Why you should read a book by an Australian woman this month
July is proving a particularly strong month for Australian women’s writing. Nina Kenwood shares four new releases by Australian women that she has read, loved, and can’t stop talking about.
Eliza Henry-Jones’
is a heartbreaking debut novel. Set on a rural Victorian horse farm, it tells the story of a grieving family as seen through the eyes of Cate Carlton, their mother and wife, who has recently died. It might sound a little schmaltzy and overly sentimental, but it’s not –
doesn’t shy away from the gritty, difficult parts of grief. It’s a simple book in its telling, and utterly lovely in its execution. Henry-Jones is a beautiful writer (you can read an extract from her book
), and I grew to care about each of the characters in the novel very deeply. Plus, as a former horse-crazy and horse riding child, I very much appreciated all the horses in the story. This is definitely a book that will make you cry, and one that stays with you after reading. You can read my full review of it
.
The best way to convince you to read Tegan Bennett Daylight’s
is to tell you to read Chris Somerville’s excellent
, in which he describes it as ‘one of the best books of the year’. Somerville is not a man who casually throws around compliments like this, so you just know the book is good. And, spoiler, he’s right. This is a really fantastic collection of stories. Reading it reminded me of the way I felt when reading
earlier this year (a book which I absolutely adored). Bennett Daylight’s collection is about young women in their teens and twenties, who are struggling with friendships, families, relationships and their sense of self. The writing is exquisite, and the stories are subtle, clever and immensely moving.
Speaking of great reviews,
received probably
I’ve ever seen at Readings. Emily Harms called it ‘my pick of 2015 and I would even go as far as saying that it’s now made it into my top 10 books of all time.’ And if that wasn’t enough to convince you,
from other Readings staff who have read and loved the book. This novel is literary fiction at its finest. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of an English couple, Charlotte and Henry, who move to Perth with their two young children. As their relationship becomes increasingly strained, both Charlotte and Henry struggle with the idea of what it means to really belong somewhere. It’s a fascinating study of a marriage, and fast becoming a must-read novel of the year (I expect to see it popping up on a lot of end-of-year best book lists).
And finally,
by Antonia Hayes. I went into reading this novel knowing very little about it, and I think that’s the best way to approach it, because it’s a book about secrets within families. The story is centered on an unusual young boy, Ethan; his former ballet dancing mother, Claire; and his mysterious absent father, Mark. Finding out why Mark is no longer in Ethan’s life, and the hidden details of Ethan’s early childhood, are very moving. Hayes is a skilled writer and her novel is carefully paced in a way that makes it extremely readable. This is a great pick for bookclubs, as I think there’s a lot to discuss and chew over once you’ve finished reading.
So those are the books by Australian women I’ve read and recommend. But there are plenty more out this month that I
haven’t
had the chance to read yet, including:
- Peripheral Vision, a short story collection by Paddy O'Reilly;
- The Girl with the Dogs, a new novella by the great Anna Funder;
- Last Day in the Dynamite Factory, a second novel by the acclaimed Annah Faulkner;
- Prince’s Gambit, the second book in C.S. Pacat’s fascinating Captive Prince fantasy/erotica trilogy;
- Risk, a young adult novel by Fleur Ferris that’s attracting buzz;
- Frankie and Joely, a young adult novel by Nova Weetman that my colleague Emily Gale really enjoyed;
- Afterlight, a hotly anticipated young adult novel from Rebecca Lim; and,
- Burn: The Rephaim Book Four, the fourth and final book of Paula Weston’s Rephaim series.
And that’s just in fiction; I haven’t even touched on non-fiction!
(If none of the above appeal, you could always read the recent winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna. Our reprinted stock will be arriving this week.)
