FREE MARCH 2020

Announcing the Readings Children’s Book Prize Shortlist 2020 page 16

New fiction from Anna Goldsworthy, Sebastian Barry, Anne Enright, Hilary Mantel & Graham Swift

from page 6

BOOKS MUSIC FILM EVENTS

TRACY MCNEIL & THE GOODLIFE page 22 PARASITE JENNY DEEPA THOMAS JACKIE page 21 OFFILL ANAPPARA PIKETTY FRENCH page 8 page 8 page 14 page 18

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

NEWS March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 3 March Mark’s Dear News Say Reader

The Readings Children’s Book Prize Shortlist One of the booksellers at Vivian Pham is one of We’re delighted to announce the shortlist for Readings Kids suggested in those incredibly talented The Readings Children’s Book Prize 2020. The 3 for 2 Classics early January that we do and bright young people shortlisted titles are: The Girl, the Cat and the Throughout March, we have a something to support the whose list of achievements Navigator by Matilda Woods (illustrations by special offer on a select range of bushfire victims. We at an early age will make Anuska Allepuz); Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai; award-winning and popular classic decided to put the money we raised from gift you seriously wonder what you have been by Helen Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories titles from Penguin Random House. wrapping in January towards bushfire relief. doing with your life. Case in point: Pham’s Milroy; The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble; Buy two books in the Penguin We also decided that Readings would match debut novel was signed by Penguin Random The Secrets of Magnolia Moon by Edwina Black Classics and Coralie Bickford the amount collected. In a normal January House two years ago when she was still at Wyatt (illustrations by Katherine Quinn); and Smith Clothbound Classics range, we collect about $1000. We were thrilled that high school. Reading the final product, The Sherlock Bones & the Natural History Mystery and choose a third book in the in response to our call the amount raised this Coconut Children, a story set in the late 1990s by Renée Treml. This year’s guest judge, range (of equal or lesser value) January was $8,605. With Readings’ in the Vietnamese diaspora living in Nova Weetman, is a versatile writer of young for free! This offer is exclusively contribution the total to be donated is $17,210, Sydney’s Cabramatta, it’s easy to see why adult, middle grade and junior fiction, and an available in all Readings shops until award-winning screenwriter. Weetman will 31 March on stickered, in-stock so we’ve just made two equal donations – one people are so excited about this bold new help select the winner from this shortlist, to items only, while stocks last. This to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and one to voice. Our reviewer calls Pham ‘a writer of be announced in the May edition of Readings offer is not available online. Zoos Victoria’s Bushfire Emergency Wildlife formidable skill – her words flow like poetry’. Monthly. Find out more on page 16. Fund. Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone So please, take note of this author as she who supported this initiative. begins her luminous career: she has written At the end of each year we tally up our our Fiction Book of the Month. Australian Stella Prize Longlist bestsellers for the previous year. Seeing it writing is so strong this month, with new The Stella Prize longlist for 2020 has been Board book subscription so starkly brings a few surprises. In our top works of fiction from Liam Pieper, Felicity announced. This $50,000 prize is awarded for 100 books, 49 were by Australian authors or Volk, and Margaret Bearman, and debut the best work of literature, fiction or non-fiction, The Readings Board Book published in 2019 by an Australian woman. Subscription is the perfect originated in Australia, 49 were by women, novels from Madeleine Watts, Anna The twelve longlisted books are: Lucky Ticket welcome-to-the-world gift for new 12 were by Indigenous Australians, 2 were Goldsworthy, Sophie Hardcastle, and by Joey Bui, Songspirals by Gay’wu Group babies – an essential board book in by Readings staff, 45 were nonfiction, 13 Catherine Noske, plus Dervla McTiernan’s of Women, The House of Youssef by Yumna the post, every month, and delivered were children’s books, 39 fiction, and 3 were third crime novel, The Good Turn. Kassab, See What You Made Me Do by Jess straight to your lucky recipient. cookbooks. What was most surprising was In international fiction, you’ll find new Choose from two options: a six- Hill, Diving into Glass by Caro Llewellyn, When that our bestselling book was Bruce Pascoe’s work from a bunch of authors you know month subscription ($140) or an One Person Dies the Whole World is Over by Dark Emu, which was originally published well – Anne Enright, Louise Erdrich, Colum eleven-month subscription ($280). Mandy Ord, There Was Still Love by Favel in 2014. It also sold 61% more copies than McCann, Graham Swift, Sebastian Barry, Parrett, Here Until August by Josephine Rowe, Each classic board book has been our number 2 bestseller, Trent Dalton’s novel Aravind Adiga. I am utterly obsessed with This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki selected by our expert children’s Boy Swallows Universe. Jenny Offill’s Weather, already one of my Wakefield, The Yield by Tara June Winch, booksellers, and then lovingly gift books of the year: far out, it’s good. I was The Weekend by Charlotte Wood, and Paper wrapped and posted out to the We’ve all noticed the shrinking review Emperors by Sally Young. The shortlist will nominated address. The subscription pages in our newspapers as advertising thoroughly won over by the uneasy and be announced on Friday 6 March and the is available for purchase exclusively declines. The Copyright Agency, in unhappy female protagonists of Marina winner will be announced on Wednesday 8 from the Readings online store: partnership with the Judith Neilson Institute Popkey’s Topics of Conversation, Cho Nam- April. For more information about the Prize and readings.com.au/the-readings-kids- for Journalism and Ideas, is trying to address Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Amina Cain’s book-subscription this year’s longlisted books (including the full this trend with a grant of $150,000 to support Indelicacy, and Emma Jane Unsworth’s judges’ report) visit thestellaprize.com.au the publication of more arts reviews and Adults, while Deepa Anappara’s Djinn criticism in The Australian, The Sydney Patrol on the Purple Line is so good it broke Morning Herald, The Age, The Brisbane our reviewer’s recent reading stalemate. Times and WA Today. The $150,000 granted On 5 March, the international embargo on to the media companies will be in addition to Hilary Mantel’s long-anticipated novel, The the existing review spending by News Corp Mirror and the Light, will be lifted, to much and Nine on arts and review coverage. It will excitement and fanfare. Wolf Hall and Bring be interesting see the impact. up the Bodies, the first two parts of this Tudor The Wheeler Centre turns 10 this year. The trilogy, each won that year’s Booker Prize, centre was set up by the Bracks government and I can’t wait to see if she will repeat that as part of its commitment to Melbourne achievement for an unprecedented third time. becoming a UNESCO City of Literature. It Our Nonfiction Book of the Month is received enthusiastic bipartisan support and Ellena Savage’s Blueberries, a work that our became an instant success both in the quality reviewer says, ‘defies categorisation but is of its programming and its warm welcome by fervently experiential, candid, and original’: Melburnians. Since opening its doors in 2010, thank goodness there are publishers who the Wheeler Centre has hosted more than aren’t afraid to publish experimental and 2,400 events and 4,200 speakers. More than creative work like this, and a readership 380,000 people have attended their events, hungry for challenging reading. Our predominantly in Melbourne, but also across reviewers also recommend the new work Victoria. Seventy per cent of those events by acclaimed historian Cassandra Pybus, have been free. It’s also given many writers Truganini; Donna Ward’s honest and their big break through their writer support feminist account of living an unattached programs, the Hot Desk Fellowships and the life, She I Dare Not Name; and a new take on READINGS MONTHLY Free, independent MUSIC CURATOR Dave Clarke Next Chapter scheme. feminist history, Difficult Women. Thomas monthly newspaper published by Readings Books, CLASSICAL MUSIC CURATOR Phil Richards Music & Film At its inception, the government asked Piketty’s Capital and Ideology will be in DVDS CURATOR Lou Fulco stores in the second half of March. Also this SUBSCRIBE You can subscribe to the Readings media proprietor Eric Beecher to be the EVENTS & PROGRAMMING Chris Gordon Monthly and our e-news by visiting our website: inaugural chair of the then unnamed centre. month: Michael Mosley turns his attention readings.com.au/sign-up ADVERTISING [email protected] After appointing Chrissy Sharp (now CEO to sleep (or how to cure a lack of it) in Fast DELIVERY CHARGES FOR MAIL-ORDER FRONT COVER The March Readings Monthly of the Sydney Writers’ Festival) as director, Asleep; Stephanie Convery investigates cover features an illustration by Allison Colpoys PURCHASES $7 flat rate for anywhere in the next appointment was Michael Williams death in the boxing ring with After the from Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull, published by Australia Count; Samantha Maiden performs another Hardie Grant. as head of programming. When Chrissy left DELIVERY CHARGES FOR ONLINE in 2011, Michael was the natural successor. autopsy on Labor’s 2019 election loss in PURCHASES $7 flat rate for anywhere in CARTOON Oslo Davis oslodavis.com Michael has helped position the Wheeler Party Animals; Sophie McNeill reports from Australia for orders under $150. Free delivery on PRICES AND AVAILABILITY Please note that all the front line in We Can’t Say We Didn’t orders $150 and over prices and release dates in Readings Monthly are Centre as one of the most respected literary Know. Our House Is On Fire is a memoir of the EDITOR Elke Power [email protected] correct at time of publication, however prices and institutions in the world. Just a few weeks release dates may change without notice. Special ago, he announced that he felt it was time Thunburg famly, Greta being the most well- EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Judi Mitchell and price offers apply only for the month in which they Ellen Cregan to hand over to someone else. Melbourne, known of the clan. And finally, dear reader, are featured in Readings Monthly. and Australia, should be pretty grateful to don’t forget to take advantage of this month’s PROOFREADERS Judi Mitchell, Kara Nicholson Readings donates 10% of its profits each year to the role Michael has played in shaping the 3-for-2 sale on Penguin Black Classics and KIDS/YA CURATORS Angela Crocombe and the Readings Foundation: readings.com.au/the- Dani Solomon readings-foundation Wheeler Centre. the gorgeous Clothbound Classics. 4 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 EVENTS

and those supporting a loved one. Come Monday 9 March, 6.30pm–7.30pm along to hear Lincolne discuss her new Thursday 19 March, 6.30pm March book with author Eliza Henry-Jones. LINDY WEST IN KARINA KILMORE IN CONVERSATION WITH Readings Hawthorn CONVERSATION WITH Events CLEMENTINE FORD: WITCH 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn ANDREW RULE Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events HUNT Karina Kilmore’s debut thriller, Where the To acknowledge International Women’s Day Truth Lies, was shortlisted for the Victorian Event times and locations are subject to change. we are over the moon to bring you Lindy Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Saturday 14 March, 10.30am–11.15am West and Clementine Ford in conversation Manuscript. Join us for the launch of this For the most up-to-date information on events, about misogyny, propaganda and the gripping read introducing investigative please check readings.com.au/events KIDS power of women. In West’s latest book, The journalist Chrissie O’Brian as the death of Please note, for our free, in-store events, your Witches Are Coming, the firebrand author a dockworker escalates into a showdown booking may not always guarantee a seat. of the New York Times bestselling memoir GRATITUDE WORKSHOP between big business and the unions. and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series WITH PENNY HARRISON Readings St Kilda Shrill, turns injustice on its head. You think Penny Harrison’s beautiful book 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Monday 2 March, 6.30pm this is a witch hunt? Fine. You’ve got one. Extraordinary! is a gentle tale about reaching Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events This event is supported by the Victorian for the stars and being extraordinary, SAMANTHA MAIDEN IN Women’s Trust. but also remembering the ordinary too. CONVERSATION WITH Extraordinary! celebrates the best moments Thursday 19 March, 6.30pm LOUISE MILLIGAN The Athenaeum Theatre in life: the ones we share with friends and 188 Collins Street, Melbourne In her new book, Party Animals, political family. Penny Harrison will take your child MONDAY MORNING COOKING journalist Samantha Maiden asks: How Tickets are $50 per person ($45 concession) (and you) on a journey to discover what is and include a signed copy of The Witches Are CLUB WITH CHRIS GORDON did the Labor Party lose the unloseable important and what to leave behind Coming. Please book at readings.com.au/events election? From the dark arts of the dirt units The Monday Morning Cooking Club is a Readings Kids to the role of billionaire Clive Palmer, this is sisterhood from Sydney that has completely 315 Lygon Street, Carlton the untold story of an election debacle. won over Readings’ Chris Gordon. Their Tuesday 10 March, 6.30pm Free, but please book your place at mission is to collect, test, curate, publish Readings Carlton readings.com.au/events. and share the best recipes from the best 309 Lygon Street, Carlton IAN MACFARLANE IN This workshop is suitable for children aged 3–10 cooks in the global food-obsessed Jewish Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events CONVERSATION WITH years old and their carers. community. In their stunning fourth book, Now GEORGE MEGALOGENIS for Something Sweet, the MMCC women have handpicked their favourite and ‘can’t-live- Ian Macfarlane, an economist and former without’ recipes. Join Chris and the MMCC as Monday 2 March, 6.30pm Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Sunday 15 March, 10am–10.45am and they delve into what makes these friendships will discuss his new book with George 2pm–2.45pm stand the test of family, business and cooking. DERVLA MCTIERNAN IN Megalogenis. In Ten Remarkable Australians, KIDS CONVERSATION WITH Macfarlane explores how ten notable but Readings Hawthorn KARINA KILMORE now little remembered people have made 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn their mark on the nation – and the world. SPECIAL STORYTIME: We are delighted to have bestselling and ST. PATRICK’S DAY Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events much-acclaimed crime writer Dervla Readings Hawthorn FAIRYTALES McTiernan joining us from Perth to talk about 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn her compulsively readable third Cormac Riley Dress in green, join us to celebrate St. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events novel, The Good Turn. With police corruption, Patrick’s Day and become part of our madcap an investigation that ends in tragedy and the adventure! Storyteller Bernard Caleo will mystery of a little girl’s silence, The Good Turn present Irish tales, we’ll hunt for four-leaf is as impossible to resist as The Rúin and Wednesday 11 March, 6.30pm clovers among the shelves of the bookshop, and we’ll create some leprechaun art! Suitable The Scholar before it. McTiernan will be in SOPHIE HARDCASTLE ON conversation with author Karina Kilmore. for all the family but in particular those aged BELOW DECK 3 years and older. There will be a prize for the Readings Hawthorn Join us to hear Australian-born Sophie person dressed in the best green costume. 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Monday 23 March, 6.30pm Hardcastle discuss her novel, Below Deck, Readings St Kilda Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events a heartbreakingly poetic and haunting story 112 Acland Street, St Kilda SPEAKING OF THE DEAD about consent, about who has the space to SERIES, EVENT 2: TOVE speak, and who is believed. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events JANNSON Wednesday 4 March, 6.30pm Readings Carlton Grab a leaf from your favourite tree and join 309 Lygon Street, Carlton FRANCES WHITING IN Tuesday 17 March, 6.30pm us to chat about Finnish author Tove Jansson CONVERSATION WITH Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events who began her career as a cartoonist and CHRIS GORDON LIAM PIEPER IN went on to write and illustrate many books for adults and children, ultimately becoming Come along to hear Frances Whiting, one CONVERSATION Thursday 12 March, 6.30pm world famous for her Moomin books. Join of Australia’s favourite columnists, talk Join author and journalist Liam Pieper as author Andrew McDonald, entertainer about her latest novel, The Best Kind of he discusses his new novel, Sweetness and SOPHIE MCNEILL IN Bernard Caleo and cartoonist Jo Waite to Beautiful, with Readings’ Chris Gordon. The Light, an intoxicating, unsettling story of the CONVERSATION discuss the wonders of living well, celebrating Best Kind of Beautiful is a warm-hearted battle between light and dark, love and lust, nature and why a family of Moomins have story about music, grief, relationships, Join us to hear Walkley Award-winning morality and corruption. resonated with readers across the world. gardens, love, laughter and family. ABC investigative reporter Sophie McNeill Cinema Nova in conversation about her first book, We Readings Carlton Readings Hawthorn 380 Lygon Street, Carlton Can’t Say We Didn’t Know, in which she 309 Lygon Street, Carlton 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn tells the human stories of devastation and Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events hope behind the headlines and examines how and why disinformation, impunity and hypocrisy now reign supreme. Wednesday 18 March, 6.30pm Tuesday 24 March, 6.30pm–7.30pm Thursday 5 March, 6.30pm Readings Carlton ANNA GOLDSWORTHY 309 Lygon Street, Carlton MARGARET SIMONS IN ROBERT TICKNER IN IN CONVERSATION WITH CONVERSATION CONVERSATION WITH KATE Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events ALICE PUNG COLE-ADAMS In the latest Quarterly Essay, on water, Australian writer, teacher and classical drought, food and politics, acclaimed Join us to hear Robert Tickner talk with Kate pianist Anna Goldsworthy will discuss Thursday 12 March, 6.30pm journalist Margaret Simons takes a trip Cole-Adams about his deeply personal her captivating fiction debut with another through the Murray–Darling Basin, all the memoir, Ten Doors Down. Tickner was PIP LINCOLNE IN award-winning literary legend, Alice Pung. way from Queensland to South Australia. Australia’s longest-serving Federal Minister CONVERSATION WITH ELIZA In the charming and sharply observed She shows that its plight is environmental for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs HENRY-JONES Melting Moments, Goldsworthy recreates but also economic and enmeshed in and then became CEO of the Australian Red Adelaide and Melbourne of half a century ideology and identity. Cross. His startling memoir is a testament to Pip Lincolne is a Melbourne-based writer ago, bringing to life a family as they move how we are shaped by all forms of family. and crafter, and the author of six books through the decades. Church of All Nations about creativity. Her latest offering,When 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Readings State Library Victoria Readings Hawthorn Life Is Not Peachy, is a gentle guide for Tickets are $25 per person and include a copy 285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn navigating loss, grief or other sad times – a of Quarterly Essay 77. Bookings are essential at Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events resource for those who are downhearted Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events readings.com.au/events EVENTS March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 5

She I Dare Not Name by Donna Ward Izzy and Frank by Katrina Lehman and Wednesday 25 March, 6.30pm Australian musician and writer Dave Sophie Beer (illus.) Thursday 2 April, 6.30pm-7.30pm Graney will launch Donna Ward’s beautiful Join Katrina Lehman for the launch of BERNARD COLLAERY IN collection of personal essays, She I Dare her new picture book, Izzy and Frank, an RITA THERESE UNDER CONVERSATION WITH Not Name. This moving memoir explores exquisite ode to old friends, new beginnings COVER OF DARK and the carefree adventures of childhood. STEVE BRACKS meaning and purpose in a life lived entirely With a glass of wine in one hand and a without a partner and children. Sunday 15 March, 2pm Bernard Collaery’s Oil Under Troubled Water: copy of Come: A Memoir in your other Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue relates the sordid Tuesday 3 March, 6.30pm hand, join us by candlelight to listen to a history of Australian government dealings Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Symphony for the Man by Sarah Brill conversation with author and escort Rita with East Timor, and how the actions of both Growing Pineapples in the Outback by Cheryl Adam will launch Sarah Brill’s new Therese. Bold, brave and darkly funny, major political parties have enriched Australia Rebecca Lister & Tony Kelly novel, Symphony for the Man, an uplifting and Therese’s memoir is the extraordinary and its corporate allies at the expense of Join us for the launch of a moving new heartbreaking story of two outcasts which story of her life as a Melbourne sex worker its tiny neighbour and wartime ally. We are memoir from Rebecca Lister and Tony Kelly, reminds us that small acts of kindness matter. and the love, sex and tragedy she has delighted to have the author in conversation Growing Pineapples in the Outback, the Tuesday 17 March, 6.30pm experienced so far. with former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks. story of the couple’s move from Melbourne Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Cellar at King & Godfree to Mount Isa to care for Lister’s elderly Gibbous Moon Over Lagos by Pamela 293–297 Lygon Street, Carlton Cinema Nova mother. Watson 380 Lygon Street, Carlton Tickets are $50 per person and places are limited. Tuesday 3 March, 6.30pm Join us for the launch of Pamela Watson’s Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Bookings essential at readings.com.au/events Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. Gibbous Moon Over Lagos: Pursuing a The Salt Madonna by Catherine Noske Dream on Africa’s Wild Side, which details Join us for the launch of Catherine the second phase of her African adventure: Wednesday 25 March, 6.30pm Monday 20 April, 8.15pm–9.15pm Noske’s debut novel, The Salt Madonna. a thrilling entrepreneurial journey. CATHY PERKINS IN Australian Gothic at its most sublime and Wednesday 18 March, 6.30pm MALCOLM TURNBULL Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. CONVERSATION WITH uncanny, The Salt Madonna is a blistering IN CONVERSATION WITH examination of truth and power. CLARE WRIGHT Oasis by Katya de Becerra RAFAEL EPSTEIN Tuesday 3 March, 6.30pm Katya de Becerra’s Oasis is a young adult Cathy Perkins and Clare Wright will join | Malcom Turnbull’s A Bigger Picture is the Readings Hawthorn Free, no booking required. thriller in which a group of teens are saved us to talk about Perkins’ book, The Shelf story of his life to date. From his early when they come across a mysterious oasis. Life of Zora Cross, which reveals the life of Solved! by Andrew Wear years growing up with a single father, Fellow YA author Sarah Epstein will launch Australian poet and journalist Zora Cross, Writer Van Badham will launch of Andrew to defending ‘Spycatcher’ Peter Wright Oasis at this celebration. who caused a sensation in 1917 with her Wear’s Solved! – a much-needed dose of against the UK Government; the years Thursday 19 March, 6.30pm book Songs of Love and Life. While Cross’s optimism and a toolkit for those seeking representing Kerry Packer, leading the Readings Kids | Free, no booking required. fame didn’t last, she kept writing. social change. Republican Movement and making millions Wednesday 4 March, 6.30pm Turbulence by Thuy On in business; and finally becoming Prime Readings Carlton Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Join us for the launch of Thuy On’s stunning Minister of Australia. Come along to hear 309 Lygon Street, Carlton Turnbull discuss his book and its revelatory Queer Theory Now by Hannah McCann & debut poetry collection, Turbulence. In this Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Whitney Monaghan intensely personal work, On explores loss, insights on the workings of Canberra with Join us for the release of Queer Theory Now separation and renewal, online dating, sex, the ABC’s Rafael Epstein. by Hannah McCann and Whitney Monaghan, longing, rejection and desire. The Athenaeum Theatre Wednesday 25 March, 6.30pm an important textbook that introduces queer Thursday 19 March, 6.30pm 188 Collins Street, Melbourne theory, its key genealogies and terms, and its Readings SLV | Free, no booking required. Tickets are $70 per person or $100 per couple VICTOR STEFFENSEN ON applications in academia and life. The Crystal Sphere by Andrei Livadny and include a signed copy of A Bigger Picture. FIRE COUNTRY Thursday 5 March, 6.30pm Join us for the launch of Andrei Livadny’s Bookings essential at readings.com.au/events Join us to hear Victor Steffensen discuss his Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. The Crystal Sphere, a rollicking adventure powerful new book, Fire Country. Steffensen The Watermill by Arnold Zable set far in the future in which office worker/ is an Indigenous writer, filmmaker, musician One of Australia’s most beloved authors will MMO player Alex encounters a new and Saturday 9 May, 2pm–3.30pm and consultant applying traditional knowledge launch his new book, The Watermill. Arnold aggressive virtual universe. values in a contemporary context. Fire Zable’s quartet of true stories range far Saturday 21 March, 5pm BILLY BRAGG Country is a powerful call to revive Indigenous and wide depicting the ebbs and flows of Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. fire practices to restore our country. It offers ON FREEDOM trauma and healing, memory and forgetting, practical solutions for better ‘reading Country’. The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte At a time when opinion trumps fact and the ancient and the contemporary. Astrid Scholte, author of the brilliant truth is treated as nothing more than Readings Hawthorn Thursday 5 March, 6pm Four Dead Queens, will launch her new another perspective, free speech has 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Melbourne book, The Vanishing Deep, a thrilling new become a battleground. Join us to hear Billy University, Swanston St | Free, no booking Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Bragg discuss his new book, The Three required. standalone YA novel in which the dead can be revived – for a price. Dimensions of Freedom, in which he argues I Wonder edited by Peter Browne and Thursday 26 March, 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start that to protect ourselves from encroaching Seumas Spark Thursday 26 March, 6.30pm Readings SLV | Free, no booking required. tyranny, we must reconnect liberty to Celebrate the launch of a rich, equality and accountability and restore the GABBIE STROUD IN kaleidoscopic portrait of a beloved and The Changing Room by Christine Sykes individual agency engendered by the three CONVERSATION WITH MIKE brilliant Australian historian in I Wonder: The Join Christine Sykes for the launch of her dimensions of freedom. SHUTTLEWORTH Life and Work of Ken Inglis edited by Peter novel, The Changing Room. It’s feel-good Browne and Seumas Sparke. contemporary fiction inspired by the women Church of All Nations Dear Parents: Letters from the Teacher – Tuesday 10 March, 6.30pm behind the charity Dress for Success. 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Your Children, Their Education, and How You Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Monday 30 March, 6.30pm Tickets are $25 per person and include a signed by Gabbie Stroud is a funny and Can Help Readings St Kilda | Free, but please book at copy of The Three Dimensions of Freedom. passionate call to arms from the author of We Were Never Friends by Margaret readings.com.au/events Bearman Teacher. In Dear Parents, Stroud makes a plea to all parents to understand their roles Join Margaret Bearman for the launch of her Thursday 18 June, 6.30pm–7.45pm as their children’s lifelong teachers and novel, We Were Never Friends. It’s a story of friendship and the pursuit of a creative life shows how they can help teachers. Come Coming Up TRENT DALTON IN along to hear Stroud in conversation with and the legacies we leave behind. Mike Shuttleworth. Wednesday 11 March, 6.30pm CONVERSATION WITH Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. CLARE BOWDITCH Readings Hawthorn Thursday 2 April, 6.30pm We are thrilled to bring you an evening of 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales scintillating conversation as we celebrate Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events SARAH JANE ADAMS ON Join us for the launch of Sophie Gonzales’ LIFE IN BOX the release of All Our Shimmering Skies, the Only Mostly Devastated, a charming and highly anticipated second novel from author fun, modern-day, heartfelt LGBTQIA+ Sarah Jane Adams is an antique jewellery and journalist Trent Dalton. The follow-up to Launches re-imagining of Grease. dealer, designer and model who started his bestselling Boy Swallows Universe, All Thursday 12 March, 6.30pm the hashtag #mywrinklesaremystripes Our Shimmering Skies is a beautiful novel Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. on Instagram and ‘went viral’ on Ari Seth brimming with warmth and wonder. Dalton Cohen’s Advanced Style blog. Her book, will chat with musician and author Clare Manticores are not Real by Nick Daisy Runs Wild by Caz Goodwin Life In A Box, illustrates how style is always Bowditch about the stories that made them, Dyrenfurth & Andrew Mcintosh (illus.) Caz Goodwin returns with her new picture laden with rich meaning and adventure. We and the ones that tore them apart. Join us for the launch of Manticores are Not book, Daisy Runs Wild. With irresistible are beside ourselves to be hosting Adams Real by Nick Dyrenfurth and illustrated by rhymes and loveable characters, Daisy and in conversation. The Athenaeum Theatre Andrew Mcintosh. It’s a delightful story for Jasper’s second adventure is even more 188 Collins Street, Melbourne readers aged 3+ who enjoy a wild adventure. hilarious than their first! Readings State Library Victoria Tickets are $50 per person ($45 concession) 285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne Sunday 1 March, 2pm Saturday 14 March, 2pm and include a copy of All Our Shimmering Skies. Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Bookings essential at readings.com.au/events 6 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 FICTION

emergency calls from all around Australia. ashram (relaxingly policed by men with Spell a town name wrong, and someone guns and dogs) without a single Indian New could end up dead. She thinks of her yogi is clear, and only becomes more great-great-great grandfather, John Oxley, apparent. When Sasha briefly leaves the Fiction an explorer who was convinced of the ashram to attend to unwanted business, existence of an inland sea at the centre of she meets Connor, on unwanted business Australia. Just as Oxley suffered in his of his own, on a train ride back across the fruitless search for a sea that didn’t exist, country. ‘The coconut children on the trees need to drop into the our unnamed narrator journeys further Pieper deliberately positions this novel into chaos as she searches for herself. She BOOK OF THE water. That way the ocean can carry them to another as a tale of tourists; there are a few local island, where they can grow.’ buys a one-way ticket to the United States characters, but they are observed by the MONTH Cabramatta, 1998. Vincent Tran has returned after two and prepares to wipe the slate of her life tourists and no local perspectives are Australian years in juvie, and his childhood friend Sonny Vuong looks completely clean: ‘I wanted a warm, sunny assumed. There are brutal episodes in Fiction on from a distance at this boy she once knew so intimately, climate far away from this one, a place that many of the characters’ pasts, and the now an intriguing stranger. Her world is books and had nothing to do with me, and where implications of twists in the present are daydreams; his is drugs and violence. They are unexpectedly there would be no history or memory profoundly disturbing. Sweetness and Light drawn back together by a series of strange events – a drunk tethering me to the land.’ Yet all the while, is a high-stakes, self-aware literary thriller grandma, a secret porn stash – and find that, at age sixteen, she is drinking too much, practicing mostly peopled by lost souls and corrupt the future is full of possibilities that stretch beyond the emotionally and physically unsafe sex operators – and the two are not necessarily confines of their poverty-stricken pocket of western Sydney. with numerous partners, one of whom is mutually exclusive. Lachlan: a young man who treats her with Elke Power is the editor of the Readings equal parts lustful obsession and sporadic She’s a writer of formidable skill – her words Monthly emotional detachment. flow like poetry, building a vivid world that The Inland Sea is firmly anchored Desire Lines pulses with difficult, honest beauty. in a literary context. Its characters Felicity Volk write poetry, plays, and honours theses. Hachette. PB. $32.99 Lachlan has a framed portrait of Patrick This gentle yet raw debut novel made my heart ache. The tiny Available now details about these Vietnamese-Australian lives – fruit eaten White above his bed. In one of the more Paddy is seven years The Coconut with chili salt, green tiger balm as a cure-all for any injury harrowing parts of the book, our narrator old when his Children – are sketched with such tenderness. Vince and Sonny’s has an IUD inserted and bleeds profusely parents hand him over to relationship unfurls so delicately, capturing the longing and through to the next day. This scene of Vivian Pham the care of the nuns. It is Vintage. PB. $32.99 hesitation, urgent yet slow, of first love – Vivian Pham imbues feminine bodily horror is reminiscent of 1952, and some might say Available 3 March her characters with the intoxicating uncertainty typical of Sylvia Plath’s Esther losing her virginity he is lucky to get away the adolescence she herself is only just leaving. in The Bell Jar. Madeleine Watts is an from his abusive father Australian author based in the United Tougher topics are tackled in this novel, too, from and the family’s poverty- States; her descriptions of Sydney are so intergenerational trauma to domestic violence. Pham expertly captures how class tension line existence, but not Paddy. Not only vivid and real, but her prose has a self- plays out in the streets and behind closed doors. She’s a writer of formidable skill – her does the abuse seem to continue wherever assured, more quietly ambitious style of words flow like poetry, building a vivid world that pulses with difficult, honest beauty. he goes, but he misses his mother, as only contemporary American fiction. With Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Joey Bui’s Lucky Ticket, a child of seven can. When he is shipped to This is a remarkable, slow-burning book we’ve been fortunate lately to hear from incredibly talented Vietnamese diaspora Australia from England as one of 7,000 from a writer of great talent. The Inland Sea writers. The Coconut Children joins this list as a wise and moving depiction of the British children forcibly removed from is a superbly articulated window into the infinite possibility that exists most desperately in the hearts of teenagers searching for their homeland, he ends up at a farm anxiety of living through young adulthood themselves in a world that demands to define them. school where neglect is a way of life. In in an age of climate crisis. Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen is from Readings Doncaster some ways, however, Paddy’s new life is Ellen Cregan is the marketing and events just beginning and he not only finishes coordinator for Readings higher education but becomes someone who helps his adopted country progress. Sweetness and Light ‘mania for fresh air’. She makes friends And, he meets Evie. Evie has grown Australian Liam Pieper through the typing pool and before long up in Canberra, in a very normal family, Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.99 Fiction is engaged and married to a young man where the worst thing she can do to upset Available 3 March she hardly knows, indeed may never truly her father is to not become a lawyer. She Liam Pieper’s know, before he ships out. becomes a landscape architect instead, Melting Moments unsettling, What follows is a subtly brilliant and spends much of her time helping her Anna Goldsworthy atmospheric second portrait of a life and its interconnected country’s capital to flourish. When the Black Inc. PB. $29.99 novel, Sweetness and lives, over a period now receding from pair first meet, Evie is sixteen, Paddy Available 3 March Light, is set first on the living memory. Ruby becomes a mother, seventeen. They spend one perfect night Fans of Anna west coast of India and a grandmother, a lover, and seeks her together and then she is gone. Years later, Goldsworthy’s later on the east. We own edges and wishes besides. At times they find each other again, both have award-winning writing to initially encounter she understands the people in her life careers, both have families of their own. date will be delighted – Australian expat Connor, who is too well, at others she cannot fathom And yet, that first love ties them together and far from surprised – ostensibly a dive instructor in the them. Even as Goldsworthy beautifully so that neither can ever let go. to find that many of the semi-isolated tourist hamlet of Shanti. renders, with restraint and insight, This book is over four hundred pages notable qualities of her Once, Connor was going to be an Olympic Ruby’s specific story and era, there long, but it won’t let you go either. Paddy’s nonfiction and memoir swimmer. Now, his primary industry is is a timelessness to this novel and its story will break your heart, Evie’s will be writing are adroitly deployed in her debut women: rich white women seeking their concern with women’s lives and desires. recognisable in so many ways. Over the novel, Melting Moments. Goldsworthy is a Eat, Pray, Love epiphany. Just like It’s not often that comparisons to Jane fifty years or more during which their superb writer and an exceptional observer everyone else in Shanti, Connor works for Austen or Alice Munro are merited, but love comes and goes, Australia itself of human nature: who that has read her Baba. Connor takes a cut, but it is to Baba here the publisher is justified, although grows, providing the perfect backdrop to memoirs Piano Lessons and Welcome to that he gives each crop of photos of what Austen would make of the tenor of their tale. Wise, beautifully written and Your New Life could possibly forget her passports and bank cards reaped from his Ruby’s mother-in-law’s conversation is engrossing, this is a thoughtful novel precise depiction of the naked scope of a cynical romantic endeavours. It is Baba’s amusing to contemplate. written by a true storyteller. child’s ambition (in Goldsworthy’s case, people who, months later, clean out the ambition amply delivered upon) or her Elke Power is the editor of the Readings Monthly women’s accounts. However, it’s been a Kate McIntosh is from Readings Doncaster ability to evoke, to hilarious effect, the while since the last viable ‘talent’ and insatiable tenacity of a research-inclined The Inland Sea Connor is feeling a bit desperate, on The Origin of Me pregnant woman’s mind? Madeleine Watts several levels. Then a dive goes badly, his Bernard Gallate As in her memoirs, Goldsworthy’s Pushkin. PB. $29.99 target is presumed dead, and Connor is Vintage. PB. $32.99 narrative is redolent of place and time, and Available 17 March hauled in by the local police. Available 17 March her characters reveal aspects of themselves Against a backdrop Sasha is a Brooklynite, the only child Previously known with striking clarity. In Melting Moments of familiar ecological of her Russian father, who died by suicide for his work in we meet Ruby as a very young woman catastrophe – fires, floods, when she was young, and her Polish children’s literature, newly arrived in 1941 Adelaide from her and the terrifying spectre mother, who now denies Sasha’s father’s Bernard Gallate brings a family farm, just beginning her career. of the future of a warmed original existence. An almost-doctor lightness and sense of She is open to the possibilities of the city world – a young woman’s escaping a falling apart marriage back play to his debut adult and her life. At her respectable lodgings, life is unravelling in at home, Sasha is on a yoga retreat in novel, The Origin of Me. she develops a sudden appreciation for Sydney’s inner west. She an exclusive ashram a few hours out of Things aren’t going her mother’s previously incomprehensible works in a call centre connecting Chennai. The dubiousness of this cultish too well for fifteen-year-old Lincoln Locke. FICTION March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 7

Following the breakdown of his parents’ We Were Never Friends marriage, Lincoln is pulled from his Margaret Bearman laidback, idyllic northern beaches lifestyle Brio. PB. $29.99 and thrust into the sound and fury of his Available 1 March dad’s new inner-city Sydney bachelor I approached this READ pad. Awkward father-son moments aside, book curiously, The Lincoln has to try to find a way to fit in at thinking, ‘Why George stunning his new, exclusive, and elitist school, to Coates?’ The George conclusion resist the orders of Homunculus (the voice Coates I know of was a to the inside his head) and hide ‘the nub’ – a distinguished war artist, Wolf Hall peculiar growth at the base of his spine. who worked in London trilogy The Origin of Me walks the winding and Paris, where he met, IN 20/20 but well-trodden path of coming of age and married, fellow art student Dora novels by authors past, but it manages to Meeson. He died in 1930 and spent be charming enough to feel like something bugger-all time in Canberra. Some pages new. Lincoln’s struggles with change, later, after realising that the author had identity and self-image make this novel a merely borrowed the name not the life, the great fit for teenage readers. However, it story and themes coalesced. Margaret Dispatches is through its satire of Australia’s ‘non- Bearman’s book is a deft exploration of from an age existent’ class system that The Origin family dysfunction, family violence, of impunity of Me really shines. While one could by the ABCTV notions of friendship, and perceptions of Sometimes certainly not call them subtle, Gallate’s award-winning artistic genius (think Hannah Gadsby to fix characterisation of old-boy-cum-teacher investigative demolishing Picasso for his abuse of the law ... Nigel Lethrige is hilariously accurate. minors in Nanette). Set across two time reporter and you have former foreign The Origin of Me is a bouncing debut periods, the story is framed through the to break it correspondent novel whose youthful energy is powered by eyes Coates’s daughter Charlotte (Lotti), as a satirical undercurrent that will reward an adult surgeon, and as her younger those willing to float with the tide. adolescent self. Kyla, a mysterious waif- Barney Pollock is from Readings Carlton like classmate of Charlotte’s, is a physical and metaphorical thorn to the Coates The Salt Madonna family and all those around her. As an outcast among her peers, and damaged in Catherine Noske myriad ways, Kyla’s association with the Picador. PB. $32.99 Coates family catalyses her tragic fate and Available now the disintegration of Charlotte’s family. On the tiny Coinciding with a major posthumous A brand-new fictional island of retrospective of her father’s work, the adventure Chesil, something is not adult Charlotte’s memories of the period series from right. The presence of resurface, leading her question her parents, the bestselling Mulvey, the overbearing her own lack of empathy and disregard for Jackie French magnate at the top of the Kyla. The petty conniving and ambivalence hill, looms over the of the adolescent Charlotte and her posse dwindling community, become tiresome, but this only serves to increasingly troubled by the fall in their drive home notions of friendship, and of local economy. the sense of self-involvement and flippant Hannah’s return to her childhood disregard for others that adolescents home is bittersweet. The sense of home (and, indeed, adults!) can possess. Despite and belonging is tempered by her mother’s the unsettling, eerie feel to this book, steep decline. At the local school young Bearman’s pacing is fairly even throughout. love blossoms among Hannah’s students, If dark unsettling books are your jam, and if and the typical rites of passage – sneaking you enjoyed Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never ‘Critical, out and drinking – are enacted. Among Told You, and Charlotte Wood’s The Natural the ladies of the town, and at the town Way of Things, give this one a go! meetings, there is there is much arguing Julia Jackson is from Readings Carlton dark and about the town’s decay. Looking for guidance, the ladies of the town turn to Father John, the charismatic priest. Below Deck On Chesil, where everyone knows Sophie Hardcastle profound.’ everything about everyone, the rumour A&U. PB. $29.99 mill begins to buzz at the suggestion of Available 3 March Le Monde a scandal involving a schoolgirl, and the Twenty-one-year-old sudden, miraculous appearance of grapes Olivia hears the world in on the vines. The increasing reliance colour, but her life is upon Father John for direction evolves mottled grey. Estranged into talk of miracles and redemption. from her parents, and Religious fervour soon takes hold over living with her the community and reaches fever grandfather who is pitch following a violent storm that drowning in sadness, she dramatically alters a local historical faces the reality of life beyond university A powerful call landmark, a statue of the Virgin Mary alone. When she wakes on a boat with no carved by one of the town’s forebears. recollection of how she got there, she for action, justice, With the community held in thrall, accepts the help of two strangers who divisions start to appear between adults change the course of her future forever. and a better, and young people alike, and between more equitable ‘believers’ and ‘non-believers’. Elephants with Headlights The Salt Madonna is tense and Bem Le Hunte world for all full of foreboding. Catherine Noske’s Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99 writing is (as Gail Jones suggests) lyrical. Available 1 March Indigenous Passages describing landscape, mood and Savitri, named after a characters’ thoughts are highly evocative. goddess, refuses outright Peoples. This book echoes themes tackled by a to marry anyone. Her wide range of authors, including Margaret brother, Neel is intent on Atwood, Arthur Miller, Mark Brandi, marrying an Australian Charlotte Wood, and R.O. Kwon. This is girl called Mae, much to an impressive debut that will have broad the displeasure of their appeal to readers. mother, Tota, and father, Julia Jackson is from Readings Carlton Siddarth. But do they have the power to 8 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 FICTION command love or destiny? Only the family heralds the end of her relationship with Our hero is Lizzie Benson – unqualified Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line astrologer, Arunji, knows, yet his truth is the narcissistic, self-obsessed Art. librarian and former student of significant Deepa Anappara tempered by obligations to the family that Amongst it all, she can’t look away from but squandered promise – who casually C&W. PB. $32.99 transformed his life. her phone, even as her life crumbles wonders what is going to happen when the Available now around her ears. end days are upon her, and semi-seriously Have you ever been The boards of the social media- thinks about prepping for that eventuality. through periods International addicted millennials/modern-female- At the same time, Lizzie is a mother and when most books you Fiction relationship-dynamics theatre have been partner, a PA to her former academic pick up fail to ignite that well trodden in current literature. Emma mentor now running a podcast about the magical spark? I’ve just Jane Unsworth (previously of Animals future, a sister to an addict in recovery, a emerged from one and Actress fame) hasn’t necessarily presented us with daughter to a hyper religious mother, and Djinn Patrol on the Purple Anne Enright anything new here. But subject matter a person not prepared to suffer too many Line has been my Jonathan Cape. HB. Was $32.99 doesn’t have to be groundbreaking or fools. As ever, Offill’s writing, delivered saviour. Set in an imaginary Indian city, $29.99 brand-new to be revealing, devastating in her trademark fragmented style, is children start disappearing from an Available now or insightful. And every now and then a so clever and funny, full of wry insight, illegal slum. The police are corrupt, take but also a warmth and humanity that Years after her death, writer comes along who is so acerbic and bribes, yet do nothing. The local Hindu transcends its satire. myths still circulate witty that it doesn’t matter if the story party tries to pin it on local Muslims about Katherine O’Dell, they’re telling feels familiar (for more Weather is a book that appears bang generally and sectarian violence Irish legend of stage and mummy-blogger satire I’d recommend on time: it’s about the irony of lives that threatens to erupt. Nine-year-old slum screen. Questions persist Sarah Selecky’s Radiant Shimmering go on as ‘normal’ because they are yet to dweller Jai, together with his friends, regarding her origins and Light). Unsworth is one of these writers; be directly impacted by the climate crisis takes on the task of solving the case. Told her rise to fame. Of even similar to Animals, her prose is razor that is plainly unfolding in front of us. For through the voice of Jai, this novel is pitch more interest, of course, is sharp, vivid and hilarious. Adults is me, this book exemplifies how reading and perfect as we travel through life in this her midlife decline, with a precipitous filled with snappy one liners and wry writing are crucial to how we’ll make our Indian community with its entire descent into madness and the perpetration observations. And amongst its style and future: Offill exposes us and we should vicissitudes. If you loved A Fine Balance, of a shocking crime. In an effort to set the black humour, it has real heart. feel uncomfortable enough to act. This or Behind the Beautiful Forevers or just record straight, O’Dell’s daughter Norah Georgia Brough is from Readings Carlton book is about weathering in the other beautiful, engaging writing, then this takes on the task of fighting through the senses of that word too: the endurance of book is for you. It’s truly brilliant. the everyday and the sometimes-bizarre misrepresentations, revealing long-held Here We Are Mark Rubbo is the managing director of and mundane interactions that form our secrets about both her mother and herself. Graham Swift Readings days, and the way we, ever-so-slowly, find What an absolute pleasure, in the middle Scribner. HB. $29.99 ways toughen ourselves with a veneer that of the 2020 Australian summer, to read a Available 1 March others encounter. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 book that so stunningly and effortlessly Graham Swift knows Cho Nam-joo & Jamie Chang transports you to another time and place. Weather feels like it was written just that life is a (trans.) You’ll feel as if you’re reading this under for me, and I, suspect, will feel like this for haphazard business, that Scribner. PB. $27.99 the soft grey skies of mid-century Ireland. many other readers too. I can tell already: experience and Available 1 March Enright crafts images so stark you can see it is one of my favourite books of the year. understanding, memory When Kim Jiyoung them clearly in front of you: the aging movie Alison Huber is the head book buyer for too, do not emerge in starts exhibiting star in her Dior dress, the dirt and energy Readings orderly fashion. He also bizarre behaviours, her of a 1920s birth on a tenement landing, the knows that the dramas of husband takes her to a excitement of the first dishwasher in Ireland life are tiny pools in the great flood of Apeirogon psychiatrist. What follows magically dispelling dirt and ushering in a years. His novels progress quietly with Colum McCann is a succinct account of more modern future. casual ease; even the surprises hit the page Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 Jiyoung’s life, from birth However, if you’re looking for a plot- with the gentlest of thuds. I have read all Available now to elementary school, heavy, fast-paced page-turner, look but two of Swift’s thirteen novels. I am an This is quite a from the office to her days at home caring elsewhere. Enright’s skill lies in the creation admirer, and even more so after reading surprising novel in for a small baby. Throughout, she comes of seemingly quiet stories with unparalleled his latest, Here We Are. its structure made up of a up against persistent sexism. emotional and psychological depth. The novel is set largely in the English series of numbered There is nothing extraordinary about Enright has a magical gift of imbuing more summer of 1959, with perfectly pitched passages. Every passage what happens to Jiyoung in this novel: a meaning in one or two sentences than forays into the present. Swift brings is connected in some way laughing remark by a doctor in response most writers can manage in an entire book. together three characters: Robbie Deane, and at times not in ways to a birth injury; a lecture from her father Anyone who has ever read her Man Booker a magician; Evie, his assistant; and Jack, that are immediately for her ‘short skirt’ after a young man award-winning novel, The Gathering, will showman and actor. These are seemingly obvious. It is based on two real-life hassles her on the way home from school; back me up on that one. ordinary people living ordinary lives, but characters: an Israeli graphic artist, Rami being passed over for a promotion at work This may be premature, but I have a Swift always finds the extraordinary in the Elahanan, and Palestinian plumber in favour of a male colleague. But there is feeling Actress will make its way on to the ordinary. He builds his three characters Bassam Aramin. They are drawn together something unnerving about the event’s ‘best of’ lists of 2020. Stay ahead of the layer by layer, until it becomes clear that by a shared tragedy that unites them in a dispassionate narration, and as the curve, read it now. things are not as they first appeared to desire for peace and reconciliation. incidents pile up over the years, a feeling Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton be. As for Robbie Deane, the magician, Rami’s beloved daughter Smadar was of claustrophobia intensifies, building to a the Great Pablo, he leaves his best trick killed by suicide bombers in a busy bleakly ironic conclusion. (although he would call it an illusion) until Adults Jerusalem street. Ten years later, It’s immediately apparent when the very last show is over and he’s taken his Emma Jane Unsworth Bassam’s daughter Abir is shot in the head reading this work that Jiyoung has been final bow. Robbie has proven himself to be a HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 by a rubber bullet fired by a young soldier constructed as a kind of ‘millennial wizard, a wonder – rather like his creator. Available now of the Israel Defence Force as she makes everywoman’. Author Cho Nam-joo has Jenny McLaine, Andrea Goldsmith is a friend of Readings. Her her way to school. said she wished to show what ordinary writer and Instagram most recent novel is Invented Lives Both Rami and Bassam had previously life looked like for women in South Korea addict, should have it fought on differing sides, but had come to by emphasising common experiences together. She’s thirty-five, Weather the realisation that violence and counter instead of depicting extreme she owns her own house, Jenny Offill violence solves nothing. They become circumstances. This effect is achieved and she’s a successful Granta. HB. $27.99 members of Combatants for Peace and its in part by the inclusion of elements of feminist columnist. Only, Available now exclusive branch, The Parents Circle. The autobiography and documentary into her famous photographer If I were more circle is a group to which no one wants to the work. boyfriend has left her for one of the paranoid than I am belong because having lost a child in the The English language version of Insta-famous, she’s getting fired from her willing to admit, I would conflict between Israel and Palestine is Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (from translator magazine, and barely able to afford her be ruminating very a prerequisite for membership. The two Jamie Chang) also comes to Australian house, she’s had to let out the rooms. In the seriously on when and men are united by their beliefs and their readers with a fascinating backstory. midst of all of this too, her best friend how Jenny Offill (or her loss, and become powerful advocates for This novel sparked an incredible wants to break up and her medium mother agents) entered my brain, a peaceful resolution of the conflict. They response upon its initial publication is turning up unannounced on her extracted many of my become tireless campaigners, so much so in South Korea where it has sold more doorstep to stay. Jenny’s story is told in thoughts, concerns, and neuroses, and put that one can start a sentence and the other than a million copies. Hailed as a two timelines; one in the present day, them into her new novel, Weather. Instead, will finish it. Despite threats and abuse groundbreaking feminist work, its where she is doing battle with a mother I’m going with the idea that Offill and I are from their respective communities, they even-tempered yet candid critique of the straight out of the pages of Bridget Jones, simpatico on a number of important carry on. This is a surprising and powerful entrenched gender discrimination in only now she’s armed with Tarot cards and matters, and that if we ever meet, we’ll work that deserves attention and acclaim. modern South Korean society resonated clairvoyance, and one twelve months in have a lot to talk about (though that might Mark Rubbo is the managing director of strongly with many readers, while also the past, where a miserable miscarriage be when the serious paranoia kicks in). Readings attracting vehement hatred from others. FICTION March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 9

This is not just a story for South Korea conversations, and they stay with her, however; Jiyoung’s struggles against helping her to examine how she wants misogyny will unfortunately be all too to live, even as she seems to drift in her familiar to non-Korean readers and this life and not make any active choices. The slim, deft and slightly strange novel first conversation occurs on the Italian leaves a bitter aftertaste. coast when she is working as a nanny. Bronte Coates is the digital content manager Her employer joins her on the balcony and Readings Prizes manager and opens up about her marriage. She describes the power imbalances that have The Night Watchman characterised the union; what she has Louise Erdrich done, and, what she would be prepared to do, to redress these. From this chapter Corsair. PB. $32.99 it is clear that Popkey will not be toeing Available 10 March any ‘politically correct’ line and will be Native American exploring concepts such as power and author Louise sexuality in a brutal manner. Erdrich’s new novel, set While the narrator’s life stage is amongst the inhabitants updated in each chapter, the book of the Turtle Mountain favours ideas, and plot is limited to what Reservation, is a well- is relevant to the ‘conversation’. In a drawn and sprawling chapter situated in an art installation, portrait of a community the narrator and her friend question in peril. Based in part on Erdrich’s who has the ability to make art, and how grandfather’s own efforts in the mid- the meaning changes as creator/object 1950s to stop the US government from change. Again, gender and power are further taking away Native American featured, tying into the narrator’s friend’s land, The Night Watchman tells the story recent breakup. of Thomas Wazhushk’s efforts to fight a bill being put forward by the government Topics of Conversation has been to ‘emancipate’ Native Americans from compared to Sally Rooney’s novels, their reservations. though Rooney’s work is plot-driven to a greater extent. Overall, this novel is While this setup on paper sounds high a meaty one for conversations among stakes and, admittedly, a little dry, The readers – while the narrator’s likeability Night Watchman is both kaleidoscopic will polarise readers, the ideas will propel and languid in its progress. ‘This was conversation well into the night. again the sort of feeling and thinking that could only be described in Chippewa,’ Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn Erdrich writes at one point, ‘where the strangeness was also humorous and the Indelicacy danger surrounding this sort of situation Amina Cain was of the sort you might laugh at…’ Text. PB. $22.99 As well as Thomas instigating Available 3 March support throughout the community, Vitória is a cleaning the novel also follows a young woman woman in a called Patrice on the search in the museum, but longs to be a city for her missing sister, the boxing writer. She meets and coach who loves her, one of his younger swiftly marries a wealthy boxers named Wood Mountain and, man, who wants her to do The Yellow Bird Sings additionally, several of the intricate nothing but relax. With JENNIFER ROSNER backstories of many of the other this new-found leisure, Chippewa from the Turtle Mountain ‘Desperately moving and exquisitely written. If you only Vitória works diligently, obsessively, on her read one book this year, make it The Yellow Bird Sings. reservation. At one point there is a craft. She has lost touch with her museum A beautiful story with achingly memorable characters...’ ghost; an owl arrives, signalling death; a colleague, Antoinette, but finds a new AJ Pearce character is employed to dance in a water friend, Mona, at a ballet class she attends. tank in a city bar, dressed as a mythical The person she sees most often is the blue ox. maid, Solange, with whom she develops a While this multi-faceted approach mildly antagonistic relationship. While runs the risk of being frustrating for Vitória wants for nothing material, and has readers, the ease with which Erdrich so many freedoms that are unimaginable ARAVIND ADIGA unfurls the story makes The Night to her former peers, she seems somehow Riveting and suspenseful. From the bestselling, Man Booker Watchman a true pleasure to read, and almost entirely unsatisfied. The source of Prize-winning author of The White Tiger comes a story about a young illegal immigrant who must decide whether to report her vivid descriptions and true affection her dissatisfaction runs deep, and she’s not crucial information about a murder – and risk deportation. for her characters is highly infectious, prepared to compromise on her happiness. ensuring this novel will be one of the Indelicacy is a simply told story, a year’s best. domestic drama set in an unspecified Chris Somerville is from Readings online time and place, but which is written with an elegance that might remind the reader Topics of Conversation of the classics of the late nineteenth CATHERINE NOSKE century in its careful rendering of Miranda Popkey ‘Tense, original and lyrically told; this is a gripping story Serpent’s Tail. PB. $29.99 narrative, and its austere prose. Amina of a community spellbound by collective mania and the Available 3 March Cain writes poignantly about the life search for what cannot be found...’ of a creative woman, whose acquired Miranda Popkey’s Gail Jones debut novel is a freedoms and privileges are also her narrative told in ten shackles. She asks, how can a person live conversations that occur an authentic life, when they are always between 2000 and 2017. already constrained and constructed The unnamed female by social expectations, by class, and by narrator converses with gender? What is the role of the self in ALEXIS SCHAITKIN her employer, her mother, perpetuating those constraints, even ‘This killer debut is both a thriller with a vivid setting a group of friends left at a house party, a as they are ignored or undone? What is and an insightful study of race, class, and obsession.’ creativity when it is left only to those with man she has a one-night stand with, and Kirkus, starred review her mothers’ group, among others. She the luxury of time? And, ultimately, when has a theory about why she is privy to so can a person know that she has what she wants? Indelicacy is the kind of novel that many truths and confidences: ‘I think it is Love talking about books? creeps up on the reader, with a depth and because I like, liked, to drink and I am Find us online at Pan Macmillan Australia very good at keeping my face quiet.’ complexity of ideas that belie its length. The narrator takes part in the Alison Huber is the head book buyer for Readings 10 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 FICTION

Amnesty husband. On top of it all, she has a Bina forbidden books, and falling in love. But Aravind Adiga painfully ironic job writing articles for a Anakana Schofield when summer ends, the two are sent Picador. PB. $29.99 self-help website. Separation Anxiety is Fleet. PB. $32.99 back to Warsaw. Exiled from paradise, Available now filled with heart and humour for anyone Available 10 March Ludwik and Janusz must decide how Danny – Dhananjaya fumbling their way towards happiness. Through the character they will survive; and in their different Rajaratnam – is living of Bina, who is writing choices, find themselves torn apart. under the radar in The Blessed Rita out her story on the Sydney, denied refugee Tommy Wieringa & Sam Garrett backs of discarded The Girl with the Louding status after fleeing his (trans.) envelopes, Anakana Voice native Sri Lanka. For Scribe. PB. $32.99 Schofield filters a Abi Daré three years he’s been Available 3 March complex moral universe Sceptre. PB. $32.99 trying to create a new Paul’s world is changing: filled with humour and Available now identity for himself. But when he becomes his small Dutch village is sadness, love and rage, and the Adunni is a fourteen- tied up in a murder case, he is confronted now home to Chinese consolations, obligations and mysteries year-old Nigerian girl with a choice: come forward with his restaurateurs, Polish of lifelong friendship. Bina is an who knows what she knowledge about the crime and risk being plumbers, and Russian unforgettable tour de force in the voice of wants: an education. As deported, or say nothing, and let justice thugs. Saint Rita, the an ordinary-extraordinary woman who the only daughter of a go undone? patron saint of lost has simply had enough. broke father, she is a causes, watches over valuable commodity. She The Mirror and the Light Paul and his best friend Hedwiges, two The Book of Echoes is removed from school Hilary Mantel misfits at odds with the modern world. In Rosanna Amaka and sold as a third wife to an old man. As this sharply observed, darkly funny Fourth Estate. HB. Was $45 Doubleday. PB. $29.99 a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, novel, Tommy Wieringa shines a light on $34.99 Available 3 March and a powerless servant, fourteen-year- people struggling at the margins of a Available 5 March 1981: England looks old Adunni is repeatedly told that she is changing world. With The Mirror and the forward to a new decade. nothing. But Adunni won’t be silenced. Light, Hilary Mantel Racial tensions rumble, The Wandering brings to a triumphant and now Michael Watson Summer Light, and Then close the trilogy she Intan Paramaditha & Stephen J. might land in jail for a Comes the Night Epstein (trans.) began with Wolf Hall and crime he did not commit. Jón Kalman Stefánsson & Philip Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99 Bring Up the Bodies. She Thousands of miles away, Roughton (trans.) traces the final years of Available now village girl Ngozi MacLehose. PB. $32.99 Thomas Cromwell, the The Wandering is the most abandons her orange stall for the chance Available 10 March boy from nowhere who climbs to the ingenious and unusual to work as a maid. When Ngozi and In the infinite light of an heights of power, offering a defining book you will read all Michael’s paths finally collide, their lives Icelandic summer, a portrait of predator and prey, of a year, where you choose will be transformed for ever. village of four hundred ferocious contest between present and your own story. The souls becomes a past, between royal will and a common choices you make about microcosm of the age-old man’s vision. which pages to turn to Hurricane Season conflict between human may mean you’ll become a Fernanda Melchor & Sophie Hughes (trans.) desire and destiny, A Thousand Moons tourist or an undocumented migrant, a Text. PB. $29.99 between the limits of Sebastian Barry mother or a murderer. This is a novel Available 3 March reality and the wings of the imagination. Faber. PB. $32.99 about the politics and privileges of travel The Witch is dead, and With humour, with poetry, and with a Available 17 March and desire, and the freedoms and the village is rife with tenderness for human weaknesses, Jón In this follow-up to the limitations of the choices we make, by one rumours and suspicions Kalman Stefánsson explores the question much-loved Days Without of Asia’s most exciting writers. about the murder of this of why we live at all. End, Winona is a young feared and respected Lakota orphan adopted by The Good, the Bad and the woman who had carried former soldiers Thomas Little Bit Stupid The Yellow Bird Sings out the community’s McNulty and John Cole. Marina Lewycka Jennifer Rosner ritual shamanic customs. Living with Thomas and Fig Tree. PB. $32.99 Picador. PB. $29.99 Inspired by a real event of the murder of a John on the farm they Available 17 March Available now woman in rural Mexico, Hurricane Season work in 1870s Tennessee, she is educated George Pantis is in a Poland, 1941. After the takes place in a world filled with and loved. But the fragile harmony of her pickle. He’s won millions Jews in their town are superstitions and violence – violence that unlikely family unit is soon threatened by a on a Kosovan lottery, but rounded up, Róza and poisons everything around. further traumatic event, one which Winona unfortunately has her five-year-old struggles to confront, let alone understand. forgotten his password daughter, Shira, spend and can’t get at the Low day and night hidden in Aria money. George must Jeet Thayil a barn. Róza does all she Faber. PB. $29.99 Nazanine Hozar make a mad dash from can to shield Shira from Available 3 March Viking. PB. $32.99 Sheffield to the Adriatic – and into the the horrors of the outside world. But Available 17 March arms of organised crime gangs who Following the death of when their haven is no longer safe, and his wife, Dominic Ullis Róza must face an impossible choice: In Iran, 1953, a driver specialise in illegal kidney transplants. escapes to Bombay in keep her daughter close by, or give her named Behrouz discovers George is in need of rescue – both from search of oblivion and a the chance to survive by letting her go. an abandoned baby in an this pickle and from himself – but will his dangerous new drug, alleyway. He adopts her, dysfunctional family be able to put aside Meow Meow. So begins a naming her Aria. As Aria their differences long enough to help? House of Earth and Blood glorious weekend of grows into a young woman, (Crescent City, Book 1) misadventure as he tours the winds of change are The Bell in the Lake Sarah J. Maas the kaleidoscopic city from its sleek stirring in Tehran. And Lars Mytting & Deborah Dawkin Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 eyries of high-capital to the piss-stained before long she will be swept up in an (trans.) Available 3 March streets, encountering a cast with their uprising which will change the destiny of MacLehose. PB. $32.99 Bryce Quinlan had the own stories to tell, but none of whom the land – and its people – forever. Available 10 March perfect life until a demon Ullis is quite sure he can trust. Norway, 1880. Astrid murdered her closest Separation Anxiety dreams of a life beyond friends, leaving her Laura Zigman marriage, hard work and Swimming in the Dark bereft, wounded, and Doubleday. PB. $32.99 children. When Pastor Kai Tomasz Jedrowski alone. When the accused Available 3 March Schweigaard arrives in Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 is behind bars but the Life hasn’t gone town, he plans to tear Available 3 March crimes start up again, according to Judy’s plan. down the seven-hundred- Poland, 1980. Ludwik Bryce finds herself at the heart of the Her career as a children’s year-old stave church, has been sent along with investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes book author has taken an beloved by Astrid. He wants to replace it the rest of his class to an to avenge their deaths. This richly embarrassing nose dive. with something modern, and send it to be agricultural camp. Here inventive new fantasy series delves into Her teenage son is reconstructed in Dresden, Germany. he meets Janusz – and the heartache of loss, the price of mortified by her, her best Astrid must make a choice: for her together, they spend a freedom – and the power of love. friend is dying, and she homeland and the pastor, or for a daunting dreamlike summer can’t afford to divorce her pot-addled and uncertain future in Germany. swimming, reading CRIME March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 11

in Kings Cross, where young Joan You Let Me In Linderman lives and writes, both for a Bruce Camilla Dead Write newspaper and as an aspiring crime writer. Bantam. PB. $29.99 with Kate McIntosh It’s a bohemian lifestyle she leads but Joan Available 3 March wants more, and when her neighbour is When novelist Cassandra Tip murdered she throws herself into the The Rúin, the novel which introduced us to Cormac Reilly, disappears at age seventy- investigation without concern for her own BOOK OF THE an Irish detective transferred to Galway and handed a four, her niece and nephew welfare. This is a thoroughly enjoyable cold case which leads him to unexpected places, was my stand stand to inherit her fortune – if MONTH depiction of Australia’s past and a dark out crime novel of 2018. The Scholar, released last year, they can decipher the Crime underbelly where all is not as it seems. continued his story, allowing us to find out more about our man manuscript she left behind, Cormac. This time, in The Good Turn, the action begins that is. In it, their aunt has immediately, a young girl is abducted and Cormac’s protégé, How a Woman Becomes a written what appears to be a fairytale, and yet Peter Fisher, kills her alleged kidnapper. Unable to prove he had Lake it is supposed to be based on her own life. She no choice but to shoot and facing prosecution himself, Peter is Marjorie Celona claims to have had otherworldly companions banished to the small, picturesque village of his childhood. His Virago. PB. $32.99 since the age of five. Her therapist believes grandmother still lives there and his father is the local copper, Available 10 March Cassie was abused as a child and created the upholding the law any way he sees fit. With nothing better to do, Vera is a busy, successful ‘otherworld’ as an escape, but in this particular Peter begins to look more closely at the double murder of a professor who vanishes one story, nothing is so straightforward. This farmer and his nephew. Meanwhile, Cormac has been New Year’s Day when walking strange, richly drawn, bewitching novel of suspended from duty due to his handling of the kidnapping her dog by the lake in the murder, dark fantasy and suspense won’t be case and it soon becomes clear that his doggedness and small town in which she lives. for everyone. Read it if you dare! determination to do the right thing hasn’t won him any friends. She wasn’t the only one out by All Cormac and his team want to do is solve crimes and put the lake that morning and as The Other People away the bad guys, but thanks to corruption and politics within the police begin their investigation the waters C.J. Tudor The Good Turn the force there are obstacles every step of the way. become murkier with each passing day. As Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 Dervla McTiernan It’s early in the year, I know, but The Good Turn is already the landscape changes, so too do the lives of Available now HarperCollins. PB. my favourite detective story of 2020. This is crime as it should those left behind. Whilst this novel does A father who refuses to give Was $32.99 be. McTiernan brings her characters to life with a perfect come under the heading of ‘crime’, it is also a up the search for his daughter $27.99 blend of suspense, intrigue and wit. She is also the queen of beautifully written exploration of grief, spends his days and nights on Available now the atmospheric novel, as the snow starts to pile up around vulnerability, guilt and violence. Becoming a the motorway, forever on the the inhabitants of County Galway you feel the icy fingers of lake (just in case you were wondering) means lookout for the car in which he mystery on the back of your neck, and when the weather clears and all is right again in the to rest, to be still, to be separate, not just from believes he last saw her. A world of Cormac Reilly and his fellow Garda, you will be warmed down to your very toes. others but from yourself. What it means in single mother waitresses at an the context of this deeply satisfying book … all night servo, keeping an eye out for the well you’ll just have to read it to find out! man searching for his daughter, intrigued by After Dark Suddenly, she only has two weeks to gather his story. A woman and her daughter are on Dominic Nolan all the pieces of the puzzle and help save Firewatching the run, always on the move, often on the Headline. PB. $29.99 lives, including her own. This dark, edgy, Russ Thomas same motorway. The Others are a group who Available 10 March somewhat scary, thriller set in the familiar S&S. PB. $29.99 will lead you to the dark web where you can exact revenge on those who have hurt you, Detective Sergeant Abigail streets of our very own city will make you Available 1 March but there is a price to pay. There is always a Boone was left with no wonder which bits are fact and which belong D.S. Adam Tyler is the only price. As all of these threads start to tie memory of her former self to the realm of fiction as the plot thickens member of a Sheffield cold together, Tudor drags you into her creepy, after she was abducted while and the bats fly silently overhead. case unit, assigned there heart-pounding thriller, one that delivers in searching for a missing partly because of his so many spooky and compelling ways. woman in Dominic Nolan’s The Missing American inability to play nicely with thrilling debut novel, Past Kwei Quartey others. When the body of a Life. Now she returns, in prison after her Allison & Busby. PB. $29.99 man found inside the walls Fifty-Fifty need for revenge took her outside the law. A Available 3 March of the Old Vicarage turns out to be a corrupt Steve Cavanagh pariah, languishing behind bars, still unable Gordon Tilson is the businessman who disappeared six years Orion. PB. $32.99 to remember the person she used to be and American about to go earlier, Adam is added to the team Available now having had to create a new persona for missing in Ghana. A victim investigating the murder. At the same time Two 911 calls are made from herself, Boone awaits her fate. Meanwhile, of an internet scam that cost an arsonist is setting fires and writing the same house at the same her former colleagues have a new, horrifying him money, hurt his pride about it on social media and a pair of elderly time. Both callers are young case to solve and are finding it impossible to and his heart, he returns to neighbours are receiving letters claiming to women claiming that do so. It seems Boone is the only one with the the West African Republic know about a crime they committed in the someone has killed their insider knowledge required to track this where he first met his beloved, now past but which at least one of them cannot father. Each says that her monster down. She is soon released from deceased, wife. He is there to investigate the remember having committed. The village sister did it. Each insists that prison but can she unravel this mystery in crooks behind these online crimes. When he secrets are beginning to pile up. This is a the other, the murderer, is still in the house. time? With clever plotting and a flawed but disappears, his son hires a private detective, red-hot scorcher of a debut novel with When the police arrive they arrest both driven lead character with genuine depth, Emma Djan, a young woman recently sacked fabulous characters you won’t be able to get women. Eddie Flynn, ex-conman, now this action packed, sometimes violent, story from the police force. A quiet, unassuming enough of and an intelligent, complex plot. lawyer, is to defend one sister. Kate Brooks, will have you turning pages as fast as you and moral person, Emma is determined to on the run from her evil ex-law firm, is to can go. A thriller you are highly unlikely to prove herself to her new boss and the world Watching from the Dark defend the other, in a joint trial. Told from forget anytime soon. at large. If anyone can discover ‘whodunnit’ Gytha Lodge the perspectives of both lawyers as well as she can. The first in a compelling new series Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 one of the sisters (the guilty one!) there are Where the Truth Lies set in a richly drawn world of corruption, Available now twists galore in this fast-paced legal thriller Karina Kilmore conmen and deceit. Zoe’s friends have been with a suitably dramatic ending. S&S. PB. $29.99 watching her change from a Available 1 March Death in the Ladies’ Goddess happy, caring young woman Also out this month: Having fled New Zealand Club to a thin, angry one since The new Commissario Brunetti from after a family tragedy, Julian Leatherdale she began having an affair Donna Leon, Trace Elements (William journalist Chrissie O’Brian A&U. PB. $29.99 with Aiden Poole. Aiden Heinemann, PB, Was $32.99 SP $29.99); struggles to settle into her Available 3 March Poole is watching via Skype Henning Mankell’s first ever novel, never new life in Melbourne and her Australia in 1932 was a when someone enters Zoe’s apartment and before translated into English, The Rock new job at a newspaper where country still recovering from appears to murder her. He eventually calls Blaster (translated by George Goulding, nearly everyone seems to war, the depression and the the police but is slow in coming forward, MacLehose, PB, $29.99); Jussi Adler- resent her presence. Just making it through loss of many of its menfolk. It not wanting the sordid details of his Olsen’s Victim 2117 – and doesn’t that the day takes most of her energy, not having a was an exciting time too. relationship to be dragged into the light. just raise the question, what happened to panic attack and dealing with her angry boss Phar Lap won a race in As D.C.I. Jonah Sheens and his fellow the other 2116? (Quercus, PB, $32.99); the uses up the rest. Work is the only thing Mexico (then died shortly officers begin to investigate Zoe’s death, hair-raising Harlan Coben returns with keeping her going, even if it is just the puff after), Jack Lang officially opened the Sydney they discover secrets aplenty: each of her The Boy from the Woods (Century, PB, pieces she hates. When she stumbles across a Harbour Bridge (and then was dismissed as friends could have a possible motive for $32.99); Lynda La Plante’s Buried (Zaffre, mystery on the wharves she knows this is one Premier not long after) and, of course, the murder but did any of them actually do it? PB, $32.99); Eva Dolan’s Between Two Evils story she must get published. Strange statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox was With red herrings galore, and a fantastic (Raven, PB, $29.99); Stephanie Wrobel’s accidents and now deaths have occurred, unveiled. Julian Leatherdale’s new novel is first few pages that really grab you, this The Recovery of Rose Gold (Michael Joseph, always out of sight of CCTV and witnesses. set right in the middle of all this excitement, suspenseful novel ticks all the right boxes. PB, $32.99) and more! 12 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 NONFICTION

After The Count: The Death of retreat, a workhouse and a prison. From Davey Browne nunnery to eatery and cultural epicentre, New Stephanie Convery this is the story of its rich history and the Viking. PB. $34.99 community activism that saved it. Nonfiction Available 3 March When Sydney boxer Davey Browne died in 2015 after Biography being knocked out in the To make a living as an author, Ellena Savage writes, final round of a title fight Growing Pineapples in the you need to have a diverse portfolio. As an editor, BOOK OF THE that he was about to win, Outback academic, teacher, critic, literary event host (among other boxing once again came MONTH Rebecca Lister & Tony Kelly things), Ellena Savage has had to live at least a double life. under intense public UQP. PB. $29.99 Cultural Studies In an essay titled ‘Antimemoir’ she writes that the scrutiny. In After the Count, journalist Available 3 March ‘swinging, smiling author me’ pitched the book proposal Stephanie Convery explores the grit and When Rebecca Lister and for Blueberries with ‘Hey … You can bet on me to write a euphoria of combat sport while digging Tony Kelly move from thought-provoking commercially successful essay deep into our collective relationship with Melbourne to Mount Isa to collection!’ but inwardly she felt shame and doubt, ‘Was I a physical power, masculinity and violence. serious enough person to call my work autotheory? (No.)’. care for Rebecca’s elderly mother, Diana, they have Whether or not Blueberries is a personal essay collection, Party Animals: The Secret no idea what they’ve memoir or antimemoir, it perhaps works best as an answer History of a Labor Fiasco signed up for. While to the question ‘What kind of body makes a memoir?’. Samantha Maiden Rebecca deals with her witty, crossword- The first essay, ‘Yellow City’, was originally published Viking. PB. $34.99 loving mother’s declining health, Tony as a chapbook and it documents, day by day, a trip Savage Available 3 March takes on a new role in Native Title law. took to Lisbon to track down the police file and court The Labor Party was the As they make deeper connections to the documents of a sexual assault she had reported eleven seemingly unbeatable land and community, they find years earlier. Back then, she had to leave Portugal before favourite to win the 2019 themselves unexpectedly flourishing. Blueberries the end of the trial and had never found out the verdict. election, right up until the The writing here is compelling, spare and elegant. Savage Ellena Savage voters delivered the weaves in prose poetry and her philosophical and honest Two Sisters Text. PB. $32.99 surprise verdict. If the interrogation of the situation often takes the reader down Ngarta Jinny Bent, Jukuna Mona Available 3 March results staggered pundits, a surprising path. they also shocked Bill Shorten and his Chuguna, Pat Lowe & Eirlys Another essay splits the page in two. On one side are frontbench. From the dark arts of the dirt Richards a series of vignettes titled ‘Holidays with Men’ which Savage had published in a zine units to the role of billionaire Clive Magabala. New edition PB. $24.99 years earlier. On the other side of the page she writes about her experience of reading Palmer, Party Animals uncovers the secret Available now at the zine’s launch and the events that had led up to the writing of the work. The history of a Labor fiasco and Scott Ngarta and Jukuna lived essay as a whole becomes an examination of cultural capital, travel discourse and a Morrison’s miracle. in the Great Sandy Desert, materialist critique of the threat of physical violence. traversing Country Ellena Savage has produced a collection that defies categorisation but is fervently Pathfinders: A History of according to the seasons, experiential, candid and original. Aboriginal Trackers in NSW just as the Walmajarri Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton and online Michael Bennett people had done for thousands of years. But it NewSouth. PB. $34.99 was a time of change. Tragedy strikes Available 1 March and Ngarta is forced to travel alone, There are few Australian pursued by two murderers in a vast First Nations icons in white unforgiving landscape. Presented in Australian inducted into a traditional way of Australian history. A rare English and Walmajarri, Jukuna’s rich life. Robinson never fully accepts this exception is the redoubtable Studies account may be the first autobiography invitation, and in the end betrays the tracker. With skills passed written in an Aboriginal language. people whose trust he needed for his down over millennia, mission of ‘conciliation’. Truganini trackers were saviours of The real power of the book is its My Lucky Stroke Cassandra Pybus lost children and disoriented adults, and attempt to show, through Truganini’s A&U. PB. $32.99 finders of missing livestock; they were also Sarah Brooker eyes, the interaction between two Affirm Press. PB. $29.99 Available 3 March cursed by robbers on the run. Pathfinders cultures: one obsessed with extraction, brings the skilled and diverse work of Available now Cassandra Pybus’s status, and wealth; and the other defined trackers to the forefront of shared histories Sarah Brooker was an Truganini tells the by reciprocity, interconnectedness, and of black and white Australia. ambitious young woman story of a journey full of placedness. It’s a bleak history, and one studying to be a deception and dead ends many white Australians have difficulty neuroscientist. On New as George Augustus The Colonial Kangaroo Hunt swallowing, but it’s only through honest Year’s Eve, 2002, an Robinson, ‘Protector of Ken Gelder & Rachael Weaver and emotionally sensitive engagement unbelievable series of Aboriginals’, leads a group Miegunyah. PB. $39.99 that white Australia can even begin events occurred: a brain of Indigenous survivors from Available 3 March to truly reconcile its genocidal past. aneurysm, a devastating car accident, a Lunawanna-alonnah around lutruwita From the arrival of Captain Moreover, the book shows Truganini as a body broken and a mind shattered. on a mission of ‘conciliation’, which James Cook in 1770 to woman living her life on her own terms, Several weeks later Sarah woke from a turns into an ill-fated scheme of deceit classic children’s tale Dot not merely as a passive victim of an coma with no idea of who or where she and control. and the Kangaroo, Ken inevitable history. was or what had happened. But Sarah Pybus vividly paints Truganini Gelder and Rachael Weaver could remember neuroscience. My Lucky (erroneously called the ‘last Tasmanian Michael McLoughlin is from Readings Carlton examine hunting Stroke is an extraordinary memoir you Aboriginal person’) as a bold, capable narratives in novels, visual won’t forget. woman trying to manage her destiny Quarterly Essay 77: Cry Me art and memoirs to discover how the while her people, culture and lands are a River – The Tragedy of the kangaroo became a favourite quarry, a destroyed. Truganini and her companions Murray–Darling Basin relished food source, an object of I Choose Elena navigate the apocalyptic landscape of Margaret Simons scientific fascination, and a source of Lucia Osborne-Crowley Tasmanian colonial genocide, where Quarterly Essay. PB. $22.99 violent conflict between settlers and A&U. PB. $16.99 within a single generation many Available 23 March Australian First Nations peoples. Available now Tasmanian Aboriginal people living The Murray-Darling Basin Aged fifteen and on track traditional lifestyles were either killed by is the food bowl of The Convent: A City Finds Its to be an Olympic gymnast, colonists or kidnapped by Robinson and Australia, and it’s in Heart Lucia Osborne-Crowley concentrated on Flinders Island. trouble. What does this Stuart Kells was violently raped in Truganini, Wurati, Manalakina mean for the future – for Miegunyah. PB. $39.99 Sydney on a night out, and other survivors bolt themselves water and food, and for Available 3 March sparking a series of events to Robinson because he affords them the people and towns that Left to languish after the that left her devastatingly the opportunity to continue to practice depend on it? Acclaimed journalist last of the Sisters of the ill for more than ten years before she told traditional culture, where all around Margaret Simons takes a trip through the Good Shepherd had gone, anyone about her rape. Osborne-Crowley them that culture is being violently basin, from Queensland to South in its prime the national eventually found solace in writers such suppressed. Robinson is dependent Australia and shows that its plight is treasure that is the as Elena Ferrante, and here, in her own on his guides while in the bush, and environmental but also economic, and Abbotsford Convent had writing, she explores the newest is invited to partake in ceremony and enmeshed in ideology and identity. been a school, a refuge, a knowledge about trauma and recovery. NONFICTION March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 13

Our House is on Fire Cultural Studies the compilation, but a common thread fanatical ideology every day, and showing Malena & Beata Ernman, Svante & progresses through each missive. Why what is being done to counter them. Greta Thunberg does our society still expect women to Allen Lane. PB. $32.99 Difficult Women: A History of be contained in a patriarchal landscape? All Our Relations: Indigenous Available 5 March Feminism in 11 Fights Why is Australia so dreadful at accepting Trauma in the Shadow of This is the story of a family Helen Lewis its own history? Why does someone else Colonialism being alone make others uncomfortable, that had to confront a crisis Jonathan Cape. PB. $35 Tanya Talaga as if it’s a problem to be fixed? There are they had never foreseen. Available 3 March Scribe. PB. $27.99 ruminations on silence, dinner parties, Aged eleven, their eldest A woman is ‘difficult’ Available 3 March friendships and on why Anne Summers daughter stopped eating when she refuses to The world’s Indigenous is the very best. It is an unashamedly and speaking. Alongside conform to society’s communities are fighting to a political book that wears its feminist diagnoses of autism and expectations. When she live and dying too young. testimonials well. It is the sort of book selective mutism, her parents slowly fights for her rights. When From Northern Ontario to you read because you understand become aware of another source for her she is not the perfect Nunavut, Norway, Brazil, implicitly that reading this will guarantee distress: her imperilled future on a stereotype of what is seen as Australia, and the United a questioning of your own behaviour, rapidly heating planet. And then one a woman. A woman is difficult, that is, States, the Indigenous your own biases and your own identity. day, fifteen-year-old Greta decides to go when she is a feminist. Helen Lewis experience in colonised nations is However, it is the nature of this book on strike. explores what exactly makes a woman startlingly similar and deeply disturbing. that one should honour; after all, not difficult – and why it’s not a bad thing. In this vital and incisive work, Tanya everyone is courageous enough to be this Displaced: A Rural Life Difficult Women offers insight into a Talaga explores intergenerational trauma honest. And we know that not everyone is John Kinsella series of feminist fights for independence and the alarming rise of youth suicide. All considerate enough to share that sincerity Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99 and control. Ten chapters each cover Our Relations is a powerful call for action. without requiring a return. Donna Ward is Available 1 March a milestone of feminism – something giving readers a gift. John Kinsella’s memoir of women have fought for in order to be Hood Feminism: Notes from his rural life takes us deep treated as equals. These chapters range Chris Gordon is the events and programming the Women White Feminists into the heart of what it from laws – such as the right to vote, to manager for Readings Forgot means to belong and divorce, and to have abortions – to women Mikki Kendall unbelong. While centred entering male-only fields for the first time, Going Dark: The Secret Social Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 on Jam Tree Gully in rural such as the workplace, universities and Lives of Extremists Available 3 March Western Australia, it also professional sports. A range of feminist Julia Ebner White feminists often fail to moves between Ohio, Schull and issues are covered including domestic Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 see how race, class, sexual Cambridge. Kinsella never shies from the labour, the mental load, the gender pay Available 3 March orientation and disability intolerance of those scared of difference, gap and domestic abuse. By day, Julia Ebner works at intersect with gender. How but with nuance and humour he also Lewis’s writing style blends history, a counter-extremism think can feminists stand in celebrates rural community. essay and creative narrative. She tank, monitoring radical solidarity as a movement effortlessly weaves together different groups from the outside. But when there is a distinct Three Brothers accounts of difficult women, and their two years ago, she decided to likelihood that some women are Yan Lianke & Carlos Rojas (trans.) interactions with each other, throughout get inside the groups to truly oppressing others? Insightful, incendiary Text. PB. $32.99 time. Lewis encourages us to not airbrush understand them. In Going and ultimately hopeful, Hood Feminism is Available 17 March our feminist icons by sweeping the Dark, Ebner takes the reader into the both an irrefutable indictment of a Yan Lianke, one of China’s uncomfortable truths under a rug, and darkest recesses of extremist thinking, movement in flux and also clear-eyed most important instead to acknowledge who they are – exposing how closely we are surrounded by assessment of how to save it. contemporary voices, complex women. She also highlights several brings the reader into his difficult women who have been written out home of the 1960s and of history – who have been whitewashed, or early ’70s in rural Henan didn’t conform to a cookie-cut role model of Province. Chronicling the feminism. We learn of a lesbian politician Out March lives of his father and uncles, as well as who outraged her country, the ‘striker in his own, Three Brothers is both a portrait a sari’, and the first female football teams, of a singular period and a heartfelt created during World War I. Melting Moments celebration of the power of the family Difficult Women is a historical work Anna Goldsworthy under the harshest circumstances. of the progress feminism has made, published in an era of backlash against A new, moving and captivating novel from #MeToo, particularly from populists and The Watermill the author of award-winning Piano Lessons nationalists, and Trump, pushing back Arnold Zable ‘A tender evocation of times past, and a towards so-called traditional gender roles. Text. PB. $32.99 subtle, elegant portrait of one woman’s Available 3 March Progress isn’t linear, and, Lewis argues, in difficult times, it’s time to embrace life and loves as she grows and adapts Ranging from remote difficult women. Ultimately, ‘difficult to a changing world.’ —Ceridwen Dovey provinces in China and women’ is a term for women who call out Cambodia to pre- and sexism. Difficult Women encourages you post-war Yiddish Poland, to be ‘difficult’ too. Kurdish Iraq and Iran, and Contest for the Indo-Pacific Indigenous and present- Cindy Morris is from Readings Carlton Rory Medcalf day Melbourne, Arnold Zable’s quartet of stories depicts the ebbs She I Dare Not Name ‘The complexities of our region can easily and flows of trauma and healing, Donna Ward bewilder those used to the Manichaean memory and forgetting, the ancient and A&U. PB. $29.99 simplicity of the Cold War. Rory Medcalf’s the contemporary. And ever-recurring Available 3 March book is an elegant, keenly insightful tour journeys in search of belonging. This is Donna Ward’s of the Indo-Pacific’s strategic horizon.’ first book, but she has —Malcolm Turnbull Warhol: A Life as Art been writing for a long time. Blake Gopnik Her essays have appeared in Allen Lane. HB. $69.99 all our major journals and Available 17 March she is known as a thoughtful Solved! Blake Gopnik has spent six and concise author. She I Andrew Wear years researching Warhol’s Dare Not Name is her compelling collection life and art and reveals a of articles about being a woman; alone, ‘A terrific idea, brilliantly executed. life of contrasts and keen and compassionate. It is a memoir of This book deserves to spark a national sorts, the type that takes you gently deliberate artifice hiding conversation.’ —George Megalogenis, great depths. Filled with through the dreamscape of the author’s life, author of The Australian Moment new insights into the but also one that shares the pragmatic development and impact of Warhol’s art reality of being an older woman surrounded and his personality, Gopnik asks: was he by families and couples and expectations. a joke or a genius, a radical or a social To read this collection is to be privy to climber? As Warhol would have Donna Ward. BLACKINCBOOKS.COM answered: Yes. There are several sections within 14 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 NONFICTION

History meaning in the face of this unimaginable We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know Footprints expanse, and to ask where we are headed. Sophie McNeill David Farrier ABC Books. PB. $34.99 Fourth Estate. PB. $32.99 The Beauty and the Terror: Wayfinding Available 9 March Available 2 March An Alternative History of the Michael Bond For more than fifteen years, Footprints invites us to Italian Renaissance Picador. PB. $32.99 award-winning journalist think about how we will Catherine Fletcher Available 10 March Sophie McNeill has reported be remembered in the Bodley Head. PB. $35 The physical world is on some of the most war- myths of our distant Available 3 March infinitely complex, yet most ravaged and oppressive descendants. Travelling The Italian Renaissance of us are able to find our way places on earth, including from the Baltic Sea to the was far stranger and darker around it. We can walk Syria, Gaza, Yemen, West Great Barrier Reef, and than many of us realise. through unfamiliar streets Bank and Iraq. In We Can’t Say We Didn’t from an ice core laboratory in Tasmania For decades, a series of while maintaining a sense of Know, Sophie tells the human stories of to Shanghai, David Farrier tells a story savage wars dominated direction, take shortcuts devastation and hope behind the headlines. of a world that is changing, and with Italy’s political, economic along paths we have never used and McNeill also examines why disinformation, long-term consequences. and daily life, generating remember for many years places we have impunity and hypocrisy now reign supreme. fortunes and new technologies, but also visited only once. In Wayfinding, Michael ravaging populations with famine, Bond explores how and why we do it. City on Fire: The Fight for Psychology disease and slaughter. In The Beauty and Hong Kong the Terror, Catherine Fletcher provides an Antony Dapiran The Power of Suffering enrapturing narrative history that brings Environmental Scribe. PB. $35 David Roland all of this and more into view. Available 3 March Studies S&S. PB. $32.99 Antony Dapiran, a long-term Available 1 March resident and expert observer The Power of Suffering is of dissent in Hong Kong, Business The Future We Choose: psychologist David provides the first detailed Surviving the Climate Crisis Roland’s personal account of the 2019 protests. Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett- investigation into the Sabotage: The Business of He reveals the protesters’ Carnac nature of human suffering. Finance Manilla. PB. $27.99 unique tactics, explains how When our world is turned Anastasia Nesvetailova & Ronen Available 3 March the movement fits into the city’s long history upside down, what does it Palan of dissent, and looks at what the protests will Former UN Secretary for do to us, how do we survive it, and how Allen Lane. HB. $45 mean for the future of Hong Kong, China, Climate Christiana Figures can we grow as a result? David takes the Available now and China’s place in the world. and Tom Rivett-Carnac, her lived experience of eleven incredible Two star authors show why UN political strategist, people and follows them along each step the financial sector is an outline two scenarios for our Climate Change and the of their journey from crisis to triumph. ‘industry of sabotage’, with future: how life on Earth will Nation State systemic malpractice at be by 2050 if we fail to meet Anatol Lieven This Too Shall Pass the heart of its business the Paris Agreement climate targets; or Allen Lane. HB. $45 Julia Samuel model. Talking to industry how it will look and feel to live in a carbon Available 17 March insiders, economists and Penguin Life. HB. $35 neutral, regenerative world. Practical and Anatol Lieven’s major new high-net-worth customers, examining Available 17 March empowering, The Future We Choose book provides the the history of finance and its workings Nearly all of us find change features ten things we can do today to framework that has long today, this work shows us how the idea of difficult. But what wisdom make a difference. been needed to understand sabotage not only makes sense of all past can we glean from ‘having a how we should react to economic crises, but must also be at the wobble’ or ‘going through a climate crisis. This is a vast heart of all future regulations. The Story of More rough patch’? challenge, but we have often Hope Jahren Psychotherapist Julia in the past had to deal with challenges: the Fleet. PB. $22.99 Samuel guides us through industrial revolution, major wars and mass Available 10 March how the most troublesome times of our Parenting migration have seen mobilisations of Award-winning lives can teach us to grow and transform human energy on the greatest scale. geobiologist Hope Jahren ourselves. This Too Shall Pass Man Raises Boy illuminates the link unflinchingly deals with major issues and Rob Sturrock between human Running Against the Devil follows unforgettable and deeply intimate A&U. PB. $29.99 consumption habits and Rick Wilson yet universal stories. Available 3 March our imperilled planet. In Scribe. PB. $35 How do you raise a boy? short, highly readable Available now Through extensive chapters, she takes us through the Long-time Republican Health research and interviews science behind the key inventions that, strategist Rick Wilson with dads doing it even as they help us, release untenable warns Democrats not to Fast Asleep differently, Rob Sturrock amounts of carbon dioxide. She explains make the mistakes that explores a new era of the current and projected consequences could re-elect the worst Michael Mosley S&S. PB. $29.99 fathering that balances of greenhouse gases and the actions that president in history. A Available 5 March strength and vulnerability, allowing men we can all take to fight back. sharply funny and brutally to voice their insecurities and honest assessment of Trump’s abysmal, In Fast Asleep, the uncertainties, and encouraging them to destructive record and of the pitfalls for bestselling author of The truly cherish their families. Man Raises Politics Democrats that lie ahead, this is a no- Fast 800 Dr Michael Mosley Boy is a guiding hand in the maze of love, nonsense, no-holds-barred roadmap to brings together the latest guilt, anxiety and joy in fatherhood. saving America from Donald Trump. The science to explain exactly Capital and Ideology stakes are too high to do anything less. what happens to us when we Thomas Piketty & Arthur sleep and why it is so Science Goldhammer (trans.) Solved! important that we get enough of it. He Belknap Press. HB. Was $79.99 Andrew Wear shares what works and what doesn’t and $69.99 Black Inc. PB. $29.99 shares his own myth-busting programme Until the End of Time Available 15 March Available 3 March to help you achieve a good night’s rest. Brian Greene Thomas Piketty’s bestselling We don’t have to look far to Allen Lane. HB. $49.99 Capital in the Twenty-First tackle humanity’s most The XX Brain Available now Century galvanised global pressing concerns. Policy Dr Lisa Mosconi From Brian Greene, the debate about inequality. In adviser Andrew Wear A&U. PB. $32.99 world-renowned physicist this audacious follow-up, examines what has worked Available 17 March and best-selling author of Piketty challenges us to around the world and how Women are twice as likely The Elegant Universe, revolutionise how we think we can apply the lessons at as men to be diagnosed comes this captivating about politics, ideology, and history. He home, introducing us to inspiring with Alzheimer’s disease, exploration of deep time exposes the ideas that have sustained community leaders, renowned authorities and women are far more and humanity’s search for inequality for the past millennium, reveals and visionary policymakers transforming likely than men to suffer purpose. Greene takes readers on a why the shallow politics of right and left are the globe. Solved! is a dose of optimism in from anxiety, depression, breathtaking journey from the big bang to failing us today, and outlines the structure an atmosphere of doom, and a toolkit for migraines, brain injuries the end of time and invites us to ponder of a fairer economic system. those seeking social change. and strokes. With groundbreaking NONFICTION March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 15

research showing that women’s brains age differently from men’s, mostly due to the decline of a key brain-protective hormone At home (oestrogen), The XX Brain offers a plan for with Chris Gordon Discover optimal, lifelong brain health. Beatrix Bakes a new favourite Natalie Paull Philosophy Hardie Grant. HB. $45 Available 1 March Sweetness and Light Liam Pieper The Precipice Yes, yes, I know how much you love a light, fluffy An intoxicating, unsettling story Toby Ord of the battle between light and dark, sponge and Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 love and lust, morality and corruption marshmallows dipped in from the award-winning author Available 3 March of The Toymaker. pure chocolate. The In the twentieth century, importance of sweet food The Coconut Children we developed the means to in our daily grind should Vivian Pham destroy ourselves – never, ever be underestimated. Beatrix Set in 1990's Cabramatta and without developing the touching on the universal themes of Bakes is a beautifully presented guide, not longing and the angst of youth, this moral framework to ensure for the faint-hearted, to the very best baking is an urgent, moving and wise debut we won’t. This is ‘the from a gifted young storyteller. from North Melbourne institution Beatrix. Precipice’, and how we respond to it will be the most crucial Now for Something Sweet 'To read Vivian Pham is to read the decision of our time. Oxford moral future of Australian writing. What a brilliant, Monday Morning Cooking Club philosopher Toby Ord explores the risks self-contained bolt of pure teenage genius. HarperCollins. HB. $49.99 to humanity’s future and calls for a major Be prepared to be awed over Available now reorientation the role we play in it. what Gen Z can deliver.' The Monday Morning BENJAMIN LAW Cooking Club is a unique The Origin of Me The Good State Bernard Gallate sisterhood from Sydney, A.C. Grayling Audacious, funny and wonderfully praised by such greats as inventive, this beguilingly original Oneworld. HB. $34.99 Nigella Lawson and debut novel is a song to friendship, Available now young love, the joy of imagination, Yotam Ottolenghi. These and celebrating differences. A. C. Grayling makes the women collect, test, case for a clear, consistent, curate, publish and share the best recipes Bluey: Bob Bilby Bluey principled and written in the global food-obsessed Jewish constitution, and sets out Based on the hit ABC KIDS community. This is their fourth book, and TV show! This adorable board the reforms necessary to they have handpicked their favorite sweet book is told from the point of view ensure the intentions of of Bob Bilby. Will he have fun with recipes from all over. Bluey and Bingo? such a constitution could not be subverted or ignored. As Vegan JapanEasy democracies around the world show Tim Anderson signs of decay, the issue of what makes a Hardie Grant. HB. $39.99 good state, one that is democratic in the Available 1 March Read more at penguin.com.au fullest sense of the word, could not be Tim Anderson taps into more important. Japan’s rich culture of cookery that’s already The Mathematics of the Gods vegan. The classics are and the Algorithms of Men there, such as vegetable Paolo Zellini tempura, mushroom Allen Lane. HB. $39.99 gyoza and fried tofu in Available 3 March dashi (my all-time favourite), along with Is mathematics a discovery clever vegan conversions for curries and or an invention? Have we ramen. This book is perfect for everyone invented numbers or do they that enjoys Japanese cuisine and truly exist? What sort of understands (hint, hint) that we all need to reality could we attribute to expand our meat-free repertoire. them? In this masterful, elegant book, mathematician Ana Roš: Sun and Rain and philosopher Paolo Zellini offers a brief Ana Roš cultural and intellectual history of Phaidon. HB. $79.95 mathematics, from ancient Greece to India Available 10 March to our contemporary obsession with Ana Roš is the award- algorithms and our cosmic understanding winning chef at Slovenia’s of the world. acclaimed restaurant Hisa. This beautiful cookbook is more than just recipes – Personal Roš shares the Slovenian Development landscape that inspires her and illustrates the evolution of her inventive and sophisticated food. Do not be daunted: We Need to Talk About Mum her recipes are accessible if you have the and Dad right ingredients and tools of the trade. Jean Kittson Pan Mac. PB. $34.99 The Irish Cookbook Available 10 March Jp McMahon This witty, practical guide Phaidon. HB. $65 from author and comedian Available 10 March Jean Kittson is a one-stop This cookbook from chef shop for information on and columnist Jp McMahon how to support your includes nearly five ageing loved ones: how to hundred recipes (from easy protect their health and to complicated) that wellbeing, and enable them to be venerate Ireland’s rich food self-determining and independent for as heritage. Think oysters and long as possible. Kittson shares heartfelt seaweed from the west coast to beef and stories and clear facts alongside lamb from the north, to produce from wonderful cartoons from Patrick Cook. throughout the island. 16 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 FEATURE The Readings Children’s Book Prize Shortlist 2020 The Readings Children’s Book Prize The Girl, the Cat & the The Secrets of Magnolia Moon celebrates exciting new voices in Navigator Edwina Wyatt (featuring Matilda Woods (featuring illustrations by Katherine Quinn) Australian children’s literature. This illustrations by Anuska Allepuz) Walker. HB. $19.99 year’s six shortlisted titles are for Scholastic. PB. $14.99 Join Magnolia Moon for a year of her readers aged 5 to 12. Oona dreams of adventures, but as a life. In each self-contained chapter of The 2020 shortlist includes Pie in the girl in this world she must stay on land this book, she shares new experiences in Sky by Remy Lai (Walker), The Dog Runner while her father, a ship’s captain, sails her world, including farewelling a best by Bren MacDibble (A&U), Wombat, off to hunt whales. Oona is a smart and friend and becoming a big sister. There Mudlark & Other Stories by Helen Milroy daring heroine though, and so she sets are surprises and changes, upsets and (Fremantle), Sherlock Bones and the out toward the legendary icy North in joys. There are goodbyes, hellos, and Natural History Mystery by Renée Treml search of mythical creatures and knowledge. everything in between. But Magnolia always manages to get (A&U), The Girl, the Cat & the Navigator by Matilda Woods has crafted an enchanting fairytale about along in unexpected and clever ways. Matilda Woods and illustrated by Anuska finding family and friendship in unlikely places. Reminiscent The Secrets of Magnolia Moon is for the whimsical child in Allepuz (Scholastic), and The Secrets of of a classic folktale, The Girl, the Cat & the Navigator feels as if it your life. A curious and irrepressible nine-year-old, Magnolia Magnolia Moon by Edwina Wyatt and has always been in our consciousness. Woods’ writing is highly is fascinated by mythology and approaches the world with a illustrated by Katherine Quinn (Walker). skilled and imaginative, and she paints wonderful emotional sense of wonder that’s infectious. The challenges she encounters This year’s shortlist reflects the rich and geographic landscapes. This is a beautifully packaged throughout a single year will be deeply relatable to children, and array of children’s publishing in Australia: book – every page made vibrant by Anuska Allepuz’s lovely Edwina Wyatt’s serious and generous depiction of them will be there is a book for every child here. illustrations – and an ideal family read-aloud. This is also the appreciated. Rich storytelling and lovely illustrations from New Beginner readers will delight in a highly second time Woods has been shortlisted for this prize. Her first Zealand-based illustrator Katherine Quinn make this a sweet appealing and hilarious graphic novel; book, The Boy, the Bird & the Coffin Maker, was shortlisted in and charming read-aloud to share together. For ages 6+ as a more advanced readers will be captivated 2018. For ages 7+ as a family read-aloud, or for independent family read-aloud, or for independent readers aged 7+. by a gripping, action-packed tale touching readers aged 9+. on climate crisis, and a moving novel that Sherlock Bones and the incorporates comics in its exploration The Dog Runner Natural History Mystery of grief and immigration. Families Bren MacDibble Renée Treml will discover some great read-alouds: A&U. PB. $16.99 A&U. PB. $14.99 Indigenous fables, a timeless adventure, Ella and her brother are desperate to Despite being narrated by a tawny a single transformative year for a nine- survive in a hostile world. Food is scarce frogmouth skeleton and a taxidermied year-old. Each book on this shortlist is of following an agricultural disaster and parrot, Sherlock Bones and the Natural the highest quality and digs into themes their parents’ whereabouts are unknown. History Mystery is filled with life and relevant to young people; we predict these Aided by sled dogs, they set out away laughs. An extremely valuable blue books will be adored by readers. from the city to try to reconnect with diamond has gone missing at the museum We are pleased to offer all six books on their family and find food. and Sherlock Bones and his dead best the 2020 shortlist in a specially priced pack. The Dog Runner is an action-packed friend have made it their business to find out who has stolen it! You can buy this pack in-store and online adventure with a highly original premise. The narrative moves Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery is a funny, for the special price of $84.95 (was $101). along at a breakneck pace, and highlights the importance of quirky mystery. With lots of natural history facts scattered This year’s judging panel is made up resilience and kindness in the face of extreme danger. It’s all too throughout, there’s plenty to learn within this graphic novel, of four children’s book specialists: Athina easy to envision the harsh landscape of the siblings’ world, and but none of it gets in the way of fun. This is a book with broad Clarke (children’s book buyer at Readings the beautiful relationship between Ella and the courageous dogs appeal: excellent storytelling for new readers with terrific Malvern), Fiona Hardy (bookseller at is particularly well-crafted. This book is an excellent choice for illustrations that ingeniously complement the narrative, and Readings Doncaster and author of How sophisticated middle grade readers who want something meaty. brim with personality. While this is a perfect pick for new to Make a Movie in 12 days), Daniella It’s also a hopeful story for children thinking about climate readers, the offbeat humour, action and delicious intrigue will Robertson (children’s book specialist crisis and what they might be able to do about it. For ages 10+. appeal to slightly older fans of graphic novels too. For ages 7+. at Readings Malvern) and me. We’re so delighted that much-loved children’s and Pie in the Sky Wombat, Mudlark & Other young adult writer Nova Weetman will be Remy Lai Stories joining the panel as a guest judge to help Walker. PB. $18.99 Helen Milroy select the winner from the shortlist. Jingwen, his mother and his little Fremantle Press. PB. $14.99 The prize is awarded to the book brother, Yanghao, have just moved to Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories is a which we believe children will love best, Australia. Being in a different country collection of eight stories from Indigenous and in 2020 the winner will receive is difficult and the boys really miss professor and child psychiatrist Helen $3,000 in prize money. Look out for the their dad, who had held dreams of Milroy. Animals take the centre roles in announcement of the winner online in opening his own cake shop. Together, these heart-warming fables, which are all late April and in the May edition of the the boys find comfort in epic, sneaky set in a natural world that is truly alive. Readings Monthly. after-school baking attempts. Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories Kim Gruschow, book buyer at Readings St Kilda Pie in the Sky is a fresh, clever and moving story with is a book that engages readers from the very first page. Each of moments of real heartbreak and humour. The characters are these bite-sized stories is imbued with a timeless quality, and relatable, the family relationships are genuine, and Remy feels as big as a continent. These are adventures that encourage Lai’s depiction of grief is honest and accessible. Her use of an optimism, and celebrate imagination, loyalty, courage and ‘alien language’ to convey how deeply foreign a new language cooperation. Milroy’s characters all have something unique and can feel is startlingly effective, and a terrific representation important to contribute. Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories makes of the difficulties of learning a new language. The innovative for an absolutely fantastic read-aloud, sprinkled throughout with inclusion of cartoons enhances the charming narrative, illustrations from Milroy herself. This is an enriching book we can making it a perfect choice for fans of graphic novels looking to all see ourselves recommending for years to come. For ages 5+ as a branch out. For ages 9+. family read-aloud, or for independent readers aged 7+. YOUNG ADULT March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 17

for fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens but Cordelia is determined to be a hero Agenda (or the film adaptation, Love, rather than a bride. Chain of Gold is the Young Adult Simon). This queer reimagining of first novel in the highly anticipated Grease is one I am hopelessly devoted to. fourth series of the bestselling Cindy Morris is from Readings Carlton Shadowhunter Chronicles.

The second novel from Melbourne author Astrid Stain Scholte is a thrilling fantasy murder mystery that is Butterfly Yellow BOOK OF THE A.G. Howard impossible to put down. The setting is a post-climate Thanhhà Lại MONTH Amulet. PB. $16.99 change world which has completely flooded, leaving only a UQP. PB. $19.99 Available 7 March Young Adult few islands remaining. Many millions died and the Available 3 March After Lyra – a princess survivors primarily live on giant floating rafts. Many earn In the final days of the incapable of speech or a living by diving off the reefs looking for sunken treasures w a r , H a��ng takes her sound – is cast out of her from the old world. little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined kingdom of daylight by to find a way to safety in her wicked aunt, a witch This is an intoxicating thriller set America. In a split saves her life, steals her in an unusual world that raises second, Linh is ripped memories, and raises her in an enchanted forest interesting ideas about loyalty, from her arms – and H a��ng is left behind in the war-torn disguised as a boy known only as Stain. family and fate. country. Six years later, she makes it to Lyra must find her way back to her the US. She is reunited with Linh, but he identity, win back her kingdom, and Alternating chapters are written from the perspective doesn’t remember her at all. The make peace with the land of the night. of Tempest, who lost her parents and then her sister to distance between them feels greater drowning, and Lor, who has been in hiding for two years after than ever, but Ha��ng will do anything to And the Stars Were Burning The Vanishing causing the death of a friend. They meet at Palindromena, bridge the gap. Brightly Deep a high-end scientific facility that allows rich patrons to Danielle Jawando Astrid Scholte revive the dead for 24 hours to say their last goodbyes. Chain of Gold S&S. PB. $17.99 A&U. PB. $19.99 When Tempest revives her dead sister to find out what really (The Last Hours, Book 1) Available 9 March Available 3 March happened to their parents it sets off a thrilling, challenging Cassandra Clare When fifteen-year-old adventure that changes everyone’s life forever and reveals Walker. PB. $27.99 Nathan discovers that his some stark truths about Palindromena. Available 3 March older brother Al, has This is an intoxicating thriller set in an unusual world that raises interesting ideas Cordelia Carstairs is a taken his own life, his about loyalty, family and fate. There is also fun, feisty banter between the two main Shadowhunter, a warrior world is torn apart. Al was characters that hints at romance. Highly recommended for all readers of young adult trained since childhood full of passion and light … novels aged 12+. to battle demons. When so why did he do it? Angela Crocombe is from Readings Kids her father is accused of a Convinced that his terrible crime, she and brother was in trouble, Nathan decides to her brother travel to retrace Al’s footsteps. As he does, he meets Edwardian London in Megan, Al’s former classmate. Together illusion. Will they ever be rescued or will Havenfall hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. they start seeking answers, but will either they be stuck in the oasis forever? (Havenfall, Book 1) Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, of them be able to handle the truth? Sara Holland This novel constantly surprises you in Bloomsbury YA. PB. $16.99 its elusive desert setting and has strong Available 3 March pacing that keeps you on the edge the Maddie loves spending entire time. The friendship and changing summers at her uncle’s loyalties under pressure between the Inn at Havenfall. But teens are incredibly believable. This is beneath the beautiful, a fantastic supernatural thriller set in sprawling manor in an exotic locale that will not disappoint. Colorado lie hidden Suitable for readers aged 12 +. gateways to other Angela Crocombe is from Readings Kid worlds, some long- sealed by ancient magic. When a body is Only Mostly Devastated found on the grounds, the volatile peace Sophie Gonzales between these worlds is compromised. Hodder Children’s. PB. $17.99 From the author of Everless comes a Available 10 March contemporary fantasy series about the Ollie and Will met safe haven between worlds – and the girl over the summer sworn to protect it. holidays at a lake in North Carolina. Summer Oasis lovin’ happened so fast. Katya de Becerra After summer break is Imprint. HB. $27.99 over, they go their Available now separate ways. Ollie gets Set on an ghosted by Will (or perhaps he’s been archaeological dig abducted by aliens) and Ollie’s family in the desert near Dubai, decides not to go home to California for the second novel from his senior year so they can help his sick Katya de Becerra is a aunty and her family. When Ollie begins supernatural thriller that at Collinswood High, he isn’t sure if he will have you guessing should be thrilled or alarmed to see Will. right up until the very To make matters more complicated, Will last page. Alife has travelled from is still firmly in the closet. Melbourne with four friends to work on As Ollie begins his senior year, he her father’s archaeological dig. But they navigates school cliques and gets to come have only just settled in to their tents in out of the closet (again). He discovers the desert when a fierce sandstorm hits Will is more basketball jerk than the and the teenagers, along with her father’s sweet guy he met at the lake. While young research assistant, are blown into attempting to figure out if they could the barren desert, utterly and completely still have (or want) a relationship in this lost. When the group discovers an oasis context, Ollie must ensure he doesn’t with fresh fruit and running water, it inadvertently out his crush and also seems almost too good to be true. And try to protect his own heart from being perhaps it is. Strange things start trampled again. For the curious happening and it becomes difficult to Only Mostly Devastated is a sweet, determine what is real and what is an contemporary YA novel that is perfect 18 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 KIDS

but in the darkest misery her bright drawings show her hope and yearning for a better life. Readers will be BOOK OF THE Kids’ disquieted by her family’s plight and loss of freedom; MONTH they are victims of their homeland’s conflict and Books hostilities but do not find a welcoming world outside it. Middle Grade Let’s hope our young readers learn empathy from important stories such as Anisa’s. For ages 7+. Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn

Duck, Apple, Egg Glenda Millard & Martina Heiduczek (illus.) ABC Books. HB. $24.99 Available now ‘Duck on the green, sun in the sky, Picture Books egg in the nest, apple on the tree, The Ghost of and me.’ From multi-award- Howlers Beach winning author Glenda Millard (The Butter Dear Earth comes a delightfully simple story O’Bryan Isabel Otter & Clara Anganuzzi (illus.) about the joys of playing in a Mysteries, Book 1) Little Tiger. HB. $24.99 garden. Beautifully illustrated by Jackie French Available 1 March Martina Heiduczek, this poetic book for the very young HarperCollins. PB. $16.99 The latest from the will be treasured by families everywhere. Available now wonderful children’s author Isabel Otter, Dear Earth Evonne Goolagong (Little People, Big This remarkable adventure is set in the early 1930s tells the story of a grandfather Dreams) and his granddaughter Tessa, when much of Sydney’s population was homeless, Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara & Lisa jobless, starving and living in squalor and abject poverty. as he teaches her about the Koesterke (illus.) But lovable twelve-year-old Butter lives in extreme importance of our Planet Earth Frances Lincoln. HB. $19.99 privilege with his doting family. From the outside looking and all the amazing creatures that call it home. With Available 3 March Grandpa’s guidance, Tessa decides to write the Earth a in, Butter appears incredibly fortunate, but all is not well; Be amazed by one of Australia’s most letter listing all the things she loves about it. he grieves for his mother, longs for absent friends and inspiring tennis players – Evonne Through Tessa’s imagination and Clara questions the profound inequities in his community. Goolagong – who overcame adversity Anganuzzi’s glorious illustrations, we get to Of course, today’s children are unlikely to be and went on to win dozens of titles experience nature and all the beautiful creatures that familiar with the challenges of the Great Depression. throughout her illustrious career. Tessa adores: gliding like a turtle, kissing butterflies, Fortunately, they’re in the hands of Jackie French, a From the bestselling series, Little sliding down desert dunes and soaring with the birds. masterful storyteller! People, Big Dreams, this moving Tessa reminds us about the wonder, but also the When a scruffy three-legged dog drops a human book features stylish illustrations and extra facts, fragility of our planet. skull at Butter’s feet, everything changes. Suspecting including historical photos and a detailed profile of the foul play, Butter’s mission to uncover the truth and This is supported at the end of the book with some brilliant tennis player’s life. great facts about the animals and environments we see solve the mystery leads him to an extraordinary and disturbing discovery. in the story, alongside helpful hints about how you can Azaria: A True History make a difference in protecting our world. For ages 4+. The Ghost of Howler’s Beach tackles challenging Maree Coote themes – poverty, starvation, racism, and Indigenous Claire Atherfold is from Readings State Library Victoria Melbournestyle Books. HB. $29.99 dispossession – but never at the expense of the story. Available 1 March This is a moving yet extremely funny adventure with Please Don’t Eat Me When a tiny baby is stolen by a dingo, a gratifying ending. (And, luckily, it appears to be the Liz Climo nobody will believe the truth. first book in a series of mysteries.) Little, Brown. HB. $24.99 Prejudice, ignorance and gossip grip Highly recommended for children ages 10+ and Available now the nation. Are you sure you know what a wonderful read aloud for any family or classroom Rabbit has the misfortune happened? Azaria is a beautifully (especially for those who read the invaluable author’s notes). of meeting Bear when Bear illustrated nonfiction picture book that Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern is hungry. At first Rabbit seems sensitively explores the collision of almost resigned to her fate. ‘Aw, wilderness and civilisation, explains a famous nuts,’ she says, before asking miscarriage of justice, and examines the role of the media Bear not to eat her, please. But in history-telling, in an appropriate manner for children. Hello, Hello Bear is hungry. Rabbit offers to Children from the Spinifex Writing Camp order them a pizza and Bear agrees, but it’s not quite a The Artist Indigenous Literacy Foundation. HB. $24.99 happy ending yet because, as Bear points out, every Alison Binks Available now meal needs a dessert! Berbay. HB. $26.99 A family is walking home on a very With each page Bear finds another reason to eat Available 1 March dark night. Turn the pages of this Rabbit, and Rabbit finds another reason not to be This story is a celebration of intriguing and atmospheric book and eaten, until it eventually builds up to a very dramatic childhood freedom, creativity and join the family as they discover what climax during which Rabbit exasperatedly flops onto a nature. It encourages readers to the dark night is hiding. Written and salad and shouts, ‘Eat me already!’, before Bear reveals embrace their inner artist and see the illustrated by students from Laverton, that he doesn’t actually want to eat Rabbit, he just likes details of their environment. This is Menzies and Tjuntjuntjara remote her company. Please Don’t Eat Me is reminiscent of the such a respectful way to honour community schools at the third Spinifex Camp, Hello, very best works of Mo Willems and Jon Klassen. The children’s interest in their artwork Hello will intrigue, surprise and delight readers of all ages. sparse illustrations and word count add up to a rich and to validate the time they devote to developing their and very funny story for children aged 3+. skills. The Artist is a beautiful and thoughtful book. Junior Grade Dani Solomon is from Readings Kids Little Ned Anisa’s Alphabet Michael Wagner & Adam Carruthers (illus.) Hattie Mike Dumbleton & Hannah Sommerville (illus.) Little Hare. HB. $24.99 Frida Nilsson, Stina Wirsén (illus.) & Julia MidnightSun. HB. $29.99 Available 1 March Marshall (trans.) Available 1 March Every morning, Little Ned puts on Gecko. PB. $16.99 Anisa’s Alphabet is a his pants, his shirt, his shoes and, Available 1 March moving depiction of how while he’s at it, his heavy-duty Hattie is six years old. She lives in a a young girl’s life is desolated chest armour, his spikey metal ‘tiny, tiny town’ in the Swedish by war. Told alphabetically in gauntlets, his razor-sharp sword countryside. She is about to start school. rhyming text, we follow Anisa’s and his iron helmet. What could Swedish author Frida Nilsson’s new book perilous journey from a free possibly go wrong? Hilarious and Hattie is, as its title suggests, the story of person to a stateless refugee. heart-warming, surprising and brilliantly drawn, Little this young girl. If any of this sounds like a The atmospheric illustrations portray an ominous world Ned is a story about the pitfalls of being too careful. story you’ve heard before, I can assure KIDS March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 19

you that it is not. In fact, it’s a completely wild ride – from kids defeating evil, nasty adults and it has a mysterious rescue her sister. It’s an undertaking that will test her hysterical laughing to nail-biting nerves, Hattie puts you phantom to boot! I’m looking forward to the rest of the endurance and skill, and will also require a punishing through your paces. For a large part this is because she is a books in this exciting new mystery series for kids aged 10+. sacrifice. Readers will be awestruck by Olga’s daring and huge troublemaker. Yet what makes her antics so amusing Dani Solomon is from Readings Kids her bold, adventurous heart and will rally behind her. is that her impulsiveness leads them to (nearly) go very Natalie Platten is from Readings Doncaster wrong – Hattie gets a little more than she bargained for! In the Key of Code The Swedes have a history of writing children’s books that Aimee Lucido deal subtly and hilariously with the absurdities of growing Walker. PB. $16.99 Nonfiction up. Frida Nilsson is a worthy successor to the great Astrid Available 1 March Lindgren, and indeed Hattie could very easily be this When twelve-year-old Emmy’s musical generation’s Pippi Longstocking – Hattie’s story makes me ANZAC Girl: The War Diaries of Alice family moves to California so her dad can think of the ever-relevant Longstocking quote – ‘I have Ross-King take a job with the San Francisco never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able Kate Simpson & Jess Racklyeft (illus.) Symphony Orchestra, Emmy has never felt to do that’. When it comes to Hattie, I can only A&U. HB. $24.99 more out of tune. But when she ends up in wholeheartedly agree. Available 3 March a computer science club, she finds that she Jeremy George is from Readings Malvern World War I seemed a noble, can understand code through a language almost thrilling, prospect for she is familiar with: music. An original, inventive and many who went to fight or assist, but Agents of the Wild: Operation Honeyhunt heart-warming novel about an unlikely friendship. the horror was more than anyone Jennifer Bell & Alice Lickens (illus.) could imagine and surviving proved Walker. PB. $14.99 Red Day an almost impossible feat. As a nurse, Available 1 March Sandy Fussell Alice feels honour-bound to help. Her When eight-year-old Agnes is signed up Walker. PB. $17.99 diaries tell of the devastation of the war and of her own for SPEARS (the Society for the Available 1 March pain when her sweetheart is killed. Protection of Endangered and Set against a backdrop of the 1944 Cowra Kate Simpson is the great-granddaughter of Alice, Awesomely Rare Species), she has no Prisoner of War Camp breakout, this whose diaries and letters form the narrative for this idea of the adventures that lie ahead powerful story explores an important part incredibly moving book. with her elephant-shrew mentor Attie of Australia’s past and how it informs the Gentle and poignant illustrations, along with maps (short for ‘Attenborough’). Will Agnes future. Charlie has synaesthesia, so sees and photos, complete a depiction of the life of a brave pass the test and become a full SPEARS agent? Fun- and hears differently. When he meets woman and an episode in war that became known as packed young fiction with wildlife conservation themes. Japanese exchange student Kenichi, her the Battle of Fromelles. senses intensify and she experiences flashbacks that pull This is an outstanding picture book for ages 7+. her back to the town’s violent past. This is heartfelt Middle Grade Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn contemporary storytelling at its best. Putting Australia on the Map The Threads of Magic The Highland Falcon Thief (Adventures Carole Wilkinson Alison Croggon on Trains, Book 1) Wild Dog. HB. $24.99 Walker. PB. $16.99 M.G. Leonard, Sam Sedgman & Elisa Available 1 March Available 1 March Paganelli (illus.) Australia is a big place. You would Long ago in Clarel city, witches Pan Mac. PB. $14.99 think it would be easy to find, but it were held in high esteem. But now Available now stayed hidden from everyone but its witchcraft is outlawed, and it is Harrison Beck is reluctantly joining his First People for a very long time. rumoured that soul-stealing ‘Spectres’ travel writer Uncle Nate for the last Australia’s coastline was mapped are gaining power. journey of the royal train, The Highland by colonisers, piece by piece. It was a task that took Pip lives with his sister, El, in the Falcon. But as the train makes its way to hundreds of years. See who got it right and who didn’t as, Choke Alleys of Clarel. Their existence Scotland, a priceless brooch goes missing, bit by bit, the outline of Australia appeared. is miserable. When Pip pickpockets the wrong person and things are suddenly a lot more he winds up deep in trouble. He has stolen a strange, interesting. As suspicions and accusations powerful object – a shrivelled-up heart, magically run high among the passengers, Harrison begins to Classic of the Month bound in a silver casket. investigate and uncovers a few surprises along the way. Pip’s theft has unwittingly reignited an ancient war. Old and new allies emerge in a desperate bid to keep The Republic of Birds The Dark Is Rising the heart from falling into the wrong hands and both Jessica Miller Susan Cooper the witches and Spectres will stop at nothing to get the Text. PB. $16.99 Puffin. PB. $14.99 heart back. Dark magic trapped the heart for the sole Available 3 March Available now purpose of destroying Spectres. But with its powers now Jessica Miller’s Elizabeth and Will Stanton is the seventh son of the unlocked the long-suffering heart is primed for revenge. Zenobia was shortlisted for the seventh son, unaware that his life is This is a rich, dark adventure full of twists and turns Readings Children’s Book Prize and her about to change forever. As the snow falls, for fans of Karen Foxlee and Cornelia Funke aged 9+. latest work, The Republic of Birds, is a and Christmas approaches, Will begins to Bianca Looney is from Readings Kids wonderful magical adventure story notice that the world around him is certain to attract great success. This is a shifting – animals react to him in fear, and Winterborne Home for Vengeance and story about sisterly rivalry and the a strange man is lurking on the fringes of Valour (Winterborne Home, Book 1) shame that befalls a family as they are made political his family’s farm. On the eve of his eleventh birthday, Will Ally Carter exiles and are banished to a remote outpost far wakes to a silent house. Unable to rouse his still-sleeping Lothian Children’s. PB. $14.99 removed from respectable society. Under the false family, Will ventures out into the snow, where he enters Available 3 March guise of a promotion, Olga’s father is given a posting to the world of the Rider and the Old Ones. His destiny, as the last of the Old Ones and the Sign seeker, has awoken. But Eleven-year-old April is used to take charge of the growing unease and tension the Dark is rising, the Walker is abroad, and Will must being bounced around from foster between the humans and their warring adversaries, learn his powers quickly, not only to save his family, but to home to foster home, so when she ends up human-sized birds. Olga’s family are keen to prove ensure that the Light is not banished forever. at a mansion with four other kids she themselves and earn their way back to the main capital hardly expects to be there forever. Except – all except Olga, who prefers the strange and Susan Cooper’s fantasy saga holds its own alongside that not long after she arrives mysterious unorthodox company of their new neighbours. contemporary superstars like Harry Potter and things start happening and April suspects But not all is well, and Olga is disconcerted by the Nevermoor. A gentle entry into the world of magic, quest that the secrets of Winterborne Home, its missing growing evidence of her own magical ability, a change and adventure, the book is a perfect starting point for billionaire son, and the key her mother left with her as a that, if discovered, would most definitely brand her readers who might be interested in longer epics like Lord baby are all connected. Luckily, her fellow orphans an outcast and see her shunned even by her family. of the Rings, but are intimidated by their complexity. I include a criminal’s son, a young conman, and a genius Nerves are frayed and the greatest tension affecting all fell easily back into Will’s story, and was immediately scientist (whose inventions only sometimes explode). is the menacing presence of the birds that keep silent charmed by the serious, complex child, old before his time, Together, the five kids team up to uncover the secrets of watch over the humans. When an abduction sees Olga’s just as I had been on my first read of the book, some years the mansion and the tragedy-struck Winterborne family. younger sister taken deep into hostile bird territory, ago. The Dark Is Rising stands the test of time and will delight readers looking for a magical tale to help them find I thoroughly enjoyed Winterborne Home for Vengeance war is inevitable. This is a defining moment for Olga, as their way through an uncertain world. For ages 9+. and Valour. It felt like all the books I used to read and love she draws on sisterly love and courage and embarks on when I was young: full of good (but often trouble-making!) a hero’s journey into dangerous, uncharted territory to Bec Kavanagh is from Readings Kids 20 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 BARGAINS

the modern world. A fusion of amazing our understanding of a tragic staging-post Feasting: A New Take on pictures and well-chosen words, The Colour on Britain’s journey to full democracy. Jewish Cooking March of Time offers a unique – and often Amanda Ruben beautiful – perspective on the past. The Silence of the Girls HB. Was $49.99 Now $16.95 Bargains Pat Barker When Jewish heritage meets Architect: The Pritzker Prize PB. Was $32.99 Now $12.95 global culinary influences, Laureates in Their Own Words Briseis was a queen of Troy every meal is sure to be a Ruth Peltason & Grace Ong Yan (eds) until Achilles sacked her city feast. Amanda Ruben brings Asma’s Indian Kitchen: Home- HB. Was $80 Now $19.95 and murdered her husband together her fresh takes on Cooked Food Brought to You The Pritzker Prize is the and sons. Now she is Achilles’ classic recipes, along with by Darjeeling Express most prestigious concubine: a prize of battle. popular favourites from her contemporary Asma Khan international prize for Though no one knows it yet, café and deli. Including carrot salad with HB. Was $39.99 Now $14.95 architecture. In this they are just ten weeks away from the miso tahina and Middle Eastern fruit salad Feed your soul with this volume from 2017, death of Achilles and the Fall of Troy, an with cashew cream, these are delicious collection of authentic forty-two recipients – end to this long and bitter conflict. Briseis dishes for any lunch, dinner party or Indian recipes from Asma including Gehry, Pei, Meier and Piano – will see it all – and she will bear witness. holiday celebration. Khan. Follow the route of and their achievements are captured in the Darjeeling Express pictures and words. This stunning The Six: The Lives of the 1,000 Books to Read Before train from Bengal, through one-of-a-kind collection includes Mitford Sisters You Die Calcutta, and along the foothills of the photographs, blueprints, sketches, Laura Thompson James Mustich Himalayas to Hyderabad. With dishes articles, interviews and speeches HB. Was $49.95 Now $16.95 HB. Was $49.99 Now $16.95 boasting texture and intense flavour this is revealing that buildings are political, Writer, countrywoman, 1,000 Books to Read Before more than just a collection of delicious and emotional and spiritual. Fascist, Nazi, Communist, You Die is an eclectic and accessible recipes, it is a celebration of duchess. They were the extraordinary book about heritage, culture, community and quality. Cuba: The Sights, Sounds, Mitford sisters: Nancy, Pamela, books, as compulsively Flavors, and Faces (Revised) Diana, Unity, Jessica and readable, entertaining, At Home: A Short History of Pierre Hausherr & François Missen Deborah. Born into privilege, surprising, and enlightening Private Life PB. Was $29.95 Now $12.95 they became prominent in the high society as the 1,000-plus volumes it recommends. Bill Bryson This rich, visually of interwar London and their outlooks came James Mustich’s informed and HB. Was $59.99 Now $19.99 stunning book gives a to symbolise the political polarities of a enthusiastic writing reveals why a From one of our most full and unprecedented dangerous decade. The stories of their particular title is vital and gives you the beloved authors, a look at the once- stylish and scandalous lives are recounted in urgent feeling that you need to drop fascinating excursion into forbidden island of masterly fashion by Laura Thompson. everything, and read that book. the history behind the place Cuba. From the bustling we call home, now richly city streets of Havana, to the rushing The Spectacle of Skill: Selected The Map Tour: A History of illustrated with more than waterfalls of the lush, verdant countryside, Writings of Robert Hughes Tourism Told Through Rare Maps three hundred images. In this handsome to the fishing communities that dot miles Robert Hughes Hugh Thomson edition, Bill Bryson’s riveting room-by- of azure coastline, in Cuba an entire jewel HB. Was $69.95 Now $16.95 HB. Was $45 Now $16.95 room journey of discovery around his house of a country opens up to us as never before. Robert Hughes wrote with Published in collaboration is enhanced by more than three hundred brutal honesty about art, with the Royal carefully curated illustrations, the large Dinosaurology architecture, culture, religion, Geographical Society in majority of them in full colour. Templar Publishing and himself. He translated his London and rich with the HB. Was $29.99 Now $12.95 passions brilliantly, and with spirit of adventure, this Baan: Recipes and Stories The year is 1907, and young vitality and immediacy, exquisite collection of from My Thai Home adventurer Raleigh Rimes always holding himself to the same rigorous maps traces the evolution of travel and Kay Plunkett-Hogge is on an expedition to South standards of skill, authenticity, and tourism from the 1700s to the present. HB. Was $39.99 Now $15.95 America with real-life significance that he did his subjects. This Charting a course across the globe, it looks ‘Baan’ means the hearth, explorer Percy Fawcett. selection shows his enormous range and at the progress in map-making techniques the home, the community, There he discovers the gives us a uniquely cohesive view of both and the ways in which maps facilitated, the place where you come unimaginable: living dinosaurs roaming the the critic and the man. dictated, and directed the travel industry. from. This new book by Kay rainforest! Presented as a journal detailing Plunkett-Hogge emulates their extraordinary encounters Vita & Virginia: A Double Life The Ultimate Book of just that feeling. Born and Dinosaurology is filled with flaps and Sarah Gristwood Airplanes and Airports raised in Bangkok, Kay spoke Thai before booklets offering dinosaur lore, as well as HB. Was $34.99 Now $12.95 Sophie Bordet-Potillon & Marc- she spoke English and has spent more than dinosaur novelties and more. Virginia Woolf is one of the Étienne Peintre half her life in Thailand. Baan will guide the world’s most famous HB. Was $39.99 Now $16.95 reader through the fragrant world of Thai The Madonna of the Mountains writers – a leading light of The Ultimate series is a cooking onto a culinary adventure, all Elise Valmorbida literary modernism and worldwide success because within the comfort of their own kitchen. PB. Was $19.99 Now $11.95 feminism. During the 1920s it offers readers an Winner of the Prize for Fiction at the 2019 she had a passionate affair intriguing close-up view of Chernobyl: History of a Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards with fellow author, Vita Sackville-West, their subject with lots of Tragedy 1923: Maria Vittoria is and they remained friends until Virginia’s hands-on interaction with Serhii Plokhy embroidering a sheet for her death in 1941. Vita & Virginia is the flaps, tabs, pop-ups, and more. From the PB. Was $35 Now $12.95 dowry trunk. Fascism blooms extraordinary account of the work, detailed instruments of a Boeing 747 On the morning of 26 April as crops ripen; the State craves friendship and love affair of these two cockpit to the mysterious innards of a 1986, Europe witnessed the babies just as the babies cry for women who came to redefine conventions baggage carousel, The Ultimate Book of worst nuclear disaster in food. Maria faces a stony path, of femininity, sexuality, art and politics Airplanes and Airports delivers absorbing history: the explosion of a but one she will surely climb to the summit. for the modern world. information and hours of fun. reactor at the Chernobyl In this sumptuous and elegant novel you will nuclear power plant in Soviet taste the bigoli co’ l’arna, and feel the strain This Book is a Planetarium: Melbourne Precincts: A Ukraine. A poignant, fast-paced account of of one woman attempting to keep her family And Other Extraordinary Pop- Curated Guide to the City’s the drama of heroes, perpetrators, and safe in the most dangerous of times. Up Contraptions Best Shops, Eateries, Bars victims, Chernobyl is the definitive history of Kelli Anderson and Other Hangouts the world’s worst nuclear disaster from an Peterloo: The Story of the HB. Was $75 Now $24.95 Dale Campisi award-winning historian. Manchester Massacre This Book is a Planetarium HB. $39.99 Now $14.95 Jacqueline Riding is a pop-up extravaganza. Dale Campisi’s stylish The Colour of Time: A New HB. Was $59.99 Now $16.95 Transforming into six guidebook features twenty History of the World, 1850–1960 Here, in shattering detail, fully functional tools, precincts across Melbourne Dan Jones & Marina Amaral Jacqueline Riding tells the including a real working and is a taster of what the HB. Was $45 Now $16.95 story of a defining moment in planetarium projecting city and suburbs have to A brilliant artist, working the history of British the constellations, a offer. Whether you’re a local with a bestselling historian, democracy: the horrific message decoder and a musical harp or a tourist, you’ll be able to seek out the very uses digital techniques to Peterloo massacre of 1819. As complete with strings for strumming. It will best shopping, eating and drinking bring vividly to life 200 fast-paced and powerful as it is rigorously leave readers of all ages with a renewed experiences like a pro. Stunning design, photographs of the defining researched, Peterloo: The Story of the appreciation for the way things work – and imagery, maps and index make this book a events and personalities of Manchester Massacre adds significantly to for the enduring magic of books. beautiful keepsake, as well as a handy guide. DVDS March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 21

Defend, Conserve, Protect With an all-star ensemble cast including $29.95 Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Film & TV Johnson and Toni Collette, it is a witty Available 4 March Narrated by Dan Aykroyd, and stylish whodunnit guaranteed to Defend, Conserve, Protect keep you guessing. tells the incredible true When Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in story of marine The Dead Don’t Die DVD OF THE 2019, Parasite was the first South Korean film ever conservation group Sea $29.95 awarded the festival’s top prize. Almost a year later, director MONTH Shepherd’s epic battle to Available 11 March Bong accomplished another series of firsts. At this year’s Oscars, defend the Minke whales of the Southern Film Parasite was honoured not only with the Best International In Jim Jarmusch’s zombie- Ocean against an aggressive corporation Feature Film award but became the first non-English language apocalypse comedy, flagrantly defying international law. film to win Best Picture in the Academy’s ninety-two-year something is not quite right history. The accolades didn’t stop here. Bong also won Best in the sleepy town of Director, beating cinematic heavyweight – and one of his heroes PJ Harvey: A Dog Called Money Centerville. The hours of – Martin Scorsese, and the award for Best Original Screenplay. $29.95 daylight are becoming unpredictable and animals are beginning Truth be told, I think little of awards as a measure of a Available 4 March to exhibit unusual behaviour. With an film’s success or cultural value. But it’s impossible to deny the British rock star PJ impending global catastrophe, no one significance of Parasite’s multiple wins; in this case, every Harvey’s restless, probing foresees the strangest and most prize is earned. Parasite is that rare thing – a genre-blending creative genius shines in dangerous repercussion. arthouse triumph with mainstream audience appeal. It’s smart this impressionistic and it’s fun plus it’s easy to see why a black comedy/thriller documentary that about class warfare has connected at a time when the gap combines travelogue and Fisherman’s Friends between the haves and have-nots across the globe is wider than multimedia performance art. Directed $29.95 Parasite ever. In Parasite, the Kim family lives in poverty in a small semi- by Seamus Murphy, A Dog Called Money Available now $29.95 basement apartment, and industriously and hilariously find a documents the recording of The Hope Inspired by a true story, Available now way to bridge that gap. They infiltrate the wealthy Park family’s Six Demolition Project. Fisherman’s Friends tells the home – not to do them harm, but simply to be able to do a day’s heart-warming tale of a work. What follows will shock and stir, but above all entertain. But the less I tell you about Cornish all-male group that go Parasite’s plot the better. This is a film where it really pays to be surprised. Film from singing sea shanties to Bong’s tragicomic capitalist critique is a film where every detail counts. The Kim and shooting up the charts. Music Park families are mirror opposites, and importantly, so are their homes. Social inequality Mapplethorpe manager Danny takes a punt and vows to is built into the film’s intelligent visual design; especially into every staircase and $29.95 turn them into the world’s greatest buoy polished surface of the Park’s marvellous abode. By Parasite’s breathtaking, open ending, Available 4 March band and, in doing so, finds that when you open your heart, life, love and friendship can you’ll be questioning just who the bloodsuckers in this arrangement really are. Mapplethorpe explores the play the most harmonious tune. Joanna Di Mattia is from Readings Carlton intersection of American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s art and his TV Documentary greatest-ever, and perhaps most sexuality, his struggle for overlooked, pianist. mainstream recognition, and, looming above it all, the spectre of the Dirty John: Season 1 The Eulogy Suzi Q emerging AIDS crisis. Featuring Matt Smith $29.95 $29.95 $34.95 and Marianne Rendón, it offers a nuanced Available 11 March Available 4 March Available 4 March portrait of an extraordinary artist. Dirty John is a true crime Geoffrey Tozer was a child ‘Suzi Q [is] a wildly series based on articles and a prodigy, a virtuoso pianist entertaining, insightful, Knives Out popular podcast by Los and improviser with an funny and occasionally $29.95 Angeles Times reporter unprecedented repertoire, heartbreaking cinematic tour Available 11 March Christopher Goffard. Debra whose career saw him through the extraordinary Acclaimed writer and Newell (Connie Britton) is a lauded around the world. life of Suzi Quatro. Directed director Rian Johnson pays successful, wealthy, single mum to three But in Australia he struggled to achieve with profound sensitivity and economy by tribute to mystery children and has a seemingly perfect life. recognition, despite the patronage of then Australian filmmaker Liam Firmager, Suzi mastermind Agatha Then she falls in love with handsome Treasurer Paul Keating. Music educator Q is a deep dive into someone that we all Christie in Knives Out, a doctor John Meehan (Eric Bana). But John Richard Gill explores the untold know, but at the same time, have never fun, modern-day murder has secrets, and as Debra is drawn into his remarkable and tragic story of Australia’s really known.’ – Filmink mystery where everyone is a suspect. lies, there are horrific consequences.

Directed by Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin, In The Loop) COMMENCES MARCH 26

Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema 22 READINGS MONTHLY March 2020 MUSIC

unpredictable Caribou album to date. definitive audio companion to a new Though it retains the trademark Caribou documentary directed and produced by Popular warmth and technicolour, this album is Stanley Nelson. An essential Miles Davis littered with swerves and left turns, and playlist for seasoned fans and new Music amazes with its yet unheard nuances, listeners alike, it is lovingly curated by the samples and hooks. His passion and joy in director and paired with short music-making remains as fresh as ever. commentary audio excerpts from the film.

Tracy McNeil, a Canadian expat now well and truly Out of My Province Three ALBUM OF ensconced in Melbourne, is back with her fifth album, Nadia Reid The Necks THE MONTH You Be the Lightning. After releasing her previous four $21.95 | Also on vinyl $19.95 albums independently, she has signed on with the Pop/Rock/Alt Available 6 March Available now prestigious international label Cooking Vinyl. Her last Nadia Reid is more than For thirty-one years The album, Thieves, was one of the great albums of 2016 and an a wandering troubadour. Necks have mesmerised album I still listen to regularly at home. For her, making music is fans live and on record a necessity, and through with their unique brand Fans of Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin this she has found her of slow-burn alchemy (now Cooking Vinyl label-mates) should place in the world. Out of taking the listener on an incredible sonic journey. Their twenty-first definitely give this a listen. My Province further marks Reid’s wildly expanding trajectory, this time from album Three comprises of three outside her comfort zone. contrasting tracks, all a little over twenty This new album is co-produced by McNeil and her partner minutes, each drawing on three different Dan Parsons, who also provides some very muscular lead You Be the aspects of The Necks’s soundworld, guitar riffs. Like Thieves, which was steeped in Americana, Myopia Lightning Agnes Obel revisiting a format they used on their ARIA McNeil has added some rockier elements, without giving up Award-winning 2006 album Chemist. Tracy McNeil & The the country influences entirely. Her wonderful, strong voice $29.95 | Also on vinyl GoodLife Available now remains front and centre, and her brilliant songwriting is Blacktop Run $19.95 | Also on vinyl once again to the fore. The single ‘Stars’ would not be out of For almost a decade, Sonny Landreth Available now place on a War on Drugs album with its great driving rhythm. Agnes Obel has been one | The latest single, ‘Not Like a Brother’, is drenched in ’70s of the most independent $22.95 Also on vinyl West Coast nostalgia. Fans of Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin (now Cooking Vinyl and original artists in Available now label-mates) should definitely give this a listen. Highly recommended. contemporary music. For Acclaimed guitarist Sonny Landreth’s Dave Clarke is the music and DVD manager for Readings Carlton her new album Myopia, she placed herself under self-imposed groundbreaking work

creative isolation for all the processes. ‘For has long mixed me the production is intertwined with the familiarity with Kelly, Marlon Williams and Evelyn Ida lyrics and story behind the songs,’ says Obel. experimentation, and Pop/Rock Morris, the performances included ‘Paradoxically, for me I need to create my his latest ten-song collection stretches covers of Leonard Cohen, Archie Roach own myopia to make music.’ from hard-edged electric instrumentals to and Seeker Lover Keeper. wistful acoustic ballads, mixing genres Truckload of Sky: The Lost And It’s Still Alright and styles across a landscape of lyricism Songs of David McComb Vol. 1 Miss Anthropocene Nathaniel Rateliff and rootsy grooves. The Friends of David McComb Grimes $21.95 | Also on vinyl $24.95 | Also on vinyl $22.95 | Also on vinyl Available now Available now Available now Americana/Soul notable Jazz Special of the Truckload of Sky From neuroscience Nathaniel Rateliff’s first chronicles the songs of Month student, to viral solo album in nearly singer–songwriter Myspace page, to seven years is quieter David McComb, of The playing raves, and her and more reflective than Love Is Here to Stay Triffids and The 2012 breakout album the exuberant soul with Tony Bennett & Diana Krall Blackeyed Susans Visions, Grimes has which the Night Sweats made their name, Was $21.95 fame. Most of these songs have never become a global sensation touring to sold but the songs have the same urgency and $11.95 (Limited stock at this price) been heard by the public or even out crowds and headlining festivals. Now indelible appeal, exploring themes of love, Tony Bennett and Diana recorded. Performed by some of his an award-winning music video director as loss and perseverance. Krall continue their closest friends, family and others, the well as a music writer, producer, engineer collaboration of beautiful songs on this album add to his and singer–songwriter, Miss Anthropocene twenty-plus years, already extensive legacy. is her highly-anticipated fifth studio album. Jazz/Blues celebrating the songbook of the Walkabout Man Alive! From This Place Gershwin brothers, the greatest Nick Lowe & Los Straightjackets King Krule songwriters of the twentieth century. On Pat Metheny $19.95 | Also on vinyl | this intimate album they are accompanied $22.95 Also on vinyl $27.95 Available now by the Bill Charlap Trio, enabling the Available now Available now Nick Lowe & Los essence of each song to be fully realised. King Krule’s third Pat Metheny’s From This Straitjackets are coming Included here are jazz standards such as studio album was Place features ten to Australia this year on ‘Love Is Here to Stay’, ‘I’ve Got a Crush on written as a direct original compositions their first ever joint tour. You’, ‘S’Wonderful’ and many more. reaction to the non- and is accompanied by To commemorate this stop energy of touring long-time collaborators event they have released his previous album The and special guests. Of Walkabout, a limited edition compilation Folk/World Ooz. Increasingly self-sufficient in the the album Metheny said in a statement ‘… of their recent works plus some previously studio – he has manned most of the [it] is one of the records I have been waiting unreleased material. instruments himself – it is filled with to make my whole life. It is a kind of musical Fu Chronicles King Krule’s trademark sonic ambition culmination, reflecting a wide range of Antibalas and compositional skill, as well as the MTV Unplugged (Live in expressions that have interested me over $24.95 | Also on vinyl now-familiar corrosive lyricism and lurid Melbourne) the years, scaled across a large canvas …’ Available now social observation. Courtney Barnett Antibalas celebrates its $22.95 | Also on vinyl Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool twentieth anniversary Available now Suddenly Soundtrack, Miles Davis & with a return to their On 22 October 2019, Caribou commentary Williamsburg roots. Courtney Barnett $21.95 | Also on vinyl $19.95 With some tracks performed a special Available 28 February Available now stretching up to thirty show in her hometown An album about family Bringing together minutes, Amayo leads us through a at the invitation of and the changes we go recordings and thrilling sonic journey of kung fu meets MTV. The set list through as those performances spanning Afrobeat, weaving together the strands of featured Barnett as you’ve never heard relationships evolve, the musical evolution of Edo and Yoruba cultural memory from her before – stripped back, vulnerable Suddenly is the most Miles Davis, this Nigeria with his training and study in and emotional. Collaborating with Paul surprising and soundtrack is the Chinese martial arts. MUSIC March 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 23

J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion Brahms: String Sextets Classical Bach Collegium Japan & Masaaki WDR Chamber Players Suzuki Pentatone. PTC5186807. $26.95 BIS. BIS2500. Was $49.95 Brahms wrote his two Music $39.95 rarely performed sextets Masaaki Suzuki and his at the beginning of his Bach Collegium Japan career, partly as a way to made their first evade the ‘Ghost of You know someone is a music nerd when they discuss the recording of the St Beethoven’ haunting the ALBUM OF fact that they collect guitars from a period spanning four Matthew Passion in string quartet, but also as the ideal genre to THE MONTH hundred years and have more than ten guitars in their March 1999. ‘A profound realise a typically Brahmsian sound: full, collection. David Jacques is definitely one of those über-nerds ‘orchestral’ and rich in harmonies. Classical joy’ is how Masaaki Suzuki describes his and with this new recording, he’s showing off his impressive emotion at the opportunity to record Bach’s collection of fourteen old and rare guitars (although in one great fresco of Christ’s Passion for a second The Contrast: English Poetry article I read they mentioned he had fifty!). The earliest guitar in time. And this time, he and his ensemble in Song the collection featured on this album dates from 1665, and for have brought with them into the concert hall Carolyn Sampson & Joseph the guitarists reading, was made by Alexandre Voboam of the a profound and collective familiarity with Middleton renowned Parisian luthier family. Then moving through the Bach’s choral music. Bis. BIS2413. Was $29.95 years, there’s a theorbo-guitar from 1798, a Mast lyre-guitar $24.95 from 1810, through a whole pile of prestigious makers and styles Belle Époque Song composition has all the way up to a guitar from 1972 by Daniel Friederich, Daniel Hope & Zürcher been a constant in British another Parisian luthier still continuing the tradition today. Kammerorchester music since the lute and 14 Histoires de DG. 4837244. 2CD. $26.95 consort works of the early guitares Classical guitar music often has an allure Daniel Hope’s new seventeenth century. By David Jacques unlike anything else, but it has been noted double album Belle 1900, it had developed Atma Classique. that often only other guitarists go to guitar Époque brings together into a sophisticated genre embraced by ACD22806. $29.95 concerts, and what a shame that is. popular and rarely almost all serious composers. The music on heard classical this amply filled disc illustrates the diversity repertoire that emerged of British songwriting and its transformation Although I was initially impressed by this concept and was excited to hear the in the great musical nations of Europe in over a century. contrasting characters of the instruments, what really drew me when I started listening to those decades bookended by the Franco- the album were the introspective performances. Highlighting the delightful capabilities Prussian War and the start of World War I of an almost purely plucked instrument at the height of its style, even the more overly Oper auf Deutsch in 1914. This project unites late-Romantic emotional works, such as the Bolero by Aracas, still had an almost meditative quality to Various Artists and Impressionist as well as early works it. Classical guitar music often has an allure unlike anything else but it has been noted DG. 4837295. 15 CDs. $89.95 from the Second Viennese School. that often only other guitarists go to guitar concerts, and what a shame that is. Intimate, This collection is a real enchanting and delicately emotional, this album is the perfect introduction to the world of treasure trove for opera historical classical guitar. Or, for a truly discerning listener, a way to explore the delicacies Schubert: Piano Sonatas D894 lovers. It tells the of their different timbres beautifully highlighted by David Jacques. & D958 astonishing story of an Adam Laloum era when all the many Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings Harmonia Mundi. HMM902660. Was $32.95 municipal opera houses $26.95 in the German-speaking world performed Rarely presented the standard repertoire from Bizet to Verdi Lines Written During a Piae Cantiones together, these two in the local language only. Sleepless Night: The Russian Utopia Chamber Choir & Andrew Schubert masterpieces Connection Lawrence-King are key works in the The Mythos Suite repertoire but also in Louise Alder & Joseph Middleton Alia Vox. AV9932. Was $32.95 Debbie Wiseman, Stephen Fry & the aesthetic Chandos. CHAN20153. Was $29.95 $26.95 National Symphony Orchestra explorations of Adam Laloum. Barely two $24.95 Available now Decca. 4818820. $29.95 years separate the monumental Sonata in Available now Alia Vox Diversa is The Mythos Suite is a G (October 1826) from its sister in C minor Three years since a subsidiary of unique project, (September 1828), the first of a trilogy her debut recital Jordi Savall’s label Alia bringing together composed on the threshold of death, which disc Through Life and Vox, and showcases Stephen Fry’s was to win the struggle a few weeks later. Love, British soprano performances by storytelling talents Louise Alder is back, and Savall’s colleagues and with Debbie Wiseman her voice is more contemporaries rather than by Savall Schoenberg: Violin Concerto OBE’s celebrated skills as a composer. ravishing than ever. Lines Written During a himself. Recently, the Utopia Chamber & Verklärte Nacht The music, composed by Wiseman, was Sleepless Night is an homage to Alder’s Choir, under the direction of Andrew Isabelle Faust, Swedish Radio inspired by Stephen Fry’s work Mythos, Russian roots, as she explores repertoire in Lawrence-King, has added to the Diversa Symphony Orchestra & Daniel an international bestseller that retells the language of her maternal ancestors, discography with a recording of traditional Harding the Greek myths, and developed with Harmonia Mundi. HMM902341. Was $32.95 alongside a selection of songs usually carols from ‘Piae Cantiones’ – a collection him. This five-track suite of long-form associated with much heavier voices. of medieval songs compiled in 1582 by $26.95 compositions showcases musical tales Whether singing in Russian, Finnish, Finnish priest Jacobus Finno. Some texts Between post- from the beginning of time (Chaos), German or French, Alder has a naturally and melodies preserved in Piae Cantiones Romantic twilight together with those of Apollo and expressive voice, and possesses an date back to the tenth century, making this and classical rigour, Marsyas, Persephone, Rhea and instinctive knack for the various languages quite the time capsule of ancient music. Isabelle Faust and her Sisyphus, performed by the National covered here. In Sibelius’s ‘Säv, säv, susa’ As is to be expected of anything most faithful partners Symphony Orchestra. (‘Reeds, reeds, whisper’) she employs an associated with Savall and Alia Vox, the offer us an occasionally breathy tone to imitate the music is thoroughly researched, brilliantly extraordinarily lively interpretation of Richard Strauss: Vier letzte reeds of which she sings, and, with much performed, and beautifully packaged. some of the most remarkable pages in Lieder & Lieder pluck, in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sérénade’ Op. 65’ Comprising professional singers and twentieth-century musical literature. Diana Damrau, Helmut Deutsch, she takes on the persona of a French cabaret highly experienced amateurs, the Utopia Bavarian Radio Symphony singer. Alder’s voice is in full, voluptuous Chamber Choir produces a sound vibrant Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. Orchestra & Mariss Jansons bloom in Rachmaninov’s ‘Daisies’, providing and occasionally rustic, befitting the music 1 & 2 Erato. 0190295303464. $29.95 contrast with her reading of Grieg’s far more presented on this disc. Accompanying Benjamin Grosvenor, Royal Scottish The centrepiece of this reserved, and sometimes quaint, lieder. the choir is a motley crew of baroque National Orchestra & Elim Chan album of Strauss songs is Her recording of Britten’s song cycle instrumentalists, led by Lawrence-King on Decca. 4850365. $24.95 the sublime Vier letzte ‘The Poet’s Echo’ – from where the disc his various harps. Together, they create a British pianist Benjamin Lieder, in which takes its name – is the crowning point of magically medieval – and at times hypnotic – Grosvenor presents a Damrau – born and the album. Although the music is severe sound world. Folk singer Karoliina new recording of two trained in Bavaria – joins and challenging, Alder’s performance is Kantelinen’s inclusion is a little jarring (to my concerto favourites: forces with the Bavarian Radio Symphony intelligent and moving, and pianist Joseph ears, anyway) alongside the heavenly tones Chopin’s Piano Orchestra and its long-standing Chief Middleton’s playing is exceptional for its of the choir, but that is a minor blip on what Concertos Nos. 1 and 2. Conductor Mariss Jansons, in what was to precision and emotional intensity. is a very special recording. These works have been an integral part of become his final recording. Damrau’s Alexandra Mathew is from Readings State Alexandra Mathew is from Readings State Grosvenor’s repertoire since the beginning partner in a tempting and diverse selection Library Victoria Library Victoria of his adolescence. of songs with piano is Helmut Deutsch.

WILD & WONDROUS

AUSTRCLAALSSIBAACICNK &S LOOKING BETTER THAN EVER.