In 1665 a young man from Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. This is the story of Caleb’s Crossing (Geraldine Brooks, Fourth Estate), which has appeared on the most mentioned chart over the past few weeks. A guest at the Sydney Writers’ Festival this week, Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish lost three daughters in an Israeli tank attack, then wrote I Shall Not Hate (Bloomsbury). Kathy Lette’s How to Kill Your Husband (S&S), John Armstrong’s In Search of Civilization: Remaking a Tarnished Idea (Penguin), and Carolyn Burke’s No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf (Bloomsbury) also appear on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Archive for May, 2011
Most mentioned this week
Posted: 16 May 2011 at 12:50 pm
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Rebecca Stead
Posted: 16 May 2011 at 9:58 am
REbecca Stead
Rebecca Stead, author of First Light (Text) answers a few questions…
What would you put on a shelf-talker for your book?
An end-of-childhood story that won’t read the same way twice.
If you had to spend the rest of your life on a book tour, where would you go?
Ouch, painful thought. The US, I suppose—plenty of variety, and I could see my kids.
What is the silliest question you’ve ever been asked on a book tour?
‘Where do you do your grocery shopping?’
And the most profound?
‘What is the nature of time?’
What are you reading right now?
The Best American Short Stories 2010 (ed by Richard Russo, Mariner Books).
Adult: Let the Great World Spin (Colum McCann, Bloomsbury); Children’s/YA: Dreamhunter (Elizabeth Knox, Fourth Estate).
What was the defining book of your childhood?
‘Defining’ is an interesting word. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, various imprints).
Which is your favourite bookstore?
Bank Street Books, my neighborhood indie [in New York City]. Because the booksellers there read books and care about them.
Who would you like to challenge to a literary spat?
No one. I worked ‘confrontational’ out of my system when I was a criminal defense lawyer. Now I’d rather bond.
Facebook or Twitter?
Facebook. Twitter requires too much babysitting.
If I were a literary character I’d be …
A sister in a family of sisters. Elizabeth Bennett, maybe.
In 50 years’ time books will be …
More precious than they are today.
Rebecca Stead is the author of First Light (Text). She is touring Melbourne and Sydney in May.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Zoe Thurner on ‘Dress Rehearsal’ (Fremantle Press)
Posted: 13 May 2011 at 3:31 pm
Zoe Thurner
Drama teacher Zoe Thurner tells Amelia Vahtrick about her debut novel Dress Rehearsal (Fremantle Press).
The story is framed by a Year 12 theatre production, which provides a lot of the drama between Lara and the other students. What effect do you think theatre can have on teenagers?
Theatre is visceral, immediate and invites people to connect. In a world dominated by virtual relationships I think theatre can bring young people together in a meaningful way. As a drama teacher I have scripted, directed and assisted in the production of youth theatre, which is often highly innovative and can bring out new qualities in students. Last year I wrote a script in the form of a cabaret set in Berlin of the 1930s. We cast a rather isolated boy as the MC, where he shone, and had a burly footballer happily dancing the waltz. These kids were united in a group task that required them to negotiate, give freely and be part of something larger than themselves. And the youth audience loved it. Ultimately, whether they choose to watch theatre or produce it I think theatre has a very uplifting effect on teenagers. That’s one of the things I tried to get across when I was writing Dress Rehearsal.
There’s a pretty scary scene in the book where Lara and two other girls get into a car with some drunken boys. Did you write this as a warning for teenage readers, or were you merely interested in depicting something that does happen?
Like parents and teachers everywhere, I feel acutely aware of the dangers young people face in making quick, poor decisions. I have discovered this from my students, my kids and my own early mistakes. This scene was based on an experience I had as a girl, when I hitched a ride with some boys up the coast and had to escape by jumping out of a moving car. Very scary. But the scene also stands there for boys. Some years ago I worked on a drama project with the Head Injured Society and sadly met young men in wheelchairs as a result of drink-driving accidents. I think learning from life is important but our kids have to choose their lessons carefully.
Lara is a fabulous, larger-than-life character, whether she’s fighting with her mum, flirting with one boy after another, or taking to her bed in dramatic fashion when things go wrong. Did you have fun writing her? More fun than you would have had writing a more perfect heroine?
Writing Lara Pearlman was like writing a very long dramatic monologue. It propelled me into the chaotic world of Lara’s thoughts and desires, which was wild and pretty intense. It is true that Lara is not a classic heroine. She does not save her friends and cannot change the bad things that happen to them. But I think that Lara and some of the other characters in Dress Rehearsal slowly come to terms with life as it stands in all its imperfection and I think that process takes some honesty and a special kind of courage. So while Lara is chasing around after other people she learns a lot about what she really values and she finds that the best life she can live is her own.
Dress Rehearsal is published by Fremantle Press
I love the way people can be highly contradictory and also capable of great adaptation and change and so first impressions are really just a starting point. I am interested in how a person’s story evolves and how all the contradictory elements are revealed and held together. In Dress Rehearsal Lara is not analytic. She can’t stand back and work people out, the way Nathan might. Instead she throws herself into tough situations to discover the truth. She is often shocked as she pieces conflicting bits together but finally arrives at a richer understanding of the people around her. I volunteer as a telephone counsellor and have to stay open to the subtle and shifting clues given in the course of the conversation which often ends in a very different impression of the caller.
Dress Rehearsal is published by Fremantle Press. This interview first appeared in the March issue of Junior Bookseller+Publisher magazine. Sign up to the free monthly Junior Bookseller+Publisher Newsletter here.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Randa Abdel-Fattah on ‘The Friendship Matchmaker’ (Omnibus)
Posted: 11 May 2011 at 3:10 pm
In the March issue of Junior Bookseller+Publisher reviewer Natalie Crawford spoke to author Randa Abdel-Fattah about her most recent book.
This is your first foray into junior fiction. What interested you in writing for younger readers and how did you have to adapt your writing for this different audience?
I have vivid memories of primary school and can recall with excruciating detail the agonies and joys of making and keeping friends. Writing for a younger audience has been an absolute joy for me because I feel as though I’m turning back time, diving into my own memories and experiences to share the stories and adventures that have stayed with me all these years. It’s not that my writing is autobiographical, more that I am tapping into the emotional rollercoaster of pre-adolescence that I remember so well. Writing for this audience, and from the point of view of a girl in Grade 5, came very naturally to me—which proves to me that I haven’t really grown up all that much! Perhaps it also means that the insecurities and conflicts we experience as children never really change—that the emotions that drive us to crave other people’s approval and admiration as adults are the same as those we experience as children, only the setting and circumstances change.
The issue of friendship is central to The Friendship Matchmaker. Were you nervous about portraying the concerns of your characters in a realistic way?
Every writer worries that their characters’ voices might not ring true. As a writer, I am always conscious that I will lose my readers and compromise my own creative integrity if my characters are not authentic. The editing process was the best way to determine whether my characters were acting or speaking in ways that were contrived. But I rarely found this to be a problem as I tend to start writing with the main characters’ voices already quite clear in my head.
The use of narrative and inclusion of Lara’s Friendship Matchmaker Manual gives the reader two different points of view. Did you always intend to include the Manual in telling Lara’s story?
The FMM Manual was delicious fun to create. It was always my intention to have it running in the background, as an insight into Lara’s thinking, strategy and motivation.Although the book is a first-hand narrative, the manual is an even deeper, yet playful, insight into Lara’s mind and heart.
Was it fun or nerve-wracking having to immerse yourself in the world of a 10-year-old again?
It was terrific fun! I dived back into the world of friendship trios, playground spats and the emotional turbulence that comes with picking a friend to sit next to on a bus or play sports with. When I write ‘as a 10-year-old’ I find myself writing with two voices in my head: my adult voice and my voice as a 10-year-old. The product is a fusion of both levels of consciousness. It is that process and tension between young and old that I find most exhilarating.
There are some very peculiar characters in the book. Are any of them based on people you actually knew at school?
I had terrific fun in trying to balance between the comic and farcical when writing such characters as Omar (who only speaks in rhyme as training for being a rap artist one day) and David (who speaks to his basketball as though it were his best friend). None of the characters, with the exception of Chris the Bully, were based on people I knew at school. However, I still try to maintain a healthy respect for even my most ‘peculiar’ characters, humanising them despite the comic potential their various idiosyncracies offer. While some of my characters exhibit ‘odd’ habits and quirks, I still consider that my young readers will identify with these characters’ dreams, fears and insecurities.
Would you consider writing for a younger audience again?
Most definitely. Lara will not leave me alone. After all, she can be quite bossy and dominating! I can’t resist writing a story with her again so I’m writing a sequel. I’m also releasing my first ‘Aussie Mates’ title, Buzz Off in May 2011. It’s a story about a boy who has, well, a special connection with flies—he can hear them talk. Once again I had delightful fun throwing myself into the world of a young boy.
The Friendship Matchmaker is published by Omnibus. This interview first appeared in the March issue of Junior Bookseller+Publisher. Sign up for the free monthly Junior Bookseller+Publisher Newsletter here.
Bestsellers this week
Posted: 11 May 2011 at 1:05 pm
Caleb’s Crossing (Geraldine Brooks, HarperCollins), a novel inspired by Caleb Cheeshahteamauk, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard, is top of the fastest movers chart this week. The story explores the crossing of cultures through the unlikely friendship between Bethia, the strong-willed daughter of a minister, and Caleb, the son of the chieftain of the Wampanoag Tribe. Dead Reckoning, the eleventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) Series, is top of the highest new entries chart and third on the bestsellers chart this week. Jamie’s 30-minute Meals (Jamie Oliver, Michael Joseph), has moved up to the top of the bestsellers chart overtaking Sing you Home (Jodi Picoult, A&U), which is in second place–Weekly Book Newsletter.
Bookseller+Publisher magazine June issue: top picks
Posted: 11 May 2011 at 10:20 am
The June issue has landed! This time around several titles impressed our reviewers. Here are just a few:
Berlin Syndrome (Melanie Joosten, Scribe, July)
Reviewer Eloise Keating describes Melanie Joosten’s Berlin Syndrome as a ‘courageous and exciting debut’ from ‘an extremely talented new writer’. She recommends the Melbourne writer’s novel to readers of literary fiction, who will appreciate the story of the ‘complex and dangerous relationship’ between a backpacking Australian photographer Clare and Berlin school teacher Andi. ‘Joosten is masterful in her descriptions of the loneliness that can be found both in a foreign city full of strangers and in an apartment shared by two people,’ she writes.
There Should Be More Dancing (Rosalie Ham, Vintage, July)
Fans of Rosalie Ham’s The Dressmaker ‘won’t be disappointed’ by her new novel, says reviewer Heather Dyer. The story unfolds at Margery’s 80th birthday party, where she is ‘planning to fling herself from a balcony’. However, ‘there are a lot of people in the atrium below and she doesn’t want to spoil their day’ so she bides her time in her hotel room and ‘looks back on her life, convinced of conspiracies that have kept her in the dark for years, and full of grievances’. ‘A cast of memorable characters and Ham’s sly humour make this an entertaining read,’ says Dyer.
Lost in Transit: The Strange Story of the Philip K Dick Android (David F Duffy, MUP, July)
In Lost in Transit, author David F Duffy blends the story of a ‘stranger-than-fiction Philip K Dick android’ that was ‘built by a team of young scientists at Memphis University’s Institute of Intelligent Systems’ with a discussion of ‘artificial intelligence, robotics and Dick himself’, writes reviewer Lachlan Jobbins. The android, based on the famous sci-fi author, ‘briefly captured the world’s attention … before going missing on a flight between Dallas and Las Vegas, never to be seen again.’ Jobbins concludes: ‘It’s the best kind of popular science—a book that doesn’t require any previous knowledge, but leaves you hungry to know more, and wondering at the possibilities that may lie ahead.’
Infernal Triangle (Paul McGeough, A&U, July)
Foreign correspondent Paul McGeough’s Infernal Triangle is ‘essential reading’ according to reviewer Paula Grunseit. ‘It covers his observations of significant events in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Levant over a decade’, she writes, and despite his ‘access to numerous key figures, from political leaders to dissidents and Islamic Jihad fighters … the “ordinary” person is not forgotten either’. McGeough’s collection of reports ‘should be of interest to anyone who follows international news and current affairs’, says Grunseit.
Sign up for the free fortnightly Bookseller+Publisher Newsletter here for more advance book news.
BOOK REVIEW: Watercolours (Adrienne Ferreira, Fourth Estate)
Posted: 11 May 2011 at 9:47 am
When Dom moves to the rural backwater of Morus, on the Lewis River, as the town’s new primary school teacher, he is unsure of his new home. When he notices that one of his pupils, Novi Lepido, is a talented artist, he feels out of his depth. Dom’s efforts to foster the boy’s talent uncover the Lepido family’s links to the local history and the landscape, stirring up hidden wells of grief and ancient history. This is Adrienne Ferreira’s first novel, and an excitingly good book. The way in which Ferreira translates her characters onto the page is disarming in its simplicity and immensely enjoyable to read. Watercolours is a collection of well-captured moments, presented in a multitude of first-person narratives. It is a refreshingly good Australian story that will appeal to readers who enjoy reading about love and the triumph of good intentions. The subject matter will suit both adult and young adult readers, and will ensure it is appreciated far and wide.
Rebecca Butterworth is a writer and ex-bookseller living in Melbourne. This review first appeared in the April issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: S J Watson on ‘Before I Go to Sleep’ (Text Publishing)
Posted: 9 May 2011 at 2:48 pm
Andrea Hanke spoke to S J Watson about his experience as a pupil in the Faber Academy’s first novel-writing course in the UK—and the resulting novel Before I Go to Sleep, out this month from Text Publishing.
S J Watson doesn’t have a conventional background as a writer, if indeed such a thing exists. The UK physics graduate worked for many years for the National Health Service in London while dabbling with writing on the side, until he decided ‘that to be truly happy in myself I would need to stop thinking of my writing as a hobby and give it the space and time that increasingly I thought it deserved’.
In 2008 Watson was accepted into the Faber Academy’s first six-month-long ‘Writing a Novel’ Course, a program that covers all aspects of the novel-writing process, and offers guest seminars by well-known writers, agents and publishers. The program is due to begin in Australia this year.
‘I loved every moment of being on the course, and really can’t praise it highly enough! I met, and learned from, some wonderful writers, and I made some lifelong friends. I learned so much—everything from how to capture the essence of a character to how to write a synopsis and pitch your book to an agent—but it was also incredible just to be surrounded by people who took their writing as seriously as I did, and who understood what the writing life involves.’
On the last night of the Faber course Watson was introduced to literary agent Clare Conville (of Conville & Walsh in London), who had been invited to speak to the class on what she looked for in a manuscript. ‘We chatted afterwards and Clare asked me what my book was about. Luckily we’d been working that week on a “25-word pitch” to use in just such a situation! Mine was, “My book is about a woman with no memory who has to rediscover her past every day …” (There was more, but I don’t want to give away the plot!) She said she’d like to read it, and so when I finished I sent it straight to her. She liked it and, after a few more weeks editing, sent it out to publishers she thought might be interested.’
The amnesiac character is a familiar trope in soap operas, the source of mirth in the romantic comedy 50 First Dates and the subject of the psychological thriller Memento, which bears the closest resemblance to Watson’s novel. But Watson says his story came to him after reading the obituary of a man who had undergone surgery for epilepsy in 1953, which left him incapable of forming new memories, living constantly in the past.
‘I wondered how it must feel to look at oneself in a mirror in 2008, expecting to see the same person as 55 years earlier, and straight away the character of Christine came to me. After that, it was just a case of working out her story, and how a woman in her position might tell it.’
Before I Go to Sleep has made headlines for the Faber graduate after it was sold into over 30 languages and acquired for film by Ridley Scott’s production company, ‘an absolute dream come true,’ says Watson. ‘I met with the producer and writer/director and straight away could see that they understood the heart of the book and would make a film that reflected that. It’s going to be weird to see my book on the big screen, but I can’t wait!’
Andrea Hanke is editor of Bookseller+Publisher magazine. This interview first appeared in the April issue.
Most mentioned this week
Posted: 9 May 2011 at 11:24 am
Georgia Blain tells the story of upcoming playwright Freya and architect Matt, who move with their young daughter to an inner-city suburb that is becoming gentrified. Aboriginal activist Shane then moves up the road and brings news of a boy that might be Matt’s son in Too Close to Home (Vintage). Former ALP federal minister for finance Lindsay Tanner outlines why he is distressed by what he sees occurring in Australian politics in his new book Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy (Scribe). In S J Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep (Text), Christine wakes in a strange bed beside a man she does not recognise. In the bathroom she finds a photograph of him taped to the mirror, and beneath it the words ‘Your husband’. Each day, she wakes knowing nothing of her life. Roddy Doyle’s Bullfighting (Jonathan Cape) and Sebastian Faulks’ Faulks on Fiction: The Secret Life of the Novel (BBC Books) also appeared on this week’s most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
BOOK REVIEW: The Dead I Know (Scot Gardner, A&U)
Posted: 6 May 2011 at 1:03 pm
Aaron has left school and The Dead I Know opens on his very first day as assistant to funeral director John Barton; Aaron is uncommunicative, but willing to work. Though confronted by the dead bodies, he still takes to his new employ with little trouble and his capability surprises Mr Barton. But at home, Aaron’s life is fraught, to say the least. He lives at the caravan park and is the sole carer for his guardian Mam, who is becoming confused, having accidents and forgetting how to do the simplest things. Aaron sleepwalks at night, waking up further and further from his bed and getting himself into trouble with the volatile Westy, whose vulgarity and violence is very frightening. The descriptions of the dead bodies and preparations for the funerals are realistic to the point of being a little disturbing, but there’s nothing vulgar about the way Gardner has approached this story. The characters are very respectful of the dead. Scot Gardner, author of Gravity, Happy as Larry and the wonderful Burning Eddy, writes novels for teenagers that are extremely accomplished and although dark, are also totally uplifting. The Dead I Know is no exception—it offers a glimpse into a job, and indeed an aspect of life, that is very strange, and presents an inspirational character in Aaron Garner.
Kate O’Donnell is a bookseller at the Younger Sun Bookshop in Yarraville. This review first appeared in the April issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.
