FREE MARCH 2015

BOOKS MUSIC FILM EVENTS

BAD BEHAVIOUR Rebecca Starford discusses her memoir of bullying and boarding school with Martin Shaw page 7

FRESH AUSTRALIAN FICTION

Bronte Coates introduces new local literary talent page 8

NEW IN MARCH

S.J. FINN KARL OVE HANNIE ADVANCED JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ $24.95 KNAUSGAARD RAYSON STYLE $21.95 page 10 $27.99 $24.99 $19.95 page 22 page 10 page 15 page 21 An elegant, immersive account of Forensic psychiatrist Natalie King Ever dreamed of a tree change? A fascinating investigation of the young woman’s exploration of her works with victims and perpetrators Part family drama, part cultural myths surrounding our conception of family history—and the search that of violent crime—including abused study and part cautionary tale, immunity, and its implications for the takes her from the Nazi Occupation women and women who kill their Dirty Chick will leave you laughing, individual and society. in World War II to love and a new life children. Now she’s is being stalked. cringing and rooting for its ‘[Biss] brings a sober, erudite in France. Author Anne Buist is a leading unconventional heroine. and humane voice to an often perinatal psychiatrist. ’Antonia Murphy is a writer of great overheated debate.’ New Yorker charm and appeal.’ Elizabeth Gilbert

The much anticipated collection of From the author of international Southwest Britain, AD 43. A memoir in parts, from one of stories from Kelly Link. Like Kafka bestseller Before I Go to Sleep. On the eve of the Roman invasion, a Australia’s best-loved playwrights. hosting Saturday Night Live, Link When Julia learns her sister has young woman rises to power. Hello, Beautiful! captures a life mixes humour with existential dread. been killed she gets involved with a A mesmerising Australian debut behind the scenes—tender moments, stranger online, hoping to expose the about the collision of two worlds: an hilarious encounters and, ‘The most darkly playful voice in truth. Is she risking everything? ancient indigenous culture against a inevitably, drama. American fiction.’ Michael Chabon modern, warring force. ‘So beautifully written, so funny.’ David Williamson

Ages $12.95 13+

A gripping tale of wartime Sydney. The story of a young girl whose The war between Cityside and Since the 1980s Perth has been Reporter Lloyd Fitzherbert is called longing for love and capacity for Southside escalates when a killer synonymous with wealth. But what to a ‘last-minute job’: a beautiful forgiveness transforms the damaged virus—Havoc—is unleashed amid happens when the boom ends? woman is dead in the harbour. And people around her. secrecy, lies and betrayal. An incisive look at what Western Fitzherbert knows more than he’s Australia’s future may hold. ‘Vann’s novels are striking, A thrilling, thought-provoking letting on. Contributors include Tim Winton, uncompromising portraits of novel from the author of the Brooke Davis, Shaun Tan. Introduced by Nicolas Rothwell American life; here is another Text Prize-winning The Bridge. exceptional example.’ Kirkus Reviews READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 3

News

CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL acclaimed Victoria & Albert Museum, offer is only valid from 9am–midnight The big day out for little readers is back! Inspiration by Design celebrates 150 years Thursday 5 March, applies to in-stock Head to the lawn of the State Library of collecting by the National Art Library. items only and is not valid with any other of Victoria on Sunday 22 March from Immerse yourself in beautiful books, from offer or discount. 10am–4pm for this year’s Children’s Book historic illustrated manuscripts and rare Festival. Pop by the Monster Marquee to artists’ books to modern graphic design ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FRENCH make your own horns, and then wear them and fashion photography. Don’t miss this FILM FESTIVAL throughout the day while you explore exciting international exhibition of graphic th the picnic library or create a giant book art and design from across the ages. Our Now in its 26 year, the Alliance Française that you can take home as a memento. shop at the State Library will stock a wide French Film Festival is set to resume its Readings will be all hands on deck range of gorgeous books and gift ideas from love affair with audiences once again. selling lots of great books and looking the Victoria & Albert Museum to coincide Running from 4–22 March, the festival will after signings by your favourite writers with the exhibition. screen an enchanting selection of the finest and illustrators, including Shaun Tan, movies to emerge from France over the Hazel Edwards, Terry Denton and Andy last 12 months. Readings is proud to be a THE 2015 STELLA PRIZE Griffiths. The Festival is free and everyone sponsor of the Melbourne festival for 2015. LONGLIST is welcome. Come down and join us for For more information and to book tickets, the book party! The Stella Prize longlist for 2015 has been please visit affrenchfilmfestival.org announced. Celebrating the contribution of Australian women to literature, the THE READINGS CHILDREN’S $50,000 prize was awarded for the first BOOK PRIZE time in 2013 to Carrie Tiffany for Mateship The Readings Children’s Book Prize, with Birds, and last year to Clare Wright established in 2014, recognises and for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. The celebrates books that families love reading 2015 Stella Prize longlist is: Foreign Soil, together, or that children read under the Maxine Beneba Clarke; The Strays, Emily covers with a torch late into the night Bitto; Only the Animals, Ceridwen Dovey; because they can’t bear to put them down. This House of Grief, Helen Garner; Golden The Prize seeks to support an Australian Boys, Sonya Hartnett; The Invisible History author – one who has published no more of the Human Race, Christine Kenneally; than four children’s books – in establishing The Eye of the Sheep, Sofie Laguna; The their position as a valued contributor to Golden Age, Joan London; Laurinda, Alice children’s literature. The winner will be Pung; Nest, Inga Simpson; Heat and Light, announced at a special event at Readings Ellen van Neerven; and In My Mother’s Hawthorn in July, and will be awarded a Hands, Biff Ward. The 2015 Stella Prize prize of $4,000. Please visit readings.com.au/ shortlist will be announced at noon on the-readings-children-s-book-prize for more Thursday 12 March, and the Prize itself details, including the full eligibility criteria. will be awarded in Melbourne on the Author Sally Rippin will announce the 2015 evening of Tuesday 21 April. Readings Monthly shortlist at the Children’s Book Festival at 11.10am on Sunday 22 March at the State Free independent monthly newspaper READINGS’ 46TH BIRTHDAY published by Readings Books, Music & Film Library of Victoria. It’s Readings’ 46th birthday on Thursday 5 Editor INSPIRATION BY DESIGN: WORD March! To celebrate, we are offering 10% off Elke Power & IMAGE FROM THE VICTORIA & all full-priced books in all shops and online [email protected] ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON on this day only. To receive your discount Premiering at the State Library of Victoria in our shops just say ‘Happy Birthday Editorial Assistant and running from 20 March–14 June, Readings’ at the counter. If you are shopping Alan Vaarwerk this free exhibition showcases some online, simply visit readings.com.au and [email protected] of the world’s finest book art, graphics type ‘BIRTHDAY’ in the promotional code and illustration. Organised by London’s section at check-out. Please note that this Advertising Stella Charls [email protected] (03) 9341 7739

Graphic Design Cat Matteson [email protected]

Front Cover Readings Monthly cover design by Cat Matteson with images from the cover of Bad Behaviour by Rebecca Starford, courtesy of Allen & Unwin. Bad Behaviour cover design by Sandy Cull, gogoGingko (cover photo: Getty Images and Sandy Cull).

Cartoon Oslo Davis oslodavis.com

Readings donates 10% of its profits each year to The Readings Foundation: readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation

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March Events HANNIE RAYSON RUSSELL MARKS 16 IN CONVERSATION 17 ON CRIME & LAUNCH OF DR MARK LATHAM WITH AMY VULETA PUNISHMENT 5 DEB ANDERSON’S 12 AT LARGE Hannie Rayson has spent a lifetime giving Russell Marks will discuss his new book ENDURANCE Mark Latham is, by his own admission, the voice to others in the many roles she has Crime & Punishment, inspired by his Join us for the launch of Endurance by Dr most outspoken, uncontrollable former leader written for stage and television. In her new observations and experiences of Victorian Deb Anderson from the School of Media, in Labor Party history. Latham at Large is a memoir, Hello, Beautiful!, she shines the courts over two years. In 2013, taxpayers Film and Journalism at Monash University. collection of his brilliantly written opinion spotlight on herself. Hear Hannie share spent over $14 billion on police, courts and Endurance presents stories of ordinary pieces scrutinising the Australian political stories from her life behind the scenes with corrective services. At a time of budgetary Australians grappling with extraordinary landscape, critiquing the modern media and the great warmth and humour that has made crisis, how is this money being used and circumstances, providing insight into also detailing other interests, such as his her one of our best-known playwrights. how do we know the system works? fascination with horse racing. This is going to their lives, experiences of drought and Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events perceptions of climate change. be a fun night! Monday 16 March, 6.30pm Tuesday 17 March, 6.30pm Readings St Kilda Free, no booking required Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Readings Carlton Thursday 5 March, 6.30pm Thursday 12 March, 6pm Readings Carlton Readings Hawthorn LAUNCH OF THE SHORT STORY 16 LATEST BOOK IN 18 ANTHOLOGY MICHELE GIERCK KATE HOLDEN ELLIE MARNEY’S LAUNCH: 5 IN CONVERSATION 12 LAUNCHES ‘EVERY’ YA SERIES BREAKING BEAUTY S.J. FINN’S WITH MORAG Join us for the launch of Ellie Marney’s new Join us for the launch of the new short story FRASER DOWN TO THE Young Adult thriller Every Move, the latest anthology Breaking Beauty, edited by Lynette instalment in the popular Every series. Michelle Gierck and Morag Fraser discuss RIVER Washington and featuring 27 established and emerging writers as they put one of the Fraying: Mum, Memory Loss, the Medical Kate Holden will launch S.J. Finn’s new Free, no booking required greatest obsessions of our time under the Maze, and Me, which chronicles a mother novel Down To The River, a compelling and Monday 16 March, 6.30pm spotlight and show that there is no light and daughter’s compelling journey through thoughtful portrait of a small town rocked Readings Carlton memory loss and the medical establishment. by disturbing allegations. See our review on without darkness. Michele Gierck found herself thrust into page 10 for more about the book. Free, no booking required the role of primary carer with no map to Free, but please book at Wednesday 18 March, 6.30pm navigate the world of aged care and medical readings.com.au/events Readings Carlton bureaucracy. Thursday 12 March, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events St Kilda Bowling Club, 66 Fitzroy St, St Kilda Thursday 5 March, 6pm Readings Hawthorn HISTORICAL 12 FICTION LAUNCH: KATE WHITE ON ILKA TAMPKE’S SKIN 11 WOMEN IN Join us for the launch of Ilka Tampke’s Skin, SCIENCE a mesmerising new novel set in Celtic Kate White’s Keeping Women in Science Britain on the cusp of Roman invasion. See discusses the issues of women scientists being our review on page 9 for more about the under-represented in leadership roles and book. STEPHAN PASTIS leaving the profession in greater proportions Free, no booking required GEOFFREY than men. In acknowledgement of 17 TALKS TIMMY Thursday 12 March, 6.30pm 18 BLAINEY ON THE International Women’s Day, Kate will discuss Readings Carlton FAILURE the challenges that women in science face. STORY OF Stephan Pastis took an unusual route to AUSTRALIA’S Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events becoming a number-one best-selling comic Wednesday 11 March, 6pm creator: he went to law school before PEOPLE Readings Hawthorn creating Timmy Failure – the clueless, risibly Come and hear historian Professor Blainey self-confident CEO of the best detective discusses his latest work, The Story of agency in town, perhaps even the nation. Australia's People: Volume I. This is the Join us to meet Stephan, get your collection first part of an ambitious and exciting two- of Timmy Failure books signed and be volume work on Australia's history from its inspired to create your very own hero. origins to the present day. This first volume covers ancient times to the Gold Rush. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Tuesday 17 March, 4.30pm Wednesday 18 March, 6pm Readings Hawthorn Readings Hawthorn THE UNDERWATER 16 FANCY-DRESS ABIGAIL ULMAN FIRST THINGS PARADE 17 ON HOT LITTLE 19 FIRST WITH KATE In celebration of the beautiful new picture HANDS LLEWELLYN book, The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade, Abigail Ulman’s Hot Little Hands contains Join one of Australia’s most-loved authors, CHARLES HALL’S join the author, Davina Bell, and illustrator, nine funny, confronting and pitch-perfect Kate Llewellyn, for a discussion of her latest 11 SUMMER’S GONE Allison Colpoys, as they take you on a fun- stories about desire, identity and stumbling book, First Things First, a collection of letters filled, underwater-themed adventure with on the fringes of innocence. Ulman’s work has from her private correspondence with artists Join us for the launch of Charles Hall’s activities suitable for 3–7-year-olds. For appeared in New England Review, Meanjin and writers. The collection, edited by Ruth novel, Summer’s Gone. Devastatingly honest, more information about the book, see our and New Australian Stories, among other Bacchus and Barbara Hill, brims with energy, it revisits a steamy and complicated ‘summer review on page 19. publications. We are delighted that she'll be humour and insights into a writer’s life. of love’, years after its tragic end. This event joining us to share her writing process and will also feature music by Dan Hall. Entry is $25 per child and includes discuss her book. Free, but please book on 9658 9998 a copy of the book and wonderful Thursday 19 March, 2.30pm Free, no booking required ‘underwater’ activities. Please book Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Library at the Dock Wednesday 11 March, 6.30pm at readings.com.au/events Tuesday 17 March, 6pm 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands Readings Carlton Monday 16 March, 4.30pm Readings Hawthorn Readings Hawthorn

For more information and updates, please visit the events page at readings.com.au/events. Please note bookings do not necessarily guarantee a seat and some events may be standing room only. READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 5

NICK EARLS ON Coming up: 26 NEW BOY dates for your diary Nick Earls has written 20 novels inclusing best-sellers Zigzag Street, Bachelor Kisses, Perfect Skin and World of Chickens. Join us as he discusses New Boy, his new book for young readers (10 and up), which tells the story of Herschelle, who has moved to Australia from South Africa.

Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Thursday 26 March, 5pm Readings Hawthorn

HELENA & VIKKI 19 MOURSELLAS IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS GORDON Helena and Vikki Moursellas are the young Greek cooks who won the hearts of the nation as 2014 finalists on Channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules. But we love them KATE GRENVILLE because their food is brilliant, easy and 14 ON ONE LIFE April full of heart. Join Readings’ Chris Gordon When Kate Grenville’s mother as she chats with these local sisters about died she left behind many fragments of cooking, sharing and being in the limelight. memoir. These were the starting point for Read more about the book on page 17. One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events One of Australia’s finest writers, Grenville Thursday 19 March, 6.30pm will join us to speak about her new work, Readings Carlton KILL YOUR a deeply moving homage to and intimate 26 DARLINGS FIRST account of her mother’s life. BAD BEHAVIOUR: BOOK CLUB Entry is $30 per person and includes a signed 19 REBECCA first edition of One Life. Limited seating We are delighted to be hosting the monthly STARFORD IN available, please book at readings.com.au/events Kill Your Darlings First Book Club event Tuesday 14 April, 6.30pm CONVERSATION series in 2015! The March First Book Club Readings Hawthorn WITH ELKE author is Erin Gough, whose Ampersand POWER Project-winning YA novel The Flywheel is ‘a tender-true story of girl meets girl, falling Rebecca Starford’s debut memoir, Bad in love and finding your feet’. Erin will be in Behaviour, is an astonishingly forthright conversation with Kill Your Darlings’ online examination of bullying, friendships editor Veronica Sullivan. Drinks provided. and responsibilities. Join us for a lively discussion about identity, growing up, Free, but please RSVP to writing, and being heard. Don't miss Martin [email protected] Shaw's interview with Rebecca on page 7 Thursday 26 March, 7pm and our review of Bad Behaviour on page 15. Readings Carlton

Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events MARNI CORDELL Thursday 19 March, 6pm 31 LAUNCHES TOM Readings Hawthorn RIVER COTTAGE DOIG’S THE COAL 20 AT HAWTHORN FACE April Paul West is a television Join us as Marni Cordell, editor of Crikey, presenter, farmer, self-sufficiency activist, launches Tom Doig’s new book The Coal Face chef, and along with Hugh Fearnley- which examines the causes, reactions and Whittingstall, one of the stars of River impact of the 2014 Morwell coalmine fire. Cottage Australia. Join us for an exclusive Free, no booking required evening as Paul discusses the new River Tuesday 31 March, 6.30pm Cottage Australia cookbook and shares his Readings Carlton tales from the dirt, stories of friendship and, of course, his favourite recipes.

TONY WILSON Tickets are $100 per person and include a JAMES BRADLEY 31 LAUNCHES two-course meal, wine, and signed first edition 25 ON CLADE of River Cottage Australia. Please book at GABRIELLE readings.com.au/events Award-winning novelist, poet and critic WILLIAMS’ THE Monday 20 April, 6.30pm James Bradley will discuss his critically GUY, THE GIRL, THE Crabapple Kitchen acclaimed new novel, Clade. This novel 659 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn spans the years from 2016 to beyond 2057, ARTIST & HIS EX and has a subtle dig at all elements of society Tony Wilson will launch Gabrielle and what we are doing to our world. For Williams’ new novel The Guy, The Girl, more information about Clade, see the The Artist and His Ex, a fresh take on the review on page 7 of our February issue, or notorious theft of Picasso’s Weeping Woman online at readings.com.au. from the National Gallery of Victoria.

Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, no booking required Wednesday 25 March, 6.30pm Tuesday 31 March, 6pm Readings Carlton Readings Hawthorn 6 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

Mark’s News and views from Readings’ Managing Director, Say Mark Rubbo

I’ve just attended American Booksellers businesses supported by an engaged and the world – refrigeration, clocks, lenses, this year. Debut novel City on Fire by Association’s Winter Institute. For four committed community. It’s no surprise, water purification, recorded sound and Garth Risk Hallberg is set in New York in days, independent booksellers and authors then, that Ashevillle is at the forefront artificial light. He was fascinating. I the 1970s. At 900 pages, it looks daunting gather together to discuss books and the of the growing Buy Local movement in met photographer Sally Mann, who was but very enticing – the ‘70s was such an state of the industry. Now in its tenth the United States; studies have shown signing advance copies of her memoir interesting period in the life of that city. year, the Institute was held in the small, that locally owned businesses contribute Hold Still (Little, Brown, $67.95, May) – It’s due in October. pretty city of Asheville, North Carolina. much more to local economies in terms endorsed by Patti Smith, this looks Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, of jobs, taxes and in intangible benefits fascinating. Historian Erik Larson wrote Asheville was a very considered choice than do the large national brands, and In the Garden of Beasts a few years ago; by the ABA; in the mid-20th century certainly in Asheville the community his new book Dead Wake (Scribe, $35, Asheville’s downtown area had been has embraced the idea with businesses May) is about the sinking of the passenger decimated by the construction of malls such as Malaprops thriving in spite of liner Lusitania in 1915 on its way from on the city’s outskirts, which had sucked the online competition from the likes of New York to Liverpool. I was enchanted the lifeblood out of the city centre. With Amazon. Indeed, the mood among the by Mary Norris, who’s been a copy editor the help of some enlightened developers 600 or so booksellers at the Institute was at the New Yorker for over 30 years. Her and town councillors, the city has been buoyantly optimistic, with booksellers book on grammar, Between You & Me – undergoing a successful rejuvenation reporting growing sales and community Confessions of a Comma Queen is due out process. An integral part of that process support. The American public, it seems, from Text ($29.99) in April. I had a brief was the town’s bookshop, Malaprop’s, have decided that local independent chat with T.C. Boyle, whose novel The which had been started in the run down bookshops are an important asset for Harder They Come, about three damaged downtown area in 1982 by Hungarian- their communities, and that without their characters from California, is due later born Emöke B’Racz – ‘You could walk support they will lose them. three blocks in either direction to find Hundreds of authors also came to another building that was occupied’. In the Winter Institute to pitch their new 1997 she was approached by one of the books to the booksellers. Authors and developers who wanted to buy a large publishers alike are acknowledging how abandoned building a few doors from important the independent booksellers Malaprop’s; he would only buy the are in reaching readers. In what was building if Emöke would move her store like a giant speed-dating exercise where into it. It was a risk for the developer authors got a chance to meet booksellers and for Emöke, but they pulled it off and spruik their books to them. I’d like to and Malaprop’s became a key factor in share a few titles that caught my interest. the revitalisation of the downtown area, Steven Johnson, the author of How We their success encouraging sympathetic Got to Now – Six Innovations That Made businesses to take the risk also. the Modern World (Penguin, $32.99) Today Asheville is a vibrant and gave the opening address. In his book he delightful little city full of interesting local traces six key technologies that changed

Historic Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina, site of The Winter Institute

From the

Books Martin Shaw, Desk Readings Books Division Manager

I must say I’ve been having a good run the craving for love and acceptance – with dragons, ogres, giants, and an elderly small publishers willing to take risks and of late with the first book I read in any that so marked that year. Her memories Sir Gawain – and a mystical take on the bring important books like this to light’. given year. Last year, for instance, I was spurred by a return visit to the school, Bad meaning of life. We were also rather taken by a new book gushing about Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Behaviour soon has you in its grip (as our Readers of this column will be from Amanda Lohrey, A Short History of Foreign Soil – so it’s been gratifying to see review attests), but it’s also beautifully accustomed to hear me raving about each Richard Kline. the reception it’s had since, including most told, with moments of particular lyricism, successive Karl Ove Knausgaard volume, Finally, the world was stunned back recently her Stella Prize longlisting. and structured too with particular finesse and readers with the first three volumes in 2011 by the actions of Norwegian This year it’s a memoir that’s totally (another strand of the book is an account behind them will need little spurring to fanaticist Anders Breivek, who planted seduced me: Rebecca Starford’s Bad of her life thereafter, focusing on her embark on his fourth, Dancing in the Dark. a bomb outside the Norwegian PM’s Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and coming out in her late teens and all the Our reviewer Gerard Elson is spot-on office before travelling to the island of Boarding School. Starford is already highly highs and lows that entailed). when he says: ‘(Knausgaard is) relentless Utoya and massacring scores of children. regarded on the Australian literary scene: This was by no means easy material in airing his most honest, and therefore One of Us by Anne Seierstad is a chilling she co-founded the Kill Your Darlings for Starford to grapple with, but her desire often least admirable, self. I think it’s investigation into a childhood scarred literary journal, and is an editor at Text for truth and self-knowledge burns strong, precisely this that makes My Struggle such early, and Breivik’s increasing obsession Publishing – but I had never expected and the result is an extraordinary debut. a generous, dealienating and necessary with extreme right wing views. a tale quite so compelling and affecting There was so much to talk about when I endeavour’. as this one. It looks back at the year interviewed Starford recently about the I do love the look of Catherine Lacey’s Starford spent in her schooldays at the book – you’ll find an edited version of our debut Nobody is Ever Missing as well – bush campus of a well-known school in Q&A opposite (page 7). and not just because it’s set in my home the Victorian Alps – partly with fondness Turning to the rest of the month’s country of New Zealand! for the encounter with nature it afforded, releases now, and it’s clear that Kazuo In terms of Australian fiction, it’s but overwhelmingly with horror at the Ishiguro’s first book in ten years is a a rich month, with strong debuts from various forms of bullying and aggression big deal. The Buried Giant seems to be Robyn Cadwallader, Alice Robinson, Ilka that went on between the 14-year-old girls, dividing early readers, in that it doesn’t Tampke & Abigail Ulman. There is also under minimal staff supervision. There appear to have a natural affinity with some a second novel from S.J. Finn, whose is grief and guilt over her own behaviour, of his earlier, immensely popular novels, theme of paedophilia, our reviewer notes, but Starford also finds a key here to how but I think that’s a good thing: here’s an makes it ‘an incredibly uncomfortable some of her later adult relationships were author attempting to plough new ground. book to read, but good fiction should be sabotaged by the feelings of isolation – and Here he takes us to Dark Age Britain – challenging and thankfully there are still READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 7 Bad Behaviour Martin Shaw in conversation with Rebecca Starford

characters conflated’, you seem to flag both a freedom and a responsibility in your method. How did you find the Martin Shaw, experience of writing about people so clearly drawn from Readings Books Division Manager life? Did the necessity of protecting identities, especially when writing about disturbing episodes of bullying when you were at school, or private moments in your adult ebecca Starford’s Bad Behaviour: A Memoir relationships, inadvertently provide opportunities for you of Bullying and Boarding School is generating to shape the narrative while still remaining true to the much excitement at Readings. After essence of events? numerous sleep-deprived staff members RS: It’s a tricky question because all storytelling is Rturned up to work unable to think or speak of anything contrived, to an extent, isn’t it? But writing about real-life else, Martin Shaw decided to go straight to the source people does bring with it such complex ethical questions. for the story behind this fantastic debut. Here, Martin And while I did eventually change characters’ names to and Rebecca discuss how this extraordinary memoir protect their identity, and the identity of the school, I must came about. confess that I didn’t really ask myself any of these moral MS: I’d have to confess that I was a little stunned when questions as I was writing. Not out of any callousness, but I heard that this book had been signed a couple of years because I think if I did, I would have found the writing ago. How will she find the time, I wondered, between being excruciating – all that second-guessing. One of the great a full-time editor (you’re now at Text Publishing) and challenges writing this memoir was to step outside of running the esteemed literary journal Kill Your Darlings myself – to almost become a character that wasn’t me at all, (that you co-founded) – and writing a book on top of that?! to create a greater degree of reflection and objectivity. Once How did you first come to think of writing this book? I’d done this, however, I felt really liberated. That’s why I RS: I first thought about writing about my experiences found the earlier sections, when I was a teenager, far easier at boarding school about five years ago. I’d just come out of to write – because I had that distance of time separating us. an intense and pretty dysfunctional relationship, and I was MS: A key to the book – the thing without which you very unhappy. I just couldn’t pull myself out of this slump – probably couldn’t have undertaken the project – is the Rebecca Starford. Photo courtesy of Elinor Griffith I found I was thinking about myself a lot, but not being very existence of your diary from that time as a 14 year old introspective, or thoughtful towards other people. school student. But of course it’s not what’s mentioned intent if you had been more sparing? I finally rustled up the courage to see a therapist, which in it that became the thing that intrigued or bothered you RS: I imagine it must be very hard to be written about was a transformative experience. During these sessions, I the most, but that ‘so many things had been left out entirely by someone else. Most often when we talk about these started talking about old friends I hadn’t thought about in – arguments, sadness, misbehaviour. On these pages I’d ethical issues, we talk about it from the perspective of the a long time, and then I found myself often thinking about instead pasted in photographs from hikes, to make it look writer, and we try to be very libertarian about it. But I guess ‘Silver Creek’ – drawing comparisons to the friendships I’d like something else had happened. What, I wondered, was I if the shoe was on the other foot, it would probably be very had there, as a teenager, to the relationship I’d just come trying to forget?’ How useful was having your diary to refer different. out of. back to, and what do you think are the limits of drawing If someone from my boarding house had written about But I didn’t think of writing a book – not at first, upon the writings of your 14-year-old self? this year, and I featured as a character, I would feel very anyway. I planned to write an essay; an essay seemed RS: I think it would have been very difficult to write uncomfortable, but only because of the fear about how far more contained, and less daunting than a full-length this book without my diary. It was my lifeline during the these events might be represented: I would have absolutely manuscript. I’d had a bit of experience writing essays, but early drafts – for so many reasons. It helped me recall no control over the storytelling. mostly I’d been writing reviews and literary criticism – as certain events that I had completely forgotten, it gave me So I was very aware of that ‘powerlessness’, if you like, far away from life writing, I think, as you can get! insight into my thoughts and concerns and preoccupations of the real-life people I have written about. And although A friend had recommended I read Odd Girl Out throughout the year, and it helped me ‘plot’ out the I have attributed to them dialogue, and gestures, and by Rachel Simmons, a young American writer and narrative, because all the key events of the memoir are mannerisms, they are also rendered silent. They can’t academic. This was a fascinating book, which profiled there, in its pages. reply; they can’t protest; they can’t say, ‘That’s not how it dozens of teenage girls across various social milieus, But what I found limiting about my diary also became happened.’ (Unless, of course, they write a book too). In and demonstrated how endemic aggression (emotional, one of my most intriguing questions, which is teased out some ways, that is the most thorny issue to grapple with – psychological and at times physical) is to female friendship in the book: what was I trying to forget? And, as it turned they’re already at a disadvantage, and we’re all conditioned – and how often the aggressor is also the best and most out, it was many of the instances of bullying that took to think that this isn’t fair. loved friend. place up in the boarding house – which I obviously didn’t Joan Didion says all writers are ruthless. But I’m not Reading this book really kick-started my book-writing forget about because I’ve shaped a memoir around it! But sure: that seems to imply that a writer has no compassion plans. Eventually I realised that I had far more material it was weirdly confronting and uncomfortable reading that or pity for other people; people who become the subjects than I could squeeze into an essay – and that my interests diary for the first time in more than ten years and realising of their books. I may have not censored the episodes from and motivations in writing the book had in fact changed: that within it I was trying, in a pretty unsophisticated that year, but I always tried to be honest and compassionate I wanted to dig deeper into my own experiences, to re- yet strategic way, to re-write my own history, my own and feeling towards the characters; they are only girls, examine what happened during that year away, and how memories, with a misguided belief I might be able to trick after all, and like me they will have changed as adults, and much of an effect it had on me into adulthood. myself into forgetting certain episodes years later. perhaps even carried around similar feelings to those I did. MS: I loved the way you addressed the issue of writing MS: If one was to name a general tone of the book it My portrait of my mother, particularly, is drawn out of love, about people you knew, and may still know, already in might be, to a great extent, a self-castigatory one, and the and also heartbreak. the opening paragraph of the book, interrogating the journey of the book seems to seek some explanation of that To read the rest of this interview, visit readings.com.au/news impulse and addressing any potential qualms the reader pivotal year, and to achieve some sort of peace with the To read our review of Bad Behaviour, see page 15. may have. Even though a preliminary note informs us past. But you don’t spare either the people around you at To hear more from Rebecca in person, see our event details on that ‘names have been changed, attributes adjusted & the time or yourself. Would it have been a betrayal of your page 5. 8 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 Fresh voices in Australian fiction Bronte Coates introduces new local literary talent

book industry, but also by readers in the varied books. The 2014 shortlist featured for them. Alice Robinson’s Anchor Point Australian community more widely. Australian voices of all kinds, from the is a quintessential Australian novel, ‘an Bronte Coates, We can probably attribute part of this fast-paced and frenetic monologues of Luke homage to the Australian landscape and its The Readings Prize Manager shift to the evolution of literary judges’ Carman to the elegant and assured prose excesses of flood and fire’, but it stands out ideas about the nature, qualities and scope of Fiona McFarlane. And this month sees for the quality of Robinson’s ‘lyrical and of Australian literature. The potential the release of six more Australian fiction seamless’ writing. or a long time I used to think for prizes to instigate debate, as well as debuts – all reviewed here. As we move on it will, hopefully, be it was simple to talk about influence the commercial success of books, Patrick Lenton’s ‘unashamedly fun’ less simple to talk about what constitutes Australian fiction – to identify should not be undervalued. In 2011, the short-story collection, A Man Made Entirely Australian literature. And I, for one, will be prevalent themes like mateship, shortlist for the Miles Franklin Award of Bats¸ features a man bitten by a jerk who very grateful. Fstruggling seaside towns or the gothic of featured just three titles, all by men, two of gains the exponential strength of ten jerks. Bronte Coates is the digital content the bush and outback. Even though I read, whom were previous winners of the award. Compare this to the characters in Abigail coordinator for Readings, manager of The and loved, plenty of notable books outside The judges’ assertion that the ‘Australian Ulman’s short-story collection, Hot Little Readings Prize, and grants officer for The of this bubble (such as Helen Garner’s voice’ set these three books apart was Hands – all young women coming to terms Readings Foundation. Bronte was a judge for Monkey Grip, Dorothy Porter’s The met with criticism. At the same time, the with what it means to desire, and be desired, The Readings Prize in 2014. Monkey’s Mask and Melissa Lucashenko’s discussion around the creation of the Stella or Ailia of Ilka Tampke’s Skin, who is born Steam Pigs), the idea of what constituted Prize was heating up, as booklovers argued without ‘skin’ and so faces an uncertain ‘Australian’ literature felt fixed. But over about why particular kinds of stories were future in society. In The Anchoress, Robyn the last few years, I feel there’s been being valued over others. Cadwallader’s Sarah attempts to eschew a definite shift in the way Australian As a judge for The Readings Prize all connections to people, even as Ted of literature is considered not just within the last year, it was exciting to read so many Kári Gíslason’s The Ash Burner yearns

Novels

ANCHOR POINT THE ASH BURNER Alice Robinson Kári Gíslason Affirm Press. PB. $24.99 UQP. PB. $29.95 Anchor Point is a promising debut novel because of The Ash Burner is Kári Gíslason’s first novel. Midway the quality of its young author’s writing. Alice through the book, a character, on the eve of his Robinson is a local creative writing teacher, and her writing departure from his hometown, insists that his best friend is lyrical and seamless. The story is set in the Australian Ted write him letters. ‘He thought you could say a lot more bush and narrated by Laura who is 10 years old when we that way,’ Ted tells us, ‘that email was inferior.’ This first meet her in 1978. Her father, Bruce, works on the land, attitude runs though the entirety of The Ash Burner; though and her mother, Kath, attempts to ‘keep house’, though that it’s set in modern Australia, its sensibilities lie much more task largely falls to Laura, as does the care of her young in the past. There are no actual spirits here, but sister Viktoria. nevertheless this is a novel that’s supremely haunted. Laura tries to prevent fights between her parents by It begins with the teenage Ted throwing himself into anticipating the tasks of the household – making lunch the ocean, with a half-sense that he’ll somehow be able to for her father, lighting the stove, and attending to the find his dead mother. He’s swept onto the rocks, badly hurt, animals. For the most part, Kath prefers to be alone in her and pulled out by his father. While recuperating in hospital, garden studio, making ceramics. However, as much as she Ted meets Anthony, a boy a few years ahead of him at tries, Laura can’t hide her mother’s ‘deficiencies’ from her school, and Claire, Anthony’s girlfriend. father, and they fight regularly while Laura attempts to The increasingly intense friendship between the soothe her sister. three of them forms the bulk of the narrative, with Ted One day, after the arguments have reached epic somewhat in awe of both of them and taking part in their proportions, Laura and her sister return to an empty home. plans to leave the town of Lion’s Head and move to Sydney. It is also the day of a significant flash flood. Hearing that The story spans years, and though there is a quietness and Kath may have gone to the creek to find clay for her pots, subtlety to the characters’ relationships (Ted is criticised Bruce goes to search for her. While he is gone, Laura finds on several occasions for being far too serious) the narrative a note from her mother but, in a panic, puts it into the stove does take some surprising turns, with one of the novel’s where it bursts into flames. She does not reveal the note’s final revelations hitting the right balance of being both content or her life-changing act to anyone over the ensuing shocking and wholly believable. 40 years, and must live with the associated guilt, especially In Gíslason’s first book, memoir The Promise of Iceland, after extensive searches fail to find Kath and a memorial he showed that he was a nuanced writer, and here, with service is held. The Ash Burner, he has again shown his skill at mapping the This book is many things. It’s an intricate portrait subtle shifts in our lives. It’s a thoughtful work that should of the relationship between sisters, where one is highly leave an impression long after it’s put down. dependent on the other. It’s a story of grief over a missing Chris Somerville is from Readings Carlton mother and wife. Anchor Point is also an homage to the Australian landscape and its excesses of flood and fire. The only issue for me was that the book lacked narrative tension, and any sense of ‘resolution’ came late in the book. Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 9

Short Stories

HOT LITTLE HANDS A MAN MADE ENTIRELY OF BATS Abigail Ulman Patrick Lenton Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 Spineless Wonders. PB. $22.99 The characters in Abigail Ulman’s debut collection of The debut collection by writer, playwright and short stories, Hot Little Hands, all float on the possible mad scientist Patrick Lenton pulls apart spectrum between youth and adulthood. These teenagers icons of 21st-century pop culture and reassembles them and 20-somethings are trying to figure out how to grow up – in an ungodly mixture of satire, fan fiction, noir, schlock they’re confused, funny and (sometimes painfully) familiar. horror and absurdist humour. In these tiny stories, Wunderkind blogger-turned-author Amelia can’t finish her vignettes and sketches, Lenton takes common book so decides to have a baby. Elise and Jenni, 16 and bored metaphors, one-liners and eye-watering puns and riffs with their routine of text-messages, Vodka Cruisers and on them, teasing out sublime and ridiculous worlds casual sex, decide go back to horse camp. Claire’s trying to filled with second-rate superheroes, rogue FBI agents break up with her boyfriend, but he makes a great espresso and washed-up sitcom stars. In the opening story, blend, plus she’s pregnant and pretty sure he’s the father. ‘Mooncat’, the protagonist, who inexplicably turns into Hot Little Hands is a collection that grapples with an unpleasant ginger cat every full moon, tries to turn what coming of age means in this decade. Comparisons his condition to his advantage. In ‘Sheila Discovers with Lena Dunham’s Girls and Not That Kind of Girl are Magnetism’, a woman believes love to be a form of inevitable here. Ulman’s strength as a storyteller stems magnetic force and carries iron filings in her hand to from her ability to present the experiences of young gauge attraction. In ‘Insomni-Yak’, a man unable to women as strikingly relatable, as well as entertaining. sleep enlists the help of ... well, take a guess. This collection speaks to the confusion and selfishness of Lenton’s writing is confident, witty and unashamedly youth, examining conflicting desires – hedonism, ambition fun, playing with genre tropes and narrative conventions. and anxiety. The girls and women in Hot Little Hands are A number of pieces in A Man Made Entirely of Bats take immature, often privileged, and difficult to like, but it’s the form of monologues, lending them the rhythm and hard to pinpoint how seriously Ulman is taking them and cadences of stand-up comedy. Like any comedian, some their baggage. Her pop-culture references and hipsterisms jokes land better than others, but the delight Lenton takes verge on self-conscious – fixie bikes, literary tattoos and in wordplay and narrative experimentation is infectious, warehouse parties are a staple of Claire’s three linked and there are frequent moments that are laugh-out- stories in particular. But perhaps the frustration is merely loud hilarious. But there are moments of poignancy an effect of inevitable reflections about how close to home, and melancholy too, and juxtaposed against the overall at times, the references and characters seem. playfulness and strangeness of the collection, these A new voice in the Australian literary scene, Ulman is moments, when they come, knock the wind out of you. a strong writer – her dialogue is sharp, often very funny, Alan Vaarwerk is the editorial assistant for the Readings and packs an emotional punch. Ulman's stories are honest Monthly and will definitely strike a chord with readers. There’s a compelling freshness and energy in these stories that makes Hot Little Hands an addictive read. Stella Charls is marketing and events coordinator for Readings

Historical Fiction

THE ANCHORESS SKIN Robyn Cadwallader Ilka Tampke HarperCollins. PB. Was $32.99 Text. PB. $29.99 $27.99 Ailia is moments old when she is left on Cookmother’s Set in England in 1255, The Anchoress follows the doorstep in Caer Cad, on the eve of the Beltane plight of Sarah, a 17-year-old who chooses to become festival. With no knowledge of her family, she is never an anchoress – a holy woman – and spend her life locked in called to skin, and so she is only half-born; a body without a small cell to the side of a church, devoting her days a soul. In the Tribequeen’s kitchen, Ailia is luckier than entirely to prayer. In making this choice, Sarah is forgoing most unskinned, and instead of being cast out to the sunlight, communication with the outside world and all fringes of society, she is raised with Cookmother’s love and stimuli, other than her anchoress rule book and the Bible, guidance. But without skin, Ailia will remain isolated from for the rest of her life. her countrymen until her unceremonial death. Sarah is unprepared for the brutal tedium and tortured Tampke ignites Ailia’s prophetic narration with nature of her new life. She is given two maids who attend to the rhythm of an internal monologue, dominated by her from a room adjacent to her cell, and her relationship her obsessive mission to find her skin, her totem, and with the women forms the backbone of the story, along to know her true identity. At fourteen, Ailia is on the with a small cast of other characters who move in and out cusp of womanhood, and Skin reveals itself as a tale of Sarah’s life in various ways. of many threads: a coming of age novel; a love story; a The Anchoress arrived with much hype, including quest narrative. The suspense is pulled taught between comparisons to Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, and it is being these complementary forces, hounded by the impending simultaneously published throughout the UK, USA and Roman invasion. Australia, which is significant for a debut novelist. This Set in Britain in the first century AD, Skin occupies a attention is largely deserved, as Robyn Cadwallader is a unique space in historical fiction. Steeped in Druid lore skilled storyteller. The Anchoress is essentially 300 pages of with a tangible spirit realm, it reads like fantasy but is someone sitting on their own in a small room, and into this based, at times unbelievably, on fact. A link to our ancient Cadwallader weaves a deeply interesting examination of Iron-Age past, and predating the Arthurian Legend by madness, faith, grief, anger and freedom. It is an intimate some 500 years, Skin offers an alternative to the Christian novel that deals closely with the wants and desperate tradition that came to dominate Western culture, and desires of its characters, and provides an insight into the much historical fiction along with it. burdens carried by women of that time. Ilka Tampke imbues her narrative with fantastical Cadwallader is especially talented at world-building tropes – a shape shifter; a mystical river; an otherworldly and clearly knows her history because The Anchoress is old forest; an ethereal plane – offering the reader a peppered with fascinating details. She vividly captures glimpse into a distant alternate reality; a possible history. the intricacies and sensibilities of the time, but her prose Her vision is clear and brought to life vividly through the always feels fresh and contemporary. This is a debut strength of her singular heroine. We have not heard the Australian novel that sets itself apart from its peers. last from this resonant new Australian voice. Nina Kenwood is the digital marketing manager for Readings Sophie Shanahan is a freelance reviewer 10 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

New Fiction privilege and safety, their Omega twin far DANCING IN THE DARK: from their thoughts. Cass and Zach are MY STRUGGLE BOOK 4 both perfect on the outside: no missing Karl Ove Knausgaard limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But from three points of view: journalist Joni, Harvill. PB. Was $32.99 Australian Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop her teenage son, Luke, and editor-in-chief at nothing to expose. The potential to $27.99 of the local paper, Roy. When a child sex change the world lies in both their hands. Cards on the A SHORT HISTORY OF offender is discovered to be living nearby One will have to defeat the other to see table: at time of RICHARD KLINE and local residents band together in their vision of the future come to pass, but writing I haven’t yet Amanda Lohrey protest, Joni begins to cover the story for if they’re not careful both will die in the finished this, the fourth Black Inc. PB. $29.99 the local paper. At the same time, her struggle for power. volume in Karl Ove partner Tiff stumbles upon dairies written Plagued by a Knausgaard’s by Luke’s father, Angelo, who has been niggling sense of ONLY THE ANIMALS ‘autobiographical missing for over a decade. As Joni begins to lack since childhood, novel’ cycle. In his read the diaries a very uncomfortable Ceridwen Dovey Richard Kline almost punishingly picture emerges ensnaring her own family Penguin. PB. $19.99 approaches middle age expansive style in the story she is covering for the paper. Perhaps only the struggling to suppress previous volumes have immersed readers, Novels that are narrated from multiple animals can tell us his growing anger. with varying degrees of reflective points of view can sometimes be clunky what it is to be human. While marriage, interjection, in Knausgaard’s narrative of and where some characters are stronger The souls of ten fatherhood and career his life. These accounts have included the than others it can be frustrating when a animals caught up in provide glimpses of death of his father, an embittered, drunk new chapter is narrated by a less inspiring human conflicts over happiness, the talented software engineer brute who made life hell for the young Karl member of the story. Here, however, S.J. the last century tell is never wholly satisfied with life, Ove, and ultimately estranged himself from Finn has managed the alternating narrators their astonishing descending repeatedly into cycles of the family; the dissolution of Knausgaard’s so seamlessly that I hadn’t realised as I stories of life and boredom and despair. first marriage and his falling wildly in love was reading that each chapter shifts in death. In a trench on When a road rage incident pushes him with the writer Linda Boström; their the same order from one character to the Western Front a cat recalls her owner to the brink, he unwittingly stumbles on a having children, and Knausgaard’s another. The teenage son in particular is Colette's theatrical antics in Paris. In Nazi path of spiritual growth through meditation frustrations at the impingement on his skilfully written and although at times I Germany a dog seeks enlightenment. A and, ultimately, devotion to a guru. No one writing life by the challenges of not only wondered at his eloquence and ability to Russian tortoise once owned by the is more surprised by this development than parenthood, but also of having a partner talk openly about his emotions (not like Tolstoys drifts in space during the Cold Richard himself. But it’s not all glossy eyed afflicted with bipolar disorder; and most teenage boys I know) I still found War. In the siege of Sarajevo a bear starving meditators in robes from here on. Richard’s Knausgaard’s boyhood as a timid youth him believable and compelling. Angelo’s to death tells a fairytale. And a dolphin sent path to address the ‘divine discontentment’ tyrannised by his father, followed by the diary entries bring in a fourth voice in this to Iraq by the US Navy writes a letter to he feels is a tough one. first stirrings of his soon-to-be-rampaging story and what is revealed here challenges Sylvia Plath. Lohrey’s latest novel continues her hormones. any preconceptions I might have had interest in creating characters beset by Volume 4 picks up at a point of new about the subject. This is at times an spiritual chaos and the subsequent drive beginnings. Fresh out of high school, incredibly uncomfortable book to read, International for reinvention. Never trite or superficial 18-year-old Karl Ove has moved to northern but good fiction should be challenging and in her exploration of spirituality, she Norway to temp as a teacher and begin his thankfully there are still small publishers preempts a skeptical readership by creating NOBODY IS EVER writing career in earnest. He likes getting willing to take risks and bring important an openly cynical character. And it is MISSING drunk and dancing to his favourite records books like this to light. perhaps because of the subtle crumbling Catherine Lacey in the solitude of his own apartment. But of Richard’s cool logic that his eventual Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton Granta. PB. $27.99 he’s also ashamed of his virginity. Typically, moments of awakening, and conversely, in that it is at once patience-testing and Catherine Lacey’s disappointment and disillusionment are so HIS OTHER HOUSE self-abasing, by page 100 he’s already had impressive first beautifully and movingly evoked. Sarah Armstrong five erections, prompted for the most part novel follows 28-year- Collisions – intended, serendipitous, by beautiful students, girls and young PanMac. PB. $29.99 old Elyria who, without often calamitous – occur throughout women who are only a few years younger From the author of the telling her husband, the book, hinting at forces that motivate than he is. Readers of previous volumes Miles Franklin boards a plane from us and go beyond conscious thought will find these passages of lusty adolescent shortlisted Salt Rain New York to New and conventional rationale. As Richard scopophilia undercut with unease: we comes a taut drama set Zealand leaving behind gravitates clumsily to mentors and already know that it’s at this point in his life in the lush Australian her stable and eventually his own guru (a figure who will that Karl Ove fell tortuously in love with a subtropics that poses outwardly enviable life. be familiar to many yoga devotees), Lohrey student – one of his youngest, a girl who’s questions about moral Seeking to ‘divorce from everything, to cleverly teases out the relationship between just 13 years old. courage and divorce my own history’, she travels down devotion and dependence. Knausgaard is an advocate for writing accountability. Dr Quinn the length of New Zealand, hitch-hiking New age ideas and therapies are the unsayable, for plumbing the deepest Davidson and his wife her way to the house of a man she has only often mined solely for humour in fiction, recesses of human consciousness and Marianna have endured years of met once and whose offer of a place to stay rather than the intelligent dissection they experience. As such, he’s relentless in airing unsuccessful IVF and several miscarriages, she suspects ‘was one of those things a receive there. It’s ambitious subject matter, his most honest, and therefore often least and Quinn can't face another painful person says on impulse and then tackling the meaning of life head on, but admirable, self. I think it’s precisely this attempt to conceive. Marianna is desperate aggressively defends to mask the mistake’. Lohrey’s deft prose and sensitivity to the that makes My Struggle such a generous, to be a mother and their marriage is feeling She travels with a destination, but without complexity of portraying her character’s dealienating and necessary endeavour. the strain. At a small-town practice a few purpose. We, the readers, reside in her head inner life lends Kline’s spiritual quest hours from their home, Quinn meets Rachel, as she dips in and out of the lives of the a level of authenticity that feels utterly Gerard Elson is from Readings St Kilda the daughter of one of his patients. Drawn to people she meets on her journey south. convincing. This is a fascinating read by each other, it's not long before they find Elyria is a woman on the brink – of HAUSFRAU one of Australia’s finest contemporary themselves in a passionate affair and Quinn society, of her sanity, of reality. She is Jill Alexander Essbaum writers. realises he must choose between the two disengaged and detached but Lacey Mantle. PB. $29.99 Sally Keighery is a freelance reviewer women. Then Marianna announces a equips her with uncanny insights and From acclaimed surprise natural conception, news that will dark humour. There are moments in this poet Jill DOWN TO THE RIVER change the course of all their lives. novel when the skill of Lacey’s language Alexander Essbaum S.J. Finn makes you pause. Particularly in the way comes this debut novel, Sleepers. PB. $24.95 THE FIRE SERMON that she articulates the trap of domesticity, Hausfrau. She brings Francesca Haig the vulnerability of being a woman alone Small, independent with it her poetic HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 in the world and the feeling, that many publishers exist to inclinations: passages of us have, of wanting to walk away from push boundaries and Nobody dodges the split are fleeting, moving our own lives. Her use of long, luxurious bring to light books between Alpha and through past and sentences is often masterful and watching that mainstream Omega. Born as twins, present, but measured them unfold is the central pleasure of companies might they are raised as enemies: and curated with care. The experiences of reading this novel. consider too risky to one strong Alpha twin and her troubled heroine, Anna, are met with It is a blistering portrait of a woman publish. Down To the one mutated Omega. simile, and often-lovely figurations. Forced to live apart, the adrift and a penetrating examination River is the second Anna is a housewife (hausfrau: house Omegas are ruthlessly of domesticity and alienation. A novel novel by S.J. Finn from woman), an American expat who married oppressed by their Alpha that, while pervaded by melancholy, is Sleepers Publishing and it takes on the a Swiss banker, and who has lived for nine counterparts. The Alphas punctuated with comedy and moments of extremely uncomfortable and distressing years in suburban Zürich. After years of are the elite. Once their weaker twin has electrifying insight. subject of paedophilia. Set in a small foreignness and Swiss tourism, Anna has Victorian country town, the story is told been cast aside, they’re free to live in Brigid Mullane is a freelance reviewer READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 11 begun a German language class – she is placement. The sibling bond is tight ready to communicate, to make friends, to between the four brothers in this story. It is make it work. In the class she meets Archie, a bond fortified through triumph and a Scotsman, and they begin an affair, but as adversity. The narrator is Benjamin, the her story unfolds we realise that Archie is youngest of the brothers. Through his neither the first nor the last of Anna’s lovers. accounts we learn of the brothers’ Essbaum conjures literature’s most fortuitous meeting with a Nigerian notorious affairs; Anna Karenina’s fate and presidential aspirant and of the boys’ Madame Bovary’s demise may sit, however daring escape from a violent political coup implicitly suggested, at the foreground that threatens their hometown. Political of the reader’s mind. For me, Lessing’s instability, economic hardship and Anna, of The Golden Notebook, presented corruption are rife, but life is modestly herself, and occasionally, the sorrowful, privileged for these brothers. tender Laura Jesson of Noel Coward’s Brief Their father holds lofty dreams for Encounter. them. Bestowing gratuitous praise upon Essbaum’s Anna, however, is not a them, he believes his sons will distinguish literary person, and her points of reference themselves with professional careers –meted out in an ongoing conversation and will continue their upward mobility (or match) with her psychoanalyst – are by migrating to Canada. As the family's abstract and philosophical. Anna is very patriarch, he is a strict disciplinarian. His emotional but withdrawn, her feelings sons live in fear and awe of him but when are far from the surface and no human he is transferred to a different city for work interaction can draw her out. Yet she breaks the boys’ new-found freedom has them pieces off and gives herself away; her heart considering their own dreams. handed over like ‘an open wallet to a thief’. With their father's absence, parental The non-linear narrative and the control is lost. Their mother, subservient strange dialogue in scenes with the shrink in a traditional household, feels powerless present the book’s only real hurdles. It is a to influence her sons. The tendency sometimes funny, sometimes sexy read and of both parents to speak in parables it will ring true for many family women. It confusing their sons is yet another concern. will also open up a library of references for Misinterpretation, albeit comical, creates a literary readers. Hausfrau denotes a very disconnect and a gulf opens up into which promising transition from Essbaum. dangerous missteps are taken. Jemima Bucknell is the online fulfilment When a local madman makes an manager for Readings ill-omened prophecy, the alliance of brotherhood is broken and fear and THE BURIED GIANT mistrust set brother-against-brother. As Kazuo Ishiguro tragedy strikes, the family recoils in shock and fails to recognise a plot brewing that A&U. PB. Was $29.99 will bring even greater heartache for all. $24.99 Natalie Platten is from Readings Malvern I imagined that I would read Ishiguro’s first novel in THE GHOST ESTATE 10 years quickly. I John Connell thought: there is my Picador. PB. $29.99 weekend sorted. Ah. Born in County Not so. This fable of Longford, A new town, a new set of murders sorts is not a quick read. Ireland, award- This is a slow, careful winning journalist, tale about the mysteries of memories and John Connell for Detective Joe Sable … relationships. Told very much like a currently resides in fairytale, The Buried Giant is set in old Sydney. However, it is England, post King Arthur but still when to his home town of dragons and witchcraft are part of life. The Longford that Connell story centres on the journey, across villages, returns for the setting of an isolated elderly couple who are of his first novel, The Ghost Estate. devoted to one another but full of fear of Intended to be a novella for inclusion in a memories. The narration is steady as each collection of short stories, Connell says the ‘A dazzling mix character they meet on their journey brings idea for The Ghost Estate just popped into of elegant prose, memories and ideas. This novel is not for his head one day and it wouldn't go away convincing period detail, everyone, not even perhaps for all of his fans, – he just had to write it. but it is for readers who enjoy a mystical The story is set in contemporary and heart-stopping take on the meaning of life. His writing here Ireland during the time of the ‘Celtic violence.’ is more a cross between Beckett and Atwood Tiger’, when the country was experiencing Angela Savage in style, and is certainly more fantastical and unprecedented economic growth. Gerard meditative than his previous award-winning McQuaid, a young electrician, wants to take work. The Buried Giant is, as we expect, advantage of Ireland’s building boom to set beautifully written and it is undoubtedly himself up for life. He plans to get enough worth the gentle pace for those with the money together to build his dream home predisposition to be swept into the for himself and his girlfriend. His boss has pondering abyss. handed over the business to him and he and Chris Gordon is the events manager for his small team of workers are hired to work Readings on the redevelopment of the run down estate of Birchview Manor. As he works, THE FISHERMEN McQuaid hears the story of the manor’s Chigozie Obioma original owner, Henry Lefoyle, who owned the estate during the 1800s, a time of great Scribe. PB. $29.99 upheaval in Ireland. As McQuaid learns Chigozie Obioma’s of Lefoyle’s fate, his own life begins to Praise for THE HOLIDAY MURDERS debut novel, The unravel. The GFC hits Ireland, building Fishermen, is an ‘[A]s close to perfect as a mystery can be.’ works come to a standstill, workers are laid outstanding addition to Sunday Age off and Birchview Manor is left derelict African literature. Fans ‘[A] fascinating cautionary tale that explores once again. of Chimamanda Ngozi the wonderful bond between crime fiction and While The Ghost Estate isn’t the greatest Adichie – Half of a the shadows lurking in our collective past.’ piece of Irish literature I’ve ever read, there Yellow Sun – will relish Australian Book Review is still something quite endearing about it. it’s distinct Nigerian Connell manages to capture the spirit of the 12 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

Irish builder and of Ireland itself at a time rural community under occupation. Suite when the future looked prosperous. In many Française is a novel, and now a new film ways it is also a social commentary, showing starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Michelle how ordinary people are very much at the Williams, that teems with wonderful mercy of politicians who don't always have characters struggling with the new regime. their best interests at heart. Sharon Peterson is from Readings Carlton FOURTH OF JULY CREEK Smith Henderson ADULT ONSET Windmill. PB. $19.99 Ann-Marie MacDonald After trying to help Hodder. PB. $29.99 Benjamin Pearl, an Happy Mary Rose McKinnon undernourished, nearly has two children with feral eleven-year-old her partner Hilary and a boy living in the fractured relationship Montana wilderness, Birthday social worker Pete Snow with her mother, Dolly; she also has issues with comes face-to-face with anger management and the boy’s profoundly Readings! lives in fear of hurting disturbed father, the children. These Jeremiah. Pete slowly earns a measure of feelings seem somehow trust from this paranoid survivalist itching rooted in a part of her childhood she has for a final conflict that will signal the coming trouble remembering. Is Dolly - the kind of End of Times. But as Pete’s own family spins big personality who makes all Mary Rose's out of control, Jeremiah’s activities spark the friends, and even waiters in coffee shops, full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete exclaim ‘I love your Mum!’ – harbouring a at the centre of a massive manhunt from To celebrate dark secret about what caused Mary Rose's which no one will emerge unscathed. childhood injuries, and is Mary Rose doomed Readings’ to follow the same path with her own children? THE FAITHFUL COUPLE A.D. Miller AQUARIUM Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 46th David Vann California, 1993: Neil Text. PB. $29.99 Collins and Adam Tayler, Twelve-year-old Caitlin two young British men birthday we lives alone with her on the cusp of adulthood, mother in subsidised meet at a hostel in San are offering housing next to an Diego. They strike up a airport in Seattle. Each friendship that, while day, while she waits to platonic, feels as 10% off all full be picked up after intoxicating as a school, Caitlin visits the romance. On a camping local aquarium to study trip to Yosemite they lead each other to priced books the fish. When she behave in ways that, years later, they will befriends an old man at the tanks one day, desperately regret. The Faithful Couple who seems as enamoured of the fish as she, follows Neil and Adam across two decades, in all shops Caitlin cracks open a dark family secret and through girlfriends and wives, success and propels her once-blissful relationship with failure, children and bereavements, as power her mother towards a precipice of terrifying and remorse ebb between them. and online on consequence. Aquarium takes the reader into the heart of a brave girl whose longing MELNITZ Thursday 5 for love and capacity for forgiveness Charles Lewinsky transform the damaged people around her. Atlantic. PB. $32.99 Melnitz is the saga of the March. I AM RADAR Swiss-Jewish Meijer Reif Larsen family, spanning five Harvill. PB. $32.99 generations from the In 1975, a black child, Franco-Prussian War to To receive the Radar Radmanovic, is World War II. Cattle- mysteriously born to dealer Solomon Meijer discount in any of white parents in New leads a largely untroubled Jersey. Falling in with a life, but all of this is set to our shops say ‘Happy secretive group of end when he answers a knock at the door in puppeteers and scientists the middle of the night. On the doorstep Birthday Readings’ who stage performances stands his young distant cousin, Janki, in war zones around the half-dead and begging for refuge. He is given over the counter, or world, he is soon forced to confront the true a place in the bosom of the family, but when nature of his identity. Radar rapidly becomes Janki recovers and regains his ambition and type ‘BIRTHDAY’ in entangled with events stretching from his fine-looks, he will change the Meijer the promotions code Belgrade in a time of siege to arctic Norway, family's lives for generations. from Cambodia before the murderous Khmer TOUCH section online. Rouge regime to the modern-day Congo. Claire North SUITE FRANÇAISE Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 It happened so long ago, Please note that this offer is Irene Nemirovsky & Sandra Smith (trans.) I’ve forgotten the details. only valid from 9am - midnight Vintage. PB. $19.99 But he was desperate, Thursday 5 March and on in Set during the year that hungry enough to kill. As stock items only. Not valid with France fell to the Nazis, I was dying, my hand any other offer or discount. Suite Française falls into touched his. That’s when two parts. The first is a my first switch took depiction of a group of place. I looked through Parisians as they flee the eyes of my killer just the Nazi invasion; the in time to see my own second follows the body die. Now switching is easy. I can jump inhabitants of a small from body to body, have any life, be anyone. READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 13

New Crime Dead Write THE PORT FAIRY MURDERS Robert Gott with Fiona Hardy Scribe. PB. $29.99 In 1943, the early days of Crime Book of the Month Victoria’s homicide department, Detective IF SHE DID IT Joe Sable and Constable Jessica Treadway Helen Lord are on the Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 trail of George Starling, a Hanna and Joe Schutt are unsure about their awkward remnant from the book’s daughter Dawn’s first love, the handsome yet unnerving Rud, prequel, The Holiday but are pleased to see their daughter happy – until the night they Murders. Meanwhile, in are viciously beaten by a croquet mallet in bed, leaving Joe dead scenic Port Fairy, a and Hanna with facial injuries so acute that they leave her, nearly double murder occurs that homicide originally three years later, still with visible scars and a brain injury that considers fairly cut and dry, but it’s not like impedes her memory of the night. So when Rud, jailed for the Robert Gott to make anything easy when it attack, wins an appeal, Hanna needs to try to recall what really could instead be thrilling. This series takes a happened that night so that she can put him back behind bars. She must also defy those look at the conflicts of a past that sometimes around her, even her best friend and other daughter, Iris , who both insist that the killer seems not so far away – religious intolerance, was not Rud at all, but someone much closer to her heart. industrial problems, gender politics – against a backdrop of a beautifully preserved Greater Melbourne area and its undercurrents of ‘This is a stay-up-late, stare-at-your-child-suspiciously-the-next-day thriller.’ blisteringly brutal violence.

I think I’ve considered, in the past, that memory loss in books often feels contrived, but THE PRINCE Treadway’s skill as an author – she’s a creative writing professor –never made me feel like Vito Bruschini Hanna’s injury was cheap. No, she did not want to remember the day her beloved husband Text. PB. $29.99 died, but she never seemed to be actively pushing it away. Likewise, when Dawn does Need a meaty historical things that arouse suspicion, Hanna does not dismiss them without consideration, but crime fiction fix? Then asks questions, fights back, and searches for reality in a world split apart. She wants her read The Prince, a daughter, long adored despite being maligned at school for her lazy eye and slight oddness, novelisation with its to love her, to be loved, to shake off everyone’s view of her, and to be happy. Dawn or not, hooks in truth that someone is a threat to Hanna’s life now, and she needs to break into her own mind to find follows Prince out who it is. This is a stay-up-late, stare-at-your-child-suspiciously-the-next-day thriller. Ferdinando Licata, a rich landowner with all the generous charisma and bloodthirsty GUN CONTROL DEATH UNDER A violence you need in the fictional founder of Peter Corris TUSCAN SUN the Sicilian mafia. Starting in 1920s Sicily as A&U. PB. $24.99 Michele Giuttari Licata’s manipulation of the poor and Corris, the ‘godfather’ Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 defiance against the fascists sees him booted of Australian crime For eight years, out of Italy, it moves to the 1930s and Licata fiction and an enjoyable Giuttari was the head in a new little town where he can flex his writer if there ever was of Florence’s police power – New York – and then back to Italy one, has been writing force – so when he during the Allied invasion of WWII. Smart, Cliff Hardy books for writes about fictional well-researched and gloriously epic. 30 years – and here, in Florentine police chief book 40, his fans Michele Ferrara, he SECOND LIFE rejoice again. Hardy is knows what the hell S.J. Watson hired by Timothy he’s on about. Here, Text. PB. Was $29.99 Greenhall, an ex-shooting champion, to find Ferrara must find $26.99 out who was behind Timothy’s son’s grisly serial killer Daniel De Robertis, delirious From the author of the murder. The case goes from city to country, with rage and revenge and now on the run smash hit Before I Go To from dodgy to straight to beautiful cops, and after escaping his prison cell and vanishing. Sleep comes the story of on the road with bikers who may be more Meanwhile, in the glorious Tuscan Julia, middle-aged and help than horror. The first death isn’t the countryside, a high-flying couple are lacking excitement until last – it never is – and as guns fire over murdered, and a clue left at the scene – nine her younger sister, Kate, Sydney, Hardy just needs to dodge the gruesome photographs of nine dead women is murdered in Paris. bullets and save the day. – sets Ferrara on darkly personal trail of Feeling guilty that she obsession, violence, and power through the wasn’t helping her sister CAMILLE most impenetrable walls of Italian society. enough and that their Pierre LeMaitre complicated past is sending her emotions all Headline. PB. $29.99 THE EXIT over the place, Julia discovers that Kate LeMaitre, once a Helen FitzGerald enjoyed salacious internet shenanigans and so literary professor and Faber. PB. $24.99 goes online to find someone who knows what now happily drowning The first crime book I happened to her. However, the temptations of in crime-fiction ever read – Agatha anonymity, pretence, and handsome men may awards, finishes up his Christie’s wonderful By lead Julia into a new and sinister world. incredibly popular the Pricking of My Camille Verhoeven Thumbs – started in a BAD SEED trilogy with a book nursing home with an Alan Carter about the detective ‘old dear’ waffling on Fremantle. PB. $29.99 himself – a man with about murder and being Newly minted Acting the kind of shattered past writers enjoy patted gently on the head Detective Sergeant Cato giving poor innocent protagonists. Four as things became much Kwong turns up at the years after the death that broke his heart, more sinister. Here, Catherine, a young scene of a multiple Camille has a new love, Anne Forestier, woman begrudgingly working at a nursing homicide and recognises who stumbles onto a robbery on the home, meets Rose, a resident who suffers the bodies even when Champs-Élysées which is as heart-racing from dementia and wanders in and out of their faces are, well, and brutal as anything LeMaitre has the present and her long-distant past. Rose is unrecognisable. Rich previously penned. Shot, beaten, but alive, convinced something is wrong in room seven. property developer her hospital stay is further darkened by the Cynical at first, but humouring one of the few Francis Tan, his wife, knowledge that someone is after her. But residents she can tolerate, Catherine begins to and two of his three children are dead. Now, the man who loves her has never been suspect that Rose’s desperate ravings contain trying to find out who killed his old friend, known to abide by the rules, and if someone some truth, and that danger is just down the Cato must dive into the world of shady online is after Anne, then Camille is after them. hall. deals – and resurface alive.

7857_March_ReadingsAd.indd 2 12/02/15 9:39 AM 14 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

New Young Adult Fiction PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD Michelle Falkoff See books for kids, junior and middle readers on pages 18–19 HarperCollins. PB. $17.99 Here’s what Sam Young Adult Book of the Month knows: there was a party. There was a EVENTUAL POPPY DAY fight. The next Libby Hathorn morning, his best HarperCollins. PB. $17.99 friend, Hayden, was Two artists, white feathers, first loves and broken dead. And all he left promises: Eventual Poppy Day is a story about learning to Sam was a playlist of look at the world in a different light. Australian writer and poet songs, and a suicide Libby Hathorn (Thunderwith) has created a story that is both note: For Sam – listen realistic and full of hope. Eventual Poppy Day interweaves the and you’ll understand. As he listens to stories of two 17-year-old men: Maurice and his great-great song after song, Sam tries to face up to nephew, Oliver. what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it’s only by taking out his Have fun with stories Maurice’s story allows us to see the brutality of World War I earbuds and opening his eyes to the brought to life by our and its propaganda machine, but also introduces us to the camaraderie and friendship, people around him that he will finally hard won on the shores of Gallipoli and at the Western Front. It is Maurice’s story – Children’s Storytellers! be able to piece together his best preserved in a tin box of his sister’s – that saves Oliver from entering a downward friend’s story. Enjoy weekly readings from spiral. Despite unstable family circumstances, Oliver learns to find light through a range of new release Maurice’s words and artwork. FIVE THINGS THEY picture books (and some This book is educational and brilliantly researched. It is also a beautiful read. Hathorn old favourites). has managed to create a story suitable for young adults who are reading books faster NEVER TOLD ME than they can find them. It is insightful, gripping and honest, perfect for sophisticated Rebecca Westcott readers 14 and up. Puffin. PB. $14.99 Savannah Indigo is from Readings Malvern It’s summer, and Erin and Martha are both stuck at Oak Hill THE AGE OF MIRACLES her victims, but she also has a greater Home for the Elderly. Erin is fed up – she Karen Thompson Walker purpose for her. Twylla has been chosen to marry the prince, since he has no sister doesn’t want to spend Simon & Schuster. PB. $15.99 to marry. In Lormere, they think nothing the summer helping Julia is 11 years of using incest to keep bloodlines pure. out in an old people’s Carlton old when the But when Twylla falls in love with one of home. Martha is even Fridays 10.30am - 11am slowing is announced her guards, who is from neighbouring more angry – she doesn’t want to be 309 Lygon St, 9347 6633 by experts. That night, land Tregallia, she learns not only a great living in the home and she can’t make the world clock gains Malvern deal about his more enlightened world, herself understood at all. Misunderstood 56 minutes due to the Thursdays 10.30am - 11am but also about the flaws in her own and feeling ignored by everyone, they are slowing of the Earth 185 Glenferrie Rd, 9509 1952 beliefs. With plenty of romance, an equally frustrated by the situation. But on its axis. As the interesting concept and numerous plot as Erin learns to listen to Martha, she Earth continues to St Kilda twists, this is an engaging read. discovers some very important lessons Saturdays 10.30am - 11am slow, minutes and about making her own voice heard. Angela Crocombe is from Readings Carlton 112 Acland St, 9525 3852 then hours are added to each day. At first people go about their business, but as the NIGHTBIRD SHADOW SCALE clock reaches a 30 hour day, world Rachel Hartman leaders decide to revert to the 24-hour Alice Hoffman Corgi. PB. $19.99 clock in the hope that life can remain Simon & Schuster. PB. $16.99 As Seraphina travels normal. But this decision sees the Twig lives in a the Southlands in dividing of society as some people refuse small town 20% off* search of the other the 24-hour clock and instead choose to called Sidwell with any full-priced half-breeds to help in follow their circadian rhythm, while her mother and kids books for all the war effort, the others start to get strange symptoms they brother in a house dragon General who attend the believe are caused by the slowing. that has belonged to Comonot and his story time session. While all of this is going on, Julia is their family for years. Loyalists fight against simply trying to grow up. A loner with Twig’s family suffered the upstart Old few to no friends, Julia dreams of a sad a curse many years Guard – with the fate of Goredd and the boy at school and deals with some harsh earlier at the hands of other human countries hanging in the realisations, including that people can a witch who, at the time, lived in a balance. This is the gripping sequel to the disappoint and betray each other. She cottage nearby. The curse takes away the bestselling Seraphina. must also face the fact that just because freedom of men born into the family and the world is slowly killing itself and leaves them outcast from society. Having humanity doesn’t mean that she, or suffered this fate, Twig’s brother is a THE RITHMATIST anyone else, can give up. Told from the secret kept from the rest of the town. He Brandon Sanderson perspective of Julia in her 20s, The Age of is homeschooled and kept indoors his Tor. PB. $19.99 Miracles is a scary yet touching coming- whole life. But his safety is jeopardised In a school for the of-age novel. Highly recommended for when the infamous Sidwell monster magically gifted, your readers 13 and up. starts to strike around town, stealing and talent could cost you your *Discount valid for 30 minutes Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn graffitiing buildings in protest against the life. Joel is fascinated by after completion of each story impending development of the Sidwell the magic of Rithmatics, time session. THE SIN EATER’S woods – a development that could ruin but few have the gift and the town forever. As the townsmen begin he is not one of them. Please note: Story time is not a DAUGHTER to call for the death of the monster, Twig Undaunted, he persuades child-minding service. Melinda Salisbury We ask that parents stay with their starts to worry that the monster could Professor Fitch to teach Scholastic. PB. $16.99 children for the reading. reveal her brother’s existence and so she him magical theory. Joel can’t infuse his Debut author becomes determined to find it. With help protective lines and circles with power, or Melinda Salisbury from a new friend who has moved into bring his chalk-drawn creatures to life, but has built an authentic the old witch’s house, Twig will not only he’s quick to master the underlying geometric fantasy world in this uncover secrets she didn't know existed, principles. His unique skills will soon face an first book in a trilogy. but possibly wreck her family’s lives extraordinary test when top Rithmatist In the land of forever. students are kidnapped from his Academy. Lormere, Twylla is Nightbird is a magical fairytale of Then people start dying. Can Joel really stop considered incredibly love, betrayal and friendship perfect for a killer alone? As even more students dangerous. A touch middle fiction readers looking to move disappear, he realises he’ll need the help of from her can kill a into young adult fiction. Ages 11 and up. Rithmatist apprentice Melody. Together, they person because her body is covered in Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn must race to find clues before the killer poison. The Queen uses Twylla to execute notices them - and takes them out too. READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 15

New Non-Fiction Hanna Basin as a kid and that later evolved Being There. With pieces on the Sydney into Hannie. She grew up in Melbourne’s Opera House, responses to art, artists and affluent suburb of Brighton, but her family architects, and including Malouf’s Book of the Month was far from the Brighton cliché. Like most previously unpublished libretti for Voss young girls who grow up wanting to be and a translation of Hippolytus, this is a writers, Rayson kept diaries documenting stimulating collection of one man’s BAD BEHAVIOUR mundane moments in her teenage life in connection to the world of art, ideas Rebecca Starford order to try to capture a feeling. and culture. A&U. PB. Was $29.99 Peppered throughout the book are $24.99 wonderful quotes from insightful friends THE COUNTRY WIFE and influences, including Edna O'Brien’s This is one of the most anticipated Australian books of 2015. Anne Gorman take on writing quoted from an interview in Within minutes of reading, I was hooked. Rebecca Starford Bantam. PB. Was $34.99 a very old Paris Review: ‘When I say I have writes about her experience as a fourteen-year-old at a prestigious $29.99 written from the beginning, I mean that Melbourne school’s outdoor education campus. Rebecca was a When she is five, Anne all real writers write from the beginning, scholarship student – clever, obedient, but with wavering confidence Gorman’s family that the vocation, the obsession, is already and the feeling of being an outsider. She shared a campus house for a disintegrates. After there, and that the obsession derives from year with fourteen other girls, including two, Portia and Ronnie, who thirteen pregnancies an intensity of feeling which normal life were rumoured to be trouble makers. Rebecca found herself drawn to Portia, who was and the death of two cannot accommodate.’ confident, loud, and manipulative. When Portia sought out Rebecca’s friendship, Rebecca children, her devout Hello, Beautiful! is bursting with witty was thrilled and her behaviour changed. She talked back to teachers, broke campus rules, and Catholic mother has a anecdotes from Rayson’s childhood and was regularly in detention. Rebecca’s father was called to the campus for a meeting, and breakdown and Anne intelligent insights into, among other and her sisters are things, leaking, balding men, step families, placed in a convent. Struggling to survive ‘This is one of the most anticipated Australian books of 2015. graffiti, awkward dinner-party moments a childhood marred by fear and and giving birth in the middle of the Within minutes of reading, I was hooked.’ uncertainty, Anne sees education as her historic Victorian nurses’ strike in 1986. lifeline to freedom. After graduating from Rayson writes with warmth and candour together they were told her scholarship was at risk. When the girls begin victimising another university, she’s set to take on the world. about the extraordinary moments in girl, Kendall, Rebecca felt uncomfortable yet powerless. The bullying was relentless, and But her plans come unstuck when she falls everyday life, such as her appreciation culminates in some shocking events. in love. Marrying a farmer and becoming a of soup: ‘Soup is like a best friend. Most Starford weaves the drama of that school year with her post-school life. This is a brave mother of five was a life she never people are not looking for capriciousness memoir as she examines her history of being enthralled by female friends with strong imagined. Yet in this alien landscape she or unpredictability in their chums. Most personalities and how this affected her during that particular year, and later in sexual finds love and a sense of belonging. When of us want a hearty and velvety friendship, relationships. I had expected the book to feature Starford solely as a victim of bullying her husband becomes gravely ill, Anne has characterised by comfort and intimacy, (and she does become a victim for a period when Portia inevitably turns on her) but she to find the courage to keep the farm and trust, worthiness and contentment.’ demonstrates little self-pity. This is a wonderful book, and will provide great fodder for book her family afloat. I share Rayson’s love of the Mornington groups. It raises thoughtful questions about the nature of female friendships, the realities Peninsula’s beaches and the familiar and repercussions of bullying, and the role of schools in monitoring and maintaining student H IS FOR HAWK Carlton haunt of Tiamo – and its famous wellbeing. minestrone soup on cold and rainy days Helen MacDonald Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn when the restaurant windows fog up and Vintage. PB. $22.99 the air is thick with garlic and parmesan. As a child, Helen Reading Rayson's memoir nourishes your Macdonald was separated when he was young and he lived soul and draws you, like an old friend, into determined to become a Biography with his bipolar mother; his father, after her personal and creative world. I encourage falconer, learning the a failed attempt to get custody, had little you to enjoy this with a glass of wine (or arcane terminology and ONE OF US to do with him. At an early age Breivik’s hearty bowl of soup) on your couch! reading all the classic psychologists noted his dissociative books. Years later, when Asne Seierstad Emily Harms is the Head of Marketing and personality and recommended treatment her father died and she Little, Brown. PB. $35 Communications for Readings which was rejected by his mother. As a was struck deeply by This is an horrific young man he joined Norway’s far right PASSING CLOUDS grief, she became and tragic book; Progressive Party but became disillusioned Graeme Leith obsessed with the idea of training her own it is an account of one when he was passed over for pre-selection goshawk. She bought Mabel on a Scottish A&U. PB. $32.99 the most devastating as a candidate in council elections. He quayside and took her home to Cambridge, Electrician, Italophile and mass shootings in retreated to his mother’s house and ready to embark on the long, strange business jack of all trades, Graeme recent history. In July, became a recluse, joining right-wing chat of trying to train this wildest of animals. H is Leith joined the famously 2011, Anders Breivik rooms and playing online games World for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account innovative Pram Factory detonated a home of Warcraft and Call of Duty. Over that of Macdonald’s struggle with grief during the theatre and said, ‘Let made bomb in front of time he wrote his political ‘manifesto’ and difficult process of the hawk’s taming and her there be light.’ And there the Norwegian Prime elaborately planned his attacks. One of Us own untaming. This is a book about memory, was: Graeme Blundell, Minister’s office in Oslo killing 8 people; is a chilling and harrowing book and, like nature and nation, and how it might be Jack Hibberd, Max Gillies he then drove out of Oslo to Utøya Island, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, is destined possible to reconcile death with life and love, and many others the site of a summer camp for the youth to become a classic account of evil. It now out in paperback. wing of the Norwegian Labour Party, should be compulsory reading produced over 140 new Australian plays in where he brutally murdered 69 people, ten years. Then, after stints in Britain and Mark Rubbo is the Managing Director of LEILA’S SECRET most of whom were teenagers, before Italy, Graeme and his partner Sue Mackinnon Readings Kooshyar Karimi giving himself up to police. Breivik established a successful vineyard in Victoria’s Viking. PB. $32.99 claimed he was a member of a HELLO, BEAUTIFUL! spa country. Not long after, tragedy struck. In revolutionary group committed to 1984 Graeme’s daughter and her boyfriend Born in an Iranian slum stopping the Islamisation of Europe and Hannie Rayson vanished en route to New South Wales. Ten to a Muslim father and the growth of feminism. The Norwegian Text. PB. Was $29.99 days later their ute was found in Kings Cross, a Jewish mother, Labour Party, he argued, had been $24.99 where it had been abandoned by their killers. Kooshyar Karimi has responsible for the policies of ‘cultural Hannie Rayson is Passing Clouds tells of a life fully lived – a life transformed himself Marxism’ that were leading to the one of Australia’s of triumph and disaster, of joy and tragedy, of into a successful arabisation and feminisation of Norway. most renowned and ingenuity and sheer hard work and, above all, doctor, an award- Breivik showed no remorse for his actions, revered playwrights for an unquenchable optimism. winning writer, and an claiming they were legitimately political. stage and TV. Inheritance, adoring father. His In a manifesto published online he Hotel Sorrento and Life BEING THERE could be a comfortable outlined his beliefs and his political after George all capture David Malouf life but he is incapable of turning away the unmarried women who beg him to save strategy; indeed, it was important to him the quintessential Knopf. PB. $29.99 their lives by ending the pregnancies that, if that he be captured alive as his trial was contemporary Australian After exploring the ideas discovered, would see them stoned to going to enable him to put his views to a voice and as a result, have enjoyed successful of home in A First Place, death. One of those women is 22-year-old wide audience. seasons right across Australia and then what it means to be Leila. Beautiful, intelligent, passionate, she Seirsted, who is also the author of The internationally. Ironically (and luckily for a writer and where yearns to go to university but her strictly Bookseller of Kabul, has used extensive readers), Rayson was encouraged to write writing begins in The traditional family forbids it. Kooshyar has interviews and testimonies to create this book on the back of a rejection of her Writing Life, David rescued countless women, but Leila seeks a gripping account of Breivik and his most recent play by the Melbourne Theatre Malouf moves on to his help for a different reason, one that will actions. Breivik was the son of a nurse Company. words and music and art haunt him for years afterwards and inspire and a Norwegian diplomat. His parents Born Helen Rayson, she called herself and performance in an impossible quest from faraway Australia. 16 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

IN MANCHURIA GODS & KINGS Australian Studies Art & Design Michael Meyer Dana Thomas A&U. PB. $29.99 with Margaret Snowdon Allen Lane. HB. $39.99 QUARTERLY ESSAY 57, Journalist Michael BJÖRK: ARCHIVES Acclaimed journalist Dana DEAR LIFE: ON CARING Meyer spent three Thomas explores the FOR THE ELDERLY years living in his Klaus Biesenbach (ed.) major impact Alexander T&H. HB. $80 Karen Hitchcock in-laws’ village of McQueen and John Designed by top design Galliano have had on the Black Inc. PB. $22.99 Wasteland, which, despite the name, turns studio M/M (Paris) this fashion scene – they shook Doctor and writer Karen out to be a lively place. is a celebration of the the establishment out of its Hitchcock explores the With delightful multi-talented bourgeois, minimalist humane treatment of the character sketches and performer Björk to stupor with daring, sexy designs. They elderly and dying, with casual but sharp-eyed accompany the turned out landmark collections in honesty and deep reporting, he tours Manchuria’s historical exhibition at The mesmerising, theatrical shows that experience. She looks at sites and stilted museum exhibitions, while Museum of Modern Art. retailers, critics and designers still talk end-of-life decisions, recounting its tumultuous past as a It comprises six parts: about. They helped luxury fashion evolve acute care of the frail battleground fought over by Japan, Russia, four booklets, a paperback and a poster, into a $280 billion industry. In telling their and the demented, big and Chinese Nationalists and Communists. each booklet contains illustrated texts by, story, Thomas examines the revolution that pharma, over-treatment and attitudes to He gives a vivid snapshot of China’s far respectively, Klaus Biesenbach, Alex Ross, transformed high fashion over the last two ageing and death. Hitchcock reveals a northeastern region of Manchuria and Nicola Dibben and Timothy Morton, while decades – and the price it demanded of creeping ageism, often disguised, which observes in Wasteland a quieter upheaval as the poster features artwork of Bjork’s those who saved it. threatens to turn the elderly into a ‘burden’ the town is gradually taken over by an albums and singles. The main book focuses – difficult, hopeless, expensive and agribusiness that wants to move farmers on her seven major albums, accompanied MEMENTO MORI homogenous. She argues that we are justly off the land and into apartment complexes, by photographic documentation of Paul Koudounaris seeking ways to determine when medical a development that promises advantages performances, costume and fashion, and T&H. HB. $75 care may be futile, harmful or against a while threatening to unravel the social fabric. poetic texts by long-time collaborator Sjón. patient's wishes, but this can easily morph From Bolivia’s ‘festival into limitations on care that suit the system THE NEW ARTISANS II of the little pug-nosed rather than the patient. ones,’ where skulls are Cinema Olivier Dupon festooned with flowers THE STORY OF T&H. HB. Was $55 and given cigarettes to AUSTRALIA’S PEOPLE: THE GRAND BUDAPEST $45 smoke, to naturally VOLUME 1 HOTEL In this follow-up preserved Buddhist volume to The New monks and on to Matt Zoller Seitz & Anne Washburn Geoffrey Blainey Artisans, Dupon Europe’s great Abrams. HB. $45 Viking. HB. Was $50 continues his ossuaries, Memento Mori defies taboo to $39.95 $44.99 exploration of the most demonstrate how the dead continue to be This one-volume The vast, ancient land of creative artisans present in the lives of people everywhere. companion to The Wes Australia was settled in working today. This Anderson Collection is two main streams, far new volume showcases WAGSTAFF the only book to take apart in time and origin. 60 new artisans producing collectable Philip Gefter readers behind the The first stream of one-of-a-kind objects using a variety of Liveright. HB. $44.95 scenes of The Grand immigrants came ashore materials and techniques including Budapest Hotel with Sam Wagstaff emerges as a some 50,000 years ago textiles, ceramics, paper, furniture, in-depth interviews cultural visionary in this when the islands of glass-blowing, jewellery, metal-smithing, between Anderson and cultural critic and groundbreaking biography. Australia, Tasmania and and more. There is also a directory of New York Times bestselling author Matt Even today, remembered New Guinea were one. objects and over 700 colour illustrations. Zoller Seitz. Anderson shares the story primarily as the mentor The second began to arrive from Europe at behind the film’s conception, the wide variety and lover of Robert the end of the eighteenth century. Each had PARIS STREET STYLE of sources that inspired it–from author Stefan Mapplethorpe, Wagstaff to come to terms with the land they found, Isabelle Thomas & Frederique Zweig to filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch to had an incalculable and and each had to make sense of the other. It Veysset Photochrom landscapes from turn-of-the- largely overlooked influence on the world was not - and is still not - an easy relationship, Abrams. PB. $29.99 century Middle Europe –personal anecdotes of contemporary art and photography, and and the story of Australia’s people is as about the making of the film, and many other With their signature, on the evolution of gay identity in the latter complex as it is rich. The Story of Australia’s th reflections on his filmmaking process. These opinionated sense of part of the 20 century. He was responsible People is the first installment of an ambitious interviews are accompanied by behind-the- style, Thomas and Veysset for the first museum show of minimal art, two-part work. scenes photos, ephemera, and artwork. explore the significance and an early supporter of Mapplethorpe, of the shoe as fashion Tony Smith, Andy Warhol and Richard Cultural Studies icon and its deeply Tuttle among many others. Philip Gefter’s Psychology French origins, providing absorbing biography provides a searing expert advice on the portrait of New York just before and during SO YOU’VE BEEN selection and upkeep of footwear as well as the age of AIDS. CREATURES OF A DAY PUBLICLY SHAMED perfect outfit pairings. The authors AND OTHER TALES OF incorporate history, contemporary FURNITECTURE Jon Ronson commentary from Inès de la Fressange, Picador. PB. Was $29.99 PSYCHOTHERAPY Anna Yudina Christian Louboutin and others, offer T&H. HB. $35 $24.99 Irvin D. Yalom Scribe. PB. $27.99 inspiration on shoes for every occasion, and A new wave of objects From the author of The conclude with a Paris shopping guide. ranging from Psychopath Test comes a In his long career, Irvin furniture to small- captivating exploration D. Yalom has pressed BRICK scale architectural of one of our world’s his patients and readers William Hall inventions is most underestimated to grapple with life's Phaidon. HB. $59.95 transforming our forces of social control: two greatest This is a surprising interior spaces. shame. For the past challenges: that we all look at one of the Boosted by digital design and three years, Jon must die, and that each world’s most versatile manufacturing possibilities, a rising global Ronson has travelled of us is responsible for and popular architectural group of independent ‘makers’ is turning the world meeting leading a life worth building materials, this crossover of furniture and architecture recipients of high-profile public shamings. living. In Creatures of a through 169 structures into one of the hottest and most innovative The shamed are people like us – people Day, he and his patients confront the dating from 2,100 BC to fields of design. Furnitecture presents some who, say, made a joke on social media that difficulty of these challenges. Yalom not the present day, from the Ziggurat of Ur to two hundred examples of this new design came out badly, or made a mistake at work. only gives us an enthralling glimpse into Alva Aalto, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Gehry, typology, by renowned architects and Once their transgression is revealed, their personal desires and motivations but Kazuyo Sejima and many others. Illustrated designers from around the globe, including collective outrage circles with the force of also tells us his own story as he struggles with extraordinary photographs, each Danish studio KiBiSi’s design for a a hurricane and the next thing they know to reconcile his emotional life with the project includes an extended commentary reconfigurable bookshelf system, Japanese they’re being torn apart by an angry mob, demands placed on him, and reckons with on the building, while an essay by the architect Shigeru Ban’s moving boxes and sometimes even fired from their job. his own life's inevitable end. Creatures of a historian and BBC television presenter Dan within rooms and Dutch designers We are defining the boundaries of Day lays bare the necessary task we Cruickshank sketches the fascinating history Makkink & Bey’s conversational Ear Chairs. normality by ruining the lives of those eachface, each day, to make our own lives of this enduring building material. outside it. meaningful. READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 17

Food & Gardening home chefs who need a little reminder that food for a crowd need not be complicated. with Chris Gordon Come and meet Helena and Vikki as I chat with them about all things lemon, oregano MY ABUELO’S MEXICAN and garlic, and about being in the spotlight. FEAST: A LIFE AND LOVE See page 5 for the event details. OF MEXICAN FOOD MR WILKINSON’S Daniella Germain SIMPLY DRESSED Hardie Grant. HB. $35 SALADS: A COOKBOOK Like so many cookbooks now, this collection of TO CELEBRATE THE recipes is more than a SEASONS manual: it is an homage Matt Wilkinson to a family that celebrates Hardie Grant. HB. $49.95 history and each other. This is a beautifully Dotted throughout the presented book filled comprehensive guide to with glorious recipes authentic Mexican food (I’m not talking fresh from the garden strictly tacos here) are photos and snippets of plot, with a little extra Mexican family life through the generations. spruce here and there. Rather than photos of food, there are sweet An example of this illustrations to represent each dish. Some extra flourish is what ichele Gierck finds herself illustrations are more successful than others. Wilkinson does with Msuddenly thrust into the (I do think drawing pulled fish for example the humble watermelon: cube it and then toss role of primary carer, with no map would be difficult.) The recipes, though, are it with feta and prawn vinaigrette – now it’s to navigate the world of aged care and medical bureaucracy. The delicious. My family have a new love: ceviche suitable for a dinner party of the highest relationship between the spirited, (marinated fish) and hot flower soup (chicken order. The book is divided into seasons, has determined 88-year-old protagonist soup, really). All are easy to follow, have practical advice on what to do with leftovers, and her daughter is at times obtainable ingredients and are wildly suitable how to make dressings and cordials from difficult, yet always respectful and for our climate, our quest for fresh tastes and scratch and has glorious photos that show loving, warm and upbeat. Together our devotion to street food for every day. what your salad dish could look like. Despite they must develop practical coping his British heritage, Wilkinson has pulled strategies, draw on a lifetime with THAT SUGAR BOOK together a book for our Australian climate each other and hold onto their Damon Gameau that celebrates fresh, obtainable produce and sense of humour. Michele Gierck PanMac. PB. $34.99 meal time. Fans of Pope Joan will already be offers wisdom and very practical Let’s take stock of what familiar with some dishes, but here is your advice about two of the certainties we already know: too opportunity to bring those tastes home. This of life – change and loss. much sugar is not good is a terrific cookbook and, I would think, for you, mentally or essential for any home chef’s collection. physically. Gameau’s www.newsouthpublishing.com book, in a similar vein BITTER: A TASTE OF to Super Size Me, has THE WORLD’S MOST researched what DANGEROUS FLAVOUR, happens when we take WITH RECIPES 40 teaspoons of sugar a day. Why 40 Jennifer McLagan teaspoons? This is the average amount that Ten Speed. HB. $54.95 the average Australian consumes ... and it’s all hidden in everyday food with fun labels Goodness I love this title such as ‘low fat’, ‘energy’, or ‘light’. After 60 – Bitter – and the days Gameau is fat, moody and unwell. This opening chapter is too is a terrific book and is a firm kick up the good to be true: ‘Born to backside for us all about being complacent be Bitter’. McLagan, a with our food sources. It is not dictatorial or Canadian food stylist, condescending, but it is shocking. It’s a quirky chef, writer, historian book full of sensational graphics and and champion of information. Every high school should be neglected food sources, has created one of aware of this book. Highly recommended. the most exciting and dramatic cookbooks I’ve seen for a long time. The photos are Oh, and there are recipes – good ones, too. Lena Dunham’s Girls meets Armistead Maupin’s MasterChef favourite Amina Elshafei is blessed with explosive, and the content informative, And don’t forget to check out the movie about Tales of the City – Abigail Ulman’s debut is a striking, a rich family history – her mum is Korean, and her it all as well: That Sugar Movie. challenging and actually very easy if you can fresh and pitch-perfect collection. These are frank, dad is Egyptian. Join her as she takes you on a unique find the right ingredients. Bitter greens funny, sometimes confronting tales about young culinary adventure, exploring the best cuisine from both ravioli or bratwurst in beer for dinner women trying (and occasionally failing) to come to cultures. Amina’s mouth-watering multicultural cuisine TAKING YOU HOME: terms with what it means to desire, and be desired. is a revelation – this is food to share and savour. SIMPLE GREEK FOOD tonight followed by Campari granita? I’m in with as much snarl and wit as I can muster. FOR FRIENDS AND A terrific addition to any cookbook collection. FAMILY Helena Moursellas & Vikki GREAT GARDEN DESIGN: Moursellas CONTEMPORARY Hachette. PB. $39.95 INSPIRATION FOR I love Greek food so this OUTDOOR SPACES book already had me at Ian Hodgson the title. I love the Frances Lincoln. HB. $49.95 simplicity and the generous, relaxed feel English garden designer of Greek dishes. This Ian Hodgson has created a book, created by two picturesque book filled young local women – with inspirational and aspirational photos from identical twins and contestants from 2014’s Spellbinding and heartbreaking, Kooshyar Karimi’s This is the story of Galliano and McQueen, the two My Kitchen Rules – is terrific. There are all his extraordinary years of memoir tells the true story of a young Iranian woman working class British boys who shook fashion to its core. the classics one could expect: dips, olives, experience. There is a for whom pregnancy means certain death. In working With their complicated and deeply seductive designs, lamb, salads, but also gems like slow-roasted terrific amount of text with each image that is to save Leila, and countless like her, Doctor Karimi risks they moved from the raucous art and club scene of the lives of himself and his family. London to the old-school heart of French couture. pork belly. Each recipe is accompanied by a both informative and, this is important, not personal story and photos from their own too academic. I love his chapters on ‘Outdoor family, which makes this book delightful. It’s Experiences’ and ‘Gardens with a easy, accessible and it screams Melbourne. Conscience’. There is a lot we Australian Perfect for novice chefs, those who have just gardeners can learn from this beautifully penguin.com.au moved into their own home and for those presented book. 18 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

number of very exciting picture books in translation that Baby Board Books New Zealand publisher Book Island is producing. RHYMOCEROS Angela Crocombe is from Readings Carlton Janik Coat RED: A CRAYON’S STORY Abrams. BB. $17.99 Michael Hall In Janik Coat’s much-anticipated HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 follow-up to Hippopposites, a blue Red has a bright red label, but he is, in rhinoceros unabashedly demonstrates fact, blue. His teacher, his mother and his sixteen pairs of rhyming words. His friends in the stationery cupboard all try ability to appear ‘stinky’ and ‘inky,’ or to help, but Red is miserable – he just ‘caring’ and ‘daring,’ oftentimes lands can’t be red, no matter how hard he tries. him in compromising contexts. Finally, a new friend offers a new Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to mind. perspective, and Red discovers what SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: TIMMY readers have known all along – he’s blue! CHILDREN’S This picture book about finding the courage to be true to IN THE CITY your inner self can be read on multiple levels, and it offers Aardman something for everyone. Walker. BB. $9.95 BOOK This is a hilarious board book based FESTIVAL on the Shaun the Sheep movie, but told Non- Fiction 2015 from Timmy’s perspective! When the Flock decides it’s time for a day out, THE STORY OF LIFE: A FIRST Timmy gets to go along to the Big City. BOOK ABOUT EVOLUTION Many things, like automatic doors and Catherine Barr & Steve Williams, Amy Husband SUNDAY 22nd restaurants, are very different from (illus.) MARCH life on the farm. Other things are the same; city folk get Walker. HB. $27.95 sheared, too, for example. This board book is the perfect at State Library For some, evolution conjures up way to share the movie with Shaun and Timmy’s youngest images of bones and fossils – the Victoria and fans. old, the dry and the dead. But for the the Wheeler Centre YOU ARE MY BABY: MEADOW creators of The Story of Life, evolution 10AM – 4PM evokes a vibrant, colourful, joyous Lorena Siminovich world very much alive with wonder Chronicle Books. BB. $14.95 and magic. At last we have a picture GUEST AUTHORS AND You are My Baby: Meadow is the latest book that illustrates the key concepts ILLUSTRATORS: in this series of charming and in evolution with a visual narrative that is informative, fun Tristan Bancks inventive board books. Readers will and (most importantly) accessible to young minds; this is a Davina Bell find a little book nestled inside a book sure to pique their curiosity and encourage them to Allison Colpoys bigger book and enjoy turning the think deeper and search further. Infused with a playful energy pages to match the baby animals to and irrepressible – almost childlike – illustrations, this Terry Denton their parents. Young readers will delightful creation begs to be read repeatedly and there is Ursula Dubosarsky also learn early concepts along the way, including much in its pages to be discussed and explored. And at a time Hazel Edwards animal habitats in meadows and forests. when scientific thinking is being undermined from all sides, Nicki Greenberg The Story of Life is not just a delightful book, but an important Andy Griffi ths one as well. Highly recommended for ages 5 and up. Andrew Joyner Picture Books Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern Marc Martin MY POP IS A PIRATE DREAMS OF FREEDOM Oliver Phommavanh Damon Young & Peter Carnavas (illus.) Amnesty International Shaun Tan UQP. HB. $24.95 Walker. HB. $27.95 Mitch Vane Following on from the fun and Amnesty International has Gabrielle Wang deservedly very successful My produced a stunning follow-up to Nanna is a Ninja comes this companion their bestseller on human rights, We Are volume which is just as playful and All Born Free (in paperback in March). EVENTS INCLUDE: energetic. The poetry is sheer joy and This new title, Dreams of Freedom, Picnic Library the rhythm flawless, but for me the focuses on freedom and has quotes from Meet the Authors and thing to celebrate is that the inspiring figures, present and past, Illustrators sessions stereotypical granddad, with his tartan slippers and including the Dalai Lama, Malala Creative workshops doddery, wise ways, is nowhere to be seen. The pops in this Yousafzai, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank and more. A book still have a lot of life left in them and they are Giant Book foreword from Michael Morpurgo states that the book’s embracing it with gusto. So get your dose of pirates and Snuff Puppets purpose is to inspire children to stand up for others and to alliteration with this rambunctious picture book for all make a difference. In true Amnesty spirit, illustrators from all Peter Combe ages, shapes and sizes. over the world have added their beautiful brushstrokes to this Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn book. Sally Morgan represents Australia and other contributors include Chris Riddell, Emily Gravatt, Peter Sis THE RABBIT & THE SHADOW and Jackie Morris. All proceeds from the book go to Amnesty. Mélanie Rutten This is an inspiring book that will spark discussion around FREE Book Island. HB. $32.95 injustice and inequality in the world. A necessary book for EVENT This is an unusual picture book for every school and public library, it also deserves a special place readers aged between 5–8. On the in every child’s home. It can be enjoyed by children as young surface, it’s a gorgeous chapter book about as 4 when read with a parent, but readers up to 10 years old PROGRAMME DETAILS: Rabbit, Stag, Cat, Soldier, Book and will also enjoy engaging with it. AC wheelercentre.com Shadow, but the story also works as a slv.vic.gov.au metaphor for the relationship between 100 GREAT CHILDREN’S PICTURE parent and child over a lifetime. When BOOKS Rabbit appears, Stag must look after this Martin Salisbury tiny, vulnerable creature. He loves Rabbit very much, but he Laurence King. HB. $55 worries that Rabbit will someday leave. Rabbit runs away to This visual feast celebrates the best seek adventure and meets up with Soldier and Cat. They are designed and illustrated picture books scared of Shadow, but Rabbit recognises Shadow when she from around the world over the past 100 finally appears. Each character makes a unique journey and years. Each book is a creation of genius each transformation is beautiful to observe. and inventiveness, and also a mirror of Belgian author and illustrator Mélanie Rutten has its time, reflecting art and design trends created an exquisite book with a decidedly European flavour and social concerns. that can be read on a number of levels. This is one of a READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 19

Pilkey and will have kids laughing their heads off as Johnny and Penelope get into more and more trouble by the second. Book of the Month Isobel Moore is from Readings St Kilda ZAFIR THROUGH MY EYES THE UNDERWATER FANCY-DRESS PARADE Prue Mason Davina Bell & Allison Colpoys (illus.) A&U. PB. $15.99 Scribe. HB. $24.99 Zafir has a comfortable life in Homs, Syria, until his father, a doctor, is This gorgeous picture book doesn’t whack you over the head with its exploration arrested for helping a protester who of social anxiety, but considers a sensitive boy’s feelings with empathy and subtlety. was campaigning for revolution. While Faced with the fancy-dress parade, Alfie is getting that old familiar feeling and it isn’t a his mother heads to Damascus to try to nice one. Parties, school events and other social occasions are worrying times for him and find out where his father is being held, now, even when his underwater costume of a starfish is pretty good, he can’t summon the Zafir stays with his grandmother – nerve to participate. So his mum takes him to the aquarium instead. But even there he can’t until her house is bombed. With his shake the heavy feeling of failure, until he sees a little shy fish poke his nose out from the father in prison, his mother absent, his coral and then promptly hide again and he recognises a kindred spirit. grandmother ill and not a friend left in the city, will Zafir survive long enough to be reunited with his parents? I love that this book doesn’t come up with a neat, all-solved ending but takes you through Alfie’s fears, nightmares and his parents’ understanding responses with a DREAMSNATCHER companionable knowing. The theme is beautifully explored and Allison Colpoys’ Abi Elphinstone illustrations perfectly capture his vulnerability. For ages 3–7. Simon & Schuster. PB. $14.99

Twelve-year-old Molly Pecksniff wakes Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn one night in the middle of the forest, lured there by a recurring nightmare – the one with the drums and the rattles and the masks. The Dreamsnatcher is waiting. He has already taken her dreams and now he wants her life – because Moll is more important than she knows. Suddenly everything is at stake, and Moll is drawn into a world full of secrets, magic and adventure. CHILDREN’S BOOK OF PHILOSOPHY Dorling Kindersley. HB. $29.99 Classic From Socrates and Aristotle to Kant and Confucius, meet the thinkers and ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN theories that shaped our world. Find New WONDERLAND answers to life’s big questions such as Lewis Carroll & Anthony Browne (illus.) ‘Who am I?’ or ‘Should I ever tell a lie?’ Walker. HB. $27.95 Complex topics are explored in the The story of Alice and her Children’s Book of Philosophy, inspiring remarkable adventures in children to think about philosophical theories and concepts Wonderland has enthralled for themselves. Kids’ generations of children since it was first published in 1865. Lewis Carroll’s timeless masterpiece, now Junior Fiction 150 years old, is richly visual in its THE DAY NO ONE WAS ANGRY telling and in this beautiful anniversary edition, Anthony Browne’s Toon Tellegen & Marc Boutavant (Illus.) Books dazzling illustrations are perfectly Scholastic. HB. $29.99 paired with the surreal quality of Carroll’s writing. Lobster understands different types of anger and can supply just morbid topics in fiction and well-handled novels like the right sort for every occasion and this can be cathartic. That said, death is not its sole situation. Sound weird to you? Well, pre-occupation. The story, about a young teen who this is an unusual book and it examines discovers that he is descended from grim reapers and different animals in vexing situations bound by blood to be one himself, involves identity that provoke anger, or could do. Twelve (individual vs. family), friendship, morality, and the first short stories contemplate anger and yet hint of romance. Yet it does all of this with a great deal of Classic of the Month are quite often funny, mostly comic-book humour, which offsets the grim subject MY PLACE philosophical and sometimes mysterious. The book has matter perfectly but never restricts the story from its such a European sensibility and is a very attractive package more thoughtful, philosophical roots. Most importantly, Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins with Marc Boutavant’s charming illustrations but what I the plot is fun and full of twists – some you might see Walker Books. PB. $19.95 think parents, children and educators will find invaluable is coming, others you probably won’t – and Sod (Son of My Place’s importance in that the theme is explored without moralistic finger Death) is a very likeable companion for the duration. introducing Australian history pointing. Anger is not looked at much in children’s Highly recommended for 10–13-year-olds who like to children has already been firmly literature and The Day No One Was Angry does so in a very zombies, laughs and a mystery to solve. established in the 27 years since its publication during the bicentenary, original way. And my favourite animal? Well, the lobster, of Emily Gale is the online children’s specialist for Readings course! For ages 6 and up. AD including its adaptation for JOHNNY DANGER: DIY SPY television and inclusion in countless school curriculums. There is real joy Peter Millett though to be found in returning to the book itself. Middle Fiction Puffin. PB. $14.99 Narrated by the children who inhabit a particular house SON OF DEATH When schoolboy Jonathan in what is now inner city Sydney, My Place moves Dangerfield gets mistaken for Andrew McDonald backwards in 10-year increments starting with Laura in international spy Johnny Danger he’s Egmont. PB. $19.95 1988 and finishing in 1788 with Barangaroo. Each double both terrified and delighted. A career page brings a new decade, a new child, and, the most This novel for tweens and up as a secret agent is all he’s ever wanted fun, a new map. Each map represents the narrators view strikes me as clever in several and here’s his chance! Now all he of their place and the differences from map to map are ways. First of all, it openly tells us what needs to do is take down the bad guy startling and exciting. As the original back cover blurb it’s about – death – because as all good and foil the fart-filled evil plot. This is proclaimed, My Place is a time machine, a way back to children’s authors know there’s no an absolute giggle of a spy story, with the pleasures to be found in a shared picture book. pulling the wool over the eyes of their gross jokes a-plenty and a very sassy Marie Matteson is from Readings Carlton readership, so why bother trying? sidekick in the shape of no-nonsense schoolgirl Penelope Children of this age often seek out Pounds. This will appeal to fans of Andy Griffiths and Dav 20 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

ALICE SPRINGS BRUCE dramatically alter the shape of the British tribute to an indelible character and his Eleanor Hogan Peter Ames Carlin monarchy. Drawing on letters, diaries and remarkable creator. memoirs, Helen Rappaport offers a new HB. Was $29.99 PB. Was $37.95 perspective on this compelling historical LA CUCINA Now $11.95 Now $12.95 psychodrama – the crucial final months ITALIANA Alice Springs is a For more than four of the prince’s life and the Queen’s HB. Was $79.95 town of extremes and decades, Bruce Springsteen subsequent retreat from public view. Now $25 contradictions: searingly has reflected the heart With more than 3,000 hot and bitterly cold, thousands of and soul of America with a career that TELEGRAPH includes 20 Grammy Awards, more than step-by-step photographs for over 500 miles from anywhere, the heart of black AVENUE Australia and the headquarters of the 120 million albums sold, two Golden Globes, recipes, this veritable encyclopedia guides controversial NT Intervention. It is the and an Academy Award. In Bruce, acclaimed Michael Chabon you through all the essential building gateway to the red centre, but relatively music writer Peter Ames Carlin presents a PB. Was $29.99 blocks of Italian cooking. La Cucina Italiana few Australians have been there. Eleanor startlingly intimate and vivid portrait of a Now $12.95 puts ingredients first, explaining the Hogan’s Alice Springs reveals the texture man who managed to redefine generations As summer in Oakland, different types and the best use of each, and of everyday life in this town through the of music. California, draws to a supplying multiple methods for preparing passage of the local seasons. close, Archy Stallings those ingredients, ranging from simple to THE LOST and Nat Jaffe are hanging in there, co- complex. Suitable both for beginners and THE BATTLES regents of Brokeland Records. When a more advanced chefs who want to perfect their techniques. SPOTTER’S Jonathan Jones former star quarterback announces plans to dump his latest Dogpile megastore on GUIDE TO HB. Was $59.95 YEAR OF Now $16.95 Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear the URBAN worst for their little enterprise. Meanwhile, One of Britain’s most WONDERS ENGINEERING their wives, Aviva and Gwen, a pair of respected and acclaimed Geraldine Brooks Claire Barratt & Ian legendary midwives, find themselves art historians recounts the Renaissance PB. Was $19.99 Whitelaw caught up in a professional battle that tests artistic competition between Leonardo Now $12 PB. Was $29.95 their friendship. da Vinci and Michelangelo to paint the This is the story of a Now $11.95 young woman’s struggle legendary ‘lost’ masterpieces ‘The Battle of ANTONIO The Spotter’s Guide to Urban Engineering Anghiari’ and ‘The Battle of Cascina’ on the to save her family and her is an exciting guide to the technology wall of the Palazzo Vecchio – a competition AND LUCIA soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, that underpins modern life. Richly which led to the recognition, for the first Riccardo Momesso when plague struck a small Derbyshire illustrated, it celebrates the wonders of time, of artists as godlike creators of the HB. Was $49.99 village. At just 18, Anna Frith must science, engineering and technology in ‘new,’ a notion that still holds true today. Now $13.95 contend with the death of her family, the the modern world. Each chapter explores Riccardo Momesso’s disintegration of her society, and the lure of the developments and various engineering ON RARE parents, Antonio and an illicit attraction. Geraldine Brooks’ novel features and structures, detailing what they BIRDS Lucia, moved from Calabria to Australia explores love, fear and fanaticism, and the are, what they do, how they do it, and, most struggle of 17th century science to deal with Anita Albus in the 1950s, bringing their cooking importantly, how to identify them. traditions with them – foraging, hunting, a diabolical pestilence. HB. Was $44.95 fishing, preserving and, most importantly, Now $15.95 FEAR OF the tradition of sharing food with HOW PROUST In this FLYING family and friends. With CAN CHANGE gorgeously Erica Jong gorgeous imagery and illustrated book, Anita YOUR LIFE HB. Was $39.95 90 authentic recipes, Albus recounts the sad Alain de Botton Now $12.95 Antonio and Lucia is histories of several HB. Was $24.99 Originally published in an accessible journey extinct bird species, Now $12.95 1973, Erica Jong’s Fear of to the heart of the including the Renowned philosopher Flying, the internationally rich cuisine and passenger pigeon, the Alain de Botton transforms Proust’s life and bestselling story of Isadora Wing, coined culture of Calabria. Carolina parakeet, Bargain work into a modern, no-nonsense guide a new phrase for a sex act and launched and the great auk. She to topics such as enjoying your vacation, a new way of thinking about gender, MORAN- gives a detailed account reviving a relationship, avoiding clichés, first sexuality, and liberty in our society. This of a variety of rare birds, THOLOGY dates, being a good host and recognising 40th anniversary edition includes a new Table and considers unique Caitlin Moran love. De Botton finds inspiration in Proust’s introduction by Jennifer Weiner. birds such as the laughing PB. Was $29.99 essays, letters, and fiction and draws out a kookaburra. Combining natural Now $10 vivid and clarifying portrait of the master PILGRIMAGE history and investigative reporting, the The follow-up to from between the lines of his work. Annie Leibovitz book weaves in mythological and cultural Caitlin Moran’s HB. Was $79.95 material, and, most of all, tells a compelling breakout hit, How FOOD SAFARI Now $24.95 story. to Be a Woman, Maeve O’Meara Pilgrimage took world- Moranthology PB. Was $39.95 renowned photographer THE MARRIAGE showcases a hilarious Now $12.95 Annie Leibovitz to places PLOT collection of award- Food Safari takes the that she could explore with no agenda. Jeffrey Eugenides winning columns. reader on an adventure The work became more ambitious as she Moran ruminates HB. Was $54.99 into 34 diverse and discovered that she wanted to photograph on, and sometimes Now $15.95 fascinating cuisines by objects as well as rooms and landscapes. She interviews, subjects as varied as caffeine, exploring the basic ingredients of each One of the best-selling began to use more sophisticated cameras and Keith Richards, Ghostbusters, Twitter, cuisine and how to shop for them, and and most highly regarded a tripod and to travel with an assistant, but the transsexuals, the welfare state, the making the exotic familiar. Offering simple, novels of 2011. Madeleine Hanna is writing project remained personal. royal wedding, Lady Gaga, and her own foolproof recipes that anyone can cook at her thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot mortality, to name just a few. With her home, it is a delicious journey into cultures – authors of the great marriage plots. As TRANSPORT: unique voice, Moran brings insight and as far flung as Africa, Europe, Asia, North Madeleine studies the age-old motivations AN AUSTRALIAN humour to everything she writes. and South America and the Middle East. of the human heart, real life, in the form HISTORY of two very different men, intervenes. But ROME Robert Lee FOREVER as all three leave college, they will have RUMPOLE Robert Hughes PB. Was $49.95 to figure out how they want their own HB. Was $59.95 Now $15.95 marriage plot to end. John Mortimer Now $19.95 HB. Was $39.95 From the saddle horse to the motor car, the One of our greatest art and cheap tram to the paddle-steamer, and the A MAGNIFICENT Now $16.95 cultural critics now takes on express train to the modern jet aircraft, this OBSESSION John Mortimer died Rome’s complicated history account chronicles the fascinating history of Helen Rappaport in 2009, but will never as a city, an empire, an origin of Western art transportation in Australia. From Indigenous HB. Was $49.95 be forgotten. Mortimer took up the and civilisation, and as his own inspiration. people journeying by foot or in canoes to Now $12.99 pen while still a practicing barrister, From his own arrival in Rome in 1958, as European settlements and technologies After the untimely and the rest is literary history. Forever a wide-eyed 20-year-old from Australia, influencing the means of travel, this lavishly death of Prince Albert, Rumpole brings together fourteen of this authoritative, searingly smart history illustrated record interweaves facts and Queen Victoria and her Rumpole’s most entertaining adventures, sees Hughes blissfully plunging into the anecdotes to portray the development of nation were plunged into a state of grief together with an unfinished fragment of life of the city, his exhilaration and life-long transport Down Under. so profound that this one event would a new story. Rumpole is never less than passion for the place palpable on the page. delightful and this collection is a fitting READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 21

New Film & TV charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no relationships are delicately balanced. other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence with Lou Fulco from road trips and family dinners to birthdays, TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT graduations and all the moments in between $29.95 DVD of the Month create a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past Available 11 March and an ode to growing up and parenting. Marion Cotillard plays Sandra, a married woman ADVANCED STYLE OLIVE KITTERIDGE with two children who is $19.95 $29.95 made redundant when she Ari Seth Cohen started his blog, Advanced Style, when he Available 4 March returns to her factory job moved to New York four years ago. Inspired by his own This Golden Globe- after hospitalisation for a grandmother’s unique personal style and the impossible-to-ignore nominated miniseries tells breakdown. In order to ‘gorgeous and stylish women between 60 and death’ who were using the story of a seemingly help her, Sandra’s best friend at work has the broad avenues of New York as their runways, the blog took on a placid New England town convinced their boss to hold a vote – do the life of its own. It soon evolved into the beautiful book of the same actually wrought with other workers want to save Sandra’s job, or name released in 2012 and, ultimately, a movement. illicit affairs, crime and keep their bonuses? Sandra has the In the doco, Cohen interviews seven eccentric New Yorkers tragedy, all told through weekend to persuade her workmates to whose eclectic personal style and spirit have had a profound impact on their approach to the lens of Olive (Frances McDormand), keep her employed by sacrificing the bonus ageing. Advanced Style is spilling with effervescent quotes from these ladies of fashion such whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor they need to make ends meet. as: ‘The hats, the bags, the shoes, the jewellery, the scarves – they are my children. They mask a warm heart and staunch moral need constant attention and upkeep.’ And: ‘I’m better with age. I’m in love all the time.’ One centre. Spanning 25 years, the story focuses MADE IN ITALY WITH interviewee rides her pushbike everywhere so she can show off her outfits to everyone on Olive’s relationships with her husband, SILVIA COLLOCA she passes. As every one of her outfits incorporates some type of hat, a bike helmet cannot Henry, the good-hearted and kindly town $29.95 possibly be worn. pharmacist; their son, Christopher, and Silvia Colloca visits three These sassy New Yorkers unanimously share a disdain for the so-called ‘fashion’ other members of their community. regions of Italy that are featured in fashion magazines because they promote trends, and so everyone looks the close to her heart – same. In contrast, these women are living evidence that there is a lot of artistic expression THE HUNDRED-FOOT Abruzzo, Le Marche and to be enjoyed through fashion. For these ladies of style, fashion is about expressing their JOURNEY Molise – to re-discover unique style and personality as well as their creativity. They wear their personalities on $39.95 authentic cucina povera their sleeves and are obviously having fun and living life to the full while they do so. The Hassan Kadam is a culinary (peasant cuisine), meet doco culminates with a flash-mob fashion show for 50–90 year old women at the Lincoln ingénue with the locals and share the true Italian secret of Centre as part of Fashion Week. Zelda Kaplan, aged 95, faints in the front row and later gastronomic equivalent of cooking. In every episode Silvia meets dies in hospital. It was an appropriately dramatic end to the fashionista’s life, as captured perfect pitch. Displaced locals, chefs and cooks, cooking in their by one of her fashionista friends: ‘She died looking great, doing what she did so well in the from their native India, he kitchens and allowing viewers a peek inside. streets of New York City’. What a way to go! and his family settle in the These fabulously inspiring characters brought tears of joy to my eyes! I loved every quaint village of Saint- minute of this doco. These women are an absolute inspiration as I approach middle age. Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Also coming soon They live by the mantra: live life to the full, look good by expressing yourself creatively and The village is the ideal place to settle down life can only get better ... How can anyone disagree with that?! and open an Indian restaurant. That is, until WHIPLASH (1 March) Emily Harms is the Head of Marketing and Communications for Readings Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren, in a Golden LILYHAMMER: SEASON 2 (4 March) Globe-nominated performance), the chilly UN VILLAGE FRANCAIS: SERIES 1 (11 March) owner of upscale restaurant Le Saule THE CONGRESS (11 March) PRIDE was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Pleureur, gets wind of it. WATER DIVINER (19 March) $39.95 Musical or Comedy. THE VILLAGE: SEASON 2 (25 March) Available 4 March FOYLE’S WAR: SERIES 9 RECTIFY: SEASON 2 (25 March) A rousing and warm-hearted BOYHOOD $39.95 GALLIPOLI (25 March) crowd-pleaser in the spirit of $39.95 Available 4 March GET ON UP (26 March) Billy Elliot and The Full Filmed over 12 years with the In his role as a Senior VEEP: SEASON 3 (1 April) Monty, Pride tells the same cast, Richard Linklater’s Intelligence Officer for the NIGHTCRAWLER (1 April) incredible true story of the Boyhood is a groundbreaking secret service, Foyle INTERSTELLAR (8 April) unlikely alliance between a story of growing up as seen continues to be immersed PADDINGTON (9 April) striking Welsh mining through the eyes of a child in the dangerous world of community and a group of gay and lesbian named Mason, who grows up espionage at a time in activists in 1980s Britain. Pride is the winner on screen before our eyes. British history when of the 2014 Cannes Queer Palm award and Nominated for 6 Academy Awards, Boyhood political and foreign governmental

Damon Gameau Brenton Thwaites Isabel Lucas Jessica Marais and Stephen Fry

WillWill THAT foreverforever changechange thethe wayway youyou thinkthink aboutabout ‘healthy’‘healthy’ FILM food!food!

JAMIE OLIVER

From March 5 380 Lygon Street Carlton Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema cinemanova.com.au 22 READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015

New Music the new album still showcases their waited for the right opportunity to finish the grounded tradition and filmic recording in the spirit Pops intended. When orchestration, but they’ve also taken on she began her series of remarkable Album of the Month musical flavours as diverse as those of collaborations with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Spain, India, Blue Note and Trip Hop. starting with 2010’s You Are Not Alone and VESTIGES & CLAWS The album is an invitation to be free, continuing with 2013’s One True Vine, Mavis José González weightless, airborne, to transcend reality, knew she had found the person to work on $21.95 to enter your imagination, to raise the her father’s record. possibilities above the ordinary, to become one with nature, to give yourself OOH YEA! THE BETTY Indie folk singer–songwriter and guitarist José González’s up to nature and let the wind carry you to DAVIS SONGBOOK dulcet tones first drifted over me in the back of Readings new places. Carlton in 2007 as he was performing a few beautiful songs from his then recently Mahalia Barnes & The Soul Mates released album, In Our Nature. González has since recorded two studio albums with with Joe Bonamassa his band, Junip, and contributed to the soundtrack for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Country $21.95 directed by and starring Ben Stiller. Vestiges & Claws is González’s first solo album Powerhouse singer since 2007 and was self-produced in his homeland, Sweden. Mahalia Barnes, one of His new album marks a shift from the renowned minimalist sound of his previous TERRAPLANE the most impressive albums and is the first of his albums to contain all original songs. As brilliant as they were, Steve Earle & The Dukes female vocalists to come I used to have a slight issue with the fact that Gonález was best known for his popular $21.95. Deluxe CD & DVD $29.95 out of Australia, and her covers including The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’, Kylie Minogue’s ‘Hand on Your Heart’ and Joy band The Soul Mates Division's ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. Terraplane is Earle's have teamed up with American blues-rock I’m relieved that he’s now found his own voice, creating what is a beautiful album 16th studio release but, guitarist Joe Bonamassa to release Ooh Yea! that includes a vibrant mix of mild protest songs of frustration, moving through to peace for the man recognised The Betty Davis Songbook, an album of and optimism. This collection of eccentric folk rock, staccato grooves and rhythms is the as a prime mover in both Betty Davis covers exploring the tracks perfect accompaniment to a blissful sunny afternoon. country and Americana from Davis's sexy, raw funk records of the Emily Harms is the Head of Marketing and Communications for Readings circles over the past few early ’70s. Betty Davis’ unique story is still decades, it is also a first: his first blues fairly unknown. She married Miles Davis in album. Terraplane takes its title from the the late ’60s, influenced him with psychedelic rock, and introduced him to MELBOURNE, FLORIDA 1930s Hudson motor car, which also Pop inspired the Robert Johnson song Jimi Hendrix. Later, she released three Dick Diver ‘Terraplane Blues’. Earle, who was raised genre-busting albums. $21.95 outside of San Antonio before migrating NEXT YEAR PEOPLE to Houston, cut his teeth on a local scene Colin Hay Melbourne, Florida is steeped in two distinct blues styles, those Also coming soon $24.95 Melbourne quartet Dick of Freddy King in Fort Worth and Next Year People is the Diver’s third full-length Lightnin’ Hopkins in Houston. He saw TRACKER work of an artist who is outing, after the highly- both of these giants, along with Johnny Mark Knopfler a true master of his praised New Start Again Winter, Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughn, $21.95 craft. The album is full (2011) and Calendar Days and Billy Gibbons. Their collective Available 6 March of quizzical, curious, (2013). Their latest is a wide-ranging and influence can be heard in Earle’s cynical yet open-hearted diverse album, simultaneously smoother and masterful song writing and The Dukes’ songs with catchy melodic hooks that more eccentric than their previous world- ragged-but-right performance. underscore deeply insightful lyrics. Some conquering efforts. With Melbourne, Florida, of the songs are based on Hay’s personal Dick Diver have really stretched out, experiences such as ‘Waiting in the Rain’, creating a bigger, broader Australian sound Jazz NANNA written about his parents and the almost that will undoubtedly find them a wider Xavier Rudd & United Nations mystical experience he had growing up in audience, but it's a sound with a foot still SOUVENANCE a music shop in Scotland, surrounded by firmly in their musical roots (Go-Betweens, $21.95 instruments and a constant stream of ’50s Television, Flying Nun bands, etc.). Anouar Brahem Available 13 March and ’60s radio hits. Others, according to 2CD $39.95 Hay, ‘just appear from somewhere’, such The music of as ‘Mr. Grogan’, a dark study of a fictional Folk & World Souvenance, by turns character he has been developing over graceful, hypnotic, and SHORT MOVIE the years. The album’s title track, ‘Next LOST & FOUND taut and starkly dramatic, Laura Marling Year People,’ is a stand-out composition – was recorded in 2014 – Buena Vista Social Club $21.95 a stark but beautiful homage to the six years after oud-master Anouar Available 20 March $24.95 depression-era farmers who kept going Brahem’s last album, The Astounding Eyes by holding on to hope that next year of Rita. Brahem has noted that his would be better. Almost two decades after emotional world had been, for a time, the release of the original, usurped by the political turmoil in Tunisia Grammy-winning album, RANGE ANXIETY and then beyond. A new direction is also SOMETIMES I SIT & Twerps the romance of the Buena evident in pianist François Couturier’s Vista Social Club THINK, SOMETIMES I $19.95 return to the Brahem group, frequently continues with Lost and supported by subtle string orchestrations JUST SIT Found, a collection of previously unreleased that glow with a transparency and fragility, In March, Melbourne Courtney Barnett tracks, some recorded at the first legendary providing shimmering textures against pop foursome Twerps $19.95 sessions in Havana with producer Ry Cooder which the contributions of the quartet will release their Available 20 March and others during the extraordinarily rich members – and, above all, Anouar Brahem’s long-awaited second outpouring of music that followed. The unique oud-playing – stand out in bold album, Range Anxiety. original Buena Vista Social Club brought relief. Their self-titled debut together many of the great names of the made a major splash in 2011 and saw the golden age of Cuban music in the 1950s and band touring and playing festivals both CAROUSEL ONE the album became a surprise international Blues & Soul here and abroad. Their melodic, best-seller and the most successful album Ron Sexsmith bittersweet jangle-rock, influenced by the in the history of Cuban music. $19.95 likes of The Clean, Feelies and the DON’T LOSE THIS Available 27 March Go-Betweens, among many others, really MOUNT THE AIR Pops Staples made a mark. Range Anxiety is a big leap The Unthanks $21.95 forward for the band. Again recorded $26.95 with Jack Farley, it sees singer–guitarists In 1998, Roebuck ‘Pops’ Martin Frawley and Julia McFarlane Mount The Air is the Staples recorded a final working in perfect harmony with Rick first studio album by session, capping an Milovanovic and new drummer Alex The Unthanks since Last illustrious career as leader McFarlane, creating a very Australian was released four years and patriarch of The brand of pop rock: laconic, laidback and ago, and they’re Staple Singers. Unfinished with a wide sense of pastoral space. releasing it on their own label, RabbleRouser, despite offers with at the time of his death in 2000, the tapes major labels. Musically more ambitious, went to his daughter, Mavis, who then READINGS MONTHLY MARCH 2015 23

New Classical Music his day. In these five works Mozart O SACRUM CONVIVIUM! captures the public persona of an Andrew Nethsingha & the Choir of instrument most readily associated with St. John’s College, Cambridge all things hunting, but he also brings it Classical Album of the Month Chandos. CHAN10842. $29.95 indoors: lyrical episodes, and especially This new recording with the slow movements, show the very soul KOEHNE: TIME IS A RIVER the Choir of St John’s of the instrument, despite any perceived Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra College, Cambridge limitations of the valveless horn. ABC Classics. 4811480. $24.95 under the direction of Leutgeb’s modern successor is natural I was in a terribly bad mood when I sat down to listen to this Andrew Nethsingha pays horn player Pip Eastop, whose technical recording. Not the best way to experience new repertoire, but homage to French sacred choral music of ability and musical inventiveness are as the first track, ‘Forty Reasons to Be Cheerful’, evolved, it was like the early twentieth century. It features two palpable in these hugely enjoyable the sun came out and my bad mood fell away. Although this ‘Festive Fanfare’ is only Messes solennelles, by Louis Vierne and renditions. six-and-a-half minutes long, the rest of the recording was equally as fulfilling and, the Jean Langlais, as well as short pieces by only way I can truly describe it, beautiful. This is some stunningly gorgeous music. PIAZZOLLA: ESCUALO Francis Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen. All After the bright opening we move into the gentle ‘Persistence of Memory’ with soloist works are beautifully performed and is a Ann Hobson Pilot, Lucia Lin & J. P. David Nuttall, principal oboe of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, sharing the spotlight must have for all lovers of choral singing. Jofre with Jun Yi Ma and Sue-Ellen Paulsen. The trio deliver a soulful beginning to the work Harmonia Mundi. HMU907627. $29.95 and hearing their performance slowly dissolve into a full orchestral work is like watching a BROADWAY–LAFAYETTE cake bake: you can see it taking shape and know it’s going to be delicious. ‘Divertissement: The name Astor Piazzolla Simone Dinnerstein is synonymous with the Trios Pieces Bourgeoises’ surprised me with the colours it seems to send wheeling Sony. 88875032452. $21.95 word tango. A musical around the orchestra, however it’s not really until ‘Between Two Worlds’ expands over six Simone Dinnerstein ambassador who carried movements that we get some faster melodic ideas thrown into the mix. Finishing with the celebrates the time- the signature sounds of title piece, ‘Time is a River’, Paul Dean compels as a soloist who works with the orchestra honoured link between Argentina’s cafes and as a team rather than one who hogs the spotlight. Together they make a new and beautiful France and America nightclubs to concert halls around the musical experience. through 3 different world, his instantly recognisable Each work has a different story behind its composition and a couple have been composers – Maurice compositions (attractively arranged here rearranged from earlier Koehne works into new forms. The Divertissement was originally Ravel, George Gershwin and Philip Lasser. It for harp, violin and bandoneón) are infused a string quartet and ‘Between Two Worlds’ is a suite comprising music from Koehne’s features the world-premiere recording of with elements of jazz, fusion and even ballet ‘Fly Away Peter’. Each work’s story is interesting and distinct, but where they don’t piano concerto ‘The Circle and the Child’ by classical baroque. Escualo (1979), which differ is in Koehne’s indelible style shaping every note. The soloists and the musicians of Lasser (whose mother is French and father translates literally as ‘shark’, is renowned the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra are terrific, and with Richard Mills at the helm, this is American) who wrote the concerto among Piazzolla’s output for its devilish music sings. especially for Dinnerstein in 2012. The violin part, combining virtuosic double- Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings concerto is an amalgam of both French and stopping techniques with complex American musical sound worlds while being rhythmic patterns and sudden metrical based on a chorale by Bach, ‘Ihr Gestirn’, Ihr shifts that threaten to wrongfoot the hohlen Lüfte’ (You stars in heaven, you listener. All the pieces are beautifully vaulted sky). The title and cover artwork STEFFANI: NIOBE, the spiritual intensity of his music- performed by former Boston Symphony refer to the New York subway station and making. He is also known for what he Orchestra harpist Ann Hobson, violinist REGINA DI TEBE alludes to the French–American connection does not do: he no longer performs with Lucia Lin and Argentine musician- Karina Gauvin & Philippe Jaroussky as the Marquis de Lafayette and his French orchestras, nor on pianos that are more composer-arranger J. P. Jofre who has been Erato. 2564634354. 3CDs. $34.95 troops helped the American colonists oust than five years old. He makes no studio hailed as one of the premier bandoneonista Just another the British during the American revolution. recordings and is reluctant to do of our time. Baroque opera? interviews. At last, after 20 years, he has Agostino Steffani’s Niobe, agreed to allow his recordings to be Regina di Tebe, based on released on CD. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, offers a complex plot JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR involving gods, mortals, jealousy, and revenge. Florian Deuter & Monica Waisman From Australia Niobe, Queen of Thebes, declares herself Accent. ACC24298. $31.95 superior to the goddess Latona because she Leclair, who was to Austria has borne fourteen children. To avenge this appointed ordinaire de la insult, the god Apollo and goddess Diana kill musique du roi in the Niobe’s children, and King Anfione (husband court orchestra of Louis Reinventions of Niobe), seeing their lifeless bodies, kills XV after originally himself in despair. At the death of her Elena Kats-Chernin and beginning his career as a dancer and ballet husband and children Niobe, weeping, turns Calvin Bowman respond to master, was considered the ‘Corelli of France’ to stone, and her grief is so great that her Bach and Mozart – with the by his contemporaries – and not without petrified eyes continue to produce tears. Flinders Quartet and reason. The two volumes of duos for two Italian-born but Germany-based Steffani Genevieve Lacey. violins without basso continuo introduces a offers a sumptuous score, drawing not only new art of violin-playing ‘à deux’, combining on German and Italian styles, but with a the impetuosity of Italian virtuosity with the strong French influence, evident during the elegance of French dance culture. The overture and in the frequent use of gavotte Elegy sonatas, in which the role of melody and and minuet dance metres for the arias. accompaniment constantly alternates As World War I unleashed its Although lengthy (almost four hours), the between the two violins, require supreme horrors, composers responded singing is unfailingly beautiful and the drama technical sovereignty on the part of the gripping, making this recording an enjoyable from the heart. This 2-CD set instrumentalists. Two proven baroque and engaging listen. Soprano Karina Gauvin includes the world-premiere specialists, Florian Deuter and Mónica (Niobe) stands out for her luscious tone and recording of Australian Waisman, have accepted the challenges posed sensitive characterisation, and countertenor FS Kelly’s Elegy. by this highly virtuosic and variegated music. Philipe Jaroussky (Anfione) dazzles with his virtuosic coloratura. Steffani may be obscure compared his contemporaries, but his little- MOZART: HORN known Niobe is so much more than just CONCERTOS & HORN another Baroque opera. QUINTET Haydn Symphonies Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton Pip Eastop & Anthony Halstead Christopher Hogwood Hyperion. CDA68097. $29.95 Hogwood’s most extensive THE SALZBURG RECITAL Mozart’s Horn Concertos recording project among the Grigory Sokolov are perhaps the most many he pioneered, collected in DG. 4794342. $24.95 popular works ever a single Limited Edition box. Grigory Sokolov is written for the Available in April. known for the instrument. This new extraordinary subtlety album is a collection of all and endless variety of the works Mozart wrote for his lifelong his tone, the vast depths friend, the horn player Joseph Leutgeb Pre-order NOW! of his musicianship and (1732–1811), one of the foremost players of