’d noticed the early childhood in Dublin, and her adoles- start to go excruciatingly wrong. stuff – going right back to Aristotle, right to thematic similarities between This Is How cence and early adulthood in Australia. back to Greek tragedy, to the start of what it and the first track of Eminem’s latest record, Hyland now lives in England, where she The first half of This Is How carefully lays out is that makes people enjoy reading fiction or Relapse. I’d been listening to it as I read her teaches in the Centre for New Writing at a litany of disconnections and misplaced enjoy drama – has got to be about the gut- book and was struck by the link. I suggested Manchester University. Her literary career desires amidst a texture of insinuating ev- tural, the big things, people at odds with the that both works render the random brutality began in Australia, with her promising 2003 eryday malevolence. As the reader becomes world. There are all sorts of gaps and breakag- of our species as an ordinary quotidian truth. debut, How The Light Gets In (Penguin engrossed in Patrick Oxtoby’s perspective, one es and faults, chasms between people, things She agreed and was very pleased I’d brought it PB, $24.95). It was followed by the aston- can’t help but be reminded of John Egan and go wrong all the time, so much goes wrong up. She told me she often played Eminem as ishing, Booker-shortlisted Carry Me Down Carry Me Down. The pathologies are close; between people. That’s the lifeblood of my a reward after a good writing session. I had to (Text, PB, $23.95) in 2006. Gregory Day, both novels are characterised by Hyland’s fiction: trying to, as best as possible, express laugh. Many writers would consider playing who admiringly reviewed Carry Me Down first-person narration and the immediacy those weaknesses in the fibre of relationships Eminem a punishment rather than a reward. for The Age in 2006, spoke to M.J. Hyland of her present tense. This time, however, between people. If it can’t happen in a cave But M.J. Hyland’s not just any writer. about her latest book, This is Now (Text, through the tragic events that ensue, we are I’m not interested in it.’ PB, Our special price $27.95) for Readings' destined to go one step further – indeed one Gregory Day is the author of The Patron New Australian Writing Feature series. step deeper into the strata of Hyland’s world. Indeed, the second half of This Is How is set Saint of Eels (Picador, PB, $22.95) ‘With this book, I couldn’t settle for two or for the most part in a bare prison cell, where and Roy McCoy's Sea of Diamonds maybe three layers. I thought no, let’s have Hyland replaces opaque binaries of innocence (Picador, PB, $32.95). more. I sent a depth charge down, and I really and guilt with more complex investigations .J. Hyland took a lot of people sent it down.’ into Patrick Oxtoby’s largely somatic reactions by surprise when she was short- to his crime. ‘In prison, his life has shrunk to Also by M.J. Hyland listed for the Booker Prize in a size that suits him better. And he doesn’t feel 2006. The disturbing but ultimately redemp- remorse for what he’s done, he feels embar- How the Light Gets In Mtive Carry Me Down was the follow-up to her ‘This is the kind of rassed. It’s a heat travelling up his body, in the Penguin. PB. $24.95 promising debut, How the Light Gets In. This way that you suffer when you’re embarrassed, Gifted, unhappy 16-year-old second novel demonstrated Hyland’s fearless stuff I feed on, these like he’s standing in front of a fire. He says it’s Lou Connor is desperate to approach to the precarious psychological like when you leave something valuable on a escape her life of poverty in territory which inspires her, expressed largely books are catnip bus. That’s how he compares his experience. Sydney. But when she travels through the unforgettable character of John The kind of: Oh fuck I wish I hadn’t done that. to the US as an exchange Egan: a freakishly tall and dislocative 11-year- to me. I’ve always His body has acted, but his mind perhaps student, things go terribly old, dangerously at odds with his peers and wasn’t fully engaged in the act. It happened wrong. Every detail of Lou’s family. J.M. Coetzee went so far as to describe wanted to write in a split second and there was a dissonance struggle for survival with her Carry Me Down as ‘writing of the highest or- between mind and body. I’d been reading the affluent host family is observed with dark der’ – and along with the Booker shortlisting literary crime.’ fantastic debates between Sartre and Merleau- humour – and a defiance that veils her came numerous other awards and plaudits. Ponty where, amidst all Sartre’s crapology longing for acceptance. Most importantly perhaps, it became clear about ‘radical freedom’ and the like, Merleau- The idea for This Is How came to Hyland among that hardcore of writers and readers Ponty says something like, well, to put it Carry Me Down while reading Life After Life: Interviews With who take little notice of the literary prize cir- crudely, “Yeah but what about our fucking Text. PB. $23.95 Twelve Murderers, by the late English oral cuit that a compelling new voice had emerged bodies? How do we contend with that!”’ John Egan lives with his historian Tony Parker. ‘It was only a three- or in our midst – a writer with a real-life urgency mother, father and grand- four-page interview in Parker’s extraordinary about her, possessing a rare combination of Hyland describes how many of her favourite mother in rural Ireland. The book,’ she explains. ‘It was with a man who sympathy for the marginalised and an entirely books deal in the territory of what is some- Guinness Book of Records is had served 14 years of a life sentence and was unsentimental command of her craft. times called ‘the gratuitous act’. 'Books like his favourite book and he out on licence. He describes the murder he Andre Gide’s Vatican Cellars, The Goalie's wants to visit Niagara Falls committed when he was in his early twenties Now comes Hyland’s third book, the disturb- Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke, with his mother. But, more and it happened in a lodging house. He went ing and stoic This Is How. The time is the late Crime And Punishment, and of course the obvi- than anything, he is deter- into an adjoining room and killed a man 1960s; the place is a small English seaside ous, Camus’s The Outsider. This is the kind of mined to become a world-famous lie detector, he hardly knew, for no particular reason. It village. Patrick Oxtoby, a self-conscious but stuff I feed on, these books are catnip to me. almost at any cost. Carry Me Down explores floored me. This was in 2004 and I wrote in efficient young mechanic from Manchester, I’ve always wanted to write literary crime.” John's obsessive and dangerous desire to see my notebook that I had to write a novel based starts a new job in a local garage after break- the truth, no matter what. ing up with his fiancé. He takes an upstairs on this story.’ Hyland’s signature effect is to cast shadows room in a boarding house in the grip of an into places where nobody much wants to Readings is offering M.J. Hyland’s already tenuous clique, comprising two posh Talking to Hyland, it’s clear that the composi- look, to explore in fastidious detail the inner new book This Is How(Text) for the special tion of This is How took her way out of her young university graduates and the attractive lives of character types about whom most price of $27.95 (normally $32.95). Readings Monthly July 2009 5

Book of the Month between the Double-edged Swordplay assassinations Jo Case interviews Patrick Allington about his debut novel Figurehead (Black Inc., PB, $29.95). Aravind Adiga Atlantic. PB. $32.95 enlighten and entertain. Allington may wear of the Khmer Rouge’ after the collapse of the Aravind Adiga’s first his knowledge about the period and its main regime, is ‘ideology in its purest form gone novel, The White Tiger, players lightly, and have a great deal of fun horribly wrong’, says Allington. In our earliest sensationally won the with the facts, but the book – which took encounter with Khiry, his ‘mouth turn[s] dry’ Man Booker Prize last approximately four years to write – is steeped at the thought of the Cambodian military year, against more in evocative detail and sharply telling observa- beating the peasants. Post-1975, he coolly established writers such as tions that obviously stem from a rigorous reflects on the importance of grooming and Salman Rushdie, grounding in the subject. His unconven- manners on the world stage: ‘You can’t leave Sebastian Barry and tional, yet successful, approach calls to mind anything to chance ... when you’re selling a Amitav Ghosh. A groundbreaking work the adage about knowing the rules in order to million and a half dead people.’ (in my opinion), it was written in the break them. Not many first-time novelists can boast a Allington made ‘extensive use’ of Wilfred voice of Balram Halwai, an entrepreneur- Nobel Prize winner as a mentor. But then Figurehead is mostly set in the years leading Burchett’s life and writings in creating Ted ial man who moves up in the world again, Patrick Allington – who was mentored up to the Pol Pot regime (1975-79) and the Whittlemore. He was particularly interested through hard work and honesty, fighting by J.M. Coetzee in the early stages of writing years that follow, with very sparse reflections in the ongoing ‘passionate’ debate about a society that seems to be always working Figurehead – has not written your average on the four years that represent ‘one of the whether Burchett (who, like Whittlemore, against him, exploiting him, until he debut novel. Instead of the fairly routine most truly horrific regimes of the century’. was a committed socialist and reported from decides committing a murder is the only practice of drawing on life experience for his The absence of those years is especially chill- the North Vietnamese side of the war) was way to break the cycle. The novel explores first outing, this writer has drawn on history, ing – what the reader imagines took place a journalist, an agent of influence or both. the plight of India’s poor and an indiffer- creating what he calls ‘an absurdist version’. is more effective than any necessarily brief This question is teased out in the character of ent system that disallows social and telling could be. ‘It’s a representation, I guess, Whittlemore, who we see actively participat- material advancement, all narrated in Figurehead is a tightly crafted, sharply satirical of what happened in the West in terms of ing in world events – like saving Khiry, an act Halwai’s scathing, irreverent and often novel about questions of culpability, respon- what people imagined was happening in he bitterly regrets later, and playing match- humorous voice. sibility and idealism as played out in Pol Pot’s Cambodia. There was a great silence and maker between Sihanouk and the Khmer Cambodia and the decades that followed. Between the Assassinations is the novel almost a blanket over Cambodia during that Rouge – and doctoring his columns to serve Adiga was working on before The White Australian journalist Ted Whittlemore is time ... It wasn’t really until early 1979, when his view of those events. ‘He’s partly of the famous for reporting on the war in Vietnam Tiger and is, once again, concerned with the Vietnamese invaded, that the full extent view that the whole world is peddling their the inequalities and inadequacies in from the side of the North Vietnamese. In the of the horrors became known to the general own perspective and having it masquerade as late 1960s, he lives in Phnom Penh, where he Indian society – and particularly the class public. I wanted to convey something of that truth and that it’s important to do that for all system that resolutely keeps the lower is friendly with both the Communist insur- – of not knowing, but also of us being more sides. He’s got a view of history and of day-to- gents (who will become the Khmer Rouge) classes trapped. The setting is the fictional collectively at ease with not knowing.’ day current affairs that gives him justification city of Kittur, based loosely on Adiga’s and Cambodian leader Prince Sihanouk. In in his own mind for this approach and allows 1967, he saves the life of future Khmer Rouge That kind of self-delusion is a strong theme hometown of Mangalore, in India’s south. him to see himself as a legitimate journalist. The assassinations of Indira Gandhi leader Nhem Kiry, later to become Pol Pot’s throughout. The main characters have idea- As far as he sees it, he’s not doing anything right-hand man. The novel follows the machi- lised versions of themselves that uneasily con- in 1984 and her son Rajiv seven years different to anyone else, he’s just coming at it later are the bookends to the seven days nations and trajectories of both Whittlemore trast with reality. Khiry and Whittlemore have from a different angle.’ and Khiry, two flawed idealists who both inflated ideas of their own importance on the spanned in this collection of interwoven influence and are influenced by history. world stage, married with heightened ideas Allington himself has some sympathy with short stories. Adiga takes us through the ‘I was interested in the passage of time and about their responsibilities to world affairs the kind of advocacy journalism epitomised lives of Kittur’s various inhabitants, ex- the way that moments in history and par- – and the necessary compromises they feel by Whittlemore (and Burchett) at his best amining the social hierarchies and politics ticular decisions and particular events have licensed to make in order to influence world – though he draws the line at deliberate in the town through their eyes, exposing reverberating effects in the years and decades events in ways they see as positive. Allington deception. ‘There is a lot of journalism that the dynamics that are mirrored in the rest that follow,’ says Allington. was keen to explore ‘that sense of the discon- has this facade of objectivity and you don’t of India. have to search very hard beneath the surface nect between an individual’s ideals and how A cycle-cart puller rails against his The two main characters borrow liberally to see that objectivity is feigned or loose or at they imagine the world might work – and exploitative employer, his ungrateful from real-life historical counterparts who the very least, limited ... It’s something that I what their impact on the world might be’. customers, and ultimately his fellow Allington used as ‘starting templates’. Nhem think we as readers push upon them and ex- cart-pullers, who suffer the abuse and still Kiry was inspired by Pol Pot’s right-hand Does Allington think that all ideals are pect of them. But the reality is that everyone return day after day to be underpaid and man, Khieu Samphan; Ted Whittlemore by dangerous when they’re followed too literally, who writes must have their own views.’ controversial Australian journalist Wilfred without being balanced with other consider- ill-used. A schoolteacher who had dreams Burchett, often accused of being a Com- ations and looking at how the world really is? He believes that journalists who are granted of becoming a poet puts his ambitions munist ‘agent of influence’. Other historical ‘Idealism is a double-edged sword. Momen- the freedom to push an argument are in some into his prodigy, only to be betrayed characters, like Sihanouk, Henry Kissinger, tum and the possibilities for positive change ways both more truthful – and able to delve when the boy joins in the mischief of the Pol Pot and Fidel Castro are similarly drawn come out of people pursuing new ideas and deeper into the issues they explore. ‘It doesn’t school’s bad boys. The eighth daughter from the historical record, but fleshed out engaging in acts of dissent that are designed become a matter of taking the fixed facts in a Brahmin family who can’t afford her with positively gleeful fictional licence. to rupture the status quo. But these things in a story and considering them to be facts dowry is sent as a servant from house to can develop their own momentum – and that we’ve all learned, but rather, engaging house, seeking a place where she will be Allington is careful to point out that he uses nothing works in practice as well as it might directly with the journalist and forming our valued. And my favourite, Xerox, the these historical events and people (‘fictional appear to work in theory. Self-perception can own views about whether we agree with what pavement bookseller who sells illegally creations’) as a starting point to tell a story take on a more insidious perspective, where they’re saying. Ultimately, that’s a much more photocopied books at discounted prices, and explore his central ideas, rather than there isn’t the ability to take a step back, to productive way of collectively getting our mounts a protest against censorship by the other way round. Readers curious about look at the big picture critically, as well as heads around issues. And a lot more realistic. insisting on selling counterfeit copies of Pol Pot’s Cambodia, its aftermath and the idealistically.’ Because we know that we don’t all agree on Salman Rushdie’s banned Satanic Verses, Cold War politics of the 1960s and 1970s things. And the idea that we need to is itself a even after he is beaten up by the police. will still find plenty of historical detail to Nhem Kiry, who becomes ‘the acceptable face little bit ludicrous.’ Adiga says that Between the Assassinations is influenced by his reading of Balzac’s The Human Comedy. Just as Balzac of- fered a portrait of the France of his day, Figurehead P A Adiga wanted to ‘capture the inner drives – jealousy, lust, compassion – that shaped Readings Monthly the town’. (I also thought I found traces

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New Bookswith him Fiction for the rest of his life. Sadness and The River Wife THE pain simmer under the surface of this pleasant Heather Rose TheAustralian Book of RFictionapture holiday town: a father tries to bury his A&U. HB. $24.99 homosexuality; a wife sinks a terrible memory This book is infused with the feeling of a day Nikki Gemmell in an alcoholic haze; a young girl struggles Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99 spent watching the river. It is tender, unhur- PAGES with bulimia; a young man finally beats back ried and gentle. Told by the part-woman/ After gaining notoriety for his abusive and alcoholic father. But there are her no-holds-barred depic- part-fish character of the river wife, this tale also dreams and hopes for a better future – finds beauty everywhere. It is a story of love: tion of female sexuality in and time slowly reveals just where these The Bride Stripped Bare, the river wife’s love for family, for her world desires will lead. Moving between the and for something strange that combines Nikki Gemmell chooses long-past summer and the present, where religion and science as her the two – Wilson James. He has come to dreams struggle against life’s harsh realities, her river to escape the loneliness and grief subjects in her latest offering, the story follows the lives of those in Charlie’s The Book of Rapture. Set at an he feels after the death of his son. At first, family, friends and other locals who are he is unaware of the river wife, but soon unspecified time in the future, Gemmell inextricably linked with Parker’s Head and the imagines a world where science has ascended the boundaries of their two worlds begin to shocking end to that fateful summer. collapse and a deep love that is new to both to a God-like role in society and chaos is let Michelle Calligaro is from Readings Carlton loose. The story centres on three young of them emerges. The river wife marvels at the complexity of human emotions, charged children held captive in a hotel room, The True Story narrated through the eyes of their scientist as they are with the knowledge of their own of Butterfish brief lifespan. Wilson James is overawed mother, who may or may not have fallen Nick Earls prey to the evils of power and corruption. with the life surrounding the river and the Vintage. PB. Normally $32.95 Punctuated by mantras from Buddhism to mystery of the woman who tends to it. And Our special price $27.95 Islamism, Gemmell’s novel debates the role slowly their two lives become irrevocably The River Wife of scientific advancement in an increasingly Nick Earls seems to be the intertwined. holds stories secular society and the resulting effects designated story teller for within stories and they are all woven togeth- stemming from an abuse of this power. But Australia’s forgotten men. er with a compassionate and unique hand. S.W. Rafael is a freelance reviewer at the heart of Gemmell’s novel is the Since the debut of 28-year-old RRP $23.95 Zigzag exploration of maternal love and responsibil- Richard Derrington in Street ity, something she elaborates on more in The , Earls has explored the Book of Rapture than her previous novel. lives of urban males in The first novel from Gemmell’s latest work will no doubt cement various states of personal and The True Story of Butterfish International Fiction her reputation as a fearless writer unafraid to emotional chaos. continues in this tradition, but with some We Are All broach taboo subjects. Made of Glue MURR AY Emily Laidlaw is a freelance reviewer notable changes in style and tone. Curtis Holland is a burnt-out rock star in his Marina Lewycka Wake in Fright mid-thirties. He’s back in Brisbane, hoping Fig Tree. PB. $32.95 BAIL to recover while producing albums in his Another sharp, funny novel Kenneth Cook backyard studio. He hadn’t counted on his from the author of A Short since the multiple Text. PB. $23.95 neighbours, however, and is particularly torn History of Tractors in Earlier this year, Text by 16-year-old Annaliese Winter, a confusing Ukranian. Georgie Sinclair's award-winner successfully resurrected a mix of sexually awake adult and doting husband has walked out; Eucalyptus long-forgotten modern teenager. In Curtis, Earls has created a wiser, her 16-year-old son is busy Australian classic with more fleshed-out character than in his earlier surfing born-again websites; Madeleine St John’s Women works. This leads to less laughs but greater and all those overdue articles ‘The most extraordinary piece in Black. Now, they’re at it emotional resonance. Notions of age and for Adhesives in the Modern World are getting again. Wake in Fright comes of fiction published in this responsibility are explored, and for the most her down. When Georgie spots Mrs Shapiro, with an introduction by Peter part it is Curtis who must do the right thing, an eccentric old Jewish émigré neighbour country this year.’ Temple, an afterword by David Stratton and while all around him are floundering in a state with a fondness for matchmaking, rum- Monthly praise from literary luminaries such as J.M. of arrested development. Here, Nick Earls has maging through her skip in the middle of Coetzee (‘a true dark classic of Australian tightened his focus and widened his emotional the night, it's just the distraction she needs. ‘Oblique, demanding, literature’); M.J. Hyland (‘gripping from the range, and for that he is to be commended. Soon, a firm friendship is formed over the first page to the last’); Robert Drewe (‘the intelligent…The spell is most Laurie Steed is a freelance reviewer reduced-price shelf at the supermarket. Then Outback without the sentimental bulldust’); Mrs Shapiro is admitted to hospital and to powerfully cast in the brilliant and Thomas Keneally (‘a classic of the ugly The Ice Age Georgie's surprise, she is named as her next quiet skill of the writing, side of Menzies’ Australia’). And the Kirsten Reed of kin. But sorting out Mrs Shapiro's semi- resurrection of the book is cleverly timed to which can make the world Text. PB. $27.95 derelict mansion in Highbury is no easy job coincide with the re-release of the film when the handyman called in to change the come alive on the page.’ adaptation, a cinematic classic thought to This ethereal debut has been Lolita On locks turns out to be not what he seems and have lost forever, returned to the big screen compared to and Guardian the Road. Certainly, the his two assistants are doing more breaking this year. Reviewing the book 40 years ago, than fixing. And what about the two slimy The New York Times wrote: ‘In the town of beautiful teenage narrator, ‘A wonderful book.’ zig-zagging the vast interior of estate agents who start competing to trick Bundanyabba, a young schoolmaster Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old Age discovers gambling, ruins himself financially, the US with an enigmatic, much-older companion, house, or the social worker determined to then plunges headlong toward his own commit her to a nursing home? destruction in many other ways, alcoholic, seems a fantasy Lolita. She is sexual and spiritual—and yet, somehow eager for experience and hungry for love, the puppy dog seducer in her undefined relation- Wolf Hall throughout this five-day nightmare there Hilary Mantel persists a note of hope in man’s incredible ship with reluctant ‘reformed hedonist’ Fourth Estate. PB. $32.99 resilience. Cook writes astonishingly well, Gunther. ‘Guys just can’t resist the advances with a fierce economy and a frightening of us young chicks, I’m told,’ she observes This brick of a book comes power of visualization.’ hopefully. This is a story about loss of with a royal family tree and innocence, ambiguously portrayed. There’s an two-page cast of characters, Alice in Wonderland quality to the narrator’s but don’t expect a standard journey through a sinister small-town historical blockbuster from We Don’t Live America populated by oddly menacing Hilary Mantel. Whilst Wolf Here Anymore average Americans and a string of likeable Hall revisits very thoroughly Matt Nable eccentrics (Gunther’s friends). The fine line explored Tudor territory, Viking. PB. $32.95 she treads between the childhood she is traditional villain Thomas Cromwell is Charlie Hudson’s family have exiting and the newly strange adult world Mantel’s hero of choice. The son of a been taking summer holidays gifts her with a curious perspective: an blacksmith, Cromwell was Cardinal Wolsey’s in Parker’s Head for as long Alice-like blend of naivety and knowingness. right hand man, then chief legal head-kicker as he can remember. But the RRP $23.95 ‘When I’m older, if I’m anything like the rest for Henry VIII. He survives a brutal year he turns 15, his life is of them, I’ll have lost the ability to under- childhood to become an international jack changed forever. When he is Winner of the Miles Franklin Award stand anything.’ The narrator both loses and of all trades and staunch family man: secular, Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize beaten up by a couple of gains from her accumulated experience, intelligent and powerfully ambitious. His local hoods, the beautiful, becoming more wary and knowing as a result sleekness is in contrast to a dishevelled, ambitious Tess Bailey steps in to save him. of her many mishaps, but accruing friendship emotionally and spiritually brutal Thomas While Tess tells him of her dreams to move and a growing hoard of knowledge, too. More. At court, Anne Boleyn calculates her www.textpublishing.com.au to Sydney, Charlie falls in love with her Atmospheric and intriguing. career while a pale Jane Seymour watches smile; a promise of happiness that remains Jo Case is Editor of Readings Monthly from the shadows. No heaving bosoms here. Readings Monthly July 2009 7 The whole book is about the acquisition and The Sealed Letter Sacred Hearts loss of power: of present and future Emma Donoghue Sarah Dunant queens, the monarchy and the church. Scribe. PB. $35 Virago. PB. $32.95 & The true winners are the financial centres Q Awith Kirsten Reed In London in 1864, Emily The convent of Santa Caterina, in sixteenth- Your novel has drawn of Europe. Mantel’s writing is so good it ‘Fido’ Faithfull is busy century Ferrara, is more than a place for demands frequent pauses for re-reading. Her comparisons to Lolita and running a feminist printing women with a religious vocation; it is a con- On the Road, among bone dry character observations are often very press, and trying to improve venient repository for noblewomen whose funny, and she handles a mass of historical de- other works. Were either of the lot of the women of her families cannot afford to provide them with these novels – particularly tail lightly but with absolute conviction. Wolf age. Their injustices are a dowry and a husband. When Seraphina, Hall doesn’t provide any surprise endings, but Lolita – direct influences brought forcefully home a 16-year-old girl from a noble family in on The Ice Age? it is a supremely enjoyable journey. when she runs into an old Milan, arrives at the convent, her protests Vicky Booth is Program Administrator friend, Helen Codrington. Helen’s marriage could not be more vehement. The abbess has Not directly, though I have read On of CAE Book Groups to an army officer is at breaking point, yet been assured by her family that they consider the Road and Lolita (when I was around she is tied to him for life, and unable to Ferrara a better place for their daughter than Lolita’s age). It didn’t occur to me until My Father’s Tears marry Colonel Anderson, another officer Milan. The reason for this belief soon emerg- I finished writing and starting pitching and Other Stories who is madly in love with her. Fido offers es: a thwarted love affair with a singer whom The Ice Age to publishers that I’d written John Updike Helen sympathy and friendship – but to her Seraphina’s parents considered beneath her. a sort of reverse Lolita. Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.95 horror, quickly discovers she has unwittingly But far from being subdued and distracted The narrator, an adolescent precariously This accomplished collection become an accomplice in Helen and from her loss, from within the confines of treading the line between childhood and represents the last ever Anderson’s affair. The resultant divorce case the convent, Seraphina begins dreaming of adulthood, offers a unique perspective on publication from the – based on a real-life one – exposes the rebellion and escape. the adult world she observes, her distance ever-prolific John Updike. sordid but fascinating world of private Judith Loriente is a friend of Readings alternately gifting her with knowing and Completed and scheduled for detection brought into being by the 1857 handicapping her with naivety. Were you publication before his death Matrimonial Causes Act, which allowed men The Complete particularly drawn to this stage of life, earlier this year, My Father’s to divorce their wives for adultery, provided Cosmicomics and the perspective it offers? Tears is classic Updike. In they could obtain proof that would satisfy a Italo Calvino Yes, I chose an adolescent viewpoint many of these beautiful, moving stories, he jury. And like the Victorian sensation novels Allen Lane. HB. $45 specifically for its clarity and limitations. revisits the haunts of his childhood from the of Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Mary This is the first complete I wanted the reader to be able to peer vantage point of old age. Witty and devastat- Braddon for which Fido has a predilection, edition of Italo Calvino’s through her naive take and see more ingly observant as always, this is a collection it’s an unputdownable read, with one comic stories of the strange- than she does at times, but also benefit that will long be admitted and cherished. outrageous twist after the next. ness of the universe, and from her blunt observations, that are free Judith Loriente is a friend of Readings includes seven stories never of the compromises and existential clut- The City and the City before available in English. ter that we accumulate as we grow older. China Mieville As the Earth Turns to These stories are funny, Macmillan. PB. $34.99 Silver imaginative, beautifully The character of Gunther, the narrator’s China Mieville writes science Alison Wong written and unforgettable. ‘If anyone ever much older travelling companion, is a fiction in the same way that Picador. PB. $32.99 tells you that science takes all the poetry out wonderful enigma. Was he fun to create? George Orwell did – or in the This fascinating novel follows of creation, hand them Calvino’s book. It way Raymond Chandler the intertwined stories of two makes the argument that there is no corner I loved writing the character of Gunther. wrote crime fiction. In other very different people of the cosmos that cannot be enlightened by He is so secretive and dignified that even words, it transcends its genre struggling with the trials of human imagination, that even black holes as the person creating his character, I felt to become a plain good read. daily life in early twentieth- can have wit.’ – Guardian I should keep a respectful distance. He In this eerie new novel, he century Wellington, New was initially inspired by my boyfriend, borrows from the police procedural and adds Zealand. Chung Yung, specifically the part of him that is an old a dash of political intrigue. The city of Beszel recently arrived from China, soul, and by my unhealthy vampire fixa- is shadowed by another city that exists in the helps his older brother at their greengrocery tion and sense of nostalgia. From there same physical space, but in another dimen- in order to support his family back in China. Poetry I let my imagination wander. This book sion, where the citizens of each are schooled At the same time, he must deal with overt Villian was written in such a stream-of-con- in pretending the other doesn’t exist. When a racism in his new homeland and his growing Justin Clemens sciousness manner that it is hard for me murdered woman is found, her death seems affection for a local widow, Katherine Hunter Publishing. PB. $19.95 to pinpoint where much of it originated. to be caught up in illegal activity between the McKechnie – herself struggling to raise two Justin Clemens invokes the The background of the teenage narrator cities – and a conspiracy far stranger and young children after the untimely (if not spirit of infamous French seems deliberately vague – she’s from small- more deadly than Inspector Tyador Borlú entirely unwelcome) death of her brutish poet, vagabond and thief town America and hungry for adventure, could have imagined. ‘A fine, page-turning husband. Against the backdrop of World François Villon, through his she doesn’t make friends her own age easily, murder investigation in the tradition of Philip War I, there is inevitable tragedy; however, bold, contemporary transla- but that’s all we’re really told about her. K Dick, gradually opening up to become this novel is ultimately very uplifting. Had tion of Villon’s ballads – but There are plenty of gaps for the reader to something bigger and more significant than the publisher’s blurb not mentioned it, I also in his own new work, fill in. What was the thinking behind that? we originally suspected.’ – Guardian would not have guessed that this was a first ranging from the violent and novel; the unfolding of plot and the obscene to the lyrical and sublime, some- I aimed to create the kind of characters Cockroach development of interesting characters are times within a single verse. ‘The meeting of that would be encountered travelling. Rawi Hage both handled with the most assured skill. Villon and Clemens is one of true minds. We don’t know everything about people Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.95 Such thorny issues as racism, women’s These are snaky, savage poems, charged with we meet. We don’t even know everything Cockroach, Ravi Hage’s second suffrage and class are also handled with a an electric intelligence.’ — Chloe Hooper about ourselves. Leaving a sense of mystery book, following on from the deft touch. I, for one, am very much looking intact made the characters feel more real to award-winning De Niro’s forward to Alison Wong’s next literary History of the Day me as I wrote them. I wanted the reader Game, is the story of an exiled endeavour. Stephen Edgar to feel the same sense of wonder they’d feel immigrant. An unnamed Simon Auld is a friend of Readings Black Pepper. PB. $24.95 toward another person. Also, I didn’t want protagonist lives in Montreal Stephen Edgar is acknowledged as one of her to reveal more than I felt she realistically and has been ordered to seek The Tricking of Freya the most elegant and technically astonishing would. When I was her age, I didn’t share psychiatric help after an Christina Sunley poets currently writing. The poems in His- anything I didn’t want to, and her character is loosely based on a younger me. unsuccessful suicide. His concerns are HarperCollins. PB. $27.99 tory of the Day have an imaginative reach, a rudimentary: hunger, desire, survival, Freya Morris journeys back grandeur and sweep that lead us through the Like all road novels, The Ice Age is about retribution and escape. At first, we track his into the dramatic events of transfiguring intensities of love to the bur- a metaphorical journey of transformation attempt to revitalise his existence. A sense of her childhood as she unravels dens of loss, grief and horror. Edgar engages as much as a physical one. It seems to be entitlement and a keen awareness of his own a family secret and tells her language at the highest, most sophisticated very much about loss of innocence and deprivation drive him forward, as he pursues cousin her family’s sto- level. the passage from naivety to knowing; both an Iranian lover and indulges his kleptoma- ry. Freya grows up in celebrating and mourning that journey. niacal urges. He is ruled by a duality: on one suburban America. Each How do you see the narrator’s journey? hand, a formless rage at the society that has summer she escapes to I told this story with mixed feelings; marginalised him, and on the other, an Gimli, a small village on Lake Winnipeg in celebrating and mourning that journey entrenched self-loathing, which manifests in a Manitoba, Canada. Gimli or ‘New Iceland’ Journals is a perfect way to put it. I was at time fantasy of metamorphosis from man to is home to Freya’s extended family, including Etchings 7: of questioning in my life, wondering cockroach. There is something feverishly her troubled Aunt Birdie who wants Freya to Chameleons whether I had lamely relinquished my disturbed and hard-hearted in his voice – a learn the language and mythology of PB. $28.95 dreams and aspirations, or whether I was black-hole at the narrative’s centre that can be Iceland. The landscape, language, history, This Adelaide-based literary journal features naive to have entertained them in the first neither seen nor ignored as the reader and mythology of Iceland are woven a real coup in their seventh edition – an in- place. The book explores this quandary. gravitates toward it. As the plot progresses, throughout this debut novel. The Tricking of terview with notoriously publicity-shy Nobel The narrator is driven by intense longing; Hage reaches back further into our antihero’s Freya tells a compelling story that touches on Laureate J.M. Coetzee about his next novel, needing and wanting things from the past, while in Montreal a chance for redemp- mental illness, being caught between old and Summertime. Also includes new fiction from world, and the people around her, and is tion is presented. Hage is a grand stylist; he new worlds, and how the past, our own and Sallie Muirden and others, new poetry from hopelessly in love. I wanted to show this has created an original and bleakly luminous our ancestors, shapes the present. Mark O’Flynn, Geoff Lemon and more, es- state for what it is: open to both good novel on loss, despair and insecthood. Samarra Hyde is Program Manager says, art and photography. and bad experiences, full of passion and William Hueston-Heyward is from for CAE Book Groups Readings St Kilda vulnerability. 8 Readings Monthly July 2009

with Kate O'Mara NewBOOK OF THE CrimeMONTH Fear Fiction the Worst DeadBlack Ice Write the foot of the effigy, apparently torn apart Dark Mirror Linwood Barclay Leah Giarratano by gigantic teeth and claws. Michel de Palma Barry Maitland Orion. PB. $32.99 Bantam. PB. Normally $32.95 from the Marseille murder squad is given the case, and the mystery he unravels stretches A&U. PB. $32.99 What do you do when you go Our special price $27.95 back to the time of the German occupation Despite its contemporary to pick your teenage daughter Giarratano’s third novel sees Detective Jill and beyond. But one dark secret eludes him. setting, the premise of up from her summer job only Jackson working undercover in one of Syd- Can it really be that a terrifying monster stalks Maitland’s latest sounds to find that, not only is she ney’s less desirable suburbs, dealing with her the bleak marshes of the Camargue? thoroughly Victorian – a missing, but no one there will high-class addict sister and equally high-class beautiful, learned young admit to even seeing her? dealer/lawyer boyfriend who, incidentally, woman succumbs painfully to Then, after you've reported her has a recently paroled mother-of-one after IN BRIEF arsenic in the London Library, missing, the police seem more him, hell-bent on revenge. It’s a lot to take A maladjusted teenager, leaving behind several friends, intent on pinning her murder on you than in, but there’s never a dull moment! There bullied on a popular blog, relatives and acquaintances, all with some- actually looking for her? You look yourself. You are so many twists and turns, you’ll find seeks vengeance in Jeffery thing to possibly gain from her death. The fall for scams, fly through three states on the yourself wondering how the author will tie Deaver’s Roadside Crosses victim led a complicated, secretive life, and premise of a blurry photo, uncover some it all up – but she does, and the reader is (Hodder & Stoughton, PB, DI Kolla and DCI Brock find themselves interesting ‘facts’ about your daughter’s new rewarded with one of the most satisfying $32.99), which serves as a chasing up all manner of strange leads. Not step-family, and risk the life of yourself and conclusions of any book I’ve read. DS timely warning for those who the least of them is the question of how one anyone around you to desperately make sure post too much personal procures a fatal quantity of arsenic in she doesn't become a statistic. I didn’t have one Shelley’s Heart information on the internet! Robyn Adair twenty-first-century London. A complex and dull train ride to work while I was reading this. Charles McCarry takes the reader back to a murky, 1920s Death and the Running Patterer satisfying tale with enough scarlet herrings Dani Solomon is from Readings Carlton Scribe. PB. $35 Sydney in (Michael Joseph, PB, $29.95), while Alex and intriguing bit players to keep the pages First published in 1995, McCarry’s gargan- Palmer’s Labyrinth of Drowning (HarperCol- turning well into the night. The Ignorance tuan political thriller finally gets an Australian lins, PB, $32.99) features Sydney in its Kate O’Mara is from Readings Carlton of Blood release. Franklin Mallory, former conserva- modern incarnation. Glass Key winner Haken tive US president, has just been defeated at Robert Wilson Nesser’s Woman with Birthmark (Macmillan, The Dark Vineyard the polls – but has proof of vote-tampering, HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 PB, $32.99), published in Sweden in the and believes himself the rightful winner. He’s Martin Walker Wilson has been turning out 1996, gets a local release this month and also heard rumours that President ‘Frosty’ Quercus. PB. Normally $29.95 wonderful novels for years, Walter Mosley kisses Easy Rawlins goodbye Our special price $24.95 Lockwood, a laconic liberal about to enter and won the CWA Gold and welcomes private dick Leonard McGill in his second term, ordered the assassination of A few months ago, when Walker’s crime Dagger in 1999 for A Small The Long Fall (Weidenfeld, PB, $32.99) the an Arabic terrorist. What follows is a dazzling debut Bruno, Chief of Police was reviewed Death in Lisbon. Yet, for first in his new series set in modern day New array of life or death power plays and uneasy in these pages, I hoped the formerly sleepy whatever reason, he’s always York. Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh Investi- strategic alliances that propel this believable St Denis would become a hotbed of death flown just under the radar in gates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder book to its nerve-wracking conclusion. KO and intrigue so we could hear more from Australia. Hopefully this (Piatkus, PB, $22.99) is also the first in a new the charming Bruno. Well, the food-loving sprawling, yet tightly plotted thriller – the last series, each one set in a different part of Asia hamlet now finds itself in the sights of a in his excellent Javier Falcon quartet – will THE Beast of and featuring the roving, rotund Singh. PI multinational wine conglomerate wanting to finally be the breakthrough. Starting with a the Camargue Vish Puri, another portly fellow, must solve a buy up residents’ land for a shiny, modern freak car accident on a Seville Highway Xavier-Marie Bonnot curious murder in Tarquin Hall’s Case of the vineyard. The mayor thinks it will bring involving a turncoat Russian mafia heavy and MacLehose Press. PB. Normally $32.95 Missing Servant (Hutchinson, PB, $32.95). more jobs and tourism, but Bruno smells a a suitcase full of Euros, this book has it all – Our special price $27.95 Finally, former drug smuggler Andrea Mohr’s rat – and following a vicious arson attack, terrorism, kidnapping, drug dealing, prostitu- Every year in Tarascon, as they have done jailhouse memoir Pixie: Inside a World of unwanted attention from a radical environ- tion, human trafficking and explosive for centuries, the Knights of the Tarasque Drugs, Sex and Violence (Hardie Grant, PB, mental group and the tragic and mysterious violence. It’s a fitting finale to Falcon, and if worship the effigy of a mythical beast. But $32.95) promises a no-holds-barred account deaths of two much-loved local residents, he you enjoy this you really must explore the the boundaries between myth and reality are of the Australian prison system and those who sadly realises he may be right. KO others – all top notch indeed. KO blurred when a mutilated body is found at are at its mercy. KO

New BooksBlood- Non-fictionDark Track In the Sanctuary Cooking with Baz Joseph O’Neill of Outcasts Sean Dooley Biography Harper. PB. $24.99 Neil White A&U. PB. $27.99 The Lost Mother The acclaimed author of Pier 9. PB. Normally $32.95 Sean Dooley’s father Baz is Anne Summers Netherland investigates his Our special price $27.95 your typical Aussie larrikin MUP. PB. $34.99 family’s past in this ruthlessly In the Sanctuary of Outcasts who loves his pub, his When I was younger, Anne honest memoir of sorts. is a most unusual story. Neil mates, his meat and, when changed my perception of Both his grandfathers were White was a magazine editor he finally returns home the world with her wonder- imprisoned during World who’d been focussed on many hours later to a cold ful Damned Whores and War II. His Irish grandfa- success and its trappings his meal, his family. Part God’s Police. Now, 25 years ther, an active IRA member, whole life. Rather than let autobiography, part memoir, later, I put my daughter to was interred as part of a wartime sweep of his investors know the true this book is an amusing look back at bed and pick up her latest IRA officers by the British. His Turkish financial state of his Australian suburban life in the seventies offering. Here, Anne begins grandfather, a glamorous hotelier, was also magazine, he began ‘kiting’ – illegally and eighties with an artistic mother married to determine the origin of a portrait of her imprisoned by the British, on a trip to Pal- depositing and drawing cheques between to a loud-mouthed bookmaker from the own mother from the stance of the painter, estine – and accused of being a German spy. two accounts at separate banks. When he wrong side of the tracks. Sean works with the owners, and consequently of herself and ‘An enormously intelligent plunge into the was discovered, he was sentenced to 18 his father as a bookie to pay his way her mother. It is a journey full of complex- World War II era that involves, among other months imprisonment at Carville, Louisi- through university but chooses bird-watch- ity and pain for all involved, told with elements, an unsolved 65-year-old murder, ana. Carville turns out to be the USA’s ing and literature over interminable honesty and regard for the women within a rusted pistol, clandestine train travel and national leprosarium. White is horrified to drinking and yarn sessions at the bar. the story. The Lost Mother brings into the assignations in the dark.’ – New York Times find the facility still contains 130 sufferers Among the smiles this memoir evokes is the light the history of Melbourne from the of the disease, in addition to 500 prison unconditional love shown by Baz towards 1930s to now – and the role of female Charles Dickens: inmates. At first he is reluctant to even Di when she is dying from her second bout artists (in particular Constance Stokes, the The Making of draw breath in proximity to the victims of of cancer. Emaciated, bedridden, in pain artist of the portrait) and social identities in the disease, afraid he will catch it. But over and having no appetite, Baz goes to shaping our cultural landscape. But most of a Literary Giant Christopher Hibbert time, his work duties in the cafeteria bring extraordinary lengths to tempt her palate all, Summers explores the choices women with an array of his deliciously home- Palgrave. PB. $39.95 him into contact with these enigmatic make between parenthood, creativity and cooked meals. It is during these heart- With passion and wit, Christopher Hib- people who have overcome adversity and love. I read through the night and marvel wrenching times that Baz and Sean bert details the crucial years that formed enjoy Carville as their home. White is then again that one writer could fit so much of reconnect and discover the glories in the Dickens the writer and the man. He explains able to look beyond their disfigurement, herself and of us all into one beautifully common ground they thought they’d lost. how Dickens transferred the smallest which in turns forces him to question the presented book. I finish and step a little Kath Lockett is a freelance reviewer fragments of his experience to his fiction, values and beliefs that have led to this point closer to understanding how choices also in his life and separated him from his Sean Dooley was a Readings Glenfern Fellow involve sacrifice. and how he interpreted his youth for both himself and his readers. An illuminating beloved family. Chris Gordon is Events Coordinator Annie Condon is a freelance reviewer at Readings look at a complex and baffling person. Readings Monthly July 2009 9 Raising My Voice encouraged by a blend of boredom and to in picket-fence splendour an hour outside Malalai Joya pay off the ‘Brideshead-imitation overdrafts’ New York City. She runs a successful design Macmillan. PB. $34.99 he’d racked up. He formed the Junior business and enjoys a coterie of friends, Q& A with Jeff Sparrow We often hear about Afghan women. We Officers’ Reading Club in the Iraqi desert, and Henry has just begun work on a food and amid descriptions of hard-ass officer book about umami, the Japanese idea of per- Your inquiry into the don’t often hear from them. Here, Malalai subject of killing obviously Joya, who at 25 years old was the youngest training and the reality of modern warfare – fection. When he suddenly drops dead from boredom, adrenaline and all – he describes an embolism, Metz’s life is thrown into chaos. began as a personal woman ever elected to the Afghan parlia- curiosity, spawned by the ment, passionately reveals the complexity of soldiers going into battle armed with She is stricken with grief, then humiliation, Penguin Classics, sketchpads and iPods bewilderment and rage, when she discovers grisly discovery of a contemporary Afghan politics through her souvenired soldier’s head own extraordinary experience. In her first ad- with speakers, and racing back to queue Henry had been engaged in multiple affairs, for Facebook. This is the voice of the new one for three years with a presumed friend, from Gallipoli and the dress to the parliament, she denounced many questions that sparked of her fellow parliamentarians for crimes millennium military, from one ‘over- who at the time of discovery is babysitting educated’ soldier’s perspective. her daughter. So begins her dig beneath the about the nature of violence. When did against humanity committed throughout the you realise it would become a book? jihadi and Taliban eras. Many perpetrators of deceptive surface of her life. In a deeply hon- atrocities (from rape to torture to mutilation The Lost Child est, intelligent and unputdownable memoir, Originally, I wanted to do a whole and massacres) now sit in parliament. Joya Julie Myerson Metz trawls through Henry’s emails, notes, project about the mummified skull believes that without justice for these war Bloomsbury. PB. $32.99 books, psychoanalysis and her own life, and from Gallipoli. It was such a shocking crimes, the country will always be unsafe and This motherhood memoir confronts the five women he was involved artefact – not simply because it was a corrupt. She was suspended from parliament, with a difference is well with. Seeing Metz deal with such loss and bullet-ridden body part, taken from the has received many death threats and travels worth the read simply to join betrayal is painful yet somehow captivating, trenches, but because it had been stored with bodyguards, but she continues to speak in the conversation it’s as is the way she dismantles her lost husband in a velvet lined display cabinet, like a of her hope that the trauma Afghans live with spurred. In the UK, this without vengeance, while seeking to under- precious collectable. I thought I could will be acknowledged, and that the men who book has been THE literary stand him. A top read. try to find out what had happened and authorised and committed these crimes will scandal of the year, sparking Jason Cotter is from Readings Carlton use that story to discuss the Great War, meet justice. Her bravery is breathtaking and furious debate about the a topic that’s long fascinated me. That inspirational. She is proud of her country and ethics or otherwise of its telling. Julie particular idea collapsed because there her history, but she is unafraid to highlight its Myerson, a decorated novelist, tells two simply weren’t enough clues – at least not black spots of despair and violence. Joya has stories here. The first is the story of a woman Non-Fiction that I could find – as to how the Turkish raised her voice: the least we can do is listen. who died young two centuries ago. But the The Lost Art of Sleep soldier’s head arrived in Australia. So for Pip Newling is from Readings Port Melbourne. lost child at the centre of the scandal is Julie’s Michael McGirr a while, I abandoned the whole thing. I She volunteers for Mahboba's Promise, an son Jake, whose cannabis addiction, only took it up again after reading a news Picador. PB. $32.99 Australian-Afghan organisation that assists aggressive behaviour and ejection from the article about how US soldiers in Iraq were Much-loved writer Michael destitute widows and orphans in Afghanistan. family home she details here. Jake has called collecting photos of corpses. It struck me McGirr, author of Things You Find out more at www.mahbobaspromise.org. his mother 'insane' and 'obscene'; Julie says that this was probably the same phenom- she’s trying to expose the issue of super- Get For Free, explores one of enon that led to the souveniring of a head The Junior Officers' strength cannabis and the effects its effects life’s great necessities – and from the battlefield of Gallipoli, all those on young users. 'You have to write the book luxuries – in this warm and years ago. So I started wondering what Reading Club witty book. The arrival of Patrick Hennessy you have to write,' she says. Read the book war in general – and killing in particular and decide for yourself ... baby twins reminded McGirr – did to soldiers and to society. Allen Lane. HB. $45 of the importance of sleep. When we think of soldiers, Here, he muses on its many benefits, mourns The book is written in such a way that the what comes to mind are Perfection reader accompanies you on your search for Julie Metz its demise, observes what the brain gets up testosterone-fuelled mid- to in the small hours, and makes acquain- answers, rather than being presented with western Americans. Patrick Scribe. PB. $32.95 tance with some of the great sleepers and your findings. I thought this made the book Hennessy enrolled in Metz and her writer husband, renowned for wakers of history, from Homer to Shake- particularly engaging, and encouraged the Sandhurst training academy his extravagant dinner parties and charis- speare to Peter Pan. reader to draw their own conclusions and straight from Oxford, matic charm, live with their young daughter interrogate their own beliefs. Why did you Killing decide to write it in this way? Jeff Sparrow It was partly forced upon me, in that MUP. PB. $34.99 very early it became apparent that getting It’s a confronting title – and a access to people and material would be confronting book, too. But difficult. So I wanted to foreground the Jeff Sparrow’s literal and process I took and the difficulties that metaphorical journey into I faced, to talk about the information the dark heart of this subject I couldn’t get as much as that which I is also completely and utterly found. But it also seemed appropriate fascinating. Sparrow is mildly in that most of the time I was genuinely intrigued, then distractedly conflicted about the material. In the obsessed, with the grisly discovery of a (slim) literature about killing, you can severed, boxed head of a Turkish soldier, kept find people describing combat as the as a trophy by a Gallipoli veteran and handed worst moment of their lives – then a min- SPIEL David Sornig in to Echuca police. What makes a person ute later, discussing how nothing they’ve A young architect abandons a Melbourne summer salvage and treasure something like that? What done since has been as exhilarating as the does that say about their attitude to killing? few minutes they were in battle. I kept for the streets his grandfather once walked. And how does the experience of killing A blind woman invites him to play a game. meeting different people who argued transform someone? Sparrow’s inquiry into the different things, and I wanted the reader The Spiel has begun. He must now face the scars origins of the head soon becomes something to share that experience of the perspective left by the terrible legacy of his ancestry. else entirely, as he hangs out with a Queensland shifting. Moreover, it’s an area in which roo shooter; tours a Melbourne abattoir; it’s difficult not to become emotional. 9781921401251 Fiction $26.95 Pb interviews a prison warden and an executioner; talks to America’s leading expert on methods of One of your findings was that once the THE UNFORGIVING ROPE Simon Adams execution; and meets with various Iraq process of killing becomes familiar, ‘the Colonial Western Australia was formed not only veterans. This is a fantastic work of reportage, participants worried more about efficiency by sea captains, but also by murderers, thieves, both accessible and deeply, intelligently than anything else’. That was also your own thoughtful. Like Jon Ronson in the more experience while helping out the Queen- rapists – and the hangman. Hear last words and playful Men Who Stare at Goats, or Maria sland roo shooter you interviewed. Did that watch as bodies dangle at the end of a noose. Tumarkin in Traumascapes and Courage, Jeff finding surprise you? What do you think it A social history of the dark side of WA’s past. Sparrow makes the reader a front-seat passen- says about human nature and violence? 9781921401220 History $32.95 Pb ger on the ride, inviting us to follow his logical Humans are social animals and so I sup- trail of breadcrumbs and make our own pose it shouldn’t seem strange that social conclusions alongside him. 'If you didn’t want THE SECRET CURE Sue Woolfe approval matters so much. But, yes, it to look, didn’t that suggest that there was a did surprise me how much I wanted the Eva, a cleaning lady in a scientific laboratory reason to open your eyes?' Jeff wonders at the approval of the guy who took me roo embarks on a secret mission to discover a cure beginning of his journey. Indeed. shooting, even though it’s not something for her autistic daughter. The Secret Cure is both Jo Case is Editor of Readings Monthly I’ve ever done before and I can’t imag- a love story and an exploration of new ways to be ine ever doing it again. In the book, I The Third Man factor quote Siegfried Sassoon, discussing some human, honourable and passionate. John Geiger particularly awful event in World War I 9780980296495 Fiction $26.95 Pb Text. PB. $34.95 and mentioning that, more than anything Again and again, people at the very edge of else, he was worried about making a fool death, often adventurers or survivors, report of himself. It does seem to be a common an unseen being beside them who encour- experience. ages them to make one final effort to survive. See www.readings.com.au for the full www.uwap.uwa.edu.au This phenomenon has occurred to all kinds version of this interview. of people all over the world, including 10 Readings Monthly July 2009

mountaineers, aviators, astronauts and 9/11 ties become worse? He marshals shocking survivors. The mysterious force has been evidence against the failures of the past, and explained as everything from hallucination argues provocatively that three decades of to divine intervention. Recent neurologi- liberal consensus on Aboriginal issues has cal research suggests something else. John collapsed. Combining original observation Geiger combines history, science and great with deep emotional engagement, The story-telling to explain this secret to survival. Politics of Suffering offers hope for a new era in Indigenous politics. F;H<;9J?ED J>;I;7B;:B;JJ;H The Corner @KB?;C;JP ;CC7:EDE=>K; David Simons & Ed Burns The Bardia Myth !DEEPLYHONEST &ROMTHEBESTSELLING Canongate. PB. $35 Craig Stockings INTELLIGENTMEMOIR AUTHOROF3LAMMERKIN REVEALINGTHE @0SYCHOLOGICALLYINFORMED Before The Wire, there was UNSW. HB. $59.95 COMPLEXITIESOFBETRAYAL FAST PACEDAND The Corner. David Simon The successful assault on the ANDFORGIVENESS EMINENTLYREADABLE and Ed Burns’ cult hit HBO Italian fortress town of Bardia, 4(%.%79/2+4)-%3 series is lauded by many led by Australian soldiers in critics as the best television 1941, was considered one of show ever made. In fact, one the greatest military feats in literary critic has infamously Australian history. Yet, it is asked why The Wire is so neglected by historians and much better than most contemporary barely known by Australians. J>; HE=;HÊIMEHB: novels. It’s Dickens does twentieth century After 55 hours of heavy fighting, the Austra- MH?J?D=9B7II @E;87=;7DJ Baltimore, dissecting a failed city – one of lians captured around 40,000 Italian prisoners @?D9OM?BB;JJ @0ROVOCATIVE WITTY DEEPLY America’s notorious crime capitals – layer by and large quantities of arms and equipment !DARKLYCOMICNOVEL MOVING ANDABOVEALL layer, from the perspectives of police, the – at a cost of 130 killed and 326 wounded. ABOUTAWRITINGCLASS ESSENTIAL!,!."52$)#+ drug denizens, ordinary citizens, the political Here is the full story. WITHAKILLERINITS !54(/2/&/54/&%$%. MIDST system, the media and the school system. Underpinning the show – and explaining the intricate accuracy of its portraits and the knifepoint savviness of its social analysis – are two monumental works of reportage that History display all the brilliant characterisation of D-Day The Wire. The first was Homicide, Simons’ Antony Beevor J>;., I>;BB;OÊI>;7HJ impressive first book (lauded by Norman Viking. HB. $59.95 8?==;IJB?;IED 9>7HB;IC997HHO Mailer), based on his year embedded in Antony Beevor is the master of the page- M7BBIJH;;J @3PECTACULAR!RICHAND Baltimore’s homicide unit. There, he met turning narrative history. Here he delivers @E>DH$J7B8EJJ WONDERFULLYREADABLEEXPOSÏ Burns, a homicide detective and former yet again. Even Stalin was awed by D-Day – @4ALBOTTISANORACLE OFTHEIDEOLOGICALAND schoolteacher who first teamed with him for by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. WITHATRACKRECORDHIS TECHNOLOGICALPERILSOFTHE this follow-up, which explores the other side Although the scale and the meticulous PREVIOUSBOOKSPREDICTED EARLYTWENTY lRSTCENTURY of the equation – life in the heart of the planning were unprecedented, the battle of THECOLLAPSEOFBOTHTHE "/"7//$7!2$ Normandy was still far more difficult than HOUSINGBUBBLEAND ghetto, on the drug corners, viewed from the THETECH STOCKBINGE inside over the course of a year, focusing on anyone imagined. The casualty-heavy war BEFOREIT",//-"%2'#/- one block and a handful of families. marked not just a generation, but the whole Gripping, heartbreaking, unmissable. of the post-war world, profoundly influenc- Jo Case is Editor of Readings Monthly ing relations between America and Europe. This is the most vivid and well-researched Also available: Homicide (David Simons, account yet of this event. mmm$iYh_X[fkXb_YWj_edi$Yec$Wk Canongate, PB, $34.95). ARMAGEDDON 1959: The Year IN RETROSPECT Everything Changed Kurt Vonnegut Fred Kaplan Wiley. HB. $47.95 Vintage. PB. $29.95 Pulitzer prize-winning writer There are those of us for Fred Kaplan looks past the whom the name Kurt 1960s to the year that really Vonnegut will always evoke a changed America. 1959 saw sense of magic. Vonnegut the pop culture rise of artists was one of those timeless like Norman Mailer and writers, a man who spoke Miles Davis; the onset of both for the times in which civil rights laws and protests; he lived, and beyond, into the Pill; America’s entry into the war in the future. Since Vonnegut's passing, in Vietnam; and the invention of the micro- April 2007, a few new books have ap- chip that launched the computer age. peared. This handsome volume, a collection This deeply researched, engrossingly told of previously unpublished short stories and book highlights an overlooked period in speeches, is a must for all fans of Vonnegut American history. and great writing. Exploring the twin themes of war and peace, these pieces sparkle with Vonnegut's typical wit, Balibo wisdom, and humanity, and they also reveal Jil Joliffe the growth of Vonnegut, as both a writer Scribe. PB. $29.95 and as a human being. Opening with a This marvellous work of memoir/history/ loving introduction from Vonnegut's son reportage (originally published as Cover Up) Mark, the book also contains a letter sent was the basis for the major new film of the by Vonnegut to his parents when the same name. The result of over 20 years of author was a prisoner of war. Illustrated research and personal investigations, Balibo throughout with Vonnegut's own art, this provides a first-hand account of the deaths book is as beautiful as it is valuable. of the five Australian journalists killed by Mark Azzopardi is from Readings Hawthorn the Indonesian military in 1975. Joliffe tells their personal stories and argues that the Australian government was complicit in a cover-up that was a key factor in Indonesia’s subsequent invasion and occupation of Australian History East Timor. The Politics of Suffering Peter Sutton The History MUP. PB. $34.99 of the Mafia Peter Sutton is a leading Salvatore Lupo Australian anthropologist Columbia University Press. PB. $74 who has lived and worked A fascinating true history of closely with Aboriginal perhaps the strangest of pop communities. In this ground- culture icons – the Sicilian breaking book, he asks why, Mafia. A leading historian after three decades of liberal on modern Italy and major thinking, has the suffering authority on its criminal and grief in so many Aboriginal communi- history, Salavtore Lupo sees Readings Monthly July 2009 11

the Mafia as an organisation and a mindset Standout dedicated to the preservation of tradition, providing its own social and political Natural History DESPERATELY releases from justice. This definitive account focuses on Wildflower several crucial periods of transition: the Mark Seal SEEKING Australia’s Italian unification of 1860 to 1861, the Orion. PB. $32.99 murder of noted politician Notarbartolo, Wildflower is the story of small publishers fascist repression of the Mafia, the Allied Joan Root, one half of a MADONNA invasion of 1943, social conflicts after each great wildlife film-making world war, and the major murders and partnership, with her husband trials of the 1980s. Allan. They produced some of ey Told Me I our best-loved documentary Had To Write is The Stalin Archives films and changed the way we Kim Miller Jonathan Brent view nature – especially the $17.95 Scribe. PB. $29.95 wildlife inhabitants of Africa. But this is Joan’s As the editorial director of Yale story. She was born in Nairobi to a British “ is is a must read.” University Press, Brent was father and South African mother and lived — Terry O’Connell, one of the first westerners to much of her life in Lake Naivasha, on a beau- Director Real Justice go to the former Societ Union tiful 80-acre property. She was brought up to Blamed for the death seeking access to the Soviet be self-reliant and was an only child. Her idyl- of his mother and archives for publication. A task lic life and film-making partnership changed carrying a terrible both wanted and feared by after 20 years, when Allan met Jennie Ham- secret from the past, Russians in equal measure: a mond, whom he would later marry. Joan Clem is now in a school for toxic teenagers. need for recognition of a new openess, the had to find her own voice – which she did And that rev-head counsellor wants him to need for money, the desire for historical thorough conservation work, especially the write letters. reconcilation, yet also a symbolic surrender of safe guarding of Lake Naivasha’s fish habitats. Ford Street Publishing the self. And what he finds, as much outside Mark Seal captures the essence of a shy and the archives as in, is a country hopelessly lost introverted girl, for a time obscured by her After her mother’s death in 2005, author between worlds, confused, faltering; the flamboyant husband, who remains a strong and journalist Anne Summers inherits a Swimming nation, like every contract he tries to sign, on and resolute woman, until her untimely portrait of her mother as a child. Drawn to Enza Gandolfo the brink of collapse. The story is both a travel death. This book is enriched by a cast of real investigate the story behind the portrait $29.95 memoir and intellectual quest – searching for a life wildlife personalities, such as David At- and its artist, she soon discovers there was place and a truth that are ever elusive. He tenborough, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and also a second painting of her mother: this Kate Wilks believes captures marvelously the bundle of contradic- Joy and George Adamson. This engaging read time as the Madonna. she has a good tions that was Moscow in the early nineties: truly illuminates your sense of wonderment at life until a chance the bizarre politics whereby the more the ‘truth’ wildlife – and at this determined woman. In a powerful exploration of art, loss and encounter with of the Stalinist system came out, the more Michael Awosoga-Samuel is love, Anne Summers enthrals us with a her ex-husband. so-called Communists and statists clung to his from Readings Carlton gripping narrative that is part art history, part detective story and part meditation on Swimming is a image and the excesses of that system – anti- lyrical story of one motherhood. woman’s journey. semitic, authoritarian, and nationalistic. Roger’s World: A novel about loss Mirroring this were the ‘liberals’ – crony Towards a New and survival, friendship and love, creativity capitalists, gangsters, and corrupt bureaucrats, Understanding AVAILABLE NOW and fulfilment, it will resonate with anyone epitomising the worst excesses of capitalism. of Animals whose life hasn’t turned out as planned. Andrew Cornish is Manager Charles Siebert WITH SPINE WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS BOOKS Short-listed for the ABC Fiction Award 2008. of Readings Carlton Scribe. PB. $29.95 BOOKS WITH SPINE Vanark Press A moving and insightful book that sheds www.mup.com.au new light on our understanding and treat- e Whorl & e ment of animals. Roger is a 28-year-old Pallin Politics chimpanzee, a former circus entertainer who New from Palgrave Macmillan Ian Nichols THE Spectre at prefers human company to that of his fellow chimps. Siebert tells the story of his relation- $28.95 the Feast Carrying the Fire ship with Roger, but also the larger story Michael Collins flew in both the Gemini 10 and Andrew Gamble Apollo 11 space missions in the 1960s. A coming of age Palgrave. PB. $39.95 of his travels – and close encounters of the animal kind – in Africa and the US. He tells The years that have quest leads Tom to After a long feast of prosperity in the western passed since Neil discover that being world, the crisis in the financial markets has of elephants suffering a collective nervous Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael different has its ad- conjured up an old spectre – the spectre of breakdown and reveals the ‘dark heart’ of vantages. YA readers captive chimpdom – and suggests a new way Collins piloted the will love following capitalist crisis. Past crises have been charac- Apollo 11 spacecraft terised by threat of slump, collapse, polarisa- forward in our fraught relationship with the to the moon in July Tom’s journey, with animal world. 1969 have done plenty of action on tion, conflict, and even war, spreading to all nothing to alter the the high seas, through enchanted forests and parts of the global economy. This important fundamental wonder in battles against man and beast. Dust jacket new book by a leading authority sets the cur- of the event: man folds out to display a detailed drawn map. rent financial crisis in historical context and reaching the moon remains one of the Tactile Books assesses its global consequences, how far it Food & Wine great eventsótechnical might go, and what is to be done. Vefa’s Kitchen and spiritualóof our lifetime. In this Vefa Alexiadou remarkable book, extempore 2 Phaidon. HB. $69.95 Michael Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the Vefa Alexiadou, the leading drama, beauty, and humor of that adventure. Miriam Zolin (ed.) authority of Greek cusine, $32.95 Pb, ISBN 9780374531942 $30.00 Business Publish August 2009, 512 pages Sages: Warren Buffett, presents the first authoritative Henry Holt And Company and all-encompassing Greek Writing Art Jazz George Soros, Paul recipe book in English. Doing Dread Improvisation Volcker and the for Greek cuisine what the Philip Alcabes, the City University of New York. Maelstrom of the hugely successful Silver Spoon The average individual Forget what you Markets is far more likely to die think you know did for Italian, it contains in a car accident than about jazz and im- Charles R. Morris more than 700 fully updated, straightforward from a communicable Black Inc. PB. $29.95 and mouth-watering recipes. Aimed at all disease...yet we are provised music. still much more fearful Contributions by Throughout the violent lovers of Mediterranean food, the book will of the epidemic. Even Bill Leak, Mandy Sayer, Pi Oh and more, and financial disruptions of the appeal to anyone who loves to cook easy, at our most level- packed with interviews, essays, fiction, poetry, past several years, three men tempting and delicious dishes, from salads headed, the thought photographs, prints, reviews and a bonus CD of an epidemic can have stood out as beacons of and mezedes in summer, to slowly simmered inspire terror. As Philip of great jazz. A feast for the eyes and ears. judgment and wisdom: extempore meat dishes and crisp filo pastries in winter. Alcabes persuasively Warren Buffett, George Soros argues in Dread, and Paul Volcker. Though our anxieties about epidemics are created SPUNC represents more than 60 small publishers their experiences and styles not so much by the around Australia. Check them out online today. vary – Buffett is the canny stock market Parenting germ or microbe in question-or the actual risks of investor; Soros is the reader of shifting Attack of the Fifty contagion-but by the unknown, the undesirable, global tides in trade and currencies; and and the misunderstood. Foot Hormones $49.95 Hb, ISBN 9781586486181 Volcker is the regulator and governor, sheriff Emma Tom Publish August 2009, 336 pages and clean-up crew – they have a lot in Public Affairs HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 common. Applying his own deep understand- SPUNC This frank, funny book about women’s expe- The Small Press Underground ing of markets and finance, prolific writer and rience of pregnancy will appeal to the same Networking Community former banker Morris brilliantly distils the women who’ve embraced Kaz Cooke’s Up the wisdom and experience of these men. spunc.com.au Duff. Like Kaz, Emma Tom goes behind the 12 Readings Monthly July 2009

myths and platitudes to look at real women’s trauma in a sex offender. Valent articulates and real experiences. She has interviewed hun- grapples with ubiquitous human issues such dreds of pregnant women and sympathetic as morality, trauma, illness and death. professionals to reveal how women feel, cope and stay sane during pregnancy. She also shares her hilarious pregnancy diary, exploring issues like strangers thinking it’s okay to grope Philosophy your groin and the temptation to eat for not Therapy of Desire: just two, but three or four. Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics Martha Nussbaum Princeton University Press. PB. $68 Theology The Epicureans, Skeptics, The Case for God and Stoics practiced philoso- Karen Armstrong phy not as a detached Bodley Head. PB. $32.95 intellectual discipline, but as Bestselling books by Richard a worldly art of grappling Dawkins, Christopher with issues of daily and urgent Hitchens and others prove the human significance: the fear current popularity of of death, love and sexuality, anti-religion. On the other anger and aggression. Like medicine, phi- hand, there’s still a real hunger losophy to them was a rigorous science aimed for spirituality in some sectors both at understanding and at producing the of the community. Former flourishing of human life. Martha Nussbaum nun Karen Armstrong is one of the world’s examines texts of philosophers committed leading writers and thinkers on religion. Here, to a therapeutic paradigm and recovers a she traces the history of faith from the valuable source for our moral and political Paleolithic Age to the present, showing that thought of today. science and religion have often peacefully co-existed. She suggests that if we draw creatively on the insights of the past, we can build a faith that speaks to the needs of our troubled and polarised age. Music Revolution in the Air: Songs of Bob Dylan 8E@:<>@ICC@B<D< JB

nology and history as it is being played out Happy Birthday by this generation. It’s an ambitious project to

Thames & HUDSON ! ‘attempt to come to terms with a generation July is the month to celebrate 60 years of that has already excited the curiosity of sociol- Thames & Hudson – consistent producer ogists, theorists, journalists, marketing experts of beautiful books. One lucky Readings and intellectuals’. A brief foray into the reader A subtle love story and customer can win a set of 20 titles from their has given me the encouraging news that tech- environmental fable for excellent WOA series. See p2 for details. nology is sexier than fashion/fragrances, and that actually fundamentally there’s not a huge our times Kings Way: difference between the Baby Boomers, Gen The Beginnings of X and this lot. I am, however, very interested The river wife—part human, part fi sh—has in the art they are making, not so much as a duty to tend the river, but instead falls in Australian Graffiti, to check out new ‘trends’ (yuk, get your own Melbourne 1983-93 love with a man. Tender and melancholy, trend), but because it seems their techno- her story speaks of desire and love, mothers Cubrilo, Harvey & Stamer savvy selves make them pretty informed about and daughters, kinship and care, sacrifi ce Miegunyah. HB. $64.99 politics, history and global affairs, and give A comprehensive account of them a firm grasp of the creative possibilities and wisdom. With watery refl ections of the the first decade of the graffiti of new media. Coupled with interests in fami- Orpheus myth, this otherworldly tale is a writing subculture in ly, community, religion, identity, and possibly stunningly beautiful original. Melbourne, Australia. the notion that cosmopolitanism is about the Beginning in 1983, as the challenge of difference, a lot of these artists New York break-dancing work with collectives as well as individually. craze was sweeping the globe, They seem an interesting bunch and I look Kings Way tells the story of forward to finding out more about them. A major new crime series at the the development of a hardcore underground Margaret Snowdon is Art & Design Buyer at scene of local 'writers' and their commit- Readings Carlton sharp end of urban life ment to 'getting up'. These writers pioneered the elaborate spray-paint murals that now Cy Twombly: Contemporary London is a city where one dominate Melbourne's cityscape. The Natural World man’s crime is another man’s justice. When James Rondeau a paedophile is brutally murdered in his own Younger than Jesus: Yale. HB. $69.95 home, it’s just another day in the life of D.I. The Artist Directory This beautiful book presents beautiful and Staffe. Nothing is simple, least of all Staffe’s The New Museum poetic work by Twombly on the subject of personal life, as he digs for answers into the Phaidon. PB. $75 nature. Featuring more than 30 paintings, grime of the city and under pressure from his works on paper, photographs and sculptures boss and the media. A gritty, exhilarating ride Younger than Jesus: created during the last decade, the subjects The Reader include landscapes, seascapes and gardens. from the new voice in British crime. The New Museum Looking at these works (I wish they were the Steidl. PB. $75 originals), I mourn for those who have spent The exhibition, at the New Museum, New the last 30 years attempting to theoretically York, presents 50 artists from 25 countries, all dismiss beauty to the dumpbin of bland, and born after 1976, chosen by a range of cura- feel sorry for the all the abstract paintings tors around the globe through an interactive out there trying to be beautiful, but falling network of referrals and informants. The into that same dumpbin. MS accompanying books document and profile the artists, and present a selection of essays ex- Exactitude: ploring the ramifications of art, culture, tech- Hyperrealist Art Today John Russell Taylor Thames & Hudson. HB. $105 Published to accompany an exhibition at the >9dCdi8dbZIdNdj7n8]VcXZ Plus One Gallery in London, this astonishing New in July book presents a selection of contemporary 6YVdW^Ig^X^VClVjWVc^ artists working in a figurative, hyperrealist =VkZndjZkZggZXZ^kZYVcZbV^a[gdbC^\Zg^VcZZY^c\ndjgWVc` style. It includes work ranging from still lifes VXXdjciYZiV^ah4?dn[ja!igZbZcYdjhan[jccnVcY]ZVgi"lVgb^c\!i]^h and extreme close-ups to large-scale cityscapes YZWjicdkZa\^kZhV[VhX^cVi^c\k^Zld[i]ZLZhiZgcldgaY[gdbVkZgn and landscape painting, and features an Y^[[ZgZciVc\aZ#EZg[ZXi[dg[Vchd[@^gVc9ZhV^!6gVk^cY6Y^\VVcY enormous range of artists from around the 8]^bVbVcYVC\do^6Y^X]^Z# world, all of them working in a meticulous '.#..LZ^YZc[ZaYC^XdahdcIgVYZEVeZgWVX` fashion, all of them seeing the brushstroke as subservient to the image itself. This large volume is great value and features a style that is always intriguing, and particularly so with a >6bCdi6HZg^Va@^aaZg Norton contemporary twist. MS 9VcLZaah HB $42.95 >cigdYjX^c\VYVg`!Xdb^XVahZg^Zh[dgiZZcV\Zgh[gdbVi]g^aa^c\VcY Jeff Koons Y^hijgW^c\cZlkd^XZ^ciZZcV\ZÒXi^dc#?d]cldg`h^c]^h[Vb^anÉh From the best-selling author of The Eckhard Schneider, bdgijVgnVcY]VhVcdWhZhh^dcl^i]hZg^Va`^aaZgh#=Z]VhValVnh Body Never Lies comes an astoundingly Ingrid Sischy et al bVcV\ZYid`ZZe]^hYVg`h^YZ]^YYZcWjil^i]VYZbdchiVa`^c\]^h moving and perceptive work on how Taschen. HB. $160 ]dbZidlc!?d]c^h[dgXZYidh]dl]^higjZcVijgZ### adults can finally overcome the traumas From kinky to kitsch to &+#..=ZVYa^cZEVeZgWVX` of their childhood. conceptual, Jeff Koons’ art is anything but conformist. Since he stirred up the art world establishment in the HVXgZY=ZVgih 1980s with his unapologetic HVgV]9jcVci basketball sculptures and I]Z]^YYZc]^hidgnd[a^[ZigVeeZY^cVH^miZZci]8ZcijgnXdckZci stainless steel toy blow-ups, ^hWgdj\]iVa^kZWni]^hldcYZg[jahidgniZaaZg!gZcdlcZY[dg]Zg Koons has been known as somewhat of a WZhihZaa^c\>iVa^VcGZcV^hhVcXZcdkZah!I]Z7^gi]d[KZcjhVcY>c bad boy – a reputation he confirmed in the i]Z8dbeVcnd[i]Z8djgiZhVc# early 1990s via works depicting him having ('#..K^gV\dIgVYZEVeZgWVX` sex with then-wife Cicciolina, the Italian Wiley porn star-cum-politician. But at the same HB time he charmed the art world with Puppy, $47.95 a 40-foot tall floral terrier that now resides DcZ9Vn The events of 1959 laid the groundwork at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, 9Vk^YC^X]daah for the turbulent decades that followed. Spain. Koons’ exploitation of the banal, in From Ginsberg’s Howl to civil rights the aggrandisement and/or embodiment of 7Z[dgZ=VggnbZiHVaan!WZ[dgZ8djgicZnbZi@jgi!WZ[dgZ6c\^ZbZi laws, the Vietnam War, birth control and kitsch and pop imagery, has become his 7gVY###:bbVVcY9ZmiZgbZZi[dgi]ZÒghii^bZdci]Zc^\]id[i]Z^g the Space Race, the year triggered a trademark; detractors may delight in their \gVYjVi^dc#Idbdggdli]Znbjhi\di]Z^ghZeVgViZlVnh#Hdl]ZgZ vital period in history. naysaying, but Koons’ work commands l^aai]ZnWZdci]^hdcZYVncZminZVg46cYi]ZnZVgV[iZgi]Vi46cY ZkZgnnZVgi]Vi[daadlh4IlZcinnZVgh!ildeZdeaZ!DC:96N# millions at auction and his position at the ('#..=dYYZgHidj\]idcIgVYZEVeZgWVX` forefront of contemporary art is indisput- able. MS

www.wiley.com lll#]VX]ZiiZ#Xdb#Vj 14 Readings Monthly July 2009

a lot. There are a lot of murders though and of war, and more than a year since the Battle lots of wizz fizz jokes. I love wizz fizz and so of Cadell. On a mountainside in Elster, Bea, must Andy Griffiths. The illustrations by who has lived among the elves all this time, Terry are very good and make the story even longs to see her human friends again. When weirder. Even C3PO and R2D2 are mixed up strange creatures disturb the tranquillity of Kids’ BooksQuirky, homespun, crafty; this is a delight- Board Books with it all. There is a little picture of this guy the mountain forests and her grandfather ful picture story with a contemporary look called William Shakespeare on pretty much disappears, she calls for Marcel's help ... Ten Little Fingers and an ageless message. KK and Ten Little Toes every page. He lets you know how many pages you have read. I thought this was great Mem Fox & Helen Oxenbury (illus.) Bounce Poetry and read it very quickly. If so many people Natasha Friend Puffin. Board. $16.95 hadn’t died I would have given it ten out of From two of the most A Child’s Introduction Scholastic. PB. $14.99 to Poetry ten, but because of the deaths it loses a point. What happens when you’re forced to leave the gifted picture book Andras Kerekes is eight years old creators of our time, Michael Driscoll only life you’ve ever known, to move in with a bunch of strangers? When you can’t stand the here is a celebration of ABC. HB & CD. $24.99 Young Adult babies and the joy they A fabulous introduction to a wide range woman your father’s in love with? When you bring to everyone, of classic and contemporary poetry, from Suite Scarlett find yourself falling hard and fast for your 20- everywhere. nursery rhymes and nonsense verse to ballads, Maureen Johnson year-old stepbrother? Welcome to the world haikus and sonnets. Readers will meet famous Scholastic. PB. $16.99 of 13-year-old Evyn Linney, who juggles the Lost and Found poets throughout history, including William If your family owns a hotel in New York City perils of a new stepfamily and a new life, Oliver Jeffers Blake, Hilaire Belloc and Maya Angelou. and on your fifteenth birthday you get your while talking daily to her dead mother, the touchstone she’s always relied on. Harper. Board. $14.99 own suite, it seems you would have it made Middle Fiction A gorgeous story about friendship and dis- for the summer. As Scarlett relates it, it’s not THE Ask and covery – and the rowboat journey of a boy The Greatest Blogger quite that glamorous when the hotel is run and a penguin to the South Pole. entirely by your family and getting your own the Answer: Chaos in the World Walking Book Two Andrew McDonald suite means being responsible for its guests and Picture Books cleaning. Scarlett has little hope that her sum- Patrick Ness Hardie Grant. PB. $16.95 mer will be exciting – what with all the house- Walker. HB. $29.95 Hello Baby The Greatest Blogger in the keeping and her richer friends away for the The nail-biting sequel to The Mem Fox & World is a funny mystery summer – but all that changes with the arrival Knife of Never Letting Go. Steve Jenkins (illus.) book that features a nerd in of a rich, mysterious guest (a former Broad- Todd has carried a desperately Viking. HB. $24.95 disguise, a person who’s as way star) who hires Scarlett as her assistant. wounded Viola the last few Clever monkey babies, dusty lion babies, sleepy boring as cardboard, a friend Throw into the mix her brothers’ acting troupe feet into Haven ... and right leopard babies, hairy warthog babies. But who always makes money, a performing Shakespeare in the parking garage into the hands of their worst which baby is the most treasured one of all? little brother who insists on and his sexy actor friend and Scarlett’s summer enemy, Mayor Prentiss. In wearing a tuxedo, a girl who becomes a fantastic, funny romp through New exchange for Viola’s safety, Peek-a-Poo: wears huge boots to school, a duck called York. I fell in love with Scarlett and her wry, Todd is forced to work with the Mayor in What’s in your Nappy? Barcode, and the most fun teacher ever, who sarcastic take on the craziness that surrounds creating a new society for the settlers to come, Guido van Genechten makes school fun! This book makes you feel her and her family. After all, how can you go one based on bringing an ominous-sounding connections between the characters and past Hamlet performed on unicycles?! order to the chaos of New Prentisstown. But Bloomsbury. PB. $15.99 yourself – and kids you know. Charlie Ridge, Yes, this is all about animals and their poo, Marie Matteson is from Readings what secrets are hiding just outside of town? has a big goal in life: to be the world’s greatest Port Melbourne And who are the mysterious Answer? and as one who has a slight aversion to the blogger. But with competition like nasty old plethora of bum and fart books around, I Dr Maryloaf, his hopes of winning aren’t very sighed inwardly when I first saw it. Aaah, but Stolen The Silver Blade high. But suddenly, he has a heap to blog Lucy Christopher Sally Gardner this is a poo book with a purpose. Mouse, who about, including a mystery to solve on who Chicken House. PB. $17.99 Orion. HB. $28.99 is full of curiosity, wants to know what all his stole the unshorn merino (a big, fluffy sheep). Gemma is standing in line for coffee at Bang- animal friends have in their nappies. Lift the Charlie, Cardboard (aka Lance), Phattius Another historical adventure from the author kok Airport, when a cute guy helps her out, The Red Necklace flap and see – horse’s three round droppings, Beats and the Boots (aka Eleanor Cameron) of . With Sido safely in Eng- drugs her and kidnaps her. She wakes up in a doggie’s poo with a pointy end, rabbit’s seven all work together to solve the mystery, and land and the Terror at its height, Yann returns rough bare room in the middle of the outback, pellets etc. But when they all want to see what is Charlie has to find time for blogging. How to France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees where the only person visible is Ty (the cute in mouse’s nappy, they are in for a big surprise. will this catastrophe end? Then, when he gets who will otherwise face the guillotine. But guy from the airport). What follows is a fas- It’s empty. Because mouse uses the potty for a lot of surprises, what will Charlie be when Sido is kidnapped, he must use all his cinating thriller in which Gemma tries to get his little pellets. Now everyone wants to sit on thinking? To find out, you’ll have to read! strength and courage to outwit the evil Count the potty. It’s fun, silly and eminently useful! Felix Wilkins is in Year Four at Kingsville back home and Ty tries to convince her that Kalliovski, and rescue her for a second time. Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton Primary. After reading this book, he is a blogger. home is with him in the vast central deserts Sally Gardner brings to life the horrors of the of Australia. Lucy Christopher was raised in French Revolution, complete with intrepid Bugs in a Blanket Just Macbeth Melbourne and now lives in the UK and she heroism and a touching love story. Beatrice Alemagna has done an amazing job of portraying English Andy Griffiths Gemma’s fear and awe of the vast middle of Free Stories: Phaidon. PB. $16.95 & Terry Denton (illus.) A story told in wool embroidery and Australia. What sounds like a straightforward Celebrating Human Pan Macmillan. PB. Normally $14.99 thriller becomes a nuanced, complex take on a Rights collage, this is the rather endearing tale Our Special Price $11.95 of Fat Little Bug’s party. The bugs have landscape of beauty and danger and one girl’s Amnesty International This is the story of three fight to regain control of her life. MM always lived in the same old blanket at friends who make a magic Walker. PB. $17.95 the bottom of the garden, each in their potion that sends them back The Book from To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of own hole, never seeing each other till the into time. There they meet the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, party brings them together. They find how Baden Dark Walker Books and Amnesty International three witches that confuse James Moloney different each looks from the other quite their identity and there does have joined together to create a short-story unexpected and are initially judgemental of not seem to be anything they Harper. PB. $19.99 collection for young adults, celebrating what each other. But they soon begin to discover can do about that. There are The compelling conclusion to the Baden it means to be free. Authors include David they are different, well ... just because they parts that are really funny and made me smile Dark trilogy. Three years have passed since Almond, Eoin Colfer, Roddy Doyle, Ursula are. Which doesn’t matter. So let’s party. Marcel defeated Mortregis, the great dragon Dubosarsky and Margaret Mahy.

O OW OUT AUGUSTU T1 T N AUG 1 OU THE BEST

August 21 – 30 2009 NOVELS Federation Square Program revealed in The Age and on the MWF website Friday 17 July www.mwf.com.au 2009 Bookings open 17 July 2009 Sign up for our regular e-bulletin to keep informed onAugust the MWF website 21 – 30 2009 ARE Federation Square !/cUcabProgram ' revealed in The Age and SLEEPERS on the MWF website Friday 17 July www.mwf.com.au4SRS`ObW]\A_cO`S2009 Bookings open 17 July 2009 WHERE Sign up for our regular e-bulletin to keep informed on the MWF website >`]U`O[`SdSOZSRW\BVS/USO\ROb sleeperspublishing.com bVS;E4eSPaWbS4`WROg %8cZg ' STORIES 0]]YW\Ua]^S\ %8cZg ']\( “Gullifer’s bitterly hilarious “An unflinching examination eee[eTQ][Oc MEET lampoon portrays real estate of familial and communal AWU\c^T]`]c``SUcZO`SPcZZSbW\b]YSS^W\T]`[SR agents as grotesques in an out- bonds. Masterful, poignant, landish competition that... is powerful and true... A won- devastatingly familiar.” derful novel.” —T B I —C T

MWF_CAE_127.5x88.75_1/8.indd 1 22/6/09 10:11:42 AM Readings Monthly July 2009 15

ReadingsBargains on the web : New books areFamous regularly added to our website. Bargai Click on the Bargains tabn at www.readings.com.au.Table

Girl of His Dreams Cucina Del Sole THE Angry Island: Shadow of Donna Leon Nancy Harmon Jenkins Hunting the English the Silk Road PB. Was $32.95. Now $13.95 HB. Was $59.95. Now $19.95 A.A. Gill Colin Thubron An intriguing mystery about Nancy Harmon Jenkins has HB. Was $47.95. Now $14.95 HB. Was $49.95. Now $17.95 a ten-year-old gypsy girl, lived in Italy for 15 years. In London’s infamous Sunday Out of the heart of China found dead in a canal, in Cucina Del Sole, she describes Times columnist presents a into the mountains of possession of a man’s watch this wonderful region, from collection of politically Central Asia, across northern and wedding ring, and Naples to the toe of Italy, that incorrect essays critiquing the Afghanistan and the plains of suffering from the effects of a is still unspoiled by tourism – cultural eccentricities he Iran and into Kurdish sexually transmitted disease. with its own rich culinary identifies beneath British Turkey, Colin Thubron traditions. society’s calm and refined covers some 7000 miles in surface. eight months Indignation The RISE AND FALL Phillip Roth OF THE GREAT EMPIRES Rome: Splendours of Dance of the HB. Was $39.95. Now $15.95 Andrew Taylor an Ancient Civilization It's America, 1951, the Happy Shades HB. Was $45. Now $19.95 second year of the Korean Anna Maria Liberati Andrew Taylor provides lucid THE View from War and a studious, intense & Fabio Bourbon and elegant descriptions Castle Rock youngster from Newark, New HB. Was $69.95. Now $29.95 of individual empires, Alice Munro Jersey is beginning his This book celebrates the characterising the social and PB. Were $24.95 each. Now $12.95 each sophomore year on the diversity and extraordinary cultural values of each, and pastoral, conservative campus riches of this great culture in identifying reasons for their of Ohio’s Winesburg College. some of the finest photo- rise and eventual fall. graphs ever taken of Roman The Boyds monuments, art treasures, Brenda Niall Magnifico: cities and landscapes. PB. Was $45. Now $15.95 The Brilliant Life The extraordinary story of of Lorenzo De’ Medici Jewish Literacy the Boyd family: Australia’s Joseph Telushkin most remarkable artistic Miles Unger HB. Was $65. Now $19.95 HB. Was $39.95. Now $24.95 dynasty. Brenda Niall tells Alice Munro recently won the International A meticulous and entertain- Telushkin ranges through all the fascinating history of the Man Booker Prize. The judges said: ‘Alice ing study of one of the great of Jewish history and lives and work of this family Munro is mostly known as a short story characters of the Italian literature to extract the of painters, potters, sculptors, writer and yet she brings as much depth, Renaissance, who ruled enduring facts, ideas and architects and writers. wisdom and precision to every story as most Florence during one of the stories one needs to know in novelists bring to a lifetime of novels.’ most fascinating periods of order to be a well-informed, The Pankhursts Here are two of her brilliant collections. Martin Pugh Italy’s turbulent history. modern Jew. Packed with incident and PB. Was $29.95. Now $12.95 incisive research, this work succeeds in being The suffragettes outraged both popular and scholarly. Victorian society – yet behind the protests, arrests, Books and hunger strikes, the family lives of Emmeline Larry McMurtry Pankhurst and her daughters, HB. Was $48. Now $15.95 FREE EXHIBITION THE BOOK- the movement’s leading In this work of extraordinary STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA TO-FILM lights, were just as dramatic. charm, grace and good humor, McMurtry recounts CLUB his life as both a reader and a Life of Picasso Vol 3: See the big-screen adaptations of writer, how the countless THE TRIUMPHANT YEARS, three great Victorian books. 1917-1932 books he has read worked to form his literary tastes, while The Getting of Wisdom John Richardson giving us a lively look at the Thurs 2 July, 6pm PB. Was $59.95. Now $16.95 eccentrics who collect, sell or simply lust Introduced by The Age film critic John Richardson has after rare volumes. Philippa Hawker. produced the long-awaited (PG, 98mins, courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment) third volume of the definitive Rome 1960: Monkey Grip biography, based on exhaus- The Olympics that ------tive research full of original, Thurs 16 July, 6pm Changed the World Venue: State Library of Victoria, groundbreaking new insights Introduced by film critic and academic David Maraniss 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne into Picasso's life and work. Brian McFarlane. HB. Was $53.95. Now $16.95 (Use Entry 3, La Trobe Street, for (M, 101mins, courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment) Rome saw the first doping Monkey Grip and Reading by Design)

scandal, the first commercially Romulus, My Father LUCKY CITY: Bookings: 03 8664 7099, Thurs 23 July, 6pm televised Summer Games, the THE FIRST GENERATION [email protected] or Introduced by Brian McFarlane. first athlete paid for wearing a AT BALLARAT 1851-1901 online at slv.vic.gov.au/goto/ (MA, 100mins, courtesy of Arenafilm and Footprints Film) certain brand of shoes. In the whatson Weston Bate Complimentary refreshments provided. heat of the Cold War, every ------PB. Was $45. Now $13.95 move was judged for its Lucky City explores man’s propaganda value. Using the These events complement the interaction with the environ- meticulous research and sweeping narrative free exhibition The Independent READING ment, and shows how, from a Type, which celebrates Victoria’s style that have become his trademark, rich and diverse literary history. makeshift boom town, Maraniss tells the story of Rome, 1960. BY DESIGN Ballarat grew, matured and Exhibition open 10am–5pm daily Thurs 16 July, 1–2pm sponsored such images of Caravaggio: (to 9pm Thursdays) Hear about current directions in Australian itself as ‘Golden City’ and Painter of Miracles until 25 October 2009 book design, with Miegunyah Press Publisher ‘City of Gardens’. Francine Prose slv.vic.gov.au/goto/independent-type Tracy O’Shaughnessy, award-winning book Leonard Woolf HB. Was $39.95. Now $16.95 Subscribe to the State Library’s designers Mary Callahan and Trisha Garner, monthly e-newsletter at and Stephen Banham of Letterbox. Victoria Glendinning Renowned writer Francine Prose presents the brief but slv.vic.gov.au/goto/newsletter Presented in association with the State of Design Festival. HB. Was $59.95. Now $19.95 tumultuous life of one of the A shrewdly perceptive and greatest of all painters with ------lively portrait of a complex PRESENTED BY passion and acute sensitivity. man of extremes and contradictions: a fighter for This project is supported by the Victorian Government polical causes, friend of through Arts Victoria’s Major Touring Initiative Maynard Keynes and husband of Virginia Woolf. 16 Readings Monthly July 2009 Ghost Town DVD $39.95. Bluray $49.95 Bertram Pincus (Ricky New Release DVDs Gervais) is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies DVD OF THE MONTH Duplicity You, The Living unexpectedly, but is miracu- Love The Beast Released 22 July. DVD $44.95. Bluray $49.95 DVD $29.95 lously revived after seven Released 15 July. DVD $34.95 Outwit. Outspy. Outsmart. Hypnotic and darkly minutes, he wakes up to What if you were a Holly- Outplay. Then get out. CIA humorous, You, The Living is discover that he now has the wood movie star with an officer Claire Stenwick and a uniquely Scandinavian take annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, obsession for cars and racing? MI6 agent Ray Koval have on the absurdities of life. they all want something from him, particu- You would probably read left the world of government Expertly shot and whimsically larly Greg Kinnear, who pesters him into every script with even the intelligence to cash in on the written, the movie traces a breaking up the impending marriage of his tiniest link to the subject highly profitable Cold War series of bizarre, deadpan and widow Téa Leoni. matter, in the hope that you raging between two rival comic vignettes that wryly could tell a great car story of multinational corporations. As they each try address the meaning (or lack thereof) of life. Appaloosa the likes of Grand Prix, Le Mans or Mad to stay one double-cross ahead, their schemes This is sure to be an instant cult classic. Released 16 July. DVD $39.95. Bluray $49.95 Max. Then one day you happen to open are endangered by the only thing they can’t Virgil and Everett are your garage door and sitting there, right in cheat their way out of: love. W. itinerant lawmen, hired as front of you, was the film you had been Released 8 July. DVD $39.95. Bluray $49.95 marshal and deputy. The city searching for. This is what happened to Eric A Complete History A life misunderestimated. fathers of Appaloosa hire Bana and this time around, the co-star is Of My Sexual Failures How did this improbable them after Randall Bragg his very own Ford GT Falcon Coupe Released 15 July. DVD $29.95 character transform himself disrupts commerce and kills – THE BEAST. He set about documenting Dumped and despondent into the leader of the free three local lawmen. They his own 25-year-long love story. A simple over an endless string of world? W. is the profoundly contrive to arrest Bragg and tale of one man’s ongoing relationship with disastrous relationships, American story of George W. bring him to trial, but hanging him proves his very first car. filmmaker Chris Waitt Bush, a man who wrestled difficult. Meanwhile, a widow has arrived in attempts to root out the with his personal demons in town and Virgil falls hard. It seems mutual, source of his romantic woes the long shadow of his father, found God at but there may be more to this woman than A Film With Me In It by asking each of his 40 and made an incredible turnaround that meets the eye. Stars Viggo Mortensen, Ed Released 8 July. DVD $29.95 ex-girlfriends point-blank ultimately led him to the White House. Harris and Renee Zellweger. One death is an accident. about his shortcomings as a boyfriend. Two are a coincidence. Three Frozen River Polyester and a dead dog, well, that’s Grocers' Son Released 15 July. DVD $39.95 DVD $14.95 just bad DIY. In this DVD $29.95 Life in Massena is as harsh Francine Fishpaw is a 300 coal-black farce, the luck of In the French summer, and barren as the frigid pound alcoholic with two the Irish is dreadful. Indolent 30-year-old Antoine is forced landscape. In this bleak delinquent children. Her actor Mark and his neigh- to leave Paris to return to terrain, two hardened single husband the local pornogra- bour, failed film writer and Provence. His father is ill, so mothers are trying to make pher, dishes out public abuse. failed recovering alcoholic Pierce, are he takes over the family lives for their children. Faced Francine’s life is a living hell wastrels with no lives. But they quickly grocery cart, driving from with little opportunity to until her best friend, tells her become the only characters left alive after a village to village, delivering make ends meet, Ray and to get over her ‘itty bitty series of accidental deaths in the ill-repaired supplies to the few remaining Lila embark on an illegal venture transport- problem’. She takes this advice, leading her to house they share. Hiding the bodies has inhabitants. Accompanied by Claire, a friend ing immigrants into the US. When circum- the dashing Todd Tomorrow, with whom she rarely been so bleakly hilarious. from Paris, Antoine warms up to his experi- stances spiral out of control, the two women begins a torrid affair. John Waters delivers ence in the hills and his encounters with the must make life or death decisions based on another hilarious black comedy, replete with villagers; their joie de vivre contagious. their friendship and love for their children. bad taste and shocking humour. WELLES “I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you.” Orson Welles

An intricate, witty and entertaining excursion into the exposition of truth, which may or may not ring true...

Influential Cinema from Around the Globe

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Bookshop at the State Library Readings Monthly July 2009 17 Welcome to True Blood: The Tale Of Despereaux the Dollhouse Season One DVD $39.95. Bluray $49.95

Released 8 July. DVD $29.95 DVD $59.95. Bluray $79.95 The story of a brave and virtu- MIDPRICED

‘Weinerdog’, 12-year-old True Blood is set in Louisiana’s ous mouse with comically 3 DVD BOXSET! Dawn Wiener, is taunted, Bon Temps, in an alternate oversized ears who dreams of harassed and ridiculed by future where vampires have becoming a knight. Set in the everyone: her peers, teachers, ‘come out of the coffin’. far away kingdom of Dor, this siblings and parents. With a Waitress Sookie (Anna magical fable harkens back to bad personality, unfortunate Paquin) keeps a dangerous a time of honour and chivalry. looks and zero fashion sense, secret: she has the ability to it is difficult to like her. This hear others’ thoughts. When bitter black comedy is cruel in its humour. her bar gets its first vampire patron, 173-year Pete Seeger: While laughing at the underdog, it accurately old Bill Compton – the two outsiders are Live In Australia 1963 LouisYOUTH AND CONFLICT Malle : accounts the horrors of pre-teen agony. immediately drawn to each other. True Blood DVD $34.95 Louis Malle remains one of the most well-loved, and well-regarded Welcome to the Dollhouse is definitely one of is a dark and sexy tale of the Deep South This DVD not only presents French film makers from the 1960s right through to the 1990s. This collector’s triple-pack compiles Le Souffle Au Coeur, Lacombe Lucien the best coming-of-age comedies ever made from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. a full concert, filmed in and Au Revoir, les Enfants. In “Malle: The Early Years” the director’s Melbourne in 1963, but skills were developing. Later on, a more confident director, he began and this is its first DVD release in Australia. to make more autobiographical films. Films about youth, and the Alfred Hitchcock also includes 55 minutes moral choices that litter the pre-adult years. Louis Malle: Presents: Complete of bonus footage from LE SOUFFLÉ AU COEUR - LACOMBE Youth And Conflict First Season various other Australian LUCIEN - AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS television appearances. Released 10 July. DVD $39.95 Released 15 July. DVD $49.95 3xDVD OUT NOW This collectors’ triple-pack Alfred Hitchcock plays host compiles Le Souffle Au Coeur, to mystery, murder and Leonard Cohen: “The best teen movie since Donnie Darko” Lacombe Lucien and Au Revoir mayhem in the first season VILLAGE VOICE Les Enfants. In Malle: The of his iconic television series, Under Review 1978-2006 Early Years, the director's skills which premiered in 1955 26 June. DVD $14.95 were developing, whereas and was helmed by the Between 1978 and 2006 Cohen created later, as a more confident master of suspense himself. some of his best-loved and most director, he made more influential songs. This highly informative autobiographical films – about youth and the documentary is packed with rare perfor- Ben is different. He has mance footage, studio recordings, rarely- Asperger Syndrome. moral choices that litter the pre-adult years. Breaking Bad: Com- His life is a universe to seen photos and interviews. itself, where he plays his plete First Season favourite online computer JCVD Released 8 July. DVD $49.95 game ‘Archlord’ avidly, Kids' DVD Bargains trying hard to train himself DVD $39.95 Walter is a down-on-his-luck for the real world he lives in. Between his tax problem and chemistry teacher, struggling 2 July – 5 August. The harsh world of school is his legal battle with his wife DVDs $14.95 and $16.95 for him a daily kind of hell. to make ends meet for his As the horror of being a for the custody of his wife and physically chal- Titles include Wiggles: Here daily subject to bullying Comes The Big Red Car and grows, ben devises a plan. daughter, these are hard lenged son, when he receives Then Scarlite comes into times for the action star who a startling diagnosis: terminal other Wiggles titles, Thomas his life, the girl he met and Friends (series 1-8), Play School Nursery in his on-line game. That finds that even Steven Seagal lung cancer. With nothing to wasn’t part of the plan... has pinched a role from him! lose, Walter uses his training Rhymes and other Play School titles, Charlie In JCVD, Jean-Claude Van as a chemist to cook and sell crystal meth. and Lola (series 1-6), In The Night Garden Damme returns to the country of his birth As his status grows, so do his lies, but Walt Hello Igglepiggle! and Lazy Town Welcome, Super Hero, Hairy Maclary and Spot. to seek the peace and tranquillity he can no will stop at nothing to make sure his family OUT NOW ON DVD longer enjoy in the United States. is taken care of after he’s gone.

music. Most of the disc gives us the impres- sion that the clouds hovering over many of the songs on Sky Blue Sky have lifted. Breezy, pop New Release CDs tunes mix with orchestral ballads while the six-minute jam of Bull Black Nova starts with compelling listen! Pulp fan’s will be appeased Preliminaires huge drums, keyboards and guitars before by songs such as Leftovers, I Never Said I Was Iggy Pop Nels Cline shreds a killer solo. Mmmmm, Album of the Month Deep and Slush and pleasantly surprised by his Wilco ... my stereo and iPod eagerly await Conditions $29.95 more experimental numbers. In Caucasian It was spruiked in the marketing sheets as your newest creation! Temper Trap Blues, we find Jarvis borrowing from Johnny Lou Fulco is from Readings Carlton Normally $29.95. Our Special Price: $21.95 jazz, even cabaret. Surely not, I thought. Rotten’s brash lyrical delivery in Anarchy in Iggy? Jazz? Singing in French? Well, it’s After causing a stir on the UK, while the stuttering, echoey vocals mostly true – there are jazzy tracks, some Sunny Side Up Australian radio late last in Pilchard are strongly reminiscent of those New Orleans swing, and he does indeed sing Paolo Nutini year with their single Sweet in Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control. A highly in French on several tracks (butchering the Normally $29.95. Our Special Price: $22.95 Disposition, Melbourne’s entertaining and energetic album that is accent, but an admirable attempt). This is an Scottish lad Paolo Nutini was touted as a own indie-rockers The well worth a listen! album inspired by The Possibility of an Island ‘housewife’s favourite’ after the release of his Temper Trap have delivered Miranda La Fleur by French author Michel Houellebecq first album These Streets in 2006. To judge a seriously slick and accomplished debut (‘a novel in which I found intense pleasure ...’ Sunny Side Up on this preconceived idea long-player in Conditions. This is a solid The Eternal says Iggy). Well, it certainly sounds like he’s would be a crime against music appreciation. batch of tunes. Indeed, any one of them Sonic Youth enjoying himself; some tracks are a complete Jumping out of the blocks with a reggae- could have been chosen as a single, such is $24.95 about-face from the Iggy Pop we know so inspired 10/10, Nutini literally surfs the the credit on offer. Expect soaring U2-esque Ah, sheer delight. Just well, but he can’t help but rock out on others. musical menu with jazz, soul and folk tunes guitars, huge choruses, airtight rhythm when you thought that For me, this is a perplexing album: I can’t that sit so harmoniously together. Husky section and even a sprinkling of Arcade rock ‘n’ roll in the twenty- decide if it’s merely mediocre, or simply vocals (and even a touch of ragtime!) add to Fire-style sing-a-long on stand-out track first-century may be a brilliant … further listening has inclined me the warmth of the whole album with Tricks Down River. The band prove they’re not just slipping into an ever-stulti- towards the latter though. of the Trade and Coming Up Easy as high- about stadium rock though, with beautifully fying morass of MTV Morgana Keating is from Readings Hawthorn lights. A wonderfully considered effort from stripped-back Soldier On and gentle banality, here come the vanguard of the old a young guy with a sunny future. mid-tempo Fools providing the perfect foil new guard, Sonic Youth, raising the bar, and Wilco the album Ali Meehan is from Readings Port Melbourne to the more layered approach taken on rock- playing ‘pop the avant’ with the tired old ers such as Fader, with its insanely catchy Wilco rock dog. Anyone who saw the band tour Normally $29.95. Our Special Price: $22.95 Battle For The Sun ‘woo-hoo’ chorus. I’d expect The Temper here last year would testify that they are Placebo Trap to be Australia’s next big export. While in New Zealand on a roll, and playing as powerfully and recording with Neil Finn $25.95 Jump on board while they’re still ours! passionately as they were 20 years ago. Matt Shurgold drives the Readings van for an upcoming album, Placebo has an instantly recognisable sound, The Eternal is arguably the best disc Sonic Messrs Tweedy, Stirratt, mostly thanks to the unmistakable nasal Youth have delivered since 1992’s Dirty. Sansone and Kotche took a vocals of its lead singer, Brian Molko, but also Maybe adding a new member (bassist Mark Further Complications shine to the studio they due to their raw goth-rock sound. Fans and Ibold, ex-Pavement), has freed up the line were recording in and, in a creative moment, critics were ambivalent about their last album Jarvis Cocker up, and kicked things up a notch, but from decided to lay down tracks for an upcoming Meds, but Battle For The Sun reaffirms the $25.95 the moment the first track, Sacred Trickster, album. Back in the States, the absent Cline gritty Placebo presence. Angst-ridden melo- This is Jarvis’s second solo jumps out the gate, the race is on. That and Jorgensen added some overdubs. The dies and dark lyrics are prevalent, however, album since his departure traditional Youth sound of power-kick album doesn’t break new ground, but manages intelligent use of percussion and accompany- from the legendary band rhythm, and a hallucinatory wash of guitar to capture ghosts of past recordings, yet ... ing instruments, including horns and piano, Pulp and its eclectic blend haze and shriek takes hold, and you know then again, something completely new!!?? lift the tone of each tune and the result is a of pop, loud ‘n’ loose rock it’s safe to walk the drains again. There is nobody like them in the world of fist-thumping nod to the Placebo of old. AM and disco makes it a very Garry Mansfield is from Readings Carlton 18 Readings Monthly July 2009 Dr Boondigga FAR JAZZ IN THE GARDEN & the Big BW Regina Spektor Stanley Clarke Fat Freddy’s Drop Our special price $22.95 $31.95 $24.95 Born in Moscow then raised in the Bronx Stanley Clarke can lay strong claim to being It’s been a long time between drinks but from age seven, this lady has balanced her the greatest bassist of his time or any oth- album number two from Kiwi soul/dub/ Jewish roots with her second home’s culture er. The solo acoustic performance I saw in the electro/funksters Fat Freddy’s Drop has in a very interesting way. She’s a whimsical middle of his R&B/funk gig last year was the finally been well, dropped –and for those of and playful artist with a quirky slant to her closest I’ve ever seen to complete mastery of us who have waited patiently for four years, songs and plays the piano with passion, hav- an instrument in the flesh. Clarke’s technical the wait was well and truly worth it. Their ing been taught classical piano from an early facility and the demands of the marketplace debut took first NZ and then Australia by age. Her songs reveal an intelligent and refresh- have tended to lead him in the direction of storm and having spent the intervening years ingly honest account of her observations of life electric funk-bass fusion, which is a guilty conquering European audiences, FFD have and love. If you were charmed by her previous pleasure of mine over the years, but this al- clearly paid their dues and honed their sound album Begin To Hope, then you will not be bum marks a pleasing return to straight-ahead to razor sharpness. With Dallas Tamaira, they disappointed with this. acoustic jazz. With his old Return To Forever are in possession of one of the most soulful Dan Gries is from Readings Carlton pal Lenny White on drums and the prodi- vocalists on the planet and this is nowhere giously gifted Hiromi Uehara on piano, they more evident than on opening track Big BW. SLEEPING PATTERNS whizz through a set dominated by originals Elsewhere, the sound swerves more towards Jordie Lane that nods in many directions –bop, modal, tripped-out fat electro beats before returning $29.95 free jazz, funk, Japanese folk, inventing a new to the super chilled dub grooves and the al- Not many artists can release two excellent musical language in the process, comfortable ways beautifully understated horns that make albums in under a year. Even less can call enough in their virtuosity not to stick it in the their live performances so special. Featuring them both debuts. Confused? Well Jordie listener’s face. This is straight-up acoustic guest appearances from UK soul queen Alice Lane happens to be one half of The Fireside jazz, but nothing like the standards set Clarke Russell, the only thing that could possibly Bellows, who released their excellent album could have relied on. Refreshing. RM have made this album better would have been No Time To Die late last year. Now, barely a summer release. Check it out and you’ll eight months later comes his even bet- know what I mean. Don’t resist the Drop. ter solo debut, Sleeping Patterns. Aided by Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda some of Melbourne’s best musicians and Country co-produced by Jeff Lang and Tim Hall, he Sea Of Tears Neil Young Archives: has mixed folk and country and delivered a Eilen Jewell Vol. 1 1963-1972 fine acoustic album. His love of Dylan, Van $25.95 Neil Young Zandt and Hank Williams are fairly obvi- Sea Of Tears is the accomplished third album CD $159.95. DVD price TBC. ous, but he is certainly not a pale imitator. from Boston’s Eilen (rhymes with feelin’) This is the first volume of the Neil Young Once again, the little indie label Vitamin Jewell; a delightful collection of rockabilly Archives series of box-sets, produced by has released one hell of an Australian inde- and blues tinged Americana alt-country Neil Young himself. This series is the defini- pendent album. music. Like a less tortured Lucinda Williams tive, comprehensive, chronological survey Dave Clarke is from Readings Carlton mixed with Jolie Holland, Jewell croons her of his entire body of work. Volume 1 covers way through a solid set of nine original songs the period from his earliest recordings with VECKATIMEST and three covers. For those of you searching the Squires in Winnipeg, 1963, through Grizzly Bear for an alternative to Gillian Welch, Sea Of to his classic 1972 album, Harvest and $24.95 Tears shines as the new bright light in country beyond. This DVD edition contains ten Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear have been making music. Be sure to check out Jewell’s previous, discs, each in its own custom sleeve. Nine music for nearly ten years and have slowly shamefully overlooked albums as well. MK of these discs hold a total of 128 tracks (12 become indie music’s latest darlings-de-jour. hidden), featuring nearly 60 previously Or to put it another way – music that white unreleased songs. There is also a DVD people like (not Caucasians – I am borrow- of Young's acclaimed first film, Journey ing from blogger/author Christian Lander, Folk & World Through The Past, available for the first time a recent visitor from the US, who spoke of SIWAN since its original theatrical release in 1973, a North Fitzroy being the ‘whitest’ suburb in JOHN BALKE lavish 236-page, full-color hardbound book Melbourne.) Anyway, back to the review. Last 32.95 that features additional archival materials, tapes year, we had Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes slug- This may be the most beautiful ‘world’ or database, and detailed descriptions of the music ging it out for crossover album of the year. In ‘jazz’ release of the year, although it defies and artwork, a foldout Archives poster, a custom 2009, it seems may come down to Animal categorisation in the manner of so many great keeper for the ten sleeved discs, and more. As a Collective’s Merriweather Post and Veckatimest. ECM discs. Norwegian pianist/composer full-blown Neil Young freak I have been waiting Where Fleet Foxes had Crosby Stills Nash & Jon Balke unveils one of the most ambitious, since about 1992 (when I first heard about it) Young as an obvious reference, Grizzly Bear’s and beautiful, collaborative projects in music for this box-set to appear. All I can say is that influences seem many and varied. From Brian today. Trumpeter/electronic nomad Jon it was worth the wait. There are three different Wilson to Radiohead. Split Enz to Sufjan Hassell (whose own Last Night the Moon ... editions available: CD, DVD and Bluray. From Stevens. Quite the kitchen sink, then. So if is my other favourite record this year), violin what I've seen, the DVD version is the one to you want to impress people on your social virtuoso Milos Valent and a coterie of Arab/ choose. networking site – claim Grizzly Bear as your Persian string and percussion players gener- Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton favourite band. An album unlikely to be heard on radio (excepting our fabulous public ate a wall of blissful sound that can only radio stations) and that undoubtedly takes be described as spiritually elevated. This forms Bananaz DVD the perfect launch-pad for the incantatory Gorillaz some getting into, but persevere – for there are riches here to enjoy. DC voice of Moroccan poet/singer Amina Aloui’s $22.95 settings of texts from St John of the Cross, Directed by Ceri Levy, Bananaz is a fas- Lope De Vega, Mansur Hallaj and other mys- cinating insider’s view of the conception tics – variously sung in Arabic, Spanish and of the cartoon band project helmed by Portuguese. Here is new music inspired by Blur front man Damon Albarn and visual Jazz Arab-Andalusian traditions, a great melting artist Jamie Hewlett. Working in the same CELEBRATING together of styles, forms and ideas. RM London building as the duo, Levy was WEATHER REPORT given free rein to wander through their Miroslav Vitous The Dreamer studio accompanied by a camcorder and $32.95 Eric Bogle in these early scenes we witness the genesis Vitous, a universally admired composer and $24.95 of the characters Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and first-call bassist for Jan Garbarek and Chick The good news is, it’s another album of suc- Russell that will long since have become so Corea, here revisits and radically recasts cinct and up-to-the minute folk songs from familiar to fans of the band. Having gained the pioneering spirit of Weather Report, one of the great songwriters – Eric Bogle. The the pair’s trust, Levy shows their attention the culture and genre-defying fusion group bad news is, it looks like Bogle is hanging to detail as they work apart and their shared he founded with Joe Zawinul and Wayne up his pen and guitar, if the liner notes and sense of fun when occupying the same Shorter in 1970. That group’s lush textures the final track, The Last Note, a very personal workspace. From here, Levy and his camera are replaced by bass, drums, sax and Franco hymn to music, is anything to go by. The follow the pair to the stage, where they Ambrosetti’s ethereal trumpet, plus the clari- great thing about Bogle’s songs is that he can display a growing sense of confidence and net of Michel Portal on three tracks. Weather deal with big themes like war, racism and on to a series of inane interviews and meet- Report was sometimes unfairly called easy lis- the destruction of the natural environment and-greets in America. Given the 300-plus tening: this album remedies that by bringing in a way that’s never depressing and always hours of footage available and the lack of out the empty spaces, the sudden rhythmic honours the dignity and courage of human voice-overs or formal interview, Levy proves twists and melodic leaps: this really isn’t the endeavour. There are classics in the making his worth as a director and editor by pro- easy crossover cash-in I was expecting. Music here. And Lost Soul, the tale of a Ngarrinderi ducing a thoroughly entertaining account that demands repeated listening, and rewards man who fought in World War I, is certainly of a very intriguing enterprise. DM it handsomely. part of the esteemed Bogle canon. © 2009 Universal Studios. AllRightsReserved. Richard Mohr is a friend of Readings Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton

Despereaux_World Strip ad.indd 1 19/6/09 1:13:31 PM Readings Monthly July 2009 19

on this disc and as well as being an insightful 10/10. This CD will certainly be on my list companion to the novel, it is a fine introduc- of top 10 recordings for 2009. tion to recordings of Noël Mewton-Wood. Catherine Koerner is from Readings Hawthorn Maurice Smith is a friend of Readings have drawn their inspiration from places Chopin Classical CDs Benjamin Britten: such as present-day Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Maria Joao Pires, piano CD of the Month Kazakhstan, Israel and North India. Per- Folksong & Pavel Gomziakov, cello The Celtic Viol: forming a series of pieces that were written Arrangements DG. 2CD Set. Cat. No. 4777483. $29.95 An Homage to the or arranged for them, the selection of music Steve Davislim, tenor, Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires’s beauti- Irish and Scottish includes an arrangement of a popular Arab Simone Young , piano ful recording of the Chopin Nocturnes was Musical Traditions song from 1940, an ancient Christian hymn Melba Recordings .SACD MR301120 $29.95 selected by Gramophone as the best version in Jordi Savall from Lebanon and a collaboration with a Anyone with a drop of English, Irish, Scottish the catalogue upon its release in 1996. Pires Palestinian electronic ensemble and an origi- is a pianist with immense integrity, technique Alia Vox Cat. No. AVSA9865. $34.95 or Welsh blood may experience a tear to the Jordi Savall out-does himself on this new nal piece by a Serbian-American composer. eye on hearing these beautiful and poignant and artistry. When I heard of the imminent release of traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. All works are very moving and powerful and performances of simple folksongs. Australia’s arrival of this new recording of further works Expertly accompanied by early specialist the playing by the Kronos Quartet is fault- very own Steve Davislim and Simone Young of Frederic Chopin I looked forward to it Andrew Lawrence-King on Irish harp and less. A serious contender for CD of the year. are outstanding in these 24 Benjamin Britten with much anticipation. I’m happy to report psalterium, they jump in and out of the Philip Richards is from Readings Carlton. arrangements, never once missing a beat. that it doesn’t disappoint. The focus here is on melody and harmonic accompaniment with Standout moments occur in The Sally Garden, Chopin’s late output. The album includes the ease. An intensely researched recording, Savall Mozart: Overtures The Ash Grove, O Waly Waly, Greensleeves and Piano Sonata no.3 op 58, Polonaise-Fantaisie learnt some of the tunes from the original Rinaldo Alessandrini, Norwe- The Last Rose of Summer, but the whole disc op 61, Sonata for Cello and Piano op 65, plus seventeenth-century manuscripts, after being gian National Opera Orchestra is delightful. Melba’s packaging and presen- various late Mazurkas, Valses and Nocturnes. This is a generously filled 2CD set for the inspired in Ireland at the Kilkenny festival. Naïve. Cat. No. OP30479. $34.95 tation is top notch. This is a SACD/hybrid Focusing on instrumental dance music for the For this reviewer, classical vocal music in playable on all CD players with sound quality single disc price of $29.95; great value for fiddle, he plays various treble viols, swapping any form has always been one of my least this outstanding recording. CK between them as needed for jigs or laments. favourite forms of music. The beauty of this Recorded in a Catalonian Monastery, it adds recording is that you get to delve into the a soulful overtone to the slower tunes, while operatic world of Mozart without the sing- the swift dances are allowed the freedom to fly ing. All pieces are beautifully played and the THE SURPRISE BOX OFFICE COMEDY HIT through the acoustic. Whether you like trad recording quality is excellent. And even if NOW ON DVD or classical, this will be enjoyed by all! you do like the classical voice, I think you’ll find enough here to keep you satisfied. PR Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton ★★★★ “A SLICK, SLY AND SMART FARCE.” EMPIRE

Adio Espana: “HILARIOUS... “...DELIRIOUSLY ★★★★ Romances, Villancicos A SHARP AND DOTTY FILM... “AN UNEXPECTED Classical Specials & Improvisations GLEEFULLY UNSETTLING A MUST-SEE.” DELIGHT AND A FILM Busoni: Orchestral from Spain, Circa 1500 BLACK COMEDY...” NOT TO BE MISSED!” Works Vol. 1 Baltimore Consort LEIGH PAATSCH, HERALD SUN CRIKEY.COM.AU FILMREVIEWS.COM.AU

Neeme Jarvi Dorian. Cat. No. DSL90901. $30.95 Chandos. Cat. No. CHAN9920. With a zen-like opening, the Baltimore Normally $34.95. Our special price $19.95 Consort weave magic on this new release DYLAN MORAN of early sixteenth-century Spanish music. Music from the Novels A deep resonance from the featured counter of Louis de Bernieres tenor Jose Lemos helps to create a harmo- Craig Ogden, Alison nious blend between the classical and folk Stephens elements of the compositions. Their tight Chandos. Cat. No. CHAN9780. ensemble and flawless tuning are perfect. Normally $34.95. Our special price $19.95 Beautiful melodic lines interweave with This month we feature discs that may not skilful accompaniment in the lute and sharp be on everyone’s wish list, but are definitely percussive elements add colour and style to worth the effort. First up is the orchestral mu- a thoroughly enjoyable recording. A must- sic of Ferruccio Busoni, who was a virtuoso have for any Renaissance enthusiast. KR pianist as well as an excellent composer. The works on this disc give an excellent example The Virtuoso: Music of Busoni’s style and under the steady hand from the novel of Neeme Jarvi makes for a very entertaining Original recordings by CD. The second disc in our specials is from Noël Mewton-Wood Australian classical guitarist, Craig Ogden and ABC Classics. Cat. No. 4763390. $29.95 mandolinist Alison Stephens. Both musicians The Virtuoso is a selection of highlights from play this mostly obscure repertoire with sensi- the recorded legacy of the Australian pianist tivity and grace. The balance between the two Noël Mewton-Wood. This disc has been instruments is entirely complementary and it’s released in conjunction with the critically beautifully realised by the Chandos recording. acclaimed novel by the same name (The Vir- N.B. Both discs are in limited supply. tuoso, Sonia Orchard, Harper, PB, $27.99), based on his brief and bittersweet life. This is Kronos Quartet: an excellent introduction to the deft pia- Floodplain nism of this somewhat underrated musician. Nonesuch. Cat. No. $29.95 His grasp of the second movement of the OFFICIAL SELECTION WINNER Over their 45+ albums, the Kronos Quartet 2008 EDINBURGH 2008 IRISH FILM & TELEVISION AWARDS OFFICIAL SELECTION Chopin E-minor concerto is spellbinding and 2009 ADELAIDE FILM FESTIVAL have worked tirelessly to broaden the reper- may well challenge your favourite recorded INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL BEST DIRECTOR IAN FITZGIBBON toire for string quartet beyond the realms of interpretations of this concerto, like those of www.beyondhomeentertainment.com.au/afilmwithmeinit traditional classical music. This time, they Lipatti and Zimerman. There are some gems

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