Father’s Day Reading Guide

From fiction to fact: winning reads for all kinds of fathers.

Fiction

Australian writer Dennis Glover’s third novel, Thaw, vividly recreates the story of Robert Scott’s doomed expedition to Antarctica in 1910-12, drawing on his team’s own journals and letters. He focuses on George Simpson, chief meteorologist, who blamed himself for the tragedy. Through that true story, he weaves a fictional story of Simpson’s great-granddaughter, Missy, a glacial archaeologist on a mission to clear his name, and her colleague, Jim, who is determined to prove the link between climate change and collapsing ice shelves. An enthralling account of the perils of Antarctic exploration and a reminder of the reality of climate change.

Be Mine, the fifth (perhaps final) book in award-winning American writer Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe series (others include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day), charts Frank’s three-day drive to Mount Rushmore with his adult son Paul, recently diagnosed with the fatal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a form of motor neurone disease). Paul is quirky, with a sardonic wit, and father and son segue between banter laced with (black) humour and profound conversations about life, mortality, relationships and happiness. A poignant tale of paternal love under pressure.

Southern Aurora, the fourth novel by bestselling Australian crime fiction writer Mark Brandi, is a tender portrait of Jimmy, a primary school boy growing upin a small country town. His single mum drinks, his older brother is in jail and his younger brother has special needs. Jimmy feels responsible for protecting them all, especially from his mum’s violent boyfriend. A powerful and deeply moving portrayal of a sensitive, vulnerable boy battling against the odds for a happy life.

Non-fiction

War and Punishment, by Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar, is a penetrating analysis of Russo-Ukrainian relations over the past 350 years, culminating in Russia’s present war against Ukraine. Zygar draws on his deep knowledge of history and interviews with leading Russian and Ukrainian politicians (including current president Volodymyr Zelensky), arguing that Russian historians (himself included) bear responsibility for the war because they have contributed to the myth of Russian greatness which fuels it. He also charts the (fascinating) rise of Zelensky from actor/comedian to statesman, ending with a plea to the Russian people to reinterpret their history and abandon the dangerous notion of Russia as an empire.

In Fatherland, The New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger describes his quest to uncover the truth about his German maternal grandfather, Karl GÖnner, and his activities during World War II. GÖnner, a Nazi, was posted to Bartenheim, a village in Alsace, to re-educate French schoolchildren as Germans. Later he became Nazi Party Chief of the town, responsible for overseeing all Nazi activities there. When he was charged with murder after the war, some villagers condemned him while others gave evidence of his kindness. Bilger spoke to people who knew GÖnner and their descendants, and Fatherland is an intimate, searching examination of guilt, complicity and moral complexity. Is there such a thing as a “reasonable Nazi”, as GÖnner was described by many?

How do you master a new skill? As he explains in The Real Work, The New Yorker writer and art critic Adam Gopnik went in search of an answer by trying his hand at things he didn’t think he could do – such as drawing, baking, driving and boxing – tutored by experts in those fields. He learns that mastery is a “composite of small steps” and describes the difference between achievement and accomplishment – the latter bringing true joy and satisfaction. The chapter in which his brilliant academic mother (who sent her six kids to school with home-made croissants) teaches him to bake bread is particularly moving. Will have you itching to learn something new.

InThe Red Hotel, British journalist and former Russian correspondent Alan Philps tells the untold story of Russian women who translated for Western journalists in Moscow during World War II. Stalin confined the journalists to the city’s Metropol Hotel, far from the frontlines, feeding them caviar and Kremlin propaganda. Forbidden from speaking to Russian people, their only source of accurate information about life under Stalin was their translators, many of whom risked their lives to tell the truth. A fast-paced account of acts of heroism and betrayal, and of the brave women who paid a high price after the war for their courage.

George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen, was smart, funny and well-educated. Why then is she barely acknowledged by his seven (male) biographers? Prompted by the discovery of six letters from Eileen to her best friend, in Wifedom Anna Funder (award-winning author of Stasiland and All That I Am) reveals the fascinating story of Eileen’s life, which included a stint in Spain in that country’s Civil War, during which she saved Orwell from arrest. Woven through Eileen’s story is a piercing analysis of the impact on women (Funder herself included) of a patriarchal society founded on their unpaid, unacknowledged work. A brilliant, rousing cri de coeur.

What better way to finish than with the magnificent compendium How to Drink Australian, by international wine experts and wife and husband Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross, who worked in the Australian wine industry before returning to the United States? The weighty tome is divided into sections based on Australia’s six wine-growing states, each containing a description of the region’s wine-growing history and geography, maps, photographs and snippets of information from and about local vintners, as well as wine recommendations. Engaging, accessible and encyclopedic. It is likely to whet your appetite for travel to wine country in Australia and beyond – for which, see Lonely Planet’s Wine Trails on where to go, and what to see, eat and do there. Cheers!

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