FREE APRIL 2017

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NEW IN APRIL SARAH BERNADETTE JESSICA ONE MORE FATHER SCHMIDT BRENNAN FRIEDMANN TIME WITH JOHN MISTY $32.99 $32.99 $29.99 FEELING $19.95 $27.99 $27.99 page 14 $21.95 page 21 page 22 page 7 page 13

CARLTON 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 KIDS 315 Lygon St 9341 7730 DONCASTER Westfield Doncaster, 619 Doncaster Rd 9810 0891 HAWTHORN 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 MALVERN 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 ST KILDA 112 Acland St 9525 3852 STATE LIBRARY VICTORIA 328 Swanston St 8664 7540 See shop opening hours, browse and buy online at www.readings.com.au

READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 3

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CLUNES BOOKTOWN FESTIVAL The annual Clunes Booktown Festival is back, on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May. Headline authors this year include Clementine Ford, the Hon. Tim Fischer AC, Hannah Kent, Kate Grenville, A.S. Patric and Annie Raser-Rowland. Along with author talks, panel discussions and literary luncheons, festival-goers can discover the largest collection of rare, out-of-print and collectable books in Australia, go inside heritage buildings, listen to live music, watch street performers, take a horse-and-cart ride, try their hand in a Scrabble tournament and visit the Readings bookstall at the Festival. A weekend pass is $10 for adults, and $5 for students and children. See clunesbooktown.com.au for more information. Readings Monthly Free, independent monthly newspaper published by Readings Books, Music & 25% OFF A RANGE OF Film ESSENTIAL COOKBOOKS are eligible for entry. The 2017 Stella is proud to be the official bookseller for Throughout April, we’re offering 25% Subscribe Prize will be awarded in Melbourne on the Rock & Roll Writers Festival tour You can subscribe to Readings Monthly and off a select range of our most popular Tuesday 18 April. edition in Melbourne. our e-news by visiting our website: cookbooks. The range includes titles readings.com.au/newsletters-and-e-news from Yotam Ottolenghi, Hetty McKinnon, Donna Hay, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE GIRLS WRITE UP Editor Anna Jones, Bill Granger, Jamie Oliver, FOR FICTION LONGLIST The Stella Schools Program’s Girls Write Elke Power Karen Martini and the team from Smith [email protected] The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Up is back for its second year, with & Daughters, among others. This offer longlist for 2017 has been announced. upcoming events in Canberra (6 May), is exclusively available in all Readings Incoming Editor (see page 5) The 16 longlisted books are: Stay With Melbourne (15 & 16 June) and Sydney (22 shops (except Readings Kids) and online, Jo Case Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò; The Power by & 23 June). Open to all teens aged 12–16, [email protected] until 30 April. In-stock items only, while Naomi Alderman; Hag-Seed by Margaret Girls Write Up teaches empowerment stocks last. Look for the orange ‘25% off’ Atwood; Little Deaths by Emma Flint; The through writing and sharing stories; Editorial Assistant stickers! Mare by Mary Gaitskill; The Dark Circle explores the relationship between Judi Mitchell by Linda Grant; The Lesser Bohemians language, gender and power; and examines [email protected] 20% OFF VINYL SALE by Eimear McBride; Midwinter by the effects of unconscious bias on our Fiona Melrose; The Sport of Kings by sense of self. The 2017 speakers include Record Store Day is officially on Saturday Advertising C.E. Morgan; The Woman Next Door by Candy Bowers, Karen Pickering, Nayuka 22 April, but Readings is celebrating Stella Charls Yewande Omotoso; The Lonely Hearts Gorrie, Emilie Zoey Baker, and Rebecca [email protected] all month long, with 20% off all vinyl! Hotel by Heather O’Neill; The Essex Lim. Tickets are $35 each and available (03) 9341 7739 Handpicked by our passionate music Serpent by Sarah Perry; Barkskins by now through thestellaprize.com.au/ team, our vinyl collection includes Annie Proulx; First Love by Gwendoline girlswriteup. Graphic Design old favourites alongside terrific new Riley; Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Cat Matteson releases. Come on down to chat with our colourcode.com.au Madeleine Thien; and The Gustav Sonata specialists in person and complete your by Rose Tremain. The judges must now READINGS STORY TIMES own collection. The sale runs from 1–30 Front Cover whittle these down to a shortlist of six to Readings offers free weekly half-hour April 2017 at all Readings shops (except The April Readings Monthly cover features be announced on Monday 11 April, before story time sessions at our Carlton, Readings Kids and Readings Malvern). the cover image from A Writing Life: choosing an overall winner. Doncaster, Malvern and St Kilda shops, Helen Garner and Her Work by Bernadette The offer only applies to vinyl currently with the aim of promoting literacy Brennan, courtesy of Text Publishing. The in stock, and is not available online. Offer and encouraging a love of books and cover of A Writing Life was designed by excludes all Record Store Day releases. ROCK & ROLL bookshops in our newest generation. Imogen Stubbs and the cover photograph WRITERS FESTIVAL These sessions commence at 10am is by Julian Kingma. See page 13 for more about the book. THE STELLA PRIZE SHORTLIST Following its successful inaugural on Fridays at Readings Carlton, 10am event in Brisbane in 2016, the Rock on Saturdays at Readings Doncaster, The Stella Prize shortlist for 2017 has Cartoon & Roll Writers Festival is bringing a 10.30am on Thursdays at Readings been announced, celebrating Australian Oslo Davis one-day special event to Melbourne. Malvern and 10.30am on Saturdays at women’s contribution to literature. The oslodavis.com On Sunday 9 April at the Abbotsford Readings St Kilda. To thank parents six extraordinary books on the 2017 Convent, a number of acclaimed authors, and children for attending story time, Stella Prize shortlist are: Between a Wolf Prices and availability songwriters, journalists, commentators Readings offers a 20% discount off all and a Dog by Georgia Blain (Scribe); Please note that all prices and release and broadcasters will come together full-priced children’s books for half The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba dates in Readings Monthly are correct at for an entertaining and engaging an hour after the completion of each time of publication, however prices and Clarke (Hachette); Poum and Alexandre day of discussions around creativity, story time session. Our children’s book release dates may change without notice. by Catherine de Saint Phalle (Transit inspiration, and the effect that music specialists would be happy to assist Special price offers apply only for the Lounge); An Isolated Incident by Emily and writing have on each other. Speakers you in choosing books for your family, month in which they are featured in the Maguire (Pan Macmillan); The Museum Readings Monthly. include Hugo Race, Jenny Valentish, whatever their age, reading ability or of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Allen Jess Ribeiro and Cash Savage. For the interests. Please note, this is not a child- & Unwin); and Dying: A Memoir by Cory Readings donates 10% of its profits each full program, or to book tickets, head to minding service. We ask that parents Taylor (Text). The prize is worth $50,000, year to The Readings Foundation: rockandrollwritersfestival.com. Readings stay with their children for the reading. readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation and both fiction and non-fiction books

One part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation. Ann Patchett

get the whole story at hachette.com.au On Shelves 28 March 4 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

April Events MEET IRISH RODNEY TIFFEN 8 COMEDIAN DAVID 18 IN CONVERSATION A SPECIAL ALLAN GYNGELL O’DOHERTY WITH GLYN DAVIS 1 STORY TIME WITH 5 ON AUSTRALIA’S Straight from the Melbourne International Disposable Leaders is an engaging and TAI SNAITH FEAR OF Comedy Festival, we are excited to have Irish insightful analysis of the high-drama comedian and children’s book author David leadership challenge – a regular event that Drop by our Kids shop for an extra special ABANDONMENT O’Doherty paying a visit to our Kids shop. is now central to Australian politics. Join story time with local writer and artist Tai A diplomat, policy officer and analyst, O’Doherty will be reading from his Danger is author Rodney Tiffen for a conversation Snaith reading from her gorgeous new Allan Gyngell was Director-General of Everywhere series (for ages 8 and up), as well about the work with Glyn Davis, Vice- picture book, Slow Down, World. The first ONA, the Australian government’s central as signing books for fans young and old. Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. 30 people to buy a copy of Slow Down, intelligence assessment agency, from 2009 World at the event will also receive a signed to 2013. In Fear of Abandonment, he unpacks Free, but please book at Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events readings.com.au/events A5 print from the book. how the fear of being abandoned has Tuesday 18 April, 6.30pm shaped Australian foreign policy. Gyngell Saturday 8 April, 11am Readings Carlton Free, no bookings required. will discuss the book with ABC presenter Readings Kids Saturday 1 April, 10.30am Michael Rowland. Readings Kids MICHAEL SALA IN THE ROCK & ROLL Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events 19 CONVERSATION 9 WRITERS FESTIVAL GIVING UP THE Wednesday 5 April, 6.30pm WITH KEVIN Readings Hawthorn IN MELBOURNE 3 GOOD GIRL RABALAIS The Rock & Roll Writers Festival is bringing WITH FEMINIST The Restorer is the second novel from award- a one-day special event to Melbourne. Come A BOOKSHOP GIG winning author Michael Sala, and delves into WRITERS along to hear discussions around creativity, 5 WITH CHARM OF the devastating impact of domestic violence inspiration, and the effect that music and FESTIVAL on a family. Sala will expand on themes in FINCHES writing have on each other. Speakers include 2017 is the unofficial Year of Nasty Women his work in this intimate conversation with Hugo Race, Jenny Valentish, Jess Ribeiro and to celebrate the Feminist Writers Join Melbourne sisters Mabel and Ivy Windred- Kevin Rabalais. Festival is hosting a panel discussion Wornes, aka Charm of Finches, as they make and Cash Savage. Readings is proud to be the between three amazing creative women. dreamy folk music at our St Kilda shop. official bookseller on the day. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Join Angela Pippos, Krissy Kneen and Wednesday 19 April, 6.30pm Free, no booking required. Find the full program and book tickets at Jamila Rizvi for an important conversation Readings St Kilda Wednesday 5 April, 6.30pm rockandrollwritersfestival.com/melbourne about politics, gender roles, and learning Readings St Kilda Sunday 9 April, 1pm-8pm how to stop being so damn nice. The Abbotsford Convent, MADONNA KING 1 St Heliers St., Abbotsford Entry is $10 per person ($7.50 concession). STEPHANIE 20 ON BEING 14 Please book at readings.com.au/events 6 ALEXANDER ON Madonna King is one of Australia’s most Monday 3 April, 6pm THE STATE OF KITCHEN GARDEN accomplished journalists; she is also the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, 11 BEING EQUAL: parent of two teenage girls. Come along 210 Lonsdale St., Melbourne COOKING UNDERSTANDING to hear her talk about her new handbook, Stephanie Alexander AO is one of Australia’s INTERNATIONAL LAW Being 14, for which she interviewed 200 TALES OF TRAVEL great food educators. A cook, restaurateur 14-year-old girls across the country, as well We are excited to introduce a new event series and writer, she is also the founder of the as teachers, psychologists, CEOs, police 4 AND FOOD in 2017. The State of Being Equal is a forum Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden and neuroscientists. WRITING intended to make sure we trump Trump politics Foundation. We’re delighted that a new by exploring how society can be more equitable Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Together with Fully Booked Women, we paperback edition of Stephanie Alexander’s and just, rather than divisive and bellicose. Each Thursday 20 April, 6.30pm are delighted to host an evening of far- Kitchen Garden Companion: Cooking has event in the series will examine a new title that Readings Hawthorn flung, food-inspired stories. Michelle Wild been released, and even more delighted to is relevant to global and sexual politics. will chair a panel that includes writer and host an in-conversation with Alexander at cook Dani Valent (Entertaining with Dani); our Doncaster shop with Joe Rubbo. In Who’s Afraid of International Law?, NICOLE HAYES IN chef and cooking school host Tracey Lister noted authorities explore ways in which 27 (Vietnamese Street Food); and contributing Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events international law constitutes a certain way CONVERSATION editor at Saveur magazine Shane Mitchell Thursday 6 April, 6.30pm of talking and being – one that might have WITH EMILY GALE (Far Afield). Readings Doncaster both ameliorative and malign effects. Editors In her heartbreaking young adult novel A Raimond Gaita and Gerry Simpson will discuss Shadow’s Breath, Nicole Hayes explores Entry is $25 per person and includes wine and the ideas raised in the book with feminist some tough and messy issues for teenagers. nibbles. Places are strictly limited. JOY RHOADES international law scholar Hilary Charlesworth. Please book at readings.com.au/events 6 IN CONVERSATION Hayes will be joined in conversation by fellow young adult author Emily Gale to talk Tuesday 4 April, 5.45pm – 7pm WITH KELLY Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Readings Hawthorn family, feminism and fortune. GARDINER Tuesday 11 April, 6pm Readings Carlton Free, but please book at Joy Rhoades’s debut novel, The Woolgrower’s readings.com.au/events THE HONOURABLE Companion, is the story of a young woman’s 4 DAME QUENTIN BOOK SIGNING WITH Thursday 27 April, 6.30pm fight to save her family’s sheep farm during Readings Kids BRYCE IN the final days of WWII. Rhoades will talk 12 JOHN DARNIELLE CONVERSATION about her research and writing process with Join us at our St Kilda shop to have your JOHN SAFRAN ON WITH ANNE fellow author Kelly Gardiner. copy of John Darnielle’s new novel, Universal Harvester, signed by the author. Darnielle will 28 EXTREMISTS IN Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events SUMMERS also sign copies of his first novel, Wolf in White Thursday 6 April, 6.30pm CONTEMPORARY The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce made Van, on the day. Strictly book-signing only. Readings Carlton AUSTRALIA history in 2008 when she was appointed Australia’s first female Governor-General. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events No one turns up where they’re not wanted Dear Quentin is a collection of the letters CELEBRATE 30 Wednesday 12 April, 11am quite like John Safran. His latest book, she wrote and received during her six-year 7 YEARS OF Readings St Kilda Depends What You Mean by Extremist, is term, and includes personal stories behind a confronting portrait of contemporary WHERE’S WALLY? the correspondence. We’re thrilled to be A BOOKSHOP GIG Australia. Come along to hear Safran hosting Bryce in conversation with writer Can you believe we’ve been searching for 13 talk about his experiences with white and feminist Anne Summers. Wally for 30 years now? At Readings Kids WITH ROUGH RIVER nationalists, ISIS supporters, anarchists we’re celebrating his anniversary with Rough River is the musical project of folk and more. Entry is $10 per person and the ticket fee games and giveaways. Kids can join in the Melbourne singer–songwriter Kate Skinner. Tickets are $35 per person and include a signed is redeemable off the price of the book, if hunt for Wally as he hides behind shelves or Her debut LP, The Leaving, quietly aches purchased on the night. copy of Depends What You Mean By Extremist. inside books; he may even pose for a photo with tales of love gone by and a yearning for Please book at readings.com.au/events Please book at readings.com.au/events with you if you catch him! This event is the natural world. Join us for an intimate Tuesday 4 April, 6.30pm-7.30pm Friday 28 April, 6.30pm suitable for ages 4–8. performance at our St Kilda shop. Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St., Carlton Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St., Carlton Free, no bookings required. Free, no booking required. Friday 7 April, 12.30pm Thursday 13 April, 6.30pm Readings Kids Readings St Kilda READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 5

A SPECIAL STORY April Launches 29 TIME WITH Mark’s News and views from Readings’ Managing Director, BRONNY LANE Cath Crowley will launch Gabrielle Wang’s Mark Rubbo new children’s novel, The Beast of Hushing Say Join us for a special story time with Bronny Wood, an adventure tale for ages 8 and up. Lane as she reads from My Two Super Mums. Sunday 2 April, 2pm This is the fifth title in Lane’s ‘My Super Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. Last month I went to the opening of a rather marvellous and moving exhibition at Melbourne’s Family’ children’s book series. Immigration Museum. The exhibition, They Cannot Take the Sky: Stories From Detention is Jane Rocca will be joined in conversation based on the book of the same name (edited by Michael Green, Angelica Neville, André Dao, Free, no booking required. at the launch of her book, Groundbreaking Dana Affleck and Sienna Merope, Allen & Unwin, special price $24.99). Like the book, it’s been Saturday 29 April, 10.30am Fashion, by fellow journalist Rachelle Unreich. put together by a group of people with a lived experience of immigration detention. Twenty- Readings Kids Monday 3 April, 6.30pm four asylum seekers share their stories (through short videos and audio): their journeys, their Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. experiences in immigration detention, and life after release. Some remain in offshore detention: they share their hopes for the future, despite their ongoing incarceration. Their testimonies are Coming up in May Michael Williams and Claire Hooper will shocking and at times hilarious, surprising and devastating, but above all, they show people with launch Helen Thorn and Ellie Gibson’s ordinary aspirations to a life free of tyranny and persecution. Victoria’s Minister for Creative Scummy Mummies, a gutsy and hilarious book Industries, Martin Foley, gave an impassioned speech about the need for the immigration debate about parenting failures, fish fingers and wine. to be reset, at a time when the whole world is facing dislocation. The exhibition and book were Tuesday 4 April, 6.30pm produced by Behind the Wire (founded in 2014), an ongoing oral history project documenting Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. the stories of the men, women and children detained by the Australian government after seeking asylum in Australia. They’ve also collaborated with the Wheeler Centre to produce a podcast, Join us for the launch of Jessica Friedmann’s The Messenger, comprising conversations between Melbourne journalist Michael Green and a essay collection, Things That Helped, which Sudanese refugee, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, currently detained on Manus Island. The exhibition is charts her journey through postnatal depression. on until 2 July, the book is available from Readings and you can hear the podcast on the Wheeler Wednesday 5 April, 6.30pm Centre website (or subscribe on iTunes). Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. I hope, like me, you’re discovering some inspiring new books. I’ve had a great time over the last few months being reenergised by reading. It makes me realise what a privileged position I’m Join us for the launch of Jessica Tavassoli and in, to have access to so many wonderful books – though I’m also a bit daunted by all those I won’t Alice Chipkin’s Eyes Too Dry, a graphic memoir be able to read. Anna Low is on the board of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation with me; she’s about heavy feelings, queer friendship and the also a great bookseller with a wonderful bookshop in Sydney’s Potts Point. At our last meeting, therapeutic possibilities of making comics. she raved about Bill Hayes’ Insomniac City (Bloomsbury, HB, $29.99). Hayes was the partner of Thursday 6 April, 6.30pm famous neurologist Oliver Sacks in the years leading up to his death, and a New York newcomer. Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. The book is about New York and about love. It’s funny, fascinating, poignant and wise: and at the end, incredibly sad. What more could you want from a book? SUSAN CARLAND Join us for the launch of Vivian Vass’s Adventure I also read The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of Silicon Valley are Before Dementia Down Under, the true tale of 1 ON WOMEN, FAITH Changing the World (Bantam, PB, $35) by Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store (about May how one middle-aged couple decided to take the AND SEXISM Amazon). It’s a fascinating account of these two companies. They started with quite different road less travelled and join the grey-nomads. philosophies, but ended up doing similar things. Airbnb wanted to bring the world together; In Fighting Hislam, Susan Carland unearths Wednesday 12 April, 6.30pm Uber wanted to exploit and profit from the inefficiencies of the taxi industry. I only discovered a creative, varied and committed new type Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. of feminism, one that embraces passionate Uber recently – and was seduced by its beautiful technology. But after reading Upstarts, I deleted religious conviction while challenging sexism. Join us for the launch of Steph Bowe’s new my app. Though Stone admires Uber and what it’s achieved, what comes through in the book Carland will discuss her book with writer and young adult novel, Night Swimming – a love is its utter ruthlessness in pushing its agenda, no matter what the cost to the community. CEO feminist Clementine Ford, and share inspiring story with a twist and a whole lot of heart. Travis Kalanick is so convinced of Uber’s benefits that the cultural and economic histories of stories of Muslim women who oppose sexism Thursday 20 April, 6.30pm a community are irrelevant to him, as are its laws. The power of books is that they can change in their own communities. Readings Kids | Free, no booking required. agendas: can make people rethink and reimagine their world. I’d love to hear about the books that have done this for you recently! Entry is $50 per person ($45 concession) and Join us as Jonathan Green launches The includes a signed copy of Fighting Hislam. Honest History Book, a lively collection of Please book at readings.com.au/events essays from the Honest History group edited Monday 1 May, 6.30pm by David Stephens and Alison Broinowski. From Elke Power, Plaza Ballroom, 191 Collins St., Melbourne Thursday 20 April, 6.30pm Editor of the Readings Monthly Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. the editor MIA FREEDMAN ON Join us for the launch of Jo Stewart’s Which Cult 2 WORK STRIFE May Should I Join?, a choose-your-own-adventure in In international fiction, there was almost a bookseller stampede for John Darnielle’s much- BALANCE the weird and wacky world of cults. anticipated second novel, Universal Harvester (page 8). Our marketing and events coordinator Mia Freedman looms large in the Australian Wednesday 26 April, 6.30pm Stella Charls describes it as ‘a wonderfully strange and moving reading experience’. American media sphere as the co-founder and creative Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. journalist Omar El Akkad’s American War, a dystopian novel set in a near-future where a director of the Mamamia Women’s Network. second Civil War rages, is reviewed with relish (page 8) by Bronte Coates, our digital content Author Chris Flynn will launch David In her new book, Work Strife Balance, she coordinator. Locally, Elizabeth Tan’s Rubik, a novel in stories that’s as tantalising and full of Cohen’s suspenseful second novel, shares her most mortifying slip-ups in life, love clever tricks as its cubic namesake, is reviewed on page 7. There are also several novels inspired Disappearing Off the Face of the Earth. and work, and how they came to shape the by true events, including Sarah Schmidt’s wonderfully dark Lizzie Borden novel, See What I Thursday 27 April, 6.30pm person she is today. Come along to hear her Have Done (page 7) and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Shadow Land (page 8). Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. discuss the book. Our managing director, Mark Rubbo, thoroughly enjoyed the books he reviewed this month. Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There is a surprise hit by a young Dutch Join us for the launch of Diana Korevaar’s Entry is $45 per person ($40 concession) and thinker whose provocative, visionary book is a steal at $21.99 (page 14). Mark has been a includes a signed copy of Work Strife Balance. Mindfulness for Mums and Dads, which features huge fan of Helen Garner since locals first swarmed to Readings to buy Monkey Grip. So, his Please book at readings.com.au/events case studies and simple mindfulness practices. assessment of Bernadette Brennan’s A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work (page 13) is Tuesday 2 May, 6.30pm Thursday 27 April, 6.30pm an astute one. His verdict? It’s our non-fiction book of the month. Readings Carlton’s Amanda Cinema Nova, Lygon Street Court, Carlton Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. Rayner also approached this month’s review as a fan with high expectations: a devotee of Picnic at Hanging Rock, she embraced Janelle McCulloch’s beautiful hardback biography of its author, Join us for the launch of A Time for Grace, Mark Beyond the Rock: The Life of Joan Lindsay and the Mystery of Hanging Rock (page 13). Many REINVENTING Nethercote’s memoir of an IVF journey to Readings staffers have been looking forward to the new book from New Yorker staff writer parenthood as both a father and a doctor. 4 MIDDLE AGE WITH Ariel Levy (who long ago debuted with Female Chauvinist Pigs). Our marketing manager Nina May Sunday 30 April, 4pm PATRICIA AND DON Kenwood won the lottery; she reviewed The Rules Do Not Apply (page 14), which she compares Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. EDGAR to titans Rachel Cusk and Elena Ferrante in its excavation of women’s lives, losses and longings. We’re delighted to see our multitalented digital marketing manager, Lian Hingee, in Letters In Peak, Patricia and Don Edgar argue that Join us for the launch of Felice Arena’s of Love: Words from the Heart Penned by Prominent Australians, an anthology compiled by the it’s time to rethink our ideas about ageing and new children’s book, The Boy and the Spy, a Alannah and Madeline Foundation, for the twentieth anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre. youth, and explain why ‘middle age’ should wartime adventure in Sicily for ages 9 and up. You’ll also find Jo Case’s brilliant interview with debut author Jessica Friedmann about her encompass those from ages 50–75. They will Sunday 30 April, 2pm essay collection, Things That Helped. Jo’s is a name with which many of you will be familiar – share stories from the book about Australians Readings Kids | Free, no booking required. she’s an author, a former editor of Readings Monthly and has worn numerous literary hats who have embraced their own middle age in Join us for the launch of Hippy Days, Arabian before and since then. Jo’s feature this month is just the first time you’ll see her name in the interesting and inspirational ways. Nights, a remarkable memoir from St Kilda months to come, as I’m very grateful that she’s agreed to return to edit Readings Monthly while Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events artist Katherine Boland. I’m on parental leave until later this year. For now, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Jo and Thursday 4 May, 6.30pm Wednesday 3 May, 6.30pm our wonderful new editorial assistant, Judi Mitchell, succeeding Alan Vaarwerk, who’s been Readings Hawthorn Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. promoted to editor of Kill Your Darlings – and the rest of the amazing Readings team. I’ll be back, sharing book recommendations, before long! 6 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 NEW AUSTRALIAN WRITING

THINGS THAT HELPED: ESSAYS Jessica Friedmann Scribe. PB. $29.99 Available 3 April For more about the book, see our review on page 14.

Mother, Unravelled Jo Case interviews Jessica Friedmann about her debut collection of essays, Things That Helped.

he opening chapter in Jessica Friedmann’s memoir- the bullshit. There’s a very dangerous societal tendency to as home) by acknowledging them, as missing pieces of the in-essays, Things That Helped, closes with her lying glamorise mental illness, and I didn’t want any part of this to puzzle she is forming. When she describes using her whiteness on her bathroom floor in the middle of the night, feel glamorous in any way. I didn’t ever want to see myself in as ‘a tool in [her] arsenal’, simply by being, it is refreshingly resolved to drown herself in the Maribyrnong this book as a wistful woman looking out a window as the rain confronting, in a way that forces readers to acknowledge their TRiver, but unable to get up. She’s a young woman engulfed by falls. That’s not what it’s like. It’s mostly alienating and boring.’ own privilege. early motherhood, distanced not just from her creative self, Her subject is broader than merely motherhood, or even In ‘Walking’, the essay she says was hardest to write, she but from her very grasp on language. Her body is scarred and the mental health issues that gathered in a tsunami when interrogates the ‘live question’ of her identity as a Jewish inflamed by child-bearing, colonised by her young son, and too her son was small. She explores the meaning of the cultural Australian, with Holocaust survivor grandparents on her traumatised to bear touch from her husband. pleasures (dance, craft, music) that soothed or restored her father’s side. Here, she questions that ‘whiteness’ she earlier ‘I think it’s funny,’ Friedmann says now, on the phone from at her worst, teasing out not just what drew her to them, but owned. ‘In America and Australia and Britain, we have left Canberra, as I sit by my window, watching that same river their intrinsic resonance with who she is. The otherworldly behind the fact of being “ethnic”, blending so successfully gleam black under the orange lights of the dockyards. ‘But I crooning of Anhoni (formerly Antony, of Antony and the with the general population that we are no more noticeable appreciate that people won’t think it’s a very good joke. You Johnsons) represents a kindred spirit: ‘a grown woman whose than flies,’ she writes. This new insider status in Australia, have to laugh. Or else, you can’t pick yourself up.’ longing is shot through with loneliness and pain’. In the depths she says, was gained through European Jews’ visible contrast This pragmatism illustrates her distance from those dark of Friedmann’s depression, Anhoni’s annihilation fantasies with ‘those with black and brown and Asian skins’: those days, as does the anecdote she shares, before we get down offer the vicarious comfort of closure. In the essay ‘Weaving’, others, including Indigenous Australians, were branded to business, about her afternoon playing on the floor with Friedmann discovers the loom at a time when her mind is too outsiders here. For Friedmann, this precarious whiteness, this three-year-old Owen. ‘I always wanted a child, but I never amorphous for any other creative pursuit; she revels in the ‘passing’ is internalised as a sense of never being good enough, wanted a baby,’ she says later. ‘Everything I looked forward sensory delight of it and in its significance as a bridge back to a permanent low hum of anxiety. The rise of anti-Semitism to that I now cherish is about the child. Some of my struggle words. ‘To think simply that my fingers are moving in a long in Europe and white supremacism in the US brings this with being a young mother is that I didn’t like having a tradition of signification, that marks in wool are the natural precariousness into relief. baby. I’ve never been interested in babies. And you’re not precursors to marks on a page, shifts the world sideways for ‘I was revising ‘Walking’ right up until the week before supposed to say that, I guess.’ me into sense.’ we went to print,’ remembers Friedmann. ‘Some of my Once, nobody did say that. But in the past twenty years, Across these essays, she maps the shifting terrain of her tentative hedging is almost comic now, because it’s all in that taboo has been brilliantly broken by a series of very fine relationships with her partner, her family, and her closest the past. It’s moved in a much nastier direction than when personal accounts of the difficulty of early motherhood: friends: how they have shaped her, and what she has learned I was trying to hash out all these questions.’ But this essay, Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work, Susan Maushart’s The Mask of about how people might come together to make a life – what with its nuanced interrogation of identity and the shifting Motherhood, Susan Johnson’s A Better Woman and Rachel they gain and what they relinquish in the process. Friedmann nature of privilege, is, it seems to me, a far more valuable Power’s Creativity and Motherhood. Friedmann’s dissection describes the essay as ‘kind of a collage form’. This sense of tool for understanding the current political climate than of her post-natal depression, and her struggle to retain her piecing together, of layering, is one of the most satisfying most up-to-the-minute think-pieces. individual identity in the midst of motherhood, earns its and engaging aspects of her book, particularly her facility for Did Friedmann read other memoirs, or books of essays, place in the ‘difficult motherhood’ canon. Not since Cusk placing her experience in the context of other lives. that inspired her? She says she deliberately avoided personal has a writer so precisely articulated that swamping of the ‘My face is the face of the suffering women’s canon,’ she essay collections, in case they subconsciously influenced her self, and the surprise of it. ‘Unravelling is a painful process, writes. ‘Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Winona Ryder in Girl, – but she’s looking forward to reading Eula Biss and Leslie one that rapidly outpaces my ability to repair the damage,’ Interrupted: the tragic and creative white woman is such a Jamieson, and recently read and loved Fiona Wright’s Small Friedmann writes. ‘When Owen is born, the vocabulary well-known figure that our fragility and need for protection Acts of Disappearance. I urge Rachel Cusk and Meghan Daum lost to the pregnancy doesn’t suddenly flood back, as I is automatically assumed – I know walking out over a ledge on her, and she says they’re on her list. As for memoir itself, it’s had half expected, certainly hoped. Instead, the process of that there will most likely be someone to catch me … I can’t not a genre she reads much, apart from a few books she loves deterioration speeds up, leaving me exhausted by attempts to stop thinking about those other women, the ones who don’t (mostly writers’ memoirs). keep up with the train of my most basic thoughts.’ have recourse to benign stereotypes, only harmful ones, who ‘I hope the book is in conversation with people and ideas,’ Of course, while much of Friedmann’s experience will are supposed to be better at suffering, or more accustomed she says, and pauses. ‘I am very resistant to the genre of the speak to the ‘normal’ frustrations of early motherhood (no to it anyway.’ recovery memoir. I think it’s too pat and it sets you up for sleep, removing poo from the bath, feeling your body and Friedmann doesn’t presume to take us inside the failure. So the book is in a sense just an excavation. I’m still here. time are no longer yours), it goes beyond that. She tells me experiences of those ‘other’ women. The Ethiopian, Chinese I’m still finding things out. I’m still developing as a person.’ that one in seven Australian women are estimated to have and Vietnamese women in her Footscray neighbourhood post-natal depression: 100,000 per year. While she in no way don’t join council mothers’ groups, but instead have their own wants to suggest that her experience is what it looks like for community-based alternatives; their lives remain closed to her, Jo Case is incoming editor of everyone, she did want to create a book that would represent their paths colliding only when they walk their strollers on the Readings Monthly, and the author it accurately. ‘I wanted to be as frank as I could be, because banks of the Maribyrnong, or past the junk shops on Nicholson of Boomer and Me: A Memoir of there’s so much obscurantism about things like mental Street. Friedmann addresses these gaps (and the visible Motherhood and Aspergers illness, or early parenthood. I wanted to strip away some of absence of the traditional owners of the suburb she embraces READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 7

New Fiction

historical context beyond the case itself – Australian Fiction the chapters by Bridget, the Borden’s Irish maid, give an outline of the immigrant experience in America’s Gilded Age. RUBIK These sections are interesting for a second Elizabeth Tan reason: it is Bridget’s outsider’s view into Brio. PB. $29.99 the Borden family dynamic that anchors Available now this string of events in a sense of reality. Rubik is a novel Bringing Bridget’s presence to the forefront in stories that of the narrative surrounding the deaths embraces science of Abby and Andrew Borden makes this fiction, speculative retelling feel new. fiction, satire and Somehow, Sarah Schmidt manages to fantasy. In an do all this without sacrificing the quality ever-expanding array of her writing. I found the grisliest scenes of viewpoints, Rubik had the most stunning prose, which makes slots into place like a it very hard to stop reading (even when Rubik’s cube as you you start to feel ill). Every single one of unfold the puzzles. the characters is disturbing, especially This makes it sound clever and tricky, which Lizzie. Her outbursts, strange habits and it is, but it’s also a novel of great compassion contradictions are fascinating to explore, as and tenderness. they are what cast suspicion on her in the Rubik is a book you need to sink into. first place. In this novel, Lizzie Borden is It starts with the death of Elena Rubik, much more than the pop-culture caricature in a moment of bracing everydayness. As of a murderess you might be familiar with. people start to mourn, we fade out – and Even though this is an old story, Schmidt’s arrive in Chapter Two with Pikkoro and her beautifully abject and visceral prose paints a multipurpose octopus, Tako. Shifting from new and somehow more disturbing picture of suburban Perth to an octopus who knits Lizzie Borden and her family. while its charge goes to primary school is Ellen Cregan is from Readings Doncaster the kind of tonal shift that Rubik continues to deliver over the course of its story-in- THE STARLINGS stories, yet it very deftly maintains its central Vivienne Kelly axis of loss, grief and connectedness. As Text. PB. $29.99 each part of the puzzle unfolds and each Available 3 April viewpoint is given space, the world of Rubik continues to open out, with a sharp-eyed Set in 1985, The focus on technology and consciousness, Starlings, by interconnectedness and the rewards and Vivienne Kelly, is the vulnerabilities of shared experience. story of a family falling The stories connect artfully in (often apart, as seen through very sly) passing references to each other, as the eyes of its well as picking up narratives and characters youngest member, who are frequently revisited. We return Nicky. It begins with often to Jules, Elena’s close friend who Nicky’s eighth carries a central thread of the story, as birthday, which his well as a recurring cast of well-realised parents seem to have forgotten, because it’s protagonists who occasionally seem to start also the day his grandmother, Didie, has as an idea, a signifier – but then almost died. In the months that follow, a series of always gain a sense of solidity, of fully events occur that turn Nicky’s world upside realised interaction. down. He is betrayed by those he most Rubik is an unusual read, one that cares about, including Didie’s nurse, Rose, requires a willingness to go with it, to see who he has formed a strong attachment to. how these disparate parts will come together. Nicky’s father, Frank, is obsessed with football, to the point where he seems to Marie Matteson is from Readings Carlton have left all the parenting responsibility SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE to Nicky’s mother, Jenny. He desperately wants his son to share his passion. Sarah Schmidt Although Nicky wants to please his father, Hachette. PB. Was $32.99 he prefers to lose himself in the stories $27.99 of King Arthur and Shakespeare that his Available 28 March mother reads to him, performing his own The case of versions, using synthetic figurines from the Lizzie Borden Heroes of the Cosmos. is one that has Football, the plays of Shakespeare and sustained public Arthurian legends are all interwoven in interest for over one this story. The author draws links between hundred years. She Nicky’s disintegrating family life, the antics has gone down in on the footy field and the tales of yore. history as the I did wonder whether an eight-year- daughter who, as the old would be sophisticated enough to, for rhyme goes, ‘took an example, write his own version of Macbeth. axe, and gave her But then, children have vivid imaginations father forty whacks’. However, the grisly and create all sorts of fantasy worlds for murder of her elderly father and themselves, so he could be. stepmother was never officially attributed On the whole, I enjoyed reading The to anybody, as prosecutors couldn’t believe Starlings. Being a footy fan myself, I liked a woman would be physically capable of reading about the exploits of the players, committing such a violent crime. This who these days appear on our screens as meticulously researched novel breathes commentators. It was also very touching new life into a complex case that still to see Frank, who seemed to care only for attracts speculation. his beloved Hawks, step up and support This is a novel that sits somewhere the emotional needs of his children when between historical and literary fiction. I things started to go wrong. was impressed by the way it explored its Sharon Peterson is from Readings Carlton 8 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

STORYLAND has a naturally sunny disposition, an It is also a novel that deals sensitively International Fiction Catherine McKinnon immaculate reputation and a happy, with loss and tragedy. Alexandra struggles faithful marriage. But after the sudden to cope with the loss of her brother ten HarperCollins. PB. $27.99 death of his mother, he sinks into grief and years before and many of the Bulgarian Available 1 April AMERICAN WAR: depression, then ascends to the heights of A NOVEL characters struggle with the legacy of the Set on the banks of mania, and crosses paths with a beautiful brutal Communist regime in their nation. Lake Illawarra and woman profoundly damaged by her own Omar El Akkad Two confessions: I know nothing about spanning four trauma. Parker explores difficult territory Picador. PB. $29.99 Elizabeth Kostova and even less about centuries, Storyland, in with wit, warmth and wisdom. Available 28 March Bulgaria. I vaguely remember attempting essence, tells the story Set in the to read The Historian, but giving up early of Australia. In an BLINDNESS AND RAGE: near-distant on. As for Bulgaria, my partner was briefly unfurling narrative of A PHANTASMAGORIA future, a contentious obsessed with moving there for a while so interlinking stories, Brian Castro fossil fuels bill ignites I know that the housing market is fairly reminiscent of Cloud a second American cheap. After reading this one I’ll definitely Atlas, Catherine McKinnon weaves the Giramondo. PB. $26.95 Available now civil war. What be on the hunt for more Kostova and more story of Will Martin, a cabin boy for follows is brutal and Bulgaria. Brian Castro has won Matthew Flinders, together with four bloody, and rings with I was quickly sucked into the narrative or been shortlisted others: a desperate ex-convict, Hawker, the familiar. and the 500 pages seemed to fly by. Taking for most of Australia’s who commits an act of terrible brutality; Unmanned drones readers across Bulgaria and the twentieth literary prizes, yet two sisters and a brother who run a dairy patrol the skies, suicide bombers visit post century, The Shadow Land would appeal to remains the farm in 1900 and come under suspicion for offices, prisoners are methodically lovers of literary fiction, historical fiction, quintessential a crime they didn’t commit; Bel, a young tortured in government-run facilities, and and mystery and adventure novels. ‘writer’s writer’. His girl who goes on a rafting adventure with thousands of civilians are displaced. Sarat new novel is a Tristen Kiri Brudy is from Readings Carlton her friends in 1998 and is unexpectedly is one such civilian. Born in the now part-serious, caught up in violent events; and in 2033, half-underwater state of Louisiana, her part-comic fantasy on UNIVERSAL HARVESTER Nada, who sees her world start to crumble. family is forced to flee to a refugee camp the present fate of literary authors, who John Darnielle in Georgia, where they will stagnate for might as well be anonymous, or dead, for all Scribe. PB. Was $29.99 THE SCENT OF YOU years. At this camp, Sarat is recruited and the recognition that they are likely to receive $26.99 Maggie Alderson groomed to be a revolutionary for the for their writing. Told in 34 cantos, in the Available now HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 South. American War is her story, as manner of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, it tells Available 1 April recounted by her nephew some years into It’s tempting to the story of an Adelaide town-planner search for Another novel about the future. writing a book-length poem, and travelling parallels between John fashionistas, family Author Omar El Akkad is an award- to Paris to join a secret literary society that Darnielle’s music (he’s and messy lives from winning journalist who has written on encourages its authors to commit suicide, singer-songwriter for bestseller Maggie major world events such as the military unless they’re terminally ill. The Mountain Goats) Alderson. Perfume trials at Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring and his fiction. Universal blogger Polly is revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives BEST LAID PLANS Harvester, his highly thoroughly content – Matter movement in Missouri. It’s clear that Kathy Lette anticipated second children at uni, model these experiences have all directly informed Bantam. PB. Was $32.99 novel, follows the mother in a American War; this dystopian future is $27.99 critically acclaimed bestseller Wolf in White retirement village, strongly entrenched in reality, where even Van. And like his music, it features visions of and rocketing career – until her husband Available 18 April the most futuristic element of the story – a rural isolation and religious cults. Yet this disappears. She distracts herself with Pun-tastic Aussie weaponised virus capable of killing millions remarkable psychological thriller defies easy loudmouthed yoga student Shirlee, old author Kathy Lette of people – feels entirely plausible. categorisation. As original as it is ambitious, flame Edward and infuriating, talented made a splash with Sarat is a character who stays with you. Universal Harvester starts as a suspenseful perfumer Guy. But eventually she must her first novel about Ultimately a product of her experiences, thriller, then evolves into a compelling, face some difficult truths about her crossword-addicted she lives through some truly horrific unsettling study of family and loss. husband, herself and her future. English teacher Lucy events. While this novel is never graphic, and her autistic the pared-back prose is deeply disturbing It’s a novel in four linked parts, beginning MISS LILY’S teenage son Merlin. in its restraint. It’s a grim read, with in Nevada, Iowa (‘the 26th best small town in America’) at the end of the 1990s. LOVELY LADIES Now, Merlin is only flashes of bleak humour and tiny twenty, and Lucy is snapshots of genuine happiness for the Someone is splicing eerie home footage into Jackie French determined to help him lose his virginity, characters. American War is a chilling the videocassettes rented from Video Hut: HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 even if she’s arrested for kerb-crawling reference to contemporary warfare, and cryptic black-and-white videos of empty Available 1 April prostitutes in the process. But when while vehemently anti-war, the book is barns, accompanied by heavy breathing, Much-loved local author Merlin finds his own sexual saviour, in the also clear-eyed about people who become people with canvas bags over their heads, Jackie French weaves a form of tough, tattooed Kayleigh, Lucy is caught in the cycle. As one character standing or sitting or shuffling around with surprising story, forced to consider cutting the notes: ‘The universal slogan of war … was unclear purpose. Twenty-two-year-old Video inspired by true events, psychological umbilical cord while dealing simple: If it had been you, you’d have Hut employee Jeremy is reluctantly pulled about how society’s with the dubious return of her ex-husband done no different.’ This is a timely and into the obsessive search for the source of ‘lovely ladies’ won a war. and questions about Kayleigh’s motives. provocative read. the footage. If Universal Harvester had been Corned-beef heiress confined to untangling this mystery, it could Bronte Coates is the digital content be a perfectly engaging thriller. Instead, Sophie Higgs is the only A HUNDRED SMALL coordinator for Readings ‘colonial’ to join the LESSONS Darnielle takes a long pause from the video daughters of Europe’s most influential mystery to delve into a nuanced, affecting Ashley Hay THE SHADOW LAND families at Shillings Hall, where Miss Lily multigenerational narrative of religious A&U. PB. $32.99 Elizabeth Kostova teaches them how to captivate a man in obsession and its shattering consequences, Text. PB. Was $32.99 unusual ways. As war spreads, the ‘lovely Available 29 March enriching the novel. $27.99 ladies’ enter messy life with gusto, creating A Hundred Small To say too much would risk ruining the hospitals, canteens and transport systems Lessons is about the Available 18 April mesmerising, often creepy experience of where bungling officials fail to cope. Sophie many small Elizabeth reading Universal Harvester, though it’s far must use the skills Miss Lily taught her, to decisions – the Kostova’s The less about what the reader knows than about prevent war's most devastating weapon yet. invisible moments – Shadow Land follows a what it’s impossible to ever know. Darnielle But is Miss Lily a heroine or a traitor? that come to make a young American displays an extraordinarily inventive life, told through two woman, Alexandra control of language. His prose is masterful – IN TWO MINDS intertwined lives. Boyd, as she travels to menacing in parts, graceful and empathetic Gordon Parker When Elsie falls and Bulgaria in memory of in others – and surprising. Early on, the is forced to leave her her lost brother. On Ventura. PB. $24.99 third-person narration is interrupted by an Brisbane home of 62 years, Lucy and her her first day there, she Available 1 April unexplained first-person voice, spliced into husband move in: a new house in a new accidentally takes the the prose like the black-and-white snippets An arresting novel city with their new baby. Transitioning bag of an elderly couple, finding in it the found on Video Hut’s tapes. about depression, from adventurous lovers to new parents, boxed ashes of Stoyan Lazarov, talented Universal Harvester is an intricate bipolar and borderline they seek to smooth the rough edges of musician and beloved father, friend, and puzzle of a novel about grief and humanity. personality from their present with memories of their past. husband. Setting out to return the box, To sift through the pieces is a wonderfully Gordon Parker, a Meanwhile, in her nearby nursing home, alongside a taxi driver with a mysterious strange and moving reading experience. psychiatrist and former Elsie revisits the span of her life: marriage, past, Alexandra becomes entangled in a far executive director of Stella Charls is the marketing and events motherhood, love and death. larger conspiracy that encapsulates The Black Dog Institute. coordinator for Readings Bulgaria’s past and will determine its future. GP Dr Martin Homer READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 9

THE ZERO AND THE ONE Pole. He gets everywhere, our Charlie. Ryan Ruby Would you shake him by the hand, take the gift he offers, or would you pay no Affirm Press. PB. $19.99 attention to the words he says? Sometimes Available 1 April he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a ‘A powerful affirmation of friendship, family, The debut novel warning. He never knows which. by Ryan Ruby art, and love, and how these things might shape might be called a SWIMMER AMONG a life, and give it strength.’ ‘philosophical thriller’. THE STARS What begins as a Fiona Wright, author of sentimental journey of Kanishk Tharoor a university friendship Picador. HB. $32.99 Small Acts of Disappearance develops into a gothic, Available 28 March transgressive tale Like Ted Chiang’s where the boundary short story that between trust and morality is questioned. spawned Arrival, these We see this world from the perspective of stories (compared to Owen Whiting, an intelligent, Jorge Luis Borges, impressionable student who is out of place Italo Calvino and after he arrives at Oxford. He’s a quiet Angela Carter) use introvert who keeps to his books rather language itself to than engaging with the world. Yet this explore the puzzle of promptly shifts after he encounters it. An interview with Zachary Foedern, a charismatic, seductive the last speaker of a language. The final and brilliant student from New York, who seven days of a town about to be destroyed draws Owen forever into his orbit. by an invading army. A fabled cook who From the opening pages it is clear flavours his food with precious stones. A that this is a wonderfully constructed coterie of international diplomats trapped story. An underlying element of the in near-Earth orbit. ‘A sparkling, magical, book is a fictional twentieth-century heartbreaking meditation on the way German classicist and philosopher, Hans tradition clashes with technology, and the Abendroth, whose nearly lost work (also way our reality is both defined and titled The Zero and the One) is a collection restricted by the language we use to of aphoristic insights clearly reminiscent represent it.’ – NPR of a thinker somewhere between Nietzsche and Heidegger. Each chapter of the novel STOLEN BEAUTY: begins with one such aphorism, and A NOVEL entices both the reader and the two Oxford Laurie Lico Albanese students to obsessively uncover the cryptic, Atria. PB. $29.99 hidden meaning behind Abendroth’s Available 1 April nihilistic utterances. Furthermore, Ruby effectively plays 1900: Adele Bloch- with time by employing a double narrative. Bauer – young, Half of the book is set in New York as beautiful, brilliant, Owen attends Zach’s funeral following and Jewish – meets his ‘philosophical’ suicide. Whilst the the modern painter other is the story of the beginning of Gustav Klimt in their friendship at Oxford; two outcasts turn-of-the-century from different walks of life bonding over Vienna, when sex, art, girls, books, and ideas – all the clichés of and anti-Semitism are just beginning to adolescent academia. The present and A blazingly beautiful the past are only reconciled at the end of break through the facade of conventional the novel, as the events that lead to the society. A hungry young artist haunts memoir of a mother's choice friends’ suicide pact and its ramifications Vienna’s streets and museums, and his and a daughter's grief are revealed. name is Adolf Hitler. 1938: Maria Altmann Ruby is obviously a gifted young is a love-struck newlywed when the Nazis writer who easily handles the adaptation invade Austria. When her husband is of the complexities of a particular arrested and her family is forced out of philosophical tradition into fiction. The their Ringstrasse home, Maria must Bolaño-esque book within a book cleverly summon a courage she never knew she sets up the story, yet the plot ultimately possessed. A story of art, love and takes an unusually dark turn into both endurance. the conventional and the quixotic, an inconsistent ending in the realm of SORRY TO DISRUPT Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley or THE PEACE Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, though not quite Patty Yumi Cottrell as satisfying as either. Yet The Zero and the Text. PB. $29.99 One is nonetheless an informed, intellectual Available 3 April crime hybrid concerning the sorrows of Helen Moran is 32 youth, and the vain search for truth. years old, single, Robert Frantzeskos is from Readings St Kilda childless, college- educated, and THE END OF THE DAY partially employed as Claire North a guardian of troubled Orbit. PB. $29.99 young people in New Available 11 April York. She’s accepting a delivery from IKEA in An absorbing novel The Australian her shared studio An ambitious, about the end of the apartment when her uncle calls to break remarkable and moving actress who became world – or the end of the news: Helen’s adoptive brother is dead. many worlds. Charlie novel about who we one of London's most Helen knows what she must do, and meets everyone, but are: our past, present purchases a one-way ticket to Milwaukee. famous suffragists only once. You might and future, and our There, as she attempts to uncover why meet him in a someone would choose to die, she will face connection to this land hospital, in a warzone, her estranged family, her brother’s few or at the scene of friends, and an overzealous grief traffic accident. Then counsellor; she may also discover what it again, you might meet him at the North truly means to be alive. 10 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

THE REVOLUTION but their children arrive as the world OF THE MOON begins to change, as cinemas crowd the high street and the draw of the music hall Andrea Camilleri wanes. What follows is a struggle: against Europa. PB. $29.99 the entropy of marriage, the march of time, Available 20 April and Oliver’s flaws – flaws that may cost This remarkable new them everything. novel by the author of the Inspector FLESH AND BONE Montalbarno series is AND WATER based on a true story. Sicily, April 16, 1677: Luiza Sauma from his deathbed, Viking. PB. $32.99 Charles III’s viceroy Available now names his wife, Doña Brazilian-born doctor Eleonora, as his André Cabral is living successor. Eleonora applies her political in London when one acumen to heal the scarred soul of Palermo, a day he receives a letter city afflicted by poverty, misery, and frequent from his home uprisings. She lowers the price of bread, country, which he left reduces taxes for large families, re-opens nearly 30 years ago. It women’s care facilities, and establishes prompts memories of stipends for young couples wishing to marry: his youth – torrid all considered seditious. The machinations of afternoons on powerful men soon result in Doña Eleonora Ipanema beach with his listless teenage being recalled to Spain. Her rule lasted 27 friends, parties in elegant Rio apartments, days: one cycle of the moon. his after-school job at his father’s plastic surgery practice – and, above all, his secret THE ACCUSATION infatuation with the daughter of his “The Songs of Trees is a powerful argument against the Bandi family’s maid, the intoxicating Luana. Unable to resist the pull of the letter, André ways in which humankind has severed the very biological Serpent’s Tail. PB. $27.99 Available 29 March embarks on a journey back to Brazil to networks that gives us our place in the world. Listen as rediscover his past and a terrible secret. This extraordinary book, David Haskell takes his stethoscope to the heart of nature based on true stories, is THE BARROWFIELDS – and discover the poetry and music contained within.” the first to be published in the wider world by a Phillip Lewis Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees North Korean resident: Sceptre. PB. $32.99 the pseudonymous Available 11 April manuscript was Mesmeric in its prose smuggled out of the and mythic in its country. Bandi’s sweep, The profound, vividly Barrowfields is a characterised stories illustrate the terrible compelling debut absurdity of daily life in North Korea: the about the darker side staunch Party man whose actor son reveals to of devotion, the limits of forgiveness, and the THE TREEHOUSE FUN BOOK 2 him the absurd theatre of their reality; the Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton mother raising her child in a world where the reparative power of Stuff to write! Pictures to draw! Puzzles to solve! And so much all-pervasive propaganda is the very stuff of shared pasts. more! childhood nightmares. The Accusation Just before Henry Aster’s birth, his Grab your Treehouse passport and hold on tight for an provides a unique and shocking window on father, a frustrated novelist and lawyer, adventure through the bestselling Treehouse series. Join this most secretive of countries. reluctantly returns to the remote North Andy, Terry and Jill as they combine animals, create magical kingdoms, time travel, solve crosswords, search for words, Carolina mountains where he was raised. colour and scribble, spot the difference, find the odd one out, A DISTANT VIEW OF There, he installs his young family crack codes and so much more! EVERYTHING in a gothic mansion nicknamed ‘the Alexander McCall Smith vulture house’. But when a death in the THE SILENT INVASION family tips his father toward a fearsome James Bradley Little, Brown. PB. Was $29.99 unravelling, Henry flees, not to return “A seriously addictive page-turner” Missy Higgins $26.99 until years later when he, too, must go “Fascinating, frightening and utterly compelling” Garth Nix Available 28 March home again. It’s 2027 and the human race is dying. Plants, animals and humans In the new Isabel have been infected by spores from space and become part of a vast Dalhousie adventure, alien intelligence. When 16-year-old Callie discovers her little sister THE BEST KIND Gracie has been infected, she flees with Gracie to the Zone, where she has a second child, OF PEOPLE what she finds will alter her irrevocably. The first book in a heart- Magnus. Her first, stopping and suspenseful YA trilogy from award-winning author Charlie, sees no need Zoe Whittall James Bradley. for a baby. In Cat’s H&S. PB. $29.99 delicatessen, Isabel Available now HAPPY & WHOLE Magdalena Roze reunites with an old How does a family Magdalena’s food is simple, nutritious and delicious. Her school acquaintance, recover when one of recipes celebrate traditional wholefoods that not only taste Bea, now an their own is accused great, but also have great health benefits. It’s the way our enthusiastic match-maker. She’s introduced a of a terrible crime? grandparents (or great grandparents) used to eat, but with woman she knows to a plastic surgeon, and George Woodbury is a little bit of indulgence too. It’s not about eliminating things such as sugar, dairy or carbs, but focusing more on what’s in was since informed he’s a serial gold-digger. voted Teacher of the season, tastes the best and then enjoying every moment of Isabel is hired to investigate, but the situation, Year ever year at his what we make! while dangerous, is not what it seems. prestigious Connecticut private THE FIVE INVITATIONS EDITH & OLIVER school, after he Frank Ostaseski Michele Forbes rescued the school from a gunman attack. This beautiful book is at home in an energising genre that W&N. PB. $29.99 On his daughter’s seventeenth birthday, finally allows us to talk about death. Available 28 March he is arrested for sexual impropriety with ‘The Five Invitations’ show us how to accept and embrace teenage girls on a skiing trip. His wife dying in the midst of a death-denying era and explain how Edith’s rebellious nature vaults between denial and rage, over- death can be the guide we need to wake up fully to our lives. brings her to the seedy achieving daughter Sadie becomes a An exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how glamour of the music maintaining an ever-present awareness of death can bring us social pariah, and son Andrew, a lawyer, hall, where she plays the closer to our truest selves, this stunning, unforgettable book defends his father while fighting teen offers a radical path to transformation. piano by night. Oliver is memories of coming out as gay. This an illusionist of high coruscating novel was shortlisted for ambition, but moderate www.panmacmillan.com.au Canada’s top literary award, the Gillier repute. They fall in love, Prize, last year. READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 11

KRUSO presumptive to the Duchy of Origen, passes Lutz Seiler his boyhood watching reality shows on TV, imagining himself to be the Roman Scribe. PB. $32.99 Emperor Nero, and fantasising about Available 3 April hookers. He is idle, boastful, thin-skinned This debut novel by a and egotistic; has no manners, no curiosity, renowned poet has been no knowledge, no idea and no words in called ‘the first worthy which to express them. Could he, in that successor to Thomas case, be the very leader to make the country Mann’s Magic Mountain great again? to appear in contemporary German RESERVOIR 13 literature’ (Der Spiegel). Jon McGregor It’s 1989, and a young Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99 literature student named Ed, fleeing Available 1 April unspeakable tragedy, travels to a myth- draped Baltic island, a notorious Booker-shortlisted Jon destination for hippies, idealists, and those McGregor (Even the at odds with the East German state. Ed, Dogs) tells the story of who becomes an undocumented many lives haunted by dishwasher, feels drawn towards the one family’s loss in charismatic Kruso, unofficial leader of the Reservoir 13. A “A hugely important contribution seasonal workers. Everyone dances to holidaying teenage girl towards solving the greatest Kruso’s tune. He is on a mission – but to goes missing in environmental problem of our what end, and at what cost? mid-winter, in the hills at the heart of times” – Tim Flannery LARCHFIELD England. Villagers are called up to join the resounding post–Paris fruitless search. As time goes on and the Agreement wake-up call about Polly Clark A seasons unfold, there are births and deaths, the urgency of the climate crisis that Quercus. PB. $32.99 secrets kept and exposed, livelihoods made offers a range of practical solutions Available 28 March and lost, small kindnesses and – and above all, hope. Climate A haunting novel unanticipated betrayals. Bats hang in the change is the most important crisis about the bravery that eaves of the church and herons stand sentry humanity has faced, but we still allows unusual people in the river. Reservoir 13 explores the confront huge barriers to resolving to go on living. Newly rhythms of the natural world and the it. So, what do we do, and is there married, pregnant repeated human gift for violence. young poet Dora hope for humanity? Just Cool It is dreams of a life that David Suzuki at his most passionate combines family and Science Fiction and cogent. creativity when she moves to the west coast of Scotland. But it doesn’t work out NEW YORK 2140 www.newsouthpublishing.com that way. Another young poet, W.H. Auden, Kim Stanley Robinson once lived here, fleeing a broken Orbit. PB. $29.99 engagement to teach at a school for boys, Available 28 March where he was suspected (rightly) of In the year 2140, climate homosexuality. In this repressed limbo, he change has changed New fell in love for the first time. The need for York City, now human connection brings these two submerged underwater, outsiders together, across time, to find a forever. Every street is a reality of their own. canal, every skyscraper an island. The award- LAROSE winning author of the Louise Erdrich Mars books creates a Corsair. PB. $19.99 future world in fascinating, chilling Available 11 April imaginative detail. ‘A towering novel about a Native American genuinely grave threat to civilisation. novelist Louise Erdrich Impressively ambitious, it bears comparison is lauded for her tough, with other visionaries’ attempts to squeeze poetic explorations of the sprawl and energy of the US between two the Native American covers: John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy and experience, and for the Don DeLillo’s Underworld.’ – The Guardian urgent human questions her novels THE IDIOT pose. When Landreaux Elif Batuman Iron accidentally kills Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.99 his best friend’s son while deer hunting, he Available 30 March discovers an old way of delivering justice for Elif Batuman won the what he’s done. He and his wife deliver their hard-to-crack hearts of own five-year-old son, LaRose, to the the literary establishment bereaved parents, and a fragile peace is (and readers) with her reached, as LaRose links the two families. ridiculously clever, funny But when a man with a grudge decides there and bookish memoir, The was a cover-up, that accord is threatened. Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and PUSSY: A NOVEL the People Who Read Howard Jacobson Them. Her long-awaited debut novel follows Jonathan Cape. PB. $29.99 Selin, a Turkish-American Harvard first-year Available 13 April determined to decipher the mysteries of Booker Prize winner language and to become a writer. In between Howard Jacobson studying psycholinguistics and the responds to Trump’s philosophy of language, teaching ESL to a election victory with Costa Rican plumber, and befriending her this savage, satirical classmate Svetlana, Selin falls for a Hungarian fairytale, written ‘in a maths student in her Russian class. The Idiot fury of disbelief’ (The tackles literary ambition, female friendship, Guardian). Prince the American dream, Chomskian linguistics, Fracassus, heir the Russian novel and romantic love. 12 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

New Crime Dead Write connection to her sister, the two women band together to find out what really with Fiona Hardy happened to Megan – and what happened to Crime Book of the Month the girl who was never returned. THE LEGACY A DANGEROUS CROSSING Yrsa Sigurdardottir Rachel Rhys H&S. PB. $29.99 Bantam. PB. $32.99 Available 28 March Available 3 April Tying into two of this On a summer’s day in 1939, Lily Shepherd boards the cruise liner month’s themes –Iceland Orontes, gaining assisted passage to escape her bleak English life and lost children – the for the shores of Australia. She leaves behind a family stricken once by ever-bestselling war, and alarmed by the idea of another – but Lily is positive no such Sigurdardottir lays the thing will happen. She is also positive that the trip will be an foundations for a new adventure, yet not even the personal tragedies of her past prepare her for all that will series for her fans, all happen onboard the Orontes. Starting with the unsettling gentleness of an Agatha involving The Children’s Christie novel – a beautiful ship, touches of luxury, characters with entertaining House, a haven for moustaches –danger and hatred soon ripple through the liner (and the book), as constant children who have experienced trauma. as waves. From her boorish and bigoted dining-mate, George, to the endearing yet Such as, for example, Margrét, who just mysterious brother and sister Helena and Edward, to her new Jewish friend Maria, to the watched her mother violently murdered as dazzling Eliza and Max (a first-class couple escaping for some tourist-class fun), Lily she hid under the bed from the man who cannot find her feet amongst these new people and experiences. It is all very glamorous, invaded her home. And Margrét’s two but, like Lily, who is running from pain, many on this ship are hiding a secret – and not brothers, who have found themselves everyone will make it ashore when the ship docks in Sydney. unwilling victims of someone who has not let go of a decades-old legacy. A legacy that ‘This is not a story of brutal violence, but of the broke up a family, ruined childhoods, and festered for years before culminating in poison of words – how gossip, prejudice and murder – and that’s just the beginning. doubt can have a deadly finality.’ PRUSSIAN BLUE Philip Kerr This is not a story of brutal violence, but of the poison of words – how gossip, prejudice Quercus. PB. Was $32.99 and doubt can have a deadly finality. Rhys, writing under a pseudonym, has so intricately entered the world of 1939 that every detail feels as real as the room you read in : the class $27.99 politics, the architecture, the route, the clothes, all are as clear as the characters’ lives are Available 11 April murky. It is compelling period fiction, darkened by the bigotry that casually runs rampant, I can only assume Philip with offhand racism barely causing a spark against Lily’s generally upstanding moral code. Kerr doesn’t sleep, since As vivid as this narrow-mindedness is the excitement, the adventure, the way everything the man writes epic, is new to Lily – from the people to the freedom to the sunsets and the clear sky. The story glorious doorstopper appears, in some ways, to be as light as a chiffon evening gown, but everyone is running espionage novels nearly from something, and nothing is sugary sweet except the facades of those around her. Read faster than I can review this, and be surprised to find yourself on solid ground when you put it down. them. Bernie Gunther returns in his non-linear way, popping up in THE SHADOW DISTRICT: judge whose six-year-old children are France in 1956, approached by the secret A REYKJAVIK WARTIME kidnapped just as they go to their weekly police to kill someone who’s done him MYSTERY swim, and the first few pages are so visceral, wrong. But Bernie isn’t one to kill people even while they retain some playfulness – just because someone asked him to, even Arnaldur Indridason because the main character, Scott Sampson, is when they’ll kill him if he doesn’t follow Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99 immediately likeable . It turns out it’s just Far through. What happens next is another Available 18 April Too Real to read right now. Scott is told that Kerr classic, with Gunther wisecracking his In the Shadow District in his children will be returned to him – but only way through all manner of assaults to his the middle of the war, a if the verdict he returns on the next day’s case character and body, both in 1956 and back young girl and her soldier is the one that the kidnappers want . What in late ’30s Nazi Germany, where a murder boyfriend steal away follows is the intense in-and-out-of-a- case at Hitler’s summer home will reach its behind the National courtroom fight to save his children by a man tendrils out to Gunther all those years later Theatre for an illicit who has been told that the only way to save moment together. Instead them is to say nothing. THE TWELVE LIVES OF of passion, what they find SAMUEL HAWLEY is a dead woman, strewn like rubbish on the THE GIRL WHO Hannah Tinti ground. The case is never solved, but years WAS TAKEN Tinder. PB. $29.99 later, in the present day, a 90-year-old man Charlie Donlea Available 28 March is found looking peacefully dead in his bed, Bantam. PB. $32.99 clippings from the case in his side drawer. When scrappy kid Loo Available 3 April When the autopsy reveals he’s been Hawley and her damaged smothered, retired and bored detective One torrential North father Samuel move back Konrad offers his old partner Marta help Carolina night, abducted to Loo’s mother’s with the case, since the Shadow District has teenager Megan hometown, it takes a shot always lurked in the background of his own McDonald escapes from of violence that ends in a past. Darting from past to present, this the bunker her captor heroic feat for them to be Icelandic thriller is the first of a new series has left her in. When she anywhere near fitting in. for the bestselling Indridason. is found, there is one Even Loo’s maternal question – where is family doesn’t want anything to do with SAY NOTHING Nicole Cutty, the other them, and they keep themselves to girl who vanished on the same night, two themselves, despite the undercurrent of Brad Parks weeks ago? A year later, Megan has written a Loo’s childhood rage and everyone’s sudden Faber. PB. $29.99 book, is doing the press tour – but still, her interest in her father. On Samuel’s body lie Available 29 March memory isn’t clear on everything that the scars of twelve bullets, and while they Say you’re a book happened during those missing two weeks. are healing, the danger that caused them is reviewer with a five-year- And Livia Cutty, Nicole’s older sister, is not so far away – and revisiting each of those old child who you take towards the end of her Medical Examiner bullets may be the only way to their future. swimming every week, training, where she cares for every body she This is a literary masterpiece of past and and the night before your sees as if she is treating her own sister – and present, pain and recovery. weekly swim, you pick up every time a body appears, she braces herself Also not to be missed this month: Earthly a book covered in for it to be Nicole. When Livia autopsies a Remains by Donna Leon, Domina by L.S. abundant praise. body initially thought to be a suicide – but Hilton, The Fourteenth Letter by Claire Evans, However, it’s about a then definitely a homicide – and discovers a The Hidden Hours by Sara Foster, and more! READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 13

New Nonfiction cryptographers who unravelled the codes Australian Studies in Japanese signals and played a crucial role in the battles of Midway and the Coral Book of the Month FEAR OF ABANDONMENT: Sea. It is also an extraordinary story of a AUSTRALIA IN THE unique group of men and their rivalries, of white-anting and taking credit for others’ A WRITING LIFE: WORLD SINCE 1942 HELEN GARNER AND HER WORK achievements. What happened between Allan Gyngell these two groups would have Bernadette Brennan Black Inc. PB. $34.99 consequences for intelligence services in Text. PB. Was $32.99 Available 3 April the years to follow. $27.99 Allan Gyngell tells the Available now story of how Australia I have to admit that I loved this book; I’m an unabashed has shaped the world and Biography fan of Helen Garner’s work and have been ever since been shaped by it since it the publication of her first book, Monkey Grip. As a young established an BEYOND THE ROCK: THE Carlton bookseller in 1977, the publication of Monkey Grip independent foreign was a sensation. Here was a book about contemporary policy, during the LIFE OF JOAN LINDSAY Australian life that spoke to a shared community – most of dangerous days of 1942. AND THE MYSTERY OF Carlton and Melbourne’s inner suburbs wanted to get a copy He argues that the fear of PICNIC AT HANGING and most of them came to Readings to get it. Garner was already famous in that being abandoned – originally by Britain, and ROCK community through her pieces in Digger magazine, in particular one which described later by our most powerful ally, the United Janelle McCulloch an impromptu sex education lesson to her class at Fitzroy High School. It earned her States – has been an important driver of how Echo. HB. Was $35 the ire of the Education Department and ultimate dismissal from teaching; education’s Australia acts in the world. This vivid $29.99 loss became literature’s gain. narrative history reveals how Australians Available now and their governments have helped create Just like the world we now inhabit. ‘I have to admit that I loved this book; I’m an Janelle unabashed fan of Helen Garner’s work and have THE HONEST HISTORY McCulloch, the BOOK author of Beyond been ever since the publication of her first book, the Rock (about David Stephens & Alison Lady Joan Lindsay Monkey Grip.’ Broinowski (eds) and her NewSouth. PB. $34.99 masterpiece Picnic Brennan has produced a literary portrait that more than does its subject justice. It is Available 1 April at Hanging Rock), not a biography; Garner was quite clear that she didn’t want that, but because Garner In Australia’s rush to I too have been is so often present in her own writing, it’s inevitable that her life is reflected in the commemorate all things captivated by the discussion of her works. This helps put her works in context, and a picture emerges of Anzac, have we lost our story of that fateful Valentine’s Day picnic an amazing writer. The book explores Garner’s work chronologically and what emerges ability to look beyond war in 1900, ever since I first saw Peter Weir’s is its originality and the way it challenges our preconceptions through her strong as the central pillar of film adaptation when I was a young girl. views – views that are often counter to prevailing orthodoxies. Garner has strong Australia’s history and That haunting blend of the beautiful and opinions which are not easy to predict and in arriving at those opinions, she’s seen her identity? These passionate the sinister stayed with me when I read fair share of detractors. What’s refreshing about her work is that there’s often self- historians argue that the book for the first time, with Lindsay’s doubt, doubt about her feelings, and doubt about her motives; she does not normally while war has been exquisite prose juxtaposing the young rush to judgement and she shares this process with her readers. Bernadette Brennan important to Australia, we must question the fragile schoolgirls with the harsh has done us all a great favour in delivering this immensely enjoyable book. stories we tell ourselves. We must separate Australian landscape. Mark Rubbo is the managing director of Readings myth from reality – and to do that, we need to Fifty years after the publication of reassess the historical evidence surrounding Picnic at Hanging Rock, Beyond the Rock military myths. Contributors include Paul is an absolute treat for those whose rich, intimate knowledge of the land, Daley, Mark McKenna, Carmen Lawrence obsession with the story has not waned. Cultural Studies written in defiance of the false call to and Larissa Behrendt. The result of five years of research progress, and in defence of the local through public and private archives THE DOG’S LAST WALK landscapes that provide cultural heritage, JEWISH ANZACS: JEWS (many untouched for over 30 years), history, and home. According to the this is a beautifully presented book Howard Jacobson IN THE AUSTRALIAN Guardian, ‘Berry is the poet laureate of full of details and visuals of Lindsay’s Bloomsbury. PB. $24.99 MILITARY America’s farmland … his scathing views on life. Significant also is the information Available 29 March Mark Dapin the chasm between what we need and what drawn from a number of interviews and NewSouth. PB. $39.99 Hilarious, we consume are persuasive, as is his conversations; from housekeepers to film Available 1 April heartbreaking and observation that change is often mistaken producers, artists to park rangers – all provocative – Howard for progress.’ Over 7000 Jews have have their story to tell (some perhaps Jacobson’s irresistible fought in Australia’s more convincing than others, but journalism reveals the A LAND WITHOUT military conflicts, absorbing just the same). Man Booker Prize- BORDERS: MY JOURNEY including more than 330 Beyond the Rock is essentially a winning novelist in all who gave their lives. While chronological retelling of Joan Lindsay’s his humanity. From the AROUND EAST Sir John Monash is the JERUSALEM AND THE life, but with specific attention given to tiniest absurdities to the best known, writer and those events and influences that preceded most universal joys and WEST BANK historian Mark Dapin the writing of her famous novel at the desolations, Jacobson writes with a thunder, Nir Baram reveals the personal, often age of 69. It covers everything from her passion and wit unmatched. Just as did his Text. PB. $32.99 extraordinary, stories of many other Jewish time at art school under the instruction previous volume, Whatever It Is I Don’t Like Available 3 April servicemen and women: from air aces to of Frederick McCubbin, her attendance It, this glorious, unputdownable collection Award-winning POWs, from nurses to generals, from at Clyde school (which many saw as the will delight, entertain and challenge. journalist and author generation to generation. Weaving together template for the fictional Appleyard Nir Baram spent a official records and interviews, private letters, College) through to her marriage to THE WORLD-ENDING year and a half diaries and papers, Dapin explores the diverse Daryl Lindsay and their beloved home, FIRE: THE ESSENTIAL travelling around the lives of his subjects and reflects on their valour, Mulberry Hill, on the Mornington WENDELL BERRY West Bank and East patriotism, mateship, faith and sacrifice. Peninsula. Jerusalem. In this The big question for many, however, Wendell Berry CODE BREAKERS Allen Lane. HB. $49.99 fascinating recount of remains: Was the story real? What is Craig Collie Available now that journey, Baram fact and what is fiction? Although this navigates the conflict- A&U. PB. $32.99 book may help some to reach their own Wendell Berry lives ridden regions and hostile terrain to speak Available 29 March conclusions, I find myself rather inspired and works in the old with a wide range of people, among them by Lindsay’s own question: Why do we ways: using a team of At the height of World Palestinian–Israeli citizens trapped have to understand everything? Personally work horses (on his War II in the Pacific, two behind the separation wall in Jerusalem, I think there will always be a veil of 125-acre corn farm) secret organisations and Jewish settlers determined to forge mystery over Picnic at Hanging Rock. I and a pencil (for existed in Australia to new lives on the West Bank. A Land also think that’s how Lindsay would have writing his pastoral break Japan’s military Without Borders is a clear-eyed, liked it. fiction and verse). codes. They were peopled compassionate and essential guide to These essays are the by brilliant and Amanda Rayner is from Readings Carlton understanding a complex reality. unique product of his idiosyncratic 14 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

THINGS THAT HELPED: down into a narrative about Levy’s own the often difficult, prickly relationship who she has been, and finds her slow ESSAYS marriage, leading to that one terrible day between mothers and daughters, and how way back to music. in Mongolia and the domino effect of that changes over time. Jessica Friedmann outcomes that followed it. NEVERTHELESS: Scribe. PB. $29.99 Unflinching in its honesty, Levy paints A WIFE’S HEART: THE A MEMOIR Available 3 April an unflattering portrait of herself as a wife UNTOLD STORY OF Alec Baldwin Last year I and partner, digging into her most selfish BERTHA AND HENRY HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 was choices and examining her every neurosis. LAWSON Available 1 April challenged by This is an extremely intimate work, almost Alec Baldwin was Maggie Nelson’s shockingly so, as Levy lays bare not just Kerrie Davies once a reliably great The Argonauts, a her own secrets but those of her spouse, UQP.PB. $29.95 Hollywood schmuck book its publisher Lucy, as well. Available 3 April or bad guy (Working categorised as Levy may be criticised for the Girl, Glengarry Glen ‘autotheory’, a kind details of her privileged existence, but Henry Lawson is a Ross, The Departed). of hybrid of that’s also the point of the book – Levy revered cultural icon, Since his iconic lead autobiography and thought herself invincible, deliberately but despite his role in 30 Rock, critical theory. looking away from the darkest corners literary success, he popular podcast Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick (which I read of her marriage. When tragedy struck, descended into Here’s the Thing and when it was republished last year) could it exposed the fragility of the life she poverty and an early SNL stardom channelling Donald Trump, also fit this category, though Kraus had built. Levy writes beautifully; this death. While many he’s become a cultural icon. In this honest, herself considers her work to be fiction memoir will appeal to fans of Jenny Offill, blamed his wife for affecting memoir, he goes deep: his despite the fact that everything that Rachel Cusk, or Elena Ferrante, for the his decline, Bertha troubled childhood in Long Island, soap happened in the book ‘happened first in way it digs into women’s lives, ambitions, Lawson alleged in star days, struggles with sobriety, life’. I think I would also place Jessica losses and darkest longings. April 1903 that Henry was habitually Friedmann’s collection within this ‘genre- drunk and cruel, leading her to demand a acknowledged failings as a husband and Nina Kenwood is the marketing manager for bending’ category. judicial separation. In A Wife’s Heart, father (and battle to overcome them), and Readings In this collection of candid essays, Kerrie Davies provides a rare account of passion for his profession. Friedmann weaves thinking from the LETTERS OF LOVE: this tumultuous relationship from likes of Lacan, Kristeva and Cixous into Bertha’s perspective, in an era when THE GAMEKEEPER her own lived experience of postnatal WORDS FROM THE women’s rights were advancing Portia Simpson depression, to more broadly consider HEART PENNED considerably. It offers an intimate S&S. HB. $35.99 the onerous challenges of being female, BY PROMINENT portrait of the Lawsons’ marriage, Available 1 April a writer and a mother. While Things AUSTRALIANS examined through a modern lens. This memoir of That Helped does not push at the The Alannah & Madeline Foundation Scotland’s first-ever boundaries to the same degree as the Affirm Press. PB. $19.99 DEAR QUENTIN: qualified female writings of Nelson and Kraus, it is more Available 1 April LETTERS OF A gamekeeper is the H accessible in its structure. Friedmann’s The Port Arthur GOVERNOR GENERAL is for Hawk for lovers deeply personal story takes the reader massacre was one of Quentin Bryce of the outdoors and on captivating digressions, from the the darkest days in Miegunyah. HB. $45 wildlife. Portia intergenerational trauma of Holocaust Australian history. Available 3 April Simpson grew up survivors, to the latest cross-cultural But the response, an outdoors, always research on postnatal depression. unprecedented As Australia’s first preferring to climb She deftly weaves in popular culture outpouring of love female Governor- trees than play indoors. Talented and references from Antony and the Johnsons and compassion, also General, Quentin driven, she became the first female to lyrics to her anxiety-induced obsession brought out the best Bryce handwrote graduate as a gamekeeper and wildlife with the American teen movie Centre in Australians. Walter more than 50 manager. Here, she tells how she first Stage. She is careful not to try and speak Mikac launched the Alannah and letters each week, broke into a male-dominated profession for all women and I strongly admire her Madeline Foundation in honour of his as her role took and the skills, training and dedication determination to make it her ‘life’s work two young daughters who died alongside her from palaces that helped to set her apart. A life filled to bear witness’ to the suffering of other their mother on that terrible day. Since to outback with stunning landscapes, heart- women who have been similarly rocked then, the Foundation has helped tens of schools, from war zones to memorials, wrenching lows and magnificent highs. when their bodies and minds seem to thousands of vulnerable youth feel safe from intimate audiences to lavish turn against them, or whose stories do and secure from violence. Letters of Love, ceremonies. Dear Quentin is a rich not conform to the typical narratives of published on the twentieth anniversary of collection of the letters the Governor- Politics motherhood. Autotheoretical literature is the massacre, is sending love back into General wrote and received during her an exciting genre and I hope to see more the community again. More than 60 six-year term, to prime ministers Rudd UTOPIA FOR REALISTS: works like Friedmann’s collection reach a celebrities and public figures – including and Gillard, VC Mark Donaldson, pals AND HOW WE CAN GET mainstream audience in the future. Readings’ own digital marketing manager, Anne Summers and Wendy McCarthy, THERE Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton Lian Hingee – have written letters about Indigenous elders, war vets, Girl Guides Rutger Bregman love in all its shapes and sizes, from and grandchildren. Royalties will be Bloomsbury. PB. $21.99 THE RULES DO NOT APPLY romance and platonic love, to familial donated to the Murdoch Childrens Available now Ariel Levy love, and devotion to nature. Research Institute. Most of the Fleet. PB. $29.99 AFTER GONE: A GIRL, A VIOLIN, highly paid jobs Available now in our new economy Ariel Levy’s Nikki Gemmell A LIFE UNSTRUNG are bullsh*t jobs. The first book, Fourth Estate. PB. Was $29.99 Min Kym best and the brightest Female Chauvinist $26.99 Viking. HB. $32.99 are paid huge amounts Pigs (2005), was an Available 1 April Available 18 April of money, yet they influential feminist Min Kym was born don’t create anything work on raunch Nikki Gemmell is in South Korea, of value. Rutger culture and the known and loved for raised in the UK, Bregman is a young sexualisation of her generous candour and started playing Dutch academic; his new book is full of such women. In the 12 in bringing her violin aged six. At provocative bombshells. In the last 200 years since its private experience seven, she was a years, we’ve achieved a lot. In 1820, 94% of publication, Levy has written primarily for into the public realm, prodigy: the the world’s population lived in extreme the New Yorker, including a remarkable, whether infused in youngest-ever pupil poverty; today that number is under 10%. award-winning essay ‘Thanksgiving in her bestselling fiction at the Purcell But we have stopped dreaming of a better Mongolia’, which documented a traumatic or revealed in her School of Music. world; we have become pessimistic and experience while travelling overseas. The newspaper columns. And at 13, she was playing with the insular. The Trump phenomenon is an events of that essay are the driving force This brave and devastating book explores Berlin Philharmonic. This major literary example of that, as is Brexit, Marie Le Pen behind her much more personal second what happened after her elderly mother memoir explores what happens when and here, Pauline Hanson. book, The Rules Do Not Apply. decided to end her own life. The you lose your life’s driving passion. Kym’s As we’ve become wealthier, inequity At roughly 200 pages, The Rules Do Not discovery of her body, with no note, beloved rare 1696 Stradivarius violin – and disruption have grown. In 1957, Apply is a short, intense, often wrenching prompted immediate shock and found after years of searching for ‘the economist Nicholas Kaldor outlined his memoir. It roams widely in the beginning, devastation, then guilt and horror. Was it one’ – was stolen from a train station six ‘facts’ of economic growth: the first examining Levy’s parents’ marriage and an act of independence, or its opposite? cafe, precipitating a creative and was that 67% of a country’s income goes her early career, before whittling itself After is the story of Elayn Gemmell and personal collapse. Kym asks who she is, to employees and 33% to the owners of READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 15 capital. Today only 58% goes to labour. global heavyweights, revealing plans for OTHER MINDS Environmental Studies Innovation is destroying jobs, often for no pan-Asian dominance by building its navy, Peter Godfrey Smith real benefit to the community as a whole. increasing territorial claims to areas like HarperCollins. PB. $27.99 Is the fact that Amazon can offer same- the South China Sea, and diplomatically JUST COOL IT: THE Available 1 April day delivery of an X-Box while destroying bullying smaller players. What light can CLIMATE CRISIS AND Peter Godfrey- millions of retail jobs beneficial? Despite history shed on China now? French Smith, philosopher the fact that there have been huge combines research and on-the-ground WHAT WE CAN DO of science and scuba advances, there are still large pockets reporting to answer this question. David Suzuki & Ian Hanington diver, explains how of poverty in Western economies, still NewSouth. PB. $27.99 nature became hundreds of millions living in poverty HOW THE HELL Available 3 April aware of itself, overseas, and in our western societies, Climate change is the DID THIS HAPPEN? through the octopus despite technological advances, many of most important crisis P. J. O’Rourke and its relatives. us are working longer and for shrinking humanity has faced. In Grove. PB. $29.99 Tracking the mind’s real wages. the current political Available 29 March fitful development Bregman offers three radical solutions climate, solving it No comedian could from unruly clumps of seaborne cells to and backs them up with solid research seems more urgent have written the joke the first evolved nervous systems in and examples, in a style that is accessible and less achievable this election cycle has ancient relatives of jellyfish, he explores and thought-provoking. The first is to end than ever. What can been. Celebrated the evolution of cephalopods. How did poverty by instituting a basic income for we do? Is there hope political satirist, the octopus, a solitary creature with little everybody, no strings attached. He cites a for humanity? The journalist, and social life, become so smart? What is it number of cases where this has been done problem is complex, and there’s no single diehard Republican like to have eight tentacles that are so and the results have been cheaper and solution. But by understanding the P.J. O’Rourke brings packed with neurons that they virtually more effective than our ‘strings attached’ barriers to resolving global warming and his critical eye and ‘think for themselves’? The answers cast welfare systems. The second is to reduce by employing a wide range of solutions, we inimitable voice to crucial new light on the octopus mind – the work week to 15 hours; we could do can get the world back on track. David some serious risky business. How the Hell and on our own. this and produce the same amount as we Suzuki takes a comprehensive look at the Did this Happen? covers the whole election do now and have more productive, happier current state of climate science and process and answers the key question of the and cohesive societies. And, finally, we knowledge, and the many ways to resolve 2016 presidential election: should we laugh, Natural History should have open borders; with open the climate crisis. cry or hurl? An essential take on the borders, he argues, we would increase stranger-than-fiction 2016 presidential global wealth by $65 trillion dollars and go THE SONGS OF TREES election from a quintessential voice on a long way to eliminating global poverty. Science American politics and culture. David George Haskell Utopia for Realists is a must-read for Black Inc. PB. Was $32.99 anyone interested in how we live; you may ON TYRANNY THE GREATEST STORY $27.99 not agree with all of it, you may dismiss it Available 3 April as fantasy, but you will certainly be inspired Timothy Snyder EVER TOLD ... SO FAR In The Songs of by it to think! Jonathan Cape. PB. $19.99 Lawrence M. Krauss Trees David Haskell Available 30 March S&S. PB. $32.99 Mark Rubbo is the managing director of observes a dozen The short version of Available 1 April Readings trees around the Timothy Snyder’s 20 Discover how world to explore lessons on tyranny humanity reached its THE DESTRUCTION OF their connections from the twentieth current HILLARY CLINTON with webs of fungi, century went viral. understanding of the Susan Bordo bacterial Get the in-depth universe: one far Text. PB. $29.99 communities, details of this whip- removed from the Available 3 April cooperative and smart historian’s realm of everyday destructive animals, and other plants. The result of the 2016 warning signs of experience. Writing From an Amazonian ceibo tree to the presidential election impending tyranny, in the critically roots of a balsam fir thousands of miles was widely thought to drawn from Europe’s fascist, Nazi and acclaimed style of A away, he reveals that this networked view be a foregone communist governments of last century. Universe from Nothing, Krauss celebrates of life enriches our understanding of conclusion: an These were movements in which a leader the beauty and wonders of the natural biology, human nature and ethics. When historic victory for an or a party claimed to give voice to the world, detailing our place within it and we listen to trees, nature’s great extraordinarily people, promised to protect them from how this shapes our understanding of it. connectors, we learn how to inhabit the well-qualified, global existential threats, and rejected He takes us on a tour of science and the relationships that give life its source, experienced and reason in favour of myth. This timely book brilliant personalities who shaped it, substance and beauty. admired candidate reminds us of how societies can break, often against political and religious against an opponent seen as not just democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, indoctrination, enduring persecution and unelectable, but unfit for office. As we and ordinary people can find themselves ostracism. A captivating blend of research History know, it didn’t work out like that. So how in unimaginable circumstances. and narrative – and a landmark work of did Hillary Clinton lose? How did she come scientific history. to be seen as a tool of the establishment, a A LITTLE HISTORY CASTLE OF THE EAGLES: chronic liar and a talentless politician? The OF ECONOMICS THE ENIGMA OF REASON ESCAPE FROM Destruction of Hillary Clinton is an essential Niall Kishtainy Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber MUSSOLINI’S COLDITZ guide to understanding the most Yale. HB. $33 Allen Lane. HB. $55 controversial presidential election in Mark Felton Available TBC Available 18 April American history. Icon. PB. $29.99 Understanding Why have humans Available 29 March EVERYTHING UNDER THE economics – and how alone developed High in the Tuscan HEAVENS: HOW THE PAST the theories that reason? This book hills above Florence, influence argues, with a HELPS SHAPE CHINA’S the Vincigliata governments and compelling mix of Castle – a prisoner- PUSH FOR GLOBAL POWER policies shape our real-life and of-war camp Howard W. French individual lives – can experimental converted on Scribe. PB. $35 seem daunting to the evidence, that its use Mussolini’s personal Available 3 April layperson. Economic is to help humans orders – held 13 of From the former New historian Niall better exploit their the most senior York Times Asia Kishtainy delivers a smart, engaging and uniquely rich social environment. This British and correspondent, an accessible introduction to key thinkers illuminating interpretation makes sense Commonwealth officers captured during incisive investigation (Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard of strengths and weaknesses that have the campaign in North Africa. Against of China’s ideological Keynes) and breaks down big topics like long puzzled philosophers and insuperable odds, these extraordinary development as it the invention of money, entrepreneurship, psychologists – why reason is biased in middle-aged POWs drove a complex becomes an ever- environmental destruction, inequality and favour of what we already believe, why it tunnel beneath the castle, and by March more-aggressive player behavioural economics. Are economic may lead to terrible ideas and yet is 1943 it was ready. Acclaimed historian in regional and global crises inevitable under capitalism? What indispensable to spreading good ones. Mark Felton tells the amazing true story diplomacy. The false are the pros and cons of government The Enigma of Reason will spark debate of six men and their adventures on the modesty China adopted about its ambitions intervention in an economy? This clever among psychologists and philosophers, run. But did any of them make it to after its reform and opening in 1978 is gone. little book provides the perfect path for and make many reasonable people freedom? China has asserted its place among the exploring these questions and ideas. rethink their own thinking. 16 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

ISABELLA OF CASTILE: their own rhythms. It is a path Chloë Shorten Food & Gardening Art & Design EUROPE’S FIRST GREAT has walked. Surprised at the lack of QUEEN information and the unexpected tripwires for with Chris Gordon with Margaret Snowdon those not fitting the cookie-cutter model she Giles Tremlett tells of her own quest and explores the idea of IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT CHARDIN AND REMBRANDT Bloomsbury. HB. $55 ‘family’ in the twenty-first century. THE FOOD Available 29 March Marcel Proust Monday Morning Cooking Club David Zwirner. PB. $19.99 Royal stories are less HarperCollins. HB. $49.99 Available 1 April Women’s Weekly and more Performing Arts Available 1 April zeitgeisty these days, from Proust wrote this essay at the This group of delightful, Julia Baird’s Victoria to beginning of his literary career, passionate Jewish women Netflix’s The Crown. In FIFTY: HALF A CENTURY when he was 24. An unnamed decided to cook together this authoritative, stylish OF AUSTRALIAN DANCE narrator gives advice to a young every Monday morning 11 history of another great THEATRE man suffering from melancholy, years ago, and have been European queen ascended taking him on an imaginary tour Maggie Tonkin inspiring people ever since. to the throne at a young through the Louvre, where his readings on Wakefield. HB. $75 It’s Always About the Food is their third book age (23), acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett Chardin imbue the everyday with new Available now and is another fabulous, nurturing treat for chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile. meaning, and his ruminations on Rembrandt When Elizabeth all. This book has been created for the home Isabella led her country out of the murky take his melancholic pupil beyond the realm Cameron Dalman cook, and reflects their understanding of the middle ages and harnessed the newest ideas of mere object. It is translated by Jennie founded Australian importance of sharing lives. It is for this and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her Feldman and there is an afterword by Proust Dance Theatre in 1965, reason, and also for the Olive Oil Chocolate crime-and-corruption-riddled nation, beset by scholar Alain Madeleine-Perdillat. she set out to create a Mousse recipe, that this is my cookbook of violent political fanaticism, into a sharper, company that would be the month. RURALISM modern state. radical, daring and new. Vanessa Miriam Carlow Fifty years later, it’s not GREEN KITCHEN AT HOME THE BOOK THIEVES Jovis. PB. $85 only Australia’s oldest continuously running David Frenkiel & Luise Vindahl Anders Rydell Available late April contemporary dance company, but also one of Hardie Grant. HB. $39.99 Viking. HB. $49.99 In an urbanising world, the Australia’s most recognised cultural exports. Available 1 April Available 11 March Fifty celebrates and showcases half a century city is considered the measure I am a little in awe of the For readers of The of innovation in dance performance, through of all things, while rural spaces way David and Luise parent Monuments Men and interviews, archival research and stunning are often unfairly associated and run their completely The Hare with Amber images of the company’s most noted works. with economic decline, wholesome home. Their new Eyes, this is the story of stagnation and resignation. However, rural collection of recipes the Nazis’ systematic spaces are transforming almost as radically specifies shortcuts and pillaging of Europe’s Sport as cities, and have begun to play a decisive contains valuable tips for bulk-cooking libraries and bookshops, role in the sustainable development of our sessions and how to hide veggies (all those and the small team of living environment. The formerly segregated MY WAY nutrients) even in the breakfast pancakes. heroic librarians now countryside is now traversed by global and Moana Hope This book is perfect for anyone coveting working to return the stolen books to their regional flows of people, goods, waste, MUP. PB. $27.99 innovative and inspiring vegetarian, vegan rightful owners. The books were not energy and information, linking it to urban Available 3 April and gluten-free recipes. burned. Instead, they were used to compile systems and enabling those systems to The AFL will never be function in the first place. International an arsenal for waging intellectual war on ANNIE’S literature and history, appropriating the the same after this year’s experts explore the rural from architectural, libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal thrilling debut of the FARMHOUSE KITCHEN cultural, gender-oriented, ecological and politicians, LGBT activists, Catholics, and Women’s League – and Annie Smithers political perspectives, and ask how a new Freemasons. Most of the books were never Moana Hope, lifetime Hardie Grant. HB. Was $40 vision of the rural can be formulated. returned after the war. Rydell works from footy tragic and powerful $34.99 extensive new research, including records full-forward, is one of Available 1 April RUSSIAN ART OF THE saved by the Monuments Men. Collingwood’s two Annie Smithers started out AVANT GARDE marquee players. This is under the wing of Stephanie John E. Bowlt the ballsy story of one of 14 children, who SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY Alexander and then did what T&H. PB. $35 played kick-to-kick for hours with her dad HEARTS CLUB BAND we all reckon we are going to Available 1 April and brothers, made state and national teams do; she moved to the country This is a new edition of a Brian Southall for cricket and footy, and cared for her (Malmsbury), set up a farm and started great classic in which the Hachette. HB. $39.99 terminally ill dad until his death. As female Available 28 March cooking meals that she wanted to eat in a author has collected and footy’s profile grew, Hope felt sidelined by sweet, sometimes open bistro: du Fermier. June 2017 marks the translated manifestos, the pressure to look good and play well – but This book is impressive for so many reasons, fiftieth anniversary of articles, and declarations ultimately, she stayed true to herself and but mainly because the recipes are a what many think is the by the principal artists and prevailed. An inspirational story. marvellous affirmation of French culinary greatest Beatles album. critics of the Russian avant- mysteries, yet easy to use. All our seasons are This book recaptures the garde, 1902–1934. Illustrated with more THE MIGHTY WEST: THE covered, as well as pragmatic directions for rapturous reception of Sgt. than 100 rare photographs of artworks and BULLDOGS’ JOURNEY leftovers. I reckon the best action to take is Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, exploring it written works as well as facsimiles, and FROM DAYDREAM to just give in: buy the book, some cheese in the context of the band and its music supplemented by clear introductory essays, and wine, and settle in for autumn feasts. (including the recording process) and the BELIEVERS TO bibliographical information, and copious PREMIERSHIP HEROES notes, this is the essential sourcebook for a wider world in 1967, from anti-war protests to KITCHEN GARDEN the death of Che Guevara, the launch of Kerrie Soraghan full understanding of the motivations and Rolling Stone to Hendrix’s first solo UK tour. Black Inc. PB. $22.99 COMPANION: COOKING struggles that produced an extraordinary, Available 3 April Stephanie Alexander seminal epoch in Russian art. Lantern. PB. $49.99 The 2016 AFL SURF SHACKS Personal Development Premiership win by the Available 3 April Western Bulldogs had all Stephanie Alexander is proof Indoek eds the elements of a great that if you believe in Gestalten. HB. $95 TAKE HEART: A STORY FOR Available now MODERN STEPFAMILIES sporting moment. It was something you can make it the club’s first happen. Her Kitchen Garden In this enviable and eclectic Chloë Shorten Premiership since 1954 Foundation started as a seed compilation of creative surfer MUP. PB. $32.99 (and second ever), and a (ha!) of an idea and grew into homes and hangouts, the focus Available 3 April dramatic underdog a national program. Surely if she can do this, is on America but includes These days, families come comeback, after the walk-out of the club’s then you can actually grow enough food for a locations around the rest of the in all shapes and sizes. captain just two years earlier. New captain salad. This beautifully presented book is a world as well. Homes that encapsulate the They move from one state Robert Murphy and coach Luke Beveridge step-by-step guide to the secrets of rewarding surfing way of life – be that a life dominated to create a family in built a team of talented youngsters to scale kitchen gardening. There is news about over by waves and the tide and/or places to relax, another, they combine the ladder and take the ultimate prize, backed 70 different veggies and also over 250 create and socialise – are to be found in New into new homes, take by a fierce band of vocal supporters – none trustworthy (it is Stephanie, after all) recipes. York apartments, Hawaiian beach shacks, or holidays with blends of more passionate than Kerrie Sorghan, the It’s the type of book that can be used by both nestled into national parks and semi-rural children and parents from Bulldog Tragician. Here, she tells a tale of kids and adults, and balcony growers as well areas. Edited by surf-centric bloggers Indoek, different households, and family and belonging, western suburbs as the urban farmer. It makes you feel good Surf Shack reveals a more personal side to they invent routines and rituals to establish tribalism and the romance of sport. just flicking through the pages. surfing and its eclectic cast of characters. READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 17

New Young Adult Fiction business and finish a carpentry apprenticeship, her mother impresses upon See books for kids, junior and middle readers on pages 18–19 Kirby the importance of chasing bigger April’s dreams, like moving to Sydney and studying To-Read List Young Adult Book of the Month at university. That Kirby has been named after Australia’s most notable dissenting High Court judge is testament to her STRANGE THE DREAMER mother’s long-held aspirations. But as Laini Taylor potent as her mother’s expectations may be, Hodder. PB. $19.99 a family history of abandonment makes Available 28 March Kirby resistant to leave, especially now that Somewhere in the world (or perhaps another world), a her beloved grandpa has been diagnosed mythical and wondrous city closed its borders to with dementia. outsiders, had its name stolen, and is now only known as Further intensifying Kirby’s emotional Weep. Weep is the obsession of choice of 19-year-old Lazlo maelstrom is a newspaper article providing Strange, a foundling raised by monks and apprenticed to the a vital clue to the whereabouts of her Michael Morrison’s garden diaries reveal how great city library of Zosma. Somewhere far away from Zosma, estranged father. Hopes of reuniting with Cruden Farm was developed and maintained, but it’s also the story of a wonderful friendship. a young woman called Sarai grows up with her four siblings him resurface along with old wounds in a walled-off citadel, burdened by an idiosyncratic magical of parental rejection. Luckily, Kirby has power and the past actions of her family. Clancy, her mischief-making musical- Strange the Dreamer is the eighth book by Laini Taylor, and it’s the kind of odd, funny, theatre-loving BFF, around for comic romantic and utterly heartbreaking novel that only she could write. The story depends distraction. Slapstick banter and madcap on the tantalising convergence of two separate storylines – events or facts that appear scheming flows free and fast between this whimsical or arbitrary at first later emerge as crucial and connected. pair. Yet even their friendship is put to the test when the town’s beautiful newcomer, Iris, arrives with her impressive wardrobe ‘Strange the Dreamer is the eighth book by of novelty print dresses to capture their Laini Taylor, and it’s the kind of odd, funny, romantic imaginations. When Antonio decides to trust a man who has This bittersweet comedy of romantic literally fallen from the sky, he leaps into an romantic and utterly heartbreaking novel that misunderstanding, life management and adventure that will change his life and maybe family relations is poised at the emotional even the future of Sicily... only she could write.’ intersection between forgiveness and self- acceptance. Despite its whimsical tone, Lazlo, whose existence has been extremely sheltered, is recruited to an intrepid Night Swimming tackles serious themes of expedition of rag-tag inventors and scientists from all over the world, travelling to solve mental health, family upheaval and sexual a vexing problem. Sarai is caught in the middle of a struggle for power within her citadel coming-out with commendable delicacy family, and is in desperate need of human connection. and humanity. Suitable for ages 14 and up. Existing fans will be satisfied to find that Strange the Dreamer has Taylor’s trademark Carrie Croft is from Readings Hawthorn mix of lush writing, heady romance, strange magic, brutal acts of war and dry humour. It explores trauma, vengeance, fear of the other and what it means to have, and to lose, ALEX, APPROXIMATELY autonomy over your mind and body. There will be a sequel, and the ending makes this all Jenn Bennett A powerful magic realism story about Ziggy too clear. One crisis has been averted (but not without casualties), and a new crisis has S&S. PB. $17.99 Truegood, a young girl who has a premonition that already risen in its wake. Strange the Dreamer is highly recommended for teenagers aged she will drown on her 12th birthday. Available 1 April 14 years old, all the way through to adult fantasy readers. Having loved Leanne Hall is from Readings Kids Jenn Bennett’s last novel, Night Owls, a THE SECRET SCIENCE Like her previous novels, Keil’s The creative YA fiction OF MAGIC Secret Science of Magic is a book with a lot about two young artists, of heart that deals with complex questions I was really happy to be Melissa Keil of love, identity, friendship and family in a asked to review Alex, Hardie Grant Egmont. PB. $19.99 sympathetic and realistic manner. Sophia Approximately; a story Available 1 April is a fantastic character, and her first-person that sees two young Melissa Keil is people fall in love over narrative reminded me how refreshing it is to The everyday rhythms of Venetian life are at one of the best read a story from the perspective of a female movies, online. the core of this thrilling new instalment in the new voices in character who is almost certainly on the Bailey, who has the online handle Mink, bestselling Commissario Brunetti series. Australian YA fiction. autism spectrum. Sophia’s observations of the has been chatting to Alex about their love Her wonderful world around her are unexpectedly witty, and of movies for a couple of months before he contemporary her pragmatic view of the world contrasts suggests she comes to visit her dad in the rom-coms are always beautifully with Joshua’s empathetic and same surf town in California that he lives in. populated with a romantic nature. If you’re looking for a sweet, But, when Bailey decides she can’t live with brilliant cast of sparkling YA novel with hidden depths and her mum anymore, she moves to Coronado well-drawn one of the sexiest first kisses I’ve read, then Cove without telling Alex, worried that she characters, and The Secret Science of Magic this is the one for you. might meet him in real life and not like him. is no exception. The two teenagers at the Instead, she goes about trying to track him Lian Hingee is the digital marketing manager heart of Keil’s third novel are Joshua, an down on the sly. In the meantime, while for Readings amateur illusionist who taught himself working at a local museum, she meets the Kathy Lette’s riotous yet heartrending novel magic to help manage crippling social NIGHT SWIMMING terribly annoying yet overly attractive Porter, tackles the taboo subject of sex for the anxiety, and Sophia, a maths genius with an a security guard there. Before Bailey has ‘differently abled’. eidetic memory and a terrible fear of Steph Bowe much of a chance to hate him, she finds burning out and disappointing everyone Text. PB. $19.99 herself falling for him. What Bailey doesn’t around her (not least herself ). Available 3 April realise, while she is worrying over how she is As the end of high school looms, Sophia’s Triangulated going to tell Alex all this, is that Porter has an panic attacks increase, exacerbated by rom-com meets online handle as well: Alex. her best friend’s impending departure, dysfunctional family I was originally irritated that the book an ill-advised enrolment in drama class, drama in this coming- seemed to be a rip off of the movie You’ve and sudden occurrences of unexplained of-age novel set in a Got Mail, but I was happy to see that Bennett phenomena that seem, well, to be somehow rural Aussie makes reference to the movie in one of the centred around her. The person responsible community. Kirby has chapters, which made me settle down a bit. Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work for the phenomena is – of course – Joshua, grown up living in the And while this is a predictable story that school teacher takes matters into his own hands, who has loved Sophia from a distance for tight-knit town of doesn’t really scream ‘original’, it is a cute, triggering a chain of events neither he nor his psychiatrist could have anticipated. over five years and recently decided to make Alberton with her romantic piece of teen fiction for YA readers a long, complicated, elaborate play for her mother, grandpa and pet goat. At 17, Kirby 13 and up who like a bit of feel-good reading. heart. A play that involves exploding roses is attached to the comfortable insularity of (On a side note, this is my last review for and trick coins, and definitely has absolutely small-town existence but, with adulthood Readings Monthly, so thanks to everyone who nothing to do with avoiding the big question quickly approaching, now is the time to has read my reviews over the last 13 or so of what he’s going to do after he finishes take stock of her future. While Kirby plans years, it’s been a blast. Happy YA reading!) Read more at penguin.com.au to one day run her mother’s goat-milk soap Year 12. Katherine Dretzke is a friend of Readings 18 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

food and that there is more to it than just a supermarket. Picture Books Thank you, Trace, for a charming picture book for those Middle Fiction aged 2 and up. AD THE ANZAC TREE THE BEAST OF HUSHING WOOD Christina Booth MAISY GOES TO THE BOOKSHOP Gabrielle Wang Omnibus. HB. $24.99 Lucy Cousins Puffin. PB. $16.99 Available 1 April Walker. HB. $19.99 Available 3 April Based on real people and Available 1 April Ziggy Truegood is a true child of events, not many readers Maisy goes to the bookshop to nature; where most people in the will keep a dry eye reading The buy a new book, and she also small town of Dell Hollow avoid the Anzac Tree. Generations of one wants to get one as a present for surrounding forest of Hushing Wood, she family sending their children to her friend, Tallulah. The is drawn to its strange beauty and life wars is beautifully and bookshop shelves are packed full force. But her approaching 12th birthday poignantly portrayed and is of amazing books! The is threatened by a frightening premonition profoundly moving. So many shopkeeper is very helpful, too. and when strangers arrive in town, Ziggy mothers, fathers and siblings Maisy finds her friends inside and everyone has fun wonders whether they are friends or foes. waiting for the return of these young soldiers from the choosing the books they love. They share in story time The Beast of Hushing Wood is an imaginative adventure different wars forms a history of loss and relief. together and even eat a snack at the café. fable teeming with rich detailed scenes and unforgettable Christina Booth tells these stories from the characters – both human and animal. It’s lovingly crafted, perspective of young brothers and sisters as they farewell WE’RE ALL WONDERS taking its time to paint wonderful emotional and geographic and wait; and over the course of one hundred years their R. J. Palacio vistas. Dedicated readers who enjoy a descriptive atmospheric innocence and fears tell a heartbreaking story. At the end tale with a touch of magic will relish Ziggy’s challenges. Puffin. PB. $16.99 their experiences are summed up by one character: ‘Dad An award-winning and much loved author of many Available 3 April says war isn’t something to be proud of, but being brave wonderful children’s books, Gabrielle Wang has created a enough to fight in them to protect other people is.’ Have Wonder, a true modern classic, is mystic story with a strong, plucky female protagonist who the tissues handy! For ages 5 and up. the unforgettable story of August is courageous in the face of adversity. Recommended for Pullman, an ordinary boy with an Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn readers aged 8 and up. AC extraordinary face. Now younger MY PICTURES AFTER THE STORM readers can discover the Wonder ROSE RAVENTHORPE message with this gorgeous picture Eric Veille INVESTIGATES: BLACK CATS AND book written and illustrated by R.J. BUTLERS Gecko. HB. $19.99 Palacio. We’re All Wonders taps into Available 1 April every child’s longing to belong, and Janine Beacham This bright French picture to be seen for who they truly are. It’s the perfect way for Little, Brown. PB. $14.99 book is a hilarious off-the- families and teachers to talk about empathy, difference Available 28 March wall collection of double-page and kindness with young children. Twelve year old Rose Raventhorp before and after spreads. After is compelled to investigate a string lunch, bread becomes crumbs, of murdered butlers after the death of after magic, a handsome prince is Non-Fiction her own beloved butler, Argyle. Set in a a frog, and after four mouthfuls, a fictional imagining of York, England, in winking ‘greedy-guts’ crocodile LOTS: THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE ON the late nineteenth century, Black Cats has gobbled up all the other animals. There’s a practical EARTH and Butlers is the first in a new series joke, a big surprise, silly hairdos and an imaginative and a sometimes far-fetched murder battle that results in a big ol’ mess. A vivid palette of fun, Nicola Davies & Emily Sutton mystery replete with superstitious, cartoon-ish illustrations and plenty of bold things to chat Walker. HB. $24.99 swordfighting manservants, a secret labyrinth and a nasty about make it a great discussion book to share with Available 1 April band of bodysnatchers. preschoolers, while cheeky, clever humour will have kids A new non-fiction picture This novel has a strong cast of characters led by brave, of all ages laughing. You will have so much fun reading book introducing young resourceful Rose and her melodramatic friend Emily. They this book together! readers to the wonderful world are given to romantic leanings and gothic fantasy, offsetting of ecology and conservation is Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda the genuinely atmospheric Yorke and its mysterious exciting enough, but when it’s inhabitants. At times a little grim for a reader unfamiliar OLIVIA THE SPY authored by Nicola Davies and with crime fiction, this novel is nonetheless lots of fun, illustrated by Emily Sutton – it’s particularly when it concentrates on the workings of the Ian Falconer sensational! secret society of crime fighting butlers who are guardians S&S. HB. $24.99 Together they introduce us of the city. Beacham tackles the politics of class and gender Available 1 April to the amazing diversity of life on our earth in all its well in this story, which plays out ‘upstairs–downstairs’ If you want a picture book forms, from giant whales to the tiniest micro-organisms, tensions and the difficulty faced by female characters who about a little pig with presented through rich and colourful illustrations that wish to be taken seriously in a man’s world. attitude you can’t go past Olivia. deliver the promise of the title: there’s lots here to see Fans of Lemony Snicket and Robin Stevens will be keen for She’s willful, mischievous and so and discover. the next installment. I recommend for it for readers 9 and up. much fun. This time Olivia Lots is informative and entertaining – this is my kind Georgia Delaney is from Readings Carlton overhears her mother talking and of book, the kind that can awaken every child’s inner believes she is going to put her in scientist and conservationist; not surprising since the SECRET KEEPERS prison for being naughty. author is a zoologist, BBC science writer and award- Trenton Lee Stewart Suddenly, Olivia goes from winning author of many outstanding books for children, Chicken House. PB. $16.99 being annoyingly prominent to including some of my favourites: Tiny Creatures: The Available 1 April being an invisible spy as she tries to work out what her World of Microbes and A First Book of Nature. Highly mother is up to. However, eavesdropping nearly always recommended for ages 4 and up. Reuben Pedley is a recluse, has no leads to misinterpretation, as Olivia finds out. It’s great friends and lives with his mum, a Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern to have Olivia back and anyone from 2 and up will have single parent, in a rundown flat in a lots of laughs at her crazy ways. AD gloomy town. The town where he lives is patrolled by rogue agents, a gang of suited THE THANK YOU DISH Junior Fiction men called the Directions who, true to Trace Balla MAMMOTH MISTAKE, STARRING their nickname, keep watch out front, behind and sideways as they patrol the A&U. HB. $19.99 OLIVE BLACK Available 29 March city and collect protection money from Alex Miles the local shopkeepers. The Directions are answerable to The Readings family is a Affirm Press. PB. $14.99 Smoke, a shady villain that all the townspeople fear. When big fan of Trace Balla and Available 1 April Reuben finds a peculiar timepiece that has the power to her fourth picture book just Olive’s latest movie has her character make the holder invisible he realises he has found a treasure makes us love her more. In The bringing a woolly mammoth back from that could bring him great fortune, and could change his and Thank You Dish she celebrates time. But when Olive takes a chance to his mother’s life for the better. community and being grateful one-up her nemesis instead of be there But Smoke and his gangsters are on the lookout for this for where & how our food for her BFF, she makes a real-life much coveted artefact and the secrets it hides. As the story arrives on our plate. Grace and mammoth mistake of her own. Will she unfolds, one secret leads to another, setting in motion a Mama sit down to dinner and give thanks for the not so be able to make things right? Fun for treacherous cascade of traps and near-miss escapes that pack obvious ways they came by their meal. It is a lovely, readers aged 7–9. an adrenaline punch. An adventure for readers aged 9–12. lateral way of looking at the connections relating to our Natalie Platten is from Readings Doncaster READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 19

Book of the Month

THE BLUE CAT Ursula Dubosarsky A&U. PB. $19.99 Available 29 March

Told from the point of view of a young girl called Columba, The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky is a strange little tale in which not much really happens at all. Set during World War II in Sydney, it mostly covers what happens during Columba’s days: bits of conversations she overhears about the war from her parents, neighbours or teachers; dramatic interpretations of war news by her loud, brash friend, Hilda; and a mysterious new foreign boy, Ellery from ‘You-rope’ who speaks no English. Ellery is said to be German and Jewish, and Columba is told, by her teachers and her mother, only to be kind to him. She finds herself drawn to him. The book comes to a close when Hilda, Ellery and Columba race through Luna Park to find a missing cat – but The Blue Cat doesn’t end, not really. It sort of fades out slowly so you only catch misty snatches of a near future and when you’ve finally closed the book and think back you’re not sure you didn’t just dream the whole thing up yourself. A great read for 10–12 year olds.

Dani Solomon is from Readings Kids

THE SECRETS OF BILLIE BRIGHT I loved this outrageous story and its characters; a Susie Day delightful badger, a family of eccentric llamas, a gentle Classic of the Month benevolent hero you’ll love and dastardly villains you’ll love Puffin. PB. $16.99 to hate AND an outlandish plot that is laugh-out-loud funny! DON’T PAT THE WOMBAT! Available 3 April What’s not to like? Terrific line illustrations bring an Elizabeth Honey Billie has just started Year 7. Her extra layer of fun to a story that’s guaranteed to have young A&U. PB. $15.95 big brothers have tried to scare her readers laughing hysterically at all the zany madcap antics. Available now with tales of Big School, but she knows Not recommended for anyone troubled by comic As a child, I read and reread Elizabeth she’ll find new friends and be in charge, violence involving badgers and llamas, but highly Honey’s novels. I wanted to visit Bean’s like always. When her plans are recommended for confident, independent readers aged 8 hidden library in What Do You Think, seriously derailed by Ruby, who blurts to and up, especially those who love books by Roald Dahl and Feezal?, and I wished Henni of the Stella the whole class that Billie’s mum has David Walliams – and who doesn’t? AC Street stories was my sister. But my passed away, Billie knows she needs to absolute favourite book of hers was Don’t come up with a brilliant plan to get back WED WABBIT Pat the Wombat, the story a Grade 6 on top. She chooses her mum for her Hero Project, and school camp. The book’s narrator is Mark though she can’t remember much about her, Billie is sure Lissa Evans Ryder (‘Nickname: Exclamation Mark. No prizes for some digging will undoubtedly reveal a mysterious and David Fickling. HB. $19.99 guessing why!!!!!!!!’) and he’s determined to tell the whole dazzling person – won’t it? Available 1 April story, even the rude, naughty and hard parts. There’s an I absolutely adored Billie; she’s strong-willed, feisty and Fidge’s little sister Minnie carries epic showdown with a bullying teacher, a plague of fun, but makes mistakes. Her family frequently made me her stuffed toy, Wed Wabbit, bloodthirsty leeches, and, of course, a wombat. Revisiting laugh out loud and I couldn’t help a quiet tear towards the everywhere. She’s also obsessed with a this novel as an adult, I appreciate the gentle way Honey end. Perfect for kids aged 9 and up, this big-hearted book book about strange, dustbin-shaped promotes bigger messages, such as protection for native is filled with gorgeous, realistic characters and doesn’t shy characters that speak in rhyme called species, and the value of difference. away from big issues. Wimbley Woos, which she makes Fidge read repetitively. But when Minnie ends Don’t Pat the Wombat perfectly encapsulates the feverish Jo Boyce is from Readings Carlton up in hospital without her beloved toys, excitement of school camp. Honey herself attended five camps as a volunteer parent, and weaves in plenty of real- UNCLE SHAWN AND BILL Fidge and her neurotic cousin, Graham, magically fall (like Alice down the rabbit hole) into the land life experiences. (You can read an interesting piece about AND THE ALMOST ENTIRELY of the Wimbley Woos. There, they must avoid the warfaring the book’s background on her website.) The short chapters UNPLANNED ADVENTURE blue Wimbleys, find the wise purples, and decipher the are dialogue heavy and peppered with photographs and A.L. Kennedy sing-song rhymes of all the Wimbleys in order to escape with illustrations, making this an ideal pick for reluctant readers Walker. HB. $17.99 Wed Wabbit, who is needed by Minnie back in the real ages 8 and up. Available 1 April world. This proves difficult, because Wed Wabbit has While Honey usually illustrates her own books (including several award-winning picture books), her son William Badger Bill is kidnapped by the deposed the King of Wimbley Woo and become a bad- provided the art for Don’t Pat the Wombat and it’s a brilliant diabolical McGloone sisters who tempered dictator. But like Minnie, Wed Wabbit has trouble decision. Their rough, expressive quality enhances Mark’s plan to involve him in a boxing match pronouncing his ‘r’s, so his angry directives are more voice, and as a child, they encouraged me to make my own with vicious dogs. Meanwhile, four hilarious than terrifying. drawings. There’s one in particular that I love which shows a llamas are held hostage by the equally This is a funny, clever and adventurous trip to a magical shower head spraying in every direction – except towards the reprehensible McGloone farmers with land where everything is topsy turvy and the children must person under it. Yep, sounds like school camp to me. equally evil intentions. All seems lost be courageous and inventive in order to escape. It will be until the imaginative Uncle Shawn comes loved by imaginative minds aged 8 to 11. Bronte Coates is the digital content coordinator for Readings to the rescue! Angela Crocombe is from Readings Kids 20 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

ARGUABLY: Europe. Stalin and his secret police set THE PARTHENON THE ROMANOV ESSAYS BY out to convert a dozen radically different ENIGMA SISTERS: THE countries to a new political and moral CHRISTOPHER Joan Breton Connelly LOST LIVES OF system: Communism. Iron Curtain shows HB. Was $49.95 Now $16.95 HITCHENS how societies were eviscerated, opposition THE DAUGHTERS Christopher Hitchens was destroyed and what life was like For more than two millennia, the OF NICHOLAS HB. Was $49.99 Now $16.95 for ordinary people who had to choose Parthenon has been revered as the symbol AND ALEXANDRA of western culture and its highest ideals. This collection of important and controversial whether to fight, flee or collaborate. Helen Rappaport But through a close reading of a lost play by writings from the unapologetically PB. Was $25.95 Now $12.95 provocative, yet universally admired, HELLO TOKYO: Euripides, Joan Connelly has developed a theory that challenges our most basic sense The captivating Romanov sisters were the Christopher Hitchens spans a remarkable HANDMADE Princess Dianas of their day: perhaps the most four decades. From early articles in the New of the Parthenon and the culture that built it. PROJECTS AND She uncovers a monument glorifying human photographed and talked-about young royals Statesman through to his pieces for Salon, The FUN IDEAS FOR of the early twentieth century. Overshadowed Atlantic and Vanity Fair, these articles display sacrifice, set in a world of cult ritual alien to A CUTE TOKYO our understanding of the word ‘Athenian’. by their tragic end in a basement in 1918, Helen his rare genius, indomitable wit and singular Rappaport sets out to capture the joy, as well as command of language. INSPIRED LIFESTYLE EASY WEEKENDS the insecurities and poignancy, of those young Ebony Bizys lives, against the backdrop of the dying days Neil Perry LONELY PLANET’S PB. Was $35 Now $10 of late Imperial Russia, World War I and the PB. Was $39.99 Now $13.95 BEAUTIFUL With this ‘super cute’ book, craft-queen Russian Revolution. WORLD and blogger extraordinaire Ebony Bizys Neil Perry is often associated with the food served at his Lonely Planet (aka Hello Sandwich) offers a quirky guide SS-GB to living a handmade lifestyle. Filled with restaurants around Australia, however this HB. Was $54.99 Now $19.95 Len Deighton simple, inventive projects and tips inspired book is a celebration of cooking at home. Journey to the planet’s most magnificent PB. Was $24.99 Now $13.95 by her daily life in Tokyo, this book captures Whether you’re looking for an easy and places with this thought-provoking portrait of In this chilling alternative- the charm, humour and originality of delicious family stir-fry on a Friday night, our world. The images in this lavish pictorial history novel it’s February Ebony’s eclectic and highly successful blog. ideas for Saturday dinner-party menus, will take you far and wide and capture places or preparing a slow-cooked Sunday feast 1941 and British Command which are surprising, remarkable, remote, THE EIGHTIES: for friends, this book has an inspiring and has surrendered to the Nazis, Churchill familiar … dive in and marvel over the accessible recipe for you. has been executed, the king is in the Tower undeniable fact: it is a beautiful world. THE DECADE and the SS are in Whitehall. However, it’s THAT SARABAN ‘business as usual’ at Scotland Yard when THE BEDSIDE TRANSFORMED Detective Inspector Archer is assigned to Greg & Lucy Malouf a routine murder case. Soon, Archer finds BOOK OF AUSTRALIA PB. Was $45 Now $16.95 PHILOSOPHY Frank Bongiorno himself caught in a high-level, action- Saraban is an unforgettable packed espionage battle. Michael Picard HB. Was $45 Now $14.95 journey through the culinary landscapes of HB. Was $24.99 Now $10 It was the era of Hawke and Keating, Kylie ancient Persia and modern-day Iran. STITT: and INXS, the America’s Cup and The Bedside Book of Philosophy is a fun, Persian cooking is one of the AUTOBIOGRAPHICS interactive introduction to philosophy. the Bicentenary. It was perhaps oldest and most sophisticated Filled with puzzles, quizzes, insoluble the most controversial cuisines in the world. It Alexander Stitt riddles and moral dilemmas, it will expand decade in Australian rejoices in rice, uses fresh HB. Was $89.95 Now $39.95 your mind, put your neurons through their history, with high-flying herbs in abundance and Though his name remains relatively paces and question the foundations of entrepreneurs booming combines meat, fish, unknown, Alex Stitt has been the hand your opinions (and knowledge itself ). The and busting, torrid fruit and vegetables behind many aspects of Australia’s culture Bedside Book of Philosophy will give your debates over land rights with spices, such as since the 1950s. He has created icons such intellect a workout you’ll thoroughly enjoy. and immigration, the Bargain saffron, cardamom and as Norm of ‘Life. Be in it’, Hector the Cat, advent of AIDS, a harsh dried limes. Discover who taught road safety rules to children THE BONE CLOCKS recession and the rise of the joy of Persian cooking and Sid the seagull from ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’ for David Mitchell the New Right. It was also a Table for yourself with these the Cancer Council. This book is a pictorial time for social change. In The HB. Was $39.99 Now $12.95 mouth-watering recipes for record of his 50-year professional life, with Eighties, Frank Bongiorno brings illustrations, comic strips and storyboards. Run away, one drowsy the home kitchen. these events and more to life. summer’s afternoon, with Holly GOOD LIVING TWO YEARS Sykes: wayward teenager, broken-hearted DECOMPOSITION: rebel and unwitting pawn in a titanic, hidden STREET: PORTRAIT EIGHT MONTHS conflict. Over six decades, the consequences A MUSIC OF A PATRON AND TWENTY- of a moment’s impulse unfold, drawing an MANIFESTO FAMILY VIENNA EIGHT NIGHTS: ordinary woman into a world far beyond her Andrew Durkin 1900 A NOVEL imagining. And as life in the near future turns HB. Was $49.99 Now $13.95 Tim Bonyhady Salman Rushdie perilous, the pledge she made to a stranger Decomposition is a bracing, revisionary, HB. Was $49.95 Now $15.95 HB Was $39.99 Now $12.95 may become the key to her family’s survival. and provocative inquiry into music – Tim Bonyhady’s great-grandparents were From one of the greatest writers of our from Beethoven to Duke Ellington, from leading patrons of the arts in glamorous fin time: a spellbinding, entertaining, wildly BORN BAD: Conlon Nancarrow to Evelyn Glennie – as de siecle Vienna, enjoying a lifestyle of luxury imaginative novel, which blends history and ORIGINAL SIN a personal and cultural experience: how and privilege until everything changed. In myth with tremendous philosophical depth. it is composed, how it is idiosyncratically AND THE MAKING 1938, his family fled Vienna for a small flat A mesmerising modern tale about worlds perceived by critics and reviewers, and why OF THE WESTERN in a harbourside suburb of Sydney, taking dangerously colliding, the monsters that we listen to it the way we do. WORLD with them the best private collection of art are unleashed when reason recedes, and a James Boyce SERIOUS and design to escape the Nazis. This is the beautiful testament to the power of love and PB. Was $34.99 Now $12.95 enthralling story of three generations of humanity in chaotic times. WHITEFELLA women spanning a century of upheaval. According to the doctrine of original sin, STUFF: WHEN UNCLE humans are born bad and only God’s grace can bring salvation. In this captivating book, SOLUTIONS MODERN LOVE: TUNGSTEN: acclaimed historian James Boyce shows how BECOME THE THE LIVES OF MEMORIES OF A these ideas, which he traces through Adam PROBLEM IN JOHN AND CHEMICAL and Eve all the way to Adam Smith and INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS SUNDAY REED BOYHOOD Richard Dawkins, have shaped the western Mark Moran Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan Oliver Sacks view of human nature right up to the present. PB. Was $27.99 Now $12 PB. Was $45 Now $12.95 PB. Was $25 Now $10 IRON CURTAIN: How does Indigenous policy signed off in Much has been written about the lives In Uncle Tungsten, Sacks evokes, with Canberra work (or not) when implemented and art of Heide, but finally the remaining warmth and wit, his upbringing in wartime THE CRUSHING OF in remote Aboriginal communities? Mark members of the inner circle have entrusted England. He tells of his large science- EASTERN EUROPE, Moran, Alyson Wright and Paul Memmott the full story, told through this intimate steeped family, his years at boarding school 1944–1956 have extensive on-the-ground experience in biography of John and Sunday Reed. and his return to London, an emotionally Anne Applebaum this area. What, they ask, is the right balance Part romance, part tragedy, Modern bereft ten-year-old who found solace in HB. Was $49.99 Now $19.95 between respecting local traditions and Love explores the complex lives of these his passion for learning. Uncle Tungsten making significant improvements in the areas At the end of World War II, the Soviet champions of successive generations of radiates all the delight and wonder of a boy’s of alcohol consumption, home ownership and Union unexpectedly found itself in control Australian artists and writers, detailing adventures, and is an unforgettable portrait revitalising cultural practices? of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern their artistic endeavours and passionate of an extraordinary young mind. personal entanglements. READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 21

PUBLIC ENEMY New Film & TV Documentary $29.95 with Lou Fulco Available 5 April DVD of the Month Guy Branger, a dangerous THE STORY OF child murderer, is at the CHINA WITH NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: ONE end of his prison sentence. MICHAEL WOOD His release on parole to the custody of the MORE TIME WITH FEELING $29.95 monks at Vielsart Abbey leads to an outcry 2 DVDs. $21.95 Available 5 April from the nearby small village and the rest Available 31 March This beautifully-shot series of the country. I have a 15-year-old son. He is one of the lights of my life. This follows historian Michael Wood as he looks riveting documentary, One More Time with Feeling, has given me MAMMON at China from its ancient roots to the present an insight into my worst fear, realised. Halfway through the recording day, taking viewers on a journey through the SEASON 2 of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree, landscapes, peoples, stories and cultures that $44.95 Cave’s 15-year-old son, Arthur, died. This film centres on Cave’s return to work, to finish have helped create its distinctive character Available now the album. It is not easy watching. and genius over more than 4,000 years. Director Andrew Dominik was given access to Cave’s home, family, band and studio This season, Scandi-crime in the making of this film. There are live performances by the band, interviews and then sensation Mammon starts GIMME DANGER there is Cave: bags under his eyes, looking directly at the camera. He decided to make a off with the brutal killing of a journalist $34.95 documentary about his new album to avoid having to discuss the anguished subject of his and focuses on the political fight for power Available 12 April son’s death with the media. He did not make it for cathartic reasons, but rather to simplify between the prime minister and his finance ‘Utilising wonderfully grungy the demands on his time. For these reasons, he allows the audience an unprecedented view minister. How does an extremist attack on animation from James Kerr of his personal life. free speech affect a political power struggle? and spot-on archival footage, Cave’s voice, whether singing or talking on this film, is blunted by an ache that fills Jarmusch brings the story of The Stooges me with complete terror. At one point in the film, Cave says that language is unable to do MAIGRET vividly to life, with their record company justice to the trauma of his son’s death. His songs seem to, though. His harmonies with $19.95 battles, health crises, and wars with drugs all duly featured … In the great pantheon of rock Ellis, who is always by his side, convey a shock and grief so deep that merely hearing the Available 5 April docos, this is an instant classic.’ – Filmink melody makes my entire body run cold. Rowan Atkinson plays I understand that Cave is one of those great performers who can divide friends, George Simeon’s Maigret, opinions and radio stations. This documentary is not for everyone. Certainly, it is a film for commisaire of the Paris JANIS: LITTLE devotees of Cave, enthusiasts of Australian music, and fans of Ellis and his violin. It is for police and one of fiction’s most famous GIRL BLUE those who want a view into the makings of a musician, a performer, and of a father. detectives. In Maigret Sets a Trap, a serial $29.95 Available 12 April Chris Gordon is events manager at Readings killer is targeting women in the seedy district of Montmartre. The second film, ‘Amy Berg’s documentary Maigret’s Dead Man, focuses on the murder depicts with great empathy was the last person to see her on Friday of a gambler with connections to a brutal the life and work of Janis Joplin, one of rock music’s most powerful and enduring TV night. Leah’s been missing for 36 hours gang from Czechoslovakia. voices … The impeccable archival now. Has she run away, been kidnapped or material and testimony from now-greying been murdered? THE Film bandmates and contemporaries tell the DISAPPEARANCE story of a musician whose commitment to MIDNIGHT SUN $29.95 her art left her vulnerable.’ – The Age Available 5 April SEASON 1 JOE CINQUE’S $34.95 This intimate, character- CONSOLATION CASABLANCAS: Available 12 April driven drama traces the $24.95 THE MAN WHO increasing trauma of the Morel family This latest zeitgeisty Available now LOVED WOMEN when their 17-year-old daughter, Leah, Scandi-noir crime series ‘The confident depiction $24.95 fails to return home from a night out. The pairs a grisly crime and a community torn of multicultural Australia Available 5 April asunder with a stunning location in remote Disappearance explores every parent’s in Joe Cinque’s Consolation is both When he created the worst nightmare: their child going missing, Sweden. In The Age, Michael Idato raves exciting and long overdue... Though it Elite modeling agency in the 1970s, John their fate unknown. Episode by episode, that Midnight Sun leaves both The Bridge pivots on a different set of questions Casablancas invented the concept of the everyone’s secrets are revealed. The police and Borgen in the shade, and it earns to those that animate Garner’s book, supermodel: first-name stars like Naomi, they are both works of scrupulousness investigation, led by Inspector Molina, references to Twin Peaks with ‘stunning Cindy and Gisele. From the yachts of and integrity.’ – Christos Tsiolkas, The builds a portrait of a complex young girl. cinematography and extraordinary filming Cannes to the clubs of LA, Casablancas Saturday Paper Suspicion falls on Roman, who it emerges locations’ not seen since then. embodied seedy glamour.

FRANTZ April 13 (PG) BERLIN SYNDROME April 20 (CTC) NORMAN April 27 (M) The latest film from beloved French director François Ozon, FRANTZ A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship, Richard Gere stars in Joseph Cedar's portrait of a New York City explores the strange bond that forms between a grieving German when an Australian photojournalist (Teresa Palmer) wakes one operator who talks his way into Israeli politics. Norman widow and the mysterious Frenchman she meets at her fiancé’s grave. morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave. BERLIN Oppenheimer (Gere) is a small time operator who befriends a Featuring a “stunning” lead performance from Paula Beer, this SYNDROME is based on the novel of the same name by Melbourne young politician at a low point in his life. Later the politician is an “sumptuous period drama” (The Guardian) has drawn comparisons to local, Melanie Joosten. The psychological thriller, directed by award- influential world leader and Norman’s life dramatically changes for Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, and heralds a powerful new work from a winning Australian director, Cate Shortland (Lore, Somersault), had its the better and worse. master craftsman. World Premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Cedar impressively creates a complex and intricately detailed portrait “François Ozon’s Best Film In Years” IndieWire “Cate Shortland's kinky confinement thriller reveals her affinity for of the web of political, financial, social and religious affiliations that has genre-tinged material….” Variety everything to do with how the world works.” The Hollywood Reporter Q&A with author and director on Wed 12 April, 2017. Book now!

380 Lygon Street Carlton Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema cinemanova.com.au 22 READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017

New Music by Gonzales, lyrics by Cocker) recorded in WHITEOUT CONDITIONS Paris: ‘a song-cycle concerning the goings- New on in Room 29 of the Château Marmont Pornographers hotel in Hollywood’. The narrative draws Album of the Month $21.95 on legends of famous occupants like Jean Available 7 April Harlow and Howard Hughes, using them Also on vinyl as a springboard to explore illusion, desire, The seventh studio PURE COMEDY consumption and influence. Father John Misty album from Canadian indie-rock band New Pornographers is the first to feature $19.95 AUTOMATON long-time touring drummer Joe Seiders. Available 7 April Jamiroquai Also on vinyl Pitchfork called their first album ‘the result $21.95 of years of sporadic tinkering by a rotating ‘The comedy of man starts like this: our brains are Available now cast of insanely talented individuals’. way too big for our mothers’ hips.’ The opening line Also on vinyl to the epic title track on Father John Misty’s new album Jamiroquai promise suggests Joshua Tillman has something on his mind and to bring back the Jazz & Blues he’s gonna tell you about it. What follows is a brilliantly conceived litany of humankind’s funk. Singer Jay Kay says: ‘inspiration foibles via Mother Nature’s cruellest twists, featuring more than a few laugh-out-loud for Automaton is in recognition of the rise moments. of artificial intelligence and technology in JOY COMES BACK our world today and how we as humans Ruthie Foster ‘… a brilliantly conceived litany of humankind’s are beginning to forget the more pleasant, $21.95 simple, and eloquent things in life and in Available now foibles via Mother Nature’s cruellest twists, our environment including our relationship Ruthie Foster seamlessly with one another as human beings.’ navigates soul, blues, featuring more than a few laugh-out-loud moments.’ country, gospel and rock TRIPLICATE in Joy Comes Back, which captures her Another highlight is the gorgeous, if somewhat tragic, ‘Ballad of the Dying Man’ in Bob Dylan natural talent and mastery of her craft. NPR which Tillman’s hipster, cynic protagonist ‘eventually takes his final breath, but first checks says of the title track, ‘“Joy Comes Back” 3 CDs. Was $59.95 his newsfeed to see what he’s about to miss’. The song features a truly lovely arrangement rumbles along with the kind of deep-roots $44.95 and wonderfully warm production, which carries through the record as a whole, further gospel tenor that makes it sound as if it’s broadening the musical palette explored on his first two records in the guise of FJM. Available now been buoying up hearts for generations.’ The popular criticism of Tillman’s shtick is that it’s perhaps a little bit too convenient to Also on vinyl lay the blame for the state of our world at the feet of some fairly obvious targets. I think to In this triplicate album, LIVE FROM THE FOX take this view is to completely miss the point. There is clearly more than a touch of Joshua folk-rock icon (and Nobel Prize winner) OAKLAND Bob Dylan reinterprets 30 classics from the Tillman in the characters he creates and anyone in doubt need only refer to 2015’s sublime Tedeschi Trucks Great American Songbook, as previously I Love You, Honeybear, in which Tillman largely has the finger of blame pointed levelly at Band himself. Rather, Father John Misty is the conceit; the character through which he is free to recorded by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday 2 CDs $39.95 loose the animal. and others. Follow Dylan back in time, Available now What’s happened to the humour in music today? Where are the Randy Newmans? through songs like ‘Stormy Weather’, ‘As ‘There aren’t many Where are the Tom Waits? It’s a testament to Tillman’s satirical genius that he can make Time Goes By’ and ‘Stardust’. acts that can shift from the listener guffaw in the face of what, ultimately, is some very dark material. There’s riveting blues standards to soulful renditions certainly no shortage of subject matter around and, hell, the truth hurts. LIFE. LOVE. FLESH. BLOOD. of Leonard Cohen classics to digging deep into Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda the catalogues of artists as disparate as the Imelda May Beatles and Miles Davis, bringing their unique $21.95 style and approach to each. Aside from the Available 7 April Tedeschi Trucks Band, there may not be any.’ Folk & World Pop & Rock The queen of rockabilly – American Songwriter has had a makeover, in both sound and style: DECEMBER AVENUE in this album, written post-break-up, she THE FEARLESS NOTE MENTAL ILLNESS Tomasz Stanko Kavisha Aimee Mann unveils a raw, authentic self. Single ‘Call Me’, an aching ballad, is one of the most $29.95 Mazzella $29.95 intimately autobiographical songs she’s Available now $30.95 Available now ever written. Produced by the legendary Stanko was a stand-out Available now Also on vinyl T-Bone Burnet, with guest vocalists Jeff guest of the Melbourne The Fearless The LA Times called Beck and Jools Holland. Jazz Festival recently. This, his twelfth album Note is a Aimee Mann’s ninth with the ECM label, was recorded in the South brand-new live studio album – and first solo effort in five IN THE SAME ROOM of France with Eicher at Studios La Buissonne. and very intimate recording from one of the years – ‘an exercise in restraint, relying Julia Holter Australian folk scene’s favourite acoustic on understated guitar, a touch of bass and $21.95 performers, Kavisha Mazzella. Recorded drums and sparse string arrangements Available 7 April Country over a few nights at various house concerts composed by her longtime producer Paul Also on vinyl in September–October 2016, the recording Bryan’. Her empathy as a songwriter and the This live studio features Mazzella singing her heart out, ‘doomed’ poetry puzzle of her lyrics are on UNIVERSAL FAVOURITE album – the first from playing some very solid guitar and showing breathtaking display here. Noam Pikelny Domino’s new Documents imprint – great musical rapport with accompanist $24.95 showcases the talents of conceptual Mathew Arnold. Arnold’s fluid fiddle IN MIND Available now. composer, keyboardist and singer Julia playing is exceptional. All this is done Real Estate ‘This rootsy effort Holter, whose work s praised as ‘bedroom without overdubs or treatments on a set of $21.95 ... coalesces all of pop that’s ethereal enough to fill a church’. mostly new songs. Available now Pikelny’s talents into Named after a track on 2012’s Ekstasis, Also on vinyl a neat 43-minute package; a purely solo/ Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton it features material from throughout her unaccompanied work that stands firmly The fourth full-length storied career. REPUBLIQUE AMAZONE release for the Brooklyn- on the stunning abilities and eclectic tastes Les Amazones based New Jersey indie rock band is its first of one of the undisputed contemporary SILVER EYE masters of the banjo.’ – American Songwriter D’Afriques with new guitarist, Julian Lynch. The end Goldfrapp result, judging from the first-released track, $22.95 $21.95 is ‘a signature summery, unhurried blend of CLOSE TIES Available now Available now interwoven guitars, gentle synths, and laid- Rodney Crowell This star-studded Also on vinyl $24.95 collective of female back drums’ (SPIN). ‘Silver Eye brings back Available 7 April singers have collaborated to ban FGM – some of the stomp [of Also on vinyl and to produce a wonderfully fierce album. ROOM 29 previous albums], but conversely keeps Arguably Crowell’s ‘A proud, forceful demonstration of the Jarvis Cocker & some of the tension between nature and most intimate album to strength and variety of modern African Chilly Gonzalez technology in its style and subject matter. date, Close Ties demonstrates his strengths music, brilliantly combined by producer $24.95 Opener ‘Anymore’ adds an almost Garbage- as a songwriter – and his masterful Liam Farrell into arrangements where Available now ish snarl to Alison’s voice, which pulls back for balance of personal recollection and funk, afrobeat, desert-blues, dub and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and the following ‘Systemagic’ where programmed literary sophistication with his profound congotronics swirl infectiously around the Chilly Gonzalez have beds have a real lushness ... it all makes for musical reach. women’s voices.’ – The Independent collaborated on a conceptual album (music quite a beautiful machine.’ – The Music READINGS MONTHLY APRIL 2017 23

New Classical Music THE ANNIVERSARY on diverse musical traditions – western COLLECTION classical, tango, klezmer, gypsy and Middle Eastern. Yo-Yo Ma teams up with The Various Knights, the Brooklyn-based group that Classical Album of the Month Naxos. 8503293. describes itself as ‘an orchestral collective, 30 CDs. $69.95 flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to Available April J.S. BACH: TRIOS transforming the concert experience’. Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer In 2017, Naxos Nonesuch. 7559793920. $21.95 Records celebrates J.S. BACH: DAS Available 7 April its thirtieth anniversary. Founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, the label now WOHLTEMPERIERTE For many people, the name Yo-Yo Ma immediately boasts a catalogue of over 9000 albums AKKORDEON brings to mind the Bach Cello Suites and Ma’s spanning every genre of classical music. Mie Miki bestselling album; the album that has defined many a This limited edition anniversary boxed BIS. BIS2217. young cellist’s ideas about the performance of the works. set comprises 30 CDs spanning the wide $26.95 However, many discerning listeners also think range of the label’s repertoire. Available April ‘innovation’ when they hear or see his name, given the many different styles in which he performs and records on a regular basis. What I love Bach’s Das HOLST: THE PLANETS; Wohltemperierte about his new recording is this blend of traditional classical repertoire with a good dash of STRAUSS; SPRACH contemporary reimagining. Klavier has been called ‘The Old ZARATHUSTRA Testament’ of the piano literature. National Youth Accordion player Mie Miki has now ‘What I love about [Ma’s] new recording is this Orchestra of accepted the challenge, selecting twelve of blend of traditional classical repertoire with a Great Britain & the 48 pairs of preludes and fugues. The Edward Gardner result is ear-opening – the accordion’s good dash of contemporary reimagining.’ Chandos. CHSA5179. capacity for sustained notes brings out $26.95 Bach’s fugal counterpoint, while the fast When Bach lived in Germany (1685–1750) it was normal and considered the highest Available now and light action of the instrument lends a form of flattery if someone took your idea and did something new and interesting with ‘Gardner’s conducting of Strauss’s particular fleetness to the preludes. it. Bach himself borrowed heavily from his contemporaries, particularly for many of his Nietzsche-inspired symphonic poem is teaching works, as can be seen in the ‘Anna Magdalena notebook’ written to help his wife impressively flowing and direct while still VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: learn keyboard. being flexible and also alive to small details; A PASTORAL SYMPHONY Rejoining Ma are two of his frequent collaborators: Edgar Meyer on double bass and in return the members of the National AND SYMPHONY NO. 4 Chris Thile on mandolin. This trio has taken a number of Bach’s keyboard works and one Youth Orchestra play with confidence, Royal Liverpool lovely viola de gamba sonata to create a new Bach sound. It is apparent from the outset poise and bravura, and a lack of indulgence Philharmonic that not only are all three modern musicians at the top of their game, but that they work on Gardner’s part is refreshing to the music Orchestra & together seamlessly as a trio. Ma, Meyer and Thile each take an individual strand of melody as a whole ... However, it’s The Planets that Andrew Manze from these complex works and interweave new tonal ideas. takes the bouquets.’ – classicalsource.com Onyx. ONYX4161. $29.95 Bach’s music can often be bogged down in a heavy polyphonic style of composition Available April in which many voices are all trying to have their own say simultaneously. This can MOZART: This second volume in the cycle of Vaughan sound, to the untrained ear, like a bit of a mess of noise and notes. But in these FLUTE QUARTETS Williams’ symphonies from the RLPO and recordings, with the lightness of the mandolin and both the string players’ gentle Lisa Friend & Andrew Manze features Nos 3 (pastoral) delight in the brightness of the melodies, each piece burbles along like a stream of Brodsky Quartet & 4: two works heavily influenced by the music from some sort of Baroque heaven. Chandos. CHAN10932. Great War and its aftermath. The third has Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings $26.95 been called RVW’s ‘War Requiem’. The Available now fourth is a violent and turbulent work, The flute quartets reflecting the post Great War world and the HENRIETTE: THE THE SPIRIT of Mozart are central to the classical political turmoil of the 1930s. PRINCESS OF THE VIOL AND THE MAIDEN flute repertoire – and deservedly so. Maddelena Muses Trio The composer’s characteristic charm, Del Gobbo Muses Trio. wit, beauty and elegance are in evidence Classical Specials DG. 4814523. $21.95 0190394443801. throughout. These works convincingly Available now $24.95 embody Mozart’s desire to compose music COMPLETE CHAMBER Princess Anne Available now that engages trained musicians, while MUSIC RECORDINGS also entrancing lay listeners without their Henriette of Australia’s Maria Joao Pires France (1727–1752), Muses Trio necessarily knowing precisely why. DG. 4795964. 12 CDs. daughter of King Louis XV, was a is unique among chamber music Was $74.95 passionate musician and skilled gambist. ensembles. Consisting of a fabulous BÉLA FLECK: $44.95 (very limited Her life was short (she died of smallpox all-female line-up – Therese Milanovic JUNO CONCERTO stock at this price) aged only 24), but her legacy was great. (piano), Christa Powell (violin), and Béla Fleck, Jose Available now Jean-Baptiste Forqueray dedicated his Louise King (cello) – the trio’s prime Luis Gomez & virtuosic ‘Pièces de viole’ to the young purpose is to explore, share and promote Colorado Chamber music has always formed the princess, and Louis de Caix d’Hervelois music composed by women. ‘The notion Symphony heart of Maria João Pires’s musicianship. Indeed, she has often commented that similarly dedicated his fifth book of viol that there is no worthwhile music Rounder. 1166100200. she is happier working with others pieces to her. Young Italian gambist composed by women’, they state, ‘was to $26.95. Available now than performing on her own. This third Maddalena del Gobbo has attempted to us simply ridiculous’. While few openly ‘Ultimately, it remains to be seen who the volume encompasses her complete recreate Henriette’s musical world at the deride or discount the music of female audience will be for this album. It’s likely chamber music recordings including Palace of Versailles in Henriette: The composers, their lack of representation to attract as much interest from classical classic performances with Auguste Princess of the Viol – del Gobbo’s debut in the classical music scene suggests that aficionados as from fans of Fleck’s earlier Dumay, Jian Wang, António Meneses, recording with Deutsche Grammophon. their work is of little value. The Muses efforts. An inventive and intriguing pursuit, Pavel Gomziakov and Renaud Capuçon. Already I have listened to this CD perhaps Trio, with their debut CD The Spirit and Juno Concerto affirms the creativity and 15 times. It is exceptional, and an early the Maiden, hopes to redress the balance. versatility of a musician whose ambitions PAGANINI FANTASY favourite for 2017. Del Gobbo is a wonderful Unsurprisingly, I was unfamiliar with find him standing alone.’ – Glide Magazine gambist, and she elicits a generous array many of the compositions presented Nemanja Radulovic of delicious sounds from her instrument. here. The opening ‘The Spirit and the GOLIJOV: AZUL DG. 4810655. Was $24.95 Case in point is the jubilant third movement Maiden’ (from which the album takes Yo-Yo Ma, Eric $12.95 (while stocks (‘La Muzette’) of Marin Marais’s Suite in G its name) by Elena Kats-Chernin is a Jacobsen & The last) major, elegantly performed by del Gobbo. highlight. Infused with Kats-Chernin’s Knights In contrast, d’Hervelois’s ‘Plainte’ is at once signature energy and style, the trio Available now Warner Classics. luscious, heartbreaking and lassitudinous. delivers a fine reading of the score. On 9029587521. $21.95 ‘Radulovic’s commanding technique Del Gobbo’s accompanying band of gamba, the whole, this is an enjoyable recording, Available 7 April makes child’s play of Paganini’s myriad theorbo and harpsichord plays equally and it is a wonderful tribute to the technical challenges, matched by a In Azul, Golijov’s ‘21st century continuo superbly with unity and lightness of touch. veritable wealth of classical music beguiling tone, expressive vocal phrasing team’ is built around the hyper-accordion If, like me, you’re a Jordi Savall fan, you will composed by women. AM and perfect intonation ... This is an (an electronically enhanced version of the delight in del Gobbo’s moving tribute to exceptional disc by any standards and hard conventional instrument) and features such Princess Henriette. to better as an introduction to Paganini’s exotica as the bottle-shaker, waterphone, genius.’ – Gramophone Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton wind whistle and goat-hoof rattle, he draws cookbooks

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