Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 15/05/2017
‘Harmless Like You’ is a rare novel that beautifully captures the feeling of being adrift between cultures, how our identities can be shaped by the pain we inherit from others, and how we can use art to give this pain meaning and form. It tells the story of Yuki, an artistic soul from Japan adrift in New York city in 1968, and the choices she makes which drive her to abandon her son Jay. In the present day, Jay must now struggle to come to terms with Yuki’s abandonment of him when he was a child before he becomes a father himself. With this stunning novel, debut author Rowan Hisayo Buchanan illuminates the ways in which our seemingly “harmless” actions can inflict the deepest wounds, and readers are forced to confront the uglier side of love. This may sound daunting, but Buchanan makes it utterly worth it because her prose is sublime in its clarity, and she uses words much like an artist would use paint to infuse her work with startling colour. The hype is entirely deserved on this one!
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 18/05/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 16/05/2017
Most coming of age novels don’t tend to feature grizzled, gun-toting fathers with crooked pasts and teenage girls with a penchant for violence, but The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is quite unlike most coming of age novels. This is an exceptionally good thing. Twelve Lives follows ex-con Samuel Hawley, a father running from the gaping hole left in his life by the mysterious death of his beloved wife with his prickly, yet strangely lovable daughter Loo in tow. With this book, award-winning author Hannah Tinti has crafted a tender story of grief and guilt, punctuated by the spikiness of adolescent womanhood. Over it all lies the spectre of Sam’s dangerous past, from which he and now Loo cannot ever seem to escape unscathed. The overhanging threat of danger and violence becomes an unlikely, yet masterful backdrop to Loo’s discovery of adulthood, and it makes this book an intensely compelling read. Reading it is like poking a bruise; it hurts but it is strangely satisfying. I loved it!
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 28/03/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 26/06/2017
The lure of time travel is almost irresistible to sci-fi writers, so much so that one begins to wonder whether or not there are any original stories left to tell. Elan Mastai’s vividly inventive debut novel All Our Wrong Todays doesn’t so much seek to answer that question, presenting instead a fresh new twist on an old moral dilemma: would you catastrophically change the course of history if it meant you could have the life (and the girl) of your dreams? I’ll leave that for the reader to find out, but for now I’ll just say this: All Our Wrong Todays is a seamless blend of sci-fi and contemporary fiction, with a little bit of romance thrown in, mixed with a healthy dash of self-deprecating wit that feels fresh and imaginative. By day, Elan Mastai is a screenwriter and it shows in the highly visual quality of his writing - while the ideas and the science underlying his story certainly feel far-fetched, they are grounded in enough imaginative detail that you’re willing to believe it for the sake of the story. With Tom Barren, Mastai has also written a distinctly unlikeable hero (or antihero, if you were to ask Tom) who is significantly redeemed by the self-deprecating humour of his narration and his awareness of his own failings. Despite the wry pessimism of the narrative voice, this novel has undeniable heart and warmth to it, and you should read this book if you’re after a refreshing take on an already beloved genre.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 27/02/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 11/07/2017
Girl power manifestos are a dime a dozen these days (not that I'm complaining!), but Not Just Lucky will be one of the essentials - it’s a must read for every millennial, no matter your gender. Written by media extraordinaire Jamila Rizvi and backed up with solid case studies and statistics, Not Just Lucky is both a scathing look at the social structures which stop capable women from thriving in their careers and a radiant celebration of the brilliant women that succeed in spite of adversity. Filled with wit and glorious confidence, this is a kickass intersectional feminist career manifesto you will devour in one sitting before pushing it into the hands of all your fellow working girlfriends.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 03/07/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 28/07/2017
In Sarah Winman’s new novel Tin Man, the idea that men and boys are capable of beautiful things prevails throughout. After reading this book, I am left without doubt that this is absolutely true. With Tin Man, Sarah Winman proves that great beauty can exist at the intersection of grief and love. She does this through her portrayal of Ellis and Michael, two lovingly rendered characters who meet as young boys. Ellis and Michael share a fragile intimacy that must withstand the intervention of life and other love as they grow up together and then drift in and out of each other’s lives. Winman has split the novel into two parts that are each told from different perspectives. One captures Ellis as a lonely older man grieving the loss of his beloved wife Annie, while the other captures Michael as a despondent young man caught in the wake of Ellis and Annie’s love. By splitting their stories, Winman slowly reveals a series of intimate moments in the course of a life that was shared by two men in pursuit of beautiful things, and it’s a treasure to read. Deeply moving without being heavy, this is a rare and tender novel that will quietly break your heart and mold it back together all in one.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 25/07/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 14/08/2017
In a literary world where dystopia is no longer the new black, 'Gather the Daughters' stands as a shining example that there is still so much to explore in this genre. Blending the sinister undertones of speculative fiction seamlessly with the evocative language of literary fiction, newcomer Jennie Melamed has written a gripping story about a cultish island community that has sealed itself off from a broken world. On this island, where women are subject to sinister levels of sexual control and children run wild every summer, tensions simmer quietly before erupting into a reckoning of biblical proportions. Melamed’s writing is beautifully evocative - it’s potent but somehow never overbearing in the way it describes the horrors that the young girls are made to endure, and how they have been normalised. The remote island setting also does wonders for creating a creeping sense of horror and isolation, and the wildness of the island is chillingly reflected in the dissent that simmers amongst the young women who inhabit it. If you’ve ever wondered what could be worse than dying in an apocalypse, you might want to try living on this island for a while...
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 25/07/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 15/08/2017
Never has there been a children’s book quite as celebratory of Australia’s larrikin culture as Gaolbird. This is a tale so delightfully raucous that one can’t help but chuckle at the antics of the plucky convict known as William Swallow as he sails the southern seas. As the title would suggest, the infamous runaway convict William Swallow and his fellow pirates have been reimagined here as yellow canaries, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the canary-yellow prison uniforms that convicts were made to wear. Over the course of this book, readers will follow his remarkable true story of capture and escape, wonderfully told by Simon Barnard and replete with fantastic illustrations that bring to mind the zany wackiness of the best Looney Tunes cartoons. This book is full of the stuff that Aussie legends are made of and it deserves a spot on every kid’s bookshelf!
Format: Hardback
Publication Date: 31/07/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 15/08/2017
Megan Jacobson is fast emerging as a staple voice in Australia’s young adult fiction community, and after reading The Build-Up Season it’s not hard to see why. At its heart, this book is an uncompromising look at love in all forms and how it can blind us to the worst in people. The Build-Up Season follows 17 year old Iliad Piper, a girl who is rather aptly named given that she is at war with everything (and everyone) in her life. What Ily lacks in kindness she makes up for with passion and fury, and that’s no surprise given her situation. She’s dreaming of an artistic life in Sydney while stuck in Darwin with her mother and Nan, hiding from her abusive father. This is a book that I wish had been around when I was 17, because Megan Jacobson writes so authentically about relationships, friendship, and sexuality, without a hint of triteness. At once hilarious, heart-breaking and inherently relatable, The Build-Up Season is a book I hope every young person will enjoy as much as I did.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 31/07/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 11/09/2017
Forest Dark, the incredible new novel by Nicole Krauss, is a thoughtful study of self-realisation experienced from two different perspectives. Two Jewish Americans, one a retired lawyer and the other a writer suffering from writer’s block, make their way to the Israeli desert in search of nothing and everything. One of them emerges from the desert, forever altered, while the other seems to disappear entirely. One could say that, through these characters, this book takes two very different looks at the same dilemma; what is one’s place in the world and in its individual histories? Kraus doesn’t so much seek to answer this in any definitive manner, preferring to allow meaning to gradually emerge through the charisma of her characters as they grapple with these questions. The result is a profoundly moving novel that offers a tantalising glimpse at one possibility: what would happen if you emptied yourself to make room for the person you were intended to be? Krauss is a master of the kind of storytelling that captivates without resorting to plot-based gimmickry to hold a reader’s attention. This is a highly contemplative novel, and one might get lost in Krauss’ ruminations on culture, the multiverse theory, and (of all things) Kafka if they don’t pay attention - but with Krauss’ beautiful wordcraft, not paying attention is simply not an option. This was my first time picking up a Nicole Krauss novel; needless to say, it won’t be my last.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 01/09/2017
Reviewed by Olivia at Angus & Robertson Bookworld
by Olivia @ A&R on 11/09/2017
Readers of Sweetbitter, the first novel by veteran New York waitress Stephanie Danler, are in for a delicious treat. This is a book that dazzles and scandalises in equal turn, and it reminded me of everything I love about debut fiction. Danler takes the reader to New York to bus tables, pour wine, and slurp oysters along with the narrator - small town girl Tess - as she is hired as a back waiter in one of the hottest restaurants in the city. It isn’t all shiraz and caviar though; Sweetbitter reveals a dark yet wildly alluring side to life as a server, where hard drugs and wild parties are easier to come by than truffles. Caught up in this tumultuous world, Tess soon falls head over heels for bartender Jake, but the secretive world he shares with an older server Simone soon becomes both her paradise and her undoing. This book is a must-read for the newest generation of twenty-something girls who cut their literary teeth on Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady and sharpened them on the works of Mary Gaitskill, Joyce Carol Oates and Emma Cline. It captures perfectly that feeling of loneliness that young women experience as they try to find their way in the world and make it beautiful. Tess is one such young woman - she is an endearingly self-absorbed narrator, but her longing for beauty, acceptance and validation is heart wrenching enough to make you truly feel for her. Sweetbitter is told entirely from Tess’ point of view, and the narration feels very present - every mouthful of food is accounted for in rich detail. One might say that Danler’s prose is indulgent, but it’s effective in that it makes for a truly immersive reading experience. In a novel so reliant on the allure of sensory experience that food creates, this is a huge plus. Decadent, addictive, and brimming with youthful naivety, Sweetbitter is a novel not to be read but devoured, preferably with a glass of sauvignon blanc at hand.
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 29/03/2017