This article reviews eight new book releases, spanning from thrillers to graphic fiction to family drama and political memoirs.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Is your holiday books pile going down? Fear not, as these eight new titles take readers on journeys far and wide…Colombo, 2009. Intrepid journalist Ameena Fernando is executed on a busy street near her home. No witnesses. Decades of civil war in Sri Lanka have made such violence commonplace, and it is up to CIA Agent Ellie Harper, still recovering from a mission gone wrong years previously, to seek justice.
Ellie is under strict instructions to find something, but not too much. Chandran’s won the 2023 Miles Franklin, and her latest novel moves like a thriller into a story of violence, intrigue and danger, chasing one small reckoning for a nation rebuilding itself after decades of conflict and destruction. It’s a rare thriller that speaks with such urgency and passion to broader concerns in war: truth might be the first casualty of armed conflict but, sadly, the corpses of journalists are never far behind.is an annual collection from Australian writers under 30, and it’s pulled out all the stops for the 10th anniversary edition. Printed in colour, the volume features original illustrations and is book-ended by two short graphic fictions. Those are fascinating. In Helena and Aggy Pantsis’, a woman reflects on her mother, who failed to protect her children from domestic violence; in Miles Mazzocato’s, a member of the precariat, having to choose between rent and food, is tempted to join the horrors of another monstrous rat race. Fiona Wilkes’ imagines a meeting with Joan of Arc in a hipster cafe through an ambivalent, awkward chat about her life and place in history. Jewel Swe’s Penelope Seven draws a portrait of AI-assisted recovery from an eating disorder. It’s a short but scintillating showcase from younger storytellers strutting their stuff.Vanessa McCausland’s new novel enters the world of the influencer. An influencer vanishes, apparently drowned after an unsettling Instagram post appears. Paige White’s Insta-perfect thread had flaunted her intimate domestic lifestyle, kayaking across lakes, attending sunny picnics, playing happy families. Her childhood friend Jane, a journalist living in Sydney, returns for Paige’s funeral, and gets drawn into the ethical quagmire of covering her friend’s highly publicised death. But is Paige dead, or has she become trapped in the stickiest and most popular of her social media posts? Vanessa McCausland probes boundaries between reality and illusion in this psychological crime, delivering both small-town mystery and an unnerving excursion into the hall of mirrors that is the world of social media influencers.The Sky Is Everywhere became a global bestseller in 2010 and has since been adapted for the small screen by Apple TV+, but Jandy Nelson hasn’t run out of puff.delivers a frenetic and fantastical family drama set in Paradise Springs, a wine-growing town in Northern California. Fermenting is a way of life for the Fall family, though bubbles begin to fizz in earnest when siblings Miles, Wynton and Dizzy encounter a strange, rainbow-haired girl in their hometown. Expect colourful road trips, spiky comical dysfunction, a few judicious family secrets – an absent father stalks the book – with love and curses floating like croutons in a zesty fairytale soup blending domestic life and the enchantments of fantasy.AdvertisementCredit:Former ALP minister and Socialist Left member Kim Carr may have joined the party in the wake of the Whitlam dismissal, but it is another coup, the dethroning of Kevin Rudd, that is a recurring event in this summing-up of 29 years in politics. He still finds it difficult to comprehend that the party could inflict such damage on itself, and that the dream team he was instrumental in bringing together could shatter so quickly. He acknowledges that all players have their version of events, but Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are seen in terms of secretive, backroom plotting. Carr is just as judgmental about himself, though, saying that for all his reputation as a heavyweight, he didn’t swing his weight when it mattered. Not just the tale of a political life in all its shady complexities, but something of a cautionary tale, told with a sigh.Pippa Grandison and Sophie Lee in Muriel’s Wedding.This survey of just about every Australian movie made in the past 30 years reinforces the perception that at any given time there will be a great deal of creative production, most of it doomed to be forgotten. But it also reinforces the notion that when the big, lasting hits emerge – such as– they are not just the product of a few inspired individuals, but sit upon the foundations of a complex artistic community. Whether dealing with short, experimental or mainstream films, Stratton is characteristically fair but not shy of letting the gavel of judgment fal
NEW RELEASES FICTION THRILLER GRAPHICNOVEL FAMILYDRAMA
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