WORDS ON THE WAVES Writers’ Festival WHAT WE’RE READING

Exclusive reveal for COAST! Both of these brilliant authors will appear at the 2023 Words on the Waves Writers Festival, May 31–June 5. For more information please head to www.wordsonthewaves.com.au

Song Of The Sun God

BY SHANKARI CHANDRAN

Review by Mandi

McIntosh

Shankari Chandran is a wonderful new voice in Australian literature. I opened 2022 with her delightful novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens and this new work was one of my final reads for the year. Song of the Sun God is weightier in both size and content, and it also spends more time in Sri Lanka, with more historical background into the tensions and conflicts with the Tamil Tigers.

We follow three generations of a family as they grow, marry and in many cases, flee from the terrible upheavals happening in their home cities. Nala and Rajan marry in 1946, just as Ceylon is declaring its independence from Britain, and the novel gives insight into a range of customs and traditions, stories from the Sanskrit epic – The Mahābhārata – and into the political turmoil to come.

Song of the Sun God is a family story, but it is not for the fainthearted. Like many other wonderful novels set across generations, war, violence, and bloodshed are intertwined with the romantic and familial love as well as the cultural and spiritual lives of the protagonists. As you are swept from 1930s Colombo to Sydney in the 2000s, you will fall in love with the characters created, and share in their heart ache.

Chandran’s novel is a must-read and an important addition to the fiction set in Sri Lanka, particularly for those of us mostly raised on post-colonial authors focused on the British experience. Song of the Sun God is a gripping novel I will long remember.

RATING: Powerful

CLARKE BY HOLLY THROSBY

Review by Angela Bennetts

Heard of cosy crime? Prepare to meet cosy anti-crime. In Clarke by musician-turnedauthor Holly Throsby, the candlestick-in-theconservatory is left deliberately off the page. In its place is a vibrant chorus of loveable characters, starting with Barney, a mourning academic, pithy Leonie and her ward Joe, as well as neighbours Dorrie, Clive, Earl and more. The imaginary small town of Clarke is also a character, continuing in the novelist’s past two outings to similarly concocted NSW South Coast burgs, Goodwood and Cedar Valley

Although the story sputters to life with a police team door-knocking for a dead body, the real mystery you are piecing together is how these characters’ lives fit together. What is the story with Barney’s wife? Where is Joe’s mother? Why is Leonie so sad? And yes, what happened to Ginny Lawson, who disappeared six years ago? Inspired by the Lynette Dawson case (made infamous by the Teacher’s Pet podcast), Throsby has said she wanted to subvert expectations – while the crime hovers as a shadow, it is not glorified. A laconic humour lightens the turn of every page and feels distinctly, although not cloyingly, Australian.

Set in 1991, timely references are painted in with a gentle hand: telephone landlines and Fosseys stores make an appearance. Similarly, the less-gentle misogyny of the time is illuminated in telling instances. Early on, Leonie suspects Ginny has met with foul play, and has damning evidence to support her argument, but she is sneeringly dismissed by a male police officer. If only he’d listened … (but then, there would be no book!)

Clarke is a vivid, incredibly charming small-town mystery bubbling with heartfelt characters and humane insights, perfect for a weekend read with a cup of tea in hand.

RATING: Book Club pick!

For a punchy questioning of perception … A Question of Age

by Jacinta Parsons

For a fascinating literary historical fiction … Salonika Burning

by Gail Jones

For a deeply moving memoir … Tell Me Again: A Memoir

by Amy Thunig