August September 2024 Gleaner

Gleaner

August-September 2024

Read An extract from Malcolm Knox’s chilling satire The First Friend p10 Plus Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13 reviewed p5

From David’s desk

I’ve lost count of the number of people who want to know what I/Gleebooks thinks about the “collapse” of Booktopia, the big internet book retailer. I use the word collapse advisedly, as at this stage someone might still buy it and resuscitate the company, but whatever the outcome, it’s hard to see how the ultimate (so far) disruptor in the Australian book industry has been a good thing. Sure, $250m in book sales in a year towers over what happens in the independent market space we inhabit, and anyone selling that many books a year deserves respect. But what of the estimated $60m debt, and a wrecked landscape of false promises to authors and customers alike.

Forgive us a brief moment of schadenfreude, while we reflect on all those moments when we sighed and failed to convince an online zealot that we weren’t here to rip people off with our book prices. Apropos of the whole book price thing, we note that Big W will retail the new book of one Australia’s best kids’ writers at $4 (rrp $17). Can we compete with Big W? Rhetorical question. I can deeply empathise with those dairy farmers confronted with Woolies’ and Coles’ $1 milk ultimatum. Who’s the real friend of the customer?

’Tis soon the season to be jolly, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a bunch of very exciting “reading season” books. In October, there are Tim Winton’s Juice, Nagi Maehashi’s Recipe Tin Eats: Dinner, Rick Morton’s Mean Streak: the Robodebt Story, Noni

Hazlehurst’s Dropping the Mask and Robbie Arnott’s Dusk Michelle de Kretser’s Theory and Practice is one to look out for in November.

In the meantime, I wasn’t thrilled to get a nasty bout of COVID recently, but at least a week’s isolation gave my reading time a massive boost. Elizabeth Strout’s wonderful final (?) Maine epic Tell Me Everything (September) didn’t disappoint and Lech Blaine’s Australian Gospel (November) will amaze and entertain you. I loved Malcolm Knox’s The First Friend, a deadly serious and wildly satirical novel charting the machinations of Stalin’s henchman Beria, and his circle (read an extract on p10). And I devoured two new Australian psychological thrillers, The Ledge by Christian White and Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor (set in upper Blue Mountains).

Finally, after a few months’ preparation, I’m delighted to remind people that our excellent Gleebooks “eat and drink” cafe is now open in the evening, from Thursday to Saturday, until 9pm. Combine your browsing/shopping with a cocktail, wine, tapas or just a cup of tea. You’ll have earned it.

David Gaunt, director

Menu highlights, from top: beetroot hummus, gruyere croquettes, Spanish tortilla, and cheese board. Right, the chef hard at work in the kitchen.

AUSTRALIAN FICTION

$35, Vintage.

Out August

$33, Hachette.

Out July

$35, Picador.

Out August

Translations

Jumaana

Abdu

Amid a series of personal disasters, Aliyah and her daughter, Sakina, retreat to a rural property in New South Wales where she hires a farmhand, Shep, an extremely private Palestinian man and the region’s imam. During a storm, she drives past the town’s river and happens upon a childhood friend, Hana, who has been living a life of desperation. Aliyah takes her in and tries to navigate the indefinable relationship between Hana and her farmhand. All are thrown together for a reckoning alongside Hana’s brother, Hashim, and Aliyah’s confidante, Billie - a local Kamilaroi midwife she met working at the hospital - while bushfires rage around them.

Bird

Courtney Collins

Spanning the Himalayas in an unknown time and present day Darwin, Bird tells the story of a young girl who flees home to escape an arranged marriage and wakes up years later in a hospital bed, unable to remember how she got there. Courtney Collins’ book is a masterful and profoundly moving novel about a girl determined to live on her own terms, no matter the cost. It is an unforgettable story of hope, resilience, the power of connection and the most elemental bonds.

Vortex

Rodney Hall

It is 1954, but not the same way the history books would have it. Events and characters swirl in a vortex of fragments and chance connections. Brisbane celebrates the young Queen Elizabeth II’s arrival on her first royal tour of the commonwealth. Meanwhile the future is being shaped behind closed doors, laying the foundations for the 21st century. This is a magisterial novel resonant with contemporary concerns, by one of Australia’s foremost authors writing at the height of his ambition.

The Sydney Teapot Show

Here One Moment

Liane Moriarty

It all begins on a flight from Hobart to Sydney. The flight will be smooth. It will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off the plane. But almost all of them will be changed forever.

“A lady” predicts how and when many of the passengers are going to die. This is a brilliantly constructed story that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world.

$35, Macmillan. Out August

The Degenerates

Raeden Richardson

Following the interwoven lives of four characters across India, Australia and the United States, The Degenerates takes root in Melbourne and brings its streets, shopping centres and laneways to life with astounding originality. At its heart are four characters, Titch, Ginny, Somnath and Maha, whose vivid portrayals leap off the page. This is an electrifying debut from a young Indian-Australian writer. $35, Text. Out September

For more than 30 years, the annual Sydney Teapot Show has inspired ceramicists to put this kitchen essential in the spotlight, creating handmade teapots ranging from the elaborate to the intriguing and the comical. A proud sponsor for many years, Gleebooks will be offering prizes worth $700 in the category “Australian Poetry”. The Teapot Show will also be part of Sydney Craft Week, taking place in venues all over Sydney. Join us to delight in the work and vote for your favourite in The People’s Choice award.

4 October-3 November, Monday-Saturday 10am - 5.30pm, Sunday noon-4pm, Gallery Lowe and Lee, 49-51 King Street, Newtown, ph 9550 4433, www.gallerylnl.com.au.

AUSTRALIAN FICTION

Winter of the Wolf

Amanda Willimott

Set in a time when women’s lives were not their own, and to be different was to be suspect, Winter of the Wolf is a sweeping tale of family secrets, betrayal and the abuse of power, the redeeming power of friendship, and finding your true home. Inspired by a notorious werewolf trial, blending history with paranormal and feminist themes, and with a moving queer romance at its core, this is an unmissable Australian debut.

$35, Viking. Out August

Dirrayawadha

Anita Heiss

Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. Now she lives at Cloverdale where she works for a white family. Her brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. When Irish convict Daniel O’Dwyer arrives, Miinaa’s life is transformed again. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Anita Heiss shows the resistance leader Windradyne as the remarkable figure he was and surrounds him with fascinating characters otherwise lost to history.

$33, Simon & Schuster. Out July

ALSO OUT

A Wreck of Seabirds

Karleah Olson

$35, Fremantle. Out September

Woo Woo

Ella Baxter

$33, Allen & Unwin. Out now

$35, 4th Estate. Out September

$33, Puncher & Wattman.

Out August

Cherrywood

Jock Serong

Edinburgh, 1916: A rich Scottish industrialist, Thomas Wrenfether, embarks on a mad scheme to build a paddlesteamer out of dubiously sourced European cherrywood on the other side of the world. Melbourne, 1993: Martha is a clever, lonely and frustrated lawyer. One night, on impulse, she stops at a strange pub in Fitzroy, The Cherrywood, for a bottle of wine. The mysterious building and its inhabitants make an indelible impression, and she slowly begins to deduce odd truths about the pub. Cherrywood is a darkly delicious, playful and rich novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention.

Twitchers

Malcolm Sutton

For three months, London adman Richard has been pushing increasingly risky themes in an effort to get sacked. He retreats home to Adelaide where a shrewd agency director wants his ideas to exploit social media outrage. A noisy bird wakes him every morning, smoke fills the sky from a series of violent pyromaniac acts. Constable Sniles, an angry exile, seeks professional redemption by blaming Richard. He has an alibi in a former lover, Ashleigh, but the more time they spend together, the deadlier the fires become, igniting an inferno so fierce it threatens to consume the entire district and incinerate whatever’s left of Richard’s mind.

$35, Macmillan. Out July

The Echoes

Evie Wyld

Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him. In the weeks and months before Max’s death, Hannah is haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape. Both a celebration and an autopsy of a relationship, The Echoes is a story about the weight of the past and the promise of the future.

$35, Vintage. Out July

Girl Falling

Hayley Scrivenor

Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together, bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide. Now in their 20s, their lives have finally started to diverge: Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu. Unused to sharing Finn, Daphne starts to act up in ways that will allow her to maintain control over her best friend. One day, Finn, Daphne and Magdu all go rock-climbingand Magdu falls to her death. Displaying all of Hayley Scrivenor’s razor-sharp skills for character, landscape and narrative, this is a breathtaking read.

A Bookseller at Large

It seems to me I first discovered my sense of humour on listening to my mother’s LPs of the comedy improv duo Elaine May and Mike Nichols.They were hilarious. The main sketch I remember was “Disc Jockey” where May played a starlet to Nichols’ name-dropping interviewer. He asks her to plug her next movie which she says is called “The Big Sky, and it’s the life story of God”. I can hear May’s breathy, starletty voice to this day and it still makes me laugh. All of which is to say I’m devouring a new biography of Elaine May by Carrie Courogen, Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius. Biographies are often described as “lively” but this is positively zinging with both the persona of May herself and the extraordinary intimate, loose, funny, insightful style of Courogen’s writing. Having started in theatre and improv – some say inventing the modern form – May moved into directing but was sadly most known for the famous flop, Ishtar. She also worked as a screenwriter and script doctor as well as an actor, winning a Tony at the age of 87. She is still with us. As a $66 hardcover import, it may not be fair of me to plug this fantastic book, but if you admire Elaine May, you won’t be sorry you forked out.

Two articles I read recently on the vexed topic of book banning in America were titled The Fear of Fiction (by Lyta Gold) and The Power of Fiction (Sam Levin, writing in The Guardian). In the former, Gold, author of the forthcoming Dangerous Fictions: Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality, traces fearful attitudes to fiction back to Plato, through to the Hays Code in the 30s to the 80s book bannings driven by religious conservatism and mention of anything like the “devil”, in something like Dungeons and Dragons.

In this 21st iteration of fear of fiction, it is anything to do with LGBTQ+ or with race that has seen 4,240 titles banned in 2023, according to the American Library Association. As Levin reports, a bookshop In San Francisco, delightfully called Fabulosa Books, has started a program of donating said banned books to community groups in the southern states where most of the banning occurs. Becka Robbins, who started Books Not Bans is quoted as saying “Fiction … gives you the capacity, in a way that nothing else does, to connect with people who are different than you”. That may seem somewhat trite to we privileged Australian readers, but in the increasingly divided and fractious US, it seems like a profundity.

At Gleebooks, we have always treasured and prided ourselves on our close relationship with academia, so to see the gutting of the higher education sector in this country is shocking. The latest (as I write) onslaught comes from, of all people, the Labor government, whose slashing of international student numbers has had the unintended consequence of universities having to slash programs and courses, make teachers, researchers and auxiliary staff redundant and otherwise destroy the higher education system. It’s not only here. In the UK, Goldsmiths, University of London has made 97 staff redundant including, to the fury and outcry of many, Prof Deirdre Osborne, the co-founder of their

Black British Literature course – the only one in the world! So much for readers connecting with people who are different, or in the black students’ case, being able to read and study work that reflects their reality.

Morgan Smith

MORGAN’S PICK

Highway 13

Fiona McFarlane

$33, Allen & Unwin. Out now

Highway 13, a riveting new book by Fiona McFarlane can be seen as a novel or a short story collection, allowing for how fluid, and even unnecessary, these descriptors are becoming.

Each story concerns someone affected by a character we never meet, Paul Biga, a serial killer who picked up his victims on the titular highway and buried them in the Barrow State Forest. Arranged unchronologically, the stories take place as far back as 1950 and forward to 2028, revealing the far reach and ripples which flow from the heinous acts of Paul Biga. In Hunter on the Highway (1996), at the time of the killings, a young woman living near the forest suspects her husband of being the killer, following him down the highway in his white ute, desperately afraid of what she might find. The connection to Biga can be obscure, but heartwrenching, as in Hostess (1986) about an exflight attendant living somewhere like Broome, worried that her young sister in Sydney is marrying an older man. Every story reveals McFarlane’s mastery of characterisation, setting and language – all the things that mark a great writer. In the last story, Lucy (1950), a country girl is courted by John Biga, a Polish refugee. Having rejected his marriage proposal, Lucy changes her mind at the last minute. As he’s driving away, she hails him down. He stops the car, “She runs, afraid he’ll drive away. He doesn’t. He waits. The passenger door swings open, as if by magic.” And that’s when the bells start ringing.

If you haven’t yet read Fiona McFarlane, your time starts now! Her last novel, The Sun Walks Down, a historical reworking of “the lost child” story is really, really good. While long and shortlisted for every literary award going, it beggars belief it didn’t actually win anything.

INTERNATIONAL FICTION

Dogs and Monsters

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon weaves ancient fables into fresh and unexpected forms, and forges new legends to sit alongside them. From genetic engineering to the eternal complications of family, he showcases masterfully how we are subject to the same elemental forces that obsessed the Greeks. Whether describing Laika the Soviet space dog on her fateful orbit, or St Anthony wrestling with loneliness in the desert, his astonishing powers of observation are at their height when illuminating the thin line between human and animal.

$35, Chatto & Windus. Out September

Rare Singles

Benjamin Myers

Dinah has always lived in Scarborough. Trapped with her feckless husband and useless son, her one release comes at her town’s Northern Soul nights. Dinah’s hero is Bucky Bronco, who recorded a string of soul gems in the late 60s. Over in Chicago, Bucky Bronco is struggling to make ends meet when Dinah’s invitation arrives. He boards a plane and soon finds himself in rainy Scarborough, preparing to play for an audience for the first time in nearly half a century. This a warm, tender and funny story about unlikely friendships, second chances and the magic of soul music.

$33, Bloomsbury. Out now

ALSO OUT

The Safekeep

Yael Van der Wouden

$35, Viking. Out September

Think Again

Jacqueline Wilson

$35, Bantam Out September

$35, Viking. Out September

$33, Bloomsbury.

Out September

$35, Viking. Out September

Tell Me Everything

Elizabeth Strout

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton. Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories about people they have known, reanimating them and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Entitlement

Rumaan Alam

Brooke is 33, single and slightly adrift. She wants her work and life to have meaning and she finds it at the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation, where she assists an octogenarian billionaire give away his hard-earned fortune. When Asher Jaffee takes a special interest in Brooke, it’s hard for her not to fall under his spell. But before long, Brooke finds herself in deep water as she blurs the lines between what belongs to Asher, and what should belong to her. Keenly observed and compulsively disturbing, Entitlement is an engrossing and resonant tale of money, morality and madness.

Gabriel’s Moon

William Boyd

Gabriel Dax is an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you to the vibrant streets of 60s London in his most exhilarating novel yet.

Intermezzo

Sally Rooney

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his 30s –successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of his father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women. Ivan is a 22-yearold competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. The two grieving brothers enter a new period of desire, despair and possibility. This is an exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family.

$35, Faber. Out September

INTERNATIONAL FICTION

$30, Gallic Books. Out August

There Are Rivers in the Sky

Elif Shafak

In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised with water brought from Lalish in Iraq. In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage. This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water. There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents and cultures.

$35, Viking. Out August

One Hour of Fervour

Muriel

Barbery

Haru, a successful Japanese art dealer, appreciates beauty, harmony, balance and good sake. A few months after an affair with Maud, a mysterious Frenchwoman, he learns that she is pregnant with his child. But she issues him a heartbreaking warning: if he ever tries to see her or the child, she will kill herself. Quietly devastated, Haru respects Maud’s wishes. And Rose grows up on the other side of the world, without ever knowing her father. Is it too late to change things? This a stunning tale of friendship, family secrets, and the enduring love of a father forced to live in the shadows.

Catherine Wheel

Liz Evans

Five years ago, Kate’s partner, Max, abandoned her for his pregnant lover. The affair has long since crumbled, but Kate has become fixated with Vee, her “replacement”. Warm and trusting, Vee is juggling work, single parenthood and a controlling ex-partner, Max, with whom she is still secretly sexually involved. Glad of Kate’s friendship, she nevertheless wonders what has brought this glamorous but brittle woman into her life. Against a backdrop of ancient ghosts, mystical forces and long-buried tragedy, Vee unwittingly yields to Kate’s cruel agenda, until the past and present collide with devastating consequences.

$35, Ultimo Press. Out now

Frankie

Graham Norton

Young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage – after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before. Then Damian, a young Irish carer, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years. Frankie is a dazzling, decadessweeping novel about love, bravery and what it means to live a significant life.

$33, Coronet. Out September

ALSO OUT

‘A rollicking ride through the strange and wonderful world of how humans attained the ability to learn, store and transmit vast amounts of information.’

PROF. BRUNO DAVID

Family & Borghesia

Natalia Ginzburg

$25, Daunt. Out August

The Most Jessica Anthony $29.99, Doubleday. Out November

‘Razor-sharp, wildly imaginative, bold, brilliant and often as dark as the inside of a coffin. Another triumph from a truly extraordinary writer.’

TRENT DALTON

INTERNATIONAL FICTION

A Great Marriage

Frances Mayes

Dara Willcox, in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. They fall in love at first sight, and are determined to make their lives together. Days after their engagement dinner, Dara cancels the wedding and refuses to say why. She escapes by travelling east, while Austin, back in London, faces a major tragedy, the consequences of which are life-changing. With her signature warmth and humour, Frances Mayes has written a multigenerational story about the complexity of love and the great mystery ride of marriage.

$35, Viking. Out August

The Last Dream

Pedro Almodóvar

The Last Dream brings together for the first time 12 unpublished stories from Almodóvar’s personal archive, written between the late 60s and the present day. Both a tantalising glimpse into Almodóvar’s creative mind and a masterclass in how to tell a story, this intimate and mischievous collection reflects Almodóvar’s obsessions and many of the themes of his cinematic work, spanning genres from autofiction to comedy, parody, pastiche and the gothic. $35, Harvill/Secker. Out September

ALSO OUT

The Bridegroom Was a Dog

Yoko Tawada

$27, Granta. Out August

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Satoshi Yagisawa

$25, Manilla. Out September

$33, Doubleday. Out September

$35, Hamish Hamilton. Out August

$35, Viking. Out August

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

Syou Ishida

On the top floor of an old building at the end of a cobbled alley in Kyoto lies the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only a select few – those who feel genuine emotional pain – can find it. The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients – it prescribes cats as medication. As the clinic’s patients navigate their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them towards healing, self-discovery and newfound hope.

Mouthing

Orla

Mackey

Narrated by several generations of villagers, Mouthing traces the misadventures of one small community from the mid-20th century to the early 21st in a series of highly confessional, darkly humorous monologues. As each one tells their version of events, revealing contradictory versions of “the truth”, we see how feuds are passed down through the generations, how families are estranged or reunited and fortunes made or lost. Mouthing is an acerbic, unsentimental love letter to rural Ireland, where “community” is both a lifeboat and a life sentence.

The Voyage Home

Pat Barker

After 10 blood-filled years, the war is over. Troy lies in smoking ruins as the victorious Greeks fill their ships with the spoils of battle. Alongside the treasures looted are the many Trojan women captured by the Greeks – among them the legendary prophetess Cassandra, and her watchful maid, Ritsa. Enslaved as concubine to King Agamemnon, Cassandra is plagued by visions of his death – and her own. Awaiting the fleet’s return is Queen Clytemnestra, vengeful wife of Agamemnon. The Voyage Home is the exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls

Mina’s Matchbox

Yoko Ogawa

After the death of her father, 12-year-old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. Her uncle’s magnificent colonial mansion with its sprawling gardens and pet pygmy hippo opens up a new world for Tomoko. Her growing friendship with her cousin Mina draws her into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling. Rich with the magic and mystery of youth, Mina’s Matchbox is a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.

$35, Harvill/Secker. Out August

Into a Star

Puk Qvortrup

Puk is 26 years old, preparing for the birth of her second child, when her husband has a fatal heart attack on his morning run. Into a Star follows Puk and her young family for one year after this tragedy, which has shattered the ordinary life she thought she would live. With remarkable dignity, candour and attention to the domestic details that make us human, Puk Qvortrup invites us into the hardest moments of her life. And she reveals, amid the devastation, a powerful thread of hope.

$35, Hamish Hamilton. Out August

INTERNATIONAL FICTION

$35, Allen & Unwin. Out August

$35, Hutchinson Heinemann. Out August

$35, Jonathan Cape. Out September

By Any Other Name

Jodi Picoult

As the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, Emilia Bassano has access to the theatre and finds a way to secretly bring her work to the stage. But by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history. His name? William Shakespeare. In present day Manhattan, playwright Melina Green has written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Jodi Picoult has written a sweeping tale of ambition, courage and desire that explores the ways in which two women, centuries apart, are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

Precipice

Robert

Harris

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless –is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As he reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history. Harris seamlessly weaves fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better.

Creation Lake

Rachel Kushner

American undercover agent Sadie Smith is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected civilisation and lives in a Neanderthal cave. Sadie finds Bruno’s idealism laughable, but just as she is certain she’s the puppet master of those she surveils, Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counterhistories and his own tragic story. This is a work of high art, high comedy and irresistible pleasure.

The Life Impossible

Matt Haig

After a long lost friend leaves a run-down house on a Mediterranean island to retired Maths teacher Grace Winters, she packs her bags and arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

$33, Canongate. Out September

A House Built On Sand

Tina Shaw

Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre car park, important work files – and her job, as a result. Her daughter Rose has her own troubles with memory, including a recurring vision of a locked cupboard. Back in their house by the beach, Maxine and Rose try to find their bearings. But they can’t move forward without dealing with the past –and the past has a few more surprises in store. Full of suspense and heartbreak, A House Built on Sand is a haunting novel about family secrets, the hazards of memory and ghosts that linger.

$35, Text. Out now

The Scandal of the Century

Lisa Hilton

In 1682, Lady Henrietta Berkeley flees her parents’ home in Surrey to seek a new life in London. She is the daughter of one of England’s most powerful men, and in love with her own sister’s husband. Inspired by this scandal, Aphra Behn would go on to write Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister. An immediate bestseller, it propelled Behn out of poverty, yet she remains an enigma. In The Scandal of the Century, Lisa Hilton interweaves the story of two rebellious women fighting against the suffocating traditions of 17th-century England.

$37, Michael Joseph. Out August

ALSO OUT

Person Is a Prayer

Ammar Kalia

$33, Oldcastle. Out August

Reservoir Bitches

Dahlia de la Cerda

$28, Scribe. Out September

Extract

The First Friend

Award-winning Sydney writer Malcolm Knox has been a cricket writer, literary editor, columnist and author of more than 20 fiction and nonfiction works. His latest novel The First Friend is a black comedy set in 1938 Stalin Soviet Union, which Tim Winton describes as “crackling with irony, wit and terror”. Read an extract from this chilling satire, in which a gangster mob is in charge of a global superpower

An end

Matsesta Microdistrict, Russian Soviet Socialist Republic

1 July 1938

Murtov did not see the woman’s face when she was shoved through the doorway. His eyes were focused on two palm leaves decorating the whitewashed wall. Through a small window he could see the sky and the sea, the many shades of Georgian blue that had survived the workers’ and peasants’ paradise.

He was incapable of turning his head towards the woman. His wrists and ankles were chained to the four posts of the bed and his neck was roped to an iron hook below the window. He had nowhere to hide, nor words to explain, his failure. Was he nakedly prepared for pleasure or for torture? Was there any difference? As Beria liked to say, walk westwards to your death or eastwards to your life, and one day you will meet your fate.

No mystery about what was coming: the last high, the shot to end all shots

Murtov contemplated the blueness of the Black Sea. Despite everything, the Soviet Union could still turn on the colours. Water merged with sky; Murtov thought of infinity. Outside was a day glorious enough to tempt thoughts of an outlawed God. Let the sky in, he thought. Nobody cares what noises come out and nobody can see in; it’s all ours from here.

The woman moved into his line of sight. She wore a robe the colour of her skin and her face was concealed by a curtain of black hair.

A hum rose through Murtov’s interior, low at first, reminding him of a crowd of Party functionaries gathered for an official address. That gurgle of anticipation. From the top of his stomach it filtered into the base of his chest.

Shame, he thought as he contemplated the woman, that the last person he saw in this life should be the punchline to a joke. A joke, he thought, that his last hours should be spent with his hands cuffed in shame.

A wall away from this room, he had been at lunch.

Beria barked into the telephone the hotel manager kept ferrying to and from the table. Between calls, Beria told stories. Six bald men laughed. The youngest, Adam Adamashvili Adamadze, made sure the others laughed just long enough. Their hands, through four hours of lunch, left their guns only to attend

to their food. Murtov had lost the use of his hands and his gun. He had only his eyes. He stared across the table at AAA, who stared back; a competition the workers’ paradise permitted.

Suddenly Beria announced that he was shouting his buddy Murtov a dose of afternoon delight. ‘Something to silence the voices in his head!’ The six men laughed and went back to their guns.

‘My treat,’ Beria told Murtov while having him taken to a room where his handcuffs were exchanged for chains and ropes attached to bedposts and wall hooks.

Murtov didn’t understand the flow of commerce in the Soviet Union, never had. The boss was comped everything; the boss was comped his life. It was the hotel manager’s pleasure to comp a wing of this joint for First Secretary Beria plus his security guy, his Party guy, his operations guy, his other security guy, an additional security guy and that guy’s brother, and Murtov, who until yesterday was Beria’s everything-else guy. Beria called these men his ‘friends’. They relied on him for their livelihoods and their lives. Friendship was a transaction, all barter, all taken care of, and when you thought about it, as Murtov was thinking about it now, it was impossible to say where the means came from and how it happened. Money was a river that flowed through Beria, who converted its energy for those downstream, in the form of gift and favour and don’t you worry about that.

No mystery about what was coming: the last high, the shot to end all shots.

Here she is, Murtov thought. He felt as light as a cloud, but then his muscles and his bones, his tendons and his internal organs tightened with a pulse of fury so convulsive that his ears stood out from the sides of his head.

She was not who they said she was. Had they said she was anybody? When she allowed him her face, Murtov discovered who they had been laughing at.

He wished, as he convulsed, to break his chains like Hercules.

Murtov thought he’d got Beria. He thought he’d got him good. But no, it was the boss who got Murtov, and was now, as they said in the workers’ paradise when they dared speak of such matters, sending him to the other world. The first friend would have the last laugh.

An edited extract from The First Friend by Malcolm Knox, available 3 September, published by Allen & Unwin.

CRIME & THRILLER

$35, HarperCollins. Out now

Resurrection Walk

Michael Connelly

Defence attorney Mickey Haller has agreed to represent a woman who is in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, and enlists his half-brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, as investigator. Even after five years in prison, his new client maintains her innocence. Reviewing the case, Bosch sees something that doesn’t add up. The path to true justice is, for both the lawyer and his investigator, fraught with danger from those who don’t want the case reopened. And their opponents will stop at nothing to keep the Haller-Bosch dream team from uncovering what the deputy’s killing was really about.

$23, Allen & Unwin. Out now

A Death in Cornwall

Daniel Silva

When an old friend asks art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon for help with a baffling murder investigation, Gabriel finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary. The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history, who was searching for a looted Picasso. Gabriel takes up the chase for the painting with an unlikely team of operatives that includes a worldfamous violinist and a beautiful master thief. The result is a wildly entertaining mystery that moves at lightning speed from the cliffs of Cornwall to the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.

Whole Life Sentence

Lynda La Plante

Detective Jane Tennison’s police career hangs in the balance: a single step from glory – or ruin. With her new position, she hopes things will change: the rampant sexism, the snide remarks, the undermining. Then she gets her first assignment: a five-year-old cold case no one else has any interest in investigating. But as she gathers crucial evidence, the cases she has built from the ground up are taken from her – and the glory along with them. La Plante’s final Tennison crime novel brings readers up to the point at which the famous television series Prime Suspect began.

$33, Bonnier. Out now

All the Missing Children

Zahid Gamieldien

Ilene, a working-class mother, is struggling to survive and desperate to reconnect with her children, Jack and Lonnie, in the aftermath of a near-fatal tragedy. But her children vanish, setting off a chain reaction within the community. Benji, a recovering addict, finds peace by breeding lorikeets and caring for his mother, only to have his clean life upended by a stranger’s menacing threat. Nera, a city lawyer grieving on a country farm, wants to find out who killed one of her animals and is faced with increasingly strange and unsettling answers. All the Missing Children is a gripping other-wordly tale of human frailty.

$35, Ultimo. Out now

ALSO OUT

Shadow City

Natalie Conyer $33, Echo. Out September

Jasper Cliff Josh Kemp $35, Fremantle. Out September

CRIME & THRILLER

Death at the Sanatorium

Ragnar Jónasson

Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, the Akureyri Sanatorium now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past. But a single wing remains open, housing six employees. When one of the hospital’s nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, it sets in motion a series of terrifying events. Despite just six suspects, the case remains unsolved two decades later. Until young criminologist, Helgi Reykdal, attempts to put the mysteries of the hospital’s past to rest. $35, Michael Joseph. Out August

The Dark Wives

Ann Cleeves

Folklore and fact mingle in the 11th DI Vera Stanhope novel. When a body is found by an early morning dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens, Vera is called out to investigate. Her only clue is the disappearance of 14-year-old resident Chloe. Then a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the wilds of the Northumbrian countryside. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, but it seems that the dark secrets in their community may be far more dangerous than she could ever have believed.

$35, Pan. Out August

ALSO OUT

High Wire

Candice Fox

$35, Penguin. Out September

The Worsener’s Tale

Robert Edenson

$30, Fremantle. Out now

$35, HarperCollins. Out now

$25, Pushkin Vertigo. Out September

$35, Bantam. Out August

A Town Called Treachery

Mitch Jennings

A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It’s a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it’s a major inconvenience. He didn’t take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He’d sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can let a grisly murder through to the keeper. Especially when he keeps getting scooped by a persistent kid with a disposable Kodak. A gripping, big-hearted new smalltown crime thriller from an exciting debut author.

The Little Sparrow Murders

Seishi

Yokomizo

An old friend of Kosuke Kindaichi’s invites the scruffy detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe to look into a 20-yearold murder case. But after Kindaichi arrives, a new series of murders strikes the village – several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that match the lyrics of an old local children’s song. The legendary sleuth investigates, but soon realises that he must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its rival families, to get to the truth.

Safe Enough: And Other Stories

Lee Child

Here are 20 meticulously plotted, intimate portraits of humanity at its best and worst, featuring assassins, CIA agents, gangsters, and more. A drug-dealing hit man unburdens his fears to a stranger. An overlooked rookie cop is assigned to the department’s file room. A ruthless killer only kills bad guys. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he’s outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection. Each story is entirely distinct. And with their economical prose and unexpected twists, each could only have been written by the creator of Jack Reacher.

We Solve Murders

Richard Osman

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but his days of adventure are over – adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she’s currently on a remote island keeping worldfamous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. We Solve Murders combines the heart and humour of The Thursday Murder Club with a puzzling international mystery.

$35, Viking. Out September

CRIME & THRILLER

Death at the Sign of the Rook

Kate Atkinson

Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends. As the guests arrive, we are treated to a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre-from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

$35, Doubleday. Out August

All You Took from Me

Lisa Kenway

Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a singlevehicle accident. So why is a stranger following her? After questioning patients about their dreams, she becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug might help her access missing memories. As unexplained threats escalate, Clare realises she must uncover the truth about her secretive husband, his connection to a mysterious club and what she did to trigger a stranger’s crusade for vengeance. Set between the Blue Mountains and a Sydney hospital, Lisa Kenway’s All You Took From Me is a thriller brimming with great characters and nailbiting tension.

$33, Transit Lounge. Out August

ON THE WEB

Find more new releases at www.gleebooks.com.au

$35, Bantam. Out now

The Creeper

Margaret Hickey

For the last decade, the small mountain town of Edenville in Victoria’s high country has been haunted by the horrific murders of five hikers up on Jagged Ridge. Also found dead near the scene was Bill “Creeper” Durant, a man with a known reputation for stalking campers. Conclusion: murder-suicide. Case closed. Lex Durant has started to publicly protest his brother’s innocence and accuse the police of persecution. As Detective Constable Sally White reinvestigates, it becomes clear that each murdered hiker had skeletons in their closet. This is the chilling new mystery novel from the award-winning author of Cutters End and Stone Town

SCI-FI & FANTASY

$35, Orbit Out August

$35, HarperVia. Out September

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

T.J. Klune

Arthur Parnassus has built a good life on the ashes of a bad one. He’s headmaster at an orphanage for magical children, on a peculiar island, assisted by love-of-his-life Linus Baker. And together, they’ll fight for a better future for all magical people. But when a new magical child joins their island home, Arthur knows they’ve reached breaking point. Challenged from within and without, their volatile family might grow stronger. Or everything Arthur loves could fall apart. This is the hugely-anticipated sequel to T.J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea is a cosy-fantasy triumph.

$35, Tor. Out September

The Mercy of Gods

James S.A. Corey

The Carryx – part empire, part hive – has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy. When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, Dafyd Alkhor, assistant to a prestigious scientist, is captured along with his team. Even he doesn’t suspect that his peculiar insight and skills will be the key to seeing beyond their captors’ terrifying agenda. Swept up in a conflict beyond his control, Dafyd is poised to become humanity’s champion – and its betrayer. This is where his story begins.

Toward Eternity

Anton Hur

In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal. Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human – and how love survives even the end of that humanity.

Shop Talk

The Dully Dispatch

Cold and wet outside? Good. More time for reading. Sun’s out? Good. Head to the bookshop and explore these winter reads, hand-picked by your Dully booksellers.

Australia’s Fiona McFarlane has come out swinging with a cracking new work of literature, Highway 13. We start in “Murder Town”, the unkind name given to a postcode that has seen a host of brutal murders. From here, we journey through the immense aftermath of these crimes; the very personal impact on people and places – even the nation. The ripple effect is powerful and a real eye-opener. Letitia gives it two thumbs up.

Letitia also recommends an extraordinary new dystopian novel, Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen. This one will keep you awake and horrified into the wee small hours. The planet is literally burning and we are a fly on the wall as a woman navigates life with three small children in tow. Your heart and brain will be in overload. Magnificent!

Zara has a frontrunner for her favourite fiction read of the year – Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors, a tender portrayal of sisterhood from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein. Three wildly different sisters come to terms with the death of their fourth sister – falling apart and together in the process. An enthralling read, perfect for fans of Sally Rooney and Diana Reid.

Zara also recently read two lush gothic novels, ideal for winter: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland and One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. A Sweet Sting is a wonderful sapphic retelling of the Scottish folktale “The Selkie Wife”, set on the stormy coast of 19th-century Nova Scotia. One Dark Window, on the other hand, is for our keen romantasy lovers, set in a fairytale world where a blight infects the population with dangerous magic.

Dasha and Letitia can’t (won’t) stop raving about The God of the Woods, a big, sweeping literary mystery by Liz Moore. An American camp setting in the Adirondack Mountains, a missing 13-year-old camper, the tightly-held secrets of the wealthy Van Laars family, a riveting police investigation, multiple timeframes and wonderfully complex characters. It all adds up to a deeply satisfying read. Beautifully written. FIVE STARS.

And while we are in the woods, Letitia recommends Bear by Julia Phillips. There is nothing typical about this novel. Two sisters are living pretty awful lives (terrible service jobs for rich holidayers and caring for their dying mother) when a bear – yes a big ol’ bear – saunters onto their front porch and turns their world upside

down. A captivating read. And Ann Patchett liked it too.

Meanwhile Soren, our children’s books specialist, read Patrick Ness’s new middle-grade novel Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody It is LOTS of fun and very compassionate. The emotional heart of the story is mature and compelling, but the beats are fast and silly enough to keep kids with a shorter attention span fully engaged. Highly recommended.

Koko recently read How It Works Out, a wild journey of a debut novel from Canadian author Myriam LaCroix. It follows Myriam and Allison through a series of parallel lives, dissecting their love and ever-changing dynamics. Through cannibalism, accidental motherhood and even a cross-species love affair, this book has got the lot (including many Tegan and Sara references).

Speaking of references, Koko also read Fruit of the Dead, a modern retelling of Greek myth. Hades is now the CEO of a deceitful Big Pharmaceutical company, and Persephone is his 18-year-old babysitter. Trapped on an isolated island with an NDA and no mobile service, Cory (our Persephone) is quickly shoved into a sticky world of coercion and control. With heartbreaking mother-daughter dynamics flowing through it, author Rachel Lyon breathes fresh life into this beloved tale.

So much to love here! Happy reading from the Dully team.

PS Follow us on Instagram for good times, book giveaways and more: @gleebooks_dulwich

The Dully team (from left): Soren, Arwen, Zara, Koko, Dasha, Ruby, Lachlan and Letitia.

PICTURE BOOKS

$25, Affirm Kids. Out now

$25, Affirm Kids. Out now

The Suitcase

Daniela Sosa

Be Normal!

Ged Adamson

Theo can’t wait to get his very own dog. But when Geoff arrives, Theo is confused … Geoff doesn’t play fetch, chase squirrels or do any normal doggy things. He likes painting and making smoothies! When Theo has to introduce Geoff to his friends, he’s SO embarrassed. Why can’t Geoff be like other dogs? But maybe, just maybe, Theo will discover that accepting your friends just as they are is MUCH more important than being normal. After all, why be normal … when you can be yourself?

Bernie Thinks in Boxes

Jess

Horn & Zoe Bennett

Bernie thinks in boxes. She has boxes for everything: for home, for school and even for the park. Bernie likes boxes. When things fit into boxes, they make sense. But one day, Bernie’s boxes collide, and she must find a way to make sense of her world again. A beautiful story about thinking differently and navigating change in a neurotypical world.

HERD

Stephen Hogtun

One boy thinks the summer holidays at Grandma and Grandpa’s house are boring. That is until he finds a suitcase in their attic full of mysterious, strange things! The photographs and mementos inside tell of two incredible people who went on amazing adventures, had cool outfits and explored faraway places. But who could these people be? Perhaps his grandparents have the answer … $25, Simon & Schuster. Out now

BOOKS FOR BABIES

This is a story about a little elephant and his herd. It’s a story about moving from place to place each day – and wondering what “home” means when you move around from forest to grassland to stream. Can this little elephant find his home in the world? Filled with beautiful, luminous artwork, this gorgeous picture book tells a universal story about love, family and belonging that will resonate for readers across the generations.

$25, Bloomsbury. Out now

Where Is the Green Sheep?

Mem Fox & Judy Horacek

Celebrate 20 years of this joyous Australian picture book with a beautiful, limited edition cuddly cloth book for babies. This gorgeous soft cloth book is perfect for making snuggle-time extra special. Babies will love the cute pictures of the Green Sheep and friends on crinkly pages, perfect for engaging babies’ senses. $20, Puffin. Out now

Troll

Fran Stickley & Stefano Martinuz

In this funny tale, inspired both by internet trolls and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, there is a terrifying troll that lives under a bridge. Unseen, he delights in shouting nasty things to passersby. But when a d/ Deaf bunny unwittingly faces up to him, he realises that it’s not so fun to say nasty things to someone’s face. Can Troll finally learn to love himself and others?

$15, Magic Cat. Out August

We Live in a Bus

Dave Petzold

We live in a bus. She’s called Gracie Joy Rufus Bean (we couldn’t agree on a name).

Gracie Joy Rufus Bean has six wheels and a door that opens when you push a button, tic-shhh! Join one family as they enjoy life on the road – camping under the stars, listening to nature, and making new friends along the way.

$27, Thames & Hudson. Out August

Dalmartian

Lucy Ruth Cummins

A visitor from outer space comes to Stephen’s yard one night. It may look like a Dalmatian, but it certainly doesn’t act like one. At first, Stephen and the visitor get off on the wrong paw. They quibble over kibble, debate sleeping arrangements, and must abandon Earth dogs’ approach to bathroom breaks altogether to keep the peace. Is a shared love of bacon a strong enough foundation for this ordinary Earth boy and extraordinary out-of-this-world canine to learn to live in harmony?

$25, Atheneum. Out September

Children

EARLY READERS

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody

Patrick

Ness & Tim Miller

Zeke and Daniel have just been made hall monitors by Principal Wombat. This has nothing to do with the fact that they are monitor lizards. And never mind the fact Alicia, the only other monitor lizard in the school, is also a hall monitor. Somehow, the three hall monitors must impose order on arrogant lions, excitable seals and super-relaxed pandas. Can the hall monitor lizards and their new friend, a blind, fearsome red-tailed hawk, protect their school from all manner of outlandish threats?

$17, Walker. Out September

MIDDLE GRADE

$17, UQP. Out now

$25, Walker. Out August

ALSO OUT

Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure

Meg McLaren

Watts doesn’t think he’s got what it takes to be a great detective like his parents. So when they jet off on their next case, he decides to take a holiday to Whiskerton Manor. But there, Watts befriends Pearl

Whiskerton, a curious cat who persuades him to help her investigate a series of strange goings on at the manor. Who’s been upending the precious rose bushes? And where did the dinosaur bones come from? It looks like the two things might be connected. But can this dog and cat detective duo solve the mystery?

$16, Piccadilly. Out August

How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five

Carla Fitzgerald

Sam is a kind and thoughtful 11-year-old, but he thinks he’s not that great at anything. The one thing he is good at is knowing all about the extraordinary feats in the Big Book of Records. When Sam is set a class project about a moment he’s proud of, he takes inspiration from his favourite book. He knows he’ll be proud of himself if he can break a world record! But breaking a world record isn’t easy. And things get even harder when someone close to Sam needs his help and he must decide: Will he be good? Or be the best?

Puppet

David Almond & Lizzy Stewart

What should a puppet master do when he’s old and alone, and all his puppets are gone? Sylvester makes one last puppet. But this one is different. When the old man speaks to him, Puppet speaks back. And then he walks. While Sylvester shows Puppet the town, the playground and the wonders the world holds, Puppet helps Sylvester make a new friend, and share his puppet-making skills with the next generation. Illustrated with sequences of wordless spreads by awardwinning artist Lizzy Stewart.

Yarn Quest 1

Brooke Scobie & Jade Goodwin

Tane was looking for adventure as he raced through the bush after school one day. What he was not looking for was a stranded Story Spirit urgently in need of help. Only finishing a story will get them back home. But how can telling a story change a real-life ending? And when does a story become a lie? The first in a magical new adventure trilogy for kids aged eight and up is followed by The Great River Rescue and concludes with The Power of the Heart

$13, Penguin. Out now

NONFICTION

Design & Building on Country

Paul Memmott & Alison Page

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? Join designer and artist Alison Page alongside anthropologist and architect Prof Paul Memmott as they share some of the incredible inventions created by the oldest continuing culture in the world. With striking colour illustrations from Archibald Prize-winning artist Blak Douglas.

$27, Thames & Hudson. Out September

Cloud Atlas

Sarah Zambello & Susy Zanella

The Dictionary Story

Sam Winston & Oliver Jeffers

$25, Walker. Out September Picture books

Mini Architects

Joséphine Seblon & Robert Sae-Heng

$30, Thames & Hudson. Out September Nonfiction

Come on an illustrated expedition across the sky to discover why clouds have always fascinated us. Enjoy blazing sunsets, raging storms, bright blue skies and inky nights while learning the different types of clouds and what kind of weather you can expect from each variation.

$35, Thames & Hudson. Out September

FICTION 8-12

Out of Bounds

Katherine Collette

Laughter Is the Best Ending

Maryam Master

Zee is a loner. She likes to read Oscar Wilde and watch documentaries all day which, according to her parents, is not normal for 13 year olds. So they decide to send her on a five-day holiday camp. Now, Zee would rather take a bath in Tabasco sauce than attend a camp called Youth Fusion. But with influencer Tiffanee and super-nerds Jonah and Moses, she soon finds herself in the middle of a hair-rising mystery.

$17, Pan. Out August

Join Maryam at Gleebooks as she launches her new book. 17 August, 3pm, Gleebooks’ Glebe store.

When you’re 12 years old and 6 foot tall, people ask the most annoying questions.

The #1 Most Annoying Question is, ‘Do you play basketball?’ Uh, no. Alma hates basketball. Then she wins a scholarship to attend a fancy, basketballobsessed girls school, and she worries about fitting in. Rather than admit she lives in Shellsville, home to Holy Grace’s biggest basketball rivals, she pretends to have grown up on a distant peach farm. But when a twist of fate means Alma has to suddenly produce large quantities of peaches, she finds herself in a bit of a jam. $18, HarperCollins. Out September

WHAT’S ON

Bird Boy

Catherine Bruton

After the tragic death of his mother, 11-yearold Will is sent to temporarily stay with his uncle in the mountains. With his new friend Omar, he discovers an osprey nest, with two small chicks inside. He forms an unbreakable bond with the birds, especially the smallest chick, who they name Whitetip. And when Whitetip breaks a wing after she is knocked out of the nest, Will is determined to save her.

As Will helps Whitetip to grow and to heal, he finds a strength inside himself that he never knew he had.

$17, Nosy Crow. Out September

Join us at Gleebooks for our free book clubs, storytimes and special events where you can immerse yourself in the magic of reading and meet your favourite authors.

COMING UP:

ƒ Lara Cain Gray explores the magical world of picture books in The Grown-up’s Guide to Picture Books. 7 September, 3.30pm.

ƒ Kate Foster discusses her book Small Acts with Deb Abela, 8 September, 10.30am.

ƒ Celebrate the 2023 Text Prize winner, The Best Witch in Paris, by Lauren Crozier. Sunday, 8 September, 2.30 for 3pm.

The Skin I’m In

Steph Tisdell

Layla is in her final year of school. It’s the last year to make sure that the next major phase of her life begins correctly because she’s got big plans. She just wants to be a normal teenager and to fit in but when her troubled cousin Marley comes to stay, he challenges everything she thought she was. Steph Tisdell’s words sparkle with humour, depth and authenticity in this extraordinary debut novel that explores cultural and personal expectations, and responsibilities.

$27, Macmillan. Out now

YOUNG ADULT GRAPHIC NOVELS

Read at Your Own Risk

Remy Lai

Once upon a time, I skipped assembly, snuck into the attic, awakened an evil and now I’m h(a)unted. When Hannah and her friends play the game Spirit of the Coin, they don’t really expect to unleash something evil. But now Hannah is experiencing unfortunate “accidents” and her journal is talking to her. Is there any way to escape the curse?

$18, A&U. Out August

There are plenty more exciting events coming up so keep an eye on the website and our instagram. Book clubs are free and once you are registered you receive a card that entitles you to 10% off all kids’ books for the rest of the year. For more information contact Rachel at rachel@gleebooks.com.au and be sure to follow our gleebooks_kids Instagram page to find updates and any last minute schedule changes. Events are free but bookings are essential, go to gleebooks.com.au or call 96602333.

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

Profiles in Hope

John Brogden

Every day, nine Australians take their own lives. Eighteen years ago, John Brogden came very close to adding his name to these statistics. But John survived and, since his recovery, he has become a passionate voice for mental health and suicide prevention. Profiles in Hope features contributions from wellknown people, such as Jacqui Lambie, Layne Beachley, Preston Campbell and Ian Thorpe, alongside powerful stories of ordinary Aussies who came through to the other side. This book is for those at risk and the people who love them and don’t know how to help.

$35, Hachette. Out September

Young Hawke

David Day

David Day’s biography of the young Bob Hawke takes readers on a journey, from his humble beginnings as the often-neglected son of religious zealots on the South Australian frontier to his wild ways at a succession of universities and his eventual rise as the country’s most powerful union leader. A skilled negotiator with a drive to bring Australians together, he would go on to become our most popular and accomplished prime minister. This gripping biography is a must-read for anyone interested in the first 50 years of our last truly colourful political leader. $50, HarperCollins. Out July

ALSO OUT

Geoffrey Chaucer

Mary Flannery

$40, Reaktion. Out August

Entrances and Exits

Michael Richards

$35, Permuted.

Out now

$35, Hachette. Out August

$37, Picador. Out September

Sassafras

Rebecca Huntley

The drug MDMA is made from the root of the sassafras tree. It is known as a party drug, taken to have a good time, to dance, to shed inhibitions. It has also, since early 2023, been authorised in Australia for use in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that has not responded to treatment. Rebecca had three sessions of MDMA therapy, delivered by an underground healer. The treatment changed her life, her view of the world and the way she saw the past, present and future. It led to greater wisdom, compassion and awareness of the connections between humans and the natural world.

My Good Bright Wolf

Sarah Moss

By the time she was a teenager, Sarah had developed a dangerous and controlling relationship with food, and that illness returned in her adult life. Now the mother and teacher of young adults, she explores a childhood caught in the trap of her parents’ post-war puritanism and second-wave feminism. Beautiful, audacious, moving and so very funny, Sarah Moss’s memoir is a remarkable exercise in the way a brain turns on itself, and then offers a way out: it is a blindingly brilliant experiment in and celebration of what a creative mind can do.

The Red Emperor

Michael Sheridan

Xi Jinping rules over 1.4 billion people and the second biggest economy on earth. He commands huge armed forces and runs a technology program meant to dominate the globe. Xi’s life story is full of drama: plots, purges, murders, a power struggle and a pandemic. The Red Emperor reveals how the Chinese elite groomed Xi as a manager only to get a dictator. Fresh material includes access to the papers of a deceased high official, information from personal friends of the Xi family and briefings from intelligence sources.

A Periodic Tale

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

How did a shy Polish immigrant kid – Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki – evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? He has wandered down more than a dozen career paths, from being a TV weatherman to a professional 4WD tester in the outback to being a roadie for Bo Diddley. All of these seemingly random experiences have helped create the Karl we know today. In this long-awaited autobiography, you will learn that it’s OK not to have a linear path through life, and that by following our curiosities and our passions, we can bend the universe to our liking.

$45, ABC.

Out September

$35, Headline. Out August

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

Three Wild Dogs and the Truth

Markus Zusak

What happens when the Zusaks open their family home to three big, wild, pound-hardened dogs? The answer can only be chaos: there are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property trashing, bodily injuries and stomach pumping. There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will and an explosion of love. Three Wild Dogs and the Truth is an exquisitely written memoir about the human need for connection and disorder; but it’s also a love letter to the animals who bring hilarity and beauty into our lives.

$37, Picador. Out September

A Voyage Around the Queen

Craig Brown

Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation. Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, Craig Brown presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.

$38, 4th Estate. Out September

Staff Picks

The Outside

Larry Blair and Jeremy Goring

Larry Blair shot to fame at just 19, coming from nowhere to take out the biggest ever cash prize in surfing. In an instant, he was a household name, transcending sport to become an actor, model and personality. But Larry was harbouring a deadly family secret. His dad, “Baldy” Blair, was a bank robber; his mum, Patricia, was a jewel thief. Written with longtime friend and surfing partner Jeremy Goring, The Outside is Larry Blair’s extraordinary story of overcoming impossible odds, and harnessing a deep love of the ocean, to find peace, community and a new beginning.

$37, Viking. Out now

Books we love

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque

This is the exquisite and heart-wrenching account of a young soldier, scarcely of age, who faces horrors most of us cannot imagine, and suffers more than many of us have to in a lifetime. This is one of the most necessary novels, I think, which has ever been written.

– Imogen (Glebe)

There Are Rivers in the Sky

Elif Shafak

This is an epic story spanning centuries, starting with a drop of rain in Mesopotamia which travels through the

forgotten poem of Gilgamesh, three main characters and two rivers. Arthur in 1840 by the river Thames, Narin in 2014 by the river Tigris and Zaleekhah in 2018 by the river Thames. A beautiful story. – Victoria (Blackheath)

The Invisible Doctrine

George Monbiot

If you find the current ideological dumpster fire in the US confusing, then you’ll want to read this. It’s a methodical explanation of what most of us have always sensed without being able to articulate – the system whereby the wealthy coerce governments of the world into helping the rich get richer and the

poor to … well, who cares about them? A fascinating profile of neoliberalism in all its questionable finery.

– Jane (Glebe/Blackheath)

Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales

A perfect introduction to the world of Angela Carter, where things aren’t always what they seem. These tales are crafty and bloody without fairy princesses and damsels in distress and are all the better for it. – Dan

All Fours Miranda July

All Fours gets on all fours and does things I couldn’t possibly repeat (not here, anyway). A funny, sexy, cri ducœur that HAPPENS to you! Essential (if you like that kind of thing). – Jack (Glebe)

Nonfiction

Best Laid Plans

Sean Turnell

A unique first-hand account of the radical economic reforms implemented in Myanmar under the ill-fated civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. These reforms, designed both to turn around Myanmar’s dire economy and lay the economic foundations for democracy, were brought to a dramatic end following the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021. Written by one of Suu Kyi’s key economic advisors who was imprisoned alongside her in the wake of the coup, Best Laid Plans explores the nature of the reforms, the resistance they inspired, and the events that brought this all-too brief era of change to its catastrophic conclusion.

$13, Penguin. Out August

The Golden Road

William Dalrymple

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India’s oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia.

$40, Bloomsbury. Out September

ALSO OUT

Politics

People Power

George Williams

$50, UNSW. Out September

Politics

Nature, Culture, and Inequality

Thomas Piketty

$28, Scribe. Out September

$50, Sydney University. Out August

Captured

Phillip Toner and Michael Rafferty

In seeking to undermine the power of organised labour and “unleash” market capitalism, neoliberalism promised a surge of competition, productivity and common prosperity. For the wealthy few, this has been a historically unprecedented time of capital accumulation, but for most, the results have been profoundly disappointing. Today, neoliberalism is in crisis. We are living through an age of great instability, disillusionment and despair. This book tells the story of how a small group of economists and lobby groups used neoliberalism to transform the state, and of the destructive effects of those policies on everyday life.

Housing: The Great Australian Right

Kevin Bell

The current housing crisis can be traced back to a time when growing the property market and treating housing as an investment became the dominant considerations, with the welfare of people relegated to a distant second. This order must now be reversed, beginning with making the human right to housing the central focus of the system. This will require profound changes to government policy, administration and legislation, to be fuelled by reimagining “the great Australian dream” of housing as “the great Australian right” to housing.

$20, Monash University. Out August

The History of Ideas

David Runciman

What can Samuel Butler’s ideas teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies? How did Frederick Douglass not only expose the horrors of slavery, but champion a new approach to abolishing it? Why should we tolerate snobbery, betrayal and hypocrisy, as Judith Shklar suggested? And what does Friedrich Nietzsche predict for our future? From Rousseau to Rawls, fascism to feminism and pleasure to anarchy, this is a mind-bending tour through the history of ideas which will forever change your view of politics today.

$37, Profile. Out August

Autocracy, Inc

Anne Applebaum

We live in a time where autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The corrupt, statecontrolled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group works like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc. This book delves into why it lasts, how it works, how the democratic world has unwittingly helped to consolidate it and how we can help bring it down.

$45, Allen Lane. Out September

On the US election: Quarterly Essay 95

Don Watson

Is the US disintegrating? Don Watson offers a report from America that catches the madness and the politics of an election like no other. This is a deeply historically informed, characteristically mordant account of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and a divided country. Watson considers how things reached this pass, and what might lie ahead. An essential essay about a crucial moment of choice.

$28, Quarterly Essay. Out September

INDIGENOUS STUDIES

$37, La Trobe University. Out August

$38, La Trobe University. Out July

ESSAYS

$28, Griffith Review. Out August

Broken Heart

Shireen Morris

In late 2023, Australians voted “No” to recognising Indigenous peoples through a constitutional Voice. Broken Heart unpacks the true complex history of the referendum, illuminating how an alliance with constitutional conservatives fractured under political pressure, and a proposal conceived in compromise was killed by partisan politics. Told from the unique insider perspective of a constitutional lawyer, this book analyses the mistakes of the government and Yes advocates, the fickleness and ultimate intransigence of the right, and the betrayals and lies that led to the referendum’s defeat.

Bina

Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins

Australia’s language diversity is truly breathtaking, with more than 440 unique languages and many more dialects. Sadly, European invasion has had severe consequences for the vitality of these languages. Amid devastating loss, there has also been the birth of new languages and Aboriginal English dialects are spoken widely. Bina: First Nations Languages Old and New tells this story, from the earliest exchange of words between colonists and First Nations people to today’s reclamations. It is a creative and exciting introduction to a vital and dynamic world of language.

Griffith Review 58: Status Anxiety

Edited by Carody Culver

Like the answer to a riddle, status is all around us, but it can’t always be seen or heard. The silent switchboard behind our professional and personal interactions, status dictates our place on the guest list, in the room, at the table; through its connections to class, race and gender, it affords some of us power and wealth and others empty promises. Griffith Review 85: Status Anxiety grapples with the fallout of our status anxiety and explores what happens when we don’t measure up.

ECONOMICS

We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky

Mara Kardas-Nelson

In 2006, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on anti-poverty lending. But there are mounting concerns that small, “microfinance” loans are as likely to bury poor people in debt as they are to pull them from poverty, with borrowers facing consequences such as jail time and forced land sales. In We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky, Mara Kardas-Nelson asks: What happens when a single, financially focused solution to global inequity ignores the real drivers of poverty? Who stands to benefit and, more importantly, who gets left behind?

$38, Scribe. Out July

Always Was, Always Will Be

Thomas Mayo

Since the Voice to Parliament referendum failed last October, supporters and volunteers have been asking for guidance as to how to continue to support Indigenous recognition. Thomas Mayo, a leader of the Yes 23 campaign and co-author of the The Voice to Parliament Handbook, has written a new book to answer that question. Always Was, Always Will Be is essential reading for those who want to keep the momentum going and the number of allies growing.

$20, Hardie Grant. Out September

Jilya

Tracy Westerman

Tracy became the first Aboriginal person in Australia to complete a PhD in clinical psychology and one of the country’s foremost psychologists. In this ground-breaking memoir, Tracy draws on stories of trauma, heartbreak, hope and connection from years of practice, offering a no-holds-barred reflection on how the monocultural, one-size-fits-all approach to psychology is failing Aboriginal people and how she’s healing those wounds.

$35, UQP. Out September

MEDIA

The Men Who Killed the News

Eric Beecher

Eric Beecher knows the news business from bottom to top. He has been a journalist, editor and media proprietor, with the rare distinction of having both worked for and been sued (unsuccessfully) by the Murdochs. This book reveals the distorted role of the media moguls of the past two centuries: their techniques, strategies, behind-closed-doors machinations, and indulgent lifestyles. It explains how they have exploited the shield of the freedom of the press to undermine journalism – and truth.

$37, Scribner. Out July

The Soul

Paul Ham

For thousands of years the soul was an “organ”, an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body and ventured to the underworld, or to heaven or hell. And then, mysteriously, the “soul” disappeared. The Enlightenment called it the “mind”. And today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain. Paul Ham embarks on a journey to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind have driven the history of humankind.

$50, William Heinemann. Out July

The Siege

Ben Macintyre

On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, overlooking Hyde Park in London. There they took 26 hostages, including embassy staff, visitors, and three British citizens. A tense six-day siege ensued during which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff. Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site psychiatrist, Ben Macintyre takes readers on a gripping journey from the years and weeks of build-up on both sides, to the minute-by-minute account of the siege and rescue.

$37, Viking. Out September

$40, Fern Press. Out September

$27, Black Inc. Out August

$50, Princeton.

Out September

$37, Century. Out September

Nexus

Yuval Noah Harari

Nexus considers how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age through the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.

Repeat: A Warning from History

Dennis Glover

We live in an age that seems eerily familiar. A time of dictators, populists, organised lying, European wars, grabs for territory, ideological extremism and even antisemitism, a time when things are falling apart and the centre is struggling to hold. It has all happened before, in the 1920s and ’30s. History is sending us a warning, and unless we heed it, history will have its revenge as we repeat the disaster of the 1940s. An urgent, surprising and altogether persuasive read, Repeat: A Warning from History will open your eyes.

After 1177BC

Eric H. Cline

In this gripping sequel to his bestselling 1177 BC, Eric Cline tells how the collapse of powerful Late Bronze Age civilizations created new circumstances to which people and societies had to adapt. Those that failed to adjust disappeared from the world stage, while others transformed themselves, resulting in a new world order that included Phoenicians, Philistines, Israelites, Neo-Hittites, Neo-Assyrians, and Neo-Babylonians. Taking the story up to the resurgence of Greece marked by the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, the book also describes how world-changing innovations such as the use of iron and the alphabet emerged amid the chaos.

The Greatest Nobodies of History

Adrian Bliss

The lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII and Queen Victoria fill bookshelves and fascinate scholars all over the world. But little attention is given to the ferret who posed for the renaissance master, the servant who oversaw the Tudor’s toilet time, or the famous horse who thrilled the miserable old monarch. Equal parts fascinating and hilarious, The Greatest Nobodies of History is a surreal love letter to life’s forgotten heroes featuring hitherto undocumented accounts from Ancient Greece to the frontlines of the Great Emu War.

How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator

Theodore Papakostas

In How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator, acclaimed archaeologist Theodore Papakostas takes the reader on a spectacularly iconoclastic and hugely engrossing journey through Ancient Greece, from its beginnings in prehistory to its end. Marvelling at the exalted moments in Ancient Greek history as well as the more mundane, Papakostas introduces the reader to countless fascinating stories about the cradle of western civilization – many of which upend received wisdom about the empire as well as about archaeology itself. $33, HarperCollins. Out August

$37, Viking. Out August

$40, Text. Out now HISTORY

The Strategists

Phillips Payson O’Brien

Professor Phillips Payson O’Brien delves deep into the psyches of five of the most impactful leaders in modern history – Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Roosevelt – and their strategic methods and choices. Payson O’Brien shows how the views of these leaders were forged in World War One and the Russian Civil War, and that these views are crucial to understanding how they fought World War Two. For better or worse, the five leaders made their own choices, often ignoring external advice. The implications of the power of leaders remain with us to this day – to truly understand what is happening in Ukraine, for example, requires us to know what has influenced the leaders involved.

The Horse

Timothy C. Winegard

For millennia, the horse has carried the fate of civilisations on its powerful back. It has been the primary mode of transport, an essential farming machine, a steadfast companion and a formidable weapon of war. With its unique combination of size, speed, strength, and stamina, the horse has influenced every facet of human life and widened the scope of human ambition and achievement. The Horse is a riveting fast-paced narrative of this noble animal’s unrivalled and enduring place in human history. To know the horse is to understand the world, the grand arc of history and our lives.

$35, NewSouth. Out September

Travelling to Tomorrow

Yves Reeves

A century ago, 10 Australian women headed across the Pacific to make their fortune. In doing so, they reoriented Australia towards the US years before politicians. For the artist Mary Cecil Allen, this meant spreading the word about American abstract expressionism. For the naturopath Alice Caporn, it meant evangelising fruit juices and salads. For the swimmer Isabel Letham, it was teaching synchronised swimming. Others imported the latest thinking in dentistry, fashion, design, economics, law, music, medicine and more. Individually, they have extraordinary stories; together, they change the narrative of Australian history.

TECHNOLOGY

$28, paperback, Penguin.

Out August

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

Scott J. Shapiro

Why is the internet so insecure? How do hackers exploit its vulnerabilities? Fancy Bear Goes Phishing tells the stories of five great hacks, their origins, motivations and consequences. Hackers do not just abuse computer code, they undermine the philosophical principles of computation: the very features that make computers possible also make hacking possible. Scott Shapiro explains how our information society works, the ways our data is stored and manipulated, and why it is so subject to exploitation. Both intellectual romp and dramatic true-crime narrative, Fancy Bear Goes Phishing exposes the secrets of the digital age.

POETRY

mark the dawn

Jazz Money

Jazz Money returns with her much-anticipated new poetry collection to ask about all the ways we rise to a moment. mark the dawn is a celebration of community and gathering, while negotiating the legacies of the intersecting histories we inherit. As a queer First Nations poet, Jazz Money unflinchingly declares that, despite everything that has come before, we remain glorious, abundant, sexy, joyous and determined.

$25, UQP. Out July

You Are Here

Edited by Ada Limon

For many years, “nature poetry” has evoked images of Romantic poets standing on mountain tops. But our poetic landscape has changed dramatically, and so has our planet. Edited and introduced by the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limn, this book challenges what we think we know about “nature poetry”, illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes – both literal and literary –are changing.

$40, Milkweed. Out now

ALSO OUT

Self-help

Following the Moon

James Norbury

$35, Michael Joseph Out September

Punishing Putin

Stephanie Baker

$35, Harper Collins. Out September Politics

Townsend of the Ranges

Peter Crowley

$37, NLA. Out September History

SCIENCE

The Knowledge Gene

Lynne Kelly

The knowledge gene supercharged our ability to learn and share knowledge with others, explaining the prodigious memories of indigenous people the world over. It unlocks many other puzzles too: it explains why humans are the only species to make art, offers new insights into the earliest music and storytelling, and discusses the cognitive strengths of neurodivergent people. Dr Lynne Kelly recounts how a widespread congenital disorder was the critical clue she and her collaborators needed to identify this gene as the supergene that has long eluded researchers into human cognition.

$37, Allen & Unwin. Out September

NATURE

How Birds Fly

Peter Cavanagh

Even after over a century of study, certain aspects of bird flight continue to baffle ornithologists. Peter Cavanagh, a bird photographer, pilot and expert in aerodynamics and anatomy, has dedicated a decade to crafting this remarkable book. Through awe-inspiring photography, Peter unveils the complex evolutions and physics of bird flight, making it accessible to all bird lovers. With 350 photos and illustrations. $70, Firefly. Out September

Birds of Australia

Dean Ingwersen

The fourth edition of this easy-to-use introductory identification guide to 280 bird species in Australia, including the most commonly seen and rare endemic species. High quality photographs from the author and other top Australian nature photographers are accompanied by detailed species descriptions. The user-friendly introduction covers climate, vegetation, biogeography and the key sites for viewing the listed species. $30, John Beaufoy. Out September

Cowpuppy

Gregory Berns

Gregory Berns is a leading neuroscientist who has extensively studied dogs and how they think. But when he and his wife buy a small farm in rural Georgia and populate it with a handful of cows, they can’t imagine how their lives will be transformed. As he gets to know his cows, Berns’ affection for them grows, along with his curiosity. He applies his scientific eye to the cognitive and emotional lives of his cows, who turn out to have impressive memories and to be capable of forming lasting bonds with people. Berns blends fascinating scientific explanations of animal behaviour with a candid, moving, and sometimes hilarious account of the lives of cows.

$37, Text. Out August

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

$35, UQP. Out July

$35, HarperCollins. Out August

SELF-HELP

$30, Scribe. Out July

Slick

Royce Kurmelovs

Royce Kurmelovs reveals how the US petroleum industry was warned about its environmental impacts in the 1950s and yet went on to build the Australian oil industry, which in turn tried to drill the Great Barrier Reef, sought to strong arm governments, and joined a global effort to bury the science of climate change. This superb, in-depth work of journalism provides an on-the-ground examination of how the fossil fuel industry captured Australia, and outlines what’s at stake for the survival of the planet and our democracy.

Living On Earth

Peter Godfrey-Smith

In Living on Earth, Godfrey-Smith takes us on a grand tour of the history of life on Earth. He visits Rwandan gorillas and Australian bowerbirds, coral reefs and octopus dens, and weighs the responsibilities our unique powers bring with them, as they relate to factory farming, habitat preservation, climate change, and the use of animals in experiments. Living on Earth shows that humans belong to the infinitely complex system that is the Earth, and our minds are products of that system, but we are also an acting force within it – a responsibility we must all understand and accept.

The Autist’s Guide to the Galaxy

Clara Tornvall

Following on from her internationally successful memoir, The Autists, Clara Tornvall has written a fun, comprehensive, and accessible explanation of neurotypical, or “normal”, behaviour. Full of facts, tips, and tests, and developed with input from other autists, this book places the difficulties autists face in the context of a world built for the neurotypical majority. It will help neurodiverse people – and their families, friends, and loved ones – navigate this world, nurture stronger relationships, and thrive.

PARENTING

TRAVEL

Beyond the Snow Leopard

Bill Crozier

It’s Not Fair

Eloise Rickman

Why do some adults think it’s fine to hit children? Why does the school system fail so many pupils? And when their future is on the line, why can’t children vote? Radical, compassionate, and profoundly hopeful, this powerful new book signals the start of a long-overdue conversation about how we treat children. Featuring practical solutions and the voices of children and adults who are working towards them, It’s Not Fair is a call to embrace children’s liberation and the possibility of a better, fairer world.

$33, Scribe. Out September

SELF-HELP

The Dopamine Brain

Anastasia Hronis

Australian-based, British-born doctor Bill Crozier sets out to seek the snow leopard in the Himalayas – Ladakh, Nepal and Tibet, and finds adventure, friendship, wonder and enlightenment. His guides are the 20th-century writers of the Himalayas, Peter Matthiessen (The Snow Leopard), George B. Schaller (Stones of Silence), David Snellgrove (Himalayan Pilgrimage), Eric Shipton (That Untravelled World) and the profound writings of Buddhist monks over the centuries.

$37, Carlow Books. Our September

Running with Pirates

Kári Gíslason

At the age of 18, Kari Gislason arrives on the island of Corfu after a life-altering encounter with his father in Iceland. He meets “the Pirate”, a mysterious Greek stranger who offers him work, only to find himself eventually fleeing the island, leaving behind a debt he promises to repay. Three decades later he returns to Corfu with his family. Full of the colour and vitality of the Greek islands, Running with Pirates traverses the joys and challenges of parenthood, the fearlessness of youth and the debts of our past.

$35, UQP. Out July

Sex, shopping, eating, social media, drugs and gambling are just some of the things that can trigger a release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is involved in the brain’s reward system. The overindulgence of certain pursuits can disrupt the level of dopamine in our brain, which can steer us towards habits that do not align with our core values. The Dopamine Brain offers a clear and practical way to help people find balance and harmony in their lives, weaving in the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, with case studies and reflective questions.

$37, Penguin. Out September

Wild Creature Mind

Steve Biddulph

Steve Biddulph says that we don’t just have two halves of our brain – left and right – but two minds: our normal mind, which overthinks, rattles about and gets defensive. And the real us – our complex, super-intelligent Wild Creature Mind, full of life, insight and empathy. Steve shows how adults, teens and even young children can use their intricate gut feelings to overcome anxiety, grow strong boundaries to heal and be whole again.

$37, Macmillan. Out August

PSYCHOLOGY

The Criminal Mind

Duncan Harding

Forensic psychiatrist

Duncan Harding has spent his life working with serial killers, psychopaths and children who kill their family and friends – he reckons daily with humankind’s unspeakable capacity for sadistic violence. Yet it is the humanity of these perpetrators that is the most shocking –how, with the wrong push at the wrong time, so many people are mere inches away from similar brutality. In his attempts to make sense of these unimaginable crimes, Harding confronts agonising questions – of when to call for justice, when to argue for mercy, when to break confidentiality, when to look closer, when to believe, when to forgive.

$37, Michael Joseph. Out September

Mental State

Mark Cross

Australia’s physical health system is worldrenowned but its mental health system falls miserably short. From soaring out-of-pocket costs to excruciatingly long wait times and overworked nurses to inhumane treatment conditions, we are failing people at all stages of their search for clearer, calmer minds. In this manifesto, psychiatrist Mark Cross takes a deep dive into mental ill health – who suffers, why, how we treat them and what we need to do better.

$36, ABC. Out August

ALSO OUT

You Don’t Have to Have a Dream

Tim Minchin

$37, Penguin. Out September Self-help

Sub-Human

Emma Hakansson

$35, Lantern. Out now Environment

VISUAL ART

Paris in Ruins

Sebastian Smee

More than a century after the movement began, Impressionism remains wildly popular. Crowds flock to exhibitions by its greatest artists, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet. But the oeuvre was a complex reaction to the violence, civil war and political intrigue that befell the city in 1870-1871. Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, and reveals how the chaos of that year had an incalculable effect on the development of modern art. $37, Text. Out September

PHOTOGRAPHY

Between Us: Animal Portraits

Vincent Lagrange

Photographer

Vincent Lagrange strives to capture the “emotional life and soul” of his animal subjects, employing techniques that are typically used in human portraiture to create his striking images. Photographed outside their habitat, each photo focuses on the particular characteristics and peculiarities of its subject, providing magnificent insight into their closeness to humans. This is a unique collection, more than a decade in the making. With 150 illustrations. $160, teNeues. Out September

ALSO OUT

$70, Editions Norma. Out September

$60, Thames & Hudson. Out now

THEATRE

Picasso and his Dogs

Jean-Louis Andral

In 1957, a dachshund called Lump arrived at the home of Pablo Picasso, whose life he shared until 1973. This book charts Picasso’s intimate family life, with Jacqueline, Claude and Paloma, and with the animals that populated the villa La Californie, as well as his artistic life. This unusual biography of Picasso seen through the eyes of his dogs is richly illustrated with reproductions of his works and archive photographs.

Charles and Barbara Blackman

Christabel Blackman

Set against the burgeoning cultural art scene of 1950s Melbourne, among the soon-to-become legendary artists of the Heide group, Christabel Blackman weaves together the story of her parents, Charles and Barbara, and the influence they had on each other and on the Australian art world. With more than 160 artworks from Charles Blackman, as well as never-beforeseen sketches, letters, documents and photos, it is a beautiful and revealing portrait of two people, their art, and a world they changed forever.

Shakespeare Is Hard, But So Is Life

Fintan O’Toole

The works of Shakespeare have become staples of literature. They are everywhere, from our early schooling to the lecture rooms of academia, from classic theatre to modern adaptations on stage and screen. But how well do we really know his plays? In this witty, iconoclastic book, the bestselling author Fintan O’Toole examines four of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies – Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. He shows how their tragic heroes have been over-simplified and moulded to fit restrictive, conservative values, and restores the true heart and spirit of the classics. $30, Apollo. Out now

Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Present

Ed. Stefano Raimondi

$70, Skira. Out July Visual art

Paula ModersohnBecker

Jay A. Clarke

$115, Prestel. Out August Visual art

Visual art

Yoshida Monika Hinkel

$105, Paul Holberton. Out August

$70, Flammarion. Out September

$95, Scheidegger & Spiess. Out September

FASHION

Almodóvar: A Retrospective

Pau Gómez

Pedro Almodóvar came to prominence during La Movida Madrileña, a cultural renaissance that followed the end of Francoist Spain. His first few films characterized the sense of sexual and political freedom of the period. The filmmaker first attracted international recognition for Women of the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and has since established himself as an auteur with a unique vision. Profusely illustrated with unseen archive and behind-the-scenes stills, and featuring many first-person observations, this is an insider’s perspective on Almodóvar’s legendary achievements.

$60, Thames & Hudson. Out September

Pasolini in Chiaroscuro

Guillaume de Sardes

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an intellectual with a painfully lucid view of his time, acutely aware of the rise of consumerist society. This book demonstrates how the aesthetics of the writer-director’s films were developed and influenced through the prism of classical and contemporary art. It retraces Pasolini’s formative years studying art history at the University of Bologna under the guidance of Roberto Longhi, who held a lasting influence on Pasolini’s taste. To complete the book, works by 30 contemporary artists such as John Waters, Jenny Holzer, William Kentridge, Tom Burr, Marlene Dumas, Giovanni Fontana, and more, demonstrate Pasolini’s lasting influence on the art world.

HR Giger: The Early Years

Charly Bieler

HR Giger (1940-2014) is one of the outstanding figures in Swiss art and design history, celebrated around the world for his design of the fantastic creatures that terrified moviegoers in films such as Ridley Scott’s Alien. A trove of photographs, drawings and early art works recently unearthed in the Giger family’s former holiday home in the Grisons, now offers intimate insights into his early years. Richly illustrated with more than 230 images, this biographical book for the first time tells the story of Giger’s early years until he decided to move to Zurich and train as an architect and designer in 1962.

MUSIC

The Shortest History of Music

Andrew Ford

How has music interacted with other social forces, such as religion and the economy? How have technological changes shaped the kinds of music humans make? From lullabies to concert halls, songlines to streaming services, what has music meant to humans at different times and in different places? The Shortest History of Music is a lively, authoritative tour through several thousand years of music. Packed with colourful characters and surprising details, it sets out to understand what exactly music is – and why humans are irresistibly drawn to making it.

$28, Black Inc. Out July

ALSO OUT

Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger

The Birkenstock brand first attracted international attention in the 70s but its history dates back to 1774. Beginning with the establishment of a shoemaking dynasty and telling the story through to modern times, this is a tale of groundbreaking innovations and one family’s dedication to foot health. The title documents the work of key family members, such as Konrad and Carl Birkenstock, whose efforts permanently changed society’s understanding of footwear. It also explains the story behind the iconic Madrid model – the company’s first step toward becoming a global brand. With 70 illustrations.

John Berger and Me Nikos Papastergiadis

$33, Giramondo. Out August Visual art

My Mama, Cass

Owen Elliot-Kugell

$60, Omnibus. Out August Music

Jaime Fernandes

Joao Pedro Frois

$60, 5 Continents. Out September Visual art

Birkenstock

$130, Prestel. Out August

FOOD & DRINK

Quality Meats

Luke Powell

This essential guide from Quality Meats founder Luke Powell features more than 90 recipes with friendly, detailed instructions and step-by-step photography, along with a host of sides, desserts and accompaniments. It includes easy recipes for grilling and roasting your favourite cuts, to small plates, sandwiches and smoked briskets, to more ambitious undertakings like homemade sausages and charcuterie.

$55, Murdoch Books. Out July

GARDENING

Broccoli & Other Love Stories

Paulette Whitney

Tasmanian market gardener Paulette Whitney connects readers to the history and culture of more than 55 vegetables, fruits and herbs, sharing her horticultural know-how, kitchen wisdom and favourite seasonal recipes. Paulette surveys 11 plant families, including their surprising connections, like how every single apple is, in fact, a cousin of the rose. Through evocative storytelling and sublime photography by Luke Burgess during a year in her market garden, this book invites the reader to slow down and grow something you can really taste.

$45, Murdoch. Out now

ALSO OUT

$65, Ebury. Out September

Ottolenghi COMFORT

Yotam

Ottolenghi

Make a recipe a few times and it becomes habit. Make it enough and it becomes home. In his much-anticipated new book, Yotam Ottolenghi brings his inspiring, flavour-forward approach to comfort cooking, delivering new classics that taste of home. A bowl of pasta becomes caramelised onion orecchiette with hazelnuts and crispy sage, a warming soup is cheesy bread soup with savoy cabbage and cavolo nero, and a plate of mash is transformed into garlicky aligot potato with leeks and thyme. Weaving memories of childhood and travel with over 100 irresistible recipes, Ottolenghi COMFORT is a celebration of food and home.

Kitchen Sentimental

Annie Smithers

In her new memoir, respected chef and paddock-to-plate pioneer Annie Smithers answers the question she is asked most often: why cook? Annie takes us on a journey through every significant kitchen in her life, both domestic and professional, sharing with engaging honesty her personal development, her surprisingly complex relationship with food, and the lessons she has learned along the way to find her culinary niche at the famed du Fermier restaurant in country Victoria.

$35, Thames & Hudson. Out August

Mushroom

Gastronomy

Krista Towns

The Fishmonger’s Son

Anthony Yotis, Laura di Florio Yotis

Anthony Yotis is the son of fishmonger Konstantinos Yotis, who ran a legendary seafood stall at Footscray’s wholesale market for more than 40 years. Together with his wife Laura, Anthony has brought those years of expertise to their shop, and now to their debut cookbook. The Fishmonger’s Son is an invaluable collection of information, advice and recipes based on the most popular fish and shellfish to cook at home. It includes general cooking, storage and preparation tips, plus 70 delicious family recipes, from burgers, bao and tacos to pies, pasta and more.

$45, Plum. Out now

Karkalla at Home

Mindy Woods

Nights Out at Home

Jay Rayner

$50, Fig Tree. Out September Food

The

Plant Design Society Handbook

Jason Chongue

$45, Murdoch. Out September Gardening

Whether you forage for mushrooms in the woods or shop for them at the grocery store or farmers market, Mushroom Gastronomy will help you prepare delicious dishes with almost every kind of edible mushroom now available. This cookbook, with many vegetarian options, includes 120 recipes for using 25 varieties of both common, cultivated mushrooms and wild, gathered mushrooms for appetisers, soups and broths, main dishes, desserts, and even cocktails. Krista Towns provides stunning photographs and profiles for each mushroom variety as well as nutritional values, cooking methods and culinary tips.

$55, Gibbs Smith. Out June

Karkalla at Home features stories and profiles on more than 40 of the continent’s most readily available native ingredients, including the iconic macadamia, citruses, berries, plums, myrtles and seeds, coastal greens and succulents, and a host of exceptional native seafood. Connect to Country with more than 110 easy and inspiring recipes, including everything from breakfasts and weeknight mains to special occasion centrepieces, along with a vibrant array of drinks and desserts.

$50, Murdoch. Out September

Jack Marilynne Robinson

The Secret Life of Cows Rosamund Young

Chinatown Kitchen

Lizzie Mabbott

Kindness Community Vegan Cookbook Edgar’s Mission

Geometry of Holding Hands Alexander McCall Smith

Full of Headstones Ian Rankin

Plagued by Fire

Paul Hendrickson

Eat More Veg Annie Rigg

South of France Cookbook

Nina Parker

Plagues and Pandemics Douglas Boyd

Think Least of Death

Steven Nadler

Why Trust Science?

Naomi Oreskes

Simple Spice Vegetarian Cyrus Todiwala

Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know Colm Toibin

To the Edges of the Earth Edward J. Larson

The Pocket Anatomy of the Moving Body Michael Baker

Recipes from Andalusia

José Pizarro

Geography Is Destiny

Ian Morris

Rise and Fall: A History of the World in 10 Empires

Paul Strathern

The Deep History of Ourselves

Joseph LeDoux

Madeleine Olivia

French Connection Alexis Bergantz Radicals

Burgmann

Puzzles

Golding

Reid All About It

Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and The Last Glory Days of Baseball

Keith O’Brien

$70, Knopf

In a 13-year career from 1963 to 1986, Pete Rose was renowned as a scrappy, hard-nosed competitor from working class Cincinnati. He won three World Series, three batting titles and made 17 All-Star Games. In 1985, playing for the Cincinnati Reds, his 4,192nd hit gave him the all-time career record. It still stands today. Rose also liked to bet, running up massive debts of some $750,000 – $16,000 on one game alone. “Hustle Pete” was aided by a largely compliant press corps who turned a blind eye to the gambling and his other private “antics” of excessive drinking and various “girlfriends”.

In 1989 the gambling revelations were finally aired. Rose publicly admitted to them and was banned by Major League Baseball from the Baseball Hall of Fame in perpetuity. Rose remains in a permanent state of public disgrace and continual apology for his past actions but baseball fans still revere him and the MLB – hypocritically – continues to profit from his celebrity and statistical achievements as a player. Only in America.

The

Horror Movie Cookbook

Richard Sargent and Nevyana Dimitrova

$35, Ulysses

The subtitle (60 Deliciously Deadly Recipes by Iconic Slashers, Zombie Films, Psychological Thrillers, Sci-Fi Spooks and more) succinctly describes the book and I enjoyed creating a dinner menu of dishes inspired by some of my favourite films.

Starter

Hide and clap cocktail: vodka, Kahlua and coconut milk (The Conjuring, 2013)

Entrée

Harvest tartlets: apple and persimmon tarts with gruyere and thyme (The Wicker Man, 1973)

Main

Crawling steak: seared steak on sourdough crisps with artichoke and jalapeño spread (Poltergeist, 1982)

Dessert

Bloody floaties: fried doughnuts with red velvet ice-cream (Jaws, 1975); or Black Hole: chocolate espresso mousse with caramelised Sugar (Event Horizon, 1997)

Cookbooks are a dime a dozen. This one is genuinely amusing and cleverly designed. Also, a word of praise for the striking colour photography of the tasty dishes. Excellent.

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Fiction

1. All Fours

Miranda July

2. The Sunbird

Sara Haddad

3. Kairos

Jenny Erpenbeck

4. Long Island

Colm Toibin

5. Caledonian Road

Andrew O’Hagan

6. Blue Sisters

Coco Mellors

7. Parade

Rachel Cusk

8. Butter

Asako Yuzuki

9. Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

10. You Are Here

David Nicholls

Nonfiction Children

1. The Forever War

Nick Bryant

2. What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?

Raja Shehadeh

3. Quarterly Essay 94

Joëlle Gergis

4. Radio Birdman

Murray Englehart

5. The Silver River Jim Moginie

6. Meanjin 83/2: Winter 2024

Esther Anatolitis (ed.)

7. The Invisible Doctrine

George Monbiot

8. The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

9. Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

Ann Powers

10. Deep Water

James Bradley

1. The Kindness Project

Deborah Abela

2. Teaspoon of Light

Peter O’Connor

3. Running with Wings

Sam Squiers

4. Lightfall 3: The Dark Times

Tim Probert

5. Worst Week Ever!: Saturday Matt Cosgrove & Eva Amores

6. Goodnight, Blue Mountains

Skye Taylor

7. Queen of Dogs

Joe Weatherstone

8. Wurrtoo

Tylissa Elisara

9. Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat

Li Chen

10. ShowerLand 1: Break the Curse

Nat Amoore

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