FREE JUNE 2018 The Readings Young Adult Book Prize 2018 shortlist page 16 Read an extract from The Year Everything Changed by Phillipa McGuinness page 6 Visit our new pop-up shop pictured and details on page 3 BOOKS MUSIC FILM EVENTS RY COODER page 22 SWEET VARIOUS KATE WILD BRI LEE SARAH BAILEY COUNTRY page 7 page 11 page 11 page 10 page 21 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 A P O LI CE SH O O TIN G . A FL AWE D SYS TE M. A FAMILY’S GR IE F. ‘[Waiting for Elijah] will appeal to readers of Helen Garner and Chloe Hooper … [Wild] explores her subject with great depth, compassion, and sensitivity … Essential reading.’ BOOKS+PUBLISHING Seriously good books. READINGS MONTHLY 3 June 2018 June in Carlton and a $2,500 travel voucher (21 June) at Readings St Kilda, and ‘Critical from Qantas. The residency will enable the Melbourne Writers Festival Schools’ Considerations’ with editors Alan Vaarwerk recipient to immerse themselves in their Program and Jackie Tang (26 June) at Readings News literary pursuits in a unique environment in The Melbourne Writers Festival Schools' Hawthorn. For more information visit the heart of Melbourne’s creative community. Program for 2018 has been announced. emergingwritersfestival.org. au, or pick up a The award is supported by Readings, The Highlights include sessions with authors Juno printed program from any Readings shop. University of Melbourne and Qantas. For Dawson, John Marsden, Shaun Tan, Maxine more information and to apply, please see Beneba Clarke, Alice Pung and many more. melbourneprize.org For more information on the MWF Schools’ The Man Booker International Prize The Australian Book Industry Awards 2018 Program, including the full list of events, see winner We are honoured to have won the mwf.com.au/schools. Readings is the official Flights by Olga Tokarczuk is the winner of Independent Book Retailer of the Year award Dani Solomon shortlisted for Young bookseller for Melbourne Writers Festival. the Man Booker International Prize 2018. at the 2018 Australian Book Industry Awards. Bookseller of the Year The Man Booker International Prize is Our managing director Mark Rubbo says We are so excited that Dani Solomon, awarded every year for a single book which of the announcement: ‘We are of course Assistant Manager at our Readings Kids Supernova Café is translated into English and published thrilled, and the award is a great tribute to our shop, has been shortlisted for the ABA A new café, Supernova, has opened at the in the UK. Polish author Tokarczuk and wonderful staff, but it would not be possible Penguin Random House Young Bookseller rear of Readings Hawthorn. Supernova English-language translator Jennifer Croft without the wonderful community of readers, of the Year award, recognising excellence offers an all-day breakfast menu that will share equally in the £50,000 prize. Visit authors, publishers and booksellers who, of a bookseller aged 35 or under. Dani has focuses on modern fusion cooking. As themanbookerprize.com/international for together, make the Australian book industry worked at Readings for more than ten years well as great food, Supernova features more information. so special and unique.’ To find out more on and has a passion for children’s books. The specialty coffee, including both house the ABIA awards, including the full list of winner will be announced at the ABA Gala and seasonal roasts by Symmetry coffee winners, visit abiawards.com.au. Dinner on Sunday 17 June. Good luck Dani! roasters. Readings staff are already big The Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist fans of Supernova’s coffee, as well as their The longlisted titles for this year’s Miles delicious, freshly-baked muffins. Franklin Literary Award are: A Long Way Readings Carlton renovation 3 for 2 Vintage Classics from Home by Peter Carey; No More Boats Our Carlton shop is temporarily closed for Throughout June, we have a special offer on by Felicity Castagna; The Life to Come by renovations until mid-July. But don’t worry – the Classics range of fiction and nonfiction Emerging Writers’ Festival Michelle de Kretser; The Crying Place by we have a pop-up bookshop just across the titles from Vintage. Buy two books, and The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) Lia Hills; The Last Garden by Eva Hornung; road in Lygon Court, at the rear of the centre choose a third book in the range (of equal returns from 19–29 June, showcasing some Some Tests by Wayne Macauley; Storyland next to Aunt Maggie’s Organics food store. or lesser value) for free! The range includes of Australia’s most creative and talented by Catherine McKinnon; Border Districts by And our Readings Kids shop is still operating titles from Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, literary newcomers, including writers, Gerald Murnane; From the Wreck by Jane as usual. The pop-up bookshop is open from Charles Dickens, Joseph Heller and editors, publishers and performers. Readings Rawson; The Restorer by Michael Sala; and 9am – 10pm on Monday to Saturday, and Mary Shelley, among others. This offer is will present two events as part of the EWF Taboo by Kim Scott. The shortlist will be 10am – 9pm on Sundays. Come by and say hi! exclusively available in all Readings shops program: ‘Big Breaks’ with author Christian announced on 17 June, and the winner on (except Readings Kids) until 30 June on White and his publisher Martin Hughes 26 August. stickered, in-stock items only, while stocks Readings Young Adult Book Prize shortlist last. This offer is not available online. announced We’re delighted to announce the shortlist for The Readings Young Adult Book Prize The Readings Teen Advisory Board 2018. The shortlisted titles are: Between Us The Readings Teen Advisory Board is a by Clare Atkins (Black Inc); Beautiful Mess volunteer group that meets once a month by Claire Christian (Text); Small Spaces by to chat about YA books, write reviews, Sarah Epstein (Walker); Amelia Westlake by learn about careers in the book industry, Erin Gough (Hardie Grant); Untidy Towns and provide feedback on a range of topics. by Kate O’Donnell (UQP); and This Mortal We’re looking for a new intake of teenagers Coil by Emily Suvada (Puffin). You can find (aged 14 -19) to join our board starting in out more about the shortlisted titles and the July 2018. To apply, please tell us why you prize on page 16. would like to take part, the types of books you like to read, and why you love visiting bookshops. Your application should be a Readings Residency Award 2018 single page document of no more than We are excited to announce the inaugural 500 words, in either Word or PDF format Readings Residency Award, in partnership addressing the points above and including with the Melbourne Prize Trust. The your name, age and contact details. Send it to Readings Residency Award is open to [email protected] by 5pm, early-career published authors based in Friday 15 June, 2018. For more information, Victoria. The winner will receive $5,000 cash, please see readings.com.au/ the-readings- a residency at the Norma Redpath Studio teen-advisory-board READINGS MONTHLY EDITOR ADVERTISING PRICES AND AVAILABILITY Free, independent monthly newspaper Elke Power Ellen Cregan Please note that all prices and release dates published by Readings Books, Music & Film [email protected] [email protected] in Readings Monthly are correct at time of publication, however prices and release SUBSCRIBE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT GRAPHIC DESIGN dates may change without notice. Special You can subscribe to Readings Monthly Judi Mitchell Cat Matteson price offers apply only for the month in and our e-news by visiting our website: [email protected] colourcode.com.au which they are featured in the Readings readings.com.au/sign-up Monthly. PROOFREADERS FRONT COVER DELIVERY CHARGES FOR Judi Mitchell, Marie Matteson and The June Readings Monthly cover Readings donates 10% of its profits each MAIL-ORDER PURCHASES Ellen Cregan features a photograph by Lian Hingee, year to The Readings Foundation: $5 flat rate for anywhere in Australia Readings’ digital marketing manager, readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation KIDS/YA CURATOR of our pop-up bookshop in Lygon Court. DELIVERY CHARGES FOR Angela Crocombe and Dani Solomon Cover design by Cat Matteson. ONLINE PURCHASES $5 flat rate for anywhere in Australia for MUSIC CURATOR CARTOON orders under $100. Free delivery on orders Dave Clarke Oslo Davis $100 and over. oslodavis.com CLASSICAL MUSIC CURATOR Phil Richards DVDS CURATOR Lou Fulco EVENTS CURATOR Chris Gordon 4 EVENTS June Saturday 9 June, 6.30pm Friday 15 June, 6.30pm Monday 25 June, 6.30pm Events PAUL ZALA ON HOW DAVID CHRISTIAN ON ASHLEY BROWNE AND TO MAKE GREAT MUSIC THE BIG HISTORY OF DASHIEL LAWRENCE ON MASHUPS EVERYTHING PEOPLE OF THE BOOT Paul Zala’s How to Make Great Music In Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, We are delighted to have Ashley Browne Mashups: The Start to Finish Guide to Professor David Christian asks how we went and Dashiel Lawrence, the editors of Wednesday 6 June, 6.30pm Making Mashups with Ableton Live tells from the Big Bang to today’s staggering People of the Boot: The Untold Stories you everything you need to know in order complexity, in which seven billion humans are of Australian Jews in Sport, joining us to GREGORY DAY IN to create great dance-floor moments that connected into networks powerful enough to share remarkable and unheralded stories CONVERSATION WITH will take your sets to the next level and transform the planet. And why, in comparison, from this new anthology. People of the CARRIE TIFFANY get you noticed as a DJ. Zala is a multi- our closest primate relatives have been Boot draws together some of Australia’s instrumentalist, composer, producer, and reduced to near-extinction. Join us to hear brightest journalists, sport writers, editors, Acclaimed writer, poet and musician author – we are looking forward to hearing Christian discuss the cosmological detective researchers and broadcasters to offer Gregory Day’s latest novel, A Sand Zala on his decks for a full set! story of our planet’s ‘big history.’ fresh insights into an extraordinary tale of Archive, is an original work that transports multicultural success. the reader from present-day Geelong to Readings St Kilda, Church of All Nations, 1960s Paris. Day will discuss his novel and 112 Acland Street, St Kilda 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Readings St Kilda, the history of the Great Ocean Road with Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events 112 Acland Street, St Kilda award-winning author Carrie Tiffany. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Readings Hawthorn, 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Wednesday 13 June, 6.30pm Monday 18 June, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Tuesday 26 June, 6pm KATE WILD IN RICHARD DENNISS IN CONVERSATION WITH CONVERSATION WITH EMERGING WRITERS’ Thursday 7 June, 6.30pm RACHAEL BROWN DON WATSON FESTIVAL: CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS In 2009, in Armidale NSW, a mentally For 30 years, we were told that privatisation STAN ‘YARRA’ ill young man was shot dead by a and economic reform would be good for What responsibility do critics have to the YARRAMUNUA IN police officer. Waiting for Elijah is the everyone. But now the results are in and authors they write about? CONVERSATION WITH culmination of journalist Kate Wild’s six- they are far from positive. In response, In this session, join Jackie Tang (editor- ROBERT HILLMAN year investigation, one that poses vital we are seeing a political backlash against in-chief, Books + Publishing) and Alan questions – among them, what happened ‘reform,’ and for the Coalition in particular, Vaarwerk (editor, Kill Your Darlings) Stan ‘Yarra’ Yarramunua is an internationally in that Armidale laneway, how could it this is a threat to unity. In his passionate new alongside Readings’ Ellen Cregan as they successful artist, musician, businessman have been avoided, and is it fair to expect Quarterly Essay, Richard Denniss argues interrogate ethics and accountability in the and charity worker. A charismatic Yorta police to be first responders in mental for a more pragmatic, consultative politics. world of literary criticism. Yorta man who grew up in Melbourne, health crises? Join Wild and Rachael Brown Denniss will discuss the ideas raised in his This event is part of the Emerging Writers’ Yarramunua had a rough and sometimes (ABC journalist and creator of the excellent essay with Don Watson. Festival, which runs from Tuesday 19 June to homeless childhood. Yarramunua will be in Trace podcast) for a discussion about this Friday 29 June. conversation with author Robert Hillman powerful book and the issues it raises. Church of All Nations, about A Man Called Yarra, his inspiring 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton Readings Hawthorn, memoir of overcoming hardship and striving Readings Hawthorn, Tickets are $25 per person and include a copy 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn for a better life. 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn of the Quarterly Essay. Please book at readings. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events com.au/events Readings St Kilda, 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Tuesday 26 June, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Thursday 14 June, 6.30pm Thursday 21 June, 6pm If you can’t make it to this event, see the event JUSTIN HEAZLEWOOD ON on Saturday 23 June in Eltham. CHRIS GREGORY & DES EMERGING WRITERS’ GET UP MUM COWLEY ON GERALD FESTIVAL: BIG BREAKS Join Justin Heazlewood as he discusses MURNANE* Thursday 7 June, 7.30pm What’s it like developing your debut his memoir of growing up in the shadow of manuscript into a novel via winning a major Chris Gregory decided that it was important his mother’s schizophrenia. Get Up Mum literary prize? Join Christian White and his ASSAF GAVRON & AVNER to record one of the greatest Australian is a wildly endearing, entertaining and publisher Martin Hughes as they discuss the GVARYAHU ON KINGDOM authors, Gerald Murnane, reading his incredibly powerful story of love, family, editorial journey from winning the Victorian own work. The result is brilliant. Join and coming of age. OF OLIVES AND ASH Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished us as Gregory talks with Des Cowley, Manuscript to publishing his finished novel, Readings St Kilda, Israeli author Assaf Gavron and Avner State Library Victoria’s History of the The Nowhere Child. This event will be 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Gvaryahu, the executive director of Israeli Book manager, about the importance of NGO Breaking the Silence, will discuss recording the present for the future, and facilitated by Readings’ Sean O’Beirne. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront why Murnane’s work is essential to our This event is part of the Emerging Writers’ the Occupation. A ground-breaking collection understanding of Australian literature. Festival, which runs from Tuesday 19 June to of essays by celebrated international writers, *And, fingers crossed, we may be joined by Friday 29 June. Thursday 28 June, 6.30pm edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet the great man himself ... Readings St Kilda, Waldman, it tells the stories of the people on Readings St Kilda, 112 Acland Street, St Kilda GABBIE STROUD ON the ground in the contested territories. 112 Acland Street, St Kilda Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events AUSTRALIA’S EDUCATION Memo Hall, St Kilda, Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events SYSTEM 88 Acland Street, St Kilda Gabbie Stroud’s groundbreaking essay Free, but please book at nif.org.au Saturday 23 June, 2pm ‘Teaching Australia’ in the February 2016 Wednesday 13 June, 1pm Griffith Review outlined her experiences STAN ‘YARRA’ of Naplan and provoked a huge response Thursday 7 June, 6.30pm MEET TANYA HENNESSY, YARRAMUNUA IN from former and current teachers around AUTHOR OF AM I DOING CONVERSATION WITH the world. That essay lifted the lid on a SUSAN MIDALIA IN scandal that is yet to properly break – THIS RIGHT? MORAG FRASER CONVERSATION WITH that our education system is unfair to our Tanya Hennessy has over 1 million followers We are thrilled to be able to offer you an children and destroying their teachers. In ROBERT LUKINS on Facebook and over 100K on Instagram, opportunity to hear Stan ‘Yarra’ Yarramunua Teacher, a powerful memoir inspired by her What does Jane Austen have to teach a and this is your chance to meet her in speak with literary critic Morag Fraser. original essay, Stroud tells the full story: young woman about life, love and literature person. Am I Doing This Right? is a hilarious They will discuss his inspiring memoir of how she came to teaching, what makes in the twenty-first century? Debut novelist encyclopaedia of life lessons that Hennessy overcoming hardship and striving for a a great teacher, what our kids need from Susan Midalia will be in conversation with has learned so that you don’t have to. better life, A Man Called Yarra. their teachers, and what it was that finally Melbourne author Robert Lukins as they Hennessy will be signing books at our broke her. discuss her novel, The Art of Persuasion. marvellous pop-up shop in Lygon Court. Montsalvat, 7 Hillcrest Avenue, Eltham Readings Hawthorn, Readings Hawthorn, Readings Pop-Up Carlton, 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Tickets are $20 per person and include light 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Lygon Court, 380 Lygon Street, Carlton refreshments. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Please book at Montsalvat on (03) 9439 7712. EVENTS + COLUMNS 5 Coming Mark’s Dear Monday 30 July, 6.30pm Up Say Reader INDIGENOUS LITERACY FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER: BRUCE PASCOE IN CONVERSATION WITH Last month the Wheeler I can’t remember a month ANDY GRIFFITHS Centre announced a with so many strong visionary and exciting Australian nonfiction Bruce Pascoe is an award-winning new initiative supported releases. Our Book of the Australian Indigenous writer from the by the Aesop Foundation. Month, Kate Wild’s Bunurong clan of the Kulin nation. He has The Next Chapter is a unique three-year Waiting for Elijah, is a superb piece of worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman program to provide not only monetary investigative journalism that explores the and an Aboriginal language researcher. We are thrilled that he will be joining us to support for emerging writers but also fatal shooting of a mentally ill young man by talk about his life, his fears and his hopes professional support for getting their police in 2009. Wild’s account is classic for a future of equality and recognition. He works published and marketed. Successful detective work, but also a strong critique of will be in conversation with Andy Griffiths, applicants will receive $15,000 to develop the legal system and the ongoing social children’s author extraordinaire and a their work; they’ll be paired with a mentor taboos that surround mental health. Two lifetime ambassador for the Indigenous who will help them navigate the process other books also engage with the Australian Monday 2 July, 6.30pm Literacy Foundation. from concept to book. legal system: Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee Another wonderful new opportunity agitates for reform with her account of Church of All Nations, TRENT DALTON IN for local writers is the Readings bringing a sexual assault matter to court; 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton CONVERSATION Residency Award, part of this year’s Kate Rossmanith’s Small Wrongs meditates Tickets are $35 ($25 concession). All funds from Melbourne Prize for Literature. The on the legal notion of remorse. Meanwhile, Trent Dalton writes for The Weekend the evening will go directly to the good work of award offers an early career author Phillipa McGuinness masterfully brings the ILF. Please book at readings.com.au/events Australian Magazine and among his many support through $5,000 cash, a $2,500 together the personal and the global in The writing accolades he’s a two-time Walkley Qantas voucher and a space to write in Year Everything Changed: 2001; Out of the Award winner, three-time Kennedy Award the Norma Redpath Studio in Carlton. Forest is Gregory P. Smith’s account of his June winner, and a four-time winner of the You can visit the Wheeler Centre incredible life journey from society drop-out national News Awards Features Journalist website and the Melbourne Prize website to PhD; and Justin Heazlewood shares his of the Year. Join us to hear him speak about Launches for more information about these experience growing up with a mentally ill his debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe, a fantastic opportunities. mother in Get Up Mum. literary tale of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships. The Wheeler Centre is housed in a To balance these heavy themes, we wing of the State Library Victoria which also have the latest from humourist David Readings Hawthorn, announced that in the fiscal year 2016– Sedaris: Calypso’s cover alone guarantees 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn The Book Ninja by Ali Berg & Michelle 2017 it had 2,071,250 visitors. That makes you’ll be LOLing as much as our reviewer. Kalus Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events it the fourth most popular library in the Plus there’s a collection of prose from the Come and celebrate the Australian launch world after the New York Public Library, peerless Lorrie Moore; Leslie Jamison’s of The Book Ninja by Ali Berg and Michelle Brooklyn Public Library ( but that exploration of addiction, The Recovering; Kalus. Meet the authors – two life-time Tuesday 10 July, 4.30pm friends, real-life book ninjas and founders covers 59 branches), and the National David Christian’s Big History blockbuster, Library of China in Beijing. The Library Origin Story; previous Pulitzer Prize winner of Books on the Rail – and celebrate their ANDY GRIFFITHS AND passion for books. is undergoing a major redevelopment Margo Jefferson’s On Michael Jackson; – which will also see Readings State Michael Pollan journeys into psychedelics TERRY DENTON Friday 1 June, 6pm Library branch relocated to a bigger and in How to Change Your Mind; psychologist Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. We’re delighted to invite everyone along better space and no doubt even greater Frank Tallis’s stories of lovesickness, The to another utterly madcap book launch Marx Returns by Jason Barker growth in visitors. A recent visitor to the Incurable Romantic; and Pops, Michael with Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. The Join us for an ale and an excellent launch Library was celebrated Japanese author Chabon’s pieces on fatherhood. 104-Storey Treehouse is a brand-new, for Marx Returns, the debut novel by the Haruki Murakami. The Library’s director Congratulations to all at UQP on brilliantly wacky treehouse adventure. Andy British writer and filmmaker Jason Barker. of library services and experiences, the occasion of their seventieth year of and Terry have added another 13 levels to It tells the story of the German philosopher Justine Hyde, said, ‘He loved the library publishing. Our second Book of the Month, their magnificent creation, complete with a Karl Marx and his struggle to complete his and was overwhelmed with our collection Reading the Landscape, is a wonderful never-ending staircase and a burp bank – magnum opus, Capital. of his work.’ collection of specially commissioned finally! Andy and Terry promise to deliver Friday 8 June, 6.30pm One of my Sunday morning rituals pieces published to mark this milestone. one hour of complete and total madness at The Alderman, 134 Lygon Street, Brunswick is coffee with my wife at her current In fiction this month: Jay Carmichael’s this book’s launch. Free, no booking required. favourite neighbourhood coffee shop, Ironbark; Kudos completes Rachel Cusk’s Melbourne Town Hall, Crime Scene Asia by Liz Porter but lately she’s been dragging me over acclaimed ‘Faye’ trilogy; Florida, stories 90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne Former forensic scientist Maggie Baron to Supernova, the new coffee shop at the by Lauren Groff of Fates and Furies fame; Tickets are $28 per person. Each ticket includes will launch the third forensics casebook, rear of our Hawthorn shop. ‘The coffee is Sheila Heti’s groundbreaking Motherhood; Crime Scene Asia: When Forensic Evidence the event and a signed first edition of The sublime,’ she asserts, and I must admit the final of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Becomes the Silent Witness, by award- 104-Storey Treehouse, which will be given out I’ve been going pretty willingly for not quartet, Summer; Raymond A. Villareal’s winning writer Liz Porter. This time, Porter at the event. One ticket is required per person only is the coffee ‘sublime’ but the food touted A People’s History of the Vampire so adults and children each need a ticket. $1.50 investigates how crimes are committed and is particularly yummy, so much so that Uprising; and 84K by Claire North, which of each ticket will be donated to the Indigenous investigated in Asia. I’m planning to work my way through our reviewer calls, ‘an original dystopian Literacy Foundation. Please book at readings. Wednesday 20 June, 6.30pm their menu of treats. The proprietor is the nightmare fit for the twenty-first century’. com.au/events Readings St Kilda | Free but please RSVP to delightful Patrick Zhang who, trite as it And finally, dear reader, by the time [email protected] may sound, is truly passionate about what you read this, we will have completed A House for Everyone by Jo Hirst he is doing. the monumental task of relocating our Wednesday 18 July, 6.30pm Join Jo Hirst for the launch of her book, A A few Saturdays ago I was making Carlton shop to the temporary pop-up House for Everyone. An engaging story that my way to my last Saturday morning at space in Lygon Court, making way for the HUGH MACKAY IN is more than just an educational tool, this Readings Carlton before its renovation; I renovation of our store at 309 Lygon Street. book will assist parents and teachers in CONVERSATION WITH was feeling a bit sad thinking about 1998 It has felt very much like moving house: giving children the space to explore the full DON WATSON when, together with architects Edmond we’ve been rationalising our belongings spectrum of gender diversity. and Corrigan, we renovated Readings’ for months; we’ve packed boxes, moved In Australia Reimagined, legendary social Friday 22 June, 6.30pm new home. That design served us very them, unpacked them; we’ve found weird researcher and lifelong student of the national Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required well for 20 years. But I was more saddened things down the back of shelves, things we mind Hugh Mackay finds grounds for hope. The Nowhere Child by Christian White when I turned into Faraday Street to see it thought we’d lost, things we didn’t know You might not agree with all Mackay’s ideas, but chances are you’ll be thinking about them Inspired by Gillian Flynn’s frenetic full of fire trucks and police. The beloved we had; everyone got overtired and cried for a long time. Join us as Mackay discusses suspense and Stephen King’s masterful La Mama Theatre, home to theatrical (okay, that was just me). The analogy of our country’s prospects – the paths we might world-building, The Nowhere Child is a innovation for over 50 years, had burnt moving house is particularly apt because combustible tale of trauma, cult, conspiracy take and the holes into which we might fall – down. It was gut wrenching to see the the store has felt like a second home to so and memory. Join Christian White, winner with Don Watson. old building just a burnt-out shell, but I many of us, staff and customers alike. I of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award was inspired when talking to the artistic have so much affection for the rambling Church of All Nations, for an Unpublished Manuscript, to celebrate director, Liz Jones, ‘The building was space that we’ve lived in, but I can’t wait 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton the publication of his debut novel. lovely, but La Mama isn’t just a building to see the new shop. Once we fill it back up Tickets are $10 per person and funds will be Thursday 28 June, 6.30pm – it’s an idea and that hasn’t burnt down. with books, it will feel like home again in donated to The Readings Foundation. Please The Clyde Hotel, 385 Cardigan Street, Carlton We will make a new building.’ no time at all. book at readings.com.au/events Free, no booking required. 6 READINGS MONTHLY June 2018 The Year Everything mouthing words about evildoers, John Howard declaring out how to share my story in one chapter and write about Changed: 2001 we will decide who comes to this country, a stricken Tony al-Qaeda, liberal democracy, the AIDS crisis and so on in Phillipa McGuinness Blair and Britain standing shoulder to shoulder with our all the others. I’ve talked to many people, whose insightful Vintage. PB. $34.99 American friends in their hour of tragedy. The images blur accounts inform this book, and they have relished the into each other. A US spy plane down on a Chinese island, chance to reflect as they revisit events they were a part of. See our review on page 12. G8 protests in Genoa, Slobodan Miloševic captured, Steve Others have narratives so watertight they recount them Jobs holding an iPod, Kofi Annan speaking about the AIDS without having to really think about what they’re saying. crisis, asylum seekers in orange life jackets on the deck of a Public figures or not, we all grapple with the meaning of Norwegian container ship. Mount Etna is exploding. Enron what we have seen, what we have lived through. is collapsing. George Harrison is dead. The pictures speed For 2001 may be history, but it’s contemporary history. up. You know what’s coming; your sense of dread rises. In this book I go broad, so broad as to be impressionistic The planes, the Towers, the Pentagon, a blurry video of at times. But I go deep when I need to. Sometimes even Osama bin Laden. Put on gloves to open your mail. B-52s. granular. And there are stories. The ones you know, the ones Flags, flags, flags. Suicide bombers in Israel, farewell to the you think you know and a few that no archives would reveal. Taliban in Afghanistan. Oh my God, what next? My intention is to tell the story of a year. Part of it — includes my story, with no presumption that it represents a universal truth. Do I really want to make myself a subject in Glimpsing the what in this mini-overture, or at least some a general history, I asked myself? But I would feel dishonest of the what – believe me, there’s more, though thankfully were I to write a history of 2001 without mentioning my it’s not all bad – doesn’t help with the why, or the how. Why personal tragedy. I know it’s impossible for me to conform to go back to 2001? With out-of-character precision about some standard of masculine writing that would mean I had the time and date, I can pinpoint the moment my big 2001 The Year to write at arm’s length from myself, guaranteeing that no idea landed. In February 2014, I found myself in a lecture murmur of empathy or gasp of horror might infect my words. theatre at the Australian National University in Canberra My prejudices and my privilege will be obvious. surrounded by historians gathered to honour the work of Everything With no scintilla of apology, I can tell you that I’m not a one of their brilliant colleagues, who was about to retire. fearless investigative reporter, a colourful feature writer I was there because I’m a non-fiction publisher who had or an archives junkie. (I was secretly relieved that official published books written by the honouree. Changed: government classified material from 2001 won’t become I don’t usually go to these events celebrating individual available for a few years.) Nor am I an international academics, but I’m glad I went to this one because it allowed relations specialist or a human rights expert. I’m on no 2001 my mind to wander. Many of the historians gathered had quest to enter the dark heart of government to find the been involved in what they called ‘slice histories’ published smoking gun that reveals some new truth about Tampa or to coincide with the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. Their 9/11. (Those 9/11 truther sites seem batshit crazy to me.) I approach was to take a particular year – 1788 or 1888 or love biography and oral history but didn’t want to tell the 1938 – and use it as a device, a snapshot of life, events and 2001 story entirely in other voices. trends that year. A friend said to me before I even started writing, ‘Don’t ‘Such a publishing conceit, so great for marketing,’ I In this edited extract from the preface of The make it too, you know, menstrual. People really hate that.’ remember thinking. You take a single year and interrogate Year Everything Changed: 2001, author Phillipa I get what she’s saying; it’s not for nothing that the first the bejesus out of it. I ran through years that I knew had McGuinness asks whether everything really did chapter of Irish writer Anne Enright’s book Making Babies is eponymous books – 1066, 1776, 1789, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1919, change after 2001? 1939, 1945, 1968. called ‘Apologies all round’ and starts with the line ‘Speech is a selfish act, and mothers should probably remain silent.’ On New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2001, we buried our son. I recalled ones that were contrarian, like 1493 (take Ironic, yes, but it also happens to be what some people His name was Daniel. My husband Adam, his father and that 1492!). Or years that seem random, like 1959 or 1995 think. My personal history collided with world events, an my sister stood alongside me in Singapore’s Chua Chu or Bill Bryson’s One Summer: America 1927. Then I found intersection that shaped me and shapes this book. So I’m Kang Lawn Cemetery and we watched a small, white coffin myself wondering about years you might choose that were with Anne Enright when she writes, ‘My only excuse is that I go into the ground. A nervous priest said words that may not all about war or revolution. 2001 popped into my head. think it is important. I wanted to say what it was like.’ as well have been in Tamil, a language I do not speak, (Although, as it turned out, it was about war.) When I have told people I’m writing about 2001 they because not one of them seemed relevant. Our daughter tend to say either ‘I love that movie’ or ‘Oh, everything Isabella was back home at our apartment. Only two years ‘“Oh, everything changed changed after 9/11.’ (A surprising number of people have old, she didn’t need to watch us fall apart that day. We mentioned the Y2K bug.) I suspect some see my task as had no words to explain to her – or ourselves – what had after 9/11.” Did it? Just compiling a monster timeline, a kind of ‘On This Day’, a happened, what was happening. because you utter a phrase chronicle of 2001. I did in fact do that, but it was a starting That evening, shattered, we sat by the water at Singapore’s point for the book; a map, not a scale model. East Coast Park eating chilli crab and drinking Tiger beer. In reflexively and with great There may be no bulletproof vest around my own story, Singapore, every night is a warm night. Hundreds of ships but I started thinking there is protective armour around were moored offshore waiting to come into port. They looked portent doesn’t make it true.’ many of the events of the year that stops us seeing in. Like like twinkling cities, far away. Or maybe all those container so much recent history, we think we remember but we ships were trying to leave. Who could tell? My job is to commission authors to write books that I don’t really, if we ever knew. Everything gets simplified, Time had not stopped. The four of us sat there, each develop and publish. So naturally enough my next thought turned into a slogan. no doubt thinking about the new year starting in a couple was, ‘I must find someone to write about 2001.’ Their Themes emerge. Some you might expect, like identity, of hours. It felt like time had opened up, with nothing but question of inquiry, I decided then and there on behalf loss, fear, surveillance and political expediency. Others gaping blackness where the future was supposed to be. I of this as-yet-unknown writer, should be ‘Did everything crept up on me, like the millenarian idea of the end of wanted time to push on, for the fucking nightmare that was change?’ That’s how these single year books work, I mused. history and shifts in capitalism and liberal democracy. 2001 to be over. But I was scared, so scared, about what might But it was a genuine question worth exploring, because Writing about religion led me to places I did not anticipate. come next. I had no clue how I might be in whatever came people were always so glib when they said, Not to mention characters I never imagined becoming next, how I might live. I was too bereft to imagine tomorrow. ‘Oh, everything changed after 9/11.’ Did it? Just because fascinated by, but who reeled me in. Looking at you, Nicole 2001 was not a year news anchors would sum up in pun- you utter a phrase reflexively and with great portent doesn’t Kidman and Don Bradman. packed, jaunty recaps. Of course the year’s default images make it true. Settling into the idea, I recalled all the times Open-minded when I started, I honestly didn’t think are the planes flying into the Twin Towers of the World I’d heard people say ‘Since 2001 . . .’, using it as a marker everything had changed. I’ve taken myself back there Trade Center in New York City. Everyone remembers where before sharing some statistic or trend. What an interesting to find out and to make sense of a year that seemed they were when they watched that happen. Asked to pick thing to explore for whoever is going to write this, I thought. momentous. I’m glad I did. a defining image of the twenty-first century, most people But remembering Daniel stopped me in my tracks. would look to Manhattan that day – planes, buildings, fire, Jesus, 2001 was the worst year of my life. Did it change ash cloud, people running. The twenty-first century began everything for me? Phillipa McGuinness is an acclaimed nonfiction on September 11, 2001. I didn’t know, but in a moment heart-stopping and publisher who has been commissioning books of But the year had 364 other days. What if we were to turn history, politics, current affairs, biography and exhilarating at once, I resolved to write this 2001 book myself. [my] book into a video taster, a sizzle reel in words? ‘THE memoir, many of them prize-winners, for almost YEAR THAT WAS 2001’, soundtrack and all? Here’s how it — twenty-five years. She is the editor of Copyfight, might look and sound. I’ve never really told my story and Daniel’s story, ended published in 2015, and has been published in The Guardian, Meanjin and elsewhere. McGuinness has spoken at numerous Kylie Minogue, all in white, sashays to her classic pop before it could begin, except for dazed, weepy recounting writers’ festivals and conferences, tweets as @pipmcg and lives in song, the one you truly can’t get out of your head, la la la/ in those hours and days and weeks immediately following Sydney, one of the loves of her life, with the other loves of her life. la la lalala. Here comes Dido thanking you for giving her the trauma. Yet my silence with pretty much everyone the best day of her life. But wait, I hear bhangra, and it’s except Adam means my story has never become part of Photo by Mel Koutchavlis. Missy Elliot, gettin’ her freak on. A voice declaims, ‘I am my schtick. It has not been processed through cycles of Maximus Decimus Meridius, father to a murdered son, telling and retelling. There’s no Kevlar armour around my husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance.’ narrative to stop it being permeated by doubt and anguish. To find out more about The Year Everything Changed: 2001, read our Russell Crowe’s mellifluousness fades to George W. Bush It’s not so raw within me anymore. But I’ve had to work review on page 12. READINGS MONTHLY 7 June 2018 New The Bright siblings, from the position of International Fiction vulnerable adolescents, inadvertently Fiction create sidetracks and half-truths from the mysteries of their parents’ lives, Florida while Charlie’s volatility and increasing Lauren Groff unpredictability puts tension into every William Heinemann. PB. $32.99 encounter. All of this is set in contrast to the Available 18 June idyllic sense of the place Castles creates – an The University of Queensland Press was established in 1948 When I think of the enclave of privilege surrounded by sunlit BOOK OF THE (coincidentally, the year I was born). In the mid-sixties, under American state of beaches and sparkling waterways. MONTH the stewardship of American expat Frank Thompson, it started Florida, I think of Miami, to publish Australian poetry and fiction. Thompson’s example Susan Stevenson is from Readings Malvern Disney World, sun- Fiction was aggressively followed by his successor, Laurie Muller, aided drenched beach days and by editor Craig Munro. The Book Ninja the Seinfelds living it up at Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus Del Boca Vista. Florida, a In the eighties, UQP was a major player on the Australian literary scene, most famously publishing Peter Carey’s two S&S. PB. $29.99 new collection of short stories by Lauren Booker Prize-winning novels, Oscar and Lucinda, and, later, Frankie Rose is desperate for Groff, presents us with a different side of True History of the Kelly Gang. It helped launch the careers of love. A date with a semi- the state, and it is certainly not of the some of our most celebrated authors including David Malouf normal person will do. sunshine variety. and Kate Grenville. It was one of the first publishers to seriously Inspired by her job at The Among the eleven electric short stories, publish Indigenous writers. It had huge success with Doris Little Brunswick Street Groff examines the state of Florida, which (Garimara) Pilkington’s memoir, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, Bookshop, Frankie embarks she now calls home and presents readers and today under publishing director Madonna Duffy, UQP on a love experiment: with tales of strangeness from the murky continues to publish exciting Indigenous writers such as Ellen planting her favourite books, inscribed with underground of the sunny state. Each story van Neerven, Tony Birch, and Larissa Behrendt. her contact details, on trains in a bid to lure has a sense of dread, an almost expectant This anthology contains twenty-five new works by authors the well-read man of her dreams. Enter sense that something bad is about to Reading the who have been published by UQP; they were commissioned Sunny, and, one spontaneous kiss later, happen right around the corner – or on the Landscape: to celebrate seventy years of UQP. There’s poetry, fiction and Frankie begins to fall for him. There’s just one next page, as it were. A Celebration nonfiction by Lily Brett, David Malouf, Peter Carey, Julie Koh problem – Frankie is strictly a classics kind of The main protagonist is Florida itself of Australian and Gabrielle Carey. It’s a veritable feast of contemporary gal, and Sunny is really into Young Adult. and the author weaves its presence in Writing Australian writing – stimulating, entertaining, provocative and out of the stories and captures its less Various and controversial. Larissa Behrendt’s piece on colonisation and The Love That I Have visible other side, full of grittiness and UQP. PB. Was $29.95 reconciliation, The Smoke of Many Fires, should be compulsory James Moloney struggle. In the last story, ‘YPORT’, my reading. I won’t be around, but I hope that in 2088 UQP will be HarperCollins. PB. $27.99 favourite, you can feel the humidity and $26.99 celebrating its 140th birthday. Margot Baumann works in desperation of a woman examining her looming future as a Floridian mother and Mark Rubbo is the managing director of Readings the mailroom of a large wife. She decides to take her children to prison. But it’s 1944, and the France, where she lived as a young student, prison is Sachsenhausen in order to research the French writer Guy concentration camp near de Maupassant. She has already been stuck Berlin. When Margot is told on this project for ten years. Australian Fiction in other ways, too. The main narrative in to burn the prisoners’ letters, parcelled out in moments, and the reader she is horrified, especially as her brother is a There is also a strong presence of Mother ultimately moves backwards through prisoner in Stalingrad. So Margot steals a Nature that hums through each story. It’s a Ironbark time. While the oppressive small town is few letters to send in secret, only to find clever way to remind and teach readers of a mainstay of Australian fiction, Ironbark herself drawn to their heart-rending words the real-life threat facing Florida, with its Jay Carmichael is a poised and atmospheric work that – particularly those of Dieter Kleinschmidt, rising sea levels and regular flooding. Scribe. PB. $27.99 reveals Carmichael as an author to watch. whose girlfriend is also named Margot. This If you loved Fates and Furies as much as While it feels like a cliché to call a novel – Chris Somerville is from Readings online is a powerful story for fans of The Book Thief I did (and remember it was Barack Obama’s by award-winning author James Moloney. favourite book!), then Florida will not especially one by a first- disappoint you. Groff fans will immediately time author – ‘assured’, it is Bluebottle Saint Antony in His Desert recognise her talent for stinging descriptions the phrase I kept returning Belinda Castles of characters, and for depicting the dread Anthony Uhlmann to while reading this debut A&U. PB. $29.99 and loneliness of their lives. This collection UWAP. PB. $26.99 offering from young Set on Sydney’s is poignant and terrifying all at once. Victorian writer Jay Carmichael. His clean Barrenjoey peninsula, Defrocked priest Antony and polished prose possesses the kind of the sea is a constant Elm is in a desert outside Anna Rotar is from Readings Carlton confidence that puts readers at ease. presence throughout Alice Springs for forty days Ironbark is a quiet coming-of-age story Belinda Castles’ Bluebottle. and forty nights. 84K set in the country town of Narioka. Semi- From the cliff-top shack Undergoing a crisis of faith, Claire North he’s brought the typescript unemployed and drowning in the aftermath where architect Charlie Orbit. PB. $29.99 of his unfinished book with of his friend Grayson’s death, Markus’s life Bright and his photogenic family spend Company men would him. It’s about a meeting between Albert is filled with a low-grade sense of dread. Christmas 1994, it is always visible or in run for Parliament, Einstein and the French philosopher Henri We follow him through his days – feeling earshot, with a promise of pleasure. Company newspapers would Bergson. On the back, Antony begins to uncomfortable at social events, failing at the Through this glare of natural beauty, trumpet their excellence to write another story, one about two young apprenticeship his father has forced on him, the narrative unfolds obliquely – slipping the sky, Company TV men travelling to Sydney from Canberra in not really wanting to play football but doing between the past and present and the stations would broadcast the early 1980s. He becomes increasingly it anyway, and jamming needles into his legs points of view of the three Bright offspring, their election promises… delirious, scribbling in the margins of his in order to try to feel something. Louisa, Jack and Phoebe. It is their father, this is how democracy worked: corporate two unspooling narratives, awaiting a The portrayal of Markus’s Charlie – charming and charismatic with and public interests working together at rescue that may not come. homosexuality, and the way in which it is his wild plans for their house – who is last, for the greater good. navigated by those around him, is one of their focus. Charlie demands everyone’s Claire North’s latest novel is set in a We Are Not Most People the novel’s strongest elements. Carmichael attention with his brilliance and talent, dystopian, near-future version of the UK has taken care to render his characters as but hints of instability create uneasiness Tracy Ryan where human rights have been abolished believable, and he’s neither condescending in all his children. This unease grows as Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99 and the government is run by a ruthless nor nasty in depicting their flaws. The Charlie’s preoccupation with a missing Kurt Stocker enters a Swiss corporation known as only as ‘The Company’. book is better for it. teenage girl from their neighbourhood seminary to become a priest Under this new totalitarian regime, all civil The other strength is in what starts to border on obsession. Even Tricia, and make his parents proud, services have been corporatised. Carmichael chooses to withhold. When his long-suffering wife, cannot curtail it. but he struggles to adapt. As an employee in the Criminal Audit Markus is coerced into playing in a charity On Boxing Day 1994, all three children, Instead, he marries Liesl and Office, Theo Miller is responsible for football match to raise money for the family in different ways, come to uncomfortable they eventually emigrate to setting a monetary price for every crime of his dead friend – a death, we learn, that conclusions about their family. Twenty Australia. Decades later, in committed. All those who can’t pay are has more to it than first appears – we’re years on they still live on the peninsula but small-town Australia, Terry Riley feels sent to labour camps. 84K is the fine shown the build-up in detail, but then just a nothing is spoken out loud and the house drawn to convent life, despite her parent’s for murder. In the face of a seemingly flash of the game itself before we’re thrown on the cliff-top is no longer theirs. Charlie objections. Once there, she is haunted by a omnipotent government and a mysterious back into the claustrophobia of Markus’s is gone from their lives – and then the strange sickness and knows she must return past he’s trying to conceal, Miller works everyday life. The effect is that the reader mystery of the missing girl resurfaces. to a more conventional life. It is then she hard at being nondescript and keeping feels as trapped as Markus does. Bluebottle is not a conventional thriller begins a relationship with the now divorced his head down. His quiet life is quickly Carmichael plays with the structure but there is an escalating degree of suspense. Kurt, who was once her high school teacher. turned upside down when an old girlfriend 8 READINGS MONTHLY FICTION June 2018 reappears only to be brutally murdered. Her The Ensemble when they meet again years later; a young The Map of Salt and Stars death leads Miller on a dangerous journey Aja Gabel girl who discovers the mother she believed Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar to find the daughter he never knew he had, Riverhead. PB. $29.99 dead is alive and well; and a piano-teacher W&N. PB. $32.99 and to bring down The Company. The Van Ness Quartet who accepts her pupil’s theft in exchange Nour has lost her father, and References to George Orwell’s classic would never have been for his beautiful music. These last the place she was born in. 1984 abound, from the title of North’s friends if they hadn’t gorgeous stories affirm Trevor’s place as Syria is changing and it isn’t novel to her mild-mannered civil servant needed each other. Brit is one of the world’s greatest storytellers. long before protests and protagonist. That being said, North fashions the second violinist, a shelling destroy the peace of a completely original dystopian nightmare beautiful and quiet orphan; Motherhood her new and quiet city, Homs. fit for the twenty-first century. The rich get on the viola is Henry, a Sheila Heti Beginning her journey as a richer and the poor pay the price. Clever prodigy who’s always had it easy; the Harvill Secker. HB. $35 refugee, she draws strength from the voyage and challenging, her writing often reads as cellist is Daniel, the oldest and an angry Motherhood treats one of the of Rawiya, who endured epic battles in her poetry instead of prose, giving her sci-fi- sceptic who sleeps around; and on first most consequential decisions twelfth-century attempt to create the most cum-mystery novel depth and lyricism. 84K violin is Jana, their flinty, resilient leader. of adulthood – whether or not accurate map of the world ever made. The is a must read for fans of 1984, Brave New The Ensemble is a heart-skipping portrait to have children – with the Map of Salt and Stars is a magical and moving World and The Handmaid’s Tale. of ambition, the cutthroat world of intelligence, wit and story for fans of The Kite Runner. Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton musicians, and of lives made in concert. originality that have won Sheila Heti international Never Anyone But You Felix Culpa How Do You Like Me Now? acclaim. Having reached an age when most Rupert Thomson Jeremy Gavron Holly Bourne of her peers are asking themselves when Corsair. PB. $32.99 Scribe. PB. $29.99 H&S. PB. $29.99 they will become mothers, Heti’s narrator Available 12 June Available 18 June Available 12 June considers, with the same urgency, whether Suzanne Malherbe, a shy The moment I heard Tori Bailey inspired millions she will do so at all. Over the course of seventeen-year-old artist, is about Jeremy Gavron’s of women to stick two several years, under the influence of her entranced by brilliant but new novel, I knew I had to fingers up at convention partner, body, family, friends, mysticism troubled Lucie Schwob, the read it. Felix Culpa starts with her bestselling memoir. and chance, she struggles to make a moral daughter of a Jewish with the death of a young But Tori Bailey has been and meaningful choice. newspaper magnate. Stifled man, a prison inmate, living a lie. Everyone around by provincial and before going back to explore her is getting married and Meet Me at the Museum patriarchal convention, they reinvent his life and how much the people around having babies, but her long-term boyfriend Anne Youngson themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel him actually knew him. As the narrator won’t even talk about getting engaged. Doubleday. PB. $29.99 Moore and move to Paris, joining the most looks deeper into Felix’s story, he begins to Then her best friend Dee falls in love and Available 18 June glamorous artistic circles. As World War II feel like he’s losing himself to it. suddenly Tori’s in terrifying danger of When Tina Hopgood writes looms, they leave for Jersey and dream up But the most interesting thing being left behind. This debut adult novel a letter of regret to a man she a campaign of propaganda against Hitler’s about this book is, without a doubt, the by bestselling author Holly Bourne is a has never met, she doesn’t occupying forces. This is the gripping true construction: a collage of a novel, most of blisteringly funny exploration of the expect a reply. When Anders story of two extraordinary women. Felix Culpa is composed of sentences lifted emotional rollercoaster of the thirties. Larsen, a lonely museum word-for-word from literary luminaries curator, answers it, nor does Only Killers and Thieves such as Cormac McCarthy, Mary Shelley, Kudos he. Anders has lost his wife, Paul Howarth and Vladimir Nabokov, etc. This is a Rachel Cusk along with his hopes and dreams for the Pushkin. PB. $29.99 technique used in all kinds of different art Faber. HB. $29.99 future. Tina is trapped in a marriage she Brothers Tommy and Billy forms, but I’d never seen it in literature The award-winning author doesn’t remember choosing. Slowly their McBride return to the before. I was curious to know how Gavron of Outline and Transit correspondence blossoms with stories of isolated family home in could tell a story – his own story, at that – completes the literary trilogy joy, anguish and discovery. But then Tina’s outback Queensland to find using words taken straight from the mouths with Kudos. A woman writer, letters suddenly cease, and Anders is their parents have been of other authors, let alone how he could use Faye, visits a Europe in flux, thrown into despair. Can their unexpected brutally murdered. Their them to form a coherent flow of ideas. where questions of personal friendship survive? desperate search for the For the first few pages, I found myself and political identity are killers leads them to the charismatic and switching back and forth between seeing it rising to the surface and the trauma of Melodrome deadly Inspector Noone and his as one continuous novel, and seeing it as an change is opening up new possibilities of Marcelo Cohen Queensland Native Police, an infamous arm amalgamation of distinct voices that have loss and renewal. Within the rituals of Giramondo. PB. $24.95 of colonial power whose sole purpose is the been carefully chosen because of the way literary culture, Faye finds the human story ‘dispersal’ of Indigenous Australians. What Dominant, successful they reference each other. It was like I was in disarray. She identifies a tension between follows will not only devastate Tommy and Lerena Dost and her reading two very different books at once. truth and representation that causes her to his relationship with his brother, but leave a psychoanalyst Suano As the narrator loses his sense of identity, consider questions of acclaim, justice, and terrible and lasting mark on the country. Botilecue cross an ethical however, the construction of the narrative the ultimate value of suffering. boundary. Once discovered, creates an interesting symmetry with the they lose everything. Then, The President is Missing storyline. The way the disparate voices A Place for Us a chance encounter with a Bill Clinton & James Patterson reflect the narrator’s question of identity Fatima Farheen Mirza mysterious woman plants a number in Century. PB. $32.99 is just as poetic as the language itself, and Hogarth. PB. $32.99 Lerena’s mind and she wins the lottery. Available 5 June creates an immersive representation of the Available 18 June Deciding not to touch her new fortune until The President is missing. narrator’s experience. A masterful story of a she can reward her benefactor, who turns The world is in shock. But This is one for those avid readers who family caught between two out to be the famed leader of a spiritual cult, the reason he’s missing is like a challenge, and who can’t get enough cultures -- and the first Lerena and Suano set out on a road trip to much worse than anyone of the literary giants of modern history, novel published under find her, travelling across a futuristic world can imagine. There are only this time in a new, repurposed format. Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP strangely like, and unlike, our own. things only a president can Tom Davies is from Readings Doncaster for Hogarth publishing know. There are things only imprint. A Place for Us Milkman a president can do. And there are times Less catches an Indian Muslim family on the Anna Burns when the only option is unthinkable. Of Andrew Sean Greer eve of the eldest daughter’s wedding. As Faber. PB. $29.99 this exciting collaboration between Bill Abacus. PB. $19.99 Hadia’s marriage -- one chosen of love, not This beautiful and painful Clinton and James Patterson, Lee Child The winner of the Pulitzer tradition -- gathers the family back novel by Orange Prize says: ‘The dream team delivers big time … Prize for Fiction 2018 together, her parents must come to terms shortlisted Anna Burns Clinton’s insider secrets and Patterson’s introduces Arthur Less, a with the choices that their two daughters, blends shades of early Edna storytelling genius make this the political failed novelist on the brink and their estranged son Amar, have made. O’Brien with Eimear thriller of the decade.’ of fifty. When a wedding McBride’s exquisite ability invitation arrives from an Last Stories to capture voice. Milkman is The Parentations ex-boyfriend of nine years, William Trevor a tale of gossip and hearsay, indecision and Kate Mayfield Arthur can’t say yes – it would be too Viking. PB. $29.99 judgement. Middle sister is busy keeping Point Blank. PB. $27.99 awkward; he can’t say no – it would look In this final collection of ten her mother from discovering her nearly In eighteenth-century like defeat. So, he begins to accept the exquisite, profound stories, boyfriend, and everyone in the dark about London the lives of sisters invitations on his desk to half-baked William Trevor probes into her encounter with milkman. But first Constance and Verity literary events around the world. Arthur the depths of the human brother-in-law sniffed it out and told his Fitzgerald become entwined almost falls in love, almost falls to his spirit. Here we encounter a wife, her first sister, to tell her mother. Now with those of their death, and puts miles between him and tutor and his pupil, whose middle sister is ‘interesting’, the last thing neighbours, the Fowlers. the plight he refuses to face. lives are thrown into turmoil she ever wanted to be. Clovis and her husband Finn FICTION READINGS MONTHLY 9 June 2018 have agreed to provide safe harbour to a The Water Cure mysterious baby. The four are bound by Sophie Mackintosh Discover their reliance on a pool of eternal life in Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 Iceland. To preserve the baby’s life, all Damaged women used to must remain undiscovered for more than come here to be cured. Now a new favourite two hundred years. But one among them no one is left but my sisters proves more menacing than those who and me. Three men arrived pursue them, and then the life-giving pool last week, washed up by the runs dry. sea, their gazes hungry and Out of the Forest Gregory P. Smith insistent. We remember now What makes a man turn The Seventh Cross what our father taught us: ‘If the men come his back on society? What makes Anna Seghers to you, show yourself some mercy. Don’t him return? An uplifting memoir and and a powerful reminder Virago. PB. $29.99 stick around and wait for them to put you that we can all find our way back Seven prisoners escape from out of your misery.’ The Water Cure is a if we pause for a moment in the heart of the forest. Westhofen concentration blazing literary debut about love, violence camp. Six are caught and survival at any cost. Arnhem quickly, but not George Antony Beevor Heisler. Who can George Summer (Seasons Quartet 4) With his typical authority and skill in bringing a campaign trust? The years of fear have Karl Ove Knausgaard to life, Britain’s bestselling changed those he knew best: Harvill Secker. HB. $35 historian creates a gripping, vivid his brother is now an SS officer; his lover Summer is the fourth volume narrative that shows why the Battle of Arnhem was fought, turns him away. Time is running out, and of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s and lost. whoever is caught aiding his escape will Seasons quartet, a collection “Welcome to the escape room. pay with their life. A rediscovered German of short prose and diaries Your goal is simple. Get out alive.” classic novel from 1942, The Seventh Cross written by a father for his MEGAN GOLDIN, THE ESCAPE ROOM is both a gripping escape story and a novel youngest daughter, with of resistance that powerfully and stunning artwork by Anselm contemporaneously documents the Kiefer. In Summer, Knausgaard writes about The Escape Room Megan Goldin insidious rise of a fascist regime. long days full of sunlight, eating ice cream The heart-stopping new novel with his children, lawn sprinklers and of deception and delusion Promising Young Women ladybirds. Against a canvas of memories, from the bestselling author of The Girl in Kellers Way. Caroline O’Donoghue longings, and experiences of art and Virago. PB. $29.99 literature, he searches for the meaning of Year Everything Changed Available 12 June moments as they pass us by. Phillipa McGuiness Jane Peters is an adrift 2001 was an awful year. It’s the only year where you can twenty-something by day, mention a day and a month and a world-weary agony Poetry using only numbers and everyone knows what you aunt by night. But when an mean. But 9/11 wasn’t the only office party goes too far, Jane momentous event that year. becomes the Other Woman: Sun Music: New and Selected a role for which she has the Poems Read more at penguin.com.au right advice, of course. What starts out as a Judith Beveridge drunken mistake quickly unravels as Jane Giramondo. PB. $26.95 discovers that sex and power go hand-in- Judith Beveridge is one of hand, and that it’s hard to keep your head Australia’s most and your life together when you’ve become acclaimed poets, as well Essential reading from an someone else’s secret. This is a gothic, witty as a highly regarded debut novel for fans of Sweetbitter. critic, editor and teacher important new voice of poetry. Beveridge’s The Verdun Affair poetry is taught in high Nick Dybek schools and universities, and has won Corsair. PB. $32.99 the NSW and Victorian Premiers’ ‘Scorching, self-scouring: Available 12 June Literary Awards. Sun Music collects a young woman finds her steel From the bone-strewn fields Beveridge’s best poems published and learns to wield it’ of Verdun to the bombed-out between 1987 to 2017 from her award- HELEN GARNER cafes of Paris, from the winning collections The Domesticity of riot-torn streets of Bologna to Giraffes, Accidental Grace, Wolf Notes and ‘Brutal, brave and utterly the riotous parties of 1950s Storm and Honey. This collection also compelling’ Hollywood, The Verdun introduces 33 new poems, which build on REBECCA STARFORD, Affair is the riveting tale of and enhance her previous work. author of Bad Behaviour and an Austrian journalist, two Americans – a co-founder of Kill Your Darlings lonely young man and a beautiful widow – and the amnesiac soldier whose puzzling Science Fiction ‘Courageous, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful’ case binds them all together. Each is keeping a secret; each has been shaken by the horrors LIAM PIEPER, of war. All will be affected by the far- A People’s History of the author of The Toymaker reaching consequences of a single lie. Vampire Uprising ‘Sensitive and clear-eyed’ Raymond A. Villareal JESSICA FRIEDMANN, Us Against You Hachette. PB. Was $29.99 author of Things That Helped Fredrik Backman $26.99 Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 It starts with the body of a ‘A page-turner of a memoir, Available 18 June young woman found in an impossible to put down’ After the terrible events that Arizona border town KRISSY KNEEN, shook Beartown last spring, walking out of the morgue. author of An Uncertain Grace best friends Maya and Ana Before long, the CDC, the spend the summer on a FBI and the US government hidden island, but nothing realise it’s a vampire goes as they had hoped. epidemic. 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Just as the world begins to a player’s most closely guarded secret is adjust, the stakes change yet again when a OUT NOW revealed, a whole community is forced to charismatic and wealthy businessman, show what it really wants to stand for in this recently turned, decides to run for the stand alone sequel to Beartown. political office. 10 CRIME Dead He’s going to investigate anyway, who’s just anxiously bought a new home and because a man like him has quite a lot of says, ‘I can’t quite believe this is real!’ Write connections and, well, maybe a terrorist organisation will take a contract out on him, Liar’s Candle but Jack isn’t the kind of person who sits still August Thomas with Fiona Hardy on that and revenge is one of his best skills, S&S. PB. $29.99 after all. So strap in and hang on to these Being a young, unpaid pages because it’s gonna get crazy out there. After the events of Sarah Bailey’s debut The Dark Lake left intern in Turkey’s US BOOK OF THE Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock unable to be the embassy is difficult enough The Tall Man MONTH partner, mother and human that everyone in the regional for the linguistically skilled Crime town of Smithson needed her to be, a transfer to Melbourne Phoebe Locke Penny Kessler, but there is seemed like the only option. There, in the anonymity of the Wildfire. PB. $29.99 no way that her work as a city, Gemma can hide in plain sight. The white noise of the Available 12 June translator has prepared her street outside her CBD apartment and the men who do not Sadie Banner had long been for what happens at the office’s Fourth of know her entire history are enough to drown out the insistent afraid of the Tall Man. He July party: an explosion that tears through murmur of loss, as she misses her lifelong home and her lives in the woods and he the building and kills hundreds of her beloved son. comes in the night and he colleagues. As one of the survivors, the takes you away; everyone people she works for believe what she has knows this. And shortly witnessed is important – so important that Gemma’s prickliness matches perfectly after Sadie’s daughter things start to seem very wrong. Still with a city alive on the page – one both Amber is born, Sadie tells Amber’s father recovering from the blast that knocked her recognisable and horrifying to local that she is cursed, and then she straight into hospital, Penny needs to figure Readings customers ... disappears. Some think it’s murder. But out who she can trust, whether her closest sixteen years later, Sadie returns. And two friend – now missing – is a good guy or a years after that, a documentary crew bad guy, and whether she has the skills to When a homeless man is found murdered in a Carlton follows Amber Banner as she revels in the save herself from everyone who wants her Into the Night park, Gemma makes a promise that she won’t see his death court case that’s finally finished – the one dead. Even if it’s her own country. Sarah Bailey neglected, but the very next day a violent murder in the that was accusing her of murder. But who middle of the city sees the entire world’s attention focused on A&U. PB. Was $32.99 did the young Amber Banner kill? And is Star of the North her squad. During the filming of a scene in zombie film Death $27.99 is Alive – a scene in which everyone is armed – the lead actor the Tall Man just a myth, or is he worth D.B. John is stabbed to death. His family, girlfriend and best friend naming a book after? Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99 are all grieving, but none of them seem to be quite as honest as Gemma would like. Even When a Korean-American taking into account his agent, dramatic co-stars, unpleasant director and an extensive April in Paris, 1921 student and her boyfriend and obsessed fanbase, there is a lot of suspicion, a barrage of impatient media, and senior Tessa Lunney disappear from a beach in police staff who want the case solved – now. HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 South Korea, the only Gemma Woodstock is in many ways an unsympathetic character – she cannot help Sometimes I fear I use the assumption is that it’s a but make terrible life choices, even as she strives not to. Removing her unreliable self word ‘delight’ too frequently drowning. But the student’s from her son’s life is both damaging and helpful, and the release she gets from a series of in this column, but there is twin sister, Jenna, knows in anonymous men is a balm to her soul, yet it’s still self-destructive, especially when she sometimes just too much her heart that her sister is still alive – and tentatively strikes up a new relationship with a lawyer who is more interested in her than deliciousness along the suspects that she’s in North Korea. When, she is used to. Gemma’s prickliness matches perfectly with a city alive on the page – one crime spectrum for me to years later, university professor Jenna is both recognisable and horrifying to local Readings customers who traipse the streets use any other word. In Tessa recruited into the CIA and sent to North where blood is spattered in these pages. This is a gritty metropolitan police procedural Lunney’s Parisian adventure, we meet Kiki Korea, she knows this is her chance to find that shows Bailey is only getting better. Button: ex-army nurse, ex-Australienne, out that truth. In that same fraught country, and ex-debutante. She has delivered a top-ranking official, adopted as a child, herself across the seas to avoid her parents’ fears that the promotion he wants to receive desperate attempts to marry her off. will be prevented by the heritage he had no Independence and freedom from the say in – but in a country where crimes pass The Escape Room writes her famous novels. ravages of wartime memories and the through generations, his fears are hardly Megan Goldin As her next book’s deadline approaches, real world are what she craves, and with unfounded. And on a North Korean penal Michael Joseph. PB. Was $32.99 Christie boards a ship to Tenerife, ostensibly a job as a society columnist, it’s what she farm, a woman finds a US aid balloon stocked $29.99 for relaxation and some vigorous healthy air, immediately achieves: evenings in the with items that can be bargained to give her a When four hotshot Wall but also to assist in the matter of the death of French capital, with the famous and the better future – if she’s not caught. This epic, Street finance workers are a man found in a cave, partially mummified infamous and endless champagne, wine, tense thriller is a riveting read about a called to a Friday night and entirely drained of blood. On the and lovers. When she meets one Pablo country that in the real world may just be on meeting in a new office, trip, Christie takes a walk to help with her Picasso, he has a proposition: Kiki must the brink of a new future. they’re frustrated that this seasickness and witnesses a woman jumping model for him, and then find a missing meeting is taking them away to her death. A suicide, a heartbreaking painting. Gossip can take a back seat to Also out this month: from the gilt-edged lives they one – but is it connected to the other crime this serious business and when her old Alex Reeve, The House on Half Moon Street enjoy on their weekends. They’re even more after all? And who are the people who want spymaster finds her, serious business is (Raven, PB, $27.99), about a transgender annoyed when they find out the meeting is her help? While it can be hard to read any not far away. 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PB. $29.99 of Passion (Little, Brown, PB, $29.99); get stops, they realise, finally – the elevator is Aidan Truhen When Fiona Lawson arrives your double shot of books with ‘dead’ in the the escape room. And when the message Serpent’s Tail. PB. $29.99 home from a trip and sees a title with Nicci French’s Day of the Dead flashes: ‘Your goal is simple. Get out alive’, Sometimes you’re in the removalist outside her (Michael Joseph, PB, $32.99) and Peter they still think that their job security is their mood for something a little beloved London home, she James’s Dead if You Don’t (Pan Mac, PB, biggest concern. But a workplace that full of more freestyle, a little more thinks, of course, it’s for $29.99); another book set in this month’s wealth never gets so successful without a few scattered all over the place – someone else on the street. popular location of the 1920s, this time in secrets. 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PB, $32.99); Australian forensic psychiatrist books since I was a teenager, then it turns out that the woman in the When Fiona attempts to find Bram and Donald Grant’s true crime compilation I couldn’t help but be apartment below him has been shot and realises that her two sons are also missing, Killer Instinct (MUP, PB, $34.99); Sanjida hesitant about Andrew that’s not a great situation, really. Because if she knows everything is terribly, terribly Kay’s My Mother’s Secret (Corvus, PB, Wilson’s books reimagining Jack is a dealer then maybe it was meant for wrong. And that while her husband’s deceit $29.99); James Swallow’s Ghost (Zaffre, PB, Christie’s days as a woman him instead of Didi, even though she was a may have led to this, Fi hasn’t been entirely $29.99); Stuart MacBride, The Blood Road solving crimes while she also terrible old woman and he didn’t like her. truthful either. An excellent gift for anyone (HarperCollins, PB, $29.99) and more!