Debut fiction to read this month
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Nestled in the foothills of the Elk mountains and surrounded by sprawling forests, wandering bears and porcupine, the Gunnison river rushes by the tiny town of Iola. For seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash, the day promises to be as ordinary as the porridge and fried eggs she serves her family for breakfast. But just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a chance encounter in a young woman’s life upturn her world.
The mysterious drifter who crosses Victoria’s path that afternoon will set in motion an unstoppable chain of events. Soon, she will be forced to run for the forests, leaving her life - and her most precious possession - behind.
The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee
Creative writing professor Maneka Roy has not returned to India in years, and when she arrives in her home country to mourn the loss of her mother, she finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur where her father now lives is nothing like the historic neighborhood where she grew up, and the more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing – and no one – in Hrishipur is as it appears.
In smart, propulsive prose, written from the perspectives of ten different characters, Oindrila Mukherjee's incisive debut novel explores class divisions, gender roles, and stories of survival within a society that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly Americanised.
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
One night not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village, embarking on a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong. Their parents and four younger siblings make the crossing in another vessel but as weeks go by it becomes clear that only one party has survived the voyage.
Anh, Thanh and Minh find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. Haunted by grief and survivor’s guilt, they journey on, navigating refugee camps and resettlement centres until, by a twist of fate, they arrive in the UK. Here they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn’t want them?
Funny Ethnics by Shirley Le
Funny Ethnics catapults readers into the sprawling city-within-a-city that is Western Sydney and the world of Sylvia Nguyen: only child of Vietnamese refugee parents, unexceptional student, exceptional self-doubter. It's a place where migrants from across the world converge, and identity is a slippery, ever-shifting beast.
Jumping through snapshots of Sylvia's life - from childhood to something resembling adulthood - this novel is about square pegs and round holes, those who belong and those on the fringes.
I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel
I'm a Fan tells the story of an unnamed narrator’s involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship. With a clear and unforgiving eye, Sheena Patel makes startling connections between power struggles at the heart of human relationships to those in the wider world, offering a devastating critique of social media, access and patriarchal systems.
One Illuminated Thread by Sally Colin-James
In Judea, a woman yearns to be a mother but is outcast when she cannot bear a child. Against all convention, she takes up the art of glassblowing. A young woman in Renaissance Florence is left penniless by her feckless husband, and has to find a way to support herself and her young son. And in contemporary Australia, an Australian textile conservator, whose grief is destroying her life, is trying to make a fresh start.
These three women each want something that seems unattainable – and it will take all their courage, creativity and determination to achieve it. Each woman knows what she must do. But what these women don’t know is that their stories are inextricably linked.
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie
In the year of 1413, two women meet for the first time in the city of Norwich. Margery has left her fourteen children and husband behind to make her journey. Her visions of Christ – which have long alienated her from her family and neighbours, and incurred her husband’s abuse – have placed her in danger with the men of the Church, who have begun to hound her as a heretic. Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty-three years. She has told no one of her own visions – and knows that time is running out for her to do so.
The two women have stories to tell one another. Stories about girlhood, motherhood, sickness, loss, doubt and belief; revelations more the powerful than the world is ready to hear.
The Wakes by Dianne Yarwood
This is a story about Clare, Louisa and Chris. And sometimes Paul, and less often, Beth. It is most certainly not about frittatas (a terrible concession), and more to do with lemon tart (a perfect contrast of textures).
It is about what to do when your husband tells you that he doesn't love you anymore. And what to do when your wife leaves you after too many rounds of IVF. It's about helping your new friend with her funeral catering business, and discovering that, sometimes, the most unlikely of pairings are the very, very best. It is about food that is outrageously good and comforting to sad people. And, for once, not being sensible, and throwing away everything you know.
