Dear Reader, May 2018
I sat down one Saturday to take a casual look at my advance copy of Maria Tumarkin’s Axiomatic, but found myself pinned to the couch for several hours by the force of Tumarkin’s writing; such is the power of this book. It is another major achievement for the author, who writes about history, trauma, the legacies of the past, and the experience of living in the present; it is a beautiful, challenging and uncompromising work, and is our Nonfiction Book of the Month.
Also arriving in store for May are acclaimed memoirs from Jessie Cole, Meera Atkinson, and Sofija Stefanovic; a hopeful vision for our country from Hugh Mackay, Australia Reimagined; Drew Rooke’s analysis of the pokies industry, One Last Spin; a unique collection of essays about women and sport, Balancing Acts; and an updated edition of Bruce Pascoe’s bestselling Dark Emu. Christos Tsiolkas adds to Black Inc.’s Writers on Writers series, with his contribution on Patrick White; Marcia Langton has compiled an essential travel guide to Indigenous Australia, Marcia Langton: Welcome to Country. Look out too for books from Barbara Ehrenreich, Mariana Mazzucato, Simon Winchester, Carlo Rovelli, John Gray, Mary Beard, and the incredible Viv Albertine.
Our Fiction Book of the Month is Robbie Arnott’s debut, Flames. Arnott’s skill with the written word is undeniable. Flames is innovative in many ways, but I was struck by its bold new way of writing the Australian landscape; the scope of its imagination is vast. Reading this book feels like being present at the start of a gifted writer’s long career. Fellow Australian authors Robyn Cadwallader, Justine Ettler, Gregory Day, Sally Seltmann, Peter Cochrane, and Enza Gandolfo also publish books this month; also in store is this year’s Australian/Vogel’s winner, Emily O’Grady’s The Yellow House.
I cannot express fully how much I loved Curtis Sittenfeld’s short-story collection, You Think It, I’ll Say It: it’s so, so great. Kevin Powers has written a blistering second novel, A Shout in the Ruins: I agree with our reviewer about its excellence. We also rave about new books from Lionel Shriver, Meg Wolitzer, Elizabeth H. Winthrop, Elise Valmorbida, Weike Wang and Michael Ondaatje. What a month!
Congratulations to the winner of this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize, Jo Sandhu, for her highly praised ‘stone age epic’, Tarin of the Mammoths: The Exile. This award acknowledges excellence in new writing for children aged 5–12, and its aim is to bring this terrific book and its author to the attention of a wider audience in the Readings community and beyond. Thanks to the tireless judging panel (though to be honest, it sounds like they had a ball reading the eligible books!).
And finally, dear reader, on pain of death, I am ignoring our marketing manager Nina Kenwood’s clear instruction that I not mention that the manuscript for her YA novel, It Sounded Better in My Head, has WON this year’s Text Prize (I bet that announcement sounded way better out loud though … right, Nina?). Nina is one of the most modest people I know, but her talents as a writer are now publicly recognised, and I’m just thrilled for her.
