FREE APRIL 2019

Read an extract from new anthology Growing Up African in Australia

page 6

New books from Aunty Joy Murphy, Andrea Goldsmith, Sophie Cunningham, Melina Marchetta, Wayne Macauley, Siri Hustvedt, Ali Smith, Ian McEwan and more!

BOOKS MUSIC FILM EVENTS

AUNTY JOY MURPHY, LAMBCHOP ANDREW page 22 KELLY AND LISA KENNEDY KUSAMA: (ILLUS.) ANDREA MAXINE BENEBA SOPHIE INFINITY page 18 GOLDSMITH CLARKE WITH CUNNINGHAM page 21 page 7 AHMED YUSSUF page 15 AND MAGAN MAGAN (EDS) page 13

CARLTON 309 LYGON ST 9347 6633 KIDS 315 LYGON ST 9341 7730 DONCASTER WESTFIELD DONCASTER, 619 DONCASTER RD 9810 0891 HAWTHORN 701 GLENFERRIE RD 9819 1917 MALVERN 185 GLENFERRIE RD 9509 1952 ST KILDA 112 ACLAND ST 9525 3852 STATE LIBRARY VICTORIA 285-321 RUSSELL ST 8664 7540 | SEE SHOP OPENING HOURS, BROWSE AND BUY ONLINE AT READINGS.COM.AU The Wheeler Centre presents MAYHEM An alchemy of writers. An explosion of ideas.

NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH: REBECCA TRAISTER: FRIDAY BLACK GOOD AND MAD

Endorsed by the likes of Roxane Gay, Colson Whitehead and Rebecca Traister is an American journalist and New York George Saunders – and by the New York Times bestseller Times bestselling author who writes at the intersection of list – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a star on the rise. The feminism, politics and culture. Her latest book, Good and Mad: 27-year-old author made his debut last year with Friday Black, The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, investigates the a mind-bending and provocative collection of short stories potential and complexity of women’s anger as a political and about consumerism, race, technology and the violence of the social tool. modern world. Are our perspectives on women’s anger changing? How can Appearing for the first time in Melbourne, Adjei-Brenyah will women use their dissatisfaction to progress their rights? Join speak about his six years of writing, workshopping and rewriting Rebecca Traister in conversation with Jamila Rizvi to find out. Friday Black – and what comes next.

THURS 2 MAY TUES 23 APRIL at the Athenauem Theatre at the Athenaeum Theatre Time: 8.00pm – 9.00pm Time: 7.00pm – 8.00pm Tickets: $25 adults and $20 concession, plus 50c booking fee. Tickets: $25 adults and $20 concession, plus 50c booking fee.

MAX PORTER: RACHEL KUSHNER: SUSAN ORLEAN: LANNY THE MARS ROOM STRANGER THAN NON-FICTION

Max Porter’s first book, Grief Is the Thing Rachel Kushner is amongst America’s For readers of the New Yorker, with Feathers, was an astonishing work brightest literary stars whose highly Susan Orlean’s books are must-reads. about despair, love, memory ... and Ted acclaimed novels include Telex from Cuba Hughes. Critics praised the book for its and The Flamethrowers. Part of her charm lies in her genuinely ambition, sensitivity and originality. omnivorous curiosity. Her features – and Kushner’s latest novel, The Mars Room, books – have covered umbrella inventors, Porter’s new book, Lanny follows up sees her probing the political context and backyard chickens and a German Shepherd in the same experimental vein, again meaning of the present day American who became a movie star, and her book imbuing domestic dramas with magical prison system. The extraordinary Kushner The Orchid Thief formed the basis of the elements and looming mythical, will talk crime, punishment and American film Adaptation. In The Library Book she has malevolent figures. He’ll discuss fiction, institutions with Ellena Savage. written about the unsolved 1986 fire that fabulism, literary heroes and literary risks. engulfed the Los Angeles Public Library. She’ll reflect on her legendary career with Sarah Krasnostein.

MON 29 APRIL TUES 30 APRIL TUES 7 MAY at the Athenaeum Theatre at the Athenaeum Theatre at the Athenaeum Theatre Time: 8.00pm – 9.00pm Time: 8.00pm – 9.00pm Time: 6.00pm – 7.00pm Tickets: $25 adults and $20 concession, plus 50c booking fee. Tickets: $25 adults and $20 concession, plus 50c booking fee. Tickets: $25 adults and $20 concession, plus 50c booking fee.

BOOK NOW at wheelercentre.com NEWS April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 3

2019 at all Readings shops (except by Lillian Li; Bottled Goods by Sophie van Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko; and Readings Kids and Readings Malvern). Llewyn; Lost Children Archive by Valeria Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin. The prize April The offer only applies to full-price vinyl Luiselli; Praise Song for the Butterflies by awards $50,000, and both fiction and currently in stock, and is not available Bernice L. McFadden; Circe by Madeline nonfiction books are eligible for entry. News online. Offer excludes all Record Store Miller; Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss; and The 2019 Stella Prize will be awarded in Day releases. Normal People by Sally Rooney. The Melbourne on Tuesday 9 April. Women’s Prize awards £30,000 to a work of fiction written in English by a woman The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 longlist of any nationality. The winner will be Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Just 3 for 2: Ian McEwan The longlist for the Women’s Prize for announced on Wednesday 5 June. Series Throughout March, we have a special Fiction has been announced. The sixteen This month, we have a special offer on offer on a select range of award-winning books on the longlist are: The Silence Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s hilarious author Ian McEwan’s books. Buy two of the Girls by Pat Barker; Remembered The Stella Prize 2019 shortlist Just series. Each book in the series will books, and choose a third book in the by Yvonne Battle-Felton; My Sister, the The Stella Prize shortlist for 2019 has be available for the special price of $5.99 range (of equal or lesser value) for Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite; The been announced, celebrating Australian (was $12.99). We also have all eight books free! The range includes titles such Pisces by Melissa Broder; Milkman by women’s contribution to literature. The six available as a pack, for the price of $42.99 as Atonement, Nutshell, The Children Anna Burns; Freshwater by Akwaeke books on the 2019 Stella Prize shortlist (was $103.92). This offer is exclusively Act, and more. This offer is exclusively Emezi; Ordinary People by Diana Evans; are: Little Gods by Jenny Ackland; The available in all Readings shops except available in all Readings shops except Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg- Bridge by Enza Gandolfo; Pink Mountain Readings Carlton until 30 April on in- Readings Kids until 30 April on stickered, Jephcott; An American Marriage by Tayari on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau; stock items only, while stocks last. This in-stock items only, while stocks last. Jones; Number One Chinese Restaurant The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie; Too offer is also available online. This offer is not available online.

Clunes Booktown Festival The annual Clunes Booktown Festival is back, on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 May. Headline authors this year include Jane Caro, Kon Karapanagiotidis, Alice Pung, Jaclyn Moriarty, Jock Serong and many more. Festival-goers can attend exciting literary events, discover the largest collection of rare, out-of-print and collectable books in Australia, go inside heritage buildings, listen to live music, watch street performers, try their hand in a Scrabble tournament and visit both of the Readings bookstalls at the festival (one for general books, and one for kids’ books). A weekend pass is $10 for adults, and $5 for secondary school students and children. See clunesbooktown.com. au for more information.

20% off vinyl sale Record Store Day is officially on Saturday 13 April, but Readings is celebrating all month long, with 20% off all full-price vinyl for the month of April. Handpicked by our music specialists, our vinyl collection includes old favourites alongside exciting new releases. Come on down to chat with our music team in person and complete your own collection. The sale runs from 1–30 April

READINGS MONTHLY EDITOR ADVERTISING PRICES AND AVAILABILITY Free, independent monthly newspaper Elke Power Ellen Cregan Please note that all prices and release published by Readings Books, Music & Film [email protected] [email protected] dates in Readings Monthly are correct at time of publication, however prices and SUBSCRIBE EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS GRAPHIC DESIGN release dates may change without notice. You can subscribe to Readings Monthly Judi Mitchell and Ellen Cregan Cat Matteson Special price offers apply only for the and our e-news by visiting our website: colourcode.com.au month in which they are featured in the readings.com.au/sign-up PROOFREADERS Readings Monthly. Marie Matteson and Ellen Cregan FRONT COVER DELIVERY CHARGES FOR The April Readings Monthly cover features Readings donates 10% of its profits each MAIL-ORDER PURCHASES KIDS/YA CURATORS an illustration by Lisa Kennedy, from the year to The Readings Foundation: $6 flat rate for anywhere in Australia Angela Crocombe and Dani Solomon book Wilam: A Birrarung Story by Aunty readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation Joy Murphy and Andrew Kelly, illustrated DELIVERY CHARGES FOR MUSIC CURATOR by Lisa Kennedy (Walker, HB, $24.99). ONLINE PURCHASES Dave Clarke $6 flat rate for anywhere in Australia for CARTOON orders under $100. Free delivery on orders CLASSICAL MUSIC CURATOR Oslo Davis $100 and over. Phil Richards oslodavis.com

DVDS CURATOR Lou Fulco

EVENTS CURATOR Chris Gordon 4 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 EVENTS

Wednesday 10 April, April 6.30pm 14 Events SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM IN CONVERSATION WITH REBECCA GIGGS Event times and locations are subject to change. Sophie Cunningham’s City of Trees is a For the most up-to-date information on powerful collection of nature, travel and events, please check readings.com.au/events memoir writing set in the context of global climate change. It meanders through, circles around and sometimes faces head on the most pressing issues of the day. It never loses sight of the trees. Cunningham will be in conversation with Sydney-based author Rebecca Giggs to discuss writing about ecology, environmental imagination, animals, landscape, politics and memory. RIES STO Readings Carlton AN 309 Lygon Street, Carlton LI A Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events R T S U Friday 12 April, A Thursday 4 April, 6.30–7.30pm 6.30pm Wednesday 10 April, 12 6.30pm 50 Australian Stories 15 BEN ELTON IN ANDREA GOLDSMITH event series VIRGINIA DUIGAN CONVERSATION WITH IN CONVERSATION WITH SHAUN MICALLEF MARK RUBBO ON THE AGE OF Readings is celebrating our DISCRETION We are thrilled to have comedian Ben Elton Andrea Goldsmith’s latest novel, Invented joining us for his only Melbourne show. 50 year history in 2019. To The Age of Discretion by Miles Franklin Lives, centres on book illustrator Galina He’ll be talking about his new book, Identity long-listed author Virginia Duigan is a honour the stories that have Kogan, who leaves Leningrad – forbidden Crisis, with Shaun Micallef and sharing a hilarious and beautifully written novel that emerged from the books on ever to return – to start a new life in blistering comic satire of the world as it contemplates the invisibility of women over our shelves, we are hosting Melbourne. It’s a love story that tells a tale fractures around us. Get ready for a roller- fifty. Join us to hear Duigan discuss her 50 special events that of exile: exile from country, exile at home, coaster thriller, where nothing – and no and exile from one’s true self. Come along book and its topical central subject, which illustrate passion, artistry and one – is off limits. to hear Goldsmith in conversation about has recently gained much media attention. Australian literature. We hope this wonderful new book with Readings’ Church of All Nations Readings Hawthorn 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton you will join our celebrations. own Mark Rubbo. 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Tickets are $30 per person and include a signed Readings Carlton Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events copy of Identity Crisis. Booking are essential at 309 Lygon Street, Carlton readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Thursday 11 April, 4.30–5.15pm Wednesday 17 April, Thursday 4 April, 10.30–11.30am KIDS 6.30pm 1 KIDS 3 AARON HUGGINS IN SIMON CLEARY IN CONVERSATION A STORY-MAKING CONVERSATION WITH Aaron Huggins is a young writer from WORKSHOP WITH JANE SULLIVAN Kinglake, Victoria. This year, at the age SQUISHY TAYLOR’S Simon Cleary’s latest novel The War Artist is a of fifteen, his first novel, Live A Little, was AILSA WILD timely and compelling story about the legacy published. Live A Little is a detective We are delighted to invite you to Squishy of war, the power of art and the possibility of science-fiction story that reflects Huggins’ Taylor’s special send-off party!Squishy atonement. We are delighted to have Cleary influences in the sci-fi, mystery and comedy Taylor and the Secret Envelope is the tenth joining us to discuss his book and the human genres. He will be chatting with a member and very last book in the series – so it’s cost of war with Jane Sullivan. of the Readings Teen Advisory Board about the art of writing and being published! time to celebrate all that is Squishy! Join Readings State Library Victoria author Ailsa Wild for a book reading and 285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne Readings Kids a hilarious group story-writing adventure. 315 Lygon Street, Carlton Then we’ll say goodbye to Squishy Taylor Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book on www.readings.com.au and send her off in style!

Readings Kids Tuesday 9 April, 315 Lygon Street, Carlton 6.30pm Thursday 11 April, Tickets are $15 per child and include a copy of 6-7pm Thursday 4 April, 1 Squishy Taylor and the Secret Envelope. 6.30pm 6 This event is suitable for children aged 6–11 1 DAVID ISAACS IN KIDS 1 years old, and bookings are essential at CONVERSATION WITH MELINA MARCHETTA readings.com.au/events KAREN HITCHCOCK A YA PANEL IN CONVERSATION WITH WITH SARAH EPSTEIN, ADELE WALSH Defeating the Ministers of Death by RACHAEL CRAW David Isaacs is the compelling story of Thursday 18 April, Celebrate the publication of a new novel from vaccination. Come along to hear Isaacs & KATYA DE BECERRA 6.30pm the bestselling author of Looking for Alibrandi, discussing the history of vaccination – What spark lies in the small space? Are you Melina Marchetta. The Place on Dalhousie is which is rich with trial, error, sabotage and into stories that keep you on your toes? an unforgettable story about losing love and HOT DESK FELLOWSHIP success – with writer and doctor Karen Join our panel of YA authors, Rachael Craw AWARD NIGHT finding love; about the interconnectedness of Hitchcock. Isaacs’ book encompasses (Spark series), Katya de Becerra (What the lives, and the true nature of belonging, from the tragedy of lives lost, the drama of Woods Keep), and Sarah Epstein (Small You are invited to join us as we announce one of our most acclaimed writers. Join us to competition and discovery, the culpability Spaces) as they talk about the fine line the winners of the 2019 Hot Desk hear Marchetta in conversation with artistic of botched testing, and the triumph of between horror and fear, and between Fellowships, sponsored by the Readings programmer Adele Walsh. effective, lifelong immunity. This event is suspense and romance, and about what it’s Foundation and hosted by the wonderful for everyone who wants to understand our Wheeler Centre. Come along to celebrate Church of All Nations like to be published. the writers of tomorrow! 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton past – and cares about our future. Readings Kids Tickets are $30 per person and include a signed Readings Hawthorn 315 Lygon Street, Carlton Readings State Library Victoria copy of The Place on Dalhousie. 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn 285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne Free, but bookings are essential at Please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events EVENTS + COLUMNS April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 5

cupcake and macaron recipes. Wednesday 24 April, Sunday 14 April, 11am 6.30pm Coming up Readings Doncaster | Free, no booking required. Dear

Losing the Plot by Elizabeth Coleman KYD FIRST BOOK CLUB Join us as Pip Mushin launches Elizabeth Reader WITH MELISSA FERGUSON Coleman’s novel, Losing the Plot, in which Come along to hear Melissa Ferguson a married dental hygienist finds that she’s discuss her debut novel, The Shining Wall, suddenly a single mum and at war with a with KYD First Book Club Coordinator Ellen plagiarising celebrity romance writer. Our Nonfiction Book of the Cregan. It’s a fearlessly feminist dystopian Tuesday 16 April, 6.30pm Month is Black Inc.’s novel from an exciting new voice which Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. anthology, Growing Up turns the post-apocalyptic genre on its ear. African in Australia. As is A Universe of Sufficient Size by Miriam Sved true for the collections Readings Carlton Join Miriam Sved for the launch of her exploring Asian and Aboriginal identities 309 Lygon Street, Carlton second novel, A Universe of Sufficient Size. before it (and the Queer collection to come in Free, no booking required. Inspired by her grandmother, this beautiful August), I don’t think the impact of this Wednesday 15 May, novel charts a course through the light and anthology can be overestimated. The book 6.30–8pm 18 dark of human relationships. industries here and internationally are Saturday 27 April, Wednesday 17 April, 6.30pm trying to grapple with questions of diversity, 10.30–11.15am STAN GRANT ON Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. representation, and inclusion, at all levels. This kind of publishing is clearly part of the IDENTITY & AUSTRALIA DAY The Official Guide to the Election 2019: KIDS answer. How profoundly important it is for We are delighted to have bestselling The Chaser Quarterly Issue 15 by Charles Firth & James Schloeffel readers and writers to see their own, their author Stan Grant in Melbourne for one MOTHER’S DAY CARD- With a federal election due, join us for peers’, and their broader community’s night only to talk about his two new books, MAKING WORKSHOP the launch of The Official Guide to the Australia Day and On Identity. In both Grant experiences in print! You can read an extract Election 2019, in which The Chaser’s Join Jess Racklyeft, author of There’s asks why, when it comes to identity, he is from this great collection on page 6. Charles Firth and The Shovel’s James Only One Mum Like You, in a sweet card- asked to choose between black and white. Elsewhere in nonfiction, Unconditional Love Schloeffel provide a hilarious, must-read making workshop suitable for any child Tribalism, nationalism and sectarianism is the memoir of Jocelyn Moorhouse, one of guide to Australian politics. under ten years old with a wonderful mum. are dividing the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’. Australia’s preeminent film directors. Wednesday 24 April, 6.30pm Jess’s book is a heart-warming tribute to Grant argues that it is time to leave identity Sophie Cunningham’s City of Trees is a Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. the magic of mums, and she will not only behind and to embrace cosmopolitanism. wide-ranging work of nonfiction about love read this beautiful book, but also assist in and loss in the natural world. The Colonial The Melbourne Athenaeum making unique personal tributes. SPECIAL EVENT Fantasy is Sarah Maddison’s polemic about 188 Collins Street, Melbourne Readings Kids the failures of White Australian Indigenous Tickets are $40 per person including a copy 315 Lygon Street, Carlton policy. Michael Roddan’s The People vs the of On Identity (RRP $14.95), or $70 per person Banks is the first (but certainly not the last) Tickets are $20 per child and include a copy of including a copy of On Identity and a copy piece of publishing on Australia’s banking There’s Only One Mum Like You. This event of Australia Day (RRP $34.95). Bookings are is suitable for 5-10 year olds, and bookings are essential at readings.com.au/events royal commission. Matthew Warren’s essential at readings.com.au/events Blackout is about Australia’s energy future. Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith is our Fiction Book of the Month. It’s her first novel since The Memory Trap (2013), Sunday 28 April, Launches which won the 2015 Melbourne Prize’s Best from 3pm Writing Award. Our reviewer has read this CELEBRATE SAINT JORDI & Signings novel more than once along its journey to publication, and the final work is a book DAY WITH CASAL CATALÀ he simply calls ‘wonderful’ and deserving Join us as we celebrate Saint Jordi’s Day of a wide readership. This book joins a with Casal Català de Victòria. Each year Crossing the Great Divide by Rod Moss bumper month for fiction. Our reviewers the people of Catalonia celebrate the Come along to see Professor Raimond recommend to you new Australian books day of their patron saint, Saint Jordi, by Gaita launch Crossing the Great Divide: by Melina Marchetta, Miriam Sved, and exchanging roses and books with their Memoir of an Artist by Rod Moss. It’s Wayne Macauley, and debuts by Julie Keys, beloved. All are welcome to join us in another deeply insightful and compelling Melissa Ferguson and Felicity McLean. In celebrating with books, roses, stories, read from an influential Australian artist. international fiction, the Japanese novel music and merriment. Wednesday 3 April, 6.30pm The Forest of Wool and Steel entranced its Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Readings St Kilda country’s booksellers and readers alike 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Waltzing Matilda: Australia’s Accidental (and our reviewer too). We also recommend Anthem by W. Benjamin Lindner this month new books by Siri Hustvedt, Free, no booking required. Join W. Benjamin Lindner for the launch Tash Aw and David Vann, and a debut of Waltzing Matilda: Australia’s Accidental already making a name for itself, Queenie Anthem, a forensic history of the events, by Candice Carty-Williams. I can’t stop Sunday 28 April, people and places that led to the writing of Election Night, emoting about Lanny by Max Porter: my Australia’s famous song. 2-3.30pm Saturday 18 May*, love for that book is utter and complete. If I 17 Thursday 4 April, 6.30pm 6pm until the end could work out how to find a way to double Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. 19 NATASHA my opportunities to read (and, quite STOTT DESPOJA IN Missing Pieces and Blood Sisters by READINGS seriously, I am always trying to work out CONVERSATION WITH Caroline de Costa ELECTION PARTY how to do that) I would already have read Join us for a double launch of the second WITH GEORGE Isabella Hammad’s The Parisian, Namwali KAREN PICKERING and third suspenseful novels in Caroline MEGALOGENIS, Serpell’s The Old Drift, Halle Butler’s The ON VIOLENCE de Costa’s Cass Diamond series. Missing New Me, Samanta Schweblin’s Mouthful of Pieces and Blood Sisters weave together Every two minutes, police are called to a SALLY WARHAFT Birds, Nathan Englander’s Kaddish.com, thrilling plots and social issues. family violence matter. Every week, a woman & FRIENDS and Ali Smith’s Spring. Margaret Atwood is killed by a current or former partner. Join Thursday 11 April, 6.30pm Come along to tune into Antony Green, Fever 2019 builds further with this month’s Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. Natasha Stott Despoja – founding chair have sausages and beer, welcome release of a graphic-novel edition of The of Our Watch, the national organisation to Kids Who Did by Kirsty Murray George Megalogenis, Sally Warhaft Handmaid’s Tale. Wilam is the new picture prevent violence against women and their Join us for the launch of Kids Who Did: Real and more political commentators to the book from Aunty Joy Murphy, Andrew children; former Ambassador for Women Kids Who Ruled, Rebelled, Survived and stage as we watch Australian history Kelly, and Lisa Kennedy, and provides this and Girls; and one of 2018’s top 100 Global Thrived by Kirsty Murray. It’s an astonishing unfold this election night. month’s beautiful front cover artwork. Influencers on Gender policy – as she collection of true stories about courageous And finally, dear reader, one of the discusses her new essay On Violence Church of All Nations kids who changed history. biggest releases for the month actually and asks why violence against women is 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Thursday 11 April, 6.30pm appears halfway through, with the publication endemic, and how do we stop it? Readings SLV | Free, no booking required. Ticket ‘Mega Deal’: $30 per person and one copy of either The Australian Moment of Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me on 16 Cinema Nova Sugar Rebels by Nick Makrides or The Football Solution by George April. To prepare for this event, we suggest 380 Lygon Street, Carlton Meet Nick Makrides, host and creator of Megalogenis. Bookings are essential at you delve into McEwan’s extensive backlist: Tickets are $45 per person and include afternoon The Scran Line, and get your copy of Sugar readings.com.au/events buy three of his previous titles for the price tea, a glass of champagne and a copy of On Rebels signed. Sugar Rebels is his inspiring *Date may be subject to change of two, while stocks last. A full review of the Violence. Please book at readings.com.au/events and original baking book full of cake, book will be in our next edition. 6 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 FEATURE

Growing Up African in Australia Compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, Growing Up African in Australia is a new anthology that brings together more than thirty Growing Up African personal stories of African-diaspora Australians. ‘African Mama’ by Sara El in Australia Sayed, below, is one such memorable story. Maxine Beneba Clarke with Ahmed Yussuf & Magan Magan (eds) Black Inc. PB. $29.99 ‘We always want what we don’t have,’ my blow- dried it. ‘So lovely!’ she yelled over your hair much, much softer and will make mother said, on our first visit to African the noise. the straighten last much, much longer.’ Mama. Straight hair being what we both — ‘I’ve tried them before. They sound didn’t have. great, just not for me.’ Several years later, I sat in the chair at My neck was cramped from leaning ‘Trust me, I know a lot of people with Shine Salon. It truly was shiny, from the onto the basin, cold and wet, and my scalp your type of hair and it works for them.’ glossy benches to the gleaming women in burnt from the Dark and Lovely chemical I am a person with my type of hair. the posters on the white walls. hair straightener that had been left on a After the wash, the blow-dry revealed I untied my hair and watched the bit too long. I tried to distract myself by what I had been delaying telling the hairdresser’s face grow in concern. counting the braids on the women in the hairdresser. ‘It’s so curly!’ she said, trying to comb posters adorning the purple walls. ‘Do you do anything else to your hair her fingers through it. The more she did ‘I think it’s enough now,’ I said to my other than iron straighten? Do you colour this, the bigger my hair became. ‘Like an mother, as I gave up my stoicism and it?’ afro!’ stared at the ceiling through wincing eyes. ‘No, I don’t colour it.’ I fought the urge to argue. It’s not an ‘Just a little longer, or you won’t notice She fingered a strand that kinked at afro. Not everything that’s not pin straight a difference,’ she said from the chair beside the roots but went straight near the ends. is an afro. Not everything that doesn’t look me. I wondered how much she was feeling it. Like a heartline going flat. ‘It’s all basically like your posters is an afro. The hairdresser, Mary, returned and dead,’ she said. ‘Looks a bit like dreads when it’s down turned on the showerhead. I saw my ‘It looks like that because I get it like this.’ mother shuffle in her chair as she waited chemically straightened sometimes.’ I bit my tongue. ‘It can be a handful,’ I for her turn. Sometimes. said. ‘Water okay?’ Mary’s words gurgled What ensued was a lecture that I had ‘Would you like a drink or a magazine through the stream running down my ears. heard from many hairdressers before. before we get started?’ I nodded. It was uncomfortably cold, Using such harsh chemicals on my hair ‘No, thank you, I’m fine.’ I smiled. but this was needed to relieve my burning ruins it. I’m irreparably damaging my hair. ‘So, where are you from? Where did you scalp. I felt lighter as I sat up, water The chemicals I’m using are most likely get this interesting hair from?’ She curled dripping down my back. Shuffling over to wrong for me. The salon’s products are so a strand around her finger and then tried my seat at the mirror, I heard my mother much better. to pull it free. It didn’t uncoil as easily as let out a sigh of relief as Mary turned on And, my favourite: I should learn to she’d thought. the other showerhead. love my hair the way it is, naturally. ‘Egypt.’ My hair was flat. Its usual kinks were ‘I know. But I’ve done it since I was ‘Wow! Must be a lot different living here gone, replaced by limp strands. I was happy. twelve years old, and it helps me manage though, huh?’ I reached for my hot tea and sipped slowly. it.’ ‘Oh yeah – but I’ve been in Australia ‘Samuel!’ Mary called. She clutched her chest. ‘Twelve?! I’m since I was seven, so sixteen years has ‘Yes?’ surprised all your hair hasn’t fallen out been enough time to get used to it.’ Mary’s Ghanaian accent contrasted by now! Please tell me you don’t do it ‘Must be so hot there.’ with her son’s Australian response. ‘Bring yourself.’ ‘Sometimes. Here’s hot too.’ the product, please.’ ‘No,’ I said, although sometimes I did, ‘I Samuel, who couldn’t have been more She smiled. ‘True. How do you wear it?’ go to a place called African Mama.’ than two years older than me, placed ‘Up.’ ‘Their products are probably made a large tub of product on the bench, ‘Always?’ especially for African hair, not for yours.’ took some in his hands and dispersed it ‘Most of the time. Unless I straighten it. I hesitated for a moment. ‘Well, I am throughout my wet hair. It looks too messy otherwise.’ African.’ ‘So you and your mum are from Egypt?’ ‘You shouldn’t tie it up so much. You’ve ‘You know what I mean,’ she said. ‘Yes. So, Africa, but not Africa Africa.’ got a lot of breakage where your hairtie ‘Africa Africa?’ sits.’ She lifted a hand mirror to show me the breakage at the back of my head. ‘Try ‘You know – North Africa, not South Sara El Sayed is an Egyptian-born Master of Fine Africa.’ Brown Africa, not black Africa. wearing it down more.’ Arts student living in Brisbane. Her research focus is ‘We’re from West Africa. Still Africa.’ ‘Okay.’ I had no intention of wearing it digital storytelling by migrant Egyptian women. Her He saw redness on my scalp. ‘That Dark down more. work, both fiction and nonfiction, is influenced by her culture, her family and her identity as a migrant. and Lovely stuff looks like it burns,’ he ‘So, what are we doing today?’

said. ‘Just an iron straighten, please.’ To find out more about the anthology, read our ‘Yeah. But I hope it will make me look ‘Do you want to add a treatment?’ The review of Growing Up African in Australia on page 13. “lovely”.’ I smiled. treatment she was talking about, which I ‘Red and lovely. Not dark, though!’ He had tried before, did as much for my hair laughed. as a declawed cat scratching a curtain. Mary approached and Samuel returned ‘No thanks – they don’t really work for to the front counter. My hair danced me.’ around her hands and into the air and she ‘Oh, but they’re great! They’ll make FICTION April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 7

pressing issues at hand. Macauley’s use of abandoned suburbs and a slum settlement an other-worldly narrative to bring real- filled with ‘Demi-Citizens’ who are New world problems into focus is probably one excluded from the privileges afforded to of Simpson Returns’s greatest strengths. those within the city walls. Their lives are Fiction The help of a ghostly war hero and a peculiar mix of future technology and donkey, offered to those that we seem to extreme poverty – from waste recyclers unnecessarily punish or deny help, becomes and the bio chips installed on their wrists a fitting analogy for the particularly cruel to the dwindling credits they can find from I read an early draft of Invented Lives a year or so ago; it was Australia in which we currently live. scrounging in the suburbs. BOOK OF THE almost wonderful then but now it really is wonderful. What I Macauley’s novella has the sheen of a Melissa Ferguson explores this fractured comedy, but it should also be given credit for world through the eyes of Alida, a Demi- MONTH like most about Andrea Goldsmith’s work is that it manages to combine a domestic intensity with big themes. These are stories being so uncomfortably sad. Citizen fighting for survival. When her Australian about people struggling to make sense of their lives, but the Chris Somerville is from Readings online mother dies from a virus, Alida is left Fiction forces that impact their lives are much larger than them. to provide for her little sister, Graycie. It’s 1985 and Reagan and Gorbachev have met and that A Universe of Sufficient Size Desperate, she agrees to be smuggled within meeting is a precursor to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Miriam Sved the walls to lease her body for a night. From Anti-Semitism is a fact of life for Jews in the USSR and with the Picador. PB. Was $32.99 inside the walls, Shyqba, a Neo-Neandertal Security Force Officer, is exiled to the Demi- thaw, Jews are permitted to apply to emigrate to Israel. Galina $29.99 settlement as punishment. Prejudice against and her mother are secular Jews but their ethnicity touches their With her second the Neo-Neandertals runs high outside the lives all the time. Shortly before their papers are issued, Galina’s novel, A Universe of city, with the Demi-Citizens blaming Neos mother dies and, after a chance meeting with a young Australian Sufficient Size, Miriam Sved for ‘stolen’ city jobs. artist studying in Moscow, she decides to go ahead with the again demonstrates her As Alida and Shyqba become friends, emigration but resolves to go to Australia, not Israel. ability to write about highly their companionship helps them to see life in Some time after she arrives, she decides that it wouldn’t hurt specific human new ways. In her new surroundings, Shyqba if she tried to make contact with the Australian. She is drawn into preoccupations in a way begins to question the laws that LeaderCorp the orbit of his family; superficially comfortable, and settled. As that renders them taught her from birth in the clone orphanage. she becomes closer to them, she realises that their lives are not interesting and engaging to the previously Ferguson writes rich characters, as straightforward as they appear, and that they have secrets and uninterested or unaware reader. Her debut Invented Lives exploring the complex nuances of privilege, secret desires. Galina, too, has secrets that follow her to her new novel, Game Day, as noted by our reviewer at Andrea Goldsmith desire and freedom. Their stories are bound country. the time of its publication, requires no Scribe. PB. Was $32.99 to tug your heart-strings and further reveal Goldsmith is a masterful storyteller who explores the knowledge or even interest in its the complexities of life. Ferguson explores $29.99 complex themes of identity and love in her latest novel. Invented underpinning context – AFL, football scientific possibilities through fiction in a Lives deserves a wide audience. generally, or even sport – for it to be enjoyed. society that, while built on good intentions, Mark Rubbo is the managing director of Readings The same can and will be said about A is riddled with ignorance. Universe of Sufficient Size, which is a story about friendship, family and trauma that is Cindy Morris is from Readings Carlton founded upon pure mathematics. Australian The Artists’s Portrait is a genre-bending A premise so esoteric could be alienating The Place on Dalhousie novel that embraces all its contradictions, or off-putting, but such is Sved’s skill that Melina Marchetta Fiction at once an undertaking of murder mystery, even a reader with an active dislike of maths Viking. PB. Was $32.99 biography, drama and art history. Julie Keys is likely to be beguiled by her characters’ $29.99 successfully makes the reader question what The Artist’s Portrait affinity for numbers and enthusiasm for A generation has exactly it is that they are reading, all the their potential. While maths is an essential Julie Keys while scrambling to turn to the next page. grown up with Hachette. PB. Was $32.99 link between the characters and across the Melina Marchetta’s writing This is a work of smart, moving and gripping generations, there is more to this novel. In $29.99 since she debuted with her Australian fiction. fact, it is inspired by a true story from Sved’s Suffering from late impeccable young adult Jeremy George is from Readings Malvern own family. night nausea, nurse novel Looking for Alibrandi Set between 1930s Budapest and late and aspiring writer Jane in 1992. As one of that 2000s Sydney, with a few peeks at 1950s Cooper starts pacing Simpson Returns: A Novella generation, it’s a joy to read Brooklyn, A Universe of Sufficient Size is a tale suburban streets, trying to Wayne Macauley The Place on Dalhousie and witness of the plight of a group of brilliant, Jewish exhaust herself. Walking Text. PB. $19.99 Marchetta move into contemporary adult university students in Nazi-enthralled one morning at sunrise she Ninety years after his fiction with all her sparkling dialogue, Europe, and of the echoing consequences of is unceremoniously death in World War I, brilliant characterisation and messy but their experiences and decisions. It follows sprayed by a garden hose as she passes a Jack Simpson is still alive, deeply human relationships. Illy, both daughter and mother, as she orbits house. This is how she first meets the still donning his uniform, When Rosie Gennaro meets Jimmy an unexpected mystery with faint dread. enigmatic painter Muriel Kemp. An apt still helping the sick and Hailler in Queensland after forty days and Gradually, she joins the dots between the emblem for both the unexpected friendship still trudging alongside his forty nights of rain, she thinks it’s all a bit generations and tries to make sense of and novel that will transpire. donkey, Murphy. In Wayne biblical – the small town is fooding, and revelations in the aftermath of her father’s From its outset Julie Keys’ debut Macauley’s novella he’s a Jimmy looks a bit like Jesus in orange death. However, she’s not the only one in the novel The Artist’s Portrait follows two ghost-like wisp, sustaining himself with the SES overalls. Both Rosie and Jimmy are family grappling with surprising ideas that strands of narrative. It begins from the offerings of locals and his search for the unmoored: Rosie has run away from could affect them all. perspective of the young Muriel Kemp, inland sea, which he believes is off Sydney, furious at her father for remarrying A Universe of Sufficient Size is a moving who is fighting against the conservatism somewhere in the centre of the country. after her mother’s death, and Jimmy tale of deep humanity that couldn’t come at of the 1920s Australian art world as well as What seems like a bizarre and possibly drifts in and out of other people’s lives but a better time. against her own struggling socio-economic ill-fated adventure quickly gets side-tracked, never seems to fully inhabit his own. Two environment. The second strand follows literally, when Simpson encounters people Elke Power is the editor of Readings Monthly years after their brief encounter, Rosie Jane Cooper, Muriel’s biographer, in 1992, in need of his help. Not everyone can see storms back into Sydney to lay claim to the as she attempts to make sense of the tapes him, apart from those in need, and for the The Shining Wall house on Dalhousie that was her recently Muriel has left her. These depict a murky and most part the book is made up of five of these Melissa Ferguson deceased father’s life’s work, and which often sordid past. A past that is at complete encounters. There’s a teenage runaway, a Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99 is now occupied by her father’s widow, odds with official history. In fact, according refugee, a Vietnam veteran, a single mother, An idealist city lies Martha, who is struggling with her own to the foundation dedicated to, and named and a deranged ex-teacher, all of whom share surrounded by riptide of grief. When Jimmy re-enters in her honour – Muriel Kemp has been dead their background stories with Simpson, as shining metal walls that Rosie’s life, these three souls – all still since 1936. they receive his help. were created by hurting and raw – warily learn to make Keys is masterful in her employment But what kind of help does Simpson LeaderCorp to benefit all space for each other in their lives. and exploitation of narrative techniques.The offer? Part carnival shyster, part holistic within their borders. Here, With The Place on Dalhousie, Marchetta reader follows Kemp’s story from two levels; nurse, Simpson can only really offer the Citizens have the proves she is one of our best writers of its contemporary moment in the 1920s, and temporary salves and the chance to hear out leading technology of contemporary human drama and one of its refective retelling through the project of those that society has failed. Of one patient medi-nanities, brain implants for Australia’s finest crafters of character and biography. Using this device, Keys teases out he says: ‘The scars will heal, eventually. communication and access to apps, life dialogue. Her characters are smart, tough the similarities between the experiences of Perhaps they will pick up where they left extension and fawless skin. They are all born and vulnerable. They have that lived-in her two key female protagonists despite their off? And perhaps not. The truth is it was no with the same shade of skin to end racism. feeling where they seem to exist in this world differing historical periods. Muriel and Jane longer any concern of mine … That was the They are served by androids, service bots and even after you close the pages of the book. To both live the complexities of motherhood, best I could do.’ cloned Neandertals to do the jobs Citizens some extent, that is because this is a sequel creativity and the re-emergence of Jack Simpson’s search for an inland don’t want and to provide extra security. of sorts. Those familiar with Marchetta’s suppressed trauma. sea is mostly a distraction from the more Outside the city is a ruined world of previous novels Saving Francesca and The 8 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 FICTION

Piper’s Son will recognise Jimmy and his focuses her affections on her two maiden This book made me refect on so become a writer. Forty years later, S.H. high-school friends, whose easy friendship aunts, despite their resistance. Her visits to many things: gossip, prejudice, family, uncovers her journals and unfinished and mid-twenties growing pains will thrill their house on the bay soon expand her parenthood, community, innocence, manuscript from that time, revisiting a past and delight fans of those books. world in ways she couldn’t have imagined. platonic love, ageing, friendship, the way half-remembered and the writing those That said, this is also a strong, standalone Elizabeth Stead brings her classic we inhabit place, and humans’ connection experiences informed. that readers new to Marchetta’s writing subversive wit and personal insight to this to the earth. And then there are the Comparisons to The Blazing World are will love for its warmth and compassion. nostalgic portrait of wartime Sydney. literary questions the book playfully raises apt, revealing the development of a common Marchetta’s work radiates hope, emphasising about voice and storytelling and myth, theme: both concern misogyny and the ability of people to connect and to change No One about genre and the novelistic form, and meditate on its persistence into the present themselves and the lives of others in true John Hughes about the ways in which we read. The day. The main difference in Memories is the and meaningful ways. There is nothing glib UWAP. PB. $24.99 scope and vision of this book are striking, intimation that S.H. is Hustvedt herself, about these connections; all her characters’ In the ghost hours of a and its feats of imagination are made even bursting with all the anger and wit that victories feel hard-won and earned, and they Monday morning a man more impressive by its brevity. Lanny is colours her earlier work. Language is power, are all the more satisfying for it. This is a book feels a dull thud against the a mind-bending piece of writing: fresh, poetry is bellowed in defiance and allusions about grief, the redeeming love of family and side of his car near the unique, and very special. to the author’s real life are scintillating friends, and the potential for second chances. entrance to Redfern Alison Huber is the head book buyer for and often profound. Both younger and In a world that can feel dark and cynical, this Station. He doesn’t stop Readings older S.H. are as brilliantly captured as the beautiful book is the perfect antidote. immediately. By the time societies refected in them, and while the Jackie Tang is the digital content coordinator he returns to the scene, the The Parisian line between author and narrator may be road is empty, but there is a dent in the car, Isabella Hammad blurred, this is Hustvedt’s most personal The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone high up on the passenger door, and what Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.99 work yet. Felicity McLean looks like blood. Part crime novel, part road Available 16 April For its inventiveness the overall execution can jar: because memory Fourth Estate. PB. Was $32.99 movie, part love story, No One takes us to the It is 1914, and Midhat is fallible S.H. distances herself from $29.99 heart of contemporary Australia’s festering Kamal has travelled relationship to its Indigenous past. hyperrealism and memoir, instead layering Felicity McLean from Palestine to France to her own recollections with caveats and creates a wonderful study medicine at the disclaimers that distract from the emotional eleven-year-old narrator, Typhoon Kingdom University of Montpellier. moments and see some punches pulled. Tikka, in her debut novel, Matthew Hooton He is billeted with the Leaning into this unreliability, its gaze is not The Van Apfel Girls are UWAP. PB. $29.99 Molineu family (Frédéric, as focused as that of The Blazing World, and Gone. It is through Tikka’s In 1653, the Sparrowhawk father and academic; and at times subtlety is lost when reiterating a eyes the reader sees the is wrecked on a Korean Jeannette, daughter and erstwhile student theme or giving the narrator a moment of events of the long, hot island, and a local of philosophy), from whom he learns about triumph – but perhaps that is the point. summer of 1992. The Van Apfel girls of the fisherman guides the a French way of life, and all that comes with Between the journals and half-finished title are Tikka and her sister Laura’s friends ship’s book-keeper to it. Midhat discovers love, befriends another novel a portrait of the artist as a young and neighbours. Hannah is thirteen, Seoul in search of his medical student who is eventually woman appears before our eyes. Piece Cordelia twelve, and Ruth is only seven. surviving shipmates. conscripted to serve in the war, and by piece, it seems the sum of the parts The girls live in a regional New South Wales Three-hundred years experiences the pain of racial form something far greater, and if it lacks town where neighbours are friends by later, during the Japanese occupation, discrimination. He relocates to Paris where definition or a sense of the whole, it might necessity, and everyone thinks they know Yoo-jin is taken from her family and forced he is united with a group of compatriots, be that Hustvedt defies them. each other’s business. into prostitution, and a young soldier must and finds himself ‘alongside other Tikka is a character many would call navigate the chaos of the Korean War to foreigners, young women, and elderly men’. Paul Goodman is from Readings Hawthorn ‘precocious’: she’s smart; she watches find her. Typhoon Kingdom is a story of war, French men of his own age have been lifted and listens for changes in the adults and romance, and survival that brings to life the from the streets and sent to fight for their Queenie country. At the conclusion of the war, adolescents around her, and she desperately devastating history of Korea at crucial Candice Carty-Williams Midhat seeks return passage to Palestine. wants to be a part of her older sister’s moments in its struggle for independence. Trapeze. PB. $29.99 Once home, he must close the door on his friendships. Tikka worships the ethereal Available 9 April Parisian life, and follow his father’s Cordelia, and when the novel begins, we are Queenie’s life is not footsteps in the family business. He settles introduced to adult Tikka – twenty years on – International going to plan. She into life in Nablus, and faces challenges jumping out of a taxi in Baltimore to pursue and her long-term partner Fiction both familial and national. a stranger she thinks is Cordelia. This is how are on a break that has no Although it took me some time to fully we know the Van Apfel girls are still gone, end in sight. She’s been immerse myself in Isabella Hammad’s and thus begins the recounting of events Lanny forced to move out of the epic debut novel, by the final page I was leading to their disappearance. Max Porter fat they shared together so invested in the story that I grieved McLean cleverly utilises Tikka as a Faber. HB. $27.99 and into a disgusting slightly unreliable narrator – being only the loss of finishing. Not only did I enjoy Literature runs sharehouse. She is foundering in her job, a eleven she observes and overhears odd the book itself, I enjoyed learning about through Max Porter’s job that she’d planned to use to take the things that make more sense to the reader the mid-twentieth-century history of veins. He’s been editorial journalistic world by storm. No matter what than they do to her, and add to the tension Palestine and the Middle East – a part of director at Granta and step she takes, she feels judged, or like a in the story. Tikka is often told off by her history about which I had relatively little Portobello books, home to failure. In her unwanted state of singledom, parents or teachers for blurting things out or knowledge prior to reading The Parisian. some of my favourite books she turns to dating apps to forget about her telling truths no one wants to hear. Hammad is an excellent writer, and her of recent years, and penned ex. But all of the men she dates are terrible – character portrayals are complex and While the disappearance is at the heart of the affecting and brilliant they fetishise her race, and some even beautiful. Midhat Kamal is a wonderful and this novel, it is not a thriller or work of crime debut novel, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, physically harm her. Queenie’s mental intricately drawn man – he is smart, fawed, fiction. It is page-turning literary fiction, which won him the prestigious International health is declining, and she doesn’t have the progressive, conservative, frustrating and in the same vein as Jasper Jones by Craig Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. I feel sure that ability to recognise what the people who sympathetic. He is human. And the tale that Silvey, or more recently, Holly Throsby’s his second book, Lanny, will be one of the love her can clearly see. Hammad tells is both human and worldly: work. It’s also a coming of age story, and a defining literary titles of 2019. When her mental health takes this turn demonstration of how events occurring in she incorporates tremendous historical In the bucolic setting of a country town for the worse, Queenie is unfairly dismissed childhood can have a lasting effect on the events alongside personal dramas without within commuting distance of London, we from work and must move back in with psyche. This novel would be a great choice infating the former or minimising the latter. meet young Lanny only by association: his her traditional (and hilarious) Jamaican for book group discussion. A stunning debut. parents have moved the family to this place grandparents. Eventually, and quite Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn for a taste of rural life, and chapters in their reluctantly, Queenie seeks professional voices give us our understanding of him, as help and starts to get her life back on The Aunts' House do the words of ‘mad Pete’, an ageing local Memories of the Future track. I adored the character of Queenie Elizabeth Stead artist of some repute who has agreed to Siri Hustvedt so much – she is honest, loveable, fawed, UQP. PB. $29.95 give Lanny art lessons. We also hear from Sceptre. PB. Was $32.99 and unapologetically herself. She is also Recently orphaned, Angel Dead Papa Toothwort, a mythical figure $29.99 incredibly strong, but in unexpected ways. Martin moves into a of local legend who knows and embodies Shedding the mask of I was almost physically cheering her on as boarding house where the town’s stories from all time; he is also Harriet Burden, the her recovery progressed, especially as she she’s befriended by drawn to Lanny’s energy. We gather from protagonist of her previous leaves all of the horrible men she had been gregarious Winifred these descriptions that there is something novel The Blazing World, dating behind. Varnham and numerically special about Lanny: his mature spirit is Siri Hustvedt reappears This book delves deep into issues gifted Barnaby Grange. unique amongst children of his age; his perhaps more overtly in such as white privilege, sexism, racism, But not everyone is kind interests are different; he moves through Memories of the Future as emotional labour, heartbreak, betrayal and and her scrimping landlady is only the the world in unusual ways; he is weird. I ‘S.H.’ – a young woman who internalised misogyny, but does so in a way beginning of Angel’s troubles. Angel loved him immediately. moves to New York in the late 1970s to that is readable and still very enjoyable. I FICTION April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 9

am in awe of Candice Carty-Williams’ skills that he will suicide, and soon. as an author – she writes with excellent Jim has fown from his home in Alaska clarity, insight and keeps her sense of to see his family in San Francisco. He is in humour even when delving into grim debt to the IRS, suffering from chronic sinus topics. To boil it down to a single sentence, pain and recently divorced from his second this is a very good book about a very bad wife, Rhoda, who is grieving her parents year. It’s the kind of novel you’ll want to after their murder/suicide (as told in another read in one sitting, crying and laughing of Vann’s novels, Caribou Island). Jim is through each wonderful chapter. severely depressed. On arrival, he goes to see Ellen Cregan is the marketing and events his therapist. It’s highly recommended that coordinator his younger brother Gary is to take charge of Jim, while he waits for the newly prescribed We, The Survivors anti-depressants to take effect over the next two weeks. Of course Jim’s moods swing Tash Aw erratically over the next few days while he Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99 visits his son (a thirteen-year-old version of Tash Aw’s fourth the author) and daughter Tracy, and during novel, We, The a fiery confrontation with his parents, Jim Survivors reveals its gleans a side of his father that he never mysteries slowly. Ah Hock, knew existed. a Chinese Malaysian man, Halibut is not an ‘up’ novel. In fact meets with a social it’s quite uncomfortable being in Jim’s researcher who wants to company, but that’s the point. There are no hear his story. We know, prizes for guessing how this story ends, but from the start, that several years earlier Ah for its grim subject matter this is the best killed a migrant worker from Bangladesh. thing that I have read so far this year. Now, he’s out of prison, trying to rebuild his life. He details the events leading to this night Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton in dense fragments, circling back and forth and around the incident. It takes many pages The Forest of Wool and Steel to arrive at this decisive event because We, Natsu Miyashita The Survivors is the story of much more than Doubleday. HB. $24.99 the facts of a crime. Available 16 April As Ah talks to the researcher – who also As a bookseller, when eventually comes into focus as a character a book is – Aw builds a picture of a powerless man recommended by other working hard within a diseased system. Ah booksellers, my interest is describes growing up poor in a fishing village; automatically piqued. The his struggles to make more of his life by Forest of Wool and Steel by moving to Kuala Lumpur; an economic cycle Natsu Miyashita has sold in which the exploited have to exploit others over a million copies in in order to survive. Aw’s previous novel, Japan, in 2016 won their National Booksellers the Man Booker Prize long-listed Five Star Award, was made into a film with music Billionaire (2013), conveys the experience of composed by Studio Ghibli and shares the being young in Asia today, focused on four same translator as the celebrated Haruki Malaysians trying to find their fortunes in Murakami. What’s not to already love? Shanghai. Once again, Aw’s writing is rich The novel begins with the narrator, with textures and insights. Similar to Albert seventeen- year-old Tomura, being Camus’ The Outsider, where Meursault hypnotised by the sound of a single piano reacts to the enervating heat, Aw constructs a being tuned in his school gym for the first world around his protagonist so vivid that we time. The experience is life-altering to Picnic at Hanging Rock understand how Ah, living like a stranger in Tomura, literally. The unexpected, seemingly meets The Virgin Suicides his homeland, also yields to his surrounds. everyday encounter transports him to the We, The Survivors is a novel about place forest. His senses are heightened, he can and class and the perverted conditions that feel the dampness of the forest underfoot, ‘Sharp, mysteriously breed violence. Yet it doesn’t provide easy smell the earthly fragrance of the forest at moving and highly conclusions – as Ah recounts, there is no nightfall and hear the rustling of the autumn entertaining’ clearly defined ‘why’ to his actions. Tash leaves as they descend. Tomura instantly Robert Drewe Aw challenges us to consider whether life decides his vocation is to be a piano tuner. is predestined and whether we have any He asks the tuner, Mr Itadori, to take him on power to change its path. It’s a profoundly as an apprentice, however Itadori advises moving novel. him to finish school and offers the details Joanna Di Mattia is from Readings Carlton of a specialist piano tuning college on the mainland. After graduating Tomura embarks Halibut on the Moon on the two-year course along with seven David Vann other students. From morning until night, Text. PB. $29.99 he learns all that there is to know in the art of In Halibut on the piano tuning. Moon, David Vann Upon completing his studies, Tomura revisits a theme that plays returns to Mr Itadori and lands a job in the out in his staggeringly same establishment as Itadori, the Eto Music good debut short-story Shop, which employs four other piano tuners collection, Legend of A and a handful of sales and administrative Suicide. Indeed it’s a staff. Under the tutelage of the other master subject that the author piano tuners, Tomura embarks on his quest knows intimately: the suicide of his own for perfection, constantly asking himself the father. As with the stories in Legend, Vann unfathomable question ‘Do I have what it reimagines his father’s final days. It’s an takes?’. However, Tomura is overwhelmed by absolutely riveting read, and I take my hat crippling self-doubt and the difficulty of his off to Vann for not just imagining his chosen profession, and feels that mastering Part memoir, part life-lessons, Lucy father’s very troubled mind, but for writing the craft of piano tuning and achieving the You won’t dare urges us all to find such an arresting and beautifully sounds that Itadori and the other tuners are our courage, take joy melancholic testament to him. That’s not to able to produce is beyond him. put it down ... A darkly gothic thriller about in life and celebrate say that Vann holds his father up on a While this is definitely a coming-of-age murderous obsession and one our extraordinary pedestal here. In Halibut, Jim Vann is cruel, novel centred on the main character Tomura, girl’s longing to fly free ordinariness... self-centred and literally obsessed by his it is the other characters, the master piano own death. He makes no secret of the fact tuners, the colleagues in the music shop 10 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 FICTION and in particular the captivating twin-sister more of her strange, sheltered life. Andrew Through the grief of the husband and Dream Sequence clients of Kazune and Yuni that provide a knows what it is to be trapped, and journeys daughter she left behind, Helen is drawn into Adam Foulds lightness to the story and a balance to the towards her through the old towns of the orbit of Charlie's world, slotting in the Jonathan Cape. HB. $35 obsessive nature of Tomura. And, of course, England. When Andrew and Bramber meet missing pieces of her friend’s life. And, as she Henry Banks, a brilliant but the forest is ever present. at last, they will have a choice – to remain delves into the web of their shared past, narcissistic young English It is easy to understand why The Forest alone with their painful pasts or break free Helen finds herself entangled in the actor, is prepared to go to of Wool and Steel has been such a hit in and come to life. forgotten threads of her own life. any length for a role. On the Japan; it’s a beautiful and totally immersive brink of achieving work of fiction. The elaborate descriptions Machines Like Me The Island of Sea Women intellectual credibility and of the piano-tuning process have an almost Ian McEwan Lisa See serious celebrity, Henry has ethereal quality. The meandering pace and Jonathan Cape. PB. Was $32.99 Scribner. PB. $29.99 – unwittingly – become an the disconnection the reader feels from $29.99 Two girls living on the object of obsession for recently divorced today’s fast-paced world for the search of Available 16 April Korean island of Jeju, are Kristin. Convinced they are destined to be perfection through sound and nature will Machines Like Me occurs best friends that come together, Kristin resolves to fy to London strike a chord with many. in an alternative 1980s from very different and bring their relationship to fruition. Danielle Mirabella is from Readings Hawthorn London. Charlie, drifting backgrounds. When they Dream Sequence is a terrifying psychological through life and dodging are old enough, they begin drama that explores the porous borders Hark full-time employment, is working in the sea with between modern inner and outer life. Sam Lipsyte in love with Miranda, a their village’s all-female Granta. PB. $29.99 bright student who lives diving collective. Set over many decades, Mouthful of Birds In an America convulsed by with a terrible secret. from Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and Samanta Schweblin & Megan political upheaval, cultural When Charlie comes into money, he buys 1940s through to the era of cell phones and McDowell (trans.) discord, environmental Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic wet suits for the women divers, The Island Oneworld. PB. $29.99 collapse and spiritual humans. Together, he and Miranda of Sea Women introduces readers to the This collection of confusion, many folks are co-design Adam’s personality. Ian fierce and unforgettable female divers of extraordinary stories by searching for peace, McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new Jeju Island and the dramatic history that Samanta Schweblin, salvation, and just a little novel poses fundamental questions: what shaped their lives. critically acclaimed author damn focus. Enter Hark makes us human? This provocative and of Fever Dream, has been Morner, an unwitting guru whose technique thrilling tale warns of the power to invent Kaddish.com awarded several prizes of 'Mental Archery' is set to captivate the things beyond our control. Nathan Englander including the prestigious masses and raise him to near-messiah status. W&N. PB. $29.99 Juan Rulfo Story Prize. It's a role he never asked for, and one he is The Book of Dreams Larry is an atheist in a Following on from the success of Fever woefully underprepared to take on. A riotous Nina George family of orthodox Memphis Dream, which was shortlisted for the Man novel of awkward believers, foundering Scribner. PB. $29.99 Jews. When his father dies, Booker International Prize in 2017, Samanta marriages and our maladjusted 21st century, On his way to meet his it is his responsibility as the Schweblin’s much-loved style returns with from one of America's sharpest satirists. son for the first time, surviving son to recite the these dreamy yet spare stories. hardened former war Kaddish, the Jewish prayer Spring correspondent Henry for the dead, every day for 11 The New Me Ali Smith Skinner is hit by a car months. To the dismay of Halle Butler Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 after rescuing a child his mother and sisters, Larry refuses – thus W&N. PB. $22.99 What unites Katherine from drowning. He is imperiling the fate of his father's soul. To In a windowless office, Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, rushed to hospital where appease them for failing to mourn his father women stand in a circle. Shakespeare, Rilke, he foats, comatose, between dreams. His correctly, he hatches an ingenious plan, One explains something Beethoven, Brexit, the son, Sam, a thirteen-year old synesthete hiring a stranger through a website called from her real, non-work present, the past, the north, with an IQ of 144, waits at his father’s Kaddish.com to recite the daily prayer and life, one wears a topknot the south, the east, the bedside. There he meets a woman forced to shepherd his father's soul safely to rest. and another checks her west, a man mourning lost confront her love, and a twelve-year-old pedometer. Watching them times, a woman trapped in coma patient. This is a heartbreaking story Lux all is Millie. Thirty-years- modern times? Spring. The great connective. about love from the bestselling author of Elizabeth Cook old and an eternal temp, she says almost With an eye to the migrancy of story over The Little Paris Bookshop. Scribe. PB. $32.99 nothing, almost all of the time. But then the time and riffing on Pericles, one of King David sings his possibility of a permanent job arises. Will it Shakespeare’s most resistant and rollicking Imminence psalms. A world away, King bring the new life Millie is envisioning finally works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of Mariana Dimópulos & Alice Henry plots. And courtier within reach? Or will it reveal just how hollow an impossible time. In a time of walls and Whitmore (trans.) Thomas Wyatt sees them that vision has become? lockdown, Smith opens the door. Giramondo. PB. $24.95 both. David wants Taking place over the Bathsheba. Henry too must Number One Chinese Cemetery Road course of an evening, and have what he wants. He Restaurant Greg Iles a lifetime, Mariana wants Ann, a divorce, a son. Lillian Li HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 Dimópulos’s mesmerising He looks up at his tapestry of David and sees Pushkin. PB. $29.99 Successful journalist novella shifts seamlessly a mighty predecessor. Among those counting The Beijing Duck House in Marshall McEwan has between the present and is the poet Wyatt, who sees a different David, Rockville, Maryland is its been forced to return the past. In this dreamlike a man who repented before God. As David own world, inhabited by home to Bienville. His space, composed of pursues Bathsheba, Henry courts Ann, and waiters and kitchen staff father is dying, his mother overlapping vignettes, she retraces the Wyatt interweaves the past and present. Lux who have been fighting, is struggling to keep the mirrored paths of a life filled with images is a story of love and its reach, fidelity and loving, and ageing within family newspaper from that swell and recede. The narrator finds faith, power and its abuses. its walls for decades. When failing, and the town is in herself torn between four male figures, disaster strikes, this the midst of an economic rebirth that including a domineering cousin and her Mac and His Problem working family’s controlled chaos is set loose. might be built upon a shadowy web of bewildering infant son, feeling herself Enrique Vila-Matas Generous in spirit and darkly funny, Li looks large-scale political crimes. When the town caught in a web of obligations. Vintage. PB. $32.99 beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals is shaken by two brutal murders, Marshall Available 16 April to share an unforgettable story about youth must join forces with his ex, Jet, to find out Lost and Wanted Mac, over sixty and recently and ageing, parents and children, and all the what really happened. Nell Freudenberger unemployed, lives on his ways that our families destroy us while also Viking. PB. $32.99 wife’s earnings from her keeping us grounded and alive. The Dollmaker Helen Clapp is a physics furniture restoration Nina Allan professor and doesn't business. An avid reader, he The Parade Riverrun. PB. $32.99 believe in pseudo-science, decides at the age of sixty to Dave Eggers Available 9 April or time travel and keep a diary. Mac’s wife, Hamish Hamilton. HB. $35 Stitch by perfect stitch, especially not in ghosts. So Carmen, thinks he is simply Two Western men are sent Andrew Garvie makes when she gets a missed call wasting his time and risking sliding further to work far away from exquisite dolls in the finest from Charlie, her closest into depression – but Mac persists, and is home, tasked with paving a antique style. When he friend from university, who determined that this diary will not turn into a road the length of a answers the enigmatic died two days ago, Helen thinks there must novel. However, one day, he has a chance country. The country is personal ad in his collector's be some mistake. Then when her young son encounter with a near neighbour, a highly dangerous and largely magazine, letter by letter, claims to have seen Charlie in their house just successful author who once wrote a collection lawless, just recovering Bramber Winters reveals the other day, Helen begins to have doubts. of enigmatic, wilfully obscure stories. from a devastating civil FICTION April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 11 war, and the road will unite north and south. The Old Drift The road is Progress. The road is Hope. And, Namwali Serpell when it is completed, a parade will march it Hogarth. PB. $32.99 end to end. But when illness, corruption, and Namwali Serpell’s debut theft compromise their mission, the pair novel is an epic story of discover danger far greater than anything three generations of three An inconvenient they had anticipated. Zambian families – one black, one brown and one heroine challenges The Heavens white. Unfolding over 200 society’s norms Sandra Newman years, one family begins in Granta. HB. $29.99 Italy, another in England ‘A remarkable achievement’ Available 15 April and the third in Zambia. The three families’ ROD JONES New York, 2000. Kate and lives become entwined as each is plagued by Ben meet at a party and fall a curse passed on down the generations. ‘Utterly charming’ instantly, irrevocably in love. Celebrating the diversity of African culture CLARE WRIGHT Around them, the city glows. and captivating in its storytelling The Old It is the first year without a Drift animates a culture that cannot escape its ‘A feat of imaginative sympathy’ war anywhere. A woman is colonial past but which yearns for greatness. GIDEON HAIGH president, and an air of camaraderie permeates the The Strawberry Thief streets of Manhattan. Kate falls asleep, Joanne Harris knowing she is loved. London, 1593. Kate Orion. PB. $32.99 wakes as Emilia – the mistress of a nobleman Available 9 April – and finds the plague at her door. Afflicted by Vianne Rocher has settled premonitions of a burnt and lifeless city, she down. With Rosette, her sets out to save the world. Each decision she ‘special’ child, she runs her makes will change her life with Ben for ever. chocolate shop in the square, talks to her friends Wakenhyrst on the river, is part of the ‘A fabulous book’ Michelle Paver community. Even DRUSILLA MODJESKA Head of Zeus. PB. $32.99 Reynaud, the priest, has In Edwardian Suffolk, a become a friend. But when old Narcisse dies, ‘A compassionate and thoughtful manor house stands alone leaving a parcel of land to Rosette and a depiction of rich inner lives, and the in a lost corner of the Fens: a written confession to Reynaud, the life of the conflict between desire and reality’ sleepy village is once more thrown into glinting wilderness of water BOOKS+PUBLISHING whose whispering reeds disarray. A compelling new novel from the guard ancient secrets. Maud author of the bestselling Chocolat. is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father. When he finds a painted Poetry medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened. Maud’s battle has apparently begun. She must survive a world haunted by joanne burns witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen and the nightmarish demons of her Giramondo.PB. $24 father’s past. Wakenhyrst is a darkly gothic The poems collected in thriller about murderous obsession and one apparently appear like girl’s longing to fy free. visions, intensely experienced but barely real. The Hidden The first section gathers poems spring-boarding Mary Chamberlain from the clues and solutions Point Blank. PB. $29.99 to crossword puzzles; the second recounts Dora Simon and Joe dreams in the form of prose poems or O'Cleary live in separate microfictions; ‘dial’, the longest section, countries, accepting of acknowledges the bewildering sense of daily their twilight years. But time and the spectacle of social and worldly their worlds are abruptly matters contained within. Finally, from a upended by the arrival of more restful or relaxed vantage, ‘the random Barbara Hummel, who is couch’ presents a number of drifting poems, determined to identify the written while lounging on the sofa. mysterious woman whose photograph she has found among her mother's possessions. Forced to confront a time they thought Graphic Novels buried, Dora and Joe's lives unravel – and entwine. This is a story of love and betrayal, shame and survival. But can a speck of light The Handmaid’s Tale diffuse the darkest shadows of war? Margaret Atwood & Renée Nault (art & adaptation) Lord of All the Dead Jonathan Cape. HB. Was $49.99 Javier Cercas $44.99 MacLehose. PB. $32.99 Provocative, startling, Available 9 April prophetic, and more Manuel Mena, ancestor of relevant than ever, The Javier Cercas and dearly Handmaid's Tale and its loved by Cercas’ mother, iconic images – the red of died in combat at the age of the Handmaids, the blue of nineteen during the battle the Wives, the looming of the Ebro, the bloodiest ileadean Eye – has become episode in Spain's history. a global phenomenon. Having already been Was he a fascist hero whose adapted into a film, an opera, a ballet, and memory is an embarrassment to the author, multi-award-winning TV series, this or a young idealist who happened to fight on stunning new graphic novel edition, adapted the wrong side? This unclassifiable novel is a and featuring arresting artwork by Renée courageous journey into Javier Cercas' family Nault, brings the terrifying reality of Gilead history and that of a country collapsing from to vivid life like never before and is destined a fratricidal war. to become a classic in its own right. 12 READINGS MONTHLY March 2019 CRIME

far beyond her comfort levels. Rory, a endorse. Here, we have a couple with genius at everything but social interaction, secrets. There is a dead body of a woman Dead finds herself investigating the forty-year- that has been found in a hotel room. That old case of a woman who helped find one of there is a body is not the surprise – but Write Chicago’s worst serial killers and then the details of the woman’s death are more vanished – and whose story will bring with Fiona Hardy shocking to a husband who thinks that he some brutal truths into Rory’s world. understands his wife. The woman he has loved for years, who helped him build a When a young Vietnamese-Australian doctor makes The Silver Road family. Who knew more about the body BOOK OF THE a medical breakthrough, inventing a drug that could Stina Jackson & Susan Beard than she let on. But the husband is hiding MONTH essentially help broken immune systems fix themselves, (trans.) something as well. In fact, almost Corvus. PB. $29.99 everyone in the family is – and watching Crime everything seems as golden as the name bestowed upon him: David Tran, Golden Boy. But seven months after David The Silver Road in them through these pages is a sickening, appears on television, celebrating the financial backing that Sweden is long, and riveting, pacy, explosive delight. will lead to testing, trials, and a hopeful future, he is dead. Lelle knows every part How and why he died are the questions everyone is asking. of it now, almost. He Before She Knew Him And so the story of how he ended up dead on a hospital room has driven it every day Peter Swanson foor is told by those who know the most: David’s sister, Ly, since his daughter Faber. PB. $29.99 struggling with everyone’s secrets; his childhood best friend, disappeared there Hen and Lloyd have just Miles, whose family supported David’s for years; David’s three years ago, moved into their cosy frosty, sanctimonious and occasionally self-aware girlfriend, dropped off at a bus new house when they Abigail; his research assistant, Rosa, overwhelmed with stop in the morning but not there when make friends with their everyone’s expectations, including her own; and Foxy, the fix- the bus arrived fifteen minutes later. neighbours, Mira and it man who needs to find out to make sure that David’s death There has never been any trace of her, but Matthew. Everything doesn’t affect any of his clients in any negative way. Lelle is sure he can find her where the seems very normal and police cannot. And then there is Meja, collegial until Hen sees newly arrived by the Silver Road with her Eight Lives something in This back-and-forth in time and mother, avoiding reality by moving in Susan Hurley Matthew’s study that knocks her fat – voice is expertly written, with with a man she barely knows in the Affirm Press. PB. and Matthew sees her reaction. There is middle of the forest. Meja is trying to Was $32.99 the slow release of everyone’s something deadly in their shared past, make a new life, while Lelle tries to save $29.99 but with some of Hen’s recollections knowledge and discoveries painting one – and, inevitably, their paths skittery at best and non-existent at worst, a picture of the brilliant David that converge. You’ll want the endless daylight she needs to know more before she takes it of this book to read from, all night long. is much more complex than any further. Maybe, though, things are not quite as they seem. Swanson – always ‘Golden Boy’ persona. Metropolis keeping readers on their toes – returns Philip Kerr with another psychological thriller. This back-and-forth in time and voice is expertly written, with the slow release of Quercus. PB. Was $32.99 everyone’s knowledge and discoveries painting a picture of the brilliant David that is $29.99 Beautiful Bad much more complex than any ‘Golden Boy’ persona. Despite their best efforts, none Available 9 April Annie Ward of the storytellers are able to grasp the full picture, creating an intimate reading style I feel like I’ve written a Quercus. PB. $29.99 that makes the book an addictive experience. Hurley’s expertise in the medical field lot of paragraphs about If you read enough shows, turning monoclonals and mAbs into easily comprehended ideas, and not hiding Philip Kerr in my time crime, you become unknowable secrets within medical terms your Friendly Neighbourhood Bookseller could at the helm of Dead quite uneasy about never parse. This simmering blockbuster will keep you guessing, pull the rug out from Write, and I’m normal things: moving under you, make you gasp – and it won’t let up until the very end. heartbroken that this house, anyone digging will be the last one. a hole, friends going on Kerr passed away in holidays together … March 2018, leaving and marriage. In Fled success was measured by Mob bullets and Metropolis as his final book about Bernie Ward’s Beautiful Bad, Meg Keneally he had been faced with a choice between Gunther, a man in the middle of ex-soldier Ian and travel writer Maddie Echo. PB. $29.99 his brother’s life and his own. In everything interesting over many meet while overseas, and nearly two Available 15 April Australia, his success is measured by the decades, countries and novels. Here, we decades later, have built themselves a life: After co-writing the patrons of the bar he owns, and his are back in 1928, as Bernie is offered the house, kid, outward happiness. A 911 call excellent Monsarrat choices are a catalogue of ways to enjoy reins of the murder squad and has the puts paid to all that: now, this house is series with Tom Australia in the early sixties: surfing, or case of the Silesian Station killings filled with blood – but whose? And what Keneally, Meg surf guitar. When a dead body is found in dumped squarely in his lap. Four sex really happened ten weeks ago when Keneally’s first solo a nearby motel and foreigner Blake is on workers have been murdered and Maddie was injured on a camping trip? Or outing is a beautiful the constabulary’s radar, the only way to scalped, and no one seems any closer to decades earlier when Maddie fell out with piece of writing, get off it is to resurrect some of those old finding the killer – until a fifth woman the best friend that introduced them? atmosphere and skills and find the killer himself. Told in dies, and her father is willing to tear Back and forth in both time and loyalties, research. Fled – based Dave Warner’s award-winning laconic down the world to find out what Beautiful Bad will make you wonder who on the true story of convict Mary Bryant style, this will have you on the side of a happened. As the twenties fade away and in these pages is truly a killer. – follows young, sea-loving Jenny murderer in about three pages and the horrors of Nazism bleed into the Trelawney, who needs to support her reaching for Dick Dale albums to read to. Berlin that Bernie loves so much, the Also out this month murderer must be found, and Bernie is fatherless family and chooses the path of Four friends witness a crime – but do the man. With his dry asides, generally a highwaywoman to make money. When The Woman in Darkness nothing to help – in Mel McGrath’s The sarcastic good humour and grim that line of work sees her sentenced Charlie Donlea Guilty Party (HQ Fiction, PB, $29.99); determination, Gunther was a joy to read ‘beyond the seas’ to Australia, life does Bantam. PB. $32.99 moving back home unearths long-buried – and he’ll be sorely missed. not get any easier, but Jenny, strong and Rory Moore is a forensic secrets in Erin Kelly’s Stone Mothers (H&S, true and never one to let the law get in the reconstructionist with a PB, $29.99); a missing daughter reappears way, is willing to take charge, come – sideline in My Lovely Wife in Central Park, then runs, and her father almost literally – hell or high water. reconstruction of a Samantha Downing would do anything to follow her in Harlan different, more Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 Coben’s Run Away (Century, PB, $32.99); a River of Salt palatable type. It’s the After Gone Girl came psychologist’s new client is a teenage girl Dave Warner latter that sees her come out, every second crime who can see exactly how people will die Fremantle Press. PB. $29.99 out of a self-imposed book that was in M.J. Arlidge’s A Gift for Dying (Michael In the northern NSW hiatus to the policing published had some Joseph, PB, $32.99); four friends go to an town of Coral Shoals, world again, as a bereaved father asks her version of this on the island, but only three return in Icelandic- ex-hitman Blake to mend his daughter’s broken childhood cover: ‘The next Gone Agatha-Christie Ragnar Jónasson’s second Saunders has run as far doll – and find her killer in the process. Girl!’ or ‘Better than Hidden Iceland book, The Island (Michael from Philadelphia and Rory, reluctant to interact with any Gone Girl!’ Half of the Joseph, PB, $32.99); a woman escaping his old name as he humans if she can help it, takes it on, but books, while good, had her past lands a job at an desolate island could. Nothing good when her father dies of a heart attack, barely any similarities. This is the first hotel, where one of the guests may be out could be found back in leaving her to peruse his unfinished cases, book with a Gone Girl reference on the for blood, in C.L. Taylor’s Sleep (Avon, PB, the States, where his the world she has tried to shrink expands cover that I not only understand, but $29.99) … and more! NONFICTION March 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 13

Australia can’t solve black problems impression in France, and is now available to because White Australia is the problem. read in English translation. New Bon takes readers deep into the Hell of a Time: An Australian experience of her trauma, visited on her at Nonfiction Soldier’s Diary of the Great War the age of nine, when she was raped by a Philip Owen Ayton stranger in the stairwell of her apartment Text. PB. $34.99 building. Moving deftly between the first, Philip Owen Ayton was second, and third person (a technique that In her introduction to Growing Up African in Australia, working on the Sydney mirrors the author’s dissociation from the BOOK OF THE Maxine Beneba Clarke sets the scene for an anthology of tramways when the call to event and her personal growth), Bon leaves MONTH great specificity. As she explains, this is an anthology that join the fight against nothing off limits in her description of how ‘would be an African diaspora anthology’, an anthology Germany came. Keen for this act of violence affects every single Australian that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the colonial action he found himself in aspect of her life, from her sexuality and Studies project in Australia and the 400 year slave trade that the Australian Imperial personal relationships, to her very sense supported and fed this project across the world. From this Forces and soon after took of being. The long search for equilibrium starting point of calling for submissions from African part in the Gallipoli landing. Badly involves so many therapeutic modes; she Australians across the diaspora, Beneba Clarke, and injured, he was sent to England to never gives up. Finally, in her thirties, the fellow editors Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, weave a convalesce and from there joined the ordeal begins anew with the arrest of a complex tapestry of stories specific in every thread and campaign in France, where he saw out the man who is being charged with multiple illuminating as a whole. war. Ayton kept notes and a diary of his instances of her own experience, and Growing up African in Australia is organised in six experiences which, published for the first we enter the courtroom with Bon. The sections that spread across the Australian continent time, provide a remarkable and compelling French legal system is just as brutal on the and the African diaspora, telling stories of place and account of the Great War. victims of sexual abuse as Australia’s (as displacement, of belonging and othering, of finding home. Bri Lee recounted in her ferocious Eggshell What is common to the contributions is that identity as The People vs The Banks Skull). I will admit there were parts of this both African and Australian is questioned, is othered. Michael Roddan book I had to stop short of reading: it’s The underlying premise of this wonderful anthology and MUP. PB. $34.99 incredibly intense. The literary treatment the other anthologies in the range, Growing Up Asian in The banking royal of this experience, though, is innovative, Growing Up Australia and Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia is that commission has put the revealing, and provocative. This story African in there is still an ‘Australian’ to be othered from. financial sector on trial celebrates courage and survival; its telling Australia However, in reading Growing up African in Australia, and exposed its self- is a profound political act. Maxine Beneba while aware of the ties to other anthologies, what I felt was interest, corruption and Alison Huber is the head book buyer for Clarke with Ahmed the richness and diversity of the experience of people from excess. The People vs The Readings Yussuf & Magan a vast continent multiplied in size and experience by the Banks reveals what Magan (eds) creation of a global diaspora and then relocated to another happens when businesses Unconditional Love: Black Inc. PB. $29.99 vast continent that is still grappling with its own diversity. put profit before punters, reward bad A Memoir of Filmmaking and The first section is entitled ‘Roots’, a title that feels behaviour and assume they are beyond the Motherhood common to all. The final section is titled ‘Dhaqan Celis,’ a law. The day of reckoning for liars and Jocelyn Moorhouse title specific to Somali. As Magan Magan explains it, ‘Dhaqan’ (meaning culture) and thieves in pin-striped suits has arrived. Text. PB. Was $32.99 ‘Celis’ (return) is used to ‘describe Somali kids who have somehow lost their culture $29.99 or failed to carry their culture, kids who need to return “home” ...’ This is where the Robert Menzies: The Art of wonderful strength of this anthology lies, in the general and specific, in the easily Politics You’ve seen her beautiful movies understood and the never imagined. Troy Bramston and you have rejoiced Marie Matteson is from Readings Carlton Scribe.PB. $49.99 that an Australian female Available 16 April director has won so many Robert Menzies claimed awards and accolades for the prime ministership in Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs her work. You may have Australian 1939 and led the nation History remarked that Jocelyn during the early years of Mark Dapin Moorhouse’s most recent work, The Studies the war, but resigned two NewSouth. PB. $32.99 Dressmaker, managed to convey the years later after losing When Mark Dapin first depths of Rosalie Ham’s novel while confidence in his party. Blackout interviewed Vietnam keeping Australian humour and His political career Matthew Warren veterans and wrote about landscape central to plot. Of course her seemed over, and yet he staged a great Affirm Press. PB. $29.99 the war, he swallowed memoir Unconditional Love talks about comeback, forging a new political party Australia is in political every misconception. He this and her extraordinary skill, but and becoming Australia’s longest-serving denial about the changes wasn’t alone. From army mainly this is a story about being a prime minister. This is the first biography occurring in the way we claims that every national mother and for that I am most grateful. in twenty years of the Liberal icon, and it power our country. serviceman was a Moorhouse has four children, two of contains important contemporary lessons Matthew Warren has volunteer, to the belief there were no whom have autism, and this fascinating for those who want to understand the art worked for all sides of the welcome home parades until the late 1980s, and approachable account is the story and science of politics. energy industry, and has Dapin reveals that every stage of Australia’s of a family. Moorhouse does not hide been lobbying for a commitment to the Vietnam War has been from the despair she and her beloved national climate and electricity policy for misunderstood, misinterpreted and Biography partner, P.J. Hogan, have experienced, over a decade. Blackout cuts through the shrouded in myth. Australia’s Vietnam will nor does she shy away from the impact waffle to chart the disintegration of change the way we think about memory of living with two wonderful people with Australia’s energy security, and plot the and military history. The Little Girl on the Ice Floe especially high needs. She did not work way for a brighter future. Adélaïde Bon & Ruth Diver (trans.) for eighteen years. At times they had The Colonial Fantasy: MacLehose. HB. $35 no money. She gave up much to ensure Australian Toys: A Collection Why White Australia Can’t As the scale and that her son and daughter understood Luke Jones Solve Black Problems impact of child family and felt loved. This makes for an Melbourne Books. HB. $59.99 Sarah Maddison sexual abuse is finally inspirational read, but it also serves a Luke Jones’ carefully A&U. PB. $34.99 becoming acknowledged higher purpose: Moorhouse and Hogan’s structured collection Australia is wreaking and understood (though lives are testament to the imperative has been assembled devastation on Aboriginal tenuously so, as recent sacrifices of parenthood. with passion and and Torres Strait Islander comments by a defence QC Many readers will enjoy this book commitment over a people. Whatever the in a famous court case because it provides background stories period of more than policy government has chillingly reminded us), the realisation that to her movies: how they were realised, thirty years and is done little to improve the so many people live with its devastation and what the actors were like, the festivals unrivalled for its quality of life of trauma is also dawning. Knowing this they all attended, and the search for breadth and quality. This beautifully Indigenous people. intellectually is one thing; truly empathising funding. Whilst I love industry gossip photographed book not only provides an Despite this, many Indigenous and is another. Memoir offers readers a way to as much as the next person, I read ideal platform to illustrate a history of non-Indigenous leaders and commentators begin this journey of deep understanding; this book for Moorhouse’s experience twentieth century Australian manufactured still believe that working with the state is survivors might find words of recognition. of motherhood. Stories like hers are toys, but is an important contribution to the the only viable option. The Colonial Fantasy Adélaïde Bon’s totally compelling book, The crucial to our understanding of what history of Australian society, childhood, considers why Australia persists in the face Little Girl on the Ice Floe (La Petite Fille sur la being a mother means in our modern family and manufacturing. of such obvious failure. It argues that White Banquise in French), made quite an society. Unconditional Love is primarily 14 READINGS MONTHLY March 2019 NONFICTION

about surrender and acceptance, and it became a bestselling novelist, while her is undeniably about devotion. As Cate grandchildren included the writer Aldous Blanchett says on the cover quote, ‘this is a Huxley. Told with the pace, depth, and Discover beguiling memoir, written from the heart’. psychological richness of a great novel, An Christine Gordon is the programming and Unconventional Wife is a riveting a new favourite events manager for Readings biography that shines a shaft of light on a hidden but captivating life. Serving the Servant: Machines Like Me Reflections on Kurt Cobain The Chronology of Water Ian McEwan Danny Goldberg Lidia Yuknavitch Set in an alternative 1980's Trapeze. PB. $32.99 Canongate. HB. $29.99 London, this provocative novel poses fundamental questions: what makes Available 9 April From the debris of her us human? Our outward deeds or On the twenty-fifth troubled early life, Lidia our inner lives? Could a machine Yuknavitch weaves an understand the human heart? anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death comes a astonishing tale of The Parisian new perspective on one of survival. A kind of memoir Isabella Hammad the most compelling icons that is also a paean to the As the First World War shatters of our time, and the only pursuit of beauty, self- families, destroys friendships and kills lovers, a young Palestinian book written by someone expression, desire and the dreamer picks his way across a who knew him – Danny exhilaration of swimming, The Chronology fractured world to find himself. Goldberg, Nirvana’s manager. Drawing on of Water lays a life bare.It is a life that Danny’s own memories of Kurt, files which navigates, and transcends, abuse, “The Parisian is a sublime reading experience: previously have not been made public, and addiction, self-destruction and the delicate, restrained, surpassingly intelligent, interviews with, among others, Kurt’s close crushing loss of a stillborn child. It is the uncommonly poised and truly beautiful.” family, friends and former bandmates, life of a misfit, one that forges a fierce and ZADIE SMITH Serving the Servant is an exploration of untrodden path to creativity and comes See You in the Piazza Cobain’s brilliance in every aspect of rock together in the shape of love. Frances Mayes and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and Introducing us to the Italy only the locals know, Frances Mayes and the legacy he wrought. When Death Takes Something her husband, Ed, eat and drink from You Give It Back their way through fifteen regions – from Friuli to Sardinia. Along A Mother’s Promise Naja Marie Aidt the way, she seeks out the cultural Lee Barnett Quercus. HB. $29.99 and historic gems not found in traditional guidebooks. Viking. PB. $34.99 In March 2015, Naja Available 16 April Marie Aidt’s twenty-five- The Place on Dalhousie Married to a man she year-old son, Carl, died Melina Marchetta loved, and pregnant with in a tragic accident. From the bestselling author of Looking for Alibrandi comes their first child, Lee Faced with the sudden this unforgettable story about Barnett’s life turned from emptiness of language, families, relationships, grief and Naja finds solace in the the true nature of belonging. dream to nightmare when her husband Todd Harris anguish of Joan Didion, demanded a divorce. Rich Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Mallarme, Plato Read more at penguin.com.au and powerful he was able and other writers who have suffered the to spin the court proceedings in his favour deadening impact of loss. Intensely and Barnett was left emotionally and moving and quietly devastating, When financially devastated. But the final blow Death Takes Something from You Give It was losing custody of her eleven-month- Back is about formulating a vocabulary to old daughter. This is the powerful and express the deepest kind of pain, what it unforgettable true story of a mother’s love is to love and lose, and what it is to and willingness to sacrifice everything for treasure life in spite of death’s her daughter. indomitable resolve.

Nora Heysen: A Portrait 488 Rules for Life: An Antidote Anne-Louise Willoughby to Stupidity Fremantle Press. PB. $34 Kitty Flanagan Nora Heysen’s life was A&U. PB. $29.99 GRAVITY IS THE THING A UNIVERSE OF SUFFICIENT SIZE defined by an all- Ever since she appeared ‘Astonishingly wonderful and magical and ‘Love, friendship and sacrifice explode consuming drive to draw on the ABC’s The Weekly moving and uplifting and DIFFERENT.’ from the pages...Miriam Sved has woven MARIAN KEYES or paint. The first woman with her segment about three generations and two periods of to win the Archibald Prize, this ‘pretend’ book, Kitty A dazzling and unforgettable adult history into a page-turning, emotional novel by award-winning and critically rollercoaster...I cannot recommend this and Australia’s first female Flanagan has been acclaimed author Jaclyn Moriarty. book highly enough.’ painter to be appointed an stopped in the street, HEATHER MORRIS official war artist, her approached in the post-war portraiture and still lifes supermarket, the cafe, sustained a lifelong career. In 1989, aged 78, even the dog park by people wanting to after years of artistic obscurity, Heysen know where they could get a copy – Kitty re-emerged on the Australian art scene, and Flanagan is all about giving the people the nation’s major art institutions restored what they want. 488 Rules for Life is her her position as a significant Australian way of making the world a more pleasant artist. Extensively researched, this story of place to live. Applying truth and wit to a driven, optimistic and resilient painter is modern problems. a celebration of that restoration. I’m Fine (and Other Lies) An Unconventional Wife: Megan Blandford The Life of Julia Sorell Arnold Wild Dingo Press. PB. $29.95 Mary Hoban With her career down the KOCHIE’S 11-STEP MONEY PLAN FOR TEEN BRAIN Scribe. HB. $39.99 toilet, a husband who was A BETTER LIFE With their fragile and rapidly developing Julia Sorell was an never home, a baby brains, teenagers are particularly David Koch, online entrepreneur, finance original. A colonial belle screaming non-stop and journalist and trusted Australian media susceptible to addiction, and addiction personality knows a thing or two about the leads to anxiety and depression. From from Tasmania, vivacious her cries for help falling family finances. Friendly, clear and easy to Australia’s most trusted non-fiction and warm-hearted, Julia’s on deaf ears, Megan researcher and author comes the book use, this is the guide you need to reset marriage to Tom Arnold Blandford spent years your money habits. that every parent needs to read. in 1850 propelled her into saying, ‘I’m fine’. Spoiler one of the most renowned alert (not really): she wasn’t fine. I’m Fine families in England and (and Other Lies) is a touching true story of into a circle that included Lewis Carroll motherhood: the challenges it presents, and George Eliot. Her eldest daughter and the hope that can be found within it. NONFICTION March 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 15

Cultural How to Do Nothing Science calmness, care and compassion. This is not Jenny Odell just a book about the law but about Studies Melville House. HB. Was $42.99 integrity, leadership, decision-making and $37.99 Borrowed Time: The Science moral reasoning – and one that teaches us When the technologies we of How and Why We Age how to think and act justly in our own lives. City Of Trees: Essays on Life, use every day collapse our Sue Armstrong Death and the Need for a experiences into twenty- Bloomsbury Sigma. PB. $29.99 Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Forest four hour, seven-days-a- In Borrowed Time, Sue Guide to Activism Sophie Cunningham week availability, Armstrong tells the story of Nadya Tolokonnikova Text. HB. $24.99 platforms for personal science’s quest to Coronet. PB. $32.99 Sophie branding, and products to understand ageing and to Nadya Tolokonnikova, Cunningham has be monetised, nothing prevent or delay the founding member of the written a collection of can be quite so radical as doing nothing. crippling conditions so Russian activist group travel writing that Here, Jenny Odell sends up a fare from the often associated with old Pussy Riot, is an activist, grapples with the heart of Silicon Valley, delivering an action age. Using interviews with professional protestor, destructive nature of plan to resist capitalist narratives of key scientists and people’s personal brazen feminist, and tourism. Or is it nature productivity and techno-determinism, experiences Armstrong focuses inward – on force to be reckoned writing that never forgets and to become more meaningfully what is going on in our bodies at the most with. Read & Riot is its place within the machine that connected in the process. basic level of the cells and genes as the years structured around Nadya’s ten rules for threatens the last vestiges of ‘nature’? pass – to look for answers to questions such revolution, and illustrated throughout This ability to hold and make space for as why and how our skin wrinkles with age with stunning examples from her opposing concepts is where the strength Gardening and our wounds take much longer to heal. extraordinary life and the philosophies and beauty of her writing lies. This space of other revolutionary rebels throughout is something Cunningham moves history. She gives us a refreshing model ‘Cherry’ Ingram: The Englishman Dr Space Junk vs the Universe: through freely, with an artist’s and a Archaeology and the Future for civil disobedience, and encourages naturalist’s eye. Her subject matter Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms our right to question every status quo Alice Gorman crosses vast distances and times, moving Naoko Abe and make political action exciting. NewSouth. PB. $29.99 through locales and subjects as disparate C&W. HB. $32.99 Going boldly forth as a as Alcatraz, the Flemington Stock Route, After visiting Japan in pioneer in the fedgling Icelandic glaciers, the Dig Tree, and the 1902 and 1907 and Visual field of space archaeology, death of her fathers. discovering two Dr Alice Gorman (aka Dr Arts This peripatetic journey through the magnificent cherry trees Space Junk) turns the world at large is never thoughtless and in the garden of his family common perception of always incredibly sensitive to injustice home in Kent, Vitamin T Collingwood Ingram fell archaeology as an and oppression – not just of people, but of Phaidon editors in love with cherry exploration of the ancient the world. These essays wander greatly, Phaidon.HB. $100 on its head. Her captivating inquiry into not only between the stories, but within blossoms. Over decades, Ingram became the most modern and daring of As boundaries them. But what ties them together is trees. one of the world’s leading cherry experts technologies spanning some 60 years – a between art and craft In some way these stories show how trees and shared the joy of sakura mere speck in cosmic terms – takes the have blurred, artists relate to seemingly distant events, like internationally. This book is a story of reader on a journey which captures the have increasingly the death of a loved one or the marriage Britain and Japan in the twentieth century, relics of space forays and uncovers the embraced these equality vote. Because in an age of rising and an exploration of the delicate blossoms cultural value of detritus all too readily materials and oceans and temperatures, and increasing whose beauty is admired around the world. dismissed as junk. Space is not as empty as methods, with the deforestation, everything comes back to we might think! resulting works being the trees. Mr Guilfoyle’s Honeymoon: coveted by collectors and exhibited in Like a stroll through Victoria’s last The Gardens of Europe & museums worldwide. Celebrating tapestry, remaining old growth Mountain Ash Great Britain Energy Medicine embroidery, stitching, textiles, knitting, forests, Cunningham’s City of Trees is Diana Hill & Edmée Cudmore Jill Blakeway and knotting as used by visual artists a breath of fresh air accompanied by MUP. PB. $45 Scribe. PB. $32.99 worldwide, Vitamin T is the latest in the the knowledge of how much is lost, or In this fascinating book, Today, more of us than celebrated series in which leading is being lost. But perhaps lost is where readers are able to ever are discovering the curators, critics, and art professionals Cunningham would like us to be. Echoing explore the grand curative powers of energy nominate living artists for inclusion. This Rebecca Solnit, she makes a case that it is gardens and forests of medicine. Scientific book is a vibrant and incredibly timely only through being lost that we can truly Europe and Britain with studies continue to survey – the first of its kind. discover ourselves and the vast multitude esteemed landscape confirm its validity, and medical doctors are of others that populate this world. designer William Surrealism Moreover, it is the only way we can learn Guilfoyle, as he did with regularly prescribing Amy Dempsey to navigate a world that’s diversity and his wife on their honeymoon. The treatments such as acupuncture to their T&H. PB. $19.99 health has been fundamentally depleted Guilfoyles took their Grand Tour patients. But even for those of us who have Surrealism was launched by human action. Through these essays honeymoon in 1890, at the height of benefitted from such treatments, the as a literary and artistic one can find the hope and understanding William’s reputation as the architect of one question remains: what exactly is energy movement by French poet to live and thrive in these dark times. of the world’s great botanical masterpieces, medicine, and how does it work? Lively and André Breton in 1924, and Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. informative Energy Medicine bridges the Michael McLoughlin is from Readings Carlton by the time of his death in gap between science and spirituality and 1966 had become one of offers a persuasive, evidence-based case the most popular art The Baby Parenting that advances this ancient healing practice. Marie Darrieussecq & Penny movements of the 20th Hueston (trans.) century. Its very name has entered Text. PB. $27.99 Teen Brain Politics everyday usage as a synonym for bizarre. What is a baby? And why David Gillespie Taking the reader on a narrative journey are there so few of them Pan Mac. PB. $32.99 through the history of Surrealism, this in literature? Through Adolescents are Doing Justice book is a digestible introduction to the notes taken in the particularly susceptible to Preet Bharara movement’s key figures, their works and months after her first addiction, and addiction Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 where to find them. child was born, Marie leads to anxiety and Multi-million-dollar Darrieussecq, makes depression. Whereas once fraud. Terrorism. Mafia The Book of the Flower observations that will the dopamine-hungry criminality. Russian Angus Hyland bring smiles and grimaces of recognition, brain of a teenager got its espionage. For eight years Laurence King. PB. $29.99 and raise important questions. Along fix from smoking a joint or Preet Bharara, United Haphazard bunches, with the banal drudgery of childcare, sculling a Bundy and coke, it is now turning States Attorney for the formal bouquets, there is the euphoria, the obsession, the to electronic devices for the pleasure jolt Southern District of New chance arrangements, terror and the visceral focus on the body. that typically comes from playing online York, successfully quiet and thoughtful Arguing with ‘Saint de Beauvoir’, games and engaging with social media. In prosecuted some of the most high-profile rural encounters – The Darrieussecq examines how women as Teen Brain, David sets out clear, reasonable crimes in America. In Doing Justice we Book of the Flower is a mothers are targeted from all angles. and effective rules to help you confidently learn what justice is, the basics of building a sylvan collection of How, she asks, can a woman be more and manage your kids’ use of screens at this case, and how judgement must be delivered beautiful depictions of other than a mother? critical point in their lives. not only with toughness, but with fowers by artists, photographers and 16 READINGS MONTHLY March 2019 NONFICTION

illustrators including Georgia O’Keefe, medical officers between 1914 and 1919. and pulses, combined with plenty of fruit Matisse, Keika Hasegawa and Albert York. Despite saving hundreds of lives, their and vegetables. This cookbook is simply a Interspersed through the illustrations are experiences are almost totally absent Food & treat for all of your senses. short texts about the artists and their from official military records and many of interest in particular fowers. A wonderful their achievements have remained Gardening Little Green Kitchen: Simple collection for art-lovers, gardeners and invisible until now. Heather Sheard and with Chris Gordon Vegetarian Family Recipes fower-fanciers. Ruth Lee have compiled a meticulously David Frenkiel & Luise Vindahl researched account of the Great War, seen Hardie Grant. HB. $39.99 through the eyes of these remarkable Just Add Love: Holocaust So Much Longing in So Little David Frenkiel and women and their essential work. Survivors Share Their Stories Space: The Art of Edvard Luise Vindahl are the and Recipes Munch faces behind the Karl Ove Knausgaard Irris Makler hugely successful Interior Black Inc. HB. $49.99 Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99 blog and cookbook Karl Ove Knausgaard Design For the past four years series Green Kitchen. explores the life and work of Irris Makler has been Everything was going Edvard Munch, and by recording the stories smoothly in their visiting the landscapes that Shared Living of Holocaust survivors vegetarian kitchen inspired him, and speaking Emily Hutchinson living in Australia until they became parents and they with contemporary artists, T&H. PB. $39.99 and photographing struggled to get a nutritious and delicious including Vanessa Baird Share houses them cooking with meal on the table that everyone enjoyed and Anselm Kiefer he sets traditionally get a bad their grandchildren. eating. This cookbook is their answer to out to understand the enduring power of rap but the reality of She learnt quickly making sure family meal time is not filled Munch’s painting. Bringing together art global housing that when a child cooks with their with tantrums and stand-offs. Take your history, biography and memoir, and drawing markets has made grandmother they learn much more than own inspiration from their quest to bring on ideas of truth, originality and memory sharing a longer-term when they cook just from a recipe: they joy back to the dinner table by whipping up Knausgaard refects on the essence of solution for many. absorb culture and family history and a batch of Friday Night Hulk Burgers and creativity, on choosing to be an artist, Featuring 21 shared start to discover their place in the world. Sweded Fries (made with spinach, quinoa, experiencing the world through art and its homes around the world, including 5 Makler started this project because no oats and peas), or Stuffed Rainbow Peppers infuence on his own writing. Melbourne homes, that are getting it one had written down the recipe for her with black rice, feta, raisins, pistachios, right; Shared Living uncovers the grandmother’s dark honey cake. cinnamon and beans.And the best news of Women Artists potential of shared spaces. Through each Fortunately, the recipe is included in this all? Each meal takes only thirty minutes to Flavia Frigeri stage – from finding a place to merging exceptionally powerful cookbook. Just prepare so that you have enough time to Add Love offers a unique combination of T&H. PB. $19.99 style – this book offers practical advice help with homework, driving kids to personal stories and international recipes Traditionally women have and tips for DIY styling, such as how to swimming practice and also allow space for that will encourage and inspire you to been among art’s favoured upcycle furniture or scour flea markets that delicious and necessary glass of wine cook for the people you love. objects of representation, for unique finds. at the end of a busy day. while their contributions Bangkok Local: Cult Recipes as art producers have been from the Streets that Make the A Basket by the Door: Recipes subordinated to those of Travel City for Comforting Gifts and Joyful men. Focusing on fifty Writing Gatherings diverse women artists, Sareen Rojanametin & Jean Thamthanakorn Sophie Hansen from Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Murdoch. HB. $39.99 See You in the Piazza: New Smith Street. HB. $39.99 Gentileschi through Judy Chicago, Ana If you need to show Places to Discover In Italy Bangkok Local Mendieta and the Guerrilla Girls to Barbara anyone from your follows one culinary Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Louise Frances Mayes circle of friends Viking. PB. $34.99 day and unites Bourgeois, this book equips the reader with and family that detailed food a general understanding of the history of The Roman Forum, the you care about knowledge with art by women, as well as an appreciation of Leaning Tower, the them, then this spectacular its most outstanding figures. Piazza San Marco: these gorgeous cookbook photography. My are the sights will inspire you to favourite Thai dish is synonymous with Italy. give the gift of a History chicken green curry But such landmarks only prepared meal or and my daughter’s is pad Thai. I thought I scratch the surface of treat. A Basket by the Door is friendship, had these two dishes down to a fine art, Figuring this magical country’s connection and heartfelt hospitality made offerings. In See You in the Piazza, however this amazing cookbook, this ode Maria Popova edible. All the recipes here are designed to Frances Mayes introduces us to the Italy to the glorious food of Thailand, has given Canongate. HB. $35 be portable and pack a punch of favour and only the locals know, as she and her me numerous helpful hints. The authors, Figuring explores the taste. There are recipes for tarts, cakes, jams husband, Ed, eat and drink their way Sareen Rojanametin and Jean complexities of love and and soups, seasonally organised with through fifteen regions - from Friuli to Thamthanakorn were both born in the human search for images that are sweet as spun sugar. The Sardinia. Along the way, she seeks out Bangkok and know a thing or two about truth and meaning book itself is a gift of goodness. the cultural and historic gems not found the tricks to creating the very best Thai through the in traditional guidebooks. street food. interconnected lives of Dining at Dusk: Tapas, several historical figures Bazaar Antipasti, Mezze, Ceviche across four centuries – Reference Sabrina Ghayour and Apéritifs from Around the beginning with the astronomer Johannes Mitchell Beazley. HB. $39.99 World Kepler and ending with the marine biologist Available 9 April Stevan Paul and author Rachel Carson. Stretching Dreyer’s English Close your eyes and Murdoch. HB. $39.99 between these figures is a cast of artists, Benjamin Dreyer imagine walking This wonderful writers, and scientists – mostly women, Random House.HB. $39.99 through a crowded collection of recipes mostly queer – whose public contribution We all write, all the time. marketplace, straw is perfect for those has risen out of their unclassifiable and And we all want to write bag in hand, senses that like to bask in often heartbreaking private relationships to better. As Random alert to the delicious the setting sun with change the way we understand, experience House’s copy chief, aromas and sights. a glass of wine and a and appreciate the universe. Benjamin Dreyer has This cookbook brings plate of nibbles. upheld the standards of that wonderful Recipes for perfect Women to the Front the legendary publisher experience to your very own home. finger food are taken Heather Sheard & Ruth Lee for more than two Included amongst breathtaking photos are from Australia, Ebury. PB. $34.99 decades. He is beloved by authors and vegetarian recipes from the bestselling Japan, India, Europe, Morocco, Brazil, the A war story unlike any editors alike – not to mention his Middle Eastern chef and teacher Sabrina USA and Mexico, to name just a few of the other, Women to the followers on social media – for Ghayour, author of Sirocco. The true magic location inspirations in this book. Dining at Front explores the deconstructing the English language of this cookbook lies with the simplicity of Dusk showcases glorious location photos as fascinating stories of the with playful erudition. This book will each dish – these recipes are achievable for well tables groaning with food options. This Australian women who prove to be invaluable to those who want even the most basic of home cooks. The tremendous collection of contemporary served as surgeons, to shore up their writing skills, and is an dishes utilise abundant, varied favour cuisine from around the world has at its pathologists, utter treat for anyone who simply revels profiles, from spices, herbs and perfumed core, relaxed inspiration for food that is anaesthetists and in language. aromatics to hearty staples such as grains ideal for sharing as evening falls. YOUNG ADULT March 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 17

beach, his skin colour is enough to causing chaos around the world. From suggest that he is not; he is Indian, but he bestselling author Cassandra Clare and Young knows little about his Indian heritage; he award-winner Wesley Chu comes the first is a fisherman, according to his father, but book in a new series. Adult that doesn’t feel right either. Caught in the pull between ocean and river, between Dig. his mother and his father, Rudra feels as if A.S. King he’s drowning, until the arrival of his Text. PB. $19.99 Turia Pitt is a motivational speaker, athlete and burns Indian grandmother and the discovery of Only a generation BOOK OF THE survivor, and she has written her latest book in such a a long-forgotten tiger skull come together removed from being to bring his life into sharp focus. MONTH completely friendly, casual way that from the very first Pennsylvania potato sentence you feel welcomed and wanted, almost like you Grant is adept at the coming-of-age farmers, property Young Adult can sense Pitt’s warm delight that you, personally, are journey narrative, and he clearly has developers Gottfried reading her book. deep empathy for his characters – not just and Marla Hemmings Good Selfie is a book of Pitt’s ‘tips and tools for teens to Rudra. Grant also seems drawn to India now sit atop a seven- nail life’, as well as answers to a collection of questions she and Indian culture, but I wonder how figure bank account – is frequently asked by teens while on her speaking tours. the novel would read to a teen with lived wealth they’ve declined experience of the life and culture about to pass on to their adult children or which he writes so intimately. teenage grandchildren. With her Good Selfie is a book of Pitt’s The Honeyman and the Hunter is a inimitable surrealism and insight, A.S. ‘tips and tools for teens to nail deeply moving and evocative journey, King explores how a corrosive culture of but it also reinforces the feeling of polite, affluent white supremacy tears a life’, as well as answers to a being an outsider looking in, and any family apart and how one determined collection of questions she is reading would be enhanced by seeking generation can save themselves. #OwnVoices narratives alongside the text. frequently asked by teens while Good Selfie: Bec Kavanagh is from Readings Kids Four Dead Queens Tips & Tools for on her speaking tours. Astrid Scholte Teens to Nail Life The Secret Runners of New Allen & Unwin. PB. $19.99 Turia Pitt & Freda Each chapter starts with a theme, followed by questions York Four Queens. A Chiu (illus.) and answers relating to the theme, and ends with related Matthew Reilly divided nation. A Renniks. HB. $34.95 exercises. It is presented in such a way that it can be read Pan Mac. PB. $16.99 ruthless pickpocket. A however you like: you can read it all the way through at A new city, a secret noble messenger. And once, or dip in and out when you see a question that piques your interest or an activity club and the end of the the murders that unite or exercise that feels relevant to you at the time. Some of the activities Pitt suggests world – the new them. Seventeen-year- seem really simple and obvious, but there’s something about the way she writes that thriller from #1 old Keralie Corrington affects you as you read. No matter how doubtful you may have felt about her immediate bestselling author is one of Quadara's answer to the question at the start of the chapter, by the time you’ve read through to the Matthew Reilly. When most skilled thieves, end you will find yourself enthusiastically filling out the related exercises. Skye Rogers and her but when she steals an extremely I also want to make it clear this is not just a book for girls. Young boys and men twin brother Red move valuable package from a messenger she are equally as susceptible to the pressures of society, they are equally as in need of to Manhattan, becomes entangled in a conspiracy that someone to encourage them to write down personal achievements about which they rumours of a coming global apocalypse leads to all four of Quadara's queens can be proud, and they also will find themselves in need of good, solid, positive advice are building. But this does not stop the being murdered. Four Dead Queens is an about how to deal with setbacks in life in a healthy way. This book is perfect for all young elite of New York from partying enthralling murder mystery where young people. without a care. Suddenly Skye is invited competing agendas collide with deadly Good Selfie is an infectiously positive book and I highly recommend it for all kids 10+. to join an exclusive gang who has access consequences. Dani Solomon is from Readings Kids to an underground portal and what she discovers in the future is horrifying. Making Friends With Alice Dyson Monsters Poppy Nwosu The Boy Who Steals Houses loathing – it’s so intimate it sometimes Sharon Dogar Wakefield Press. PB. $24.95 C.G. Drews feels like a stream of consciousness. The Andersen. PB. $24.99 Alice Dyson knows Orchard. PB. $16.99 violence depicted is visceral and stark, 1814: Mary Godwin, the exactly how she'll be Available 9 April although a scene where Sam punches a sixteen-year-old spending her final Fifteen-year-old villainous female character is troubling daughter of radical year of high school: Sam and his older for its lack of consequence. socialist and feminist with her head down, brother Avery are It’s inspiring that Drews has written writers, runs away with concentrating on her struggling to make a an #OwnVoices story in which Avery’s a dangerously charming textbooks and better life for actions revolve around his relationships young poet – Percy homework. She's themselves on the rather than his autism. However, because Bysshe Shelley. From focused on the future, streets after being the story is told exclusively from Sam’s there, the two young and nothing is going to get in her way. abused by every perspective, Avery’s feelings are not lovers travel a Europe in the throes of Then, a bizarre encounter with the parental figure in their always clear and readers looking for revolutionary change. From the school's most notorious troublemaker life. Avery, who is autistic, bore the brunt YA centred on an autistic experience acclaimed author Sharon Dogar comes a derails all her plans, turning Alice’s life of their father’s abuse, causing Sam to may want to look elsewhere. This is an reimagining of Mary Shelley's young into one enormous complication. This is become protective – so protective that he emotional, no-holds-barred story that adulthood: her passionate love affair, her a romantic story about rumours, has violent impulses towards anyone who Drews’ online following will likely snap tragedies and her creation of the greatest friendship, and discovering who you harms or takes advantage of his brother. up with enthusiasm. For ages 15+. Gothic science fiction novel of them all: really are. To survive, Sam breaks into empty houses Jackie Tang is the online content coordinator Frankenstein. at night, but is caught out one day when a for Readings Paper Avalanche family returns earlier than expected. A The Red Scrolls of Magic Lisa Williamson case of mistaken identities leads to Sam The Honeyman and the Hunter (A Shadowhunters Novel) David Fickling. HB. $19.99 befriending this large, messy family, and Neil Grant Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu When it comes to he starts to develop feelings for the sassy A&U. PB. $19.99 S&S. PB. $27.99 flying under the radar, and sarcastic Moxie. ‘How do we find Available 9 April Ro Snow is the expert. Author C.G. Drews’ debut A Thousand the place where All Magnus Bane No friends. No boys. Perfect Notes attracted a lot of fervent we belong?’ asks Neil wanted was a vacation No parties. And fannish ardour, and readers who related Grant in his newest YA – a lavish trip across strictly no visitors. It to the pain and suffering depicted in novel, as he follows Europe with Alec may be lonely, but at that first novel will find more to like Rudra Solace from a Lightwood, the least this way the truth here. The romance between Sam and beachside fishing Shadowhunter who doesn’t come out. Ro’s Moxie offers some levity, juxtaposing village on the against all odds is secret is a particularly hard one to keep against the relentlessly dark gauntlet of Australian coast to a finally his boyfriend. under wraps: her mum is a hoarder. But abuse, abandonment and violence Sam sunken village in India. Rudra, a likeable, But as soon as the pair when Tanvi Shah, the girl who almost and his brother experience. Sam’s inner thoughtful teenager, faces constant settles in Paris, an old friend arrives with died, comes tumbling back into her life, monologue swings between emotional reminders that he doesn’t fit – he is news about a demon-worshipping cult Ro finds herself losing control of her extremes – anger, desperation, hope, self- Australian, but to the racist surfers at the called the Crimson Hand that is bent on carefully constructed lies. 18 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 KIDS

Children’s Books Special offer on Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s Just series!

For this month only, you can buy each title for $5.99 (was $12.99), or purchase all eight for the special price of $42.99 (was $103.92). BOOK OF THE See the news page for more details. MONTH Picture Book

Wilam: A Birrarung Story spin across the sky with huffing and puffing Cloud. Your Aunty Joy Murphy, Picture heart rises and leaps with joy as you feel Little Bird fy. Andrew Kelly & Lisa Refreshing Rain brings the fun to a close with a Kennedy (illus.) Books sparkle, as Little Bird futters and washes the excitement Black Dog. HB. $24.99 away. Until, finally, as the day moves towards its end, Dusk calls Little Bird home to roost. There she can drift off to dreams amongst the stars, and your eyes, too, will Wilam means home in Woiwurrung, the The Ultimate Animal Counting Book begin to feel heavy. language of the Wurundjeri clan, and this Brought to life by the gorgeously rendered stunning story depicts the many creatures who call Jennifer Cossins Lothian. HB. $29.99 illustrations of Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, the Birrarung (the Yarra River) home, as it slowly winds inaugural Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award winner, Tasmanian artist Jennifer from the mountains to the bay. this universally appealing story is perfect for ages 3+. Cossins’ 101 Collective Nouns caused an international sensation Claire Atherfold is from Readings State Library Wilam: A Birrarung in 2018 when Oscar winner Anne Hathaway told Ellen DeGeneres A Quiet Girl Story is an absolutely how much she and her son loved Peter Carnavas stunning picture book the book. It teaches kids the UQP. HB. $24.95 names of different groups of I love this gorgeous little that explores the teeming animals, such as a ‘famboyance picture book. I love that wildlife that exists along of famingos’ and an ‘ostentation of peacocks.’ Cossins’ it champions children who get new book is equally animal-filled, but this time she forgotten because they are Birrarung … This book takes us on a journey through fascinating animal facts gentle and quiet. Mary treads while teaching children aged 2-6 how to count to 101. lightly on this earth and is a must-have for every Learn about why a tapir’s nose is shaped the way it is, notices the small miracles of school, library and home and what colour a zebra’s skin is underneath its stripes, life, but when she wants to or what cranes are best known for. (Hint: they like to share these observations with her family no one hears; in Victoria. boogie). Cossins’ illustration style is at once so they are not listening carefully. So, she withdraws even naturalistic yet so fun that you’ll want to reach into the more into her world until one day her family realises Indigenous creators Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa page to pat the beagle and give the Chihuahua a treat. they don’t know where she is – amidst all their racket, Kennedy collaborated previously on the picture Pilgrim Hodgson is from Readings Kids how will they find her? Dear, sweet Mary is a charming book Welcome to Country. This book also includes character in a lovely book that encourages us to stop, contributions from Yarra River-keeper Andrew Kelly. Little Bird’s Day look and listen. Ages 3+. It is written with Woiwurrung integrated into the Sally Morgan & Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn English text and features a readily accessible glossary. Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr (illus.) The art of Lisa Kennedy is exquisite, with huge double- Magabala. HB. $24.99 One Tree page spreads of river scenes that depict the diversity The latest book by Christopher Cheng & Bruce Whatley of life along the riverbank, and show both past and bestselling Australian Puffin. HB. $24.99 present intermingled. Indigenous author Sally One tall tree on the mountain Wilam: A Birrarung Story is an absolutely stunning Morgan tells the enchanting once marked Grandfather’s picture book that explores the teeming wildlife that and tender tale of a day with farm. Now there is a busy city exists along Birrarung. It teaches us Woiwurrung Little Bird. and Grandfather lives with us in language for the river and its inhabitants, and asks The day begins in the early our apartment. Once he told us to refect on the importance of the river not only to morning as Little Bird rises stories but now he stays silent. animals but also to the humans who live in its vicinity. and warbles with Sun to wake all the sleeping animals. Until one day, in the city This book is a must-have for every school, library You can almost feel yourself stretching and yawning as market, I find something and home in Victoria. Suitable for ages 4+. you also stir with Little Bird’s call. precious. A touching and Angela Crocombe is the manager of Readings Kids Next, Little Bird discovers a feast in the fowers, uplifting story about love, change and the importance delicately crimson blossoms, and then takes a playful of the natural environment in all our lives. KIDS April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 19

An ABC of Treasures Adventure Duck vs Power Pug: Book 1 This is a compelling page-turner with short, Marion Frith Steve Cole & Aleksei Bitskoff (illus.) punchy chapters, cleverly crafted for maximum Little Hare. BB. $16.99 Orchard. PB. $12.99 impact. Brimming with mystery and suspense, this This glorious smorgasbord of Available 9 April captivating survival-against-the-odds adventure is both colour, size and texture There’s no ducking out – it’s time a celebration of sisterly love and a saga of friendship collects a variety of retro and for this ordinary, wise-quacking and courage guaranteed to take hold of the reader like a contemporary objects for duck to become … A Hero! giant river eel with a crawfish. young readers to pore over. Adventure Duck didn’t ask for Very highly recommended for those who love nail- Always drawn to things that greatness. All he wanted was his biting adventures, aged 9+. are of no value to others, nest on the duckpond and plenty of Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern Marion Firth has fossicked soggy bread to eat. But when a about in op-shops and garage sales all over the world meteor gives him superpowers, he You Go First in her quest for the ultimate miniature collection. knows he must fy into battle and Erin Entrada Kelly defeat the forces of evil. HarperCollins. PB. $14.99 The Book That Never Ends Available 9 April (Books That Drive Kids Crazy, Book 5) From Newbery Medallist Erin Beck & Matt Stanton Estrada Kelly comes a story about ABC Books. HB. $19.99 Nonfiction growing up and finding your place For the Grown-Ups: They say all in the world. Twelve-year-old good things come to an end … but Charlotte Lockard and eleven-year- don’t hold your breath! You and old Ben Boxer are separated by more the kids are about to zigzag your Stand Up for the Future than a thousand miles. On the way through this book. Your Various surface, their lives seem vastly choices will take you who-knows- Puffin. HB. $29.99 different but during the course of where. From the mind-boggling From slam poet Solli Raphael to one week their lives will intersect in unexpected ways. brains behind This Is a Ball, Did gender equality advocate Caitlin You Take the B from My -ook?, The Figueiredo, soccer star Sam Kerr Red Book and Wait! comes a brand-new crowd-pleaser! and youth worker Zack Bryers, this is a book about young Poetry people, for everyone. Through activism, innovation, giving back Graphic Novels and leading by example, these game changers are building a This is Home: brighter tomorrow. This book showcases emerging Essential Australian Poems for Children Aussie talent and encourages readers to create Jackie French (selected by) & Tania No Adults Allowed positive social change. All royalties from sales of this McCartney (illus.) (Super Sidekicks, Book 1) book go to The Smith Family. National Library of Australia. HB. $34.99 Gavin Aung Than In This is Home much-loved author Puffin. PB. $9.99 Easy Peasy: Gardening for Kids Jackie French has gathered a poem Being a superhero sidekick isn’t Kirsten Bradley & Aitch (illus.) for every child and every mood. Sit as fun as you think. You do all the Little Gestalten. HB. $29.95 beside a bush campfire with work, beat the bad guys and save This book shows the different and Oodgeroo Noonuccal, watch the planet, only for your grown- fun ways to bring nature into the people going by with Henry up partner to get all the credit. home. Make your own pots, build Lawson, foat away with Alison Junior Justice is sick of it, so he balcony boxes and bird feeders, Lester, learn to read with Andy and his sidekick pals, Flygirl, and get friendly with worms! Griffiths or be brave with Shaun Dinomite and Goo, have decided Each activity has been carefully Tan. This extensively illustrated edition is an to form their own super team. Get chosen by Daylesford’s Milkwood indispensable addition to children’s bookshelves. ready for superheroes, supervillains and super-hilarious farm co-founder Kirsten Bradley adventures in this brand new series. to create living, renewable and sustainable environments for kids and their families. The simple steps and spot illustrations make Classic Junior Fiction activities fun and easy to follow. of the Month Middle Fiction Sherlock Bones and the Natural The Witch in the Cherry Tree History Mystery Margaret Mahy & Jenny Williams (illus.) Renée Treml Hachette NZ. PB. $12.99 A&U. PB. $14.99 Swimming Against the Storm In the back of The Witch in the Picture book author Renée Jess Butterworth Cherry Tree there was a Tremel’s first junior graphic Orion. PB. $15.99 recipe: ‘How to Make Gingerbread novel takes place inside a natural Available 9 April Witches’. I have very fond memories history museum. Sherlock Bones is Set in a tiny fishing village of of my mum helping my siblings and a very talkative bird skeleton. His Southern Louisiana, Swimming me to make and decorate these best friend is not as talkative. In Against the Storm effortlessly captures when we were little, just as in this fact, his best friend is a dead parrot. the slow, humid atmosphere of the book David’s mother is helping him Nevertheless, they have made it bayou, the tidal rhythms of life built to make cupcakes on a rainy day. As their business to find out who has on shrimp fishing and the vagaries of a child, two things I absolutely adored were witches and stolen a beautiful and extremely valuable blue diamond. a climate that can lull you into a false cakes; it’s no surprise that The Witch in the Cherry Tree Their goofy investigation leads them on an unhinged sense of security and then strike was my favourite picture book. Growing up, burnt cakes tour around the museum where they encounter without warning like a swamp ’gator. were affectionately referred to as ‘witch cakes’ in our dinosaurs, beetles, butterfies and more. There’s a sassy Close sisters Avery and Eliza grew up exploring home. This book was first published in 1974, and Jenny racoon acting very suspiciously but she may be simply this unique and beautiful wetland and know its Williams’ warm illustrations are brimming with that a greedy chocolate thief. There are plenty of facts about dangers only too well, but when rising sea levels seventies charm. It’s lovely, it’s cozy and it’s very funny. the natural world to be found along the way for curious threaten to destroy their home, they must team You’ll laugh at the antics of the sneaky witch as she hangs readers. Importantly, there are also a lot of laughs. This up with two friends and venture deep into the out in the garden trying very hard to get a taste of the is an offbeat, fun mystery that is absolutely perfect for swampland on a secret mission to save their cakes! Margaret Mahy was New Zealand’s finest writer readers who have enjoyed the Bad Guys, the Real Pigeons community. Avery becomes lost in the depths of for children, and like all of her books this one is filled or the Mr Penguin books. For readers aged 7+. the swamp and the children must find her before a with wit and magic. I love it. Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda tropical storm makes landfall. Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda 20 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 BARGAINS

Petra and Angkor Wat. This volume will let became a fundamental and increasingly memory and warmth, its taproot deep in curious minds discover how the world we troublesome feature of modern life. the evergreens: art, love, laughter. April know today was made, and un-made. Munich How Do Worms Work? Bargains Martha Stewart’s Robert Harris Guy Barter Vegetables PB. $32.99 Now $10 HB. Was $24.99 Now $10 Martha Stewart Living Editors Munich, September 1938: Ever wondered how HB. Was $49.99 Now $12.95 Adolf Hitler is worms breathe? Or why Yoga of the Subtle Body In this beautiful book, determined to start a war, exactly trees are so big? Tias Little Martha Stewart Neville Chamberlain is This book covers all PB. Was $29.99 Now $12.95 provides home cooks desperate to preserve the aspects of gardens and This guide to the with an indispensable peace. They will meet in a gardening, and will anatomy of the resource for cooking city which forever satisfy all your physical, mental, from the garden and afterwards will be horticultural curiosity. emotional, and subtle the market. These notorious for what is about to take place. Packed with photographs, vintage bodies unites recipes highlight the Spying. Betrayal. Murder. Is any price too engravings, diagrams, and lots of practical practical somatic favours and textures of everyday high for peace? advice, this book will answer every concepts and favourites and uncommon varieties alike. gardening query from the everyday to the teachings. Tias Little This book makes eating your greens (and quirky and whimsical. is a master teacher, and brings his I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen reds and yellows and oranges) more precise instruction to the wisdom Brushes with Death delicious than ever. teachings and philosophy of hatha yoga. Maggie O’Farrell Lisboeta: Recipes from PB. Was $29.99 Now $12.95 This book is essential reading for all Portugal’s City of Light serious students and teachers of yoga. Earthly Remains This is a memoir with a Nuno Mendes Donna Leon difference – the HB. Was $49.99 Now $14.95 PB. Was $29.99 Now $10 unputdownable story Lisbon is known as Jamie’s Comfort Food In Earthly Remains, of an extraordinary Portugal’s ‘City of Jamie Oliver Donna Leon shows woman’s life in Light’, its beautiful HB. Was $49.99 Now $12.95 Venice through an near-death buildings and cobbled This cookbook brings insider’s eyes. From experiences. streets illuminated by together one hundred family meals and Insightful, the refections of the ultimate comfort food vaporetti rides to the inspirational, nearby waters. It is also recipes. Inspired by never-ending infux of gorgeously written, it is a book to be read one of the great everything from tourists and suffocating at a sitting, a story you finish newly undiscovered culinary centres of Europe. childhood memories to political corruption, the conscious of life’s fragility, determined In this ground-breaking cookbook, the changing of the details and rhythms of everyday Venetian to make every heartbeat count. Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes invites you seasons, and taking life are at the core of this thrilling novel, to experience his favourite places, and the into account the guilty pleasures and and of the terrible crime at its heart. incredible food you will discover there. sweet indulgences that everyone enjoys, Global Discontents it’s brimming with exciting recipes you’ll Noam Chomsky The Sense of an Ending PB. Was $29.99 Now $10 Elmer and the Tune fall in love with. Julian Barnes From escalating David McKee PB. Was $19.99 Now $10 climate change to the HB. Was $24.99 Now $10 Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Tony Webster and his devastation in Syria, When Rose meets Elmer Cookbook clique first met Adrian pandemic state she’s humming a tune Jamie Oliver Finn at school. Maybe surveillance to she can’t get out of her HB. Was $49.99 Now $12.95 Adrian was a little more looming nuclear war, head. When she leaves, Jamie Oliver’s serious than the others, Noam Chomsky takes Elmer realises he can’t Christmas Cookbook is more intelligent, but they stock of the world get the tune out of his packed with all the swore to stay friends for today. Over the course head either – and as he classics you need for life. Now, years later, of ten conversations with long-time crosses the jungle he can see the infectious the big day and Tony will discover how collaborator David Barsamian, Chomsky tune spreading to every animal Rose has beyond, as well as memory can always throw up surprises, as a argues in favour of radical changes to a met! Can Elmer help everyone get rid of it? loads of delicious lawyer’s letter is about to prove. system that cannot possibly cope with recipes for edible gifts, what awaits tomorrow. The Persecution of the party food and new ways to love those No Way! Okay, Fine: A Memoir Templars leftovers. It’s everything you need for the of Pop Culture, Feminism and The Dreams of Bethany Alain Demurger best Christmas ever. Feelings Mellmoth HB. Was $49.99 Now $16.95 Brodie Lancaster William Boyd The trial of the Knights Home and Away: Writing the PB. Was $32.99 Now $12.95 PB. Was $32.99 Now $10 Templar is one of the most Beautiful Game Brodie Lancaster has These short stories infamous in history. Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik spent her life searching depict the random Accused of heresy by the Ekelund screens, books, and encounters that bring king of France, the PB. Was $35 Now $10 magazines for bodies the past bubbling to the Templars were arrested In Home and Away, like hers, girls who surface; the impulsive and imprisoned, had their writers Karl Ove loved each other, and decisions that goods seized and their Knausgaard and Fredrik women who didn’t irrevocably shape a life; monasteries ransacked. This deeply Ekelund use football and follow the silent and the endless researched and immersive account gives a the 2014 World Cup in instructions to shrink hesitations and striking vision of the relentless persecution, Brazil to refect on life or hide that they’ve received since literal loss-of-nerve that wickedly complicate it. and the oft-underestimated resistance, of and death, art and birth. This is the story of life as a young They are funny, surprising and moving, the once-mighty Knights Templar. politics, class and woman through the lenses of feminism and are a resounding confirmation of literature and the most important and pop culture. Boyd’s powers as one of our most original A Legacy of Spies question: was this the best football and compelling storytellers. (Audiobook) championship ever? Sugar: The World Corrupted John le Carré from Slavery to Obesity Winter Was $49.99 Now $10 Map Stories James Walvin Ali Smith Peter Guillam, Francisca Mattéoli PB. Was $32.99 Now $11.95 PB. Was $29.99 Now $12.95 staunch colleague of HB. Was $45 Now $14.95 How did a simple In Ali Smith’s Winter, George Smiley of the Discover some of the commodity become an the second novel in her British Secret world’s most magical essential ingredient in acclaimed Seasonal Service, has retired. places and how they the lives of millions, cycle, lifeforce matches Then, a letter from revealed themselves, mutating into the cause up to the toughest of the his old Service from the lost trails of the of a global health seasons. Smith’s summons him to London. The reason? His first colonies of the epidemic? This book shape-shifting quartet Cold War past has come back to claim him. American West to seeks to answer this of novels casts a merry Interweaving past with present, John le Amundsen’s exploration question, and to tell the eye over a bleak post- Carré has given us a novel of superb and of the South Pole, and the rediscoveries of story of how the consumption of sugar truth era with a story rooted in history, enduring quality. DVDS April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 21

My Generation mystery series Agatha Raisin. Adapted $29.95 from the bestselling books by M.C. Film & TV Beaton and with a brilliant supporting ‘There’s a tremendous amount of pleasure to be cast, the beautiful Cotswolds countryside had in David Batty’s My form the backdrop as Agatha attempts to Generation, a sloppy wet fit in with village life. Within weeks of the release of this documentary to DVD, kiss to Michael Caine and British youth DVD OF THE Yayoi Kusama will have turned 90. Widely recognised as culture of the 1960s. Loaded with great one of the most important, infuential, and commercially House of Cards: MONTH footage from the era and accompanied by successful living artists, she draws audiences like no other: Season 6 superbly cleaned-up music tracks from Was $39.95 Documentary her art has critical and mass appeal. the Kinks, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones Kusama: Infinity reveals the degree of her infuence. $34.95 and many others, this love letter-as- She shaped and contributed to important social dialogue, ‘With Frank out of the documentary offers 85 minutes of good and ideas considered radical in their time were explored picture, Claire Underwood old fun.’ – Variety and exhibited by Kusama before they ever emerged in the steps fully into her own as the first practices of those historically hallmarked as their originators. female president, but faces formidable Presenting Kusama’s direct infuence on artists including threats to her legacy. The final season Oldenburg, Samaras, and Warhol is one of the many ways this Television of the Emmy Award-winning drama documentary unpacks her incredible creative and imaginative builds to a tense and unforgettable force. In doing so, it doesn’t take away from the work and climax.’ – The Guardian artistic contributions of these people. It does, however, very Mrs. Wilson $24.95 clearly and painfully demonstrate that being both Japanese ‘BBC1 series Mrs Wilson is and a woman – sociocultural identifiers now used to positively Film one of the great dramatic demarcate her achievements – often made it more difficult for gems of 2018, and … Ruth Kusama: Infinity Kusama to carve her place in the art world. $29.95 Wilson should be given Lost in Paris The deep sadness of the documentary is the impact of $29.95 Available 3 April a gong for playing her own granny, the this on the wellbeing of Yayoi Kusama. She suffered through eponymous Mrs Wilson, and telling a ‘Here is one of the final severe and debilitating mental health crises. Despite the story that must still cause the family screen appearances of severity of her ongoing struggles with mental health, she has never stopped making work. much pain. This immensely addictive Emmanuelle Riva … It is a As engaging and stimulating as Kusama: Infinity is, it is also truly moving. Her impressive three parter … is based on true, albeit delectably gentle, elegant, and prolific body of work is both intimate and universal in figurative, literal and often incredible, events.’ – The Telegraph (UK) self-effacing performance. Riva plays a experiential ways. As her work dissolves grand binaries (the parts and the whole lovably scatty old lady called Marthe in articulating the microcosm and the macrocosm, or how the journey outward is often this tati-esque comedy from Dominique equally an inward refection), Kusama has also contributed to challenging and breaking Good Behavior: Abel and Fiona Gordon. The movie they down so many other kinds of boundaries and binaries – at no small cost to herself. Season 2 have jointly devised, and in which they $34.95 Happy birthday Yayoi! We thank you and love you – ad inifinitum. star, is a clever, funny and distinctly The second season of the Leanne Hermosilla is from Readings Carlton unworldly comedy with an insouciant sexy and thrilling Good line in visual humour.’ – The Guardian Behavior once again takes a shot at the mixed-up life of thief, con- Normandy Nude artist and habitual addict Letty Raines. Documentary Pope: The Most $29.95 After winning custody of her 10-year- Powerful Man in Available 3 April old son Jacob, she is trying to provide a History Normandy Nude is a warm $39.95 normal life with her partner-in-crime and Free Solo and wise tale of a proud $29.95 Available 3 April hitman Javier Pereira. However, hiding farming community who behind this illusion of normality, their ‘I spent most of this film ‘There is much to glean from must put their grievances aside in order past soon comes back to haunt them. with my jaw on the foor. this comprehensive and analytical study to save their village. Boasting superb It’s a visually staggering of the history of the Catholic Church and performances and conveying a rich documentary from National Christianity in general. The fascinating Agatha Raisin: sense of place, Le Guay’s wonderful Geographic about the climber Alex theology tells us much about the universal Series 2 ensemble delivers a memorable portrait $34.95 Honnold, who specialises in the most mind- quest for a superior being, and what people of community, resilience and fraternité, Ashley Jensen reprises boggling and gasp-inducing “free solo” are prepared to do for their beliefs … This and a hugely enjoyable experience for her starring role as city PR climbs – without a rope, up sheer rock faces, is a wonderfully rich chronicle of a position film-lovers of all shapes and sizes. the sort of thing usually undertaken by that has been held for 2000 years.’ – The turned country sleuth in Tom Cruise or Spider-Man.’ – The Guardian Sydney Morning Herald six new episodes of the British-village

1985 Opens Apr 25, exclusive (M) GLORIA BELL Opens Apr 25 (CTC) ALL IS TRUE Opens May 9 (CTC) 1985 follows a closeted advertising executive Adrian (Cory Michael Starring the effervescent Julianne Moore and from Academy Award- Kenneth Branagh directs and stars alongside Judi Dench and Ian Smith) who returns home for the holidays and struggles to reveal his winning director Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience) McKellen in this compelling historical drama about the final years dire circumstances to his conservative family. Shot on black-and-white comes a sophisticated romantic comedy that shows love can strike at in the life of William Shakespeare. Written by Ben Elton, ALL IS super 16mm film, 1985 takes a unique look at a pivotal moment in any time, relationships are never simple, and nothing can get you TRUE follows Shakespeare as he strives to bridge the distance American history through the prism of empathy, love and family. down as long as you keep dancing. between himself and his wife and two daughters, recover from the “Subtle and gripping…a fine piece of cinematic craftmanship” – IndieWire "One of the great female-led films of the 21st Century” – Variety loss of his son, and come to terms with his legacy as an artist. HHHH – The Guardian HHHH – The Guardian “A boldly fanciful but nuanced portrait of Shakespeare’s final years” – The Independent HHHH – The Guardian

Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema 22 READINGS MONTHLY April 2019 MUSIC

and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement their first duo album. A marvel of shared in transcendent vocals and levitating invention, it incorporates pieces offered as Popular arrangements – one Weyes Blood (a.k.a. tributes to formative infuences. Natalie Mering) could reach only by fying Music under the radar for so many years. Solstice Luther Dickinson and Sisters of the Lux Prima Strawberry Moon Karen O & Danger Mouse $19.95 Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner is a master of reinvention. $21.95 | Also on vinyl ‘In a departure from his ALBUM OF From his beginnings over three decades ago as an alt-country ‘Iconic Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ previous releases, THE MONTH musician, the Nashville native has swirled through a litany front-woman Karen O Solstice finds Dickinson of phases, landing now on his fourteenth studio album – Alt Country and world-renowned ceding the spotlight to a an ambitious, electronica-tinged collection of sprawling producer Danger Mouse diverse group of female stories. Stripped further back from his previous full-band set their stall out early voices, including Amy incarnations, Wagner moves languidly through these songs, with the theatrical Helm, Amy LaVere, Birds of Chicago, his gently auto-tuned voice communicating tales from across introduction offered by their nine-minute, Sharde Thomas and gospel greats the the spectrum of human emotion. title-track epic. Whirring, mysterious Como Mamas. The album’s 12 tracks … Few songs on the record are less than six minutes long – sounds – reminiscent of sci-fi film scores include a diverse assortment of originals it’s all about textures here. These pieces build from nothing – are eventually invaded by a chirpy, and covers, with emphasis on exploration to peaking crescendos, dying back down again to let the poignant piano…the worlds of the two and collaboration.’ – Rolling Stone instrumentation speak for itself. ‘Crosswords, or What This creators collide instantly.’ – Clash Says About You’ creeps to a climax before a shimmering piano solo brings it home. That piano, played by longtime Country This (Is What I On The Line collaborator Tony Crow, is a feature on this record, balancing Wanted to Tell You) Jenny Lewis the machinic, sometimes dissonant electronic sounds Lambchop $19.95 with something a little more grounded. Elsewhere, Wagner Sky Blue $19.95 | Also on vinyl ‘[On the Line] has a more channels contemporaries like James Blake and Caribou, with Townes Van Zandt robust and synthesised sounds and vocals heaping on top of one another $19.95 | Also on vinyl straightforward rock to create an intoxicating aural tapestry. The title track could be broken up into several An intimate collection sound than [Lewis’s] smaller tracks within itself, such is the daring nature of Wagner’s experimentation. Yet on from one of the greatest previous work, but still the last track, all is stripped away except the singer’s unadorned voice, a harmonica and a songwriters of all time, hews to her signature fingerpicked guitar – the way he always was, bare and honest. Sky Blue is a compilation style of combining gentle melodies and The songs’ names tell stories within themselves – ‘The Air is Heavy and I Should of unheard Townes Van syrupy, shining vocals with accounts of Be Listening to You’, ‘The New Isn’t So You Anymore’. It all comes back to the title of Zandt rarities. Released darkness and desperation, all topped off the record – this is a confessional record, intimate as a whisper, and the meanings in tandem for what would have been his with a reckless shrug. The new songs are of Wagner’s words, the curiosities of his existence, become evident both within the 75th birthday, Sky Blue pulls together two thrillingly unfettered.’ – The Cut music, and in the quiet spaces between. brand new songs, a few covers and five Van Zandt gems for this must-have collection. Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen is from Readings Doncaster Jazz /Blues Guy Steve Earle & The Dukes Come What May are sometimes dismissed as background $19.95 | Also on vinyl Joshua Redman Quartet Pop/Rock/Alt music. To Believe refutes that completely. In 2016, Steve Earle’s $29.95 Its gentle warmth makes the work friend and bandmate This is the first Guy Clark succumbed to Joni 75: A Joni Mitchell accessible. But once you’ve pressed play, recording in almost two a battle with Birthday Celebration there is no ignoring it.’ – Exclaim! decades for this group of Lymphoma. This album Various artists musicians: the recently is a tribute to Clark, $24.95 My Finest Work Yet Grammy-nominated performed with a spirit of glee and Andrew Bird One of the most saxophonist and his invention. Guy is a saga of friendship, its $21.95 | Also on vinyl infuential songwriters longtime friends and colleagues pianist ups and downs, and what endures. We are of the 20th century, Joni My Finest Work Yet finds Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, lucky that Earle remembers these things, Mitchell is known for her Bird grappling with and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The because like old friends, Guy is a diamond. fuid and intimate lyrics, themes of current day Quartet, which has toured internationally seamlessly interwoven dichotomies and how to over the last several years, recorded seven with a unique style of guitar playing. In this identify a moral compass Redman tunes for Come What May. Re-issues all-star tribute, an incredible array of amidst such divisive contemporary artists honor Joni on her times. Of the new music, Bird refects, ‘There The Secret Between the Talk is Cheap 75th birthday at the Music Centre in LA. is a certain optimism to this record … it’s Shadow and the Soul Keith Richards pretty up musically though it doesn’t pull Branford Marsalis Quartet any punches when it comes to the lyrics.’ $19.95 | $24.95 (deluxe) The Wisdom Line $19.95 David Bridie ‘… only one of these $39.95 (indie exclusive coloured vinyl) LP+CD+Book pack $49.95 Citizen John (Deluxe Edition) seven numbers is $249.95 (vinyl box set) One of Australia’s most The Black Sorrows [Marsalis’] composition, In 1988, Keith Richards prolific and deeply $21.95 | Also on vinyl a piece that moves from released his first ever respected songwriters, As is always the case quiet contemplation to solo album, Talk is David Bridie releases his with The Black Sorrows, wild animation and Cheap. Remastered sixth solo album, The the new album Citizen back again. There are two each by bassist from the original tapes, Wisdom Line, a spirited John is about perpetual Eric Revis and pianist Joey Calderazzo, the album’s joyous multi-media collaboration with filmmakers change. Deep in its plus a couple borrowed from Andrew Hill swagger is re-energised and permeates and visual artists. A great teller of grooves lurk the many and Keith Jarrett … Marsalis and through each and every song. Talk is Australian stories, Bridie’s immersive, artists vocalist Joe Camilleri has tipped his Calderazzo play together with exceptional Cheap sounds as good today as it did richly textured and sophisticated song- hat to, on stage and on record: Chuck Berry, delicacy and the technique all round is thirty years ago. writing shares stories and asks questions Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, quite stunning.’ – The Guardian with passion, integrity and humility. John Lee Hooker. The Healing Game The Transitory Poems Van Morrison To Believe Titanic Rising Vijay Iyer & Craig Taborn $29.95 deluxe reissue | Also on vinyl Cinematic Orchestra Weyes Blood $24.95 Van Morrison’s The $19.95 | Also on vinyl $21.95 | Also on vinyl Vijay Iyer and Craig Healing Game, the latest ‘It will surprise virtually Available April 5 Taborn, two of creative volume in Legacy’s no one that the latest Titanic Rising, written music’s most monumental Van from the Cinematic and recorded during the resourceful players, Morrison catalogue Orchestra is a drop- first half of 2018, is the learned to meld and reissue project, is a three dead gorgeous slice of culmination of three mesh their artistic disc collection chronicling the sessions, lush, soulful electronic albums and years of approaches inside Roscoe Mitchell’s Note collaborations and live performances pop … Acts like the Cinematic Orchestra touring: stronger chops Factory ensemble. The Transitory Poems is surrounding Van’s mid-career masterpiece. MUSIC April 2019 READINGS MONTHLY 23

Shostakovich & Kabalevsky: colours of one of classical music’s great Cello Sonatas orchestrators ... The full score of Daphnis Classical Steven Isserlis & Olli Mustonen et Chloé – with wordless chorus – crowns Hyperion. CDA68239. $29.95 the set, with a Dansegénérale that leaves Music ‘Isserlis and you breathless.’ – The Sunday Times Mustonen make a strong case for [the J.S. Bach: Inventions & Partita Kabalevsky] in a Janine Jansen, Maxim Rysanov & 2019 has seen a welcome proliferation of recordings featuring performance of Torleif Thedeen ALBUM OF music by women. Although for a long time musical women grand gestures that Decca. 4759081. Was $24.95 THE MONTH were actively discouraged from composing and audiences proves a real roller $11.95 (limited stock at this price) were less willing to open their ears and minds to their music, coaster ride. Isserlis’s intensity and ‘In a performance of Classical finally the world seems to be listening. Australia alone has Mustonen’s pianistic weight suit the piece BWV 1004 so vividly produced swathes of first-rate female composers, however wonderfully well ... The Shostakovich alive, the wary can little of their music currently makes it into our national Sonata, in contrast, seems spacious and relax … the great operatic, orchestral and chamber music programs. To ruminative, particularly when placed Chaconne is both coincide with International Women’s Day, ABC Classics has beside Rostropovich’s performances with purposefully plotted released a timely 2CD collection of music by our women, Britten at Aldeburgh … The shorter pieces and breathtakingly from Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984) to Kate Moore (b. are also superbly done.’ – Gramophone executed – listen to the inexorably 1979). It comes as no surprise that the women represented screwing-up of the tension as the music here were – and are – bold: Sutherland had to push back Ombra Mai Fu: Francesco builds to the central D major section.’ against a psychiatrist husband who believed that a woman Cavalli Opera Arias – BBC Music Magazine Women of Note: who composed was mentally deranged, and, against odds, Philippe Jaroussky & Artaserse A Century of Peggy Glanville-Hicks was among the first women to receive Erato. 9029551819. $29.95 recognition as an opera composer. Brahms: Violin Concerto & Australian Countertenor Some music on Women of Note – such as Glanville-Hicks’s Bartok: Violin Concerto No. 1 Composers Philippe Jaroussky Janine Jansen & Antonio Pappano Various Etruscan Concerto and Elena Kats-Chernin’s Russian Rag – releases Ombra Mai will be familiar to listeners, and some, including Brenda Decca. 4788412. Was $24.95 ABC Classics. 4817995. Fu, a new album of $11.95 (limited stock at this price) 2CDs $26.95 Gifford’s Bardju and Olivia Bettina Davies’ Crystalline, will opera arias and ‘Jansen gives us a be less so. Regardless, all of it has merit, and the collection symphonies by lyric reading [of the highlights the sheer inventiveness and, dare I say, genius Francesco Cavalli. Brahms] of rare of Australian female composers. The featured performers, ranging from the Melbourne Francesco Cavalli (1602–76) is an inwardness and Symphony Orchestra to the Benaud Trio, and to Sally Whitwell who accompanies fautist important figure in the history of opera beauty ... it is a Sally Walker in a performance of Whitwell’s own ‘Road Trip’, are Australia’s finest, and and his works, which first experienced a performance that sound possibly at their best in the music of their homeland. However, there is still work revival in the 1960s, are notable for the marries meditation to be done: the majority of conductors leading the larger ensembles are men, which is fuid expression of their recitar cantando with motion, such is the suppleness of no surprise considering that conducting is still a very male-dominated area of classical (‘acting in song’), and dramatically for Jansen’s and Pappano’s feel for the music. Despite this unfortunate shortfall, Women of Note is essential, urgent listening. their variety of tone, combining noble, concerto’s larger symphonic movement Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton mythical or tragic drama with teasing or and the hand-in-glove relationship that bawdy comedy. exists between soloist, conductor and Pappano’s superbly responsive Santa Debussy, Fauré, Szymanowski Cecilia orchestra.’ – Gramophone Elles Mendelssohn: Piano & Chopin: Music for Violin & Marina Thibeault & Marie-Ève Concertos and Works for Solo Piano Preghiera – Rachmaninov: Scarfone Piano Bomsori Kim & Rafat Blechacz Piano Trios Atma. ACD22772. $29.95 Jan Lisiecki & Orpheus Chamber DG. 4836467. $24.95 Gidon Kremer, Daniil Trifonov & In a similar Orchestra Pianist Rafat Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė vein to Women DG. 4836471. $24.95 Blechacz is DG. 4796979. Was $24.95 of Note, and again to It is very returning with a $11.95 (limited stock at this price) coincide with interesting beautiful, ecstatic International listening to a and very colorful ‘This being Women’s Day, recording when you French/Polish Rachmaninov, the French-Canadian know the soloist has chamber music main burden in both violist Marina Thibeault has released an chosen the repertoire. For this new recording he trios falls to the album featuring chamber music by some orchestra and the teams up with the supreme musicianship pianist; such is of the most famous female classical repertoire. You would not have thought of Korean violinist Bomsori Kim. Polish Trifonov’s artistry composers. Opening with Clara it would make such a big difference in melancholy and French elegance are that even with his Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin the musicality of the performance. But connecting to a wonderfully symbiotic dazzling technique, and without ever and Piano Op. 22 (arranged for viola), and right from the opening chords I knew relationship in music, and for their first selling the emotional intensity of the concluding with Anna Pidgorna’s viola something was a little more, well, more, album together Bomsori Kim and Rafał music short, he never overshadows his solo ‘The Child, Bringer of Light’, Elles about this album. Then when reading Blechacz decided to combine pieces from colleagues, who in turn realise every showcases not only the genius of women the programme notes I discovered that both of those countries. colour and expressive import of their who, against much resistance, composed Jan Lisiecki not only chose the parts.’ – BBC Music Magazine great music, but also the work of two very accompanying orchestra but also was fine young Canadian chamber extremely specific in his choice of Stravinsky: Chant Funèbre & musicians, violist Thibeault and pianist repertoire. Classical Le Sacre du printemps Marie-Ève Scarfone. At the mere age of 23, Lisiecki is Lucerne Festival Orchestra & Listeners may well be more familiar commanding the attention of the Specials of Riccardo Chailly with the music presented here than classical music world for his mature Decca. 4832562. Was $24.95 on Women of Note, and some may be interpretations of standard repertoire. the Month $11.95 (limited stock at this price) surprised to discover that this rich This is abundantly obvious from ‘Chailly and the repertoire was actually composed by his performance on this album. Lucerne Festival women. Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto in G Orchestra bring was herself a violist, and her 1919 viola Minor is precise, dignified, showy and Ravel: Complete Orchestral brilliance, detail and sonata was awarded equal first prize everything a piano concerto should be Works precision to works in a competition sponsored by fellow and Lisiecki gives it all the right touches. Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich & Lionel that include the musician Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It’s He was allowed to choose just three of Bringuier rediscovered “Chant one of my favourite pieces on Elles – the the Songs Without Words to round out the DG. 4795524. 4CDs. Was $42.95 Funèbre” … (the sequence of early works is) opening unaccompanied viola solo is album and insisted on only the Variations $21.95 (limited stock at this price) brilliantly coloured and played with exquisite, played sensitively by Thibeault. sérieuses, the Rondo capriccioso and the ‘Bringuier has been immaculate precision by the LFO … It is Pidgorna’s piece is also outstanding, ‘Venetian Boat Song’ to complement the immersed in Ravel’s followed by an equally brilliant account of highlighting the diverse sonorities of previous two concerti and the Variations music since he “The Rite of Spring” … It’s more detailed, Thibeault’s instrument. Another fine sérieuses in D minor. These renditions conducted Boléro at and more measured, than the version contribution to the growing discography made me wish I knew the works better to the age of 15, and Chailly recorded in 1985 with the of music by women. truly understand his interpretation. here he wallows in Cleveland Orchestra, but equally Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings the instrumental convincing in its own way.’ – The Guardian THE SMARTEST THRILLER OF 2019 SET RIGHT HERE IN MELBOURNE

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A brilliant young doctor is dead … and someone has to take the blame.