Latest Must-Read – The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon

 

trout_opera2The Trout Opera                              Longlisted for the Australia-Asia Literary Award

by Matthew Condon

 

A stunning new novel - over ten years in the writing - from Matthew Condon. This book takes his writing on to a new level - this could be the next Great Australian Novel.THE TROUT OPERA - more than ten years in the writing - is a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia. Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life.

This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australian history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life?

 

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Today’s Must-Read – The Secret Scripture

secret_scriptureShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

 by Sebastian Barry

The acclaim that has greeted Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture is varied and enthusiastic, and it's not hard to see why. When Frank McGuiness praised it for ‘raw, rough beauty’ and described Sebastian Barry's fiction as ‘unique’ and ‘magnificent’, this claim was no hostage to fortune; just a few sentences of the prose here will convince most readers of the justice of those words. As in the best-selling A Long Long Way, Barry is concerned with the imperatives of telling a story, but in a literary form that is rich with both psychological understanding and a skilful conjuring of time and place. Roseanne McNulty may (or may not) be on the point of nearing her 100th birthday -- but there is little certainty about this fact. In her twilight years, her destiny is uncertain, as the Roscommon Mental Hospital -- her home for so many years of her life -- is on the point of closing. As the fateful hour approaches, Roseanne spends her time of talking to her psychiatrist of many years, Dr Grene. The relationship between the two is strangely interdependent, and the doctor is also attempting to come to terms with the death of his wife. As we learn more about the two principal protagonists, we are presented with a rich and subtle picture of human relationships -- and the (often unintentional) damages that we all do to each other. The form of the book consists of the separate journals of Roseanne and Dr Grene, and we gradually learn about Roseanne’s family in Sligo in the 1930s. What emergence is a poignant personal history; it is also a subtly ambitious picture of nothing less than the Irish psyche at a particular point in its history. There are echoes here of another great Irish chronicler of the human condition, William Trevor, and The Secret Scripture is no worse for that.

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What Books Inspired Our New President?

[Via Lisnews]

A New York City bookstore, McNally Jackson, has mounted an exhibit not of new books, but of books that inspired President Barack Obama as a young man in his 20's. The exhibit is entitled "How History Was Made: Books that Inspired a President."   Read more ...

Today’s Must-read – The Hour I first believed

hour_first_believedThe Hour I First Believed: A Novel

by Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb's two previous novels, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, struck a chord with readers. They responded to the intensely introspective nature of the books, and to their lively narrative styles and biting humor. One critic called Wally Lamb a "modern-day Dostoyevsky," whose characters struggle not only with their respective pasts, but with a "mocking, sadistic God" in whom they don't believe but to whom they turn, nevertheless, in times of trouble (New York Times). In his new novel, The Hour I First Believed, Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life.

The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character. The Hour I First Believed is a profound and heart-rending work of fiction. Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity.

Book – Sorry by Gail Jones

 

sorrySorry                                                                 Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award

 

by Gail Jones

A story of sacrifice, silence and forgiveness from Jones (Dreams of Speaking, 2006, etc.).Perdita Keene is a little girl growing up in the Australian bush in the late 1930s. Her parents are English. Her father is an anthropologist, but his studies of Australia's native people are never going to produce bold, revelatory theories about primitive humans, and he is never going to return to Oxford as a renowned scholar. Her mother had no idea, when she got married, that her husband would take her to the remote ends of the world. Her only consolation is Shakespeare. He is her religion, and she knows whole plays and sonnets by heart. The Keene marriage is a loveless one, and they make no effort to shield their daughter from the knowledge that she was a mistake. The only kindness Perdita has ever known is that of Aboriginal caretakers, and her only friends are misfits. Billy is deaf and mute - generally considered to be an idiot - and Mary is a native and an orphan. The fulcrum around which this novel revolves is the murder of Perdita's father. The narrative returns to it again and again, each time revealing new information. When Perdita finally understands what really happened, when she struggles to find a proper response to her new and horrible knowing, the story resolves into an allegory about Australia, about the lopsided and lamentable relationship between white settlers and natives. Allegory is not, of course, a form known for its rich character development, and readers seeking narrative intimacy will be disappointed. Jones has a cool, ornate style. She always chooses the philosophical over the mawkish, the universal over the particular. This keeps her tale of neglect, abuse and murder from descending into melodrama, but it also keeps the reader at a distance. Jones's rhetorical flourishes are often arresting, but her psychological insights tend toward the trite.Poignant, but unsatisfying. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Today’s Must-Read – Frantic by Katherine Howell

 

franticFrantic                                                                                 Winner: Best Crime Novel -

by Katherine Howell                                                          Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards

In one terrible moment, paramedic Sophie Phillips' life is torn apart - her police officer husband, Chris, is shot on their doorstep and their ten-month-old son, Lachlan, is stolen from his bed. The police suspect Chris is involved with a number of armed hold-ups and that the attack is revenge for his desire to distance himself from the robberies, but Sophie believes the attack is much more personal - and the perpetrator far more dangerous... While Chris is in hospital and the police, led by Detective Ella Marconi, are moving heaven and earth to find their colleague's child, Sophie's desperation to make amends compels her to search for Lachlan herself. She enlists her husband's partner, Angus Arendson, in her hunt for her son, but will the history they share prove harmful to Sophie's ability to complete her mission?

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New initiative for Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica is about to launch a new initiative... The main thrust of this initiative is to promote greater participation by both expert contributors and readers. Both groups will be invited to play a larger role in expanding, improving, and maintaining the information we publish on the Web under the Encyclopaedia Britannica name as well as in sharing content they create with other Britannica visitors. A complete redesign, editing tools, and incentive programs will give expert contributors and users the means to take part in the further improvement of Encyclopaedia Britannica and in the creation and publication of their own work.

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Darwin: a graphic biography

And I thought I should really point out that the Darwin biographical comic is coming out very soon because it sounds interesting, its a project with some educational as well as entertaiment value (a good way for those who might not pick up a science book to still fill in some gaps in their knowledge of one of the key theories underpinning modern biological sciences)  http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=11193

1000 novels everyone must read

Over seven days the writers at the Guardian have recommended the best books to read about crime, war, fantasy, travel, science fiction, family and love.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/1000novels

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Capes and tights save publishing

Spider-Man has already saved incoming president Barack Obama; he’s now poised to save the entire publishing industry. In the midst of the gigantic economic clusterfuck global financial meltdown at the end of 2008, one segment of the publishing industry not only remained solvent, but actually grew: comic books.

http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/12/capes-and-tights-save-publishing/