What to read this week

A new novel by the winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award features on this week’s list of Notable Books.

A new novel by the winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award features on this week’s list of Notable Books.

Less than a year after Shankari Chandran won the Miles Franklin Award for Chai Time At Cinnamon Gardens, she has delivered an impassioned examination of refugees seeking asylum. Fina has arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka seeking safety and protection; first, she has to be rescued from her sinking ship. She is awarded a visa and settled in the fictional New South Wales town of Hastings. There, she dedicates herself to supporting other refugees held in the offshore detention centre of Port Camden. But when she speaks out in support of the detainees, a media storm erupts, and she is threatened with deportation. Shankari Chandran is a fine novelist and Safe Haven is timely and provocative.

Safe Haven by Shankari Chandran

Southern Man by Greg Iles

Greg Iles’s new book measures in at a colossal 928 pages. Set 15 years after the events described in the Natchez Burning trilogy - comprising the Natchez Burning Book, the Bone Tree Book, and the Mississippi Blood Book - it features the Southern lawyer, Penn Cage, who has lost most of his loved ones and allies, but seems to have found peace on a former Mississippi River cotton plantation. It doesn’t last long. His daughter, Annie, is almost killed when a brawl at a rap concert triggers a shooting. An arsonist starts torching plantation homes. When an unknown group claims the deadly fires as acts of historic justice, panic grips the town.

Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters

Literary legends Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower first met in London in 1972. Over more than 40 years, they exchanged letters, cards, telegrams and phone calls. While Harrower lived in Sydney and Hazzard in apartments in New York, Naples, and Capri, the two women wrote to each other discussing their lives, the barriers to their writing, their readings, general politics and world affairs. Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters combines the correspondence. Edited by Brigitta Olubas, Hazzard’s official biographer, and Susan Wyndham, who interviewed both Hazzard and Harrower, the book is an entertaining read for anyone with an interest in Australian literary history.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

Like many women, Constance had to leave her successful job after the Great War, to make way for the men returning from Europe. Now in the stunning seaside town of Hazelbourne-On-Sea and without work, she meets a wealthy and independent woman, Poppy, who runs a motorcycle club and also dreams of a flying club. Poppy runs a taxi and delivery service that provides employment. Poppy’s handsome yet stubborn brother, Harris, was wounded as a fighter pilot during the war, and as he gets closer to Constance, he thaws a little. Helen Simonson grew up in a small English town and is the author of the best-selling novels Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer Before the War. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is an absolute delight.

12 Rules for Strife

Jeff Sparrow is a writer and broadcaster, a columnist for The Guardian Australia and a past editor of Overland Literary Journal. Sam Wallman is a cartoonist whose drawings have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Age, the ABC and SBS. Their book, 12 Rules for Strife, is designed as a handbook for change (the title is clearly a play on Jordan Peterson’s megaseller). It’s a comic book, designed to inspire “a better world.”

The Winter Palace by Paul Morgan

Paul Morgan is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Pelagius Book and Turner’s Paintbox. His short stories and other writings have appeared in Meanjin, Australian Book Review and Quadrant, as well as anthologies including New Australian Stories. The Winter Palace is one of few World War II novels in recent years that has gripped me. Contemporary works of historical fiction based in this era often fail to explore diverse perspectives. The Winter Palace takes readers into Poland in 1939. Anton is a captain of the Polish army when he must leave his dear wife, Elisabeth, to defend his homeland from invasion by the Nazis - but they promise to meet again at the Winter Palace, their home in the Polish countryside.

The Desert Knows Her Name by Lia Hills

We first meet Beth on a farm on the outskirts of Gatchie, near the Wimmera desert in western Victoria. Beth is a regenerative farmer and collector of seeds, trying desperately to bring her family’s farm back from the brink. When a girl wanders barefoot out of the desert, and can’t say a word, it puts the town on edge. As part of her research for The Desert Knows Her Name, author Lia Hills travelled regularly to Aboriginal communities and consulted with the Barengi Gadgin Land Council. Her debut novel, The Beginner’s Guide to Living, was shortlisted for the Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian Premiers’ Literary Awards; her most recent novel, The Crying Place, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The Jungle Doctor by Chloe Buiting

“My daughter will kill me if she finds out I’m doing this.” So began a note from Dr Chloe Buiting’s mother to the literary editor of these pages. She’s so proud of Chloe, who went from veterinary school to the frontline of the war against poachers in Africa. Chloe’s book is about the campaign to save elephants; it’s also about following your dreams, and doing something worthwhile with your life, which will fill your cup, as we know. We need people like Chloe in the world, so we’re pleased that her mum sent her book in for us to recommend to you. Royalties go to small-scale wildlife conservation projects. You can find a copy of The Jungle Doctor online, so why not buy one?