New books from Mark Brandi, Clem Bastow, Norman Swan, Alison Bechdel, Willy Vlautin, A.S. Byatt and more - Readings
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F R EE J U LY 2021
New books from
Mark Brandi, Clem
Bastow, Norman
Swan, Alison
Bechdel, Willy
Vlautin, A.S. Byatt
and more
from page 6
The Readings
guide to the
Women’s Prize
2021 shortlist
page 5
B OOK S
M USI C
F I LM
EVENTS
AN D R Á S
S CH I F F
page 23
L AR IS S A MA X AMAN I CLEM PI P
BE H R E N DT B AR R Y HAYDAR B A STOW H AR R Y
page 6 page 11 page 12 page 12 page 19
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VICTORIA 285-321 RUSSELL ST 8664 7540 | SEE SHOP OPENING HOURS, BROWSE AND BUY ONLINE AT READINGS.COM.AU
NEWS July 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 3
News Sales &
Anna Moschovakis will share equally in
Pulitzer Prize 2021 winner announced the £50,000 prize. The International Booker
Prize is awarded every year for a single
Promotions
Louise Erdrich has been awarded the 2021
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, The book, which is translated into English and
Night Watchman. The judges called this published in the UK. Read more about the
book ‘a majestic, polyphonic novel about a prize at: thebookerprizes.com
Miles Franklin Literary Award 2021 community’s efforts to halt the proposed
shortlist announced displacement and elimination of several
The shortlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Native American tribes in the 1950s, Farewell Bernard Vella from Malvern Miles Franklin 2021 shortlist pack
Award 2021 has been announced. First rendered with dexterity and imagination’. After 18 years we are saying farewell To celebrate the Miles Franklin shortlist,
awarded in 1957, the $60,000 prize is given To find the full list of prize winners and to Bernard Vella, our fabulous Malvern we are offering all six books in a
each year to a novel of the highest literary finalists, visit: pulitzer.org/prize-winners- manager. Bernard will be sorely missed by specially priced pack for $139 (was
merit that presents Australian life in any of by-year/2021 Readings staff and customers alike. He is $165.94). This offer is available in-store
its phases. The six shortlisted novels are: always ready with a great recommendation and online, while stocks last. Not valid
Amnesty by Aravind Adiga, The Rain Heron or a bookish chat. We wish Bernard the with any other offer.
by Robbie Arnott, At the Edge of the Solid International Booker Prize 2021 winner best of luck. Our sadness is eased by
World by Daniel Davis Wood, The Labyrinth announced the fact that Daniella Robertson will be
by Amanda Lohrey, Lucky’s by Andrew David Diop has been selected the winner taking over the role. Daniella has been 3 for 2 fiction titles extended
Pippos and The Inland Sea by Madeleine of this year’s International Booker Prize for at Readings Malvern for nine years and
Due to the recent lockdown in
Watts. To find out more about these titles, his novel, At Night All Blood Is Black. French will be familiar to many local customers.
Melbourne, we are extending our 3-for-2
visit: perpetual.com.au/milesfranklin author Diop and English-language translator Congratulations Daniella!
fiction offer. Buy two books in the select
range, and choose a third book (of equal
or lesser value) for free! This offer is
available in all Readings shops except
Readings Kids until 31 July on stickered,
in-stock items only, while stocks last.
This offer is not available online.
25% off 25 fiction titles extended
We have an exclusive online offer on
a select range of fiction titles. Buy any
title from the fiction collection, use the
code 25FICTION and receive a 25%
discount. This offer runs online only
until 31 July, on select in-stock items
only, while stocks last. This offer is not
available in shops.
Save on the Catwalk series
We have a special offer on the Catwalk
series at Readings Doncaster. Buy one
book in the series and receive 10% off
the title, buy two to receive 20% off,
buy three or more to recieve 30% off.
Titles must be purchased in the same
transaction to receive the discount.
Offer valid on in-stock items, while
stocks last. This offer is only available at
Readings Doncaster, and not available
online. Offer ends 25 July.
R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY EDITOR ADVERTISING P R I C E S A N D AVA I L A B I L I T Y
Free, independent monthly newspaper Jackie Tang Lucie Dess Please note that all prices and release
published by Readings Books, Music & Film jackie.tang@readings.com.au lucie.dess@readings.com.au dates in Readings Monthly are correct
at time of publication, however prices
SUBSCRIBE E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T S GRAPHIC DESIGN and release dates may change without
You can subscribe to Readings Monthly Judi Mitchell, Lucie Dess & Joanna Di Cat Matteson notice. Special price offers apply only for
and our e-news by visiting our website: Mattia the month in which they are featured in
readings.com.au/sign-up CAR TOON Readings Monthly.
PROOFREADER Oslo Davis
DELIVERY CHARGES FOR Joanna Di Mattia COVID-19
M A I L- O R D E R & O V E R - T H E - FRONT COVER While all title release dates were correct
PHONE PURCHASES K I D S & YA C U R AT O R S The July Readings Monthly at the time of going to press, due to the
$6.50 flat rate to anywhere in Australia for Angela Crocombe & Dani Solomon cover features artwork from the cover of ongoing COVID-19 crisis the unexpected
orders under $120. Free shipping for orders Paige Clark’s new novel She Is Haunted, may happen along the supply chain.
$120 and over. M U S I C & D V D C U R AT O R courtesy of the publisher Allen & Unwin. Please bear with us as we bring you books
Dave Clarke (Cover design by Design by Committee.) in these rapidly changing circumstances.
DELIVERY CHARGES FOR
ONLINE PURCHASES Read a review on page 6.
C L A S S I C A L M U S I C C U R AT O R
$6.50 flat rate to anywhere in Australia for Readings donates 10% of its profits each
Phil Richards
orders under $120. Free shipping for orders year to the Readings Foundation:
$120 and over. readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation
EVENTS & PROGRAMMING
Chris Gordon
4 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY July 2021 C O LU M N S
Mark’s
run over 192 of them. It’s quite likely that you’ve read one of constantly over your head. After three lockdowns you’d
the books that were workshopped in those masterclasses: think you’d get used to it, but I don’t think you do.
Emily Bitto’s Stella Prize-winner The Strays, Rosalie Ham’s During the more recent lockdown in June, we lost most
Say with Mark Rubbo
The Dressmaker and Small Acts of Defiance by Michelle
Wright. Antoni will help any style of writer shape their
work, although his own work is unashamedly literary and
of our custom for two weeks, people’s holiday plans were
dashed, and the Australian Booksellers Association’s
(ABA) annual conference moved online – a shame for
has a strong European sensibility. Antoni has been ABA CEO Robbie Egan and his team, but a credit to them
peripatetic especially in his earlier life and he dropped by a that they persevered. Tony Birch gave the conference’s
If you’ve been to a literary event in week ago to show me his new book, Travelling Companions, keynote address. Growing up in working class Fitzroy,
Melbourne, chances are you’ve which comes out in September through Transit Lounge. It’s books were a luxury his family could never afford but
come across Antoni Jach. Softly a collection of tales told by travelers during chance stories and storytelling remained an integral part of
spoken, always enquiring, he is encounters – ‘a bit like the One Thousand and One Nights,’ family life. He discovered libraries, a place where they
often seen intensely listening to Antoni told me. ‘You can dip in and out of it – you could trusted a cheeky kid to take a book and bring it back.
the speaker and then afterwards in start with this,’ he said and pointed to the chapter entitled Later he discovered bookshops which became temples of
animated conversation. An artist, ‘The Nihilistic Capitalist and the Young Revolutionaries’. discovery to him. It was where he found Island by Alistair
novelist and playwright, he’s the author of three published I’m not young I thought, so maybe he means the other. It MacLeod, a book of stories about the Scottish diaspora in
novels, but he’s best known as a teacher and mentor to wasn’t about a bookseller, but about a French businessman Canada that spoke directly to him about the universality
many writers since he started teaching writing at RMIT in who by pure chance falls in with a Maoist-Marxist-Leninist of the human experience. I thought of Tony’s speech
1986; in 1988, with Ann Richter, he set up RMIT’s renowned cell. Antoni’s writing is very clever and very funny. Antoni when I heard the sad news that former journalist Corrie
Professional Writing and Editing course. Writers he has very kindly gave me six copies to give away to our readers, Perkin’s Hawksburn bookshop, My Bookshop, is closing
helped include Alexis Wright, Sofie Laguna, Sally Rippin so please email me (competitions@readings.com.au) if you down, a victim of COVID-19 and rising rents. Bookshops,
and Carrie Tiffany. In 2011, he decided to leave RMIT to run would like one. Tony said, are precious things and we should treasure
his own novel writing masterclasses and since then, he’s In Melbourne, the prospect of a lockdown hangs them. Don’t forget that!
Dear
unthinkable extreme of domestic violence, and the Ingrid Horrocks (Where We Swim) and Lucy Ellmann
difficult road that followed that heartbreaking event, as (Things Are Against Us); Bridie Jabour’s generational
it made its way through the courts. It is a book that is manifesto, Trivial Grievances; chef and activist Matthew
Reader with Alison Huber
filled with love and hope, and you can read my full
review on page 12.
This month our reviewers recommend two Australian
Evans’s perspective-shifting book, Soil; Catherine
McCormack’s analysis of the female body in art, Women
in the Picture; and Clem Bastow’s account of being
debut works (Paige Clarke’s She Is Haunted and Sophie diagnosed with autism in her thirties, Late Bloomer.
Overett’s The Rabbits); new novels from two of our Alison Bechdel’s long-awaited graphic memoir, The
Our Books of the Month for July favourite local writers, Mark Brandi and Laura Elizabeth Secrets to Superhuman Strength, also comes highly
have much in common. Both Woollett; and Maria Takolander’s new collection of recommended. Joining these reviewed titles are notable
happen to be written by multi- poetry. Crime offerings this month show the depth books from Mehreen Faruqi, Vanessa Berry, Bella Green,
talented women who are not only of Australian talent in the genre, and our reviewer Sinéad O’Connor, Nic Low, Hanif Abdurraqib, Olivia
beautiful writers but are also particularly recommends Max Barry’s The 22 Murders Laing, and Michael Pollan, as well as the book from
artists and lawyers, and their of Madison May as Crime Book of the Month. We also everyone’s favourite medical expert and broadcaster, Dr
books each explore the special review novels from international writers Kirstin Valdez Norman Swan, who will answer all of your questions way
connection between mothers and daughters, and the Quade, Jason Mott, and Willy Vlautin (one of my better than Dr Google in, So You Think You Know What’s
ways in which trauma and grief travel across and favourite authors), and remind you of the brilliance of Good for You? We also have a recipe extract from the new
coalesce within that unique relationship. In fiction, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. A couple of book titles seemed cookbook from the Tivoli Road Bakery founders, All Day
Larissa Behrendt’s wonderful new novel, After Story, to speak directly to me this month, and will join my Baking, on page 17. Yum!
follows Della and Jasmine on their trip to the literary bedside pile to await further assessment: Rachel Yoder’s And finally, dear reader, when I wrote in my June
sites of England, where the past, both individual and Nightbitch and Izumi Suzuki’s Terminal Boredom. The column that one might need to stock up on good fiction
familial, becomes present in ways that they didn’t wonderful Chris Gordon gives you a detailed rundown of in case of further extended time at home, I really didn’t
anticipate. Our reviewer calls it ‘an extraordinary novel the finalists for this year’s Women’s Prize on page 5: read expect that that moment would come so soon! With our
… sprawling, cerebral and compassionate’. In nonfiction, them all and see if you can pick this year’s winner before shops closed during lockdown for half of June, it seemed
Amani Haydar’s literary memoir, The Mother Wound, it is announced on 8 September. fitting to extend our 3-for-2 fiction offer into the month
shares the story of her mother’s brutal death at the hand Our reviewers have been reading loads of nonfiction of July. We’ve added more titles, so do drop by to see the
of her father, offering readers an intimate portrait of the this month, and recommend essay collections from range; it’s great to have you back in store (again!).
On
about their fiction, their poetry, their thrilling crime Readings is proud to partner with the Victorian
novels, and their experiences in our political landscape. International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee
Quite simply, we have commentators talking about what of the Australian Red Cross to examine the impact of
Events with Chris Gordon
it is like to be alive right now.
I cannot wait to hear the conversation between Emily
Sun and author Alice Pung (Tuesday 6 July). Inspired
war through literature. Award-winning British author
Christy Lefteri is joining us this month to discuss her
international bestseller, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, and
by diasporic Asian feminist writers, Emily Sun’s debut her new book, Songbirds. The Beekeeper of Aleppo tells
poetry collection, Vociferate 詠, explores the complexity the story of Nuri, a beekeeper, and his wife, Afra, an
of identities and the concept of belonging. Journalist artist. They live in Aleppo until their lives are uprooted
One of my favourite words in the
Bridie Jabour’s Trivial Grievances examines what it is and they are forced to flee. They embark on a perilous
entire English language is flurry. I
like to be a millennial anxious about their place in the journey towards an uncertain future in Britain. The
enjoy saying there was a flurry of
world (Wed 14 July). Julia Banks’s Power Play examines novel is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit.
activity, of excitement, or indeed
workplace inequality, gender bias and intimidation Join us online on Wednesday 28 July to hear Lefteri
of change. During the month of
(Wednesday 7 July). There may be some miserable discuss her powerful work.
June, one could say, I was in a
flurry. The dreaded virus meant crossover between the questions raised by these Our events program aims to remind us all of the
that our planned events were disrupted, postponed and women’s experiences: Am I enough? Did I say enough? power of storytelling, and the importance of asking
reconsidered. I know everyone in Melbourne also felt Have I made the right decision?. questions. I hope this month’s events will invigorate
flurries of activity following each daily announcement; I I am looking forward to reading Mark Brandi’s new your imagination and connect you with others. Let us
hope you all survived it well. novel, The Others, and hearing him talk about its origins make July a month of reckoning. And please can we also
(Tuesday 6 July). I am also thrilled to have Michael make it a flurry of excitement?
All this flurry has resulted in a wonderful program for
July, and we have events happening in our shops, online Robotham with us, for one night only, talking about his To view the full Readings events program, visit
and at The Collective in Carlton. I believe nearly every latest novel, When You Are Mine (Friday 16 July). readings.com.au/events
genre of writing is covered: we have authors talking Regular readers of this column will know that
F E AT U R E July 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 5
Chris Gordon is the programming
and events manager for Readings,
was a founding member of the
Stella Prize and sits on the board
The Readings guide
of the Readings Foundation, the
Emerging Writers’ Festival and the
Victorian Women’s Trust.
to the Women’s Prize
2021 shortlist
With the Women’s Prize for Fiction winner’s Unsettled Ground The Vanishing Half
announcement delayed until September, Claire Fuller Brit Bennett
we now have even more time to read our Fig Tree. PB. $32.99 Dialogue. PB. $24.99
Claire Fuller’s fourth novel Unsettled Speaking of racism and generational
way through the outstanding titles on this
Ground is about middle-aged twins who distress, Brit Bennett’s second novel, The
year’s shortlist. Not sure where to start? Our
have grown up in isolation in rural Vanishing Half, is about light-skinned
programming and events manager Chris Wiltshire with their mother. When the African-American identical twin sisters,
Gordon has read her way through the list mother dies, the twins are left desperate one of whom passes for white. Though
and is here to help. to preserve their own small refuge. This they’re separated by lies and milage, the
touching novel is a portrait of displaced destinies of the twins remain linked.
There are so many reasons to support the 2021
and isolated lives. Fuller’s emotional Bennett’s story serves as a scathing
Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist. Firstly, reading
power is her ability to turn the story from historical portrait of America imbued
any novel on the longlist or shortlist (and telling
tragedy to solvency. with the power of a family multigenerational saga.
others about it) is a simple way to raise the profile
of women’s narratives. Secondly, by supporting the
Women’s Prize you are also supporting Australia’s Read this book if… Read this book if…
own Stella Prize. Back in the foundation days of » You loved Educated by Tara Westover. » You loved Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth.
the Stella Prize, we turned to the Women’s Prize as » You want to feel the wind on your back, the grey clouds » You’re not the type to sit on a porch lamenting your
inspiration but also for intellectual support. The above and your horizon stretching out in front of you. life choices. Read it because you understand that
two prizes are linked: both were started by women Read it because you know you have options, and not sometimes falsehoods grow if people stay silent.
who realised female authors were not equally everyone is so fortunate.
represented within literary prizes and reviews. Piranesi
And if those reasons aren’t enough, then read from How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her Susanna Clarke
the Women’s Prize shortlist because the novels are House Bloomsbury. HB. $27.99
excellent. Cherie Jones Lovers of Susanna Clarke’s bestselling
Excitingly this year’s shortlist is made up of Tinder Press. PB. $22.99 fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and
authors who have never been nominated for the Cherie Jones’s heartbreaking debut Mr Norrell will be delighted with the
award before. There are shared themes among the How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her shortlisting of her second novel,
titles: stories of mothers, family betrayals and of House is a story of how abuse can Piranesi, published 16 years after her
heart-wrenching isolation. These themes take us isolate a life and a family. Set in a first. This is a highly unusual and
out of our comfort zones and into new territories community in Barbados, an island original novel centred on a figure
where the long-term consequences of neglect are paradise where poverty and violence named Piranesi who lives in the
highlighted and the reality of women’s lives are are rife, four women hope to change House. He makes a careful record of
illustrated with anguish, brittle horror and a great their fate. The consequences of his life, until he begins to receive messages from someone
deal of empathy. breaking unspoken rules are foretold who obviously lives in the House with him. Beautifully
Reading this list of novels allowed me to by the Grandmother and her tale of the one-armed sister. crafted, Piranesi becomes an exploration of the meaning
experience perspectives I had not considered This novel, like fellow shortlistee Yaa Gyasi’s second novel behind our words.
before, and I was invited into rich worlds filled with Transcendent Kingdom, explores the consequences of
sacrifices, hope and above all, with love. The sum, generational violence. Read this book if…
surely, of so many women’s histories.
» You loved reading Emma Donoghue’s Room.
Read this book if… » You believe that upsizing your lifestyle will help you
» You love reading anything by Maya Angelou. live your best life. Read it if you feel like as you grow
» You’re longing for the sand between your toes and the older, surprises occur less often.
smell of the sea. Read it to understand how loneliness
happens when you don’t share your decision-making No One Is Talking About This
processes with those who love you. Patricia Lockwood
Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99
Transcendent Kingdom Patricia Lockwood’s fiction debut, No One
Yaa Gyasi Is Talking About This, deals with the
Viking. PB. $32.99 weight of words. Here real life collides
Transcendent Kingdom follows a family with the virtual world for a woman known
of forgotten Ghanaian immigrants living for her brilliant viral social media posts.
in the American south. The story But a text from her mother breaks her
centres on Gifty who grieves loss on trajectory, and as real-life events collide
many levels, but nevertheless turns her with the absurd influence of social media,
life into a successful story. Years later, our protagonist begins to comprehend
Gifty learns that she cannot escape human nature. This novel will make you reconsider your
generational trauma. Tracing her own value and your own family ties.
family’s story through continents and
generations, Gifty’s story show us a modern America that is Read this book if…
filled with racism and bigotry. » You loved Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror.
» You’ve checked your phone every hour since you
Read this book if… woke up today. Read this book because switching off
» You loved Zadie Smith’s Swing Time. afterwards will become easier.
» You miss the feeling of wind tunnels created by
skyscrapers and the bustle of a subway at rush hour.
Read it to see how a fulfilling education can change lives. The Women’s Prize winner will be announced 8 September.
6 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY July 2021 FIC T IO N
July Australian landlady for help, Judy is forced to admit
that something is wrong. When Paulina’s
Fiction body is found, Judy is devastated, but not
Fiction She Is Haunted
surprised – she’s finally done it. Paulina
has killed herself. Except Paulina hasn’t
killed herself, and in a small community
Paige Clark like the one on Fairfolk Island, there
A&U. PB. $29.99 aren’t that many people who could have
Available 2 July killed her.
Burnt out after a disturbing homicide case, lawyer
Jasmine takes a leap of faith and invites her mother For details on the event for this book, While The Newcomer hits plenty of
B OO K OF T H E visit readings.com.au/events the beats that make for a juicy crime
Della to join her on a literary tour of England. Della has never
M ON T H travelled far beyond Frog Hollow, the tight-knit community If you’ve felt stuck narrative, the novel also examines
Australian where she raised her three daughters, and the place where her in a reading slump themes of gendered stereotypes and
of late, stop what you’re violence against women that author Laura
Fiction eldest daughter Brittany disappeared as a child. Jasmine and
Della join a tour group in London and wend their way through doing and pick up a Elizabeth Woollett has explored in her
a series of locations related to literary greats: the factory copy of She Is Haunted. previous works Beautiful Revolutionary
where Dickens worked as a child, the cottage at Chawton The hype for this debut and The Love of a Bad Man. Living or
where Austen wrote Emma and Persuasion, the Oxford college short-story collection dead, Paulina isn’t a character who is
where Lewis Carroll spent most of his career. from Chinese/ easy to sympathise with, or even like.
American/Australian Woollett deliberately plays on aspects of
fiction writer, researcher and teacher the character’s language and behaviour to
After Story is sprawling, cerebral and set her up as an obvious ‘target’ in some
Paige Clark is definitely cheeky and
compassionate. It feeds the brain, offers confident – the cover of my advanced people’s eyes – even before she moves
much-needed vicarious travel and reading copy displays the words ‘WHO IS to Fairfolk Island, Paulina drinks too
leaves the reader with hope that fraught PAIGE CLARK?’ in all-caps, front and much and is promiscuous in a way that
relationships can be mended. centre. But the hype is warranted. With her friends disapprove of. On the island,
She Is Haunted, Clark introduces herself as Paulina is immediately branded a ‘mainie’
a playful and inventive voice you don’t and isolated from the community. She is
Told from mother-daughter alternating perspectives,
After Story want to sleep on, and I’m already hanging brassy and messy – the kind of girl who
After Story is a powerful meditation on family, culture,
Larissa Behrendt out for whatever she writes next. would serve as a cautionary tale of how
storytelling and the lingering effects of trauma and grief.
UQP. PB. $32.99 The 18 stories in this collection gently young women shouldn’t behave if they
Jasmine, an avid reader from childhood, has pursued an
Available 2 July blend the surreal with the all-too-real. want to stay ‘safe’.
academic and professional life in the city that has left her
Clark’s protagonists are almost all women: Woollett uses Paulina and all the things
feeling distanced from her mum and remaining sister. Della
witty, raging and devastatingly relatable. that happen to her – and there are many
is still reeling from the recent death of Jimmy, her ex-partner and the father of her
These characters are all navigating the heartbreaking ways she is let down – to take
daughters. Both women hope the tour will bring them closer together, but at first it only
intimacy and messiness of relationships aim at the systems that turn a blind eye to
widens the space between them.
in strange and surprising ways. A mother violence against women. The Newcomer is
Travel brings home into relief. Learning about the troubled lives of British writers
bargains with God so that she can keep her an entertaining and powerful read.
underscores their own complicated relationships. Visiting historical sites causes both
unborn child. A widow starts to dress as Bec Kavanagh is from Readings Kids
Jasmine and Della to muse on the depth and extent of Aboriginal living culture and the
her husband to avoid grieving. A woman
injustices and crimes of Australian history. Their late Aunty Elaine is keenly missed; her
clones her ex-boyfriend’s dog to cope
stories, wisdom and teachings surface, again and again. The humorously factional tour The Others
with their breakup. Standout stories ‘Lie-
group reminds Jasmine of the difficulties of being a young Aboriginal woman in White- Mark Brandi
in’, ‘In a Room of Chinese Women’ and
and male-dominated spaces. Curious first-time traveller Della has mind-expanding Hachette. PB. $32.99
‘Cracks’ offer some of the most painfully
experiences, but when a local missing girl dominates the news, difficult memories Available now
accurate depictions of both the dynamics
resurface and she begins to lean on her long-time crutch, alcohol. For details on the event for this book,
between women, and between mothers
This is an extraordinary novel by award-winning author, filmmaker and law professor visit readings.com.au/events
and daughters, that I’ve read in a long time
Larissa Behrendt, a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. After Story is sprawling, cerebral and ‘Sometimes, you
– the story ‘Cracks’ is also an account of
compassionate. It feeds the brain, offers much-needed vicarious travel and leaves the have to do the
domestic violence that I haven’t been able
reader with hope that fraught relationships can be mended. most terrible things.
to shake. Chinese identity is another thread
Leanne Hall is from Readings online running through Clark’s collection, tying Sometimes, you just
so many stories together in ways that feel have to.’ With this
truly fresh and insightful. single line the tone is
firmly established for
She Is Haunted is electrically original
Spotlight on a
The Others, Mark
in both prose style and energy. Fans of
of her life. Like Esther, her mental health Brandi’s highly
inventive fiction such as Elizabeth Tan’s
Classic was fragile, precipitating a breakdown, an
extended hospital stay and electroshock
recent Readings Prize-winning Smart
anticipated new novel. Narrated by Jacob,
through means of a diary gifted to him by
Ovens for Lonely People or Carmen Maria
therapy. The similarities between Esther his father on his eleventh birthday, The
Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties will
The Bell Jar and Sylvia don’t end here.
find much to admire about She Is Haunted,
Others is set on a remote, decrepit
Sylvia Plath It’s impossible to read The Bell Jar Australian farm struggling under crippling
but this collection will also resonate with
Faber. PB. $19.99 isolated from the stamp of autobiography. drought conditions and isolated in a
anyone drawn to stories of identity and
Available now But it persists as a classic of American post-pandemic world. Jacob has only his
connection, especially female friendships
‘It was a queer, mid-century fiction for reasons besides, father and the sheep for company. His
and mother-daughter relationships. An
sultry summer, the especially in how perfectly it encapsulates mother is buried on the property; she died
absolute pleasure to read.
summer they the historical period and how coolly it under mysterious circumstances. Her
details Esther’s brutal depression. Almost Stella Charls is from Readings Carlton presence flits through the story as tenuous
electrocuted the
Rosenbergs, and I didn’t everything Esther encounters disgusts and unreliable memories. His father
know what I was doing her. ‘I’m neurotic as hell,’ she remarks, for The Newcomer assures Jacob he is keeping them safe
in New York.’ A great wanting two mutually exclusive things at Laura Elizabeth Woollett from the world. His father keeps them
opening line: nervous, once. Rigid social expectations contribute Scribe. PB. $32.99 alive. By any means necessary. But Jacob’s
brittle, crackling with to her crisis and Plath describes them – a Available 2 July growing awareness that his father may not
heat, with sweat, with real electricity and life of domesticity at war with Esther’s For details on the event for this book, be telling him the whole truth compels
the threat of more, and the smell of desire to write – in blackly funny ways that visit readings.com.au/events him to break the rules and venture beyond
something a little foul that wafts across the temper the emotional desperation. When Judy the boundary where he learns that the
rest of this novel’s vivid pages, written in But Plath isn’t writing social history, Novak’s daughter, truth is far more heinous than he could
just 70 feverish days. she’s writing fiction. She’s not providing a Paulina, doesn’t show have ever imagined.
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath’s only novel, clinical investigation of depression, she’s up for lunch, it doesn’t When Brandi entered the Australian
published in the UK under a pseudonym conveying the muck of what it feels like, mean anything but literary fiction scene in 2018 with his
weeks before her death in 1963. It depicts and what it feels like most often is chaotic, further frustration for unforgettable debut Wimmera, it was
an intense coming-of-age for Esther isolating and strange. Esther’s mental Judy, who is used to her immediately clear he was a writer with an
Greenwood – in New York, she’s one of illness is never romantic or glamourous daughter’s failings. extraordinary talent. It is no easy task to
12 female college students interning at – it’s human. Like her creator, she is very Later, after Judy has snare a reader within a mere few sentences
a fashion magazine. Plath, a student at much alive, and The Bell Jar moves towards called and called, after she has stood in and then hold them, eyes glued to the
Smith College in 1953, also spent that its conclusion chasing the strong, steady Paulina’s empty house and looked page, shoulders increasingly tensed, as a
sultry summer interning at Mademoiselle. rhythm of her beating heart. through her belongings, after she has near-exquisite sense of dread urges the
Like Esther, Plath did not have the time Joanna Di Mattia is from Readings Carlton turned to Paulina’s quirky but kind reader onward to the final page where one
F IC T ION July 2021 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY 7
can only hope for a sense of relief – and yet Locust Summer out of him like sweat. As he confesses to keep in contact with Angel throughout the
this is exactly what Brandi does so well. David Allan-Petale us, ‘I’ve got a condition: I’m a writer,’ and years, Amadeo is horrified by her presence
Reading his novels is a physical experience. Fremantle Press. PB. $29.99 his hyperactive imagination is working and just stops short of telling her to go back
Subtle, atmospheric and devastating, Available 2 July overtime, inserting fictional people into the to her mother. Angel tells Amadeo that
The Others crackles with consternation. On the cusp of summer, world around him. The hallucinations often she’s had a fight with her mother, and has
This dark, disturbing new novel further 1986, Rowan Brockman’s appear related to the parallel narrative nowhere else to go, and though she is
cements Brandi as one of Australia’s mother asks him to presented in Mott’s book: the story of a disappointed by her grandmother’s
consummate writers for both fans of return to Septimus in young Black boy growing up under parents absence, she quickly makes herself at
literary fiction and literary crime fiction. the Western Australian who go to extreme lengths to protect him home. Yolanda returns from Las Vegas,
Tye Cattanach is from Readings Carlton wheat belt to help with from racism. Part of the anticipation of carrying a secret that could devastate the
the harvest, a request he reading this book is wondering when and family, but she returns to work, and says
how these two narrative streams are going nothing. When Angel has her son, Connor,
The Rabbits can’t refuse. Rowan is a
young man in a place he to cross over. Yolanda is delighted.
Sophie Overett
doesn’t want to be, given a final chance to A raw, wounded novel that’s also Most multi-generational novels cover
Vintage. PB. $32.99
make peace before the past, and those he wincingly funny when Mott wields a fine decades or even centuries, but Kirstin
Available 2 July
has loved, disappear forever. simile –‘breathless like a fish that woke Valdez Quade has managed to capture the
Right from page
up on the Empire State Building’ – Hell trials and triumphs of the Padilla family
one of this
of a Book places its comically flawed, in just one year, giving this absorbing
distinctive new novel The Other Side of Beautiful
mega-successful Black narrator against debut novel pace and immediacy. The Five
by debut author Sophie Kim Lock
the backdrop of the deeply entrenched Wounds examines the complex history
Overett, I had the HQ Fiction. PB. $29.99
racism and murders spotlighted by that binds family and friends together
strangest feeling that I Available 7 July
the Black Lives Matter movement. It is in this rural New Mexican town. Angel is
was in an Alice in Meet Mercy Blain. Her
simultaneously a metafictional satire of opposite in every way to her father. She’s
Wonderland-type story. house has just burnt
the book business and a scream into the committed to improving her life, and
There’s a sense of down – an extraordinary
rotten, racist heart of the USA. attends a program called ‘Smart Starts’ – an
oppression, the feeling of being watched, disaster since she hasn’t
Bernard Caleo is from Readings Carlton educational and social support program
the keen sense that something very wrong left it in two years. So
for teenage mothers. Angel idolises her
is about to happen. It’s hot inside this begins Mercy’s journey
teacher, 25-year-old Brianna, whose actions
book. Very hot. People are sweating. out into the world, from The Five Wounds
and decisions affect the Padilla family.
Clothes stick to their backs. Food is Adelaide to Darwin, in Kirstin Valdez Quade
The story is also a study in redemption:
constantly going off and stinking. There an old smelly camper Tuskar Rock. PB. $29.99
numerous times Amadeo pledges that he
are maggots squirming on the kitchen van. But how long can she keep running? Available 2 July
will do more with his life, give up drinking
floor. Everyday family life is mixed in with And what was she hiding indoors from Thirty-three-year-
and support his family. His great-uncle,
a level teaspoon of surrealism. Centred anyway? An exquisite, tender and wry novel old Amadeo Padilla
Tío Tíve, even gives him a chance to prove
around the disappearance of Charlie about facing anxiety and embracing life. is unemployed, alcoholic
himself by playing the role of Jesus in the
Rabbit, The Rabbits is a twisted tale of and still living with his
town’s annual Holy Week re-enactment.
family dysfunction, but at the same time The View Was Exhausting mother, Yolanda. One
Despite the big issues it tackles, this
thuddingly suburban. Charlie’s mother Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta day, while Yolanda is
novel also has very funny moments. It’s a
Delia is having an inappropriate affair Headline Review. PB. $32.99 away holidaying in Las
great story to hunker down with in winter,
with one of her art students. His sister Available 13 July Vegas, Amadeo comes
and book club discussions will run overtime
Olive seems determined to piss off Whitman ‘Win’ Tagore home to find his
dissecting these wonderful characters.
everyone in her orbit. The youngest child and Leo Milanowski are pregnant 15-year-old daughter, Angel,
Benjamin is struggling to get anyone’s sitting on the doorstep. Having failed to Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn
the greatest love story of
attention. And that’s before we discover our time – an
that Charlie Rabbit hasn’t exactly
3for
international movie star
disappeared – well, he has, but not in the and the beautiful son of a
conventional sense that the police and his millionaire. Their kisses
family think. Added to Charlie’s make headlines; their
disappearing act, is the unsettling fact fights break the internet.
that Charlie’s aunt, Bo, also went missing Nobody needs to know it’s not real. Until
years ago. things get messy and they realise they might
This is a book that compels you to actually be falling in love. A swoony, utterly
keep reading, late into the night, because modern debut about truth, fame, privilege
you want to know what the hell is going and how we love now.
on. It’s no surprise Overett’s manuscript
for The Rabbits won the Penguin
Literary Prize in 2020. The writing is deft International
and agile, the concept is original, the
Fiction
2
craftsmanship impressive. This is a writer
who actually creates physical sensations
inside the reader with her descriptions Hell of a Book
and her sense of doom. But it’s a doom
Jason Mott
that is balanced with lightness and a Trapeze. PB. $32.99
sense that maybe everything will work out Available now
in the end. This is a truly original story
Jason Mott’s first
that will keep you hooked right through to
novel, The
the delicious ending.
Returned, was a bestseller
Gabrielle Williams is from Readings Malvern back in 2013: top of the
charts, TV adaptation,
The Bride of Almond Tree the whole nine yards. In
Robert Hillman writing this new book, his
Fiction
Text. PB. $32.99 fourth, Mott has drawn
Available 2 July on memories of that
World War II is over; long-ago whirlwind book tour. This nameless
Hiroshima lies in ruins. narrator is on the publicity trail for his first
Young Quaker Wesley novel, titled – guess what? – Hell of a Book,
Cunningham returns and he’s not so much unreliable as
home to Almond Tree indecipherable, even to himself. He can’t
after seeing his share of even remember what his book is about and
horror; he wants to he blanks out during bookshop appearances,
build houses and marry.
Wesley’s in love with
although when he comes around, everybody
seems most impressed by what he has just
Available in-store until 31 July.
his neighbour’s daughter. But Beth, an said. Which is fine by him. Offer valid on stickered, in stock items only.
ardent socialist, has other plans. This is Turns out that these memory lapses While stocks last. The lowest price book is free.
the story of their journey through the have less to do with the alcohol-soaked, Not available online.
catastrophic mid-20th century to find a sex-drenched fugue of the book tour and
way of being together. more to do with the hallucinations leaking
8 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY July 2021 FIC T IO N
The Night Always Comes Once Upon a Time in torn apart and forced to find increasingly Conjuring a world fraught by tragedy and
Willy Vlautin Hollywood desperate ways to survive. A powerful tale violence yet threaded through with hope,
Faber. PB. $27.99 Quentin Tarantino of the resilience of the human spirit. this is a unique and moving debut.
Available 20 Jul W&N. PB. $19.99
In Willy Vlautin’s Available now What You Can See from Here Songs in Ursa Major
The Night Always The first novel from Mariana Leky & Jess Hill (trans.) Emma Brodie
Comes, Lynette lives director Quentin Bloomsbury. PB. $24.99 HarperCollins. PB. $29.99
across the road from the Tarantino is at once Available 2 July Available 7 July
Interstate 5 in Portland, hilarious, delicious and On a beautiful spring From the moment Jane
with her Mum and her brutal. Tarantino takes day, a small village in Quinn steps barefoot
brother Kenny, who has us high into the Western Germany onto the main stage at
an intellectual disability. Hollywood Hills 1969, wakes up to an omen: Island Folk festival, her
She works at a bakery by with this retro movie Selma has dreamed of golden hair glinting, her
day and as an escort in the evening, trying to novelisation of his an okapi. Someone is voice soaring into the
scrape together enough savings so her Mum Oscar-winning film, fleshing out its about to die. But who? summer dusk, a star is
can get a loan to buy the house they’re beloved characters, and bringing us even When death comes, it’s born – and so is a
currently renting. She’s racing against the closer to an industry about to have the not at all predictable. passionate love story. Set
tide of gentrification that’s subsuming the rose-coloured lenses violently ripped from Selling over 600,000 copies in Germany, against the heady haze of the 1970s and alive
city, desperate to secure comfort and its designer sunglasses forever. You this is a story about the absurdity of life with music, sex and sun-soaked hedonism,
security; something she’s only ever found in shoulda been there. and death, and a bittersweet portrait of this is an unforgettable debut and the
a peanut butter parfait from Dairy Queen. village life and the wider world beyond. soundtrack to a love story like no other.
These are familiar themes for Vlautin, I Couldn’t Love You More
whose novels focus on characters forced to Esther Freud Intimacies Nightbitch
live on the fringes, desperate for their piece Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 Katie Kitamura Rachel Yoder
of the American Dream. The cruel system Available 2 July Jonathan Cape. HB. $32.99 Harvill Secker. PB. $32.99
Vlautin writes about is one that forgets so An unforgettable story Available 20 July Available 20 July
many of its people, where one false step about the ties that bind An interpreter has come At home full-time with
could see you bankrupt, in jail, or dead. mothers and daughters. to The Hague to work at her two-year-old son, an
When Lynette’s mum goes out and gets In Ireland, Aoife the International Court. artist is lonely and
a loan on a new car, it throws the whole reflects on her life with She’s a looking for a place exhausted. Her mind
plan into jeopardy, sending Lynette on a husband Cashell, and to finally call home. But plays tricks on her.
desperate journey through Portland’s seedy the fate of their drama with her married Surprising things happen
underbelly. She comes across a hard-bitten daughter Rosaleen, lover, a political – she gains sharper
assortment of ex-cons, thugs, prostitutes, whose affair with a controversy, and a crime canines, strange patches
gamblers and addicts. People who are just famous, older German-Jewish sculptor in that increasingly obsesses of hair, new appetites. Is
as desperate as she is. Lynette is forced into the 1960s irrevocably changed her life. In her, push her to the precipice, forcing her to she losing her mind or gaining a new voice?
one bad choice after another, making you present day London, Kate travels to decide what she really wants from life. A For lovers of Jenny Offill and Curtis
wince on every page. Ireland seeking answers about the past. taut and electrifying story about a woman Sittenfeld, this provocative debut redefines
The Night Always Comes reads like Will the truth set them all free? caught between many truths. modern womanhood and will have you
a thriller at points – Vlautin’s writing is laughing until the very end.
propulsive – yet it’s also an important Moth The Sweetness of Water
mediation on the state of America today and Melody Razak Nathan Harris Other People’s Clothes
the effect of Portland’s rapid gentrification W&N. PB. $32.99 Tinder Press. PB. $32.99 Calla Henkel
on the city’s poor. Condominiums are Available now Available now Sceptre. PB. $32.99
springing up to the extent that whole Available 13 July
Delhi, 1946. Fourteen- In the dying days of the
neighbourhoods are unrecognisable,
year-old Alma is soon to American Civil War, Berlin, 2009. Two art
warehouse districts now replaced with
be married, mostly newly freed brothers students arrive from
high-end lofts, restaurants and shops.
interested in her Landry and Prentiss are New York, both
Vlautin’s eye for detail and his keen ear for
wedding shoes and in cast out into the world desperate for the city to
dialogue imparts authenticity to the story
spinning stories for her with nothing. Hiding in solve their problems.
and elevates it above many other novels of
younger sister Roop. But the woods, they’re soon Zoe is grieving the
its type. Highly recommended.
when Partition happens discovered by the land’s murder of her high
Joe Rubbo is the operations manager at and the British Raj is owner, George Walker, a school best friend.
Readings fractured overnight, her family is violently man still reeling from the loss of his son. Hailey is rich and
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too, they strike up an unlikely friendship Halfway through her PhD
that isolates them from others. A and dreaming of running
masterful speculative novel that explores her own lab, computer
the fine lines between faith, conspiracy scientist Asha has her
and mania in contemporary America. future mapped out. Then
a chance meeting and
Everyone Knows Your Mother
Is a Witch
Rivka Galchen
whirlwind romance with
her old high-school
crush, Cyrus, changes
Great Stories Uncovered
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intense imagination, this is the highly catching tiny songbirds and psychologist Sue Langford. Kevin Kwan, No.1 bestselling
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of Atmospheric Disturbances. dreams of a new way of
life, and of marrying Nisha, who works for
Lives Like Mine Petra and her daughter Angela. An
Eva Verde exploration of loss and the strength of the
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Mother. Daughter. Wife.
Monica is a woman of The Snow Line
mixed heritage, Tessa McWatt
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For fans of Eleanor Oliphant is The irresistible blockbuster
is all there is. She puts Available 2 July Completely Fine, a break-out YA romance by six of the
others first, tolerates Old and young. White road trip novel about facing biggest voices in YA.
her in-laws’ intolerance, and brown. Male and anxiety and embracing life.
but she questions if she female. British.
has any right to Indian. Other. Four
Out now from
complain about the life she’s made. Then strangers from around
along comes Joe, a flirtatious parent on the world arrive in
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exploring themes of identity, race and the Together, they climb a
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10 R E A D I N G S M O N T H LY July 2021 FIC T IO N
standing in the same place, they see How to Find Your Way
things differently. As they ascend higher in the Dark
and higher, they must learn to cross the Derek B. Miller
lines that divide them. A vivid, beautiful Doubleday. PB. $32.99
novel about love, ageing, race and Available 2 July
cultural identity. It’s 1936, war is brewing,
and by his 13th
Libertie birthday, Sheldon
Kaitlyn Greenidge Horowitz has been
Serpent’s Tail. PB. $29.99 orphaned – twice.
Available 2 July Moving to Connecticut
Growing up a free-born to live with his uncle,
girl in Brooklyn post- he’s told to forget the
Civil War, Libertie past, but instead
Sampson is aware that embarks on a quest deep into it, to
her mother, a practicing uncover what really happened to his
physician who can pass father. He soon learns that to survive he’ll
as White, wants her have to make his own luck. A coming-of-
dark-skinned daughter age story like no other.
to attend medical school
and practice alongside her. But Libertie,
drawn to music not science, feels stifled by Australian
her mother’s choices. She’s hungry for
something else – but what does freedom
Poetry
really look like for a Black woman?
Trigger Warning
Terminal Boredom: Maria Takolander
Stories UQP. PB. $24.99
Izumi Suzuki & Various translators Available 2 July
Verso. PB. $22.99 Maria Takolander
Available 2 July is an established
In these darkly playful Australian poet, and
and punky stories from Trigger Warning is her
legendary Japanese fourth collection. At
science fiction writer times a deeply personal
Izumi Suzuki, fantasy is selection of poems, it
always grounded in left me in awe of a
sexual and class poet’s ability to trust
politics, whatever and to share.
planet it might be The opening section, ‘Confessions’,
taking place on. At turns nonchalantly hip is the most daring and engaging.
and charmingly deranged, Suzuki’s Throughout it, Takolander’s poems are
singular slant on speculative fiction has addressed as conversations with other
been echoed in countless later works, from poets, referencing specific works by Sylvia
Happy Endings Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami,
to Black Mirror and Ex Machina.
Plath, Anne Carson, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne
Sexton and Adrienne Rich, among others.
BELLA GREEN Takolander uses the oeuvres of these poets
Bella Green is a Sunday-afternoon sex worker. Taking us on a funny, We Are All Birds of Uganda to confess details about her life – several
candid, can’t-look-away journey through brothels, strip clubs, peep shows focus on her husband becoming unwell
and dominatrix dungeons, this is a hilarious memoir from a bright and Hafsa Zayyan
bold new Australian voice. Merky Books. PB. $32.99 and his resulting emergency surgery,
Available now others on her childhood surrounded
‘Authentic, hilarious, and uplifting.’ WeekendNotes
by domestic violence. Takolander
1960s Uganda. Hasan
bares herself entirely through these
struggles to keep his
poems, presenting arresting portraits
family business afloat
of her family, while also characterising
following the death of
how relationships between them have
D R R E B E C C A R AY his wife. As he beings to
progressed and changed. For this reason,
Accessible, inspiring and deeply practical, Setting Boundaries ignites rebuild, a new regime
I particularly enjoyed ‘Daddy’ (a nod to
us to rethink our relationships, reclaim our lives and protect our mental seizes power. Present-
health and wellbeing. Sylvia Plath) and ‘Argument’ (inspired by
day London. High-flying
Elizbeth Bishop).
‘I will return to this book over and over again when I’m feeling lost and lawyer Sameer struggles
need a comforting voice of support.’ with the emptiness of his ‘dream life’. The second section, ‘Domestic’,
Alison Daddo and the third section, ‘Outside’, lose
Called back to his family home, Sameer
begins to rediscover a heritage he never some of this hyper-personal focus and
knew. Spanning two continents and a instead become more generalised about
troubled century, this is a multi-layered contemporary life. Some of the poems are
A M A N I HA Y D A R humorous – such as ‘Toilet’ – but others
novel of generational love and loss.
Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a feel more like observations, though I did
brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Writing with
grace and beauty, she draws from this a story of female resilience.
enjoy ‘Escalator’ for its focus on the need
The Paper Palace for movement and progress in a capitalist
‘A magnificent and devastating work of art. There is a raging anger here, Miranda Cowley Heller society. A particular strength of ‘Outside’
and a deep sorrow, but at the core Haydar gives us truths about love. Viking. PB. $32.99
This is one of the most important books I've ever read.’ is in Takolander’s nature poems; ‘Haiku
Available 2 July
Bri Lee for the Anthropocene’ and ‘Scenes from a
Unfolding over 24 hours Documentary’ both focus on the wonder
and across 50 years, this of the natural world. Other poems in this
Brain Reset
magnificent literary final section are more experimental with
debut charts the their use of form, playing with diagrams
experience of Elle and changing the direction of reading.
DAV I D G I L L E S P I E
Bishop, across decades These work well, but may not suit readers
Anxiety, depression and addiction are the scourge of modern-day living.
How are they linked? How do we beat them? Packed with cutting-edge of love, lies, secrets and who prefer a more traditional layout.
research and practical advice, David Gillespie’s latest book arms us with one unspeakable Overall, Trigger Warning is a strong and
the tools we need to break our addictions, conquer uncertainty childhood event. Elle is
and reset our brains. compelling collection, with distinct
on the precipice of a momentous choice – focuses to each section.
between life with her much-loved husband
Clare Millar is from Readings online
Love talking about books? and the life she could have had with her
Find us online at Pan Macmillan Australia
childhood sweetheart, if a tragic event
hadn’t changed things forever.You can also read
