JOHANSEN, Erika The Queen of the Tearling Transworld, 2014 448pp NZ$19.99 pbk ISBN 9780593072707 SCIS 1673465 Set in earth’s distant future on a mysterious post-apocalyptic piece of land involving the passage of a young girl who becomes Queen of a divided, corrupt kingdom amidst attempts on her life. Kelsey Raleigh’s Queenship is in part signified by an increasing ability to harness the power of an enchanted sapphire she wears. Her subsequent refusal to pay a yearly tribute of slaves to a neighbouring kingdom provokes further opposition which Kelsey and her Guard put down. The book closes with the prospect of…
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HAWKE, Rosanne (text) Zenna Dare Rhiza Press, 2014 247pp $16.99 pbk ISBN 9781925139037 SCIS 1668609 When teenager Jenefer reluctantly moves from the city to an old family home in country Australia she gets more than she bargained for. She stumbles across a family secret that spans five generations from Cornwall to Australia, and learns some life lessons along the way. Jenefer also meets Caleb who, as a first Australian, is also searching for his place in the world. Together they tackle the issue of prejudice and explore the importance of family. Zenna Dare’s storyline is engaging although it sometimes seemed…
GRENVILLE, Kate (text) Andrew Bovell (adapted) The Secret River, An adaptation for the stage Currency Press, 2013 94pp $22.95 pbk ISBN 9781925005004 SCIS 1676522 There is menace in this play from the very first pages. The Thornhills, a family of white settlers, take up land declared terra nullius by the British government, but that has been cared for by the Dharug people for thousands of years. When they first meet, each wrongly assumes the other will move on. Neither do. The Thornhills aren’t alone. Many other settlers have come before them, some reaching an uneasy peace, others arming themselves, ready…
GLASMAN, Eli The Boy’s Own Manual to Being a Proper Jew Sleepers Pub, 2014 175pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9780987507013 SCIS 1669099 Seventeen year old Yossi lives in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield. He is homosexual, a secret he hides from his family and school friends for fear of ruining his family’s reputation and being ostracized from his orthodox Jewish community. Yossi develops a friendship with Josh, a new student at the school who is less orthodox in his beliefs and more open about his sexuality. Tensions build as Josh and Yossi become lovers and Yossi is torn between the customs…
GIOVANNONI, Dan & Amelia Evans Cut Snake Currency Press, 2014 56pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9781925005219 SCIS 1676498 First performed in 2011 at the Sydney Fringe Festival, Cut Snake is a frantic one act Australian play that moves at a frenzied pace. With only three actors playing all seventeen characters and no formal scenery or change of costume, the audience is forced to concentrate and use their imagination. The story begins with one of the characters narrating his own death in a bus accident in Europe and from this incident a web of interconnected relationships and events is revealed. It is…
SAVAGE, Tristan Michael Rift Breaker Magabala, 2014 355pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9781922142467 SCIS 1664521 ‘Two choices: go outside and weld a broken transmitter, or stay in the cafeteria and be pummeled by an ill-tempered amphibian’. This science fiction adventure is engaging from the first sentence, creating a new interpretation of issues such as identity and alienation through a ‘multispeciesism’ lens. Lucky for Milton, the human working on the Reconotyre for space exploration company Nova Corps, he chooses to leave the craft to undertake the repairs and thereby avoids a devastating attack. Perhaps not so lucky that his escape in a pod with simian…
MOLONEY, J. Bridget: A New Australian Omnibus, 2015 248pp $15.99 pbk ISBN 9781742990989 This is the first in a new series of stories about children emigrating to Australia, in many ways a timely exploration of the diversity of the Australian population. This particular book is about Bridget, who arrives from Ireland and finds herself in Brisbane town in the nineteenth century. It begins when the Nelligen family are evicted from their home during the potato famine and it seems the only place they might be able to eke out a living is in England, where they are treated like second…
MAGUIRE, Gregory Egg & Spoon Candlewick Press, 2014 $24.95 ISBN 9780763672201 SCIS 1683414 In Egg and Spoon, Maguire sets the narrative in Russia at the time of the last Tsar. It is a lyrically and beautifully written book which works on a number of levels. Two very different girls, Ekaterina from a wealthy semi-aristocratic family and Elena a peasant girl of the same age, meet when the train on which Ekaterina is travelling breaks down near the remote village where Elena lives. A series of small but significant events means that the two girls exchange places. Their two lives continue…
LAWSON, Henry (text) Davis Oslo (illus.) Henry Lawson Treasury Random House, 2014 154pp $19.99 pbk ISBN 9780857985132 SCIS 1687829 It is 1887, the colony of NSW has barely been settled 100 years. The states have not yet federated and the gold rush in Victoria has left the legacy of cultural diversity and wealth. Fredrick McCubbin and the Heidelberg artists are creating a new romantic aesthetic, giving an identity to this great southern land as are poets like Banjo Patterson. It is poet and short story writer Henry Lawson however who writes of the harsh realities of life in the new…
WHATLEY, Bruce (illus.) Jackie French (text) The Beach They Called Gallipoli 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9780732292263 SCIS 1687764 Facing the reader, from the front cover is, in the foreground, the figure of an intense, armed digger standing against a beach and a hilly background. This is obviously ANZAC cove: as so many images have made familiar to even readers who have not been humbled by attending a memorial service at the beach (now more on the hillside itself). It is an oft-told story; but it is worth repeating the words of a Turkish official on an occasion of remembrance, ‘We…