Estranged sisters and a curious gift: 14 new books to get stuck into this month
Salvage
Jennifer Mills
Picador, $34.99
In her fifth, speculative novel, the always imaginative Jennifer Mills plunges us into the lives of sisters Jude and Celeste. Jude is on an Earth plagued by climate disaster, war and antagonism, struggling to survive in the Freelands. Celeste, meanwhile, is trapped on some sort of spacecraft designed to help plutocrats escape the benighted world. But when something falls from the sky, we learn the full, human story of the estranged sisters.
The War Within Me
Tracy Ryan
Transit Lounge, $34.99
In the second of her Queens of Navarre series, poet and novelist Tracy Ryan turns her focus from Marguerite of Navarre to her daughter, Jeanne d'Albret. It's a story of royal and religious conflict as Jeanne escapes an arranged marriage to find love with Antoine, with whom she reigned before the Counter-Reformation pitted them on opposing sides of the long-running French wars of religion. Ryan is working on a third instalment, To Share His Fortune.
A Beautiful Family
Jennifer Trevelyan
Allen & Unwin, $32.99
There's an irony in the title of New Zealand writer Jennifer Trevelyan's much-anticipated coming-of-age debut as the narrator, 10-year-old Alix, discovers much more about her family and its secrets during a summer holiday in 1985. From Kahu, a boy she meets on the beach, she learns the story of Charlotte, a girl who drowned two years earlier and whose body has never been found. Together, they try to find out the truth of her death, which reveals truths not bargained for.
A Different Kind of Power
Jacinda Ardern
Penguin, $55
Jacinda Ardern became prime minister of New Zealand at the age of 37, and the way she dealt with the travails of high office along with the many major crises in NZ won her international admiration. Just think of her humane response to the appalling attack on the Christchurch mosques. Is there really a different way for politicians − and others − to lead? She argues forcefully that kindness and empathy are crucial. Let's hope other leaders take note of her methods.
Our New Gods
Thomas Vowles
UQP, $34.99
Whether Thomas Vowles becomes a new god of literature remains to be seen, but judging by this debut novel set in the queer world of Melbourne he can certainly write gripping fiction. Ash is new to town and has quickly been befriended by James, who takes him to a party where his boyfriend, the charismatic and mysterious Raf, is DJing. But when Ash decides to leave, he stumbles across Raf outside and what he witnesses him doing is unsettling. Soon Ash is mixed up in something he really doesn't understand.
The Death of Stalin
Sheila Fitzpatrick
Black Inc., $27.99
Black Inc. has made a point of publishing crisply written short books and essays that dissect global and local issues. In The Death of Stalin − not to be confused with Armando Iannucci's satirical film − Australia's pre-eminent Soviet historian tells us about the immediate change of direction after March 5, 1953, that was driven largely by the appalling director of the secret police, Lavrentiy Beria. In the simultaneously published Bombard the Headquarters, Linda Jaivin chronicles the disasters of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
Aftertaste
Daria Lavelle
Bloomsbury, $32.99
Daria Lavelle's first novel is a bit bonkers really. Kostya's beloved dad is dead, but suddenly he tastes his father's favourite Ukrainian dish, pechonka. Over the years, aftertastes of food appear 'in his mouth like messages', until he discovers that by preparing specific foods or drinks he can bring the dead back from the purgatorial food hall where they are marooned. So, Kostya opens a restaurant to ease them to their next stage of death – but then things go a bit berserk.
Foreign Country
Marija Pericic
Utimo Press, $34.99
Another pair of estranged sisters. When Eva gets a surprise letter from Elisabeta at her new apartment in Berlin she's puzzled to find it contains an airline ticket back to Australia. They've been apart for years, but Eva sets off to the Blue Mountains only to find that Elisabeta is dead and she is left to sort the debris of her life. Tucked into an absorbing narrative about the interaction of past and the present are documents and photos to provide a visual contrast with the emotional discoveries that Eva makes about her sister.
The Prime Minister's Potato and Other Essays
Anne-Marie Condé
Upswell, $29.99
Historian and museum curator Anne-Marie Condé says she meditates on 'how the past can be understood through the interactions of people, places and things'. Her titular essay in this diverse and rather lovely collection tells of a curious 1942 gift from one William Frith to John Curtin as a 'cure for your akes and Pains'. Other essays dwell on the Australian War Memorial, Barry Humphries' character Sandy Stone, and the man who owned the house outside which the school bus would drop Condé each afternoon.
The Name of the Sister
Gail Jones
Text, $34.99
Gail Jones is becoming positively prolific − this is her fourth novel in five years. She has turned away from the literary figures of her previous two books to what might be called literary crime. Who is this 'Jane', found wandering at night on a highway near Broken Hill? Freelance journalist Angie sees a feature in the predicament of the unknown woman, while her detective friend Bev is in charge of the case. Both want to discover the backstory, 'the maw of possibilities, deep down and red'.
New Skin
Miranda Nation
Allen & Unwin, $32.99
Miranda Nation has runs on the board writing and directing the 2018 thriller Undertow and writing the TV series Playing Gracie Darling, due later this year. Which is clearly quite a big one for her as now comes publication of her first novel, one that features an intense first love between two medical students in the '90s, the drugs, the sex, the parties and then flashing years forward to the consequences and emotional hangovers. It's all a question of timing.
Things in Nature Merely Grow
Yiyun Li
Fourth Estate, $32.99, June 4
Yiyun Li's memoir is an account of the death of her two sons, Vincent and James, by suicide six years apart. It is remarkable for its clear-sightedness and sensitivity. The Chinese-born novelist argues that children have to have the space to become fully themselves, and writes: 'I loved them, and I still love them, but more important than loving is understanding and respecting them, and this includes, more than anything else, understanding and respecting their choices to end their lives.'
Apple in China
Patrick McGee
Simon & Schuster, $36.99
June 4
Apple has got itself into something of a jam. As Financial Times journalist Patrick McGee puts it, the tech company's relationship with China 'has become politically untenable, yet the business ties are unbreakable'. Today, 90 per cent of all Apple's production takes place in China. With Apple's future 'inextricably linked to a ruthless authoritarian state', McGee also argues that today's China wouldn't be what it is without the company. Donald Trump may yet have more to say about all this.
A Wisdom of Age
Jacinta Parsons
ABC Books, $34.99, June 6
Following on from A Question of Age, Jacinta Parsons delves into women's 'felt senses' to learn what it means to be human and how this understanding is changed by accumulated years. Through talking to many women around the country, she focuses on the disconnect between the way women who are ageing are treated in society and how they actually feel inside. Ageing, she writes, is not a malady that needs fixing, 'it needs for us to embrace it for what it offers us'.
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7NEWS
3 days ago
- 7NEWS
Delta Goodrem reveals new wedding details from Malta ceremony and shows her fifth all-white outfit
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The Age
3 days ago
- The Age
We know how the mushroom trial ended. In this film, we can't be sure
In one of those strange confluences of art and real life, Francois Ozon's When Fall Is Coming is getting its Australian release just as the dust settles on the closely watched trial of Erin Patterson. The film hinges on another mushroom poisoning, this time cooked in what looks like a delicious fricassee by an elderly mother for her daughter and grandson. The film had its international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, long before the Beef Wellington story spread to Europe. Recent events do, however, lend Ozon's elusive, charming film an extra tang. Michelle (Helene Vincent) is 70 years old, living in a picturesque cottage on the outskirts of a small town in Burgundy. She gardens; she cooks and makes preserves; she has the typical French reverence for eating that means she sets the table properly even when she is alone. Her most constant companion is Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), a longstanding friend of similar age; the two of them go foraging in the woods, go to church on Sundays, and enjoy a wine or two. But all is not calm. Michelle's daughter, Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier), hates her and is rude and vicious and demanding. Michelle, desperate to maintain her close kinship with Lucas, her beloved grandson, tries to mollify her, but in vain. When Valerie is taken ill after their lunch, she accuses her mother of trying to kill her. Michelle wonders if that might be true. Is she losing her wits? Or does some part of her want to get rid of this bitter, bullying woman, even if she is her daughter? Wouldn't life be better if Valerie were dead? Loading It is the unspeakable question; this film asks it aloud. 'I had in mind a very good friend of mine who had an addicted son,' Ozon says. 'Her life was so difficult, and when he died of an overdose, she was relieved. Of course, she was totally destroyed. But that's the strength of nature – you are able to survive.' Marie-Claude is more inclined to blame herself for the fact that her hapless son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) has led a life of petty crime, culminating in his current prison sentence. 'She asks herself: what have we done wrong with our children? And Michelle answers, 'we did our best',' Ozon says. 'And I think Michelle is heroic to have this reaction, but at the same time she's monstrous.' Whether the poisoning was accidental is never resolved. 'Life is full of ambiguity, contradictions, it is not black-and-white,' Ozon says. 'And that is what I like to show. I like all my characters.' Even snarling Valerie, who begins as an unambiguous hate figure, has her reasons, at least in her own mind. Her sweet, elfin-faced mother made her living as a prostitute; she and Marie-Claude worked together. People found out; of course they did. Valerie can never forgive her mother for that shame. That idea, says Ozon, came to him as this poisoned family took shape in his mind. 'It was step by step. I liked the idea of a woman with a past – and the fact that the past is always coming back in your life. You can't erase it. I did a lot of research into children with mothers who were prostitutes. I realised there were two kinds of reaction. Some children punish their mothers with shame. Others understand it, accept and think their mothers were just victims of social circumstances. And try to help them, especially as they age. Because in France, prostitutes have no place. They don't have pensions or social security. Really, it's a very strong thing for spectators to respond to this in their imaginations. To make them understand the situation.' In a filmography otherwise distinguished by its variety, ageing women have been Ozon's go-to subject. 'I love old people in movies – and old women have been rendered almost invisible,' he says. 'Maybe less in France because we love our old actresses – but then, some old actresses in France don't look old any more! I love to have real actresses whom we can see are 70 or 80 years old, the idea they are beautiful as they are. And filming them in a natural way, you know.' That requires their trust, which he has built up with several of France's senior stars over the years. 'The advantage with old actresses is that the past is on their faces. So it is very touching when they let you make some close-ups. Helene Vincent is a great actress, and you see her life on her face or just in her way of walking. Just watching her can tell us so many things.' His choices still meet some resistance. 'I never say I want to make a political movie, but equally I realise that to choose two old actresses as the leads is political,' he says. Still, he adds that things are better than they used to be. In 2000, he made the first of three collaborations with Charlotte Rampling. Under the Sand is a spare and enigmatic film about a woman whose husband goes missing, presumed drowned, after going for a swim one morning. 'I couldn't find the money. Everybody tells me Charlotte Rampling is too old: she will interest nobody. And she was only 50! Can you imagine?' Loading Undeterred, he made a splash two years later with his murder mystery musical Eight Women, which featured Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve and an 85-year-old Danielle Darrieux; it brought him an international audience and remains his most critically and commercially successful film. 'Hopefully things have changed now. It was not so difficult to finance this time.' Ozon has been surprised by the responses he has had to the new film. 'It is an amoral movie. I leave space for the audience to make their own judgment of the situations; I like this game with an audience. But sometimes you think much more perverse things than I have in mind; it's amazing to hear some spectators say what they have seen in the story. Sometimes I'm shocked!' He smiles urbanely; it is hard to imagine what on earth would shock Francois Ozon. 'But the film doesn't belong to me any more. It's very touching when someone puts his own obsession into your story because often people are talking about themselves, especially in a film about family relationships. Some women feel very close to Michelle. Others say that she is a monster: her daughter is suffering.' For others, the mushroom becomes a metaphor for the toxicity in the family. 'And why not? If you want to see that, why not? For me, it was more about nature – and the fact nature can be beautiful and dangerous at the same time.' Like these aged women, he adds, looking impish. 'I like the idea Michelle looks like a perfect grandmother, but she is more complex. It is kind of a cliche to idealise old people. Old people can be dangerous! Be careful!' So, is she guilty? Unlike real mushroom poisoners, Michelle never faces court, so never answers the key questions. Ozon says he knows the answers, but he won't tell. In San Sebastian, where foraging for mushrooms is part of life, audience sympathies were with Michelle; a mushroom mistake could happen to anyone. For Australians, it may be another story. Loading When Fall Is Coming is in cinemas from July 31. Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
We know how the mushroom trial ended. In this film, we can't be sure
In one of those strange confluences of art and real life, Francois Ozon's When Fall Is Coming is getting its Australian release just as the dust settles on the closely watched trial of Erin Patterson. The film hinges on another mushroom poisoning, this time cooked in what looks like a delicious fricassee by an elderly mother for her daughter and grandson. The film had its international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, long before the Beef Wellington story spread to Europe. Recent events do, however, lend Ozon's elusive, charming film an extra tang. Michelle (Helene Vincent) is 70 years old, living in a picturesque cottage on the outskirts of a small town in Burgundy. She gardens; she cooks and makes preserves; she has the typical French reverence for eating that means she sets the table properly even when she is alone. Her most constant companion is Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), a longstanding friend of similar age; the two of them go foraging in the woods, go to church on Sundays, and enjoy a wine or two. But all is not calm. Michelle's daughter, Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier), hates her and is rude and vicious and demanding. Michelle, desperate to maintain her close kinship with Lucas, her beloved grandson, tries to mollify her, but in vain. When Valerie is taken ill after their lunch, she accuses her mother of trying to kill her. Michelle wonders if that might be true. Is she losing her wits? Or does some part of her want to get rid of this bitter, bullying woman, even if she is her daughter? Wouldn't life be better if Valerie were dead? Loading It is the unspeakable question; this film asks it aloud. 'I had in mind a very good friend of mine who had an addicted son,' Ozon says. 'Her life was so difficult, and when he died of an overdose, she was relieved. Of course, she was totally destroyed. But that's the strength of nature – you are able to survive.' Marie-Claude is more inclined to blame herself for the fact that her hapless son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) has led a life of petty crime, culminating in his current prison sentence. 'She asks herself: what have we done wrong with our children? And Michelle answers, 'we did our best',' Ozon says. 'And I think Michelle is heroic to have this reaction, but at the same time she's monstrous.' Whether the poisoning was accidental is never resolved. 'Life is full of ambiguity, contradictions, it is not black-and-white,' Ozon says. 'And that is what I like to show. I like all my characters.' Even snarling Valerie, who begins as an unambiguous hate figure, has her reasons, at least in her own mind. Her sweet, elfin-faced mother made her living as a prostitute; she and Marie-Claude worked together. People found out; of course they did. Valerie can never forgive her mother for that shame. That idea, says Ozon, came to him as this poisoned family took shape in his mind. 'It was step by step. I liked the idea of a woman with a past – and the fact that the past is always coming back in your life. You can't erase it. I did a lot of research into children with mothers who were prostitutes. I realised there were two kinds of reaction. Some children punish their mothers with shame. Others understand it, accept and think their mothers were just victims of social circumstances. And try to help them, especially as they age. Because in France, prostitutes have no place. They don't have pensions or social security. Really, it's a very strong thing for spectators to respond to this in their imaginations. To make them understand the situation.' In a filmography otherwise distinguished by its variety, ageing women have been Ozon's go-to subject. 'I love old people in movies – and old women have been rendered almost invisible,' he says. 'Maybe less in France because we love our old actresses – but then, some old actresses in France don't look old any more! I love to have real actresses whom we can see are 70 or 80 years old, the idea they are beautiful as they are. And filming them in a natural way, you know.' That requires their trust, which he has built up with several of France's senior stars over the years. 'The advantage with old actresses is that the past is on their faces. So it is very touching when they let you make some close-ups. Helene Vincent is a great actress, and you see her life on her face or just in her way of walking. Just watching her can tell us so many things.' His choices still meet some resistance. 'I never say I want to make a political movie, but equally I realise that to choose two old actresses as the leads is political,' he says. Still, he adds that things are better than they used to be. In 2000, he made the first of three collaborations with Charlotte Rampling. Under the Sand is a spare and enigmatic film about a woman whose husband goes missing, presumed drowned, after going for a swim one morning. 'I couldn't find the money. Everybody tells me Charlotte Rampling is too old: she will interest nobody. And she was only 50! Can you imagine?' Loading Undeterred, he made a splash two years later with his murder mystery musical Eight Women, which featured Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve and an 85-year-old Danielle Darrieux; it brought him an international audience and remains his most critically and commercially successful film. 'Hopefully things have changed now. It was not so difficult to finance this time.' Ozon has been surprised by the responses he has had to the new film. 'It is an amoral movie. I leave space for the audience to make their own judgment of the situations; I like this game with an audience. But sometimes you think much more perverse things than I have in mind; it's amazing to hear some spectators say what they have seen in the story. Sometimes I'm shocked!' He smiles urbanely; it is hard to imagine what on earth would shock Francois Ozon. 'But the film doesn't belong to me any more. It's very touching when someone puts his own obsession into your story because often people are talking about themselves, especially in a film about family relationships. Some women feel very close to Michelle. Others say that she is a monster: her daughter is suffering.' For others, the mushroom becomes a metaphor for the toxicity in the family. 'And why not? If you want to see that, why not? For me, it was more about nature – and the fact nature can be beautiful and dangerous at the same time.' Like these aged women, he adds, looking impish. 'I like the idea Michelle looks like a perfect grandmother, but she is more complex. It is kind of a cliche to idealise old people. Old people can be dangerous! Be careful!' So, is she guilty? Unlike real mushroom poisoners, Michelle never faces court, so never answers the key questions. Ozon says he knows the answers, but he won't tell. In San Sebastian, where foraging for mushrooms is part of life, audience sympathies were with Michelle; a mushroom mistake could happen to anyone. For Australians, it may be another story. Loading When Fall Is Coming is in cinemas from July 31. Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.
