february 2012free

Readings MonthlyGregory Day on Carrie Tiffany • Mark Rubbo on Peter Carey

aus crime$29.95>> p10

aus. fiction$39.95 $29.95>> p5

philosophy$35.00 $29.95>> p13

aus. fiction$19.95. e $16.99>> p4

young adult$16.95>> p9

dVd $39.95 >> p17

pop cd$26.95 $21.95>> p18

classical$36.95 >> p19

Programme one Bookings now oPen

With 200+ events per year, there is something for everyone. The majority of events are free and book out quickly. Don’t miss out go to wheelercentre.com

All shops open 7 days, except State Library shop, which is open Mon- Sat. Carlton 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 Hawthorn 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 Malvern 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 Port Melbourne 253 Bay St 9681 9255 St Kilda 112 Acland St 9525 3852 Readings at the State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston St 8664 7540 email us at readings@readings.com.au Browse and buy online at www.readings.com.au and at ebooks.readings.com.au

Leonard Cohen is back with some Old IdeasFebruary book, CD & DVD new-releases. More new-releases inside.

February event highlights : George Megalogenis with Barrie Cassidy, Kirsten Tranter, Elliot Perlman and Arnold Zable. More events inside.

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to Australian literature as well as a single work. Open to Victorian residents, all writing genres are eligible. The $5000 Civic Choice Award 2012 will be offered during the finalist exhibition at Federa-tion Square in November 2012. To register your interest to receive information (when it becomes available), please visit www.melbourneprizetrust.org, or call the Prize on 9696 4410.

Readings ContempoRaRy Book CluB

The Readings Contemporary Book Club will read and discuss contemporary fiction – generally new release books or books released within the last year, with a balance of both Australian and international fic-

tion. The meetings are held at the Readings office in Drummond Street, Carlton from 6.30 – 8pm in the second week of each month. The first pick for 2012 will be Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed (Sleepers, PB, $24.95) and it will be discussed at the first meeting in March.

We currently have vacancies for 2012. The year is split into two terms, each consisting of five sessions per term. The first term runs from March – July 2012 and the second from August – December 2012. The cost is $250 per member for five facilitated sessions, wine and snacks. The cost includes a $150 Readings gift card, which members can use to purchase books. Membership of a Readings Book Club will also entitle you to a discount of 20% off the recommended retail price of all full-priced fiction books at any Readings shop (except online) in 2012, on presentation of your Book Club Membership Card. Please contact Ingrid Josephine by emailing ingrid.josephine@readings.com.au by Monday 13 February 2012 for more information, or to express interest in joining the Carlton Book Club. (Please specify whether you would like to attend on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening.) When organising each night’s book club, we work on a first-come, first-serve basis.

kids' stoRytime Bring the kids down to Readings St Kilda for Story Time every Thursday, from 10.30 to 11am. Story Time is for all children aged two to five. Readings Carlton hosts Story Time every Thursday at 10.30am,

starting on Thursday 2 February 2012. It’s a free event at both shops – no need to book, just turn up and take a seat!

3 foR 2 Vintage ClassiCs

Buy three Vintage Classics for the price of two (still only $12.95 each) and receive a free Vintage Classic Hessian Bag, exclusive to Readings throughout February – only while stocks last. See page 14 for details.

most importantly from Readings custom-ers. All donations to The Readings Founda-tion over $2 are tax deductible. The 2012 grant committee included author Helen Garner, Readings staff, Peter Donoghue (ex-managing director of publisher John Wiley Australia) and Gerald Smith (Phase III Accounting). For all enquiries, or to make a donation to The Readings Founda-tion email Ingrid Josephine at foundation@readings.com.au.

national yeaR of Reading The National Year of Reading 2012 will be launched on 14 February. This initiative is, most of all, about Australia becoming a na-tion of readers. Nearly half the population struggles without the literacy skills to meet the most basic demands of everyday life and work. There are 46% of Australians who can’t read newspapers, follow a recipe, make sense of timetables, or understand the instruc-tions on a medicine bottle. It is a particular concern among indigenous communities. The inability to read puts people at a serious disadvantage in our society. People from low socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to complete secondary education and under-take further education and more likely to be unemployed and face long-term economic disadvantage. Typically, 60% of offenders in prison cannot read or have low levels of literacy. If we can improve the level of literacy in our society, we can help to break the cycle of disadvantage.

In July 2011 the Federal Government an-nounced funding of $1.3 million to support this campaign. Sign up to receive the monthly newsletter, if you haven’t already, by visiting www.love2read.org.au. The subscription form is on every page.

melBouRne pRize foR liteRatuRe The $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Lit-erature 2012 and $30,000 Best Writing Award 2012 will be open for entry in May. The prize and awards will recognise and reward both an outstanding contribution

Readings exClusiVe loVe and deVotion guided touR at state liBRaRy of ViCtoRia

Celebrate the beauty of Persian manuscripts and the stories of human and divine love that they tell in this captivating landmark exhibi-tion of works from the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford. State Library of Victoria, 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne. 9 March – 1 July 2012, 10am – 5pm daily (to 9pm Thursday), closed Good Friday. Free entry. www.love-and-devotion.com

Readings invites you to an exclusive viewing of the Love and Devotion exhibition at the State Library of Victoria on Wednesday 14 March 2012, from 6–8pm. The cost is only $25 per person, includes drinks and canapés in Mr Tulk cafe before an inspiring guided tour. For bookings and enquiries, please call Emily Harms at Readings on 9341 7726 or email emily.harms@readings.com.au with ‘SLV’s Love and Devotion’ in the subject line to book a place – but hurry, limited spaces available. The beautifully illustrated book of the exhibition, Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond, will be available at the special Readings pop-up shop in the foyer of the Library, and at www.readings.com.au, for $69.95.

2012 Readings foundation gRantsThe Readings Foundation was established by Readings managing director Mark Rub-bo in 2009 to support Victorian individuals and organisations that wish to further the development of literacy, community work and the arts. Money is raised from 10% of Readings profits, individual donations and

C I N E M A N O V A R E C O M M E N D SVisit the Cinema Nova Bar

Online bookings availableJoin our e-news for updates on the Met Opera,National Theatre and other stage spectaculars.

380 LYGON ST CARLTONwww.cinemanova.com.au

FEBRUARY 2 FEBRUARY 23

TOM HANKS SANDRA BULLOCK VIOLA DAVISSound ruins the career of a Hollywood silent movie star (Jean Dujardin) in Michel Hazanavicius’ disarming comedy. An young boy searches the five boroughs of New York to solve

a mystery and find a final message left by his late father.

From the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. A film by Stephen Daldry director of The Reader, The Hours & Billy Elliot.

Winner3 Golden Globes inc.

Best Film & Best Actor (Comedy)

Winner: Best ActorCannes Film Festival

EXTREMELY

LOUDINCREDIBLY

CLOSE+

a long goodByeWhen I first arrived in Melbourne, aged 21, it was my weekly ritual to stop in at Readings on Lygon Street, on my way home from work, and buy a book. Having moved from Adelaide [go on – insert your favourite Adelaide joke here], I was awed by my good fortune at having such an eclectic local bookshop, one where the new release fiction shelves would regularly reveal authors I was about to love. I was also, I confess, a little awed by the staff, who seemed way more sophisticated than me (I had recently worked at a bookshop in Adelaide, but one where we wore uniforms with navy polyester floral shirts, where reading literature meant you were semi-secretly seen as ‘up yourself ’ by management). I longed to hang around at the counter and talk books, but could never think of anything to say.

Later, after I’d worked for two publishers, had a child, and worked part-time at the ISBN Agency, matching rogue numbers with book titles (yes, that was an actual place and job), I became a bookseller again. It was a good bookshop, but quite a few of us staff members aspired to work at Readings instead, where, we mused, we would have a wealth of litera-ture-and-politics-loving customers, enabling us to order and sell the books we really loved. (And where we would, at last, get to ditch our embarrassing uniforms.) We used to read the Readings newsletter at the counter together to preview new releases and I decided editor of it would be my perfect job – being paid to write about new books and working at Readings. I had a couple more career moves next, but when I read a job ad for newsletter editor one day, I knew my time had come. I was working at a PR agency then and my colleagues were puzzled to hear me enthuse that this bookshop newsletter was my dream job. (‘It’s the bookshop newsletter,’ I told them. Then I politely harassed Mark Rubbo until I got the job.)

That was seven years ago. Since then, I’ve had countless entertaining bookish (and oth-er) conversations with my fellow Readings staff (who are still way more sophisticated – and far better dressed – than me, but I can cope with that now). I’ve read hundreds of new release books; made the acquaintance of so many brilliant, personable authors – par-ticularly the Australian ones whose support helps make Readings what it is; slipped in free to countless literary events; befriended customers and my fantastic guest reviewers; tried (and unexpectedly loved) new music after reading reviews by Readings staff, and had the enormous privilege of being at the helm of Readings Monthly, with the freedom to experiment with it and the wonderful im-perative to read and review new books, and interview their authors. (Okay, yes, I have also enjoyed an amazing staff discount that has helped make my home into a library.)

And now – sniff – I am moving on, return-ing to being a Readings customer. I’ll be at The Wheeler Centre, as their writer and editor. Thankfully, it’s just metres from a Readings shop, at the State Library of Victoria. Where I plan to hang around the counter and talk books, at least once a week.

—Jo Case

This Month’s News 2 Readings Monthly February 2012

From the Editor

Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com

All our Readings book and music events areentry by gold coin donation to The ReadingsFoundation, unless otherwise stated. Pleasenote that bookings do not guarantee a seat,but rather indicate to us the number of peopleto expect. To see more events or for updates on new events please visit the events page at www.readings.com.au.

7 st kilda festiValtRisten BiRdTristen Bird deals in subtle, intimate, mood-driven storytelling. Born to a country-folk musician father, he turned to his craft early, developing a style that utilises textured finger-style guitar and stringed soundscapes. tuesday 7 february, 7pm, Readings st kilda. Free, but please book on 9525 3852.

8 kiRsten tRanteR in ConVeRsation with BlanChe ClaRk

Kirsten’s second book, A Common Loss (Fourth Estate PB, $29.99) is the story of four college friends coming to terms with the loss of one of their own. As their collective memories emerge, it becomes clear that each

man in the group has his own issues from the past. Another brilliant novel from the author of The Legacy. wednesday 8 february, 6.30pm, Readings hawthorn. Free, but please book on 9819 1917.

9 st kilda festiVal the tRiangle waRs: sCReening

An inspirational story for our times, The Triangle Wars is the story of the battle being waged between local government, big business and the community over the development of a tiny sliver of crown land on the

foreshore of St Kilda. thursday 9 february, 6.30pm, Readings st kilda. Free, but please book on 9525 3852.

15 aRnold zaBlein ConVeRsation with miChael mCgiRR Join one of Melbourne’s favourite writers, author of Café Scheherazade, Sea of Many Returns and most recently, Violin Lessons (Text, PB, $29.95), for a glass of wine. Arnold is president of International PEN, Melbourne, and a human rights advocate. wednesday 15 february, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

16 elliot peRlmanin ConVeRsation with matthia dempsey

The highly acclaimed local author of Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity will join us to talk about his latest book, The Street Sweeper (Vintage, PB, Normally $32.95, our special price $29.95). thursday 16

february, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

eRiC knight In Reframe: How to Solve the World's Trickiest Problems (Black Inc., PB Normally $29.95. our special price $24.95, Ebook $12.95) Eric Knight explains how a change of focus can reveal a solution that was lying just outside your frame of vision. From terror-ism to global warming, from border security to high finance, he brings a new perspective that is both exhilarating and useful. tuesday 21 february, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

23 the stetson familyThe Stetson Family are proud to release their brand spankin’ new album, The Devil in His Sunday Best. The new album brings a rootsy and original edge to the familiar and timeless sounds of bluegrass and alt-coun-try, with songs that are at times dark and dusty, lovelorn and heartbreaking, or just downright tongue-in-cheek. Guests on the album include some of Melbourne’s finest singer/songwriters, Tracy McNeil, Liz Stringer and Marni Sheehan. thursday 23 february, 6pm, Readings st kilda. Free, no need to book.

Couldn’t quite get to Perth for the Writers Festival? Never fear: we have two of the festival’s hippest writers with us right here in Carlton …

28glen dunCan in ConVeRsation with ChRis flynn

English writer Glen Duncan is the author of The Last Werewolf (Text, PB, $22.95), released to rave reviews in 2011. Straight from the Perth Writers Festival, Glen will be talking about horror, werewolves and mystic genres

– and of his first impressions of Australia. This is an ideal opportunity to meet an author who is putting the horror back into werewolf stories. No sparkly vampires here! tuesday 28 february, 8pm, Readings Carlton. Free, please book on 9347 6633.

28Johan haRstadThis Norwegian author has got the world talking with Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in all the Confusion? Set against the background of artists like Radiohead and Beck, and in contrast to Buzz, the second man to walk the moon, the main protago-nist of the book – a thirtysomething gar-dener/musician who moves to a sharehouse after losing his job and his girlfriend – tries to do good work without being noticed. tuesday 28 february, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, please book on 9347 6633.

28 donoVan hohn in ConVeRsation with Ben BiRChallHear Donovan talk about his new book Moby-Duck (Scribe, PB, $35), the strange but true story of 28,000 bath toys lost at sea, and those who strove to find them. Tonight’s conversation will cover ducks, environmental issues and what motivates someone to find answers. Ben Birchall is one of Triple R’s Breakfasters. tuesday 28 february, 6.30pm, Readings state library of Victoria. Free, book on 8664 7540.

29 geoRge megalogenis in ConVeRsation with BaRRie CassidyIn a major new work, George Megalogenis, one of Australia’s most respected economic and political commentators asks: why, alone among developed economies, did Australia avoid the worst of 2008’s GFC? In The Australian Moment (Viking, PB, Normally $32.95, our special price $29.95), he interviews five former PMs in his search for an answer. wednesday 29 february, 6.30pm, Readings hawthorn. Free, but please book on 9819 1917.

LaunchesCaRRie tiffany

The author of Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living is back with her much-awaited second novel, Mateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99). Thursday 2 February, 6pm, Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, Free, no need to book.

anitRa nelson & fRans timmeRmanOverland editor Jeff Sparrow will launch Life without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (Pluto Press, PB, $39.95), a book that brings together diverse voices arguing against our money-based system’s ability to improve lives and prevent environmental di-saster. Friday 3 February, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book.

dR ChRistopheR wateRsProfessor David Lowe, the director of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, will launch Australia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War Two (IB Tauris, HB, $39.95). Wednesday 15 February, 6pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book.

BRuCe sheidowJoin us for the launch of The Rhythm of Mur-der, a novel of obsession, crime, police and court corruption. Saturday 25 February, 4pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book.

maRk hewsonMark Hewson’s Blanchot and Literary Criti-cism (Continuum, PB, $30) offers a highly lucid introduction to the literary criticism of Blanchot – and an exceptional introduction to a certain Western European modernism. Wednesday 29 February, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book.

Coming in March1

CaRRie tiffany in ConVeRsation with angela meyeRMateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99) is a hymn to Australian country life. Joining Carrie will be blogger and literary com-mentator Angela Meyer. thursday 1 march, 6pm, Readings st kilda. Free, but please book on 9525 3852.

1 law sChool seRiesIn 2012, Readings Carlton will host a joint Melbourne Law School/Readings series of conversations around international legal issues, from war crimes trials to empire, to the problem of fishing stocks and free trade. These conversations will be built around books written by Melbourne Law School authors and will take place in the first week of each month, starting in March. We look forward to seeing you there. Our first book

February EventsReadings Monthly Febraury 2012 3

for discussion will be Decolonising International Law (CUP, HB, $120) with Sundhya Pahuja. thursday 1 march, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

5 melBouRne’s Buildings seRiesThis year will mark the 150th anniversary of the first occupation of the Old Treasury Building. To commemorate this important anniversary in Melbourne’s political, social and architectural history, a major exhibi-tion Gold & Governors: 150 years of the Old Treasury Building will be installed in the Old Treasury Building. We are marking the occa-sion by presenting a series of talks about the impact of buildings on our collective psyche. monday 5 march, 6.30pm, Readings Carl-ton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

7 Ron Rash in ConVeRsation with peteR pieRCeRon Rash has long been a critically ac-claimed writer, but Serena catapulted him to new heights, garnering rave reviews across Australia and becoming a New York Times bestseller. The New Yorker said, ‘Rash’s evoca-tive rendering of the blighted landscape and the tough characters that inhabit it recalls both John Steinbeck and Cormac McCar-thy.’ Join us as he talks about his new novel, The Cove (Text, PB, $29.95). Set during World War I, The Cove is a novel that speaks intimately to today’s politics. wednesday 7 march, 6.30pm, Readings hawthorn. Free, but please book on 9819 1917.

8 inteRnational women’s day eVent: is women’s wRiting diffeRent to men’s?No right answer here, but certainly room for plenty of discussion. Join us in celebration of 101 years of IWD and in support of The Stella Prize, with Monica Dux, Sophie Cun-ningham, Chris Flynn and Rebecca Starford.thursday 8 march, 6.30pm, Readings Carl-ton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

14 speCial Viewing:loVe and deVotionPlease join us for an exclusive viewing of the State Library of Victoria’s latest exhibi-tion, Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond. This celebrates the beauty of Persian manuscripts, featuring rare Persian, Mu-ghal Indian and Ottoman Turkish works from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, including many from the Bodleian Librar-ies of the University of Oxford. wednesday 14 march, 6pm, state library of Victoria. Free, but please book on 8664 7540.

26 andy gRiffiths Join Andy to talk about his latest comic novel for kids, Just Doomed! (Pan Macmillan, PB, $14.99) monday 26 march, 5.30pm, westgarth theatre. Free, but bookings essential on 9347 6633.

LaunchmeRlinda BoBisFish-Hair Woman (Spinifex, PB, $29.95) explores the themes of love and pain. How much can the heart accommodate? Death and love, an enemy and a sweetheart, war and an impassioned serenade, and more. Tuesday 6 March, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book.

to me that the really good farmers know and respect that in some intrinsic way, they understand that they’re not ever actually just dealing with an individual animal, they’re dealing with a herd, with a family.’

This touching interrelation between animal and human behaviour, and the positive co-dependent nature of communities, lies at the heart of Mateship with Birds. Tiffany expresses this in many ways, including through the written notes Harry makes on the kookaburra family, which, because of the narrow columns of the milk ledger he writes them into, are condensed into short poem-like lines: ‘The sky has sufficient depth / to give each bird / its own strata / its precise allocation of air. / Yet, like us, / they find it difficult / to live in peace’.

Through the agency of Betty’s young daugh-ter Little Hazel, Tiffany shows how the per-sonal foibles of a remote farming community are often impossible to rein in or censor. The idiosyncracies that play themselves out in the sheds of farms take on some hair-raising forms, but in Mateship with Birds, the prose that depicts this is exquisitely without judge-ment. As well as having its roots in Flaubert’s famous credo – of the author being always present but never visible in the text – this stylistic approach may also be a reaction to the difficulty Tiffany had when employed to write a government report on biodiversity.

‘In the writing of that paper everything about biodiversity had to be scientific. There’s a lot of information now being col-lected about biodiversity through the obser-vations of individual farmers and landhold-ers, but the committees overseeing the report didn’t want to have any of this information in it, because it didn’t meet their rigorous scientific standards. So all the stuff based on experiencing the landscape because you live on it was all just pushed out and we had to have these appalling facts and figures and all this language that meant nothing and didn’t try to describe or honour in any way the thing it was talking about.’

As well as helping to fund her simultaneous writing of this novel, the exclusion of every-thing that wasn’t considered to be ‘hard sci-ence’ for the government report – in favour of a dry acronym-laden document which talked never of beauty but frequently of ‘ame-nity’ – helped further crystallise her approach to writing about people on the land.

As a result, Mateship with Birds is a highly aesthetic experience, which in itself is some-thing of a juxtaposition with the stereotypi-cally ad hoc nature of the backblocks culture it presents. But in the heightened pastoral realities of Carrie Tiffany, nothing is taken for granted. We are invited to look again at the country around us, and the ordinary people who know it best. In doing so, we are treated to a refreshed understanding of our fundamental condition, living as we do like all other creatures of the earth.

Gregory Day is a writer, poet and musician, whose three novels so far share the setting of the the fictional Victorian coastal town of Mangowak. His latest is The Grand Hotel (Vintage, PB, $32.95). In 2011, Day and Carrie Tiffany shared first prize in the Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize.

book which had prompted this somewhat feted return to her country of origin was not about white swans gliding through the Yorkshire rain, but rather the parsimonious dry soils and vast blue skies of the Mallee in northwestern Victoria, in the faraway conti-nent that had jolted her so much as a child. As anyone who has lived in the Mallee will tell you, it can hit you quickly in the eye and then slowly break your heart. In her debut novel, Tiffany explored with great panache the comic possibilities inherent in gung-ho nationalisation programs which throw data at dust storms, and ideas of ‘moving forward’ on a visually astonishing landscape – one that is in many ways unsuited to monocul-tural concepts or linear time.

Often the best historical writing offers us unexpected insights into our own era, and given Everyman’s Rules’ clever dovetailing of contemporary environmental issues with the historical materialism of the Better Farm-ing Train, many readers have been waiting eagerly for the next offering from Tiffany to appear. She’s taken her time, but finally – with the slim Flaubertian miniature, Mate-ship with Birds – they get their wish.

This time we’ve moved slightly east on the map of northern Victoria to a squelchy dairy farm on the Gunbower Creek at Cohuna. Mateship with Birds documents the lives of a single mother, Betty, her two children Michael and Little Hazel, and the bachelor dairyman on the next-door farm, Harry. It is a bowerbird of a book, constructed through the accumulation of closely regarded details and objects, and it’s also a moving inquiry into the similarities between the lives, and particularly the sex lives, of people and animals. More so than the first novel, where human culture was painted as vainglorious in the face of circadian realities, in Mateship with Birds Tiffany brings a deep sympathy to her characters’ life on the land, showing the way mortal loneliness abides at the very heart of our deepest connections.

In composing the novel, Tiffany spent a lot of time reading the case studies of Freud and of the British sex-psychologist Havelock Ellis. A remarkable feature of the novel is how she has transposed the pathological exactitude of such documents into a series of intensely local tableaux rich with poignancy and wit. These are people without pretensions. Betty works as a nurse at the local hospital and so is under no illusions about the physical realities of existence. In one memorable vignette, she watches a crow hopping on the bonnet of her car through the ward window as she holds the cheeks of an old man’s arse apart during a faecal impaction. Likewise, Harry is made real by the basic necessities of those around him. In his case, those necessities are largely to do with cows.

‘I spent a lot of time sitting on roadsides looking into paddocks of cows,’ Tiffany says, ‘looking at a particular herd of cows and looking at how they were 20 individual cows standing in a paddock but they weren’t, they were something more than this. And the relationship between animals that happens without speech in a herd, that happens in some other way, some bodily way that’s transferred between them and sort of plugs them together, seemed to me very similar to how families operate. It was fascinating

embroidery on the government sponsored Better Farming Train as it snakes its way through the Mallee in the 1930s) suggests to the countrywomen that they simply ‘sew the things they see around them’. Jean’s advice, like Harry’s, is both Virgilian and vernacular. And there is something of those two quali-ties in the vivid clarity of this author’s work.

Interestingly, when Carrie Tiffany arrived in Australia as a six-year-old from England, she was utterly shocked by what she saw. ‘We had a colouring book we were given on the plane. There were gum trees in it and I thought they would be pink like my gums, salmon pink. And when I found that the swans were black, I thought this was outra-geous. I thought they’d been painted by the government to match the washed-out look of everything else. It seemed hellish.’

And unlike her family’s former house in Halifax Yorkshire, whose front door opened straight out onto the street, the new house in suburban Perth had a nature strip out the front, complete with its own straggly gum tree. Tiffany remembers not only being fas-cinated by the extra space of the nature strip, but looking up the street at all the others and imagining that they all must lead some-where, most probably to the much-fabled ‘bush’, a mythical subject now being inserted into her consciousness at school.

Years later, when as an excruciatingly shy 18-year-old she became the first member of her family to attend university, Tiffany didn’t last long, preferring to take up a job as a ranger in central Australia rather than try to fit in with ‘the sea of private schoolgirls sipping milkshakes on the lawn’. Was she following that childhood nature strip trail to its inevitable destination? Perhaps, though this was not to be the end of the story.

In 2005, 20 or so years after she fled university for the bush, Tiffany’s first novel was published to such acclaim that it took her full circle back to England. Everyman’s Rules was shortlisted for the high profile Orange Prize for women writers and the prestigious Guardian First Book Award. The

New Australian Writing Feature

Gregory Day interviews Carrie Tiffany about Mateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99)

Flaubert in the bush

Carrie Tiffany made her mark on the Australian literary scene with her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, which was shortlisted for The Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Guardian

First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It won the Dobbie Award and the West Australian Premier’s Award for Fiction. Novelist Gregory Day spoke to Carrie for Readings’ New Australian Writing Feature series, about her eagerly awaited second novel, Mateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99).

eep in the middle of Carrie Tiffany’s new novel, Mateship with Birds, is perhaps a clue to the brilliant surface of her prose:

At school number 2502, Cohuna, Little Hazel’s teacher sets aside fifteen minutes on a Friday afternoon for the class to write up their nature diaries … Little Hazel brings pressed leaves and flowers from home and traces around them on the page, but they break apart and it takes too long to colour in the outlines. She takes some advice from Harry and she tries to write what she sees.

Harry, in this case, is the bachelor dairy farmer who lives next door to Little Hazel. He is good with his cows and a gentle chap, a bird watcher who writes observations about a family of kookaburras in an old milk ledger. He is also instructing Little Hazel’s elder brother Michael in the rather DIY expertise he has gained about sex, not only from his own personal stirrings, but from his clear-eyed observations of the animal world around him.

Harry’s instruction to write what you see seems simple advice, but in Carrie Tiffany’s hands it takes on a layered meaning. In her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, the main character Jean (who teaches

D

4 Readings Monthly February 2012

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 5

Michael, I loved your book – congratulations on a fine debut. But love’s a loaded word in the context of this novel, isn’t it? We hang on to it in our kin and other close relationships – some-times as a ‘last thread’ –

but there can be a whole history of devastations under its veneer. I loved the steadfastness you exhibit in your examina-tion of a sometimes quite gut-wrenching family history. Did you struggle with trying to retain some critical distance?Love is a loaded word in The Last Thread, and I think that one of the themes of this book is the idea of love, what it means to different people and how it gets cor-rupted. I’m not just talking about love between people, but about the way people see themselves. I made many false starts before I wrote The Last Thread. For a long time, the material was too confronting – too painful, too raw. It amazed me how, when I started writing about what I re-membered, my childhood returned to me in such a visceral way. For a while, when I began writing about the difficult events in my life (my father’s abuse of my brother, my stepfather’s violence, my younger brother’s disappearance), I became more depressed and felt far more vulnerable, but gradually I started to find my feet. Critical distance to the material in my childhood was a massive challenge, but it was a crucial one too. On the one hand, you have to feel the material that you are writing about in order to really bring it to life. On the other, you can’t let that raw feeling dominate you or the story.

Almost a character in its own right is the city of Newcastle. In one passage, the mother character, Nici, says ‘the city just becomes the memories you have of it’. You reside there still. Does the city have a pull all of its own, or is it so constitutive of your identity that you cannot imagine living anywhere else?I did intend Newcastle to become a kind of character in this book that changes and grows over time. I think what my mother says at that stage of the book is an interesting idea, but I don’t agree with the underlying sentiment, or maybe I think the idea should be carried through to its natural conclusion. Yes, the city you live in is partly a product of your memories, but you are constantly adding new layers of memory to the picture. The more time that you spend there, the more your expe-rience of the place diversifies and changes. I guess it’s about how you live your life: whether you repeat the past or build from it, and perhaps that’s reflected in your view of wherever you find yourself.

The ‘Michael’ character in this novel visits Holland, the country of his birth, for the last time as a 13 year old. Several of your characters are reckoning with versions of

events, stories of the past that have accreted new layers over the years. Did you return to Holland for your research for this book? Or is it written entirely from your own memories of that time, with some imaginary excava-tions of events you were too little to compre-hend fully?I haven’t been back to Holland since I was 13. So, in a sense, the Holland that I came from is a product of memory coupled with imagination. It’s more of an emotional place than a physical one. But The Last Thread is not a book about the past; it’s about how the past relates to the present. It’s about what I live with now as an adult. I like your idea of imaginary excavations. At the best of times, memory is not precise, and how can I remember precisely things that were said, when they occurred in a language with which I am no longer that competent? But I have care-fully attempted to brush back the muck, to capture what happened as I remember it. One scene that I struggled with in this way was a visit to an aunt when I was nine, just before we left Holland for the second time. She literally spoke as if I wasn’t there and decided to summarise the whole scandalous past of my family for my mother. It was horrible but fascinat-ing, my grandmother’s involvement with the Nazis, her intense anti-Semitism, the callous way that she’d treated some of her children. I’ll never forget how dramatically my view of the whole world changed in just a couple of hours, just through listen-ing to someone talk. I never looked at my grandmother in the same way again.

Towards the end you describe a pair of nineteenth-century brass candleholders from a ship, that the mother gifts to Michael. ‘They’re designed with hinges so that the candles always stay level. The ship might be going down, but at least you’ll be able to see the look on people’s faces, the water coming in.’ You’ve been prepared to stare down some really strong themes, and the candleholders, like Michael, are still around to tell the tale. Michael has the occasional nightmares, but he also has love, a child of his own to care for ... an equilibrium, of sorts? There’s a kind of question in that image of the candleholders for me. If the ship is going down, if you’re stuck down there and heading towards the bottom of the ocean, is there a point in seeing the looks on people’s faces, the water coming in? There were definitely times, while writing this book, that I wondered if illuminating all of this experience was worth it. I didn’t want to get consumed by it, and that’s always the risk, and it’s probably inevitable that it happens for a while, but somehow you have to find a way of pulling yourself free enough to be able to tell the story without becoming damaged by it all over again. Because in the end, the story isn’t about the damage, it’s about the interest-ing perspectives and experiences of the people involved. I didn’t want to become that figure of my aunt towards the end of the book who is consumed by the bitterness of her experi-ences, but at the same time, I think the past matters. I don’t think that you can bury it indefinitely. You need to be able to look at it with a steady eye and that takes practice; it helps if you can find a good balance in your life as a whole. My daugh-ter, towards the end, is a really important part of the book for me. Becoming a father really put me in a position to write this book.

Readings’ Martin Shaw interviews Michael Sala about his impressive debut novel The Last Thread (Affirm, PB $27.95, ebook $11.95).

Q&A with Michael Salathe ChemistRy of teaRsPeter CareyPenguin. HB. Normally $39.95Our special price $29.95

In 1738 French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson built a robotic duck that ate grain, which went through a ‘digestive’ system and produced faeces at the other end. Peter Carey uses meticulous research in this

story about love and devotion, set in contemporary London and the nineteenth-century German clock-making town of Furtwangen. The idea of de Vaucanson’s duck is a starting point for this wonderful and poignant novel. More than any other novelist, Carey has the ability to refashion bits of reality to create a truly original and compelling work. As a reader, I derive great pleasure from hunting out those clues.

For 13 years, Catherine Gehrig, horological conservator at the Swinburne Museum, and her colleague, Matthew Tindall, Curator of Metals, had conducted a secret affair of snatched weekends in Suffolk and secret emails (‘I kiss your toes’). Their affair was known only to Catherine’s boss, Eric Croft, the Head Curator of Horology, who encour-aged it. When Matthew dies suddenly, Catherine is denied the public rituals of death, and Eric organises for her to work on a project in an annex of the museum away from public view.

The project is the restoration of an ancient automaton, its parts packed randomly in old tea chests. In one of the chests she finds some old journals that give her a key to the nature of their contents. The journals belonged to Henry Brandling, an heir to the Brandling railway company. Henry’s first-born had died and when his second son also appeared sickly, his wife had ‘dared not love the little chap’. Henry would not abandon his little Percy and embraced all manner of treatments enthusi-astically; when the London Illustrated News reproduced the plans for de Vaucanson’s duck, it aroused such delight in young Percy that Henry determined that he should have one, travelling to Germany with the plans to com-mission the finest clockmaker to build him the Digesting Duck. In Karlsruhe, he meets a mysterious stranger, Herr Sumper, who speaks English with an East London accent and agrees to make the duck for him. But Sumper, the former apprentice to the English inventor Albert Cruickshank, who had been commissioned by Prince Albert to build a machine that could calculate and reproduce Admiralty tables, had other things in mind. He would use Henry’s money to produce a silver swan, so cleverly and ingeniously made that it would be a fitting tribute to Cruick-shank’s legacy.

As Catherine reads through these journals, Henry’s obsession and his arguments with Sumper become her obsession as she and her assistant, Amanda, a young graduate planted by Eric to keep an eye on her, painstakingly restore the swan. For Eric, the beauty and ingenuity of the swan will seduce the ‘loots and suits’ to give money to support the mu-seum in the new philistine age. As the work progresses, Catherine’s grief becomes more real and more manageable. Carey’s tortured Catherine is one his greatest characters.

The Chemistry of Tears has all of Carey’s fabulist trademarks, while at the same time examining the nature of love and grief in a unique and compassionate way: Catherine’s secret relationship with Matthew consumed her, but when he died her love could not be acknowledged; Henry’s love for his son blinded him to other relationships and experiences. It’s a deeply satisfying book on many levels.

Mark Rubbo is managing director of Readings

Book of the MonthMark’s say

One of the enjoyable things I did before Christmas was to help decide the recipients of the 2011 grants from the Readings Founda-

tion. Because of our decision to increase the percentage of Readings’ profits going to the foundation (from two to ten percent) and an increase in private donations, we had a lot more money to distribute. Without, you, our customers, we’d have nothing to give, so thank you!

The Foundation was largely inspired by Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save. In that book Singer writes about the importance of giving. While Singer was particularly talking about helping communities in undeveloped nations, our Foundation has so far concentrated on the local community.

The panel this year was struck by the number of applications from organisa-tions helping refugees and immigrants; it was obviously an area of great need, probably exacerbated by the political demonisation of refugees and asylum seekers.

We made the following grants:

Save the Children ($20,000): To deliver a new weekly literacy and play session for refugee and migrant children aged zero to six living in Fitzroy, Colling-wood and North Richmond.

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ($14,267): To support a program to foster attitudinal change by providing students and their teachers with facts about asylum seekers.

The Social Studio ($18,000): To sup-port a specialised ESL literacy and training initiative aimed at refugee youths working in fashion and design.

Concern Australia ($10,000): To pro-vide a focus on literacy and numeracy skills for young children who live on the Collingwood estate.

The River Nile Learning Centre ($9670): To support a tutor program that improves literacy and numeracy skills of young African refugee women in the inner west.

We’ve also been able to put away some money to help secure the Foundation’s future.

On a disappointing note, our lease at Port Melbourne is coming to an end. For those of you who haven’t seen the shop, it is in a beautiful heritage-listed former post office. The interior was designed for us by Edmond and Corri-gan; with Corrigan’s bright colours and a flying mezzanine, the space has an airy nautical feel to it. The shop, when we opened, was full of promise, but with rising rent, it has been difficult to sustain. We are still trying to come to an arrangement with the landlord to continue Port Melbourne as a Readings Bargains shop – our Readings Bar-gains Shop in Lygon Court, opposite Readings Carlton, has been very well received. One of my favourite authors, Alex Miller, used to live in Port Mel-bourne and when I told him we were opening in Port Melbourne, he said, ‘Oh, we’re moving to Castlemaine!’. Our St Kilda shop will service those of you in the bayside area.

News and views from Readings’ managing director Mark Rubbo

drainage system and the underground railway, illegally riding trams and stumbling upon grenades left over from the war.

Like young Harriet in Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend and nine-year-old Oskar in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, our narrator is on a quest, having suffered the death of a close fam-ily member (his twin brother Tom). But unlike the characters in those novels, whose missions are explicit (however misguided), our boy’s only purpose is to map his sur-roundings. Along the way, he stumbles upon adventure after adventure, which, rather unbelievably, all connect. We’re constantly left with the frustrating feeling that we’re looking through the eyes of an unreliable witness. First he’s scared of dogs, then he loves them. Names of people and streets sub-tly change (Kipling Lane becomes Kipling Street, Mollie becomes Molly.) It’s a com-ment on all first-person narratives and the trust we as readers must place in them.

We’re left to try to ponder this while the novel moves at a pace that would prompt smart loss of driver’s licence, were it a car. The tone is almost manic and becomes exhausting after a time. This is perhaps the point, as the Cartographer (the narrator’s superhero alter-ego) attempts to suppress his guilt and grief. In places, Twohig’s writing is overdone and clichéd, but the depth of plot saves it. It’s a fascinating debut that leaves the reader with myriad questions to muse upon, long after the last page is turned. Amy Roil blogs as The Book Witch

the longingCandice BruceVintage. PB $32.95. Ebook $28.01.

The indomitable Martin Shaw handed me this book saying, ‘You should review this. It’s right up your alley.’ With this recommendation, he was spot on. Those in art historical and gallery/museum circles will surely

recognise the name. Now based in Sydney, Candice Bruce is a well-respected art historian and curator, specialising in nineteenth century Australian Art. She is particularly well known in my other workplace (the NGV) as an expert on Eugene von Guerard.

As a first novel, The Longing is an impres-sive foray into literary fiction. Bruce deftly weaves concurrent narratives crossing time, culture and history around the central theme of loss. Isolated and struggling in her situation as housewife to a wealthy pastoral-ist she does not love, Ellis MacRorie is sent a young Gundtjimara woman, Leerpeen Weelan, as a housemaid. Leerpeen, witness to unspeakable acts of violence from colo-nialists, grapples with the loss of her family, tribal group and place. Ellis and Leerpeen, or Louisa as she is known throughout the book, gradually bond, and give strength to one another over their common grief. Both women stand out with strong writing from Bruce. The arrival of the American landscape painter Sandford P. Hart to the rural Victorian estate offers both women a distraction from their ennui, with the out-comes of their interactions with Hart leav-ing legacies which are separately devastating and exciting. More than a century later, it is NGV curatorial assistant Cornelia who brings one of these to light!

If you’re an aficionado of Australian art history or a keen gallery goer, or just simply on the lookout for a decent read with good writing and plot, then this is the book for you. I’m sure we’ll be reading more by Candice Bruce in the near future.Julia Jackson is from Readings Carlton

Australian Fictionthe last thReadMichael SalaAffirm. PB. $27.95

‘Australia Fair Lookout. Introspection strictly forbidden,’ reads a favourite Leunig cartoon of mine. I thought of this when reading Michael Sala’s fine debut novel, The Last Thread, for in it he summons a degree of

self-examination which our culture is certainly not noted for, and (until J.M. Coetzee arrived on our shores, perhaps) is likewise none too common in Australian letters. Sala, for whom the move to Australia in the 1980s – as a young boy only on the cusp of understanding – was a significant and traumatic upheaval, clearly experienced a turn within almost from the beginning. This book, all these years later, is perhaps the reckoning (one can’t say ‘work-ing out’) he had to have.

The book’s narrative arc is straightforward enough: the dimly remembered early childhood in 1970s Holland of Michaelis/Michael, from whose perspective the story is told, and his older brother Con; their emi-gration to Oz with their mum and stepdad; a return visit, maybe for good; but then back to Australia, and a hardscrabble upbringing literally at the hands of their stepdad, Dirk, and their Holocaust-obsessed (and in her life-choices seemingly masochistic!) mother Nici.

But I would caution against reading The Last Thread too much in the autobiographi-cal vein. For all we know, everything that happens in the book (and be warned, there are some squeamish moments) happened ‘in reality’, exactly as described; but the fashioning of a self is always about perspec-tives, about the stories that we tell ourselves and those that are told to us. And it is here where Sala’s storytelling gifts are everywhere on display: from his astonishingly sensi-tive, steady gaze as young Michaelis tries to process and understand his fissured world, to the vivid tableaux he conjures of the misty Dutch countryside, or the wild lonely seas of Australia’s east coast, or the many and varied faces of the city of Newcastle.

By the end I almost wanted to look away. But as W.G. Sebald has written, ‘the descrip-tion of misfortune contains within itself the possibility of its overcoming’. This tale could never be written dispassionately – the emotions are too raw, the sadness too heavy – but the filaments of hope that bind and sustain are also everywhere present. The Last Thread is a gutsy, moving, beautifully wrought and utterly compelling work by Sala – a hymn to love that I don’t think will be forgotten by any reader.Martin Shaw is from Readings Carlton

the CaRtogRapheRPeter TwohigHarper Collins. PB Normally $30Our special price $24.95. Ebook $13.99.

Peter Twohig’s Melbourne is a sinister city of laneways, hideouts, secrets, and deserted tram yards crammed with adventure. From his protagonist’s home in 1950s Richmond, to South Melbourne, Windsor,

Moonee Valley and Caulfield, he harnesses the city’s pulsating energy and turns it from mere setting into main character. His grasp of the place is beyond spectacular. Our journey comes via the 11-year-old narrator (enigmatically known to the reader as ‘T’). He takes us the back way, through the

New Fiction6 Readings Monthly February 2012

Meet the bookseller with …Jason Austin, Readings Carlton

Why do you work in books? I have always loved stories and although I love film too, books offer something very different. You create the author’s world in your head and that version of that world can differ greatly from that created by another person who has read the same book. For that reason, I feel that bookselling is about the exchange of opinions and ideas, and finding that someone likes or dislikes a book as much as I did is interesting to me.

What’s the best book you’ve read lately and why?Late last year I read Alexander Maksik’s debut novel, You Deserve Nothing, and loved it. The story of a charming English teacher behaving badly at the International School of France plays out like a mix of Dead Poet’s Society and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. I seem to love novels where the characters, like the teacher in this one, are flawed and morally ambiguous. I also loved that the novel is told from three different points of view, so we get differing angles on what is unfolding and how the teacher’s actions effect and affect his students and colleagues.

What’s the strangest experience you’ve had in a bookshop?I was working at the Borders’ South Yarra store about 11 years ago and we had a slightly unhinged guy come in. On his first visit to the store he asked me, ‘Where are ya books on murder and death?’ I gingerly directed him to the true crime section. A couple of weeks later, management had to kick him out of the store as he was reading through the true crime section with such relish that he was literally chewing his nails down to the quick and bleeding all over the books.

What’s the best experience you’ve had in a bookshop?There have been lots, but to cut it down to a recent event, a customer came up to me last year and asked if we had a copy of Three Day Road by Jo-seph Boyden. We didn’t have it in stock at the time but he said that if I ever had a chance to read it, to do so. He continued to praise the book so much and with such passion that I ordered a copy and read it. It would now have to be one of my favourite novels of all time. So I just would like to send my thanks out there to that man who gave me an awesome recommendation.

Name a book that has changed the way you think – in ways small or large.I’m cheating a bit but, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy have both taught me not to underestimate the strength of young adult fiction. Kids’ books are some of the best that I have read as an adult and I think more adults should take the time to read young adult fiction.

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 7

the little shadowsMarina EndicottAllen & Unwin. PB. $29.99

Award-winning writer Marina Endicott returns with her eagerly anticipated new novel The Little Shadows, a portrait of three sisters in the world of vaudeville, before and during World War I. A rumination on the uncertain-

ties and surprises of life, Endicott’s three sisters travel from the slapstick vaudeville of childhood to be delivered into adulthood as true artists. The assortment of eccentrics, artisans and charming charlatans who accompany them are all brought to life through Endicott’s luscious prose and extraordinary insight.

the snow ChildEowyn IveyHeadline. HB. $29.99

Exactly a year ago, I discov-ered a novel that would be among my favourites of 2012 – David Vann’s Caribou Island, about a marriage put under the microscope by the isolation and intensity of the Alaskan wilderness. Coinci-

dentally, this month I was captivated by Alaskan author/bookseller Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel, The Snow Child, a very different book that nevertheless resonates with some significant echoes – namely, that recurring central theme, but also the way it simultane-ously evokes and debunks the romance of Alaska, an exotic location for most readers.

The Snow Child is a contemporary riff on a Russian fairytale about an old couple unable to have a child. One day, they create a snow child, who comes to life, but is as elusive and fragile as snow, with predictably tragic results. Ivey’s fiftysomething couple, Jack and Mabel, have moved to Alaska as ‘home-steaders’ (farming pioneers) to flee the grief of a miscarriage, but their idealised dreams of a clean slate and a benign, yielding wilder-ness meet with a ‘different truth’, as Jack observes. (‘Alaska gave up nothing easily.’) When they report seeing a child in the snow, the couple’s sceptical neighbour Esther warns them that the harsh environment can make people ‘start seeing things you’re afraid of ... or things you’ve always wished for’.

Like all the best stories with a magical or supernatural element, Ivey keeps the reader guessing throughout as to what is real and what is imagined, or projected. And one of the aspects that makes the novel so absorb-ing is the blend of stark realism and enchant-ment in her prose. Early on, the weather is described as ‘so cold the dirty dishwater turned to ice in the air when you tossed it out’. Later, the child is ‘dusted in crystals of ice as if she had just walked through a snowstorm or spent a brilliantly cold night outdoors’. Best of all, though, the charac-ters are beautifully realised and satisfyingly nuanced, making us care desperately about what happens to them. This book kept me up all night until I finished it.Jo Case is outgoing editor of Readings Monthly

JaCk holmes and his fRiendEdmund WhiteBloomsbury. PB. $29.99. Ebook $22.99

Jack Holmes arrives in New York at the beginning of the 1960s, having studied Chinese art at college. He manages to land a plumb job at a mid-level art magazine, allowing him to rapidly set himself up to participate in

one of my favourite periods in modern times (mid-twentieth century New York life). He helps Will Wright to get a job at the same publishing firm and they become fast friends.

So begins Edmund White’s latest offering of fiction, filled with his signature observations

Also available as an eBook at www.affirmpress.com.au

THE LAST THREAD A N O V E L B Y M I C H A E L S A L A

 Can we free ourselves from the dark pull of the past?

‘MICHAEL SALA   HAS  A RARE  G IFT.   

H IS  DEBUT AS   A NOVELIST   I S   

ONE  TO  CELEBRATE . ’

RAIMOND GAITA

‘A CONFRONTING  AND COMPELLING  STORY 

OF  A FAMILY. ’ DEBRA ADELAIDE

CuRRawalli stReetChristopher MorganAllen & Unwin. PB. $27.99. Ebook $17.49

Locations are steeped in a history very few of us turn our minds to, but as we busily move about the place, our narratives interweave to tell the overarching story of our homes. Currawali Street is less a singular tale of humans than

it is the evocative history of one ordinary street and the lives lived within it. From the early innocence of pre-war 1914 to the painful and grim consequences of the Vietnam War, it celebrates the essentials of humanity; our capacity to hold secrets, to desire connection and to love deeply.

what RemainsDenise LeithAllen & Unwin. PB. $29.99. Ebook $17.49

At its core a love story spanning the breadth of the world and the interior of the heart, What Remains examines that divide between our lives before and after change. Kate Price begins her journalism career as a naïve

and idealistic young correspondent in Riyadh in 1991, and moves to embittered cynic in Baghdad, 2004. As she treks through war zones around the world, she pays the price of bearing witness to unspeak-able cruelty and devastation. Yet she finds comfort in the smallest and most tender moments, and it’s these experiences that come to represent value in her life. A story about love, friendship and the hope that springs from fearsome war, Denise Leith has crafted a book to confront the things we suspect about love but lack the words to say.

International FictionameRiCan deRVishAyad AkhtarOrion. PB. $29.99

American Dervish is the first novel from Ayad Akhtar, a Pakistani-American screen-writer and actor. Akhtar tells the story of Hayat, a young boy from a culturally Muslim family growing up in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

When the beautiful and intelligent Mina comes to live with them, Hayat’s world is dramatically changed. While neither of his parents are devoutly religious, the family identifies culturally with Islam. Mina gives Hayat his first Quran and they begin to study the text together. He experiences a reli-gious awakening of sorts which will have both wondrous and disastrous consequences for him and his family.

The novel is set in the 1980s because Akhtar was interested in depicting ‘a time before the world had politicised being Muslim’. This is an interesting approach and I think quite successful up to a point. Disappointingly however some of the characters will only reinforce Western stereotypes, particularly of Muslim men. Akhtar’s writing is clearly inspired by his filmmaking background; he cites Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese as influences. The prose is very visual and the pace and structure of the novel have a certain filmic quality. Unfortunately, the characters can also feel like actors at times, more caricatures than real people.

In the preface, Akthar writes that he ‘wanted to write a book that gave the American audi-ence a felt sense of what it was like to grow up Muslim in America’. American Dervish is cer-tainly interesting in this regard, and Hayat’s story vividly addresses the question of what it means to be both Muslim and Western. Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton

La Fille Mal GardéeCANCELLED

8 Readings Monthly February 2012

just like that – and as such, doesn’t invite continuous reading. Read a few, put it down, go experience the real world and then come back. You will be rewarded.Scott Noble is manager of Readings St Kilda

the woRld we foundThrity UmrigarHarper Collins. PB. $24.99

Described by The New York Times as ‘perceptive and often piercing’, Thrity Umrigar has returned with a breathtaking new novel about the friendship four women share. From Bombay in the late 1970s to an

unforgettable portrait of modern India, the four women navigated their way through a changing culture, only to find themselves scattered apart. Now, Armaiti is gravely ill in her new home country of America and she wants to see the friends she left behind. Each returns to the quartet bearing their own motives and secrets, but each will be forced to confront the truth about their own lives.

puReAndrew MillerSceptre. PB. $22.99

Andrew Miller returns to the historical landscape that characterised his first two novels with this visceral portrait of late eighteenth-century Paris. By 1785, the city’s oldest cemetery is overflowing, tainting the

breath of those who live nearby. A young provincial engineer is charged by the king with demolishing it, and sees it first as a chance to clear the burden of history. But Jean-Baptiste Baratte soon finds his modern stance on reason challenged, as he begins to suspect the destruction of the cemetery might be a foreshadowing of his own. A crackling gothic horror, Miller brings a city teeming with rot and muck to life, while juxtaposing modes of human thought with the impulse of the human condition.

the soldieR’s wifeJoanna TrollopeDoubleday. PB. Normally $32.95Our special price $27.95

The prolific Joanna Trollope returns with her latest novel, The Soldier’s Wife, exploring the conflicting nature of domesticity and familial love for a post-combat soldier. Dan Riley returns from a six-month tour of duty in

Afghanistan only to face the shock of the familiar becoming suddenly unfamiliar. How does a person trained to fight adjust to the gentle quietness of family living? Exploring the domestic lives of Britain’s modern army and the people they leave behind, Trollope takes a keen look at the kind of world we live in today – and those who find they no longer fit into it.

JournalssuRViVing: gRiffith ReView 35Julianne Schultz (ed.)Text. PB. $27.95

The world has been plagued by natural disasters in recent years, and it’s easy to think of society being on the brink of collapse. But behind the devastation lie many stories of renewal and hope, of survivors who pick up the

pieces and rebuild their lives and their communities. With writing by Matthew Condon, Sophie Cunningham, David Francis, Michael Gawenda, Lloyd Jones and Ian Lowe.

in store and @booki.shNew

NOT DROWNING, READINGFor the National Year of Reading, here is a book that, in Phillip Adams’s words, brings ‘a new perspective’ to the art of reading and which Robert Dessaix calls a conversation about literature ‘few readers will be able to resist’.

WOMEN OF NOTEThe allure of writing music

enticed women from all walks of life – from the convent to

the nappy-change table. Music journalist Rosalind Appleby

uncovers startling discoveries about the contribution of women

to Australian classical music.

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of the human condition and some the most exquisite prose I’ve read in quite a while. Told in two halves, the first being from Jack’s perspective and the second, nine years later, from Will’s, this really is a fascinating look into the differences and similarities between straight and gay men and the gulf in attitudes between privileged and average Joes, White manages to be both scathing and sympathetic; never once really taking sides and giving fully-fleshed characters a chance to speak for themselves. Very satisfying!Kevin Clark is from Readings Carlton

me and youNiccolo AmmanitiText. PB. $17.95. Ebook $16.16

Me and You is a gem of a novel. Lorenzo is 14 years old and has no friends, which he knows concerns his parents. He devises the means to fit into social situations, but knows he is not part of the adolescent scene. This is not

a concern to him: he likes being by himself. To pacify his parents, he tells them he has been invited away with friends for a week, but instead spends the week in the cellar of his parents’ apartment block. Happy there with his novels, comics and Playstation, his calm is disrupted by his estranged stepsister, who uses the cellar and himself as a base, as she overcomes heroin withdrawal. Desper-ately enclosed in their chosen environment, both young people learn more about their father and their own relationship with him.

Ammaniti writes with deliberate sparseness and is able to capture the angst of being dif-ferent, being tired of societal constructions and the nature of family without fanfare. Me and You is a pared down coming-of-age story. Italian writer Ammaniti has the ability to draw you in from the first page and not let you go until completion.

This novel’s story is bittersweet, subtle and wonderfully entertaining. Ammaniti has been described as one of the best novelists of our time and has won many awards. His previous novel, I’m Not Scared, has been translated into 35 different languages. Thank you to Text Publishing for bringing his words to Australia. I’ll be seeking out his other works immediately. Christine Gordon is events coordinator of Readings

suddenly a knoCk at the dooREtgar KeretVintage. PB. $19.95

Declared a genius by the New York Times, Israeli author Etgar Keret has a new, long-awaited collection of short stories, Suddenly a Knock on the Door. He’s been a hit at the Adelaide and Ubud (Bali) writers’ festivals

in recent years, had a story in a recent edition of The New Yorker – and he will be visiting our shores this month. If you haven’t familiarised yourself with Keret’s snappy, often darkly funny stories, now is the perfect time to make his acquaintance.

Keret serves up short sharp treats, over-flowing with satire, absurdity and realism – which are dark, funny, strange and even occasionally cruel. He is more interested in his situations than his characters, who are often flat and functional – but with human-ity that is at times familiar, then completely foreign. Keret’s surreal stories encompass the living and the dead, talking animals, and more. This collection includes an extraor-dinary tale of a woman who finds a zip in her boyfriend’s mouth; and in the superb opening story, a request for a story – from an author suffering writers’ block – takes a dark twist.

Keret began writing stories to find ‘a place to hide from life itself ’ and this collection feels

We all have secret lives. And we are all pretty good

at keeping them secret.

Currawalli Street is the story of one ordinary street and its families, from the pre-war innocence of early 1914 to the painful and grim consequences of the Vietnam War.

A modern classic in the making that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

OUT NOW

p y g

urrawalli Street is the story of one ordinary street as families, from the pre-war innocence of early 191e painful and grim consequences of the Vietnam W

www.mup.com.au

Memoirs of a Young Bastard ‘Tim Burstall set himself the discipline of writing every day...observing “the sexual madhouse” of Eltham in the 1950’s, reflecting on his role in it and producing one of the most evocative Australian diaries of modern times’ - Hilary McPhee.

AVAILABLE FEBRUARY

DIARIES &

ESSAYS

Demanding the Impossible asks what has become of the ideal and myth of resistance.

From the award-winning author of The Archibald Paradox and How Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia.

AVAILABLE FEBRUARY

hendeRson’s Boys 5: the pRisoneRRobert MuchamoreHodder. PB. $17.99

The many fans of the latest series from the creator of the bestselling Cherub books will be thrilled to see this instalment finally on our shelves, delivering a heady dose of action and adventure. It is June 1943 and one of

Henderson’s best agents, Marc Kilgour, is being held captive in a brutal German labour camp. A set of forged record cards could be his ticket to freedom, but might just as easily become his death warrant. A vital mission awaits him in France and Kilgour plots a daring escape with three other prisoners. But the plan goes horribly wrong.

fallen in loVeLauren KateDoubleday. HB. $22.95

In a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of one Valentine’s Day in medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about

finding and losing love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first and last time, Daniel and Luce will spend a night together like none other. These are the much talked about but never revealed stories of characters from Fallen.

sea heaRtsMargo LanaganAllen & Unwin. PB $19.99. Ebook $17.99

Hurrah! Another darkly fantastical novel from the wonderful Margo Lanagan, one of Australia's most exciting and challenging YA talents. The author of Tender Morsels explores another twisted, fairytale-like world

in this, her ‘selkie novel’. On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella discovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the people of Rollrock once Misskaella sets her heart on doing such a thing? An extraordi-nary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love. For Lanagan fans – and any reader who loves immersing themselves in beautiful language and wholly absorbing fantasy worlds. Lanagan's followers include both teenage and adult readers.

ViiiH.M. CastorPuffin. PB.$17.95

Henry VIII is a figure whose reputation precedes him – a man best known for chop-ping off heads. I didn’t know much about Henry’s rise to power, and so when I first picked up H.M. Castor’s novel VIII I had no idea

what to expect, though by the end I was impressed by this fascinating and original glimpse into the mind of the king.

The novel opens with young Henry (or Hal, to those close to him) being spirited away in the middle of the night to the Tower of Lon-don, scared and confused. And as he grows, we get a picture that is far from the power-

crazed king popularised throughout history: Hal is a boy living in the shadow of his older brother. He is not cherished by his father, but feared and despised. Throughout his life, Hal is tormented by the spectre of a blonde-haired boy who appears to him, normally at moments of trouble. He is there when Hal learns of his mother’s death, and again in his later years when he loses yet another son. We see an athletic young man with principles and dreams slowly deteriorate into a suspicious tyrant who cannot trust anyone around him.

This is a dark and gripping account which will provide you with a different take on such a well-known figure. VIII is perfect fare for readers with an interest in history, though the strength of the writing means it will appeal equally to anyone.Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton

why we BRoke upDaniel HandlerHGE. PB. $24.95

Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) is one of those writers who is puzzled by the ‘YA’ category; he writes his novels about teenagers for both adult and teen readers. This moving and funny love story is a collaboration

between novelist Handler and illustrator Maira Kalman, who Handler was keen to work with; the focus of the book was chosen partly to enable this collaboration. (Kalman wanted to paint small objects, so Handler devised a story in which small, meaningful objects would be central.)

When Ed Slaterton, the high school basket-ball hero, and the thoughtful, film-obsessed Min Green fall in love, they shock their classmates. Their relationship lasts one month and seven days;Why We Broke Up is Min’s heartbroken letter to Ed explaining why they are breaking up. She is leaving it on Ed’s doorstep, along with a box contain-ing the debris of their relationship. The LA Times raved: ‘Few male writers could make a teenage-girl narrator in the throes of romantic desire and despair seem so credible, but Handler ... [has] convincingly mined the psyche of the love struck, presenting the story in an elegant and humorous style that borrows some of the tricks he honed as Lemony Snicket.’

lunaR ChRoniCles: CindeRMarissa MeyerPuffin. PB. $16.95

A teenage cyborg mechanic called Cinder. A robotic sidekick cuter than R2-D2. The future city of New Beijing. A strange new world where the humans must ally against an untrustworthy lunar race. A handsome

prince. A dangerous plague. A missing Lunar royal heir. And yes, a glamorous ball, a glass slipper (of sorts) and an evil stepmother and stepsister. Cinder is a bewitching and engrossing sci-fi retelling of the familiar Cinderella fairytale, and hands-down one of the best books I will read this year (an early call, I know).

Sixteen-year-old Cinder works as a mechanic in the busy market area of New Beijing, toiling over other people’s robots, and trying to keep her own cyborg identity hidden. Her home life is an unhappy one; her stepmother takes the money she earns, and does nothing to hide her distaste for her adopted daugh-ter. Comfort comes in the form of Iko, her robotic companion, and Linh Peony, the younger and nicer of her two stepsisters.

New Young Adult FictionNew release Young Adult fiction titles. See picture books and books for younger and middle readers on page 15.

When Peony falls ill with the deadly letumosis illness, on the very day that Cinder comes into contact with heir to the throne Prince Kai, Cinder is drawn into the dangerous world of palace history, interplan-etary politics and potential romance.

Meyer does a fabulous job of mashing together and twisting the fairytale elements with the futuristic setting. The elaborate setting of the New Beijing metropolis, the unfamiliar technology, and the politics of an imagined new world order, are presented effortlessly to the reader, who is left to enjoy this absorbing and strange story. Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton

the fault in ouR staRsJohn GreenPenguin. PB. $19.95

John Green is one of those authors embraced by readers and critics alike, with titles like Looking for Alaska and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. His latest has attracted accolades from authors as diverse as Markus ‘The Book

Thief ’ Zusak (‘John Green at his best. You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more.’) and Jodi Picoult (‘An electric portrait of young people who learn to live life with one foot in the grave.’) Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that bought her a few years, 16-year-old Hazel’s cancer has never been anything but terminal. When she meets the gorgeous Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel falls in love with this kindred spirit. This is an ambitious and heartbreaking work that brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

switChedAmanda HockingMacmillan. PB $16.99. Ebook $11.99

Move over, vampires: the trolls have arrived. Amanda Hocking, author of the Trylle Trilogy, is already a publish-ing phenomenon, selling millions of copies of her books and becoming one of the biggest-selling names in

ebooks. Yet she’s only 26 and in 2012, her books are being published in print for the very first time. Hocking’s character-driven books feature trolls, but not as we think of them. These trolls may be a little shorter than the rest of us, but they look like humans, just a little more beautiful. And they are living amongst us …

In Switched, the first book in the series, 17-year-old Wendy has already had an unusual life after her mother tried to kill her when she was six, claiming she was a monster. She now lives with her brother and aunt but has trouble making friends, and they move regularly due to her authority issues. When dark stranger Finn arrives at her new school, events escalate and Wendy soon discovers the truth – she is a troll who was switched at birth for a human child. She must now return to her true family, the Trylle, where she is destined to inherit the throne.

The plot may not sound extraordinary, but the story is so well paced, the characters just the perfect blend of dark and light, the dialogue pitch-perfect, and the action so thrilling that it is almost impossible to put down. Thank goodness the books will all be published by March, so there won’t be long to wait between sessions of devouring the Trylle. Amanda Hocking is definitely an author to watch and, like the Twilight series, her books will be enjoyed late into the night by fantasy readers of all ages. Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 9

Readings invites you to an exclusive guided tour of the Love and Devotion exhibition,at the State Library of Victoria, Wednesday 14 March 2012, 6pm–8pm. Cost : only $25 per person—includes drinks and canapés in Mr Tulk café.

Bookings : Emily Harms on 9341 7726 or please emailemily.harms@readings.com.au and put ‘SLV’s Love and Devotion’ in the subject line.

Exclusive Tour

Crime Book of the MonthafteR the daRknessHoney Brown Viking. PB. $29.95

Trudy and Bruce take a deserved holiday by the Victorian ocean: time for them to relax, their children left behind. Of course, a detour on the way home to a cliff-top gallery seems like the right, spontaneous thing to

do. However, their misgivings when they enter the cold, glass-filled home are proven right and the following attack leaves them battered mentally and physically, with more to hide than to reveal – and someone out there knows about it. This vivid, taut story of the aftermath of Trudy and Bruce’s experience left me short of breath, as anxious as they were about every moment that followed. After the Darkness, told from Trudy’s point of view, takes many of the male/female clichés of crime and turns them on their head, as she toughs it out through Bruce’s shackling, both literally and metaphorically, during the book’s progress. A story as psychologically chilling as it is physically frightening, it is a dark look into the trauma of violence changing an everyday happy couple into one wracked with paranoia, regret and simmering violence of their own.Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton

miles off CouRseSulari Gentill Simon & Schuster. PB. $29.99

Another terrific local release to pick up is Miles Off Course, the third Rowland Sinclair book in Sulari Gentill’s 1930s-set crime series. An artist with the uncanny knack of being in the same place as drama, he

is surrounded by opulence and his favourite people at the Blue Mountains’ Hydro Majestic resort when one Harry Simpson goes missing. Giving up the luxurious pastimes of the hotel to delve into New South Wales’ High Country to find him, it becomes not just a vanishing but something much more contentious – and attracts quite the audience.

silent feaRKatherine Howell Pan Macmillan. PB $29.99. Ebook $17.99

When paramedic Holly Garland arrives at the scene of a shooting, she doesn’t expect to find her estranged brother Seth at the crime, declaring he’s friends with the victim. Detective Ella Marconi has her doubts too

– but he’s not the only aspect of the crime she wants to shine her torch over. Holly’s im-mediate fear of what Seth could reveal about her to those she is closest to, along with Ella’s realisation about the dangerous path her investigation could take, make this addictive reading from the first page.

guiltFerdinand von Schirach Text. PB $22.95, Ebook $19.74.

In the new collection of stories from the defense attorney writer of the extraordinary book Crime, von Schirach recounts – with details changed, of course – tales from Germany’s gritty criminal backlog. He is vivid

without revelling in the gore of crime, and honest about what can happen; not all criminals are prosecuted and justice isn’t always fair in the real world. His concise and revealing writing style makes for enthralling tales; Guilt is a highlight of the month.

easy moneyJens Lapidus Macmillan. PB $27.99. Ebook $16.99

Less Steig Larsson and more the punchy style of James Ellroy, this is a jarring look at Stockholm’s less white-and-shiny side. JW is a student living beyond his means, whose secretive job at a taxi company leads him

to something much more lucrative – a career in the drug trade. This entangles him with two other criminals: Jorge, out of prison and ready to get back at those who sent him there, and Mrado, high up in the Yugoslavian mafia, but not quite high enough. And they’re all out for the easy money.

the Cold, Cold gRoundAdrian McKinty Profile. PB. $29.99

Set during one of Ireland’s more notorious historical moments, the hunger strike of the early 1980s, McK-inty creates a world as real, raw and entertaining as you could hope for in your criminally-based literary

pursuits. The first in a new series follow-ing fallible Detective Sergeant Sean Duffy, this sees him following the trail of a serial killer (who, like Duffy himself, has a penchant for the opera) and investigating the death of a hunger striker’s wife. Tangling real history into the threads of the story, this is one atmospheric and enjoyable read.

phantomJo Nesbo Random. Normally $32.95Our special price $27.95

One of my favourite protagonists, Harry Hole, has made his sardonic return to Oslo after years away from the city, and is now involved in something that no one – not the police, not the criminal underbelly –

wants looked into: the death of Gusto, a young junkie. Gusto recounts what brought him to his bloody end while Hole sets off on his own investigation. No longer in the police force, with the case firmly closed, Hole seemingly poses no threat – but people are watching.

death and the oliVe gRoVeMarco Vichi Hodder Headline. Normally $32.99Our special price $29.95

In beautiful (but cold) 1960s Florence, vengeance and the simmering rage of World War II is not far away. Inspector Bordelli’s friend discovers a body that is no longer there when they go to fetch it – and is

promptly killed. In the meantime, the grimly signed-off murder of two young girls has the town in a panic; one that the Inspector can’t keep from spiralling out of control. Bordelli is the real fabric of the story; a man with enchanting friends and personality, whose shenanigans you would follow anywhere.

what it wasGeorge Pelecanos Orion. PB Normally $32.95. Our special price $27.95.

A writer on The Wire and the author of The Cut, one of my favourite novels from 2011, Pelecanos goes back to Private Investigator Derek Strange, star of his earlier crime novels. In the 1970s, Strange is in his late twenties

and has just left the police force, but finds the first case he encounters afterwards leads him right back to his partner’s area of expertise. A hunt for a ring becomes a much darker state of affairs when drugs, murder – and Pelecanos’ riveting, gritty writing – become involved.

RaylanElmore Leonard Orion. PB. $29.99

US Marshal Raylan Givens wears an oversized hat and doesn’t mess around (unless it’s with beautiful women). And such women are in abun-dance in Leonard’s three-tiered story of coal mines, their vicious executives,

professional poker players, dim-witted marijuana dealers and the organ theft industry. It could almost seem too much for Raylan, but he’s not the kind of person to mind having a lot on his plate – at least, not until it’s his own various body parts in danger.

phRyne fisheRtV tie-ins Cocaine Blues, Murder on the Ballarat Train,Green Hill Murder, Raisins and Almonds, Ruddy Gore, Death at Victoria Dock.All from Allen & Unwin. PB $22.99 each. Ebooks $17.44 each.

With the upcoming release of the television series made from Kerry Greenwood’s witty, popular and delicious-ly local 1920s-set Phryne Fisher series, the first six books will be re-released with new covers. If you

haven’t discovered these already, now is definitely the time.

New Crime Dead Write with Fiona Hardy

The CartographerBY PETER TWOHIG

In a dangerous world there’s no greater power than

imagination. The Cartographer is a bold, captivating and outrageously funny novel.

The Memory WallBY ANTHONY DOERR

Set on four continents, Anthony Doerr’s new collection

of stories is about memory: the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects

us to ourselves and to others.

10 Readings Monthly February 2012

Biography & MemoirtheRe stands my houseHans KeilsonScribe. PB $24.95. Ebook $14.95

One of Europe’s most masterful and remarkable writers, Hans Keilson’s memoirs have been trans-lated to bring this unique work to an English audi-ence. Composed in the 1990s and only recently

rediscovered, Keilson recalls his life in stunning detail. From his youth in Bran-denburg, to life as a fast-living student in Berlin, his exile in Holland and the loss of his parents, Keilson relives it all against a backdrop of economic crisis and anti-Semi-tism, but also friendship and hope. Hailed by The New York Times as ‘one of the world’s very greatest writers’, There Stands My House is an intimate portrait of a man and a century’s worth of living and writing.

poseRClaire DedererBloomsbury. PB. $19.99

After putting her back out breastfeeding her daughter ten years ago, Claire Dederer took up yoga on the advice of practically everyone who crossed her path and fell instantly in love. As her relationship with the

spiritual pretzelling of her body grew, she found herself confronting the forces that shaped her generation – the idea of what it means to be a good mother, daughter, friend and wife. The deeper she fell, the more Dederer realised she craved something less tidy and organic. Part memoir and part instructional guide to life, Poser is the story of one woman’s journey to stand on her head while keeping both feet on the ground.

not dRowning, ReadingAndrew RelphFACP. PB. $24.95

Andrew Relph overcame a childhood reading disability to become a psychoanalyst and professional conversa-tionalist. In this captivating memoir, he explores how our relationships with authors and characters can

be as vital to our development and healing as any we may discover in ‘real life’. Praised

by Robert Dessaix as a ‘conversation about literature that few readers will be able to resist joining’, Not Drowning, Reading is a marvellous ode to the powers of literature, and the friends we make within who truly mark our lives.

memoiRs of an addiCted BRain: a neuRosCientist examines his foRmeR life on dRugsMarc LewisScribe. PB $29.95. Ebook $19.95

From dabbling in cough syrup as a teenager in the 1960s to sniffing nitrous oxide in the Malay jungle and losing himself in the opium dens of Calcutta, Mark Lewis has walked the gauntlet of drug addiction

and lived to tell the tale. Now a neuroscien-tist studying the brains of troubled chil-dren, Lewis recounts his relationship with drugs from the inside out in this gripping memoir. Described by The Globe and Mail as ‘a picture of addiction as an unavoidable urge of human nature’, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain examines the chemical changes of the brain that help sustain addiction, and the psychological patterns that lead us there. This is by turns a memoir of self-destruction, rebirth and recognition.

gay life stoRiesRobert AldrichT&H. HB. $39.95

This intriguing, alternate biographical history is a page turner – Robert Aldrich’s style is comfortably erudite and his subject is fascinating way beyond what might be conjectured. The very dynamism of the

subjects’ lives (e.g. Sappho, Hadrian, Michelangelo, Walt Whitman, Radclyffe Hall) indicates what influence gay lives have had on society and culture, and there are others not so well known that indicate a far greater social tolerance than is seen today – Chen Weisong, a seventeenth-century Chinese poet, and his lover Xu Ziyun, lived together in Chen’s household, which included a wife, some concubines and various children. Christian saints, medieval monastics, nuns, poets, socialites, rulers and spies, activists and artists – diver-sity, difference and strength are celebrated in this excellent book. Illustrated with paintings, drawings, photographs and archival documents.

New Non-Fiction

FA

L

L

T H e

W A Y

WE

MEGAN CREWE

It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever

and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your

secrets.... Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you’re dead...

ava ilable now

State Libraryof Victoria

love-and-devotion.comL O V E A N D D E V O T I O NF r o m P e r s i a a n d B e y o n d

L O V E A N D D E V O T I O NF r o m P e r s i a a n d B e y o n d

L O V E A N D D E V O T I O NF r o m P e r s i a a n d B e y o n d

L O V E A N D D E V O T I O NF r o m P e r s i a a n d B e y o n d

L O V E A N D D E V O T I O NF r o m P e r s i a a n d B e y o n d

Celebrate the beauty of Persian manuscripts and their stories of human and divine love in this captivating landmark exhibition.

9 March – 1 July 201210am–5pm daily (to 9pm Thursday), closed Good FridayFree entry

State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston Street, MelbourneInquiries: 8664 7000

Image: The marriage of Yusuf and Zulaykha (detail), from Jami, Yusuf u Zulaykha, 1595, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

In partnership with:

Indemnified by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria

Major sponsors:

Conference partner: Supported by:

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 11

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar | 9780297865452 | $29.99 | hachette.com.au

‘A compelling debut with a family drama centered on questions of religious

and ethnic identity’ – Kirkus Reviews

A gripping, triumphant memoir about the power of addiction and its effect on the

brain from someone who knows the story from the inside out — as a neuroscientist,

and as a former addict.

A vivid, fast-paced, and compassionate account of the beginnings of Occupy Wall Street — the protest movement that some predict will change political

discussion in America forever.

From best-selling business writer Kazuyo Katsuma, these seven frameworks are the keys to achieving success, acquiring

inspiration, and finding a healthy work-life balance.

In this beguiling memoir Hans Keilson, one of Europe’s most masterful and remarkable

writers, has produced an unforgettable portrait of his

life and times.

In an age where people hesitate to talk about dying, Seize the Day lends us the strength to confront the

mysteries of death, gives us hope, and celebrates the

courage of the human spirit.

Australian Non-FictionmemoiRs of a young BastaRd: the diaRies of tim BuRstall noV 1953 to deC 1954Hilary McPhee & Ann Standish (eds)MUP. PB. $59.99

Prior to establishing himself as a key figure in Australian post-war cinema, Tim Burstall began keeping a diary. Set with the task of writing 500 words a day, Burstall documented life with his family and the

progressive community of early 1950s Eltham, near Melbourne. Enriched by reflections on domesticity, art, films, intellectual discussions and promiscuity, Burstall’s life provides rich fodder for the diaries that dealt mercilessly with the cast of characters surrounding him. Memoirs of a Young Bastard is one of the most evocative portraits of mid-twentieth-century bohe-mian Australia of our times, and contrasts deliciously with the Australia present in historical memory.

RupeRt muRdoCh: an inVestigation of politiCal poweRDavid McKnightAllen & Unwin. PB $32.99. Ebook $19.79

In this searing expose, David McKnight documents Rupert Murdoch’s influence over world politics, from his support for Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s to his attacks on the US Democrat and Australian Labor-held

governments of the late 2000s. Praised as ‘a study of dangerous media abuse of power and of abject government weakness in regard to it’ in Robert Manne’s foreword, Rupert Murdoch examines the secretive corporate culture of News Corp, and its ever expanding political reach around the world. As Manne puts it, this is a disturb-ing book – but essential reading for anyone interested in the construction of news and power in a Murdoch-run world.

demanding the impossiBleSylvia LawsonMUP. PB. $34.95

One of Australia’s most acute and eloquent essayists, Sylvia Lawson has turned her hand to questioning the ideal and myth of resistance. An examination of the spirit of insurrection, Lawson explores historical moments

of resistance, from the Paris riots of 1968 to the Arab Spring and Occupy movement, and from the Northern Territory Interven-tion and Aboriginal dispossession to the East Timorese and West Papuan resistance to Indonesian domination. Lawson chronicles the various means of resistance, and the ways in which people use art, protest and the simple drive to keep going to try and reinvigorate their place in the world.

the CensoR's liBRaRyNicole MooreUQR. PB. $39.95

Perhaps surprisingly, Australia was responsible for more book bannings than most other English-speaking or Western countries, from the Kama Sutra to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and James Joyce’s Ulysses. After

discovering the secret ‘censor’s library’ in the

National Archive – 793 boxes of banned books, prohibited from the 1920s to the 1980s – Nicole Moore launched this fascinating examination into the state of Australia’s moral literary watchdogs, and the largely secret activity that resulted in the deliberate withholding of knowledge from the public. Provocative and daring, Moore combines scholarship with thrilling narrative tension to expose this scandalous history.

PoliticsQuiet: the poweR of intRoVeRts in a woRld that Can’t stop talking Susan CainViking. PB. $29.95

Introverts make up at least one third of the world and are responsible for many of the most valued contribu-tions to society – yet they are often labeled ‘quiet’ and thought of as shrinking violets. In this meditation

on the power of introverts, Susan Cain shows how dramatically we undervalue these unassuming creatures and how much we lose in doing so. From anecdotal evidence to cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience, Cain reveals the surprising differences between intro-verts and their more ostentatious counter-parts. She offers practical advice on issues such as empowering an introverted child and how to negotiate better relationships with extroverts. Quiet has the power to change the way the world values these silent contributors.

RefRame: how to solVe the woRld’s tRiCkiest pRoBlemsEric KnightBlack Inc. PB Normally $29.95. Our special price $24.95. Ebook $12.95.

In this insightful new book from one of Australia’s brightest young thinkers, readers are asked to look for the solution just outside the frame of vision. Why can’t we eliminate terrorism by killing terrorists? Why can’t

we learn anything about climate change by talking about the weather? Hailed as ‘an original and vital contribution to under-standing politics’ by Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, Eric Knight’s Reframe explains how a change of focus can reveal a solution that was there all the time but for the lack of vision.

Historythe gReat diVidePeter WatsonOrion. HB. Normally $49.99Our special price $39.95

This fascinating portrait of the ancient world investi-gates the environmental patterns that led to the separation of humans across the globe. In 15,000 BC, early humankind arrived in Siberia during the Ice Age.

The vast swathes of ice present across the Bering Strait created a land bridge, enabling people to literally walk to the Americas. Thus, a division occurred between the peoples of the world. In The Great Divide, Peter Watson compares the development of humankind in the ‘Old World’ and the ‘New’, from this seminal crossing all the way up to 1500 AD and the discovery of America. It is a sterling examination ofhistory, civilisation and what it means to be human.

w w w . n e w s o u t h b o o k s . c o m . a u

Japanese World War II POW camps conjure

up a notorious picture of deprivation and brutality. The idea that sport, of all things, flourished in such hellish conditions is hard to envisage – but the truth is, it did. The Sportsmen of Changi tells the story everyone forgot – of how sport became a lifeline for POWs after the fall of Singapore, when 50 000 Australian and British soldiers became prisoners of the Japanese.

12 Readings Monthly February 2012

PhilosophyReligion foR atheistsAlain de BottonHamish Hamilton. PB. Normally $35 Our special price $29.95

Alain de Botton turns his unique philosophical viewpoint to the role of religion in an atheist’s world. Moving on from the stagnant checkmate between the vehemently religious and the fundamentally atheist, de

Botton charismatically argues that while the supernatural claims of religion may be entirely false, religion still has some very important things to teach the secular world. A non-believer himself, de Botton believes a secular society can gain much from looking to religion for insights into how to get more out of art, architecture and music, overcoming feelings of envy and inadequacy, and building a sense of community. This philosophical triumph at last gives rise to room for atheists grown tired of the blinkered view of their fundamentalist counterparts.

Environmentthe Big thiRst: the seCRet life and tuRBulent futuRe of wateRCharles FishmanFree Press. PB $23.95. Ebook $19.74

Despite countries facing water crises the world over, Earth has more than enough water to continue to sustain us all. But just as we’ve begun to re-imag-ine our relationship to food, we must also rethink how we approach and use water. After

all, most of the planet’s water isn’t found on the Earth’s surface, but fused into rock 400 miles deep. It’s the most vital substance in our lives, but also far more amazing and mysterious than we realise. Charles Fishman explores the awe-inspiring ways water runs our world in his fascinating portrait of our most necessary element. The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water: how we use it, how we find it and how we respect it.

outside the magiC sQuaRe: a handBook foR food seCuRityLolo HoubeinWakefield. PB. $45

In the next four decades, we’ll need as much food as during the last 500 years. In this call to arms, Houbein considers issues of food security, offering solutions on a three-tiered level – the street, the neighbourhood and the

global community. Houbein provides practical advice for growing your own food, discussions on dwindling oil supplies and the impact of GM foods. A must-have for anyone concerned about the future of the world’s food supply.

Cultural Studiesthe ConfliCt: woman and motheRElisabeth BadinterText. PB. $24.95. Ebook $21.46

France’s most prominent voice on feminist topics, Elisabeth Badinter, has launched a scathing polemic on the unrealistic ideals foisted upon modern mothers and the inability of women to live up to them. Met with fierce

debate in France, The Conflict posits that modern motherhood has come full circle to re-embody a more conservative vision of Woman With Child. Having previously argued against the existence of the maternal instinct, Badinter’s latest offering continues to question why our ideas of motherhood have been skewed by unachievable expectations that compromise notions of self and womanhood.

togetheR: the Rituals, pleasuRes and politiCs of CoopeRationRichard SennettYale UP. PB. $42

In this thought-provoking book, Richard Sennett explores the politics of the tribe rather than that of the city. He contends that cooperation is a craft, and our path to success as a community is to learn how

to discuss rather than debate. Three parts combine to address the nature of coopera-tion, why it has become weak and how it can be strengthened. Inspired by hope, Sennett urges us to tap into our natural capacity for cooperation in order to further our society.

Filmzona: a Book aBout a film aBout a JouRney to a RoomGeoff DyerText. PB. $22.95

Obsessed by the film Stalker, Geoff Dyer finally takes to the page to try to unlock the mysteries within that have haunted him all his adult life. Hailed as ‘possibly the best living writer in Britain’ by the Daily Telegraph, Dyer takes

the reader on a journey into a cinema and the realisation of our deepest wishes. One of the most unusual books about film ever written, Zona explores the ability of art to shape the way we journey through the world.

Musicwomen of note: the Rise of austRalian women ComposeRsRosalind ApplebyFACP. PB. $35

It might not seem plausible today, but in the early twentieth century, it was risky business for women to enter the field of composing. One such woman was diagnosed as mentally insane by her psychiatrist husband,

while several others achieved success only after divorce. Others still were forced to lie about their genders. Rosalind Appleby looks at Australia’s composing history and makes some startling discoveries about the contri-bution of women to Australian classical music. Profiling 20 women, spanning the twentieth century to the present-day, this is a fascinating insight into the battles women fought to be allowed into an industry that didn’t want to have them.

Sciencethe sCienCe delusionRupert SheldrakeHodder Headline. PB. $32.99Sure to excite science boffins everywhere, The Science Delusion posits that science is being constricted by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas, turning the ‘scientific worldview’ into a belief system. Dr Rupert Sheldrake details hardened beliefs such as

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 13

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consciousness being nothing more than the physical activity of the brain, all reality being material or physical and the world occupying the state of little more than a machine made up of dead matter. His challenge to such views has been declared by The Independent to be ‘a matter of ur-gency’, because beyond these fiercely held scientific viewpoints, science is free to be a lot more expressive, interesting and a lot more fun.

the end of illnessDavid AgusSimon & Schuster. PB. $29.99

David Agus is one of the world’s leading cancer doctors and technology innovators, and The End of Illness is his personal exploration of the human body and all the ways it works – and fails. Here,

Agus argues for the adoption of a systemic way of honouring our bodies as complex, whole systems. He charges us to take control of our individual health in previ-ously unimagined ways so that we may achieve the suddenly reachable goal of a long, vigorous life. This is essential reading for those who want to revolutionise the way we live, and discover the single most impor-tant thing we can do today to preserve our health and happiness.

Food & Winelentil as anythingHB. $54.99

This unique coffee table book with a difference comes straight from the community (and kitchen) behind the iconic Lentil as Anything restau-

rants. Included within its sumptuous pages are the stories and mouth-watering recipes of key chefs, interviews with staff members and those affiliated with the Lentil as Anything community, and writing from established Australian authors Arnold Zable, Alice Pung, and Tara June Winch.

Art & Designby Margaret Snowdon, Readings Carlton

fRenCh flaiRSebastien SiraudeauFlammarion. HB. Normally $60Our special price $49.95

While modern design often neglects cultural and artistic heritage in favour of minimalism, Siraudeau demonstrates that it isn’t necessary to forgo tradition to create a fashionable home. Vintage pieces and

antiques invoke nostalgia and tradition, while styles and periods don’t need to match – because French design is about integrating the unexpected alongside unconventional details to make a modern home unique. One hundred properties are featured in this fabulous value 800+ page book – covering delightful rural guesthous-es, urban dwellings, seaside retreats and antique shops.

how to aRChiteCtDoug PattMIT Press. PB. $19.95

How to Architect will guide you on the road to architec-ture. If you are just starting on that journey or thinking about becoming an archi-tect, it is a place to begin. If you are already an architect and want to remind yourself

of what drew you to the profession, it is a book of affirmation. And if you are just curious about what goes into the design and construction of buildings, this book tells you how architects think.

state of CRaftVictoria Woodcock (ed.)Cicada. PB. $33.95

Victoria Woodcock shakes things up, offering a fully illustrated how-to guide for making everything from mobiles to lampshades. State of Craft features interviews and contributions from all the hottest international

craft megastars, including Tatty Devine, Urban Cross Stitch and DIY Couture. Clearly explained, step-by-step craft ideas range from homemade underwear to

pom-pom necklaces and angle poise lamps made with jars. Craft has inspired a whole generation of hipsters, and has come a long way in the past ten years. State of Craft brings it all up to date.

the RenaissanCe poRtRait: fRom donatello to BelliniKeith ChristiansenYale. HB. $79.95

This book accompanies a landmark exhibition at the Bode-Museum, Berlin, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It provides new research and insight into the early history of portraiture in Italy,

examining in detail how its major art centres – Florence, the princely courts, and Venice – saw the rapid development of portraiture as closely linked to Renaissance society and politics, ideas of the individual, and concepts of beauty. Essays by leading scholars provide a thorough introduction to Renaissance portraiture, while individual catalogue entries illustrate and extensively discuss more than 160 magnificent examples of painting, drawing, manuscript illumination, sculpture, and medallic portraiture by such artists as Donatello, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Antonel-lo da Messina and Giovanni Bellini.

aliCe in wondeRland thRough the Visual aRtsDelahunty & SchulzTate. PB. $49.95

The catalogue for an exhibition that explores how Lewis Carroll’s stories have influenced the visual arts, inspiring generations of artists – ideas such as the journey from childhood to adulthood; language,

meaning and nonsense; scale and perspective; and perception and reality are explored. Artists include Balthus, Tim Burton, Peter Blake, Max Ernst, Nan Goldin, Grayson Perry, Pierre & Gilles, Annie Leibovitz, Rene Magritte, Sigmar Polke, Paula Rego, Anna Gaskell, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann.

Food & Wineby Chris Gordon, Readings Carlton

Let’s be honest; the world is changing quickly and our only elements in common with our ancestors are love and the need to eat. It seems food trends are heading in two directions: chefs who look back in time for inspiration and those who have been watching science fiction movies and believe all food can be made into foam. Given that the majority of us, here in our very own kitchens, do not have a chemistry degree, I favour cookbooks that look backwards. February is a quiet time for cookbooks, but two books about food, with a French flavour, caught my fancy this month.

fRenCh ChildRen don’t thRow foodPamela DruckermanRandom. HB. $32.95

It’s not strictly a cookbook, but does fit into my plan of making 2012 the year of reflection. British mother of three Pamela Druckerman is using her many years of living in France to compare the behaviour of French children

to that of visiting children. She argues – rightly so, I believe – that French children are raised on the food their parents eat and not ‘white’ food or ‘fast’ food or food that has been created to look like a face on a plate. This book is a sensible response to the craziness of parents who cook two meals every night – one for them and one for their children. Read this little book and rethink the joys of eating out, or at home with our children. I’m pretty sure our grandmothers didn’t cut food into shapes for their children. Ah, the old is new ...

seCRets of a lazy fRenCh CookMarie-Morgane Le MoëlHarperCollins. PB. $29.99French cook and writer Marie Morgane Le Moël arrived in Sydney ready to become a hard-bitten journalist. Things didn’t work out quite as she imagined – and she had not quite reckoned on feeling so homesick – so, she cooked up classic French food every night. This book, which includes recipes such as galette des rois (think puff pastry filled with delicious creams) is also Marie’s diary of thoughts, fears and desires for her adopted country. Think Julia Child’s time in France, but in reverse. A truly delightful book.

14 Readings Monthly February 2012

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 15

piCtuRe Booksthe little old man who looked up at the moonPamela AllenViking. HB. $24.95.

Pamela Allen is one of Australia’s most loved picture book creators, responsible for such classics as Who Sank the Boat? and the Mr McGee books. Her latest

outing, The Little Old Man Who Looked Up at the Moon, touches on universal themes in a playful yet thought-provoking way. A little old man looks up at the moon. ‘Does the sky go on forever and ever?’ he asks. ‘Where do we come from? Where do we go? Why are we here?’ This gorgeous, warm-hearted book will spark many a conversation between young and old about life’s big questions.

demolitionSally Sutton & Brian Lovelock (illus.)Walker. HB. $27.95

This book describes the demolition of an old building to make way for a new playground. Full of fun rhymes, it includes a pictorial glossary of all the

machines with short captions about what each machine does. A great book for machine-mad boys and girls!

Jonathan and maRthaPetr HoracekPhaidon. HB. $16.95

Jonathan and Martha are two lonely worms that live on opposite sides of a tree. One day, a big juicy pear lands on the ground between them. Jonathan nibbles from the left, and Martha from the right … and soon they are

caught in a tangle. A classic story that teaches children (and adults) about the importance of sharing. 

oh no, geoRge!Chris HaughtonWalker. HB. $24.95

Harris is off to do some shopping. ‘Will you be good, George?’ he asks. George hopes he can. He really wants to ... but chocolate cake is just so

very delicious and he does love to chase cats ... It’s hard work being good all the time. And it’s especially hard for a dog like George!

noVeltywheRe’s wally?:the seaRCh foR the lost thingsMartin HandfordWalker. PB. $19.95  

Everyone loves Wally and the familiar hunt for his red-and-white striped beanie. This terrific activity book com-bines the fun of searching for Wally with over a hundred pages of searches, puzzles, spot-the-differences, mazes,

word games, doodles, riddles, matching games and more. Help Wally find his misplaced key, Wendy find her camera, Woof dig up his bone, Wizard Whitebeard locate his scroll and Odlaw hunt for his binoculars, completing all the activities on the way.

JunioRhey JaCk!: the CRazy CousinsSally RippinHGE. PB $7.95 Ebook $3.99

Billie B. Brown has amassed a rather large following of fans, who will no doubt be familiar with her best friend, Jack. Now Jack has his very own series of books, starting with The Crazy Cousins, The Robot Blues, The Scary Solo

and The Winning Goal. In The Crazy Cousins, Jack is in a moochy mood. He’d much rather stay in his pyjamas and play with his Lego. But when his dad reminds him that his cousins are coming to play, Jack knows his dreams for a quiet day are over. Without even his best friend Billie by his side, what is Jack going to do? The Hey Jack series takes on a similar format to Billie B. Brown: short, illustrated stories that won’t scare off beginner readers. And while these have been targeted mainly at boys, they are such fun there’s no reason they won’t appeal to everyone. Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton

Billie B. BRown: Cutest pet eVeRSally RippinHGE. PB $7.95. Ebook $3.99

Billie B. Brown has found the most adorable guinea pig in the pet shop. She is going to love it forever! If only she can convince her mum and dad ...

middleBuReau of mysteRiesH.J. HarperRandom. PB. $15.95. Ebook $13.56

Let me introduce you to George Feather, chimney sweep and assistant cryptog-rapher. While sweeping chimneys in the city of Little Obscurity, George literally falls upon a mystery, or more rightly falls into the Bureau

of Mysteries. Quickly recruited into the Bureau, George sets out to save the city from a gang of criminals bent on mayhem. And he is taking us with him. Armed with the Cryptographer’s Compendium (code-break-ing book), George and the reader decode increasingly tricky clues in the quest to foil the plans of The Clockwork Octopus Society. As George learns a code and how to break it, so do we. Try it: they’re tricky, but fun to crack.

The world of Little Obscurity in 1886 much resembles Dickensian England except that in the best tradition of Steampunk many things have developed very differently. There are clockroaches and markets with mechanical chickens and flying vehicles. But there are also the orphanages that supply child labour (such as George, a seasoned chimney sweep at the age of 12). This highly stylised ste-ampunk world is wonderfully illustrated in Nahum Ziersch’s panels depicting characters and scenes in the unfolding adventure.

In Bureau of Mysteries, H.J. Harper creates a fantastic world rich in humour and wordplay (evil Doctor Morrie Artery springs to mind)

New Kids’ Books that pays homage to nineteenth-century fantasists such as Conan Doyle and Verne, while delivering an action-packed adven-ture in which the reader and George race to save the day. Enjoy the rollicking adventure and look out for the Barbarian Librarians along the way. Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne

gRimstones 1: hatChedAsphyxiaA&U. PB. $14.99

The Grimstones aren’t your average family: Grandpa Grimstone runs his own magical apothecary, Mama Grimstone shuts herself away to make dresses and weep rivers of tears for her departed husband, and

young Martha Grimstone is left alone to explore her sprawling Gothic home. This usually means teaching her quails tricks and inventing bread hats to attract crows. Life is fine for Martha (apart from the boring Latin lessons Aunt Gertrude teaches her), but she can’t help noticing how sad her mama is. Is there some way Martha can help cheer her up?

Based on the successful puppet show by Asphyxia, Hatched is a wonderfully quirky book full of memorable characters. Colour photographs of the puppets illustrate a charming story of a girl whose family may seem odd to others, but is perfectly normal to her. HH

tunnels of taRCoolaJennifer WalshA&U. PB. $14.99

A mysterious abandoned house and garden, a beach cave leading into a great maze of tunnels, and four young teens who start explor-ing. Ah, adventure! What is the mystery revealed by an old lady who once lived in

the house? Why is she agitated about keeping something important hidden, and from whom? And what really happened the night the Japanese submarines entered Sydney Harbour in World War II?

All the delicious ingredients for a good old-fashioned adventure story are here, but the pace and setting are contemporary. Mobile phones help in the discovery of an important tunnel exit, for example, and the pressures of home and school life are very now.

Recommended for 10 to 13 year olds, for the fascinating blend of past and present sto-ries, for the authentic portrayal of the four resourceful kids and for its exciting plot.Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton

the one and only iVanKatherine ApplegateHarper. PB. $14.99. Ebook $7.99

Ivan, the mighty silverback gorilla, spends his days watching TV, painting and talking to his best friends Stella the elephant and Bob the dog. Not a terrible life, but their domain is a cage and they can never leave.

The story is beautifully told from Ivan’s perspective and at its core are the relation-ships he has with his friends and the young girl who visits him every day. When a baby elephant arrives, Ivan makes a promise to Stella that forces him to risk a courageous plan for a better life.

Based on the true story of a great ape who spent 27 years as an attraction in an Ameri-can mall, this story is heartbreaking, but ultimately inspiring, and is highly recom-mended for 8–12 year-old animal lovers and budding activists. Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda

Q&A with H. J. Harperauthor of Bureau of Mysteries (Random, PB, $15.95)

Your book has been described by Bookseller and Publisher magazine as ‘a little like James Bond meets Oliver Twist’. What do you think about that description? Were you influenced by either of these kinds of tales?Perhaps not directly, though I did make a conscious decision to set Bureau of Mysteries in a Steampunk world – the alternate Victorian-era genre which owes a lot to tales like Oliver Twist. I love the marvellous gadgetry and larger-than-life characters you can explore in Steam-punk, so you’ve got regular kids like the main character George going up against one-armed mechanical geniuses and mad scientists in underwater lairs.As for the James Bond influence, I must admit I am a fan of a good explosion, so I always put in some over-the-top action scenes because they’re so much fun to write. Really, it’s just an excuse to spend a long time thinking about fights that take place on the backs of steam-powered dragons.

Bureau of Mysteries is interwoven with codes that the main character, George – and the reader – must crack along the way. How important are these codes to the story? And how much work was it to set these codes for your readers?When I was nine some friends and I had our own detective agency, complete with a secret code book, which was a precur-sor to the Cryptographer’s Compendium that George inherits in BoM. Still, all that practice didn’t make me a brilliant cryptographer, so I’ll admit some of the codes were hard to write (and I’m forever indebted to my wonderful editors for correcting my mistakes).I love a good code, and I hope the urge to crack them is something BoM’s read-ers will share, but if your brain is feeling a bit tired, you can always skip ahead to the next chapter where the answer to the code is revealed. But then what are you going to do when a group like the villain-ous Clockwork Octopus Society strikes? Probably feel really confused.

Bureau of Mysteries is (as our Readings reviewer points out) rich in humour and wordplay. Was it fun to write? Do you enjoy humour and wordplay in the books you read, too?

BoM was a lot of fun to write, especially when you have a completely hopeless character like Imp who is so assured of his own brilliance (even if everybody else is not). I love puns in particular, so BoM is packed full of them, and a lot of them are really groan-worthy, which everyone knows is the sign of a good pun.Since I write books that I hope will appeal particularly to reluctant readers who might be struggling to find the right book, I have tried to make them funny. There are some hilarious kids’ books out there, from The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Diary of a Wimpy Kid for older readers, to picture books like I Want My Hat Back, and it’s the books that make you laugh that you remem-ber for a long time afterwards, so I hope that BoM can make some people laugh. Or at least groan. 

H.J Harper's Bureau of Mysteries

BiRdColin TudgeHB. Was $45. Now $12.95

In this fascinating exploration of the avian class, Colin Tudge considers the creatures of the air. From their evolutionary roots to their flying, feeding, fighting, mating, nesting and communicating, Tudge

provocatively ponders what birds actually do – as well as why they do it and how.

england’s mistRess: the infamous life of emma hamiltonKate WilliamsHB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95

In this absorbing, well-crafted biography, British historian, lecturer and TV consultant, Kate Williams charts the rise of eighteenth-century England’s most celebrated sex symbol, best known as Admiral Nelson’s mistress.

nothing to Be fRightened ofJulian BarnesHB. Was $37.95. Now $12.95

A memoir on mortality as only Julian Barnes can write it, one that touches on faith, science and family, as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who, over the centuries, have confronted the same questions he now

poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction.

on Chesil BeaChIan McEwanHB. Was $33. Now $12.95

In a novel of remarkable depth and poignancy, Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of a newly married couple – both virgins – in 1962, when marriage was presumed to be

the outward sign of maturity and independence.

painteRs of pRoVenCePhillippe CrosHB. Was $67.95. Now $15.95

In this book, art historian Philippe Cros takes us on a tour across Provence from west to east, stopping at villages, towns and sites which have featured so prominently in the region’s artistic history. Focusing on

painters of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the author looks at works by local artists, including Cezanne, a native of Aix-en-Provence, but also at the paintings of van Gogh, Picabia, Picasso, Signac, Cross, Braque and Matisse.

semantiC antiCsSol SteimetzHB. Was $22.95. Now $12.95

Lexicographer Sol Steinmetz conducts an in-depth, fascinating journey to learn how hundreds of words have evolved from their first meaning to the meanings used today.

the aRt of happiness: a handBook foR liVingDalai LamaPB. Was $25. Now $10

In this unique and important book, one of the world’s great spiritual leaders offers his practical wisdom and advice on how we can overcome everyday human problems and achieve lasting happiness.

the impoRtanCe of Being seVen: 44 sCotland stReetAlexander McCall SmithHB. Was $34.95. Now $15.95

Will Bertie ever get away from his overbearing mother? And will we say goodbye to a Scotland Street resident – Angus Lordie and his gold-toothed dog Cyril – as the hills of Tuscany beckon? With his customary charm

and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith gives us another instalment to this popular series.

lost english: woRds and phRases that haVe Vanished fRom ouR languageChris RobertsHB. Was $25. Now $10

Takes a look at how our language changes and explores the influence of other cultures on our own. This work includes such entries as: ‘dekko’ (take a quick look), ‘brilliantine’ (men’s hairdressing product)

and ‘Nippy’ (the name given to waitresses in Lyons Corner Houses). For anyone interested in history and the English language.

noCtuRnesKazuo IshiguroHB. Was $50. Now $12

Explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the ‘hush-hush floor’ of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, this title features characters that range from young

dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning.

one day in the life of iVan denisoViChAleksandr SolzhenitsynHB. Was $35. Now $12.95

This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. A special limited-edition hardback.

philosophy: 100 essential thinkeRsPhilip StokesHB. Was $29.95. Now $15.95

This book takes a thematic and then chronological approach to its subject. Readers are given a summary of each individual’s contribution to the ‘science’ of philosophy.

Reading my fatheRAlexandra StyronHB. Was $35. Now $14.95

The youngest daughter of the late novelist William Styron fashions a conflicted, guarded, ultimately reverential portrait of a deeply troubled artist. Dogged all his life by depression, which was not

diagnosed properly until the devastating 1985 episode that later prompted Darkness Visible.

saVing the daylight David PrerauHB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95

Daylight savings. Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Roosevelt went to war with it.

the siege of kRishnapuRJ.G. FarrellHB. Was $35. Now $14.95

A winner of the Booker Prize in a special limited edition, it’s ‘a novel of ideas’, but one that can be read ‘as an adventure story’. The book is gripping, not to mention hilarious. Jokes fly as thick and fast as the musket balls

aimed at the defenders of Krishnapur, but hit their target far more regularly.

VeniCePeter AckroydHB. Was $69.95. Now $16.95

Leads us through the history of the Venice city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and a trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the

tourist invasions of today.

white king and Red QueenDaniel JohnsonHB. Was $39. Now $12.95

Daniel Johnson – journalist, editor, scholar, and a chess enthusiast who once played Garry Kasparov to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition – is the perfect guide to one of history’s most remarkable periods, when chess matches

were front-page news and captured the world’s imagination.

the aRtist, the philosopheR, and the waRRioRPaul StrathernHB. Was $45. Now $15

Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Borgia: Three Italian Renaissance icons are considered for the first time ‘Despite the convoluted title, this latest from award-winning British novelist and historian Strathern (Napoleon

in Italy) is simply a good, straightforward history of Renaissance Italy during the turbulent decade around 1500.’—Publishers Weekly

Bargains on the web: New books are regularly added to our website. Click on the Bargains tab at www.readings.com.au.

Readings Bargain Table16 Readings Monthly February 2012

the tudoRs: the Complete stoRy of england’s most notoRious dynastyG.J. MeyerHB. Was $45. Now $15

G.J. Meyer’s fresh storytelling ability breathes new life into the history of the Tudor family and Tudor England’s precarious place in world politics, the critical role religion played in government, and the

blossoming of English theatre and literature.

on aRChiteCtuReAda Louise HuxtableHB. Was $49.95. Now $15

Pulitzer prize-winner Huxtable (Frank Lloyd Wright) presents her penetrating and tough-minded criticism spanning half a century, including several pieces never before published. Centring largely

on modernism, the volume opens with an overview of the past four decades, including startlingly powerful pieces on the late 60s urban decay and the 90s reinvention of architecture by Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry and Christian de Portzamparc.

the state of afRiCaMartin MeredithPB. Was $29.95. Now $12.95

Fully revised and updated, weaving the key stories and characters of the last 60 years into a stunningly compelling and coherent narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European

ideas on organising 10,000 different ethnic groups has led to what Tony Blair described as the ‘scar on the conscience of the world’. Authoritative, provocative and consistently fascinating, this is the updated edition of the seminal book on one of the most important issues facing the West today.

the times CompRehensiVe atlas of the woRld HB. Was $295. Now $99.95

The 2008 edition is the world’s most prestigious and authoritative reference atlas. Surely the finest atlas in the world, its detailed and beautifully created mapping represents the perfect blend of tradition, authority and

style which set it apart.

what the dog saw and otheR adVentuRes Malcolm GladwellHB. Was $40. Now $12

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together,

for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

oRganiC gaRdeningChristine & Michael LavelleHB. Was $39.95. Now $19.95

An essential reference to natural gardening, showing how to apply organic principles to all aspects of garden planning, design and maintenance.

dVd of the monththe houR$39.95

London in 1956 is a city of shadows where covert spies infiltrate and influence with a pin-stripe diction. Into this world comes an idealistic team of young reporters on a cutting-edge news program. With

pioneering women tilting the axis of journalistic power and youthful passion shaking the BBC corridors, a political conspiracy at the heart of Britain’s Suez crisis is slowly revealed. Who can they trust and what is the meaning of the cryptic message, ‘return to Brightstone’, found with a murdered academic? With a daz-zlingly charismatic Dominic West and an icily cool Romala Garai, this is a gold-foiled luxury chocolate box of BBC drama. ‘Almost absurdly gratifying, The Hour hits every pleasure centre.’ – The New Yorker

lost highway & twin peaks: fiRe walk with me$19.95 each

Re-released in special anniversary editions on the Director’s Suite premier label are two of David Lynch’s most assured works of creeping unease. Lost Highway is an enigma wrapped in a mystery

hidden in a gangster film. After cryptic messages are left at his door, jazz musician Fred Madison is drawn into a world of fear and warped identity where being framed for murder is just the beginning of his bizarre journey: ‘We’ve met before. At your house remember. In fact I’m there right now. Call me.’ The town of Twin Peaks is a beautiful apple rotting from the inside. Laura Palmer will die in seven days, found wrapped in plastic, but what horrors will she experience leading up to then? Never before has the territory between madness, dream and reality been so seductively depicted: a simple velvet curtain or dark corridor can take on a hair-raising, slow-burning menace in David Lynch land.

Joanna lumley’s nile$29.95

peteR ustinoV on the oRient expRess$19.95

Two epic trips from two of television’s best-loved personalities provide contrast-ing stories of romance, history and struggle. On a 400-mile journey down the River Nile, Joanna Lumley revisits the romantic history of the

longest river in the world, from sea to source. As she travels past pyramids and ancient temples, through desert, jungle and war-torn landscapes, her charm, enthusiasm and graceful fortitude carry us along a fascinating and epic journey. ‘Waiters, porters, camels; no citizen of the Nile could resist Joanna Lumley’ – The Guardian. The pinnacle of luxury train travel, the Orient Express is renowned for its history and beauty, as well as the mystery provided by Agatha Christie’s famous crime novel. Providing his unique humour and intelligent observation, Peter Ustinov (Poirot himself ) is a first-class fellow-traveller as we meet passengers who undertook the same journey as Mata Hari, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Ernest Hemingway. Tickets please.

new yoRk: a doCumentaRy film$79.95

Over eight epic, Emmy- winning episodes, featuring artists, historians and residents responsible for shaping our vision of the world’s most dramatic city, documentary filmmaker Ric Burns tells the story of New

York from seventeenth-century foundation to twenty-first-century rubble and rebirth. No other city in the world has given us so much seminal culture, music and art over the past hundred years. Think of the Ellington jazz of the Cotton Club, the funk, soul and rap of Harlem, and the films of Coppola, Scorsese and Allen, or the cosmopolis Gotham of the Empire State, Grand Central Station and Chrysler Building. The sound and image of New York is embedded in our consciousness.

new release dvds the tall man$29.95

Based on Chloe Hooper’s award-winning book and from the makers of the stunning documentary series First Australians, The Tall Man is the story of Palm Island, the tropical paradise where one morning Cam-

eron Doomadgee swore at a policeman and 40 minutes later lay dead in a watch-house jail. It is the story of the policeman, the tall enigmatic Christopher Hurley, who chose to work in some of the toughest and wildest places in Australia and of the struggle to bring him to trial.

the extRaoRdinaRyadVentuRes of adele BlanC seC$29.95

Adele Blanc Sec, turn-of-the-century investigative journalist and Parisian society beauty, brings her knowledge of the arcane to the aid of the police when a hatched pterodactyl escapes from the museum, summon-

ing ancient forces that threaten the survival of Paris. Luc Besson, the director of such thrilling style in Leon and La Femme Nikita, gives an exhilarating look through the belle époque looking-glass in a Steampunk adventure that is equal parts Indiana Jones and Amelie, with the thrills and chic style of both.

wallandeR: seRies 2$29.95

The BAFTA award-winning adaptations of Henning Mankell’s Swedish crime novels starring Kenneth Branagh return for a second series of three films. After an elderly couple is found dead, mistrust and igno-

rance turn to violence against the local migrant community. Kurt Wallander, a detective with chaos in his personal life and order in his professional, must find justice while fighting his own demons. Like Ingmar Bergman making Inspector Morse, the BBC Wallander is a puzzle amongst the angst.

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 17

LEARN FRENCH - www.afmelbourne.com.au

the hunteR$34.95

Willem Dafoe plays Martin, a mercenary employed by a faceless biotech company to hunt the extinct tiger believed to still reside deep within the Tasmanian wilderness. Based on Julia Leigh’s novel, The Hunter is

possibly the greatest filmed showcase for the breathtaking beauty of Tasmania’s landscape. ‘Compelling and beautifully made.’ – David Stratton

loVe neVeR dies $29.95

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbusting sequel to Phantom has been immor-talised on DVD with the cast of the acclaimed Australian staged version. Filmed at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre and featuring the perfor-

mances of stars Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne, this is the first, only and exclusive filmed performance to be released anywhere in the world.

the help$39.95

Katherine Stockett’s popular novel about one woman’s fight to subvert injustice in the American South’s Civil Rights era is brought to vivid life in this moving and emotionally engaging drama.

spiRited: seRies 2$39.95

The cult comedy drama grows in popularity with the release from subscription channel purgatory to DVD. The wit and charm of Claudia Karvan as single mum Suzy and Matt King as the kohl-eyed ghost of rock

star Henry Mallett combine to make an unlikely romantic partnership in this delicious subversion of flat-sharing dramas.

CD of the Monthold ideasLeonard CohenNormally $26.95. Our special price $21.95

A few years ago, a former manager stole most of Leon-ard Cohen’s retirement fund. Pragmatically, he undertook a world tour to recoup his fortune – so

successful it led to a second tour and new songs began creeping into his repertoire. Very good songs. Now, some of those songs have been collected, with a few other things the world hasn’t yet heard, on Old Ideas. From what we’ve been allowed to hear, all the Cohen hallmarks are there: both musically and lyrically. He’s still pretty much peerless as a songwriter and his voice has aged into a softer, slightly ominous husk that works well with his meditations on religion, sex, love and death and the sparse, slightly claustrophobic production that seems most reminiscent of Songs of Love and Hate. He probably didn’t intend to release a new album at the age of 77, yet he’s now announced there are unfinished songs left for the ‘next album’. Perhaps he didn’t need that retirement money after all, but his misfortune has been our gain, as we now enjoy a surprisingly late-in-life burst of artistry and creativity.Kate O’Mara is from Readings Carlton

foReVeR soHuskyNormally $24.95. Our special price $19.95Local indie-folkers Husky have been generating waves about town for some time now – and with their official full-length debut Forever So, one can clearly see what all the fuss is about. Lead singer/songwriter Husky Gawenda and his jazz-trained pianist cousin Gideon Preiss have assembled a record awash with gor-geous melody and dreamy atmosphere, their exceptional musical partnership and meticu-lously arranged tunes colouring this album beautifully. Tracks such as History’s Door and Dark Sea display a rare depth of narrative and harmony which set Husky apart from so many of their peers, a maturity which peeks on the otherworldly How Do You Feel. Recorded in Gawenda’s backyard bungalow in Northcote, Forever So is a glorious piece of homespun majesty that puts Husky firmly on the map. Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda

BaBy Caught the BusClairy Browne & the Banging Rackettes$25.95The sassiest, most powerful new release of 2012 so far, Clairy Browne and her Bang-ing Rackettes rock a huge rhythm-and-blues sound, filling your speakers with dark jazz and generally being so distractingly catchy that it’s about impossible to write a review and listen at the same time. There are piano-laden doo-wop tracks like Aeroplane; rootsy tracks like the green-eyed She Plays Up to You; spicy saxophone over thick vocals in jazz-hands-in-ducing Frankie … ultimately, an entire album of ballsy classics and soulful beauties.Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton

the lion’s RoaRFirst Aid KitNormally $26.95. Our special price $21.95Mining the current, much-loved countrified folk genre of contemporaries Swell Season, Fleet Foxes and Bright Eyes, adorable Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara release their second album, The Lion’s Roar, adding an ethereal Nordic quality to the genre with their haunt-ing voices and storyteller’s lyrics. From their melancholy ode to Emmylou Harris and love, to the gorgeous, perfectly pitched, bubbly track Blue, the sisters harmonise over slide

18 Readings Monthly September 2011

New Release CDsguitars in This Old Routine, then enchant with the simple, vocally rich To a Poet, all made to leave you swinging happily on your front porch. FH

Blues funeRalMark Lanegan Band$21.95It’s been almost eight years since we’ve seen a solo album from former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan – which is not to say that he’s been quiet. Since 2004’s fantastic (deceptively named) Bubblegum, Lanegan has been involved in a host of projects, including three acclaimed albums with Belle & Sebas-tian’s Isobel Campbell, a frankly awesome stint with Queens of the Stone Age and mak-ing up one half of the Gutter Twins with the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli. Many of these il-lustrious former cohorts pop up to return the favour on the welcome return to form that is the blistering Blues Funeral. The epic opener Gravedigger’s Song sets the scene for a record drenched with the Lanegan trademarks: the whiskey-soaked voice, lyrics that generate an air of looming menace, etc. Fans will not be disappointed. DM

the Valley windTyler RamseyNormally $26.95. Our special price $21.95It has been four years since Band Of Horses guitarist Tyler Ramsey caught our atten-tion with the beautiful A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea. His third solo album continues his song-writing journey. Laidback and dreamlike, the album mixes his plaintive, calming vocals with his honest, story-like lyrics. His guitar playing is expressive, yet un-obtrusive and unique. The production hints at a bigger sound, but somehow the album remains stripped-back and sparse. Truly a beautiful release. Highlights include The Valley Wind and The Nightbird. Lou Fulco is a friend of Readings

maRiaChi el BRonx iiMariachi El Bronx$24.95

WARNING! This is neither a punk album nor a rap album. The cover is not an indication of the music you are about to hear. Immedi-ately the black Charro

clothing makes you stand up and take notice. But this is no ordinary mariachi band. LA punk darlings The Bronx have created an alter ego that could outstrip their original perso-nas. The music is wonderful: exuberant, filled with passion and fire. You cannot help but be swept up in its emotive storytelling, ranging from joy to lament. The band has taken its naivety in this art form and learned from artists like Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles. Please listen to this album. I promise you will love it! The brilliant 48 Roses and Revolution Girls are highlights. LF

the BlaCk keys El CaminoNormally $27.95. Our special price $21.95Backing vocals and keyboards are not neces-sarily something I immediately associate with a Black Keys record. Admittedly, it took me a few listens to get past that and hear what they’re really doing. El Camino is possibly their most commercial-sounding and hook-laden album to date, with Dangermouse on production duties again. Lyrically heavy on the ‘love and loss’ theme, musically it sounds like they’ve been listening to a lot of 70s glam rock à la T-Rex. Yes, it’s perhaps a million miles from their earlier albums, but surely that is something to be applauded. After ten years together they aren’t just making the same record over and over again – they con-tinue to evolve and try new things.Melissa Whebell is from Readings Hawthorn

Chimes of fReedom: songs of BoB dylanVarious4 CD set. $34.95Commemorating 50 years of Amnesty International, Chimes of Freedom features 73 tracks on 4 CDs by artists such as Adele, Patti Smith, Jackson Browne, Michael Franti, Lu-cinda Williams – and one from Bob himself. All of the artists donated their time and the funds obviously go towards the good work Amnesty do. It is also a(nother) reminder of the genius of Bob Dylan. This many great songs by such a diverse range of artists proves yet again what an amazing songwriter he is.

loom Orbweavers $24.95Melbourne band Orbweavers was formed in 2006, by Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan. Their new CD Loom follows the release of 2010’s Graphite & Diamonds. Loom sees the band continue to grow as songwriters and musicians; their sound is reminiscent of Mazzy Star, with a touch of David Lynch soundtrack thrown in. Mountain Man is an-other band who springs to mind. If you like folk storytelling – not unlike the handsome Family or Luluc – you will like this band. Michael Awosoga-Samuel is from Readings Carlton

le Voyage dans la luneAirNormally $26.95. Our special price $21.95

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (‘A Trip to the Moon’) is a classic black-and-white silent film, the very first to use science fiction as its theme. This album is

inspired by the film. Expanding the original musical themes beyond cinematic instru-mentals, the album also features the vocal talents of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House).

BoRn to dieLana Del RayNormally $26.95. Our special price $21.95Sometimes stars emerge. And sometimes they simply slip into the atmosphere as if propelled by something otherworldly. It is into this last category that the astonishing presence, voice, look and feel of Lana Del Rey falls. She calls herself the ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ and defines her genre as ‘Hollywood pop/sadcore’, a dramatic new loop for pop music.

JazzmindsetThe Necks$24.95

After more than 20 years improvising together, The Necks’ musical world of intuitive interaction and minimal, organic musical development continue to

transfix this listener. Mindset, their sixteenth record, unveils two extended improvisations. Unlike The Necks’ other albums, which usually present hour-long improvisations, the shorter lengths of the two tracks on Mindset were likely guided by their decision to release not only on CD, but also vinyl. Rum Jungle develops from Swanton’s pedalling bass tones and Buck’s juxtaposed bass drum pulses into a thick soundworld, full with low piano rumblings and organ chords from Abrahams. Daylights begins like a musical mobile – high-pitch electronic frequencies, muted piano melodies and occasional guitar riffs that all seemingly float around an axis point – and gradually builds to a spellbinding climax. Although The Necks continue to utilise their well-established processes, Mindset proves to be a thoroughly engaging record and a fine addition to their substantial body of work. Michael Wallace is from Readings Carlton

Soulsoul timeSharon Jones & The Dap-Kings $24.95This fifth release from Miss Jones, the First Lady of soul revivalism, is more than just soul. Okay, yes, it’s not a new album. In fact, it’s a collection of rarities previously only available as download tracks – but that should in no way detract from its importance. The woman has such a powerhouse voice and the band is so tight; it knows how to not only be soulful, but also get funky and all the way back again. When I Come Home is an obvi-ous stand-out track. Whether you’re a Jones devotee (and let’s face it, if you love soul and you’ve seen her live, you know what I mean) or a new fan, this is an excellent way to collect hard-to-find tracks, while perhaps acting as a stop-gap for those of us anxiously awaiting their next soulful odyssey. MW

Folk & WorldtoumastinTamikrest $29.95Tamikrest are one of the newer bands who play in the style tagged by westerners as ‘Desert Blues’ – and by ‘blues’, we mean what the songs are about rather than the actual sound of the music, which is mostly played on electric guitars. Like the well-known band Tinariwen, these nomadic West African Saharan musicians are concerned with politi-cal struggles, a cultural life seriously under threat and the battle to survive in a very harsh environment. Probably the main difference between these two bands is that Tamikrest is more raucous and inclined to add tasty layers of distortion (like on the attention-grabbing opening number, with its wah wah pedal workout). This is African music with a rock attitude – and it’s not merely for World Music or African music listeners. A big help here is the stewardship of Chris Eckman, from American indie Americana rockers the Walkabouts. Eckman befriended the band a few years ago at the annual Festival of the Desert cultural event and along with a few like-minded musicians, he steered the very interesting Dirt Music project of last year, a hugely enjoyable crossover album, where desert blues met rocking guitars and the odd Velvet Undergound cover. Toumastin also features a beautiful and all too brief acoustic interlude, with some wonderful acoustic guitar-picking.Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton

luCy wise and the B'gollies $29.95This is an extremely good debut from Lucy Wise. Lucy’s parents are well known on the Australian folk scene and her father is a re-nowned instrument builder. She has relocated from the Margaret River region in Western Australian and is a welcome addition to the Melbourne acoustic scene. Not only is Wise a really expressive singer, but she writes fantas-tic, memorable songs about the moments of beauty in everyday life, some of which draw upon her Margaret River heritage, like the homesick Have a Swim for Me. Lucy also plays guitar and ukelele – and her use of Ap-palachan dulcimer certainly brings to mind early Joni Mitchell. Lucy’s role in reviving interest in the local folk scene resembles Kate Rusby’s in the UK; she has a very bright future ahead. The B’Gollies add lots to the songs, with fully realised arrangements that feature Graham McLeod on guitar, Chris Stone on violin, Holly Downes on double bass and Mischa Herman on accordion. Herman also recorded and mixed this very fine-sounding recording and has worked on recordings by some other promising bands, like the String Theory (also featuring Lucy Wise) and the String Contingent. PB

Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 19

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Classical CD of the MonthhaVeRgal BRian: symphony no. 1 the gothiC Martyn Brabbins, BBC Nation-al Orchestra of Wales, Eltham College Boys Choir et. alHyperion. CDA 679712. 2 CDs. $36.95

On 17 July 2011, over 800 performers gathered in London’s Royal Albert Hall to give a rare perfor-mance of Havergal Brian’s Symphony No 1 in D

minor – The Gothic. And thanks to the foresight of Hyperion Records, those who couldn’t attend are able to enjoy a stunning performance of one of the great works from the symphonic repertoire. This new recording is definitely the best; I imagine it will be the benchmark for all future recordings and performances. Martyn Brabbins does an extraordinary job bringing this work to life, but his contribu-tion is a result of the wonderful perfor-mances from the orchestras and choruses involved. At around 106 minutes, it’s not for the faint-hearted. But if you are willing to take the chance, then you will rewarded many times over. Superb.Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton

haydn: Violin ConCeRtos Giuliano Carmignola, Orches-tre des Champs-Élysées DG Archiv 4778774. Normally $26.95Our special price $21.95

Specialising in baroque music, Giuliano Carmi-gnola has won great acclaim for his numerous recordings on Archiv. This time, his period-sensitive

approach is brought to bear on music of the early classical period – the violin concertos of Haydn. These concertos, dating from the 1760s – relatively early in the composer’s career – are not all that often heard, and these recordings might be their perfect advocate. The Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, too, are renowned for their performances on period instruments – and the ensemble’s transparent sound is a perfect accompaniment to Carmignola’s wonderful, clear tone. The sound is bold, clear and bursting with vitality. Highly recommended. Evan Meagher is from Readings Hawthorn

mahleR: symphony no. 6Antonio Pappano & Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RomaEMI. 0844132. $26.95

Antonio Pappano applies his considerable talent to a beautiful reading of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony on this new recording from EMI. This is the first

recording of Mahler that Pappano has done with his Roman orchestra. Whatever he conducts, Pappano brings something new to the table. While it may not be to every listener’s taste, this performance will definitely find a place on most music lovers’ shelves. The Times’ music critic wrote: ‘Everything [Pappano] conducts is character-ised by fiery drama, soaring lyricism, and bold projection as if through a proscenium arch … in this uplifting, operatic perfor-mance the endgame matters less than the music’s heroic fight for life. Buy this CD and marvel.’ Enough said really. PR

the flute king Emmanuel PahudEMI. 0842302. 2 CDs. $19.95

Emmanuel Pahud is generally considered among the best flautists in the world (if not the best). Employing a honeyed tone with technical capabilities

envied around the world, his recording catalogue is becoming quite extensive. This new release on EMI, with Trevor Pinnock at the harpsichord, looks at the repertoire from the court of Fredrick the Great. Four concertos grace the CD, each by a different composer: CPE Bach, Quantz, Franz Benda and Fredrick himself. Each are beautiful and very ‘of the time’, but have a listen to the opening of Franz Benda’s concerto for something a little more gutsy. Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton

liVe at the metRopolitan opeRaAnna NetrebkoDG. 4779903Our special price $21.95

Anna Netrebko has been making waves around the world with her stunning performances in the Metropolitan Opera productions broadcast in

cinemas. I saw her recently in the 2011/12 season premiere of Anna Bolena and was blown away. This singer has power, drama, control, style, beauty and above all – charac-ter. This compilation CD just confirms what a versatile musician she is. If you missed the Donizetti, simply do not miss her in Manon

Classical CDs in March this year. You will not regret it! Meanwhile, have a listen to this recording to whet your appetite. KR Chopin/liszt/RaVel: piano musiCBenjamin GrosvenorDecca. 4783206Our special price $21.95

Watch out: there’s a new kid on the block. Teenage pianist Benjamin Grosve-nor has just become the youngest opening soloist for the Proms, ever. Being

the counter to Lang Lang’s performance on the last night of the Proms, he had a lot to live up to. My curiously was piqued – and when I got my hands on his debut disc, I soon discovered that this is not a musician to be trifled with. There is feeling and a delicacy of touch that I often miss in other recordings; this recital recording will send delightful shivers up and down your spine. Grosvenor is proving to be not just a pianist, but a stunning musician who will delight the world. KR

BeRlioz: BeatRiCe & BenediCt oVeRtuRe/haRold in italy paganini: sonata foR Viola and oRChestRa Vladimir Ashkenazy & David Aaron CarpenterOndine. ODE11882. $19.95

I know I’m biased, having had to listen to the Overture to Beatrice et Benedict by Berlioz on repeat recently for an audition – but it’s such a

fun work. Although it’s not the key work on the new recording from maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy, it’s well worth the price of the record just for this upbeat and exciting rendition. However, Harold in Italy follows, with the violin obbligato expertly performed by David Aaron Carpenter. Rounding it all up is the exquisite Sonata for the Grand Viola and Orchestra, which could have only ever been written by Paganini. KR

asm35-Complete musiCian: highlights Anne-Sophie MutterDG. 4779730. 2 CDsOur special price $21.95

Anne-Sophie Mutter has had one of the longest careers as a soloist, starting with her debut perfor-mance with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age

of 13. She was a protégé of Karajan, and in 2011 she celebrated her thirty-fifth year on stage. She is not only unsurpassed in her virtuosity, but is also known for her musical-ity and support of contemporary works. This 2CD highlights edition is well worth owning, to have your own slice of this beautiful person and musician. KR

There is also a 38 CD box set (4779464), which includes a book detailing Mutter’s musical career to date. (There are limited copies of this set available, reduced from $372.95 to $299.95)

sChuBeRt: sChwangengesang Mark Padmore & Paul LewisHarmonia Mundi. HMU907520. $29.95

With two award-winning recordings under their belt already, Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis conclude their Schubert song cycles with the magnificent

Schwanengesang. While listening to this, I was struck with the independence of each musician; while they dance around each other musically, they keep separate identities that evoke more than simply a singer and pianist. This is a recording of master musicians – three of them to be precise: a consummate composer in Schubert, a crisply delightful singer in Padmore and a virtuosic, musical pianist in Lewis. KR

Classical Specials of the Month

ABC Classics is a label that constantly strives for excellence in the recording world. Featuring Australian musicians and compos-ers in performances of all sorts, it provides the world with a way of experiencing our contemporary culture. This month, ABC Classics are featuring a number of classic titles from their catalogue at special prices. If you don’t own them already, this is your chance to discover this amazing music once more. Limited stock at these prices.

Graeme Koehne: Orchestral Works 4423492. Was $26.95. Now $9.95Peter Sculthorpe: Music for Strings 4545042. Was $26.95. Now $9.95Nigel Westlake: Out of the Blue and Other Works4620172. Was $26.95. Now $9.95Peter Sculthorpe: The Fifth Continent 4563632. Was $26.95. Now $9.95The Bach Album. Diana Doherty CD/DVD. 4763673. Was $26.95. Now $14.95

From the author of the critically acclaimed, bestselling Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living,

comes a new novel of family, farming and friendship.

“CLEVER, ORIGINAL AND RICHLY REWARDING” AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER & PUBLISHER MAGAZINE