When we decided to publish our inaugural Summer Reading issue last year, we didn’t know quite what to expect. Ten authors, most of them novelists, reflecting on an aspect of the year just gone, from Tim Winton and Heather Rose to Markus Zusak and Jane Harper.
The response was overwhelming: hundreds of readers wrote in via email, snail mail and social media to tell us how much they loved the issue. We also created a tea towel and fine art print of Simon Letch’s delightful cover illustration, which proved extremely popular, too.
Today’s issue, our last for 2019, introduces another 10 authors to the Summer Reading alumni. Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Charlotte Wood, Kristina Olsson, Graeme Simsion, Tara June Winch, J.P. Pomare, Chloe Hooper, Bri Lee, Tony Birch and Ceridwen Dovey: a big thank you for your moving, real-life reflections, from everyone here at Good Weekend. To you, our readers, we hope you savour their stories over a happy and safe summer holiday season. Good Weekend is now off on leave: we will return on January 18, 2020.
- Katrina Strickland, Good Weekend Editor
Michael Mohammed Ahmad: 'I sat silently, watching that front door like a mouse watching a tiger'
His heart thudding, a father returns to his local mosque in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre.
Charlotte Wood: 'I know the sea has changed me'
Unnerving experiences with water deposit dark undertows in a child’s subconscious. Decades later, the psychic power of swimming helps wash them away.
Kristina Olsson: 'You have to hold on tight, or you might lose it. A child, love'
A family discovers a daughter, granddaughter and sister, 21 years after her birth. And with her comes an unexpected freedom.
Graeme Simsion: 'The chemin takes us through villages that are not on any tourist itinerary'
On a long-distance path through Europe, two walkers find silence and solitude – and a hotel owner in saintly despair.
Tara June Winch: 'I didn’t lean in, heal or overcome. I wasted days, buckled into grief'
The sudden death of a sibling is as painful as it is shocking. The year’s end, then, is a chance to reset your moorings, and re-find hope.
J.P. Pomare: 'I was happy that day, so where had these unwanted tears come from?'
Those random bouts of uncontrollable crying and enormous emotion? Unsettling, but hardly worth seeking help for, he’d figured. This year was different.
Chloe Hooper: 'Children, to know the world, analyse this plane!'
Pacified by screens, disdained by staff and surrounded by plastic: plane life is a microcosm of the world below.
Bri Lee: 'All our people waved to us from outside our old home as we veered off into the sunrise'
New city, new home, new life: funny how it’s the people you’ll miss the most who help make it happen.
Tony Birch: 'My brother had trusted me, and I had betrayed that trust'
Driven by childhood guilt, a grieving man resolves to find his dead sibling’s bike, stolen 47 years ago, and in the process discovers a hidden truth about their relationship.
Ceridwen Dovey: 'It would be a nod to those younger selves who’d fallen in love around a campfire'
The plan: leave the kids with the grandparents while wife and husband reconnect in the NT wilderness. The reality: flies, more flies, and water running dangerously low.
To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.