AUSTRALIAN FICTION
Fled | Meg Keneally | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin | Sylvia’s Pick Based on a true story, this absorbing tale of a tough, intelligent and determined convict woman is told with direct grace and understated power. Jenny Trelawney, sentenced to seven years in Australia for highway robbery, does everything she can to better her life and that of her children, but the harsh reality of a colony struggling to survive pushes her to plan a daring sea-bound escape. This novel kept me completely transfixed from beginning to end – the historical detail, the language and the strength of the central character are all utterly compelling. Wonderful.
The Place on Dalhousie | Melina Marchetta | $32.99 | Penguin | Lucy H’s Pick
Daughter of Bad Times | Rohan Wilson | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin | John’s Pick
Room for a Stranger | Melanie Cheng | $29.99 | Random House | Alisha’s Pick
Master of My Fate | Sienna Brown | $32.99 | Random House | Sylvia’s Pick
Marchetta is masterful. In The Place on Dalhousie we are once again reunited with the friendship group first introduced in Saving Francesca, and honestly, being enveloped by these characters again feels like catching up with a dear friend. With a tender balance between the emotionally raw and the humorous, Marchetta explores the destructive forces that enter our lives, and navigates the idea that although life’s floods may tear us apart, it is never too late to come back together again.
Rohan Wilson’s haunting and award-winning fiction has delved into Tasmania’s dark past. Here he projects into the distant future in a suspenseful and terrifying vision of a world where profit before people is the norm, where inhumanity is rife. Environmental refugees flood Australia and are housed in detention camps that are factories focussed on exploiting them as slave labour. Makes you think about where we’re headed… and where we already are.
The highly anticipated second novel by Chinese-Australian author Melanie Cheng provides a moving account of an unlikely inter-generational friendship. When elderly Meg applies to a house-sharing program after a break-in, seeking someone for both security and comfort, she doesn’t expect to find a friend and confidante in Andy, a troubled international student from Hong Kong. This follow-up work is as powerful, thoughtful, gentle, and wise as her first, Australia Day.
Based on a true story and written by Brown with compassion and creativity, this tale of William Buchanon’s life from slavery to freedom is at once heartbreaking and inspiring. His dawning understanding of being a “chattel” to another man — without any reason except chance — and his rise against this leads him to face his demons and find a hard-won freedom. A powerful and affecting read.
Life Before | Carmel Reilly | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin | John’s Pick There’s so much strength in Aussie thrillers at the moment and Carmel Reilly’s compelling debut thriller, with its traumatic family secrets and estranged siblings, is like a literary fusion of Jane Harper and Lianne Moriarty. This is one of those books you read and ask yourself, what would I do? The narrative really steps up a notch towards the end, with twists and turns galore. If you are looking for a page-turner this long weekend, look no further than Life Before.
A Lovely and Terrible Thing | Chris Womersley | $29.99 | Pan Macmillan | Lucy’s Pick Tantalisingly weaving the mundane and the epic, Womersley creates a swirling and watery world surrounding the shipwreck of the H.M.S. Elizabeth. A culmination of 20 aqueous stories that are both poetic and compelling, with the remains of mice or possums that have tumbled in and the oil that slicks the canals of the capital floating throughout the pages. A completely unsettling read but in the absolute best possible way!
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