Theresa Smith's Blog, page 67
September 4, 2020
#6degrees of separation: from Rodham to Pride and Prejudice
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It’s the first Saturday of the month so that means it’s #6degrees of separation time! This month’s starting book is Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld.
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at booksaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, on the first Saturday of every month, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect in a variety of ways to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
I had every intention of reading Rodham this last month, I already had it bought long before it popped up as the September six degrees title, but things are crazy at present and time is slipping by. I was so ready to read it though that it’s been sitting on my second dining table for the last ten days. I only keep the books I’m actually presently reading there or the one or two that are next up. So, Rodham is there, and so is A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, and that’s my first link.
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I wasn’t all that interested in A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing when I first heard of it. I didn’t request it for review either because it didn’t appeal. But then I attended Jessie Tu’s session at this year’s Melbourne Writer’s Festival and she was so utterly fantastic I knew I had to read this book at some time.
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MWF introduced me to quite a few books I now need to read that might have otherwise not been on my radar at all, such as The Fire Starters by Jan Carson. It’s YA and got a speculative angle to the story, both of which are normally low on my wish list, but I like Irish political fiction and again, listening to Jan speak at MWF sealed the deal.
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I should probably be less judgemental about YA, but all too often it seems to disappoint me. However, last night I finished a novel that was offered to me for review and the themes were appealing enough to outweigh the YA tag. I’m so glad I read it because Winter of the Wolf turned out to be quite excellent.
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I love it when expectations are exceeded with a new read. This happened again recently with The Yield by Tara June Winch. My expectations had led me to procrastinate with this one, feeling daunted and worried it would be too literary, or too spiritual. I was so wrong. It was brilliant and incredibly easy to read. I love it when a book proves me wrong.
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I will definitely read Rodham soon because I like Hilary Clinton and the form of this novel intrigues me greatly. Also, I read Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld a few years ago when it first came out and really enjoyed it, so I’m keen to read more of her work. I hadn’t even heard of her at that point, but it came up for discussion in a Facebook book club I’m a member of, not as a book club title, but as an ‘anyone going to read this’ type of chat on account of its Pride and Prejudice link. And that concludes what is possibly the most waffling chain I’ve ever written.
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Next month’s book is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
September 2, 2020
Book Review: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
About the Book:
Spiky, sharp, intriguingly dark and tender, full of pathos, fury and wit, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a dazzling, distinctive novel from a boldly talented writer. For fans of Sally Rooney, Taffy Brodesser-Akner and Fleabag.
This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn’t know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going.
Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn’t want to have children. He said he didn’t mind either way because he has loved her since he was fourteen and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it.
By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn’t really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing – if you can find something else to want.
The book is set in London and Oxford. It is sad and funny.
My Thoughts:
‘I seem to find it more difficult to be alive than other people.’
My heart is so full of so many emotions after reading this utterly perfect and deeply insightful novel. From the first sentence to the last; if you read one book this year, make it this one. If you are intending on buying a book for someone as a gift, make it this one. Seriously, it’s the best.
‘Normal people say, I can’t imagine feeling so bad I’d actually want to die. I do not try and explain that it isn’t that you want to die. It is that you know you are not supposed to be alive, feeling a tiredness that powders your bones, a tiredness with so much fear. The unnatural fact of living is something you must eventually fix.’
Martha is, as you have probably put together from the blurb and these quotes, not well. She suffers and so do those around her, but they love her fiercely. This is Martha’s story, from her teenage years through until the present day. I felt this instant kinship with Martha because she was born in 1977, the same year as me. It’s like this gave me a sense of knowing Martha, although really, it was probably more the incredible writing that did that! But still, her stages of life within the eras were recognisable to me, and this offered a nice a cosy bonus.
‘When someone you know beyond all being, who you have loved and hated and have not seen for three months, is coming towards you, avoiding your eye until the last minute, then smiling at you like he’s not sure when or if you’ve met, what are you meant to do with your hands?’
Despite Martha’s mental instability, this is not just a novel about mental illness and its devastating effects. This is a novel about life: living your best life, eventually, and accepting who you are and what you need to do to keep on living it. It’s about taking responsibility for your behaviour, for yourself and your own wellbeing, not just for others. This is a novel about people, their relationships, their daily interactions, family dynamics; this subset of literature is often tagged life-lit, and it is an apt description. When done well, it’s my favourite type of read, and in this case, it hit the mark in every way possible.
It’s one of the best ‘sister’ books I’ve ever read, and even though it broke me – more than once – Sorrow and Bliss is a novel that has become one of my permanent favourites. It’s sad, yes, but funny as well and written with such honesty, just so perfectly balanced. It’s been likened to Fleabag and Normal People, both of which I loved, and I agree with the comparison. However, don’t be misled into thinking it’s another version of those; Sorrow and Bliss holds its own and then some. It’s a truly remarkable novel and one that I can’t even possibly do justice to with words, and I think it’s important to not hint at too much of what actually happens, as the real pleasure of reading this one comes from the unfolding of the story as you go. Taking Martha’s journey alongside her, just as much in the dark as she is for most of it. So, this is the point where I recommend you just read it for yourself. You can thank me after. You’ll be in need of a debrief and you know where to find me!
Thanks is extended to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a copy of Sorrow and Bliss for review.
About the Author:
Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for The New Yorker and Sunday STYLE, monthly columns for GQ and InsideOut and is now a regular contributor to Vogue, ELLE, Stellar and marie claire. Her first book, a memoir of motherhood, Say It Again in a Nice Voice (HarperCollins) was published in 2012. Her second, a novel, You Be Mother (HarperCollins) was published in August 2017. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters.
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Sorrow and Bliss
Published by 4th Estate – AU
Released 2nd September 2020
September 1, 2020
Book Review: The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte
About the Book:
Epic in scope, ambitious and astonishingly good, The Tolstoy Estate proclaims Steven Conte as one of Australia’s finest writers.
In the first year of the doomed German invasion of Russia in WWII, a German military doctor, Paul Bauer, is assigned to establish a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana – the former grand estate of Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of the classic War and Peace. There he encounters a hostile aristocratic Russian woman, Katerina Trubetzkaya, a writer who has been left in charge of the estate. But even as a tentative friendship develops between them, Bauer’s hostile and arrogant commanding officer, Julius Metz, becomes erratic and unhinged as the war turns against the Germans. Over the course of six weeks, in the terrible winter of 1941, everything starts to unravel…
From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Steven Conte, The Tolstoy Estate is ambitious, accomplished and astonishingly good: an engrossing, intense and compelling exploration of the horror and brutality of conflict, and the moral, emotional, physical and intellectual limits that people reach in war time. It is also a poignant, bittersweet love story – and, most movingly, a novel that explores the notion that literature can still be a potent force for good in our world.
My Thoughts:
This was an exceptionally good novel. It’s the story of a German medical unit that has set up their hospital on the grounds of Tolstoy’s Estate in the middle of the Russian winter of 1941. The novel spans six weeks although in a stylistic twist, the author gives us the ending about half way through with the introduction of a series of letters that begin in the 1960s. Surprisingly, this didn’t spoil the tension of all that was still to come. Although, Conte displays such a command of his narrative, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this.
‘War is filthy, of course. It hurts and it hardens. But the fact is that for surgeons it’s also an opportunity. Every month we’re making medical advances: honing old techniques, inventing new ones, even upending a dogma or two.’
‘You’re a seeker after truth.’
‘Is that irony I detect?’
‘Yes, but go on.’
‘Truth be told, professional satisfaction is the least of it, because as well as seeking truth I’m also revelling in mystery. I delve into people, and you’ve just seen how strange, how wondrous that can be. What I’m trying to express,’ he said, ‘earnestly…’
‘No matter. Go on.’
‘…is that surgery is more of an art than a science. There’s an imprecision to it – a fuzziness, if you will – that’s maddening but also compelling.’
Paul Bauer, our narrator for this story, is a highly skilled and dedicated surgeon, widowed, in his forties, a German Officer who is not a Nazi, who, in all honesty, appears to not even support Hitler. He is a fan of Tolstoy and relishes the opportunity to be present on the great literary giant’s estate. There he meets Katerina Trubetzkaya, caretaker of the estate, a Soviet woman who burns with anger and realism. She is also in her forties, and I only mention this because it was refreshing to read a war story that wasn’t entirely populated by young and glamorous twenty year olds. These were characters that had all lived lives prior to the war, loved and lost, been members of political movements and developed ideologies of their own. Both Paul and Katerina were well read, well educated, and their conversations were lively and stimulating, all the more so for them being on opposite sides of the war.
‘Oh, they were grand days,’ she said, smiling, ‘thrilling days. You’ve no idea. We were poor, of course. Everyone was. But there was a feeling of extraordinary possibility in the air: factories would end want, mechanised agriculture would abolish hunger, science would conquer disease. People would be free to work as they pleased, love as they pleased. Some of this we even accomplished. Homosexuality was made legal, though that was later reversed. And literacy – there’s one achievement that’s endured.’
Her eyes were shining and it occurred to Bauer there was no period in his own life that he looked back on with such passion.
‘I don’t know why I’m telling you all this,’ Katerina said. ‘You’re probably a Nazi. Are you a Nazi?’
‘No, I’m not,’ he said. ‘In the election that brought Adolf Hitler to power I voted for the Social Democrats.’
She pretended to recoil at this. ‘Oh, good grief, one of those. If it gets out I’ve talked with a petit-bourgeois socialist I’ll be shot when our forces come back.’
Tolstoy himself is a vivid presence throughout the novel, and not just because the hospital camp is based on his estate. Paul begins a re-read of War and Peace and this novel, more than any other of Tolstoy’s works, becomes a symbol for Paul, a connection to others he encounters who have also read it. Katerina, as caretaker of the estate, has a great affection for Tolstoy and has studied his works extensively. Metz, Paul’s commanding officer, develops a different fixation with Tolstoy, a more bizarre and concerning one. He believes he can feel Tolstoy’s ghost, and rapidly descends, with the aid of rampant drug use, into a manic state whereby he believes he must conquer Tolstoy in order to win the war. Not a state of mind you want in a commanding officer. All of this is unfolding against a background of a war being fought without adequate resources in a country whose harsh winter climate will act as a hand of fate like no other.
‘To be clear, I’m not saying that the novel as a form will disappear, any more than poetry has disappeared since it lost its status as the most prestigious branch of literature. But its importance will fade. Everything fades, I suppose, certainly everything made by human hands, and yet I can’t help feeling bereft to witness this diminution of the novel, which for all its inadequacies has trained us to see the world from others’ points of view. To borrow a Stalinist idiom, the novel is a machine, a noisy, violent thing whose product, oddly enough, is often human understanding, perhaps even a kind of love. I daresay some might look at the last one hundred years and say, ‘Nonsense, what love?’ but if so they are naive because the terrifying truth is that it could have been worse. Hitler could have won. Kennedy and Khrushchev could have blown us all to hell. And who knows what other horrors we’ve evaded because someone, or someone’s teacher, or someone’s mother or grandfather, once put down a novel and thought, ‘My God, I am like that stranger’ or ‘That stranger is like me’ or even ‘That stranger is utterly different from me, and yet, how understandable his hopes and longings are.’ And in the future, as fewer and fewer people use these engines of empathy, what horrors will we not avoid?’
This novel is visually stunning, allowing you to imagine the unimaginable. It’s also a love story, and not only between two people, but more subtly, for novels as a form of creative expression. This is a really intelligent work of fiction that had me thinking critically and feeling deeply.
Thanks is extended to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a copy of The Tolstoy Estate for review.
About the Author:
Steven Conte studied Professional Writing at the University of Canberra and Australian Literature at the Australian Defence Force Academy (as a civilian). He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Barman, life model, taxi driver, public servant, university tutor and book reviewer are some of the jobs with which he has supported his writing. Steven’s debut novel The Zookeeper’s War won the inaugural Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, and was also shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, and for the 2007 Christina Stead Award for Fiction. The novel was published in the UK and Ireland and translated into Spanish.
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The Tolstoy Estate
Published by 4th Estate AU
Released 2nd September 2020
August 31, 2020
Author Talks: Monique Mulligan on Nurturing the Seeds of Inspiration
One of the most-asked questions of authors is ‘What inspired you to write this book?’ Some authors hate this question; others don’t.
I fall into the latter camp. What inspired me to write Wherever You Go is something I’m passionate about. I could talk about it endlessly and I do, which sometimes earns me a polite ‘shoosh’ or a less polite roll of the eyes. Here she goes again.
But it wasn’t just one thing.
To me, inspiration is like a packet of flower seeds. Now, imagine these seeds being scattered in the garden of a writer’s mind. Many of them take root; not all of them flourish. Some of the seedling ideas have to be plucked out to make room for the strongest seedlings. And along the way, some ideas blossom, while others wither.
At first when people asked me about the inspiration for Wherever You Go, my first thought was that a newspaper article was the ‘seed’ that took root. In that article, a family experienced a terrible loss while overseas. I always wondered what I would do in that situation. What would happen to the people left behind after their loss? How would it affect their marriage?
That article certainly helped flesh out the story, however, the ‘seeds’ for this book were there well before I was even ready to tackle the immense task of writing a novel.
It all started the year I turned 40, or as my son once put it, I became obsessed with Italy.
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I’d never been, but to me it was the most desirable place on earth (thanks to the books and movies I absorbed like a sponge at this time). I wanted to go there more than anything and even started saving freelance earnings for this goal (spoiler alert: it went on school fees). In my dreamiest of moments, I imagined living there (I even looked up Tuscan villas for sale, to my husband’s mild exasperation).
With four teenagers at home, I knew the dream was years from becoming a reality. It came to me that if I couldn’t go to Italy, I could bring it to me in the best way an Aussie woman (of German background) could. So, I started to learn the language, cooked Italian feasts (everything had to be authentic – no Aussie-Italian foods for us), and read loads of books set in Italy. Once, I borrowed an Italian recipe book and set myself the challenge of cooking three things from it – but I had to translate the recipes first. I confess to feeling an incy bit jealous when someone told me about their tomato sauce making day with their big Italian family – I wanted to be part of something like that!
My 40th birthday was Italian-themed – woodfired pizzas, tiramisu, a long table out the back, fairy lights … even Italian café music. It was so much fun that I thought I’d cook feasts featuring food from different countries. We had regular Greek, French, Indian feasts and Moroccan feasts (and more); every recipe was as authentic as I could make it, and every feast had music in the background (the Bollywood music was fun, but the kids hated it). I cooked so much over those years, and while my family sometimes complained about me being ‘obsessed’, they never complained about the food (especially the desserts).
I thought ‘obsessed’ was a bit harsh – we were travelling the world through food, I told them. What I didn’t know then was that those travel-themed feasts were the first seeds that took root in the garden of my mind. I was already thinking about writing a novel ‘one day’ – the ground just needed to be ready.
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When I started writing Wherever You Go, I knew I wanted food and travel to play a big role. For various reasons, my characters can’t or won’t travel, and so I wanted my characters to travel vicariously through food, like I was when I drafted the book. How do they do this? My main character, Amy, forms an intimate Around the World Supper Club and invites some of her new friends in the small town she and her husband move to. Cooking is her way of showing she cares – and also a distraction, a way to hide from her Self and the guilt that follows her wherever she goes. As Wherever You Go progresses, the characters’ travel experiences, dreams and fears are revealed, and often food and feasts are the catalyst for their stories coming to light.
It’s taken four years for Wherever You Go to get to publication. In that time, I’ve been overseas twice – but not to Italy yet – and written another book and a half. The seeds for those books came from very different places, but that’s another story.
Wherever You Go
A life-shattering tragedy threatens to tear apart chef Amy Bennet’s marriage. Desperate to save it, she moves with her husband Matt to Blackwood, a country town where no one knows who they are.
Forced to deal with her crumbling marriage and the crippling grief that follows her wherever she goes, Amy turns to what she knows best: cooking. She opens a café showcasing regional seasonal produce, and forms the Around the World Supper Club, serving mouth-watering feasts to new friends. As her passion for food returns, she finds a place for herself in Blackwood. But when a Pandora’s Box of shame and blame is unlocked, Matt gives Amy an ultimatum that takes their marriage to the edge.
Rich with unexpected characters and extraordinary insight, Wherever You Go is a powerful and ultimately uplifting tale of heartbreaking loss, recovery, and redemption.
Available from September 18 from Pilyara Press and online retailers. Find out more here.
Preorder your copy today:
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About the Author:
Monique Mulligan is an author, interviewer, and founder of the Stories on Stage program in Perth. A former journalist, news editor and publisher, she combines part-time work at an arts centre with freelance editing and novel writing. Monique’s debut contemporary fiction novel Wherever You Go will be published by Pilyara Press in September 2020 and her third picture book, Alexandra Rose and her Icy-Cold Toes was released in May. As well as two other picture books, Monique has had a number of short romances published in anthologies. When she’s not working you will usually find Monique a) writing b) reading c) cooking and d) taking photos for her cat’s Instagram page. When she’s socialising, she’s usually behind a camera or in a corner hanging out with other introverts and making mental notes for stories.
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Find Monique on:
August 30, 2020
Book Review: The Yield by Tara June Winch
About the Book:
Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Shortlisted for the VPLA.
Winner, Book of the Year, People’s Choice, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction at NSW Premier’s Literary Award.
Shortlisted for the Stella Prize.
The yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. In the language of the Wiradjuri yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things: baayanha.
Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind.
August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for ten years when she learns of her grandfather’s death. She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends she endeavours to save their land – a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river.
Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch’s The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity.
My Thoughts:
This is a novel that I feel is best deeply contemplated rather than extensively commented on. It’s no surprise to me, now that I’ve read it, that it has been the recipient of such critical acclaim and the winner of more than one prestigious award. It is a brilliant novel: deeply thought provoking, challenging, intelligent, sophisticated in style, and beautifully written, despite the brutality and sorrow that the history, and narrative, is awash with.
There are three stories unfolding within this novel, the links between all three becoming firmer as the novel progresses. I enjoyed each section equally, to me, they each offered a lens of insight that taught me something. This may be a work of fiction, but it is insightful and informed by reality. August’s sections were drenched with sorrow, loss and grief, and yet, there was a hopeful glimmer, growing brighter as the novel approached its conclusion. What I really took away from August’s story though is the weight of intergenerational pain, and I feel I’ve gained a greater understanding about the importance of language and place within the context of cultural identity.
Reverend Greenleaf’s sections were fascinating to me on account of their historical significance, and I’ve long been interested in the history of missions and missionaries. We see here, that fine line between helping and inciting suffering. There is a lot of horrific history woven into these sections and Australia does not come off favourably. I do believe that Greenleaf’s intentions were good, but that didn’t mean that he did good through his actions. He suffered a lot himself for all that he did, and was also on the receiving end of prejudice on account of his German heritage. Anyone who doubts that slavery existed within Australia’s history would do well to read this novel.
And then we have Poppy’s dictionary, the jewel of this novel. I loved this dictionary so much. A mix of dreamtime stories with Poppy’s own history, this was just brilliantly done. I learnt so much from these sections and I really think this novel should be compulsory reading for all Australians – if such a thing existed. I’ll leave you with a few of Poppy’s dictionary entries. There were so many I loved, but this will give you a solid feel for the novel.
yield, bend the feet, tread, as in walking, also long, tall – baayanha Yield itself is a funny word – yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land, the thing he’s waited for and gets to claim. A wheat yield. In my language it’s the things you give to, the movement, the space between things. It’s also the action made by Baiame because sorrow, old age and pain bend and yield. The bodies of the ones that had passed were buried with every joint bent, even if the bones had to be broken. I think it was a bend in humiliation just like we bend at our knees and bow our heads. Bend, yield – baayanha.
gaol, shut place – ngunba-ngidyala When your own daughter and then your grandson get put in gaol it must make the family look like trouble, I’m sure. But it isn’t so simple. Both Jolene and Joey made mistakes but the punishments outweighed the crimes. As much as the government wants to convince the population otherwise, it is an old thinking – locking us up as a solution. I think in this country there are divisions that run further than the songlines. The closed place, the shut place – the ngunba-ngidyala – is first built in the mind, and then it spreads.
ashamed, have shame – giyal-dhuray I’m done with this word. I’d leave it out completely but I can’t. It’s become part of the dictionary we think we should carry. We mustn’t anymore. See, pain travels through our family tree like a songline. We’ve been singing our pain into a solid thing. The old ones, the young ones too, are ready to heal. We don’t have to be giyal-dhuray anymore, we don’t have to pass that down anymore.
About the Author:
Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri author, born in Australia in 1983 and based in France. Her first novel, Swallow the Air was critically acclaimed. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, and has won numerous literary awards for Swallow the Air. A 10th Anniversary edition was published in 2016. In 2008, Tara was mentored by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her second book, the story collection After the Carnage was published in 2016. After the Carnage was longlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for fiction, shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Christina Stead prize for Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for a collection. She wrote the Indigenous dance documentary, Carriberrie, which screened at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and toured internationally.
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The Yield
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
Released 2nd July 2019
August 29, 2020
A Month of Reading: August
#aww2020 was the only challenge I contributed to this month, adding 4 titles.
My reading has been a bit higgledy-piggledy this past month owing to some major life distractions. My total has taken me by surprise, I thought it was going to be much lower! Even though August isn’t officially over, I’m calling it because it’s very unlikely I’ll squeeze a whole other book in at this stage. Until next month! 
The Week That Was…
It’s that time of the year in high schools where a lot of forward planning is done and that means longer days in the last week. But working until 5pm when you’re usually done by 2.30pm is somewhat shocking: to my body and brain, which I had to drag across the Friday finish line, and also to my laundry, because without any mid week washing, the piles upon piles were piled quite high. My weekend is all about washing and reading; I could think of worse things!
Hanging out #fridaynightfooty jerseys at midnight last night had me reflecting that it’s now been five years of #footymumwashing. Someone’s got to do it…
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Joke of the week:
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Book of the week:
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What I’ve been watching:
Practically swallowed this one whole. I do like all of John Green’s novels but my heart still belongs to Looking for Alaska. Not even The Fault in Our Stars quite matched it. Looking for Alaska just had that magic mix of everything coming together in an unforgettable way. This TV series really did do the novel justice. It was excellent. I did sob all the way through episode 7 though, but that was to be expected. I loved the way school staff were depicted as humans too, invested in their students well-being, not just the fun police. Great stuff!
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Wishlist:
Dwarf goats. No explanation necessary. 
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Countdown:
I am a long-term Batman fan. So this trailer of the upcoming new movie has me all thrilled with anticipation and the darkness, because really, Batman is not a hero, and his story is fundamentally a very dark one. Eldest son and I are in accord about this.
August 26, 2020
Book Review: Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem by Rick Held
About the Book:
The hero of this book was not a saint, nor even a tzadik – the nearest Jewish equivalent – but he was a hero. Someone who risked his own life to make a difference to the life of another. Were his motives selfless? No. He was after all flesh and blood. A man. And a very young one. But life is not black and white. Heroes are not without their flaws. This is his story.
Tholdi is a romantic. A musical prodigy whose brilliant future is extinguished when the horror unfolding across Europe arrives at his door. One day he’s captivated by the beautiful, mysterious Lyuba who he meets on his sixteenth birthday; the next he wakes to the terrors of war as the Nazi-allied Romanians attack his town of Czernowitz.
A ghetto is built to imprison the town’s Jews before herding them onto trains bound for the concentration camps of Transnistria. With each passing day, Tholdi and his parents await their turn. And then Fate intervenes, giving them all a reprieve.
At the weaving mill Tholdi secures work that spares him. He is elated. Until he discovers the two brothers who run the mill are Nazi collaborators hiding a terrible secret: the threat of transportation remains. When Tholdi sees one of the brothers with Lyuba, he glimpses a way to save himself and his family. But the stakes of his gamble are high. Will Lyuba be the key to their survival, or will Tholdi’s infatuation with her become a dangerous obsession that guarantees their death?
NIGHT LESSONS IN LITTLE JERUSALEM is an unforgettable debut novel of war, family and love.
My Thoughts:
This was a moving story, all the more so on account of its personal and real-life inspiration for the author. Despite being a lover of historical fiction, I find novels about the Holocaust to be more often than not too traumatic to read, so I always approach them with caution. Their burgeoning popularity/marketability of late has been a bit alarming to witness. However, I did really appreciate Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem, particularly the ‘night lessons’.
While there were some confronting scenes of anti-Semitism demonstrated throughout the novel – degradation, humiliation, and violence, it was always within context and never gratuitous. It just crystallised the shocking way in which people can dehumanise each other without compunction. The things people do when they think they’re on the winning side, both historically and ongoing.
My only criticism of this novel is a stylistic one. There was a lot of ‘head-hopping’, jumping from one perspective to another within the same scene. I wondered if this was a side-effect of the author’s long career as a screenwriter since it did have a bit of a cinematic effect. This would work, in fact be necessary, on the screen, but in a novel, it just had a slightly scattered effect that compromised that element of mystique that comes from not always knowing what everyone is thinking or about to do.
‘They knew that the odds of ever meeting again were incalculably small. Even smaller than the odds of them both surviving. Tholdi wished there was some way he could unwind it all.’
Lyuba was a character that I became particularly invested in. A woman and a gypsy, two vulnerabilities to have to deal with within a time of extreme persecution. Her story had a quiet but driving impact upon me and just as he did with crafting Tholdi, I liked how the author gave us less than perfect characters to champion for. Much like real people. Those with an interest in WWII fiction will appreciate this novel, an assured debut that tells a fine story with an empathetic leaning.
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem for review.
About the Author:
Rick Held studied creative writing at Victoria University before taking up a position at Crawford Productions, then Australia’s premier producer of television drama. He has since had a long career as a TV screenwriter and editor, working on numerous series including the critically acclaimed A Place to Call Home and the popular family drama Packed to the Rafters. Since 1997 he has been based in Sydney. Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem, inspired by his father’s wartime memoir, is his first novel.
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Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 28th April 2020
August 25, 2020
Behind the Pen with Lili Wilkinson
Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eleven YA novels including After the Lights Go Out, The Boundless Sublime, Green Valentine and Pink. Lili established the insideadog.com.au website and the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, and lives in Melbourne with her partner, son, dog and three chickens. Today, it gives me great pleasure to chat with her for Behind the Pen.
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Congratulations on the release of your new novel, The Erasure Initiative. Can you tell me a bit about it, for those who aren’t aware of the book?
It’s a psychological thriller about a girl who wakes up on a self-driving bus, with no memory of who she is or how she got there. The bus is circling a deserted tropical island. It won’t stop. There are six other people on the bus. Nobody has any memory.
What’s the response been like so far?
Great! You just never know, with a new book. There’s always a chance people will say “this is the one where she dropped the ball”. But so far it looks like people are loving it, which is thrilling.
At its core, The Erasure Initiative is about “the intensity and unpredictability of human behaviour under pressure”. Do you believe the content or themes of these novels is especially relevant given the current health crisis?
Absolutely, although it was certainly never intended to be so. But yeah, in a time when some countries are prioritising who gets access to a ventilator if they have covid, or individuals prioritising their right no not wear a mask over other people’s lives – it seems like a good time for us to all examine our own ethical frameworks.
What do you want people to take away from reading your work?
I wrote my PhD thesis on activism in YA novels, and whether or not it encourages young people to engage in activism themselves. What I found was that books with didactic political or ideological messages do not strongly engage young readers. Instead, the books that inspire people to engage in activism are the ones that ask thorny ethical questions, but leave the reader room to make up their own minds. This is something I always try to do in my own work. Young people don’t like being told what to do (nobody does!), and I respect them enough to let them come to their own conclusions.
How did you come up with the idea for the book?
I was struggling to come up with a new idea for a psychological thriller. Then the image of a girl with no memory in a self-driving vehicle came to me in the middle of the night.
Is this something that normally influences or inspires your writing?
No! Bolts of inspiration are pretty rare. But once I had that image, I started to research memory, which led me to ethics, and the shape of the story came from that.
Do you usually plan your book before you start writing, or wait and see what happens?
I’m definitely a plotter, and with this book even more so. Having a locked room – the bus that nobody can escape from – has the potential to get boring very quickly, especially when you can’t do a deep dive into character because the characters have no memory. So I knew the pace had to be fast, and the narrative traction had to be very tight. So this was a meticulously planned book in terms of twists and reveals.
Your work is highly regarded among fans and critics alike. Do you still get nervous when releasing a new book (especially with the current climate)?
Of course! Always, but especially now. It’s a disheartening time to release a book (and I have three out this year!). But the response from the #LoveOzYA community has been so incredible. The support I get from my publisher, from my writer friends, and from all the bloggers and bookstagrammers and booktubers out there just fills my heart. We are a beautiful community, and I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has helped to get the word out.
You released your first book Joan of Arc: The Story of Jehanne Darc through Black Dog Books in 2006. How have you grown as a writer since then?
All the ways! I’m certainly a better writer, because I now have fifteen years of practice under my belt. I’ve developed the thick skin that writers need to make it through the editorial process unscathed, and now I love getting constructive feedback from my editors. I’ve also become much more aware of systems of power and oppression, of my own privilege, and my responsibility as a writer to try and find that sweet spot between representation and appropriation, when it comes to underrepresented and marginalised groups. I’m still learning, and listening, but at least now I know that I need to listen and learn!
Can you talk me through the publication process for this novel, and how it’s changed over the years?
I usually start by having a conversation with my publisher, Jodie Webster at Allen & Unwin. This one was a little different to usual, because I came in to pitch a fantasy novel that I’ve been working on for several years. Jodie was very positive about the novel, but suggested that I write another YA thriller first, as After The Lights Go Out had been so well-received. I was initially a bit resistant, but once I found that image of the girl on the bus with no memory, I was hooked. After that the process is much the same as it always has been. I start with plot, and a synopsis. Then I go much deeper and create the bones of the story – with this one, I made sure all the twists and reveals were in the right place. I figured out all the characters and when I would reveal their backstories. Then I wrote it! That’s followed by maybe six months of editorial work, although it’s in fits and starts due to the schedules of my editors. I’m usually working on multiple projects. Then publication, which this time round has had a lot more focus on social media stuff, for obvious reasons.
This book is a YA thriller, but you’ve written a lot of different YA/children’s books over the course of your career. Do you have a favourite (of your own books, or subgenre of YA)?
I’ve really enjoyed writing illustrated books – my picture books and the new How to Make A Pet Monster series. It’s lovely to share the creative load with another artist. But my heart will always belong to YA. I love reading fantasy – especially low fantasy, where magic bleeds into the real world, and I’d love to write it as well. In terms of my favourite book of my own – probably Pink, because even though it’s more than a decade old, I still get emails from readers telling them that it helped them.
How do you think YA has evolved over the years? Do you see these changes as advantages or disadvantages and are there any emerging trends we should look out for?
When I started writing, YA was a very small part of the publishing world. Now it’s massive, with blockbuster movies and huge associated franchises. The focus on fantasy and paranormal has been massive. The advantages of this are that heaps more YA books are being published, and there is a lot more cultural attention being paid. The disadvantage is that the vast majority of this attention is focussed on books coming from the US. I’d love to see more books from other parts of the world, more translated books.
You’re an advocate for helping others with their writing and you’ve established Inside A Dog and The Inky Awards. What does running the website and the awards entail?
I haven’t been involved in Inside a Dog or the Inkys for nearly a decade, so I don’t know! It’s been amazing watching something that I started grow and develop without me. Currently, the future of the Inky Awards is uncertain, and I really hope the awards can continue, because recognising and celebrating the books that our teenagers read is so important.
Who’s the first person to read your writing, and how did they make The Erasure Initiative what it is today?
It varies! I have a bunch of writer friends – some from the YA world, some screenwriters, and I always ask a few of them to read an early draft. My mum usually reads a draft as well, as does my partner. I love getting early feedback – learning what works and what doesn’t, and how I can improve the book.
What was your research process for this book (if you had one)?
I read a lot of books about memory, and memory loss. How it feels, the neuroscience of it etc. Then I read about ethics, about the Trolley Problem and different ethical frameworks. I also read about self-driving vehicles, the prison industrial complex, hacking, the lives of the uber-rich, and a few other things that would be too spoilery to list!
What’s your average writing day look like?
In covid-times, it starts at 6am. I work until 9:30, then head downstairs to help my 5 year old with his remote learning. Prep schooling is unavoidably hands-on, so he needs constant engagement. I try and sneak another hour or so in the afternoon, but by the evening I am totally shattered and good for nothing save Netflix and Animal Crossing.
Who are your idols, both professionally and personally?
Diana Wynne Jones, who is my absolute favourite writer.
Jim Henson, who believed you could change the world with singing and dancing and making people happy.
What books did you read growing up? How does that differ to what appeals to you now?
I read a lot of YA fantasy – especially Isobelle Carmody, Garth Nix, Victor Kelleher and Tamora Pierce. And I still read a lot of YA fantasy! I try to be a little more conscious in my reading choices nowadays and read books outside my comfort zone, or books by people from diverse backgrounds. Recently I’ve loved books by NK Jemisin, Lisa Fuller, Nikita Gill and Tade Thompson.
Do you have any writing rituals you like to adhere to?
I like tea and silence.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received in regard to your writing, and what advice would you give to aspiring authors?
My Year 9 English teacher once wrote the word “succinct” on the whiteboard, and that made a significant impression on me. The advice I always give is that being a good writer takes a lot of practice. But every word you write makes you a better writer. And read. Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out.
If you could invite three people from history (living or dead) to dinner, who would you invite and why?
Could it be a movie night instead of dinner? Then I’d like to invite:
JRR Tolkien and show him the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Jane Austen and show her the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice.
And invite Octavia Butler, show her the news and commiserate that her Parable of the Sower basically predicted the future. We’ll probably need a few glasses of wine.
With the current health crisis, you’ve lost the opportunity to promote your books through readings and other events. How are you dealing with this? Are there any virtual events you would like to mention?
Lots of social media! I’ve also put together an virtual creative writing masterclass which can be purchased by individuals or schools:
http://www.liliwilkinson.com.au/masterclass.
I’ve got a few online events coming up – anyone who wants to come should keep an eye on my Twitter or Instagram, or sign up to my newsletter on my website.
Do you have another project on the go? What’s next for you?
Lots! I’m still working on the fantasy novel that I mentioned earlier. I also have books 2 and 3 of the How To Make A Pet Monster series on the go.
The Erasure Initiative
A brilliant psychological thriller from one of Australia’s finest YA authors.
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I wake up, and for a few precious seconds I don’t realise there’s anything wrong.
The rumble of tyres on bitumen, and the hiss of air conditioning. The murmur of voices. The smell of air freshener. The cool vibration of glass against my forehead.
A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There’s a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom – she’s fighting for her life.
The acclaimed author of After the Lights Go Out returns with another compelling YA thriller – a timely novel about the intensity and unpredictability of human behaviour under pressure.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released August 2020
August 24, 2020
Book Review: Tiny Pieces of Us by Nicky Pellegrino
About the Book:
From bestselling author Nicky Pellegrino comes a magnificent novel about the unexpected ways in which our lives weave and tangle, and the bravery we find in the most difficult circumstances.
‘My heart is less than one per cent of my body, it weighs hardly anything; it’s only a tiny piece of me, yet it’s the part everyone finds most interesting. . .’
Vivi Palmer knows what it’s like to live life carefully. Born with a heart defect, she was given a second chance after a transplant, but has never quite dared to make the most of it. Until she comes face-to-face with her donor’s mother, Grace, who wants something in return for Vivi’s new heart: her help to find all the other people who have tiny pieces of her son.
Reluctantly drawn into Grace’s mission, Vivi’s journalist training takes over as one by one she tracks down a small group of strangers. As their lives intertwine Vivi finds herself with a new kind of family, and by finding out more about all the pieces that make up the many parts of her, Vivi might just discover a whole new world waiting for her…
My Thoughts:
This was such a lovely novel. Truly heartfelt and deeply affecting. I’ve never read such a multifaceted account of organ donation before and I appreciated the many views and perspectives, giving me so much to think on that I never would have thought on before.
“She is so lost in grief that I think this search is almost like a form of therapy,” I explained. “And meeting all of the recipients may help her accept that Jamie is gone. It’s what I’m hoping for anyway, that it might be healing, because I think things have been desperate…really desperate. I’m worried about her.”
There was a well of sadness within this novel, particularly relating to Grace, the mother who donated the organs of her teenager after he died tragically in a bicycle traffic accident. Grace’s grief was deep and I could relate as a mother to the pain she would have been in. However, on the other side, I found Grace’s fixation on the donor recipients unhealthy and uncomfortable. There were times where she definitely seemed to see them less as people and more as vessels containing a piece of her son. It was very tricky terrain and I feel that the author navigated this issue and the many thorny areas surrounding it with empathy and honesty. It was all very well done.
‘None of us could say no to Grace and I was beginning to see the potential for a problem. She was such an unknown quantity. Who was to say meeting us all would be enough? What if it didn’t help her at all; what might she want next?’
While the story is primarily told from the perspective of Vivi, the recipient of Jamie’s heart, the story also dips in and out of other key perspectives at pivotal times within the plot. We might only hear from a character once or twice, but the insight was useful in driving the plot forward and also in offering a differing voice, not that Vivi was annoying or anything, but even so, a new voice here and there is always refreshing.
‘My sister didn’t get it and that was fine. This was no time to remind her that borrowed hearts don’t last forever; I might not be around to see Farah and Darya grow up; we weren’t going to get old together, she and I. That knowledge was always there, and even though I tried to keep it small and safe at the back of my mind, how could it not affect the way I lived the shorter life I was bound to have?’
I did really enjoy the sister bond between Vivi and Imogen and the sidebar issue of Imogen’s fracturing and the long term effects on her that stemmed from growing up as the older sister of someone who was constantly facing death. The relationship between the sisters was heartfelt and relatable, and I enjoyed the very real affection they had for each other and the way in which this played out through their dialogue and text messaging.
‘When you have another person’s heart inside your chest it is natural to worry about every flutter, each moment when your heart seems to skip a beat or hammer out too many, any sense of tightness or sharp pain. You don’t shrug off those things, assuming there is nothing to be concerned about like other people might.’
Above all though, this novel offers a great deal of insight into the entire process of organ donation stretching beyond the transplant. There were many things I had no idea about and was surprised to discover. I honestly didn’t know the extent to which the battle for life continued for the recipient, and nor did I realise that their life was still shortened, that the transplant doesn’t ‘save’ them, it just gives them extra years and an improved, but not wholly well, quality of life. This was the first novel by Nicky Pellegrino that I’ve read and it was a brilliant introduction to her work. I can highly recommend this one and look forward to reading more of her books.
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Tiny Pieces of Us for review.
About the Author:
When Nicky Pellegrino’s Italian father came to England he fell in love with and married a Liverpool girl. He brought to his new family his passion for food and instilled in them what all Italians know – that you live to eat instead of eating to live. This Italian mantra is the inspiration behind Nicky’s delicious novels. When Nicky met and married a New Zealander she moved to Auckland where she works as a journalist and edits a woman’s magazine.
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Tiny Pieces of Us
Published by Hachette New Zealand
Released 30th June 2020
