Our Spring Books of the Month

JULY BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Yield | Tara June Winch | $32.99 | Penguin Random House

So, so beautiful – and like nothing I’ve ever read. There are passages of sublime prose; sentences that shook me and took me new places; and parts that made me bawl for everything that’s been and being lost, stolen and damaged for First Nations people in Australia. The Yield follows the story of August who, after spending years overseas, returns to find her ancestors’ land – her family’s home – being repossessed by a mining company. The words of her grandfather, Albert Gondiwindi, weave through August’s story. Albert’s dictionary is a masterpiece and some of the most moving prose I’ve read. The Yield is my favourite Australian book this year – and it might be yours, too!

AUGUST BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Pillars | Peter Polites | $32.99 | Hachette

The Pillars is Polites in cracking form. Familiar themes from his debut novel, Down The Hume – the perspective of a young, gay man of Greek descent in Western Sydney — have been given a broader canvas and mixed with the hotly topical issue of fast-buck, shoddy building standards and their possible disastrous consequences… Family dynamics, cultural perceptions, prejudices and moral relativism colour the story, as does Polites’ personal strain of dark humour. But, what gives this great new Australian novel its greatest life force is its author’s intimate knowledge of Western Sydney and its inhabitants and the artfulness with which he chisels them into the page…

SEPTEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH

Sand Talk | Tyson Yunkaporta | $32.99 | Text Publishing

Sand Talk is exciting and bursting with ideas; it is an invitation to listen and understand, as well as an offering of hope for future sustainability systems. Yunkaporta is writing about indigenous culture’s sustainability and turns this practice and thinking onto contemporary society to offer solutions for today, turning the current mode of Western thinking up-side down. Through yarning with a range of custodians of the land, Yunkaporta has brought oral history alive through the written text. It has created a fire in my belly. Fans of Dark Emu have their next read right here.