BOOKS MUSIC FILM EVENTS - AUGUST 2017 - Readings
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FREE AUGUST 2017
BOOKS MUSIC FILM E V E N TS
NEW IN AUGUST
TONY JULIAN JOCK BIG PAUL
BIRCH BURNSIDE SERONG LITTLE KELLY
$29.95 $29.99 $29.99 LIES $21.95
$26.99 $26.99 $26.99 $39.95 page 22
page 21
page 7 page 12 pages 6 & 7
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
Just $1295
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 3
News
ZANA FRAILLON WINS
READINGS YOUNG ADULT BOOK
PRIZE
After fierce debate among the judging
panel – consisting of Readings staff and
author Lili Wilkinson – we’re proud to
announce Zana Fraillon as the winner of
Readings Monthly The Readings Young Adult Book Prize
Free, independent monthly newspaper for The Bone Sparrow. Judge Angela
published by Readings Books, Music & Film Crocombe calls The Bone Sparrow ‘a truly
unforgettable novel from an incredible
Subscribe talent’, and special guest judge and author
You can subscribe to Readings Monthly and Lili Wilkinson says it’s ‘a celebration of
our e-news by visiting our website: warmth, hope, humour and humanity’.
readings.com.au/newsletters-and-e-news Congratulations to Zana Fraillon, who
received $3000 in prize money. We’d like
Editor to extend our congratulations to the other
Jo Case five shortlisted books for offering such
jo.case@readings.com.au strong competition. More information
about the Prize and The Bone Sparrow can
Editorial Assistant be found on page 16. We hope Readings’
Judi Mitchell customers will enjoy this brilliant book.
judi.mitchell@readings.com.au
MADMAN DVD SALE MELBOURNE WRITERS
Proofreaders LOVE YOUR BOOKSHOP DAY To celebrate this year’s Melbourne FESTIVAL 2017
Judi Mitchell, Bel Monypenny International Film Festival, we are holding The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF)
Buy a book from any Readings shop on
Love Your Bookshop Day (Saturday 12 our annual Madman DVD sale throughout connects writers and stories to celebrate
Kids/YA Curator August, featuring a wide range of releases a world of literature, explore universal
August) and you could win free books for
Alexa Dretzke
a year! When purchasing any item, fill out that includes Hunt for the Wilderpeople, ideas, and inspire a global community
our competition form at the counter and Putuparri and the Rainmakers, Paterson, Peggy of readers. The 2017 Melbourne Writers
Music Curator
tell us in 25 words or less why you love Guggenheim: Art Addict, The Bélier Family, Tokyo Festival runs from Friday 25 August to
Dave Clarke
Readings. You’ll go in the draw to win a Story and more. With prices from $12.95 each, Sunday 3 September. This year, MWF
Book of the Month subscription – a free this sale is not to be missed. Get down to your welcomes Australia’s pre-eminent literary
Classical Music Curator
copy of either our fiction, non-fiction or local Readings to check out the full range. voices, including Kim Scott, Sofie Laguna,
Phil Richards
kids’ Book of the Month, every month The sale will be available in all of our seven Tim Flannery and Robert Dessaix, as well
for 12 months, starting from September shops as well as online at readings.com.au. as internationally renowned writers and
DVDs Curator
2017. Terms and conditions apply. See the artists, including Angie Thomas, Joyce
Lou Fulco
competition form for further details. Carol Oates, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Janet Mock,
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL Robert Fisk, David Grann and Stephen
Advertising
FILM FESTIVAL 2017 Dupont. There’s even a day dedicated to
Stella Charls
3-FOR-2 PAPERBACK The Melbourne International Film Festival celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter magic,
stella.charls@readings.com.au
PICTURE BOOKS (MIFF) is now upon us, showcasing the perfect for the whole family. You can
(03) 9341 7739
Throughout August, we have a special best in contemporary cinema from around browse the full program and make bookings
Graphic Design offer on a range of paperback picture the world, as well as Australia’s own at mwf.com.au. Readings is proud to be
Cat Matteson books from Penguin Random House. emerging and established talent. Cinephiles the official bookseller of the Melbourne
colourcode.com.au Buy two books, and choose a third book can burrow away into the heart of Writers Festival. Come and visit the
in the range (of equal or lesser value) – Melbourne to take in an incredible line-up Readings Festival Bookshop, meet authors
Front Cover free! The range includes titles from Marc of features, documentaries, retrospectives in-store after their events, and get your
The August Readings Monthly cover Martin, Pamela Allen, Mem Fox, Graeme and tributes. The festival runs from 3 to 20 books signed. Open daily in the Atrium at
features the cover image from La Base, Hazel Edwards, Jane Godwin and August. For more information about the Federation Square during the festival.
Mama: Celebrating 50 Years of the Maurice Sendak, among others. This offer
program and memberships, and to make
La Mama Theatre Company by Adam is exclusively available at Readings Kids,
Cass, courtesy of Melbourne University bookings, please visit miff.com.au. Readings
Readings Hawthorn, Readings Doncaster, WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF
Publishing. The cover of La Mama: is a proud sponsor of MIFF.
Readings Malvern and Readings St JAZZ & BLUES
Celebrating 50 Years of the La Mama
Kilda until 31 August on stickered, in-
Theatre Company was designed by The 2017 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and
Melbourne University Publishing and the stock items only, while stocks last. The INAUGURAL PENGUIN RANDOM Blues (3 to 5 November) showcases some
cover photograph is by Elena Larkin. See lowest-priced book is free of charge. Not HOUSE LITERARY PRIZE of the world’s finest local and international
page 14 for more about the book. available online. Penguin Random House has announced an jazz and blues artists. Over three days,
exciting new prize, which endeavours to die-hard jazz and blues fans immerse
Cartoon find, nurture and develop new Australian
3-FOR-2 ROUTLEDGE CLASSICS themselves in a bounty of scintillating
Oslo Davis
authors writing in the areas of literary performances. With over three hundred
oslodavis.com Looking to complete your collection of
fiction and non-fiction. Entries are open artists performing across eight stages,
classics? Well, now is your chance – buy
Prices and availability
now, and should include a 300-word catch some or all of the music as part of a
any two Routledge Classics throughout
Please note that all prices and release synopsis, manuscript and pitch document. weekend getaway in beautiful North East
August and receive a third free. From
dates in Readings Monthly are correct at A shortlist will be revealed on Friday 20 Victoria. Readings is the official retailer
titles by Judith Butler to Jean-Paul Satre,
time of publication, however prices and October, with judges of the shortlist to of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and
Jacques Lacan to bell hooks, readers
release dates may change without notice. include publishers at Penguin Random Blues. Tickets and full program details are
of cultural theory and philosophy will
Special price offers apply only for the House and Leading Edge booksellers
find much to love here. This offer is available at wangarattajazz.com.
month in which they are featured in the
available until 31 August in our Carlton and staff. The winner will be awarded Special ticket offer for Readings customers:
Readings Monthly.
and Hawthorn shops only, on stickered, $20,000, with the winning book slated for When booking your festival tickets, enter
in-stock items while stocks last. The publication in early 2019. For more details, the promotion code READINGS2017 prior
Readings donates 10% of its profits each
year to The Readings Foundation: lowest-priced book is free of charge. Not visit penguin.com.au/news/1689-enter- to September 30 and receive discounted
readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation available online. our-new-literary-prize. tickets to the festival.
21 JUL – 15 OCT MAJOR PARTNER PRESENTED BY
Katsushika Hokusai The great wave off Kanagawa 1830–34 (detail)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1909 (426-2)
4 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
August Events 29 TIM ROGERS IN
12 LOVE YOUR
BOOKSHOP
CONVERSATION
WITH MICHAEL
1 THE STATE OF
BEING EQUAL: 9 GAIL KELLY
ON LIFE AND
DAY DWYER
We are excited to host a stellar event with
RUSTY YOUNG LEADERSHIP JOYCE PRESCHER musician, actor and writer Tim Rogers. In his
& JEFF SPARROW Gail Kelly, a former CEO of Westpac, and On her debut album, Home, singer– new book, Detours, Rogers writes movingly
ON CHILD SOLDIERS mother of four, will chat with Mary Crooks, songwriter Joyce Prescher meditates on and lyrically about rock ’n’ roll, fatherhood,
The State of Being Equal is a forum intended to the director of the Victorian Women’s Trust, the hardship of living away from home, anxiety, being a son, AFL and more. Come
make sure we trump Trump politics by exploring about Kelly’s new book, Live Lead Learn. Both identity, love and death. Her sound tells along to hear him share stories from the book
how society can be more equitable and just, Kelly and Crooks have managed parenting, of her love of folk music, with hints of with rock journalist Michael Dwyer (Rolling
rather than divisive and bellicose. Each event leadership and innovation with grace and alt-country and Americana. She’ll be Stone), and maybe even play some songs.
in the series will examine a new title that is determination. This is a rare opportunity performing in our St Kilda shop.
relevant to global and sexual politics. to hear a fascinating conversation with two (Limited seats) Entry is $45 per person, includes
inspiring Australian women. Free, no bookings required. a signed first edition of Detours.
Colombiano is the debut novel from Rusty
Saturday 12 August, 2pm Please book at readings.com.au/events
Young, the internationally bestselling author
Entry is $35 per person and includes a signed Readings St Kilda Tuesday 29 August, 7–8pm
of Marching Powder. For seven years Rusty
first edition of Live Lead Learn. Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton
lived and worked in Colombia, interviewing
Please book at readings.com.au/events
special forces soldiers, snipers, undercover
Wednesday 9 August, 6.30pm
intelligence agents and members of
Coming up
16
Readings Hawthorn
terrorist organisations. He was shocked and PAUL FIELD IN
touched by the stories of child soldiers he CONVERSATION
encountered. Here, he tells the story of a
15-year-old boy who becomes a solider after 10 EMMA VISKIC IN
CONVERSATION
WITH PAUL STEWART
Paul Stewart’s brother was one of five
7 JULIA BUSUTTIL
NISHIMURA IN
the execution of his father. Sept.
WITH FIONA journalists killed in Balibo, covering the CONVERSATION
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events HARDY Indonesian invasion of East Timor. His is one Since launching her food blog Ostro in
Tuesday 1 August, 6.30pm
Emma Viskic’s first book, Resurrection Bay, of 16 stories told to Paul Field (MD of The 2014, Julia Busuttil Nishimura has gained a
Readings Carlton Wiggles) in Gimme Shelter, a book recording strong and loyal following for her generous,
won the Ned Kelly Award for First Fiction,
and an unprecedented three Davitt Awards. the experiences of Vietnam veterans, uncomplicated, seasonal food. As an Australian
Our very own crime queen Fiona Hardy peacekeepers, first responders and relatives. of Maltese descent and a fluent Italian speaker,
5 PERFORMANCE:
CHARLIE
was among its many fans. Now, she’ll chat
to Emma about the second Caleb Zelic
The book’s profits go to the charity Solider On.
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
married to a Japanese man, Julia and her food
represent everything that is good about modern
MARSHALL book, And Fire Came Down. Deaf since early
Wednesday 16 August, 6.30pm
Australian eating. She deftly brings together a
childhood, Caleb Zelic used to meet life head- broad range of cuisines and culinary influences,
Melbourne singer, songwriter and science Readings St Kilda
on. Now he’s struggling just to get through the using the very best produce on offer. Join her to
teacher Charlie Marshall will be joined by his
day. But when a young woman is killed after hear about her beautiful new cookbook, Ostro.
17
band, Curious Minds, to perform lush, hooky
songs from their new album, Sublime. Think
pleading for his help in sign language, Caleb is THINGS MY FATHER
determined to find out who she was ... and the Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
Brian Wilson meets Brian Cox. TAUGHT ME Thursday 7 September, 6.30pm
trail leads to his hometown, Resurrection Bay.
Join Claire Halliday, editor of Things My Readings Carlton
Free, no bookings required.
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Father Taught Me, with contributors Tim
Saturday 5 August, 2pm
Thursday 10 August, 6.30pm Costello, Jo Stanley, Ann Peacock and
Readings St Kilda
Readings Hawthorn Christian Wagstaff. They’ll share stories about
the ways their dads have shaped their lives.
7 ROSIE WATERLAND Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
IN CONVERSATION
WITH JAMILA RIZVI 12 LOVE YOUR
BOOKSHOP
Thursday 17 August, 6.30pm
Readings Hawthorn
Australia’s favourite Anti-Cool Girl, Rosie DAY
Waterland, is back, with Every Lie I’ve
Ever Told, a new collection that’s seeing SALLY RIPPIN 21 CHRISTINE NIXON &
AMANDA SINCLAIR: 18
Sept.
BENJAMIN LAW IN
CONVERSATION
her hailed as Australia’s answer to David STORYTIME WOMEN LEADING WITH JASON BALL
Sedaris. It’s a darkly funny book about the
Sally Rippin’s new Polly and Buster Christine Nixon, former chief commissioner
lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell others, In 2016, the Safe Schools program became the
series has proved another smash-hit, of Victoria Police, is now deputy chancellor
and what happens when you’re living on centre of an ideological firestorm. In the latest
joining the much-loved Billie B. Brown of Monash University. Amanda Sinclair
the brink … and you overbalance. Rosie Quarterly Essay, the much-loved Benjamin
and Hey Jack! on the bestseller lists. is an author, researcher, consultant and
will be in conversation with writer and Law explores how and why this happened. He
Join us for a very special storytime to teacher in leadership, change, gender and
broadcaster Jamila Rizvi. weaves a subtle, gripping account of schools
celebrate Love Your Bookshop Day. diversity. In Women Leading, they smash tired today, sexuality, teenagers, new ideas of gender
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Suitable for all lovers of Sally’s books. prescriptions that women should lead like fluidity, tabloid media scares and mental
Monday 7 August, 6.30pm men, highlighting a long history of innovative health. Pioneering LGBTI advocate Jason Ball
Free, no booking required.
Readings Carlton female leadership – drawing on their own will talk to Benjamin about it all.
Saturday 12 August, 11–11.30am
experiences and those of thousands of others.
Readings Kids
Entry is $25 per person, includes a copy of
8 ANDY GRIFFITHS,
JILL GRIFFITHS & MEET THE SUPER
Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
Monday 21 August, 6.30pm
Readings Hawthorn
Quarterly Essay 67: Benjamin Law on Sexuality,
Schools and the Media
Monday 18 September, 6.30pm
TERRY DENTON MOOPERS Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton
22
At last! The seventh instalment of the Super Moopers is a brand-new series
JOCK SERONG IN
25
Great Treehouse Adventure, The 91-Storey of books that highlight our differences
Treehouse, is here! Join Andy and Terry, and show us that we’re all capable CONVERSATION PHILLIP ADAMS IN
along with special guest Jill Griffiths, for of being superheroes when we see WITH MARK BRANDI Sept. CONVERSATION
hilarious antics as we launch this wild new the best in ourselves. Discover titles On the Java Ridge promises to cement Jock WITH BARRY JONES
book into the world. like Nervous Nellie and Dramatic Serong as one of Australia’s leading authors. Join us as the Honourable Barry Jones
Don, created by Fiona Harris and Alternately tender, funny and justifiably
Entry is $25 per person. Each ticket includes turns the tables and interviews ABC RN
Scott Edgar. Grab a coffee and let us angry, set in the waters between Australia
one hour of complete madness and a signed first icon Phillip Adams about his latest book,
entertain your children with stories, and Indonesia, this book will fire renewed
edition of The 91-Storey Treehouse, which will Phillip Adams: Insights and Reflections. In this
song and drawing, at a special one- debate about where Australia’s refugee
be given out at the event. One ticket is required book, the renowned broadcaster and writer
off event that celebrates Love Your policies are taking us and challenge us to
per person, so adults and children each need a has collected his favourite insights and
ticket. $1.50 of each ticket will be donated to the Bookshop Day. Suitable for ages 4–8. stop looking the other way. Mark Brandi will reflections, from 2003 to the present day.
Indigenous Literacy Foundation. talk to Jock about the book and its ideas.
Free, no booking required.
Please book at readings.com.au/events Entry is $30 per person, includes a copy of
Saturday 12 August, 10–10.45am Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Phillip Adams: Insights and Reflections.
Tuesday 8 August, 4.30–5.30pm
Readings Hawthorn
Melbourne Town Hall, Tuesday 22 August, 6.30pm Monday 25 September, 6.30pm
90–130 Swanston Street, Melbourne Readings Carlton Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 5
August Launches Michael Farrell will launch Oscar Schwartz’s
debut poetry collection, The Honeymoon Mark’s News and views from Readings’ Managing Director,
Say
Stage: a collection of poems written for
Hannah Robert, eight months pregnant, was friends on the internet over a five-year period. Mark Rubbo
driving her partner and step-kids home from These deceptively naïve poems engage with
a picnic when their car was crushed. Her the virtual realities of the internet.
baby didn’t survive. Monica Dux will launch Monday 14 August, 6.30pm I’m looking forward to the Melbourne Writers Festival: still going strong, since 1986. It’s director
her powerful memoir, Baby Lost, which Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Lisa Dempster’s last MWF, and she and her colleagues have combined their creative talents
shines light on her dark experience. to make sure her last Festival will be truly memorable. This year’s theme is Revolution. Lisa
Tuesday 1 August, 6.30pm writes: ‘When systems fall into crisis and we are entrenched in the politics of despair, literature
Bartender and writer Chad Parkhill celebrates
Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. becomes a platform for revolution.’ This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with
the globetrotting history of the cocktail in Around
publisher, Morry Schwartz, about the influence of books: though many books sell relatively
the World in 80 Cocktails, an ode to the joys of
small quantities, the ideas in them can reverberate throughout society and often have a profound
Alice Pung will launch Hoa Pham’s novella, travel, history and drinking. He’ll talk cocktail
culture in conversation with culture writer and
influence. For the first time, an Indigenous author, Kim Scott, will deliver the opening address.
Lady of the Realm. Set against the backdrop
critic Mel Campbell, host of The Rereaders. Our bookseller George Delaney reviews Taboo, his new novel, on page 7.
of the Vietnam War and its aftermath,
Hoa tells the story of Liên, a Buddhist Tuesday 15 August, 6.30pm
The 2017 MWF will host a fascinating array of guests (including, of course, a stellar range
clairvoyant, from her life as a child in a Readings Carlton
of Australian authors), including one of America’s most respected and prolific novelists, Joyce
fishing village through the turmoil that Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events
Carol Oates; in a career spanning 54 years, she’s published over 40 novels, and numerous
descends with war. other books. It’s going to be a challenge for our Festival Bookshop manager, Tom Hoskins, to
Wednesday 2 August, 6.30pm decide which of her books to stock! I’ve long been fascinated by India, so I’m looking forward
Tom Griffiths will launch Rebecca Jones’s to hearing Shashi Tharoor on his book, Inglorious Empire. Tharoor argues that, far from being a
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
Slow Catastrophes, a book that provides us ‘civilising influence’, British occupation of India was disastrous for the majority of Indians. Trans
with vital resources to face our ecological journalist Janet Mock will challenge us with her recollections of her personal and professional
Rob Vertessy will launch Lawrie Zion’s The future. Living with drought is one of the journey. Dutch academic, Rutger Bregman (Utopia For Realists), offers positive solutions to
Weather Obsession, a book that lifts the lid biggest issues of our times. Climate change some of our problems. Readings will be presenting a day featuring new and emerging authors,
on our insatiable appetite for meteorological scenarios suggest that in the next 50 years, including Melanie Joosten, Melanie Cheng, Mark Brandi, Jennifer Down and Ryan O’Neill. Over
media – and shows that while we might not global warming will increase the frequency 200 writers will descend on Melbourne for the Festival. You can pick up a program in any of our
have stopped worrying about the forecast, and severity of these phenomena. shops – or browse it online at mwf.com.au.
almost all of us have learned to love the BOM. Thursday 17 August, 6.30pm The Copyright Agency collects fees on behalf of authors, from schools and other educational
Thursday 3 August, 6pm Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. institutions that use copyright material. As well as distributing these fees to creators, through its
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Cultural Fund, it makes grants to arts organisations and individuals. Last month, it announced
Leanne Hall will launch Michael Pryor’s grants totalling $1.3 million for 56 projects. I was interested to see that The Guardian will receive
Sulari Gentill is renowned for her critically very fun book Gap Year in Ghost Town. Anton $30,000 to increase its coverage of Australian books and profile Australian authors. Sadly, the
acclaimed Rowland Sinclair Mysteries. Her Marin and his father are on high alert after a print media has been slowly downgrading its books coverage; earlier this year, Victoria’s Herald
new novel, Crossing the Lines, has been spike in ghost manifestations. Anton wants Sun lost its books editor, Blanche Clark. And when The Sydney Morning Herald’s literary editor
described by crime writer Jeffery Deaver as a to help the ghosts. Rani Cross wants to slice Susan Wyndham retired this year, The Age’s literary editor, Jason Steger, took on both roles. Both
‘tour de force’. This deeply intimate portrayal and dice them. And they both need to work the Age and SMH literary pages have shrunk over recent years. Conversely, The Monthly has
of two people trying to hold onto each other together to keep the city safe. A smart, snappy, announced plans to increase its arts coverage. The ability of the Copyright Agency to continue to
beyond reality forces us to question the funny and scary ghost-hunting adventure. make grants like these is currently under threat, under a review of the legislation that covers it.
nature of fiction itself. Join us for the launch Thursday 17 August, 6.30pm On a very positive note, the Myer Foundation has announced a $300,000 grant for Writers
of this stunning postmodern departure. Readings Kids | Free, no booking required. Victoria to establish the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund, to provide practical support to
Thursday 3 August, 6pm emerging, mid-career and established writers, editors, agents, publishers, librarians, booksellers
Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required. and other literary professionals. The fund will give small grants of $2000–$10,000 to Australian
Stephen Scott Johnson provides a handbook writers and literary sector workers to undertake strategic travel opportunities: for the benefit of
for navigating change in Emergent: Ignite their own writing practice or career development, or for the broader Australian literary sector.
Deakin University’s Dr Ros Black will launch Purpose, Transform Culture, Make Change Initial funding is for a three-year program. Apply online at writersvictoria.org.au. Applications
A.J. Lyndon’s The Welsh Linnet, the first novel Stick. It empowers organisations to diagnose close 24 August.
in his trilogy about the Civil War that raged change risk, address current shortcomings
in England, Wales and Scotland (the ‘war and adapt to the increasing move away
From
without an enemy’) throughout the 1640s. from hierarchies towards autonomous and
Monday 7 August, 6.30pm interdependent networks.
Readings St Kilda | Free, no booking required. Monday 21 August, 6.30pm Jo Case,
Children are going through puberty earlier
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
the Editor editor, Readings Monthly
than ever before. How does this affect them Wayne Macauley will launch Shaun Prescott’s
– and their parents? Parenting guru Michael debut novel The Town, published by The I first discovered Jock Serong last year, when Readings’ Stella Charls, Alice Pung and I were
Carr-Gregg will launch Amanda Dunn’s Lifted Brow. Set in a yet-to-disappear town in reading through an enormous book pile, judging the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award
The New Puberty, a book that unpacks some the region – a town believed by its inhabitants for Fiction. None of us expected to be utterly seduced by a crime novel titled The Rules of
of the mysteries surrounding puberty, and to have no history at all – the novel traces Backyard Cricket (spoiler: none of us are sporty). But we were all intrigued by its gritty, elegant
(with the battle scars of those who have its characters’ attempts to carve their own exploration of Australian masculinity, as dramatised through elite sporting competition. So,
gone before) shows how adults can best help identities in a place that is both unyielding Stella and I were both excited when On the Java Ridge, billed as Jock’s first non-crime novel,
young people through this vital stage of life and teetering on the edge of oblivion. landed at Readings HQ. Mark Rubbo reviews it in this issue; he says it left him ‘exhilarated,
to set them up for a happy adulthood. Thursday 24 August, 6.30pm angry and compulsively engaged’ and ‘marks Serong as one of the great exponents of tense,
Tuesday 8 August, 6.30pm Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. totally engaging narrative fiction’. On the Java Ridge is the subject of this month’s New Australian
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Writing feature, written by the marvellous Alice Pung. She says, ‘It gripped me from the first
page, and still has not let me go.’ For the record, I’m part of the fan club, too.
Three of Australia’s leading YA authors – all Readings favourite Julian Burnside is back with a new book. Watching Out, an exploration
Back to Broady: A Memoir by Caroline van of them award-winning and internationally of the law, justice and how we might bridge the gap between the two, is our Non-Fiction Book
de Pol tells the compelling story of a young published – have come together to create Take of the Month. I recommend reading it alongside On the Java Ridge (as I did) for a deep-reaching
girl’s fight through disadvantage, and the Three Girls: one honest, raw and funny novel of reflection on Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers, and our abrogation of moral responsibility
lifelong friendships that have helped her friendship, feminism, identity and belonging. to those we deem Other. Tony Birch is another Readings favourite (like Burnside, known for his
walk the fine line between survival and Join Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell and social conscience) and several hands were up to review his new collection, Common People. Short-
surrender. It’s also a record of growing up in Fiona Wood to launch their brilliant new book.
story lover Annie Condon praises Birch’s gift for dialogue and the exceptional quality of these
working-class Broadmeadows in the 1960s. Sunday 27 August, 1.30pm
stories, and concludes that it’s ‘a collection that stands out for its voice and compassion’. Stella
Wednesday 9 August, 6.30pm Readings Hawthorn | Free, no booking required.
Charls also fell in love with a short-story collection this month: Pulse Points, by Jennifer Down (a
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required.
former Readings Hot Desk Fellow). A fan of Down’s debut novel, Our Magic Hour, Stella had high
Toni Jordan will launch City of Crows, the hopes – and reports that this book ‘exceeds all expectations’. Chris Somerville reviews the second
Kylie Ladd has made a name for herself as long-awaited new novel from Miles-Franklin- book published by The Lifted Brow (the first was Briohny Doyle’s critically acclaimed apocalypse
an author of gripping psychological dramas. shortlisted author Chris Womersley (Bereft, novel This Island Will Sink). ‘It’s hard to imagine that we’ll get a more original Australian novel this
Eliza Henry-Jones will launch The Way Cairo). It’s 1673: desperate to save herself year,’ raves Chris, calling it ‘incredibly strange and incredibly gripping’. There are new novels from
Back: a moving, haunting and all-too-real and her only surviving child Nicolas from an Robert Drewe, Garry Disher, Emma Viskic and Anna George, and Tony ‘Q&A’ Jones’ fiction debut,
novel that takes you beyond the headlines, outbreak of plague, Charlotte Picot flees her The Twentieth Man, a gripping political thriller, will hit the spot for many readers.
and explores a family’s worst nightmare with tiny village in the French countryside. And so Mark Raphael Baker’s Holocaust memoir, The Fiftieth Gate, was a bestselling critical hit
compassion and insight. From the author of begins this gothic adventure. 20+ years ago. Thirty Days is a different kind of family memoir: a beautiful, heartbreaking
Mothers and Daughters and Into My Arms. Tuesday 29 August, 6.30pm reflection on a marriage, following the death of his wife Kerryn. Text has reissued The Fiftieth
Thursday 10 August, 6.30pm Readings Carlton Gate alongside the new book. And last but not least, you might have recognised the Carlton
Readings Carlton | Free, no booking required. Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events landmark on the beautiful cover of this issue: La Mama. The community theatre company
celebrates 50 years with a gorgeous commemorative book, La Mama.
6 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 NEW AUSTRALIAN WRITING
ON THE
JAVA RIDGE
Jock Serong
Text. PB. Was $29.99
$26.99
Available 31 July
For more about the book, see
our managing director Mark
Rubbo’s rave review on page 7.
High stakes and high drama
sea.’ Here, Serong seeks to focus our lens on two people ‘The worst pain a man can suffer is to have insight
Alice Pung interviews Jock Serong about on that refugee boat: a little girl, Roya, and her pregnant into much and power over nothing,’ said Herotodus. Our
mother, Shafiqa. Serong treats these characters carefully and third key narrator is the Border Integrity Minister, Cassius
On the Java Ridge, his literally page- tenderly, ‘a bird in a fist’; Roya is loosely based on an Afghan Calvert, ‘a man of integrity with no interest whatsoever in
interpreter he knew when he worked as a lawyer for asylum- immigration’, whose off-script act of imaginative empathy
turning novel of politics, asylum seekers, seekers. ‘I only have to look at my own daughters to feel the and curiosity leads to dire consequences: political and
a storm, a surf trip ... and treason on the absolute horror of the situation,’ he says. personal. ‘The Immigration Minister would be so easy to
His second novel, The Rules of Backyard Cricket, which paint as an ogre, but I thought it would be more interesting
high seas.
J
was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award if he was a human being who felt some of the pain of his
ock Serong tells me a true story about a British for Fiction, was as much about the women who shaped decisions, and if he had his own problems,’ Serong explains.
surfer who went out to ride the waves immediately their men as it was about examining tropes of a certain The minister’s name is a play on the name Pontius Pilate.
after a tsunami struck Sri Lanka: ‘Tens of thousands kind of laconic masculinity – in fact, an undercurrent of The analogy is in no way heavy-handed; an astute reader
of people were killed, but he went out the very next love for their women underpinned the men’s decisions. may notice the symbolism that runs through the narrative,
day. This guy would have had to clamber over debris and In On the Java Ridge, Serong says, he wanted to write but it’s not necessary for understanding the story.
dead bodies to get to the water. When he was asked why he from the perspective of female characters, but worried A dark undercurrent of this novel is the surveillance
decided to go out there, he said – well, there’s nothing I can that they would come across like men in disguise. His and selection of images – including pictures used for
do is there? And I paid good money for this.’ wife – who reads all his work – was an important critic prime-ministerial PR purposes, and a distant grasping for
Serong, a veteran surf-writer, award-winning crime and guide. Indeed, while The Rules of Backyard Cricket was help using modern technology. The white Australians on
novelist and former lawyer, is also a consummate characterised by a garrulous black humour, this novel has a board the Java Ridge believe, without a doubt, that being
storyteller: in person as well as on the page. He doesn’t gentler voice. That is not to say the women or girls in it are seen is tantamount to being acknowledged, recognised, and
crank the outrage dial up to max, but lets the story sit, until effete: rather, they are resilient, stoic and enterprising. rescued. They ultimately have faith in their government
it festers. He’s the sort of writer who lets the reader feel The accidental rescue boat, the Java Ridge, takes on a to protect them, to recognise them as citizens, and to
their own feelings. life of its own – it thrives under Isi’s care, with its deck- care about their plight. Serong powerfully contrasts this
On the Java Ridge has been hailed as Serong’s first foray grown tomatoes, vegetables and herbs, and purrs under the instinctive belief with that of the asylum seekers who are
outside the crime genre. But what happens in this story is careful maintenance of the two Indonesian staff. When the their guests, refugees from regimes where the opposite is
state-sanctioned criminality – espionage and murder, both surviving asylum seekers join the staff and surf tourists on true – especially the captain of the wrecked boat, whose
by ‘foreigners’ and Australians – so by definition, it is the board, the older ones show tenderness and respect for its fear of surveillance, and communication technology, has
ultimate crime novel. Serong’s ability to weave egregious power and beauty: dramatic consequences. Susan Sontag wrote that:
examples of political complacency with a churning tale of ‘A couple of the older men were studying the lines of the ‘To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing
treason on the high seas makes this a real page-turner in Java Ridge, running weathered hands over the planking them as they never see themselves, by having
the literal sense of the word. All of the action takes place and the seamless joinery. Isolated for months, maybe knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns
within a span of just ten days. years, by language and geography, the timber spoke to people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.
But where you might expect pirates and prime ministers them in some dialect that was secret and shared.’ Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to
to play a central role, Serong narrates his story from the photograph someone is a subliminal murder – a soft
perspectives of an asylum-seeker girl, a rookie (male) But human suffering takes its toll on the vessel. ‘The more murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.’
politician on the verge of a breakdown, and Isi, a young the boat gets sabotaged, the more it starts to look like an
surf-tour operator. Isi runs the Java Ridge, a boat built along asylum-seeker boat,’ says Serong. Drones keep an eye on this little boat in real time, at
traditional lines by Sulawesi’s Bugis people, ‘so on the William Hazlitt wrote that ‘the smallest pain in our 90-minute intervals, but the real drones sit in the comfort
outside she’d look exactly like a traditional fishing vessel, but little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of of air-conditioned offices, scoffing down fridgefuls of
on the inside – luxury!’. (Serong based this on a real trend millions of our fellow beings’. Serong fills this novel to the publicly funded alcohol.
of making boats look as ‘authentic’ as possible, consulting brim with small, relatable details of human discomfort. On the Java Ridge is a compelling and ultimately
extensively with a friend who conducts such tours.) There’s a limbless man on the boat trying agitatedly to feed compassionate book that transcends political divisions. It
But then a real fishing boat – carrying refugees – himself rice. He is only mentioned in a few paragraphs gripped me from the first page, and still has not let go. ‘The
crashes in the waters of Dana Island, where Isi and her at the beginning of the journey, and never appears again, whole idea was not to pontificate, but to try and appeal to
group had landed earlier, to surf. Serong and I talk about but when the refugee boat capsizes, his was the first fate I conscience,’ Serong says. ‘How would you feel if this was
the limits of empathy and whether there’s a reader bias thought about. There is the terror of being stuck at night in your family?’
towards ‘people like us’. the middle of the unrelenting ocean: a blackness that roils Alice Pung is a multi-award-winning author of memoir and
‘Two hundred brown people might have died in a and rocks. Alongside these discomforts are more indelible fiction. Her latest book is the novel Laurinda. Alice was one of
boating disaster in the news,’ he says, ‘but what moves us sufferings, like a surgeon drilling through a skull, and an the judges who shortlisted Jock Serong’s The Rules of Backyard
more is the plight of two or three white Australians lost at amputation that goes awry. Cricket for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction.
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 7
New Fiction
Fiction Book of the Month BOOKS BRING
COMMON PEOPLE
Tony Birch
THEM TOGETHER.
UQP. PB. Was $29.95
$26.99
Available 31 July
FRIENDSHIP WILL
In one of Tony Birch’s stories, a young character says, ‘You
never told me that part of the story.’ Her friend Betty
CHANGE THEIR LIVES.
replies, ‘No, I didn’t. It was better to concentrate on the best
part. That’s how stories work.’ This could be an analogy for
Birch’s collection Common People. All 15 stories have been
distilled to their best parts and finest quality, and the result is a
collection that stands out for its voice and compassion.
In ‘Sissy’, two Indigenous girls live in inner-city Fitzroy in the 1960s. Birch creates a
wonderful picture of a poor but interdependent community; some of whom have never
travelled outside their suburb. Sissy’s skin is ‘whiter’ than her best friend Betty’s, and she
is given the opportunity by the nuns at her school to holiday with a wealthy family. She
imagines first-time experiences: seeing the ocean, riding in a car, and being in a house with
its own telephone. As the holiday nears, Betty reveals her jealousy and resentment, and
Sissy begins to have doubts of her own.
Birch has won multiple literary awards and been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin.
His exceptional dialogue defines many of the characters. In the first story, ‘Ghost Train’,
two women drive to a meat-packing job, their easy banter and mutual jibes demonstrating
their long-term friendship. Interestingly, the collection is bookended with one of these
characters, Lydia: in ‘Worship’, we learn of her daily rituals to maintain her sobriety, as she
prepares to look after her granddaughter for the first time.
Birch is comfortable with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous characters, children,
young adults, men and women. His affection for his characters is evident, and he is aware
of the hardships they face, exacerbated by factors such as race, class, poverty or politics.
What is exceptional in many of the stories is the way the characters put aside their own
difficulties to care for, or give back to, other ‘common people’.
Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn
the disaster and all those affected
Australian Fiction ‘disappear’.
Make no mistake, On the Java Ridge is no get the whole story at hachette.com.au
polemic; the reader is taken on a journey
ON THE JAVA RIDGE
that will leave them exhilarated, angry and
Jock Serong compulsively engaged. It marks Serong as
Text. PB. Was $29.99
one of the great exponents of tense, totally
$26.99
The Last Man in Europe will transform your
engaging narrative fiction, combining
Available 31 July strong plots with complex and interesting
Jock Serong’s
understanding of Orwell’s masterpiece,
characters whose predicaments we can all
books don’t shy identify with.
away from tackling
topics that affect Mark Rubbo is managing director of Readings Nineteen-Eighty Four.
contemporary society
and in On the Java Ridge, TABOO
although this doesn’t Kim Scott THE MUST-RE AD AUSTR ALIAN NOVEL
OF THE YE AR
dominate the narrative, Picador. PB. Was $32.99
they are there. In Quota, $27.99
it was the ethics of the legal system; in The Available now
Rules of Backyard Cricket it was the In the time since
corruption of professional sport – and in his last novel, ‘Ten
‘Ten out
out of
of ten.’
ten’
this third novel, it’s the growing tendency Benang, Kim Scott has
of governments to outsource their been working as a Annabel Crabb
responsibilities to private companies, researcher and teacher,
preventing any real oversight by the media focusing on
or the public. documenting and ‘Thrilling’
‘Thrilling.’
It’s the near future and the nation is a sharing Noongar
week out from a divisive election when the language and culture. David Marr
Border Integrity Minister announces the Scott has shown repeatedly how
government will outsource the protection rejuvenating and teaching Aboriginal
of northern waters to ‘our private sector
partners, Core Resolve’. No longer will the
languages can connect and support
communities that have been historically
‘A story
Navy board or rescue vessels that make ignored and abused, and in Taboo he returns rivetingly told.’
rivetingly told’
it into Australian waters; that’s for Core to fiction to explore these ideas, which are
Resolve to deal with. Up north, not far from urgently and universally applicable. Don Watson
Ashmore Reef, an Australian boat on a Taboo tells the story of Tilly Coolman,
surfing tour of the Indonesian archipelago an orphaned young Noongar woman who
pulls into a sheltered lagoon before the has suffered abuse and addiction and ‘Astonishing’
‘Astonishing.’
onset of a terrible storm. During the night has now been taken in by her Indigenous
and through the storm, skipper Isi Natoli family, called Wirlomin. The plot converges Robert Manne
hears distant cries for help, as a boatload on this family’s return to their traditional
of asylum seekers flounders on the reef country, which has been avoided for
encircling the lagoon. In the morning, generations after a massacre took place on
the lagoon is full of their bodies and the what remains a large farm property owned
tourists set about trying to rescue the few by Dan Harper and his brother, Malcolm.
survivors. The fate of both the survivors The catalyst for return is the opening of a
and their saviours is now inextricably memorial ‘Peace Park’, which represents
linked to the games being played out in efforts from the settler community to move
Canberra; as far as the world is concerned, towards reconciliation. Invigorated by a
8 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
project of sharing Noongar language that SIREN doesn’t know named Steve Sanders. The struggles. In September 1972, journalist
began in the local prison, led by Tilly’s Town is a novel filled with outsiders: people Anna Rosen takes an early morning phone
Rachel Matthews
father and grandfather, the return to who suddenly find themselves adults even call from her boss at the ABC, telling her
Transit Lounge. PB. $29.95
country offers a chance for ‘detox’ – as well though they still feel like they’re teenagers, about two bombings in Sydney’s busy
Available 1 August
as learning language and preparing for the a music scene wholly invented by a radio CBD: the worst terrorist attack in our
After a night of
opening of the park, which the Wirlomin host who has no listeners, and a seasonal history. High in the Austrian Alps, Marin
underage
people refer to with wry humour. disco that inevitably turns into a huge Katich is one of 20 would-be
clubbing, 16-year-old
Though the backstory is dark, Scott’s brawl every time it’s held. revolutionaries who slip stealthily over the
Jordi Spence goes home
treatment of his subject paints a picture of Prescott has a real skill of presenting border into Yugoslavia on a mission
with with two late-
regeneration and resilience, with a group the banality of everyday life in a way that planned and funded in Australia. Soon, the
career AFL players.
of people at the centre of the novel who is wholly original and strange, but his real arrival in Australia of Yugoslavia’s prime
They are both more
resist and withstand the forces which are achievement here is that each aspect of minister will trigger the next move in a
than double her age.
poised to destroy their community through this novel is expertly balanced, and the deadly international struggle.
Hours later she leaves,
history. Scott’s characters are endearing distanced tone manages to make the story’s
bruised and emotionally broken. Crippled
and tough. Although the ‘bad guy’ of this
by fear of judgement from others, she stays
most bizarre aspects seem commonplace. WHIPBIRD
novel lacks a similar depth, the focus is It’s hard to imagine that we’ll get a more Robert Drewe
silent and internalises her trauma. Sadly,
clearly on survivors of violence rather original Australian novel this year. Hamish Hamilton. PB. Was $32.99
this situation is not unfamiliar. Too often
than its perpetrators. I think this makes Chris Somerville is from Readings Online $27.99
we hear about abuse like this – the smaller,
it a welcome change from novels about
weaker, more vulnerable people in our Available 31 July
Australian history which read as tragedies
society being hurt and then silenced by the THE WAY BACK ‘Drewe’s literary
from which no one can recover. instincts are as
powerful. Kylie Ladd
Taboo is a pressingly important novel, impeccable as his ear
The characters in this novel span a vast A&U. PB. $29.99
and it is engrossing to read, with a warmth for the English language
number of socioeconomic positions. There Available 26 July
and pace that reminded me of Scott’s is unfaltering,’ wrote
is Max, a footballer with so much money When 13-year-old
excellent first novel, True Country. I highly (former Readings
he doesn’t know what to do with it; Ruby, Charlie doesn’t
recommend it. staffer) Richard King in
who has recently moved up in the world return from a late-
George Delaney is from Readings Carlton due to inheritance; Jordi and her family, afternoon horse ride in a The Australian,
who scrape by on Centrelink payments; Victorian national park, reviewing the last book
PULSE POINTS: STORIES and Florence, a woman sleeping rough who her parents Rachael and published by this multi-award-winning
Jennifer Down has nothing at all. Matthews has united Matt are naturally icon. Whipbird is a topical comic novel, told
Text. PB. $29.99 them all with one shared belief: they all see concerned. The local through the lens of a family reunion in
Available 31 July themselves as passive participants in their police try to reassure November 2014, where the wine flows,
Jennifer Down’s own lives. them that Charlie has probably run off or is and events unravel.
debut novel, Our Jordi’s is not a story with a happy injured, and that they will soon locate her.
Magic Hour, released last ending, or even just an ending. It is As the days, weeks and months go by and it HER
year, remains one of the extremely real, and Matthews does becomes likely Charlie has been abducted, Garry Disher
most absorbing works of not attempt to whitewash this story in Charlie’s parents and her brother Dan find Hachette. PB. Was $29.99
fiction I’ve had the the slightest. At the same time, this is a it difficult to hold onto any type of hope. $26.99
pleasure of reading. This book that must be read; its message is Four months later, Charlie is found … Available 8 August
intimate, emotionally so important. Each of its characters are It may seem unusual to disclose such Garry Disher is best
astute novel about grief, voiceless in different ways, and Matthews a major plot development in a review, known these days as a
relationships and everyday life, set around isn’t didactic in her depictions of how they but the book itself reveals as much on the crime writer. In his
the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, took came to be that way. This is simultaneously cover and it’s alluded to in the title. This latest novel, he reveals
hold of me with an exceptional force, and the most disturbing and compelling aspect doesn’t deter from the effectiveness of The another layer of his
introduced Down as a major new Australian of the novel – nobody is poor because Way Back: the focus is on the psychological considerable literary
literary talent. Now comes Pulse Points, her they deserve it – they are poor because effects of these events upon those involved. talent, as he tells the
hotly anticipated short-story collection. they were poor to begin with. This is an I was not surprised to find out that story of Her, a scab-
Pulse Points exceeds all expectations. aspect of our lived reality that is sometimes Melbourne-based author Kylie Ladd has a kneed girl bought by a
Down brings to these 14 stories her sharp difficult to even think about. PhD in neuropsychology. The novel is told scrap man for nine shillings and sixpence
control over language, her mastery of This is not a book for reading at times of from numerous viewpoints; it’s strongest in 1909, aged just three years old. The
voice and of place, and her empathetic and emotional vulnerability, but it is a book that when it centres on the family dynamic. novel follows her as she grows up as a
nuanced emotional intelligence. These are must be read and learned from. Each family member is not just a symbol member of the man’s travelling family:
snapshots of ordinary people grappling Ellen Cregan is from Readings Doncaster of grief, but is thoughtfully developed. dreaming of escape, dodging influenza
with the small joys and deeper heartaches Rachael, Matt and Dan not only have to and war, surviving hunger and beatings.
of ordinary lives. Down takes the reader THE TOWN deal with Charlie’s disappearance, but ‘The language in this bleak-yet-striking
from Aokigahara, Japan to Elizabethton, each have their own personal challenges novel is both lyrical and matter of fact;
Shaun Prescott
Tennessee; from the St Kilda foreshore in to contend with, making the reader life and death are dealt with even-
The Lifted Brow. PB. $29.99
Melbourne to a diner on the road between emotionally invested beyond the plot. handedly and the small moments of
Available 1 August
Jerilderie and Canberra. We meet two young The Way Back is an assured piece of beauty are thrown into sharp relief by
It’s telling how a
siblings caught in a custody battle between writing that centres on a topic that sadly this intimate portrayal of drudgery and
novel sets up, and
their mother and their grandparents; an continues to be relevant today. Sometimes hardship.’ – Books & Publishing
answers, its mysteries.
Australian couple wandering the streets of I had to remind myself that I was reading
I’ve always preferred the
Paris after suffering a miscarriage; a woman
ones that don’t sacrifice a piece of fiction as elements of the story THE LONE CHILD
taking a road trip with her ex-fiancé to visit prompted memories of actual missing
plot for character or Anna George
his dying mother. Each vignette stands alone, children cases with the author herself
vice-versa, and instead Viking. PB. $29.99
fully realised. Down’s leaps between one referring to such cases as part of the
meet somewhere in the Available 31 July
continent and the next are ambitious, but the narrative. I would recommend this novel
middle. The Town, the first Melbourne writer Anna
voice of each character always rings true. for those who enjoy contemporary and
novel by Australian author Shaun Prescott, George won quite a few
Pulse Points has the precise, arresting topical Australian fiction.
hits this particular sweet spot, giving us a fans here at Readings
prose and depth of feeling of Our Magic Hour,
book that’s both incredibly strange and Amanda Rayner is from Readings Carlton with her pitch-black
but the short-story form magnifies Down’s
incredibly gripping in equal measure. debut novel, What Came
skill. Moving through the collection from
The novel starts with its unnamed Before, a gripping
one fully realised character to the next gives THE TWENTIETH MAN
narrator moving to a small Australian town, exploration of domestic
Pulse Points a momentum that Our Magic Tony Jones
where he’s stacking shelves at one of its violence through the
Hour lacked. There are no weak moments A&U. PB. Was $32.99
many supermarkets and working on a book reflections of a wife
here. Thematic threads ensure the collection $27.99
about disappearing towns in the area. He who lies dying. Neve is an isolated single
reads beautifully as a whole. We meet many Available 26 July
has trouble convincing the townsfolk of mother with a young baby when she first
of these characters in an in-between state Tony ‘Q&A’ Jones, one
these places, since they no longer exist, sees Jessie, a small girl playing on an
– they exist in motion, moving in cars or of Australia’s most
even as the town they’re in is slowly empty stretch of beach while her mother
on foot from one place to the next. Down admired journalists,
edging towards the same fate. Alongside is distracted. Almost despite herself, Neve
also demonstrates a preoccupation with the delivers a compelling
his research into disappearing towns, the is intrigued and concerned. She finds
body: medicine, mental health, mortality. A thriller where
narrator drinks beer at an empty pub, hangs herself grappling with how to best help
human pulse runs through this collection; terrorism, politics and
out with his flatmate Rob’s girlfriend, the forgotten girl. She has the spacious
these stories live and breathe, and as a result betrayals collide. He
while she distributes cassette tapes around house, the full pantry, the resources ...
Pulse Points is powerful and deeply affecting. takes us from the savage
town, rides the town’s only bus (which no But how much can you – should you – do
Stella Charls is marketing and events one ever catches), and frets about being mountains of Yugoslavia for a stranger’s child? ‘Absolutely
coordinator at Readings bashed for no reason by a townsperson he to Canberra’s brutal yet covert power arresting.’ – Zoe Morrison
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 9
BRIDGET CRACK get things done, regardless of how gruesome
or disturbing they may be. As well as
Rachel Leary
conjuring up this excellent characterisation,
A&U. PB. $29.99
Ammaniti’s prose has a strange, deadpan
I’m okay!
Available 28 July
tenderness that I loved. There is always a
Van Diemen’s Land, 1826.
sense of hope in the hopelessness. This is a
When Bridget Crack
A memoir about
sickeningly wonderful novel, and a perfect
pushes back against her
example of literary dystopian fiction.
life as an indentured
domestic servant, she is
punished – sent from one
Ellen Cregan is from Readings Doncaster
telling lies and
place to another, each
significantly worse than
THE PARTY
Elizabeth Day
being on the brink
the last. Too late, she Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99
realises the place where she has ended up is Available 1 August
the worst of all. ‘There’s a sense of menace on Usually when you
every page.’ – Rohan Wilson read a book, you
make up your mind about
COLOMBIANO the main character fairly
Rusty Young quickly, or at least about
Bantam. PB. Was $32.99 whether they’re basically
$27.99 good or bad. But that’s not
Available 31 July the case in this book.
For seven years Rusty Martin Gilmour is
Young, author of the accused again and again of being ‘not quite
international bestseller right’; of having something integral
Marching Powder, lived ‘missing’. It’s clear that he can be obsessive,
and worked in cruel and even vengeful. But is he
Colombia, interviewing deranged? In Martin, prepare to find an
special forces soldiers, armchair psychologist’s perfect case-study,
snipers, undercover a deliciously compromised and
intelligence agents and compromising character who may or may A gripping memoir of
members of the terrorist organisations not be rotten to the core. life in Jerusalem from
FARC and Autodefensas. He was deeply Martin is being interviewed by the one of Australia’s most
affected by the stories of the child soldiers police when we first meet him, following
an incident at a lavish fortieth birthday
experienced Middle East
he encountered; in his first novel, he tells
party. The party was in honour of his Magic and mystery correspondents
their story. Superbly told and by turns
gripping, poignant and darkly comic, childhood best friend Ben, and while the from Australia’s
Colombiano is the remarkable story of a boy exact nature of the incident is not clear, favourite storyteller,
it’s evident that whatever happened has
whose moral descent becomes a metaphor
damaged the friendship. The narrative,
Emily Rodda
for the corruption of an entire nation.
told alternately from Martin’s and his wife
Lucy’s perspective, gradually teases out the
International fiction details of how a teenage Martin obsessively
forced a friendship with Ben after
receiving a scholarship to the prestigious
ANNA Burtonbury School. Ben is a bit of a Jay
Niccolo Ammaniti Gatsby character – rich, charming, moving
Text. PB. Was $29.99 effortlessly in privileged circles. Through
$26.99 his friendship, Martin sees not only an
Available 31 July opportunity to insinuate himself into the
The world has upper echelons of society, but also, through
ended. All the fulfilling Ben’s needs, to validate his own.
adults are dead, carried When the two are at Oxford University
off by a mysterious virus together, he seizes the opportunity offered
known only as the Red by a tragic accident to bond them for life.
Fever. Nobody is immune Or so Martin thinks. At Ben’s fortieth,
– as children begin to go among all the cocaine and debauchery,
through puberty, they it becomes clear that the friendship has
know it’s only a matter of ceased to serve Ben. But Martin is not going
time before they fall prey to it. Anna and her to let go of the relationship that he has
younger brother Astor have spent the four invested so much time and energy into.
years since Italy was ravaged by the virus in Reminiscent of both The Great Gatsby
Mulberry Farm, their mother’s house in the and The Talented Mr Ripley, spliced with the
Sicilian countryside. contemporary sexual politics and social
Anna navigates this post-apocalyptic realism of Tsiolkas’s Barracuda, The Party is
world with the help of a notebook left a hypnotic, disturbing read.
behind by her mother, titled ‘THE Hilary Simmons is from Readings SLV and is
IMPORTANT THINGS’. This book contains a member of the Readings events team.
instructions for nearly every situation:
having a fever, the power running out, what HOW TO STOP TIME
the Red Fever is and when it will strike.
Matt Haig
There is even a page for ‘What to do when
Canongate. PB. $29.99
Mama dies’, which instructs Anna to seal
Available 26 July
the room containing her mother’s corpse for
Tom Hazard is a
a hundred days: it’s only then that the body
London school
will have reached a state of decomposition at
history teacher who
which it’s light enough to drag outside.
has a knack for
When Astor is abducted by a gang of
bringing the past to
wild blue children, Anna must leave the
vivid life. It helps that
safety of Mulberry Farm to rescue him.
he’s lived through
Her journey though the ravaged world is
many of the historical
a coming of age. Like any 13-year-old girl,
events he teaches. He
Anna is full of contradiction – she is bravest
suffers from a condition called anageria,
when she is terrified. Her love is cool and
that causes him to age slower than normal.
detached. She is both fascinated and totally
Far from enjoying his longevity, Tom finds
exasperated by her world. She is headstrong,
his condition isolating and, at times,
sensible and has an eerie capability to just
dangerous. Prejudice and curiosity take
READINGS final 14.indd 1 14/07/2017 1:43 pm
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