October is ripe with reading riches for those of us who are keen followers of Australian literature.
Four new books — three novels and one narrative non-fiction — by big-name and much-loved Australian authors are due for release next month.
These would be perfect for anyone participating in Brona’s #AusReadingMonth23.
Here’s a quick rundown of what is coming our way soon. The blurbs are taken from publisher websites and the release dates are for Australia only. The books have been arranged in alphabetical order by author’s surname. (Click the author’s name to see my reviews of their earlier work.)
‘Question 7’ by Richard Flanagan | Knopf Australia | 31 October 2023
“Beginning at a love hotel by Japan’s Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die. At once a love song to his island home and to his parents, this hypnotic melding of dream, history, place and memory is about how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.”
‘Edenglassie’ by Melissa Lucashenko | UQP | 3 October 2023 (available in UK as Kindle only)
“When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Granny Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives. In this brilliant epic, Melissa Lucashenko torches Queensland’s colonial myths, while reimagining an Australian future.”
‘In-Between’ by Christos Tsiolkas | Allen & Unwin | 31 October 2023
“This tender, sensual and moving new novel from the award-winning and bestselling author of The Slap and Damascus is a compelling contemporary love story told with grace, heart and wisdom. Two middle-aged men meet on an internet date. Each has been scarred by a previous relationship; each has his own compelling reasons for giving up on the idea of finding love. But still they both turn up for the dinner, feel the spark and the possibility of something more. Feel the fear of failing again, of being hurt and humiliated and further annihilated by love. How can they take the risk of falling in love again? How can they not? A tender, affecting novel of love, of hope, of forgiveness by one of our most fearless and truthful interpreters of the human heart..”
‘Stone Yard Devotional’ by Charlotte Wood | Allen & Unwin | 3 October 2023 (available in the UK as Kindle; hardcover published on 7 March 2024)
“A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be ‘good’, from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn’t know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can’t forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?”
Are there any on this list you are looking forward to reading?