Afleveringen
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Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s Listen Layla absolutely grabbed me with it’s combination of deep questioning and heart on its sleeve social conscience.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster and social advocate. She trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs around Australia for years before becoming a writer and broadcaster. She has published a memoir, Yassmin's Story, as well as a book for younger readers, You Must Be Layla.
Layla Hussein is a precocious inventor. At just fourteen Layla has helped steer her school team to the international Grand Designs Tourismo being held in Germany.
With the holidays ahead and invention of her mind, LAyla is blindsided when her Grandmother falls ill and her whole family must quickly pack and travel to Sudan to be with their family.
Layla can’t support the team from halfway around the world, but can she really just give up her dreams to nurse her sick Grandma?
I think it’s a truism that adolescence is a time of questioning. I’m pretty sure I’m still working through some of the big questions that first occurred to me as a teenager. And that’s what makes LIsten Layla so engaging.
In Layla, Yassmin Abdel Magied, opens up the door to questions of personal and social identity, belonging and responsibility. These are questions that we don’t always do well discussing as a nation, with our beer soaked jingoism more often than not getting in the way of true openness and debate.
Through Layla we are exposed to the destabilising notion that identity is not some label you wear but an ongoing discourse between aspects of yourself.
At home in Brisbane Layla has her friends and her inventing which is opening up her world. Yet she also must deal with her difference; as she catches the bus, or just attends a school meeting she is reminded that others see her differently to the Australia they want to believe in.
Arriving in Sudan Layla finds she is not quite Sudanese enough for people either; her Arabic is accented and her passionate attitude is destined to see her get into trouble as she discovers Khartoum is not Brisbane.
Listen, Layla is set against the Sudanese uprising of 2018/19 that saw pro-democracy protesters overthrow the repressive military government through non-violent civil disobedience. Abdel-Magied uses this historical backdrop to great effect highlighting the intergenerational attitudes and underscoring the power of youth.
Within this space Layla is forced to confront her reality and consider the wider world she lives in. It’s powerful to consider the challenges to identity and questions of responsibility that Abdel-Magied sets out.
With almost half of Australian’s either born overseas or with a parent who was born overseas our national identity cannot simply be summed up by lamingtons and vegemite sandwiches. As Layla confronts her commitment to the Sudanese revolution she in turn questions what is her responsibility to first nations people when she returns to Brisbane.
These aren’t questions that are limited to adolescence and Listen Layla is a timely reminder that in the face of injustice there is always work to be done.
Listen, Layla is technically YA but as I always end up saying; this is a book for everyone, full of ideas and questions that we can all benefit from considering. -
A B Endacott’s Mirror Mirror is a mini-book, an essay on the importance of narratives and a fabulous look at our world as storytellers.
First up Mirror Mirror gives us reason to celebrate because it is the first offering from a new publishing house Debut Books. Against all odds it seems the Australian publishing industry managed to grow during Covid which is a stunning testament to how powerful and important stories and reading have been in our lockdown experiences. Sucha healthy industry should be fostering independent publishers and that’s exactly what Debut Books is. The mission of Debut is to foster unique Australian stories and so I’m pretty excited to see what they’ve got coming.
Mirror Mirror is compact offering at under one hundred pages but it punches above its weight in big ideas.
The imagery of the title explores the role of stories in reflecting our society. There’s also an interesting sleight of hand in that it also takes in the ways we as storytellers inhabit those stories and often can come to inhabit our own reflections.
I don’t want to get too theoretical early in the morning but this is really where storytelling and narrative theory gets interesting.
Endacott looks at the story of Cinderella, exploring the various iterations of the fairy tale back to their folklore origins. In the ways the story has been told we can see cultural values reflected. From connections to nature, to the necessity or even desirability of violence in meeting out justice.
Cinderella takes us to Disney and their control of a huge market share of storytelling across the world. What does it mean for one company and presumably one company line to hold so much power over the stories that you grew up with and are perhaps now sharing with your kids.
AB Endacott asks these questions in a relatable way and her conversational style guides the reader through some tricky points of theory to help us see why stories matter.
And if you’ll indulge me for a sec I want to reinforce that point about stories and the way they are told being oh so important…
Cast your mind to some of the biggest news stories in Australia at the moment. So much of what we are discussing depends on who gets to tell the story and whose story will be listened to.
The right to tell stories and the right to be heard has never been equally shared in our society. Too often the most powerful have assumed their right to tell the dominant narrative and for it to be listened to unquestioned.
But we should be asking about which stories and why. What do the stories we follow tell us about who we are as a culture.
Check out Mirror Mirror on the podcast -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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J.P. Pomare is a regular guest on my show Final Draft in part because he is so damn prolific but more importantly he writes compelling, pacy thrillers that have the effect of glueing you to your chair turning pages till the last gripping moment. Last year Josh and I spoke about his incredible thriller of life in a cult In The Clearing. It delved into the psychology of belonging and how people are indoctrinated by a set of ideas. And that’s the other incredible thing about J.P. Pomare’s books; they leverage fascinating stories to explore ideas that are all too relevant to our world.
J.P. Pomare’s latest novel is called Tell Me Lies, and you might be able to guess from the name that this has a lot to say about the ways we live in a world that constantly confounds our ideas of truth.
Margot is a successful psychologist; thriving practice, beautiful family and an academic interest in antisocial personality disorder. On an otherwise uneventful night Margot is woken by the sound of broken glass. The family escapes through their open front door to see flames blooming from Margot’s office window. Someone has firebombed their house!
All these events quickly pile on Margot in the book's opening. Margot’s worsening personal situation is interspersed with transcripts from a mysterious trial playing out in our periphery; someone is lying and has betrayed trust leading to a death…
Throughout all this Margot continues to see her patients; one, a student whose academic career is under threat for writing papers for profit, another the moderator of horrifically graphic content for a social media platform and finally a young woman so chronically addicted to picking the wrong guy she cannot see the danger she is in.
When her clinic is also firebombed Margot must confront the possibility that one of her patients might be behind the violence.
Tell Me Lies confronts the difficult reality of how we respond when we know someone is lying. It’s a fascinating conceit and one that is ultimately flipped on the reader as we are drawn ever more tightly into MArgot’s first person narration.
Compelling stories told well have a way of convincing us they are real. How far into a tale must you get before you find yourself invested in its outcome?
Every day on social media we are encouraged by politicians, media outlets and friends to play amateur psychologist on the myriad personalities that filter through our feeds. When stories contradict we believe we can tell the truth from the lies but how do we know?
Tell Me Lies is a gripping story, drip feeding information and challenging us to solve the mystery ahead of Margot. As we dive deeper we find we it harder to separate the stories we are hearing from what we want to believe and even as we find ourselves shouting at Margot that she’s got it all wrong there’s more twists to come.
I read Tell Me Lies in just a few sittings. It’s popcorn reading with caviar ideas (I absolutely should not do metaphors!)
This one’s a must for lovers of psychological crime
If you want to discover more J.P. Pomare joined me on Final Draft and you can check that conversation out on the podcast -
Pip Drysdale’s The Paris Affair
Pip Drysdale is an actor, Musician and writer. She’s the author of The Sunday Girl, and The Strangers We Know which is currently in production for a TV adaptation. Her latest is The Paris Affair.
Harper Brown is in Paris to fulfil her dreams. She’s landed a job as an arts writer for an online publisher covering all the hippest corners of the city of lights.
Sure her colleagues refuse to take her seriously, her ex keeps sliding into her DMs to remind her he’s doing great and now the hottest new artist in Paris is hot for her, but Harper has sworn off love.
Harper is jaded and she’s got reason. Her ex is a grade 1 gaslighter who won’t let go even after taking her time and money and dumping her just as his band hits the big time (he was fucking the bass player). Harper segues her anger into her writing garnering an online following for her blog ‘How to not get murdered’.
And that’s what makes The Paris Affair so compelling. Harper is savvy not just to the typical bastardry of men behaving badly, she tacitly acknowledges the ways seemingly innocuous male behaviour can become dangerous.
The Paris Affair does lots of things you’ve seen before in thrillers. There’s a dead woman and an indifferent police force. Another body turns up and this time Harper knows the victim. Yes there is likely an unknown killer stalking the streets of the city of love preying on young women.
As mystery/thriller tropes these are not original but here’s where The Paris Affair says ‘hold my bookmark’ and takes the reader down a different cobbled street.
Through Harper, Drysdale explores the dangers and benefits of our perpetually online and broadcast world. Harper’s column ‘How to not get murdered’ is a hyper reality version of the sort of situational awareness that women must live with to survive in a world where victims are more likely to be asked what they were wearing than if they are alright.
The Paris Affair shows us how in the hands of good guys and bad social media can be weaponized and will definitely have you checking whether your location services are active or not.
Pip Drysdale seems to asking the reader to look at their own desire to be seen through a multitude of social platforms and then start to question who is doing the watching.
The Paris Affair is an eminently readable novel. I didn’t hate being able to fly through the streets of Montmartre (even if vicariously) while we all site ourselves never too far from home. The writing is pacy and Harper is cynically endearing.
You could absolutely take yourself away for a few hours and read The Paris Affair for the escape of it all, but I’d suggest there’s a lot more going on here - dudebros and would-be nice guys need not apply. -
Rebecca Lim is the author of more than twenty books. Her works including The Astrologer's Daughter and the Mercy series and she’s been listed for the PM’s literary awards, the Indies and Aurealis awards. An important aspect of her writing career that I want to highlight; Rebecca is a co-founder of Voices from the Intersection.
Voices from the Intersection is an initiative working to support emerging YA and children’s authors and illustrators who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability.
Maybe you’ve heard of Own Voices writing? It’s where authors from communities write about their experiences (rather than say dominant culture authors writing those experiences). It’s a really important part of our literary landscape because it means we are getting reflections of our whole community, including those people whose voices are often marginalised or not heard.
In that sense Tiger Daughter is an own voices narrative as Rebecca explores the experience of being a child of migrants and trying to balance culture and expectations from two worlds...
Wen and Henry are friends; they are drawn together as the children of migrants as well as by shared dreams of escaping their suburban school and the multiple daily acts of casual racism they face.
Wen loves to read and draw but her father sees these are frivolous pursuits. In his world Wen must be her best, she must achieve even as he undercuts her confidence that she will ever be good enough.
Henry excels in all his subjects except English. And so Wen is his confidant and his tutor. Together they dream of sitting the selective schools exam and escaping to a high school that will nurture their talents and offer them something beyond a world that constantly tells them what they are not.
Tiger Daughter is a vignette - only a small chapter in the lives of Wen and Henry (and in fact I was left wanting more as these characters very quickly become so compellingly real) But it’s a chapter of enormous significance. We see the reverberations, over a week, of a cataclysmic personal tragedy and the ways Wen and Henry must challenge the status quo of their worlds.
The novel has expansive scope; taking in culture and cultural divides within migrant homes, as well as exploring mental health and the ways personal pressures reverberate out into the world.
Even as the themes of the novel seem to encompass some of the larger debates we are concerned with as Australians the story itself is restrained in time and space.
Wen walks to and from her school, the shops and home; a tight circle that seemingly can barely expand enough for Henry’s house or a local party. Wen’s dreams are juxtaposed with the disappointment of her father, who has failed his medical specialist exam. As his world contracts, Wen is casting her eyes out on the wider world she seeks to occupy.
The world is shown as simultaneously threatening and promising. As the titular Tiger Daughter Wen must uncover, or perhaps nurture the strength she will require if she wants the life she dreams of. -
Laura Jean McKay is the winner of the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
The Animals in That Country takes us north. Jean is a guide in a wildlife preserve. Irascibly anti-social, Jean drinks too much, smokes too much and picks fights online. Except for Thursdays when she cleans herself up and looks after her granddaughter. Jeans son Lee may have done a runner, but he did leave behind Kimberly and Jean is fiercely protective of Kim, even if Kim’s mum Ange has little time for Jean.
Jean and Kimberly love to plan for the day when they will have their own wildlife preserve. They carefully scrapbook their ideas, even as the news warns them of an illness spreading in the south.
Zooflu has hit the southern states hard, bringing flu-like symptoms, pink eyes and the ability to talk to animals!
Soon the park must close their gates and quarantine themselves against the pandemic, because who knows what the rescued animals will have to say about their captivity?
The Animals in That Country is part domestic drama, part road trip and part post apocalyptic dystopia.
Zooflu is greeted by many as an awakening of consciousness (who doesn’t want to hear how much their pets love them) but soon turns sour as humans find they cannot tolerate what they are being told.
McKay very quickly helps us understand that we are not the center of the universe anymore. That is if we ever were. The narrative shows us that whether we like it or not we are super-apex predators and all our illusions of benevolence fall away in the face of terrified creatures who only recognises humans as the gatekeeper of their freedom.
As the narrative progresses we see the gradual unravelling of society as people are faced with the wholesale changes Zooflu forces onto the world. There’s no way McKay could have foreseen what 2020 would confront us with and yet she’s given us a dramatic depiction of a society in flux.
The Animals in That Country poses a particularly sticky linguistic dilemma that seemed to me to resonate with all the shouty internet goings on that plague our lives. Because sure humans with Zooflu can decode what the animals around them are saying but often hearing does not equal understanding. And so we get some really strange and surrealistic communiques...
I mean why would you assume that a wallaby or a croc is going to talk to you like your best friend? Communication is about sharing something and taking the time to listen, even try to empathise with the other person.
And so it is Kimberly who teaches Jean; it’s not enough to just listen, she has to face up to the animals. Look at their bodies, their actions, their scents. Jean learns that she has to consider the animals perspectives to make sense of what they want to say.
Maybe I’m wrong, but how often do we do that day to day - actually try to take another’s perspective into consideration before we just keep talking??
The Animals in That Country represents a dystopia for some, a utopia for others. It’s a book of ideas wrapped in a page turning, breakneck narrative.
Check out my interview with Laura on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast -
Lorraine Peck’s The Second Son is an all out riot of action and ideas that takes us into the dark heart of Sydney.
I’m going to try not to use too much in the way of cliches here but The Second Son is the kind of novel that pours petrol on the drama and then dangles a lit match while you squirm.
All right, that's enough, let me tell you about it...
Among the gangs of Western Sydney Johnny Novak has always played second-fiddle to his brother Ivan. But when Ivan is murdered in his driveway; a professional hit that threatens to ignite a gang war, Johnny will be forced to step up.
Johnny’s always played his gang connections close to his chest. He manages the more legitimate parts of the family a choice that makes him weak in his father Milan’s eyes. Now Milan wants Johnny to avenge his brother. It should be a simple eye-for-an-eye but something doesn’t seem quite right...
Lorraine Peck’s debut novel is a testosterone charged ride through Sydney and is resplendent with an arsenal of fast cars and weaponry fit for a fast and furious movie. There’s also a lot of riffing on family and the ties that bind and it’s here that Peck really got my interest.
Johnny’s father is a real ‘make him an offer he can’t refuse’ kinda guy. And there would be enough in this tension between the family to keep the pages turning except that Peck splits her point of view and gives us interlacing narratives of both Johnny and his wife Amy.
Amy is very much not part of the family. She’s the light to his dark and she knows Johnny’s Dad wished he’d married a good Croatian girl. Milan loves his grandson Sacha but is not so sure about Amy. In the tension between Amy’s wish for a normal life and the twisting, interweaving perspectives we have the driving ethos of family first split with Johnny torn in his loyalties.
This dynamic plays out particularly well in the fight for Sacha’s future. Both Amy and Johnny are terrified that as the violence gets closer to home that Sacha will inevitably be drawn into the family business.
Maybe it’s me but I can’t read (or even watch) violence in an unproblematic way these days. Here in the Second Son the violence always has stakes.
Johnny Novak is a hard character to like but we are backed into a corner as the rogues gallery lining up around him look increasingly less appealing. He’s our hero like it or not but as Amy continually reminds us, his choices are putting all their lives at risk.
The treatment of women and violence against women also comes in for scrutiny in the Second Son. I’ve gotta say I’d have preferred more vigorous exploration of the ways violence is enacted both physically and through coercive control but the book does explore these forces and gives Amy agency in her story even as she falls victim of many of the mobster wife tropes.
The Second Son is a tense and pacey thriller that also makes you think. I’ll admit there were chapters that I finished at a gallop and realised my heart was racing and that’s not something a lot of books make me do.
Check out Loraine Peck’s The Second Son; it’s got all the Sydney action we used to enjoy before we had to do our secret back alley exchanges at a social distance. -
Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. He was nominated for the Booker Prize for his 1996 novel The Sunken Road and has a lifetime Ned Kelly award. And today I want to share with you the latest in his rural noir series centering on his protagonist Constable Paul Hirshhausen.
Hirsch is the only cop in the poorly heated police station in Tiverton. He was run out of Adelaide when he turned whistleblower on corruption leaving behind a promising career in the city. But the town has come to know him, they even trust him enough to play Santa on the annual parade, but there’s always an edge when police are around.
Consolation opens with Hirsh investigating a Snowdropper - that’s when someone sneaks around stealing women’s underwear in the night. It’s the sort of weird crime that Hirsch knows can escalate.
When you’re the only cop and everyone knows your number it’s not hard for things to get busy pretty quickly; Hirsch is called to a house where a homeschooled child is being neglected, then back to town where a disgruntled father is taking it out on the teachers.
I recently spoke with Garry ( and you can catch that conversation on the Final Draft podcast _wherever all good podcasts are found). He wrote this novel during lockdown and even though he deliberately avoided going into our Covid times (although he teased the next novel would) Garry was clearly interested and influenced by ideas that have been percolating for many of us.
Consolation asks questions about how we work as a community. The ties that bind and who we trust. Even small towns have their mystery and Consolation explores the divide between the public and the private sphere - who and what are we responsible for? What do we owe each other?
Technology plays a big role in the novel. It’s power to connect is juxtaposed with the ways it can be used for abuse. There’s an interesting subplot where Hirsch (whose number is always freely available to the townsfolk of Tiverton) suffers unwanted and escalating attention via txt. Most fascinating is the way that Hirsch is exposed as vulnerable and has his conviction that he can handle the situation challenged.
This book felt like an opening up of Hirsch’s character. We see a delicate balance of thoughtful and tough which makes for a genuinely engaging portrait of a series detective.
Garry Disher’s rural noir series featuring Hirsch is an incredibly satisfying look at everyday Australia. -
Sophie Laguna is the author of the Miles Franklin Award winning Eye of the Sheep, the Indie Book Award winning The Choke. Sofie's latest novel is Infinite Splendours.
Infinite Splendours takes us back to 1950’s Victoria...
Lawrence lives an idyllic life with his mother and younger brother Paul. Lawrie’s father was killed in the second world war and the boys roam free around their homestead in the shadows of the Grampians.
Lawrie’s a good student, and a faithful brother and son. Art is his passion and Lawrie can see the world differently to others until a horrific trauma robs him of his sense of freedom in the world.
That’s the first thing to know about Infinite Splendours; it confronts trauma head on and does not flinch from the damage and the repercussions suffered throughout the lifespan.
This is a difficult topic and it will hit home for too many people. I’m not going to go into the details of what Lawrie experiences but for anyone out there going through a difficult time know that help is available and you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Infinite Splendours takes us from Lawrie’s childhood, through his twenties and into his fifties. Lawrie has been scarred by the trauma he experienced and is prevented from talking about it both psychologically and physically through a stammer that manifests, preventing him from clearly articulating.
Lawrie finds no comfort or understanding in the men around him and returns to the art that he discovered as a boy.
In the natural world Lawrie is able to explore a multitude of expressions from the interplay of colour to the contrast of dark and light. It is in this way Lawrie is able to communicate, in a language of the senses and in a constant dialogue with the Masters who have gone before him.
Sofie’s prose effortlessly moves between Lawrie’s interior world and the shifting landscapes of Australia in the second half of the twentieth century. Lawrie’s voice retains a childlike naivety balanced with a developing sophistication as he learns the various modes and techniques of his art. In exploring the landscape around him, sitting at the foot of the Grampians Lawrie seems to transcend time and space as he explores the meanings of his life.
Into this world perpetual interruptions obscure the beauty of pure art. Lawrie must try and hold a job, Paul grows up and cannot understand what has happened to the brother he once looked up to. We as readers are presented with the impossible contradiction of Lawrie’s world; cut off but so much more connected with himself.
Back in 2016 when I read The Eye of the Sheep I was blown away by Sofie Laguna’s powerful insights into our humanity and in Infinite Splendours she has done it again... -
Ceridwen Dovey is a writer of fiction, creative non-fiction essays and profiles. Her books include Blood Kin, Only the Animals and In the Garden of Fugitives.
I’ve got Ceridwen’s new novel, Life After Truth, for you and it is fantastically entertaining as well as thought provoking and genre defying.
On the eve of their fifteenth reunion five friends return to Harvard University. The school has been formative for the group. As the scene of their fondest memories it has bound them together. Now spread around the world, the excuse of the reunion propels them back towards younger conceptions for themselves.
Unfortunately reunions are never limited to friends and the group must confront old flames, bullies and the ubiquitous jerk, who is now the son of the American President.
Fred Reese is one of the most despised men in the country, second only to his father, but when he winds up dead - did anyone hate him enough to kill him?
Life After Truth leads with the discovery of the dead Fred Reese and seemingly sets up the reader for a detective style mystery as we seek to uncover the truth. Dovey flips these conventions though and propels us back to the beginning of the reunion and into the psyches of the friends;
Mariam and Rowan were married after graduation. They’ve bucked the trend and stayed in love.
Jomo is charismatic and beautiful, and as a celebrity gemologist gets to see the world.
Eloise never left Harvard. As a celebrated professor of hedonics she seems to have an inside scoop on the happy life.
Jules was a star when the group met her and she still lives the life of one of the world’s most famous actresses.
Back in their old dorms the group are ready to celebrate each other but amidst the triumphs no one can help but look on with some envy at the choices they never made.
Life After Truth is an incredibly sophisticated exploration of life and living. Through flashbacks we come to see how the group have grown from their student days, subtly altering themselves at life's various challenges. Thrown into the reunion, however, we see how amongst old acquaintances we remain the sum of our ill-advised youthful moments.
The story opens up the mysteries of time and the seeming impossible leap from adolescence into adulthood. Dovey exposes each and every one of us for our grappling insecurity and desire for support. In a world of fake news she challenges us with the possibility that the greatest falsehood are the lies we tell about ourselves.
Oh, and the dead son of the president?
You’ll have to read on to find out... -
This week's book club celebrates NAIDOC week 2020.
The theme for this years NAIDOC is “Always was Always will be”. The theme acknowledges that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this land for more than 65, 000 years.
First Nations people across the lands that we now collectively call Australia have the oldest oral traditions and stories in the world so I thought it appropriate to bring in a new collection called Maar Bidi - next generation black writing.
Maar Bidi grew out of the creative writing program for young Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students at the school of Indigenous studies at the University of Western Australia.
The collection brings together nine new Indigenous writers aged between eighteen and twenty one and is edited by Elfie Shiosaki and Linda Martin. Published by Magabala books
Maar Bidi is a Noongar language phrase. It’s translated in the introduction as ‘to create a pathway with one’s hands’. A possible alternative translation of Maar Bidi is handwriting. It’s an interesting thought there; the connection between writing and creating pathways.
In his introduction to Maar Bidi, Noongar author Kim Scott describes how the reader will “assist in recovering and forge connection between an internal heritage and the external world as it is right now. You will help give voice to dreams and desires and wounds, and realise that individuals -and reading - can reveal and renew spirit and energy that connects all.”
Now I don’t know where I’m speaking to you; in your car, on your morning run, at home, or even where that place is around Sydney. But I do know that so many of us are limited in our experience and our exposure to the stories of young black men and women. That we are more likely to experience these lives in tragic headlines than through personal stories.
So I wanted to introduce you to Maar Bidi so that you might discover the lyrical beauty of Angelica Augustine as she explains to us how the “ocean is playing its own kind of music”, hear Savannah Cox explain in ‘Mother Earth’ that
Every Hole You Carve From Her
She dies a little
And learn to listen with humility as Jarrad Travers’ ‘Stolen’ asks
But Why? I still ask
They were morally bankrupted. I now live my life
Sorrily, disgusted
I’ve shared just a few words from the collection here. You don’t more from me, these words recommend themselves and challenge you to get out and discover more.
Go and check out Maar Bidi...
Then go read Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance, or Anita Heiss’ Tiddas, or Claire G Coleman’s The OLd Lie, or Karen Wyld’s Where the Fruit Falls, or any of the hundreds of incredible novels being written by Aboriginal authors that are not only terrific reads but offer us all a chance to learn and get smart about the 65, 000 year old continent we live in... -
Today’s book is one that has been on my mind all year.
Jess Hill’s See What You Made Me Do won the Stella Prize back in April and while I’m usually immersed in Australian literature for Final Draft, I knew this was a book that I had to read.
I’ve spent the interceding months reading this work of incredible research and journalism. Before I get into the content I wanted to put a content warning on the book club today. See What You Made Me Do deals with abuse and with the systems that enable it and that may hit close to home to many people.
If you want to tune out for the next few minutes, but also know that help is available and if you are in a difficult situation you can call 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732 for confidential information, advice and support services.
See What You Made Me Do is a powerful and confronting book that flips the usual narrative of abuse, centered on why didn’t she leave, on its head. Combining deep research and heartbreaking storytelling Jess Hill turns the lens of abuse on the perpetrators and tries to understand why men abuse and how they are enabled by systems that are supposedly designed to protect victims.
And before anyone starts angrily ‘#notall…’ tweeting, Jess Hill delves into relationship abuse perpetrated against men. But we have to deal with the reality that abuse and abusive behaviours are predominately committed by men against women and that this happens because the world is set up with messed up ideas around power and who gets what.
This is a thoroughly researched piece of narrative journalism that explodes the assumptions and preconceptions that fuel our reactions when we hear about abuse, or read in the news about the horror of violence.
It’s hard to encapsulate in a short review the detail that See What You Made Me Do goes into. A part of this is because the systems that Hill explores run throughout our society working to minimise and marginalise the voices of women who have been abused.
Just as we have learned terms like gaslighting and privilege as part of our everyday understanding of the operations of power, Hill familiarises the reader with concepts such as coercive control; a form of abuse that sees insidious chipping away at the abused’s sense of agency through behaviours like controlling finances, isolating a partner from social supports and checking on their phone and social media.
See What You Made Me Do sounds a call on the need to reexamine the systems of our world, whilst also reminding us that these calls have been made before. In a huge way I wanted to talk about this book because the call should be taken up by men. So much of what is described by Hill in the book is allowed because men who want to call themselves allies do not call out behaviours, do not believe women when they say things are wrong and do not want to give up any of the power and privilege that has buffered them from the consequences of their actions.
Get out and read Jess Hill’s See What You Made Me Do, everyone.
Loved this review?
You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!
https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/final-draft-great-conversations -
The beginning of the school year brings a late enrollment into Allison Walsh’s Kindergarten class. Gracie has moved to Wirriga to be closer to the hospitals and treatments that hold the only hope for saving her young life.
Allison prides herself as a caring person but since her husband left, taking their son she's been struggling. Taking Gracie and her Dad into her home Allison determines to save the family. But can she help this little girl with the tragic story, and what are the lines that a good teacher should never cross?
The tragic story of Gracie and her dad Luke capture the hearts of the community. Allison rallies the school to fundraise and Luke's new colleague at the gym Maz sees health and fitness as a key to helping everyone live their best lives amidst the struggle.
The Good Teacher is a thriller and at its heart there is a mystery to be solved, but more intriguingly is the way that mystery collides with our modern covid crisis of faith in information and facts. When I spoke with Petronella for Final Draft (check out the podcast) she told me the story was originally meant to be set in 2020. This required a few rewrites as the plot progression could not be sustained in a socially distanced world, but it still intersects with our search and our struggle for reliable information in 2020.
As Gracie’s illness progresses everyone wants to be the one to save her. Diving deep into the world of online remedies each of the characters find information to support their theories and contradict the others. Maz begins to research supplements and quickly dives deep into an internet rabbit hole of fabulous and miraculous miracle cure testimonies.
Here on the page we see the tragedy and trauma of our own scientific illiteracy play out. Characters fall into echo chambers of their own self-belief and cannot see any other way. And this blindness comes to shape their behaviour and impact their wider world.
We see this in Allison. After her husband leaves her she is driven to extraordinary behaviour; following them home and waiting outside the house desperately seeking some clue as to why this has happened to her. These extremes are reversed when she takes in Luke and Gracie hoping through kindness to restore some sort of equilibrium. Driven to these extremes Allison indulges in other transgressions, sneaking Gracie treats against her father’s wishes, convinced she knows better.
Throughout The Good Teacher plays with our understanding of truth and what is real and this of course leads the reader to the mystery that has been lurking beneath the surface…
But I’m not going to tell you about that!
Check out the good reader and as you marvel at the lengths the characters will go to convince themselves take a look at how our modern lives have similarly become a war of weaponised information and competing versions of truth...
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Paul Dalgarno is a journalist and writer. He was born in Aberdeen Scotland and came to Australia in 2010. His first book entitled And you may find Yourself is a memoir about his journey into fatherhood and I’m going to tell you about his first novel Poly.
Poly is the story of Chris and Sarah, or maybe it’s the story of Chris and Biddy, or it might even be the story of Chris and Zac.
Chris and his wife have decided to open up their relationship; to become polyamorous. Chris and Sarah have a loving partnership, and two adorable kids. They also haven’t had sex for years and after discussing it figure this is a way to get something back in their relationship.
This is the first thing you notice about Poly; Chris and Sarah communicate with an almost radical sense of openness. From the outset we are privy to Chris’ inner world and walk alongside him as he anxiously shares that world with those around him. Chris is admirable for not being admirable. We witness his petty jealousies (and not so petty jealous moments) and feel him battling to put others first.
This is not a vision of masculinity we are often privy to. Chris faces up to the versions of being a man we are served in the media (heck his wife is dating some of them) the conflict between competing ideals is intense and Chris suffers for not knowing how to be the ideal when that ideal means different things to all his loved ones.
Life gets complicated when Chris opens himself up to the openness of the Poly life. Zac is welcomed into their family home as a sort of adopted adult child while Chris also falls for Biddy. These competing loyalties pull at Chris until he finds himself unable to take the strain of expectations.
It is in depicting the anxieties of not being enough that Paul gets at the heart of our modern uncertainty. Chris wants to be all things. He wants a vision of masculinity that lets him be tough and soft, sexual but also understanding of Sarah’s inability to have sex with him. Chris wants the impossible and has no way to separate reality from all the competing versions of his life.
As I got into Poly I thought that Paul’s decision to focus the reader exclusively through Chris’ point of view was a mistake. As the relationships deepened it felt a little lacking that we didn’t have challenging perspectives, particularly from female characters. But Paul also had one hell of a surprise in store.
Ultimately Chris’ increasingly claustrophobic narrative voice builds us into the tensions that drive at the heart of the story. Poly is definitely a read for anyone who wants to explode their preconceptions and open up new ideas about life, love and aussie blokes.
If any of these issues have brought up things for you there is help available.
In Australia, where we broadcast from, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. If you're anywhere else in the world search online for mental health support services and know that help is available.
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Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal is the debut novel from Anna Whateley. Anna has a PhD in literature from Queensland University. She’s an own voices author of young adult fiction that engages with diversity and the depth of human experience.
Peta Lyre lives in a world that isn’t made for her brain. She’s got an alphabet to contend with including ASD, ADHD and SPD. She’s also been brought up with a list of rules about what to do and what to avoid to help her seem ‘normal’ for whatever normal is worth.
From the offset Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal engages with Peta’s diagnoses, or alphabet. We are given insight into her feelings about being on the Autism Spectrum, her challenges managing the range of sensory sensitivities that present in her life and her need for medication to manage her day. We understand that Peta’s neurodiversity is who she is but that it also presents challenges that she must face, in large part because the neurotypical world does not cut her much slack.
The novel centers on friendship. Peta has her best friend Jeb. They’ve known each other for years and Jeb is the kind of person who cares enough to know when Peta needs him. Jeb is a study in masculinity that refuses to fit rigid definition. He’s strong enough to stand up for himself but does not let that make him hard. It was wonderful to see portrayed the ideal of men as supportive and present without needing to be dominant.
When a new girl starts at school, Peta suddenly finds herself with two best friends and a whole lot of confusion. Sam wants to know if Peta and Jeb are a thing. Maybe she is a third wheel. Peta’s not great with idiosyncratic language and even less sure about the language of relationships. As Peta revels in having an expanding circle of friends she must also deal with exactly how she is feeling about Sam and their growing closeness.
Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal shows us the journey Peta has to make to fit into a world that won’t shift for her. The story takes us into her family (her parents abandoned her with her aunt), the world of therapy (where it’s a mix-bag of individuals who both help but also patronise) and the world of just life.
Peta has always been told she needs to follow the rules to be normal. But not why normal is so desirable. As we move with Peta we see the enormous cost constant vigilance takes on her and come to question whether a rigid notion of normalcy is really so great?
I read because reading opens up windows on worlds that I could never hope to visit without books. Books take us outside ourselves and into other people's perspectives. In Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal we are given access to a world that is too often hidden behind labels and stereotypes.
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Lona is nineteen. She’s dropped out of uni but still sneaks in to use the photo lab. Lona longs for life to be bigger than the collection of mundane events that her friends and family keep drawing her back into. She’s constantly bemoaning social niceties but also longing for her friends to provide the momentum she needs to not just disappear.
Do you remember that feeling in life before you had everything figured out. That feeling of unlimited potential and absolutely soul-shattering uncertainty because everyone’s telling you that they know the right thing better than you do. Lona’s moving through life insubstantial “...she’s barely touching it, barely any place long enough to make an impact.”
And that’s it… Lona is pretty aimless and she’s not sure what to do about it…
If this were in black & white (ok, all books are technically in black & white) with a cool grunge soundtrack I would be riffing on the nineties vibe. As it goes Georgina Young may have written the best worst book for our socially locked in times.
Ok Lona gets to go out and she gets to date (in crowds). Her share house situation is definitely not what you want to be locked down in. But despite all this Lona has a lot to say about being there for yourself.
Lona struggles to be herself around others but that’s because she hasn’t quite figured out how to be herself around herself. She’s selfish and I vacillated in my feelings for her. In prioritising herself though she firmly acknowledges that there’s nothing else she can give until she looks out for her.
Lona is also about art in its many forms and what art could mean in our world. For starters Lona wants art to be about something and she isn’t into all the navel gazing. The book strikes its own visual style (again, remarkable for black type on white page) which lent it that feel of being indie and of a time and place.
I really enjoyed Georgina Young’s Loner for what it said about searching, even if it just says it’s ok to do it... -
Rawah Arja’s The F Team is set at Punchbowl Boys High School. Tariq and his friends in year ten have heard their entire lives that there is something wrong with the school. The media paints them as a training ground for terrorists and now the department is threatening to shut them down and disperse the students to other schools.But Tariq knows that this is his community and despite their attitude, the boys don’t want to lose their school. But what are they willing to do?When a tough new principle offers the group a chance they are sceptical. They must join students from Cronulla to form a football team. If they can prove not only that they can win but that they can get along there is hope to resurrect the school’s image.Rawah Arja is a teacher and mentor who has worked with teenage boys. Growing up in the Canterbury area she saw how media depictions of the area wore away at students' self image and their belief that they can be more than the stereotypes they are depicted.The F Team is a nuanced portrait of the area and features a stunning ensemble cast. Somehow Rawah has crafted deep, affecting portraits of more than a dozen characters and given them satisfying arcs. This gives the story terrific power because while we are concerned for Tariq, Huss, Ibby and PJ it is their relationships and the way these build up the community that give their story meaning.The story explores the impact of prejudice on these young men’s lives but it does not give them a free pass. At sixteen years old, these are young men whose childhood has been shrouded by media depictions of young muslim men in the wake of the Cronulla riots. Tariq and his friends are severely limited in their abilities to express themselves because they never know when their actions might be given up as just another example of the worst they can be.Through the football competition we are exposed to the challenges of being a man in a world that expects a certain performance of masculinity. This is juxtaposed with an interest in Slam poetry and the students becoming involved in Bankstown poetry Slam. In both arenas the message is simple and powerful; your words matter so choose them carefully and do not throw them around like weapons because you never know who they will hurt.In particular the book confronts the problematic attitudes that grow from young men believing that they have a free pass to treat women however they please. Within the world of Slam poetry Tariq must learn that expressing himself is a strength but that expression extends to listening and respecting everyone.This book is pure Sydney and it is part of a growing body of work that includes Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Felicity Castagna & Randa Abdul Fattah showing us the fullness of the city.
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When you're young a series can really capture your imagination. The books draw you in and give you a hero who's just like you to identify and grow with.
For my mind if you want some fantasy in your life you needn’t go further than Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Within the forty plus books Pratchett penned in the Discworld is a series for younger readers centring on a young girl from a rural area of the Disc called the Chalk.
Tiffany is nine-years old when we first meet her lying by a river. She promptly dispatches a river monster with a frying pan and befriends a group of small blue men. Only the first of many signs that Tiffany is not your ordinary girl.
It soon becomes apparent that Tiffany is a witch and while witches aren’t supposed to grow on Chalk that doesn’t mean she won’t have to figure out her power to stop all manner of beasties coming for her.
Fortunately Tiffany will have help. The tiny blue men are Nac Mac Feegle, pictsies who can fight their way out of anything (except a pub). The Nac Mac Feegle used to work for the fairy queen, but were booted out of fairy land for fighting (so they say). They believe they are in heaven (because of the things on earth to drink or fight) and when they die they return to the real world.
Terry Pratchett penned five Tiffany Aching novels between 2003 and 2015. Despite not being a younger reader I read Tiffany’s adventures contemporaneously to their release and was absolutely devastated when I finished The Shepard’s Crown. It was Pratchett’s last novel, published after his death, and while a fitting farewell it made me immensely sad to say goodbye.
The magic of the Tiffany Aching books is that despite their central theme of witchcraft and fairy folk they are distinctly grounded. As Tiffany learns how to be a witch she is guided by the best in the land. Granny Weatherwax is a highlight of the Discworld and perhaps the character most closely associated with Pratchett himself. Strong and practical, she guides Tiffany to use her head and worry more about people than magic.
Tiffany is an avid learner. She looks at everyone fairy, human or small blue brawler alike and tries to understand the person. So it is that Tiffany develops his second sight (and then her third sight) distinctive ways of looking at a problem from a range of perspectives. The magic of Tiffany’s world is most closely associated with what Granny Weatherwax calls headology; a way of taking each person on their merits and their circumstances and treating them with respect if not also a little caution.
I’m re-reading these books at the moment (the first two books are The Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky) and I’m marvelling at how Pratchett writes for everyone with such panache. It’s not that he’s crafted a book for children that adults will also get the special ‘adult’ jokes. Pratchett gets that we are all living in the same world and just because you are a smaller size of human doesn’t mean you should be condescended to.
Tiffany Aching is an incredible character for all readers but if I had a small person that I wanted to inspire I’d definitely introduce them to this young witch from the Chalk. -
Kate and Joel Temple are fantastic writers of books for younger children. They are the authors of, as they describe it, silly books for kids; some of them long, some of them short, some of them rhyming and others that don’t. They even have a book that’s an ode to that most fantastic of Australian birds. Of course it’s called Bin Chicken, so you know good people all round!
The third in Kate and Jol’s Yours Trooly Alice Toolie series is The Battle of Book Week.
In the Battle of Book Week Alice Toolie has secured the coveted title of library monitor and has some ingenious ideas for making it a spectacular event. But Jimmy simply won’t let her trample all over his borrowing rights and runs against her for library monitor status. Who will prevail and will it steal the thunder of the not particularly famous authors coming to visit the school?!
The Alice Toolie series are epistolary novels paying homage to passing notes in class… is what I would say if I was a far too serious book reviewer type who cannot fathom being young.
Alice and Jimmy write notes, scribble in books and generally cause havoc in the name of being the best in their primary school.
These books are infused with a genuine love of books and reading. Alice and Jimmy are fighting with each other over borrowing books and how much (and how fast) they can read them. If you were a parent worried that your child was highly susceptible to taking on pop-culture tropes then give them this series and let them go to town!
The novels are knowing and smart, while still being frenetic and fun. Kate and Jol know how to make fun of everything (including themselves) and that opens up a world of imagination all within the suburban classroom.
We may not be getting dressed up in the same way for book parades (although as a side note Book Week is still on, it’s postponed to October) that may mean a little more spare time to read together and share books with the younger readers in your life! -
Christopher Raja - Into the Suburbs
Christopher Raja is the author of plays, essays and a novel The Burning Elephant. His memoir Into the suburbs is Christopher’s story of leaving Calcutta and beginning a life in Melbourne.
I do not read a lot of memoir, perhaps to my detriment, but there was something about the cover and conceit of Into the Suburbs that drew me in. This is not an exhaustive tale of Christopher Raja’s life to the present day, but rather an exploration of what it means to be dislocated and to search for meaning and an idea of home in a new place.
Chris was eleven years old when his mother and father moved the family from Calcutta to Melbourne in the 1980s. The contrast is immediate; from the densely populated streets of Calcutta he is transported to a world that is almost unbearably quiet. Where previously he had family surrounding him, not even his relatives keep to their manicured quarter acre blocks.
There is something in the title that suggests an expedition. A journey of discovery of lands uncharted or poorly understood. At least that’s how I understood it. I grew up in the suburbs and I’ve never felt I really understood these liminal zones between city and country. Here in Sydney we are so territorial of our suburban allegiances but how does this culture come into being, let alone become exclusive?
The young Chris is thrown headlong into a world of school and peers that will exert forces subtle and brutal to extract conformity. He reflects that “in Australia it seemed boys were brought up to self-destruct and be reckless” and it breeds in him a shift towards rebellion. In this world he will face racism for being brown even as he is taught that the indigenous people of the land he lives on look more like him. In the history classes of the eighties he is taught that Aboriginal people are dying out while he befriends a new boy at school who is Aboriginal and far from fading away.
As the adolescent Christopher faces down this world that dangles acceptance before his eyes, he moves farther away from the values and opportunities his parents want him to embrace. These values are not the shield he needs to deflect racist assaults nor to become one with the mix of his peers.
At a family BBQ Chris overhears a relative confess “Not all of us can become Australians. However hard we try.” Whether this is the result of individual effort or white gate-keeping it highlights one of the core themes of Into the Suburbs; this strange and malleable notion of Australian-ness does not exist equally for all.
Into the Suburbs is a fascinating exploration of a life, a time and the idea that home is there waiting to be found. - Laat meer zien
