What to read this week

Debut novels, science and social science appear in this week’s list of notable books.

Debut novels, science and social science appear in this week’s list of notable books.

For winter, I have decided to showcase some searing literary debuts, for those who like to curl up with a blanket and a hot cup of tea, to devour new stories. The Skeleton House is the first of these novels. Katherine Allum is an American-born writer who spent time in four different US states before moving to London for several years. She finally landed and settled down in Perth. The Skeleton House won the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award and deservedly so. Set in a small Mormon community in the Nevada desert, the novel follows Meg, her “perfect” husband Kyle, and their two children. Meg is not a Mormon herself, and her desire for freedom may just bring their marriage to its knees. The Skeleton House is nuanced and raw.

 

 

I read this incredible debut several months ago – and I can tell you that since then, I have read a lot of books – yet Ordinary Human Love still hasn’t entirely left me. It is set between country New South Wales (close to the Blue Mountains where the author lives), inner city Sydney, and Europe. It follows Mardi’s story upon her return home from an escapist journey overseas that lasted eighteen months. Her mother has died, she has divorced her husband, and has broken off all contact with her lover, Ian; that is until now. Ordinary Human Love explores relationships, the complexities of human experience, and the overwhelming pull of desire. Melissa Goode’s writing has appeared in Kill Your Darlings and Griffith Review.

 

Depth of Field opens with: “In photography, you don’t get to have it all. You are always making choices, always making sacrifices. To capture the light.” Tom hasn’t been able to move on. His home in Mayfield hasn’t been the same since he and Adeline became estranged and his photography business isn’t making the cut. Meanwhile, Lottie is living in a flat above a seafood shop with her baby, Coral. She hasn’t been able to find her tribe and is struggling to make ends meet. Depth of Field is at the intersection of these stories. Kirsty Iltners is an accomplished writer, but also an accomplished photographer. This debut novel won the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award while, in 2021, Iltners was short-listed for the National Portrait Prize. Her image is on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

 

You may know the name Deborah Challinor from her bestselling novels, including the Children of War series and the Smuggler’s Wife series. This New Zealand author, who was awarded the Order of Merit for services to literature and historical fiction, has just released her latest, which will kick off a new historical fiction series. Black Silk and Sympathy takes readers back to Sydney in 1865 and explores the world of Victorian funeral customs. We follow the intriguing life of seventeen-year-old Tatiana Caldwell, beginning with her journey from England to Australia. Once there, she becomes an apprentice at Crowe Funeral Services and soon becomes Sydney’s first female undertaker. If you want an intimate glimpse into the dark and mysterious Sydney streets and alleys of the mid-19th century, then Challinor delivers on a platter.

 

If there is someone on the planet more qualified to write The Internet of Animals, then I haven’t found them. Martin Wikelski was previously a research fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and associate professor at Princeton. Wikelski is now the director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour and honorary professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz. In his sharp, entertaining, and sincere style, Wikelski explores the incredible behaviour of animals with intimacy and enchantment. Studying movements of animals from across the globe – from lone foxes in the Arctic, to wild elephants in Thailand, to Berta, the earthquake cow – this engrossing book examines new technology that tracks a range of species’ behaviours from space.

 

Kate Kruimink’s debut novel, A Treacherous Country, won the 2020 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was short-listed for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2021, she was one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists, and now returns with her highly anticipated follow up, Heartsease. Two sisters, Charlotte (Lot) and Ellen (Nelly) lost their mothers years ago. In an attempt to reconnect and discharge their grief, the two meet at a silent retreat in a peculiar house in the Tasmanian country. They soon retreat to the pub and what follows, is a sad, yet darkly comedic story about a family’s grief and the intensity this can hold. It is a striking and compelling musing on life and the human condition. Kruimink explores humanity at some of its most vulnerable points.

 

Most of us have had plenty of time to reflect on life over the past few years. The pandemic made everyone slow down and take a beat; many reflected on the question, what kind of society do we want to live in? The Way We Are asks this question, and many more, and who better than Hugh Mackay to try to answer it? AMackay is a social psychologist, and honorary professor in the school of medicine and psychology at ANU. He has had a 60-year career in social research and he was a weekly newspaper columnist for 25 years. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by an astonishing five universities. More than just for academics though, The Way We Are is for anyone trying to make sense of our complex society.

 

Michael Brissenden is a household name for many Australians. I grew up watching him on Four Corners and ABC TV’s 7.30. He worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent with the ABC for 35 years and was been posted to Moscow, Brussels, and Washington during that time. I have followed his writing career with keen interest. Brissenden returns for his fourth crime book with Smoke. The story takes readers to the Californian town of Jasper in the wake of a catastrophic bushfire. In the aftermath, a grim discovery is made with charred remains found in a shed. This is a must read for all who love the crime genre.