Our books of the month, April 2024
Explore our books of the month for April; each of the below titles has been read and recommended by our booksellers before being selected as our book of the month for its category.
FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
No Church in the Wild by Murray Middleton
Reviewed by Alison Huber, Readings head book buyer
'An outstanding book, from an emerging – no, strike that – a now-fully-emerged chronicler of our city.'
Murray Middleton won the 2015 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, an award for an unpublished manuscript by an author under 35 and known for uncovering writers like Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, and Andrew McGahan. The resulting book of Middleton’s award, When There’s Nowhere Else to Run, was very well received, and led to him being named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists in 2016. In an interview with that newspaper at the time, Middleton said, ‘Your first book is great – you write about the burning ideas you want to get out … Your second book is the most important – it’s what you really want to say.’ No Church in the Wild is that book, and indicates further the fine calibre of this writer.
This novel is a multi-perspectival account of a multicultural community in Melbourne’s inner west. Its key characters are students, teachers, and police, whose lives intersect in a school near housing commission towers, and at training for a planned trip to the Kokoda Trail, which has been imagined as a community-building exercise to bridge the gaps between all these stakeholders. Each character is unique with a complex backstory and life off the page, and they are so far from types that they feel just like real people. The dialogue is profane and vernacular, and brings plenty of energy and excitement to the reading experience: it feels like the theatre of life, and this veracity is testament to the author’s research and lived experience in the communities he represents here.
At its core, this book is a big-thinking novel with its eye on the detail. What Middleton ‘really wants say’ in this, the important and career-making second novel is, I think, to show a Melbourne in a state of changing cultural diversity, of intergenerational trauma, of privilege and its lack, about a city awash with drugs and violence and conflict between police and communities unfolding right in the middle of inner-city gentrification’s pressures, of hard-working people caught in cycles of poverty, and well-meaning people in positions of power who want to contribute positively but are themselves victims of the structures they work in and their own lives’ complications, and a cohort of young people staring down the barrel of a bleak future. But importantly, Middleton does not want to show this Melbourne in the sense of spectacle or as exceptional, but to make it ordinary, and tell its story through the eyes of real people who call this place home. An outstanding book, from an emerging – no, strike that – a now-fully-emerged chronicler of our city.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
It Takes a Town by Aoife Clifford
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr, Readings Kids
'Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Kerry Greenwood, and Richard Osman, It Takes a Town is among the classics, asking us how much we really know those we thought we could trust the most.'
Reading this book, I’m reminded of a quote in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, when Jordan says ‘And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.’
Set in the Australian countryside in the small town of Welcome, all anyone can talk about is how Vanessa Walton, the glamorous celebrity and town’s golden child, was found dead at the bottom of her staircase. Everybody says it was a tragic accident. But when 16-year-old Jasmine Langridge, the step-daughter of Barton Langridge, the town’s local MP, finds a threatening note in Vanessa’s handbag, and claims publicly that Vanessa’s death was a murder, she suddenly disappears. With tensions rising, the community of Welcome has never been more scared, nor more distrusting.
When you live in a place where everybody knows everyone, how long can trust for one’s neighbour last when conflict arises? Growing up and living near the Melbourne CBD my whole life, I’ve never felt that fear of isolation or scrutiny from a community because the city life means a life of privacy and anonymity. However, during the covid pandemic, when no one knew what was happening or what our futures would look like, I caught a glimpse of how reliant any community, big or small, is on the unspoken rules and expectations that hold it together for peace, civility, and harmony. But when panic and tragedy, even violence, arises, these structures and shared assumptions can crumble, leaving us to fend for ourselves. The citizens of Welcome must solve Vanessa’s murder and Jasmine’s disappearance together, as a fractured community, even if that means working side-by-side with the killer.
Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Kerry Greenwood, and Richard Osman, It Takes a Town is among the classics, asking us how much we really know those we thought we could trust the most.
NONFICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra by Bruce Pascoe & Lyn Harwood
Reviewed by Joe Murray, Readings Kids
'this is the sort of book that bristles at the indoors and begs to be read in fits and starts as you leave time for the living world around you.'
In 2014’s Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe shared the untold story of Indigenous agriculture, suggesting a history very different to the orthodox colonial narrative and starting a political firestorm in the process. A decade later and he is back with Black Duck, a work that lies in the shadow of Dark Emu but is nonetheless determined to strike its own path. On one hand, it’s a deeply pragmatic book asking important questions about Indigenous disempowerment and food sovereignty. On the other it’s a beautifully meandering reflection on a year of work and living. In both cases, Country is the beating heart of Pascoe’s writing.
If Dark Emu was the theory, Pascoe’s organisation Black Duck Foods is the practice, striving for Indigenous food sovereignty and a sea change in white Australia’s perspective on native food. However, despite the name, that work is just one of the many recurring threads in Black Duck, a book following Pascoe’s reflections through past and present, reminiscence blending with reportage. While on the surface the book seems to lack a driving thesis, that absence feels intentional – it is the story of a year of long days, some tough, others triumphant, but all of them slow and contemplative. The meandering is the point: there should always be time in the day to watch the birds and care for the land.
Indeed, Pascoe’s writing pays as much care and respect to the wildlife he encounters as he does the humans in his life, acknowledging their agency and importance for the land. Furthering that sense of connection, Pascoe refuses to treat the book like a solitary project, perpetually celebrating the hard work and friendship of the people he meets, as if the entire book was an acknowledgements section. It’s a refreshing approach that, coupled with the irrepressible warmth of Pascoe’s writing voice, makes Black Duck a true pleasure to read.
I found myself longing for the same slowness and connection in my own life – this is the sort of book that bristles at the indoors and begs to be read in fits and starts as you leave time for the living world around you.
KIDS BOOK OF THE MONTH
Wurrtoo by Tylissa Elisara & Dylan Finney (illus.)
Reviewed by Athina Clarke, Readings Carlton
'With charming black-and-white line illustrations scattered throughout, this brilliant read-aloud will entertain any family or classroom, and is highly recommended for independent readers aged 8+. '
This irresistibly playful tale of a timid wombat’s quest to marry the sky is told with such humour and whimsy I was charmed from the very beginning.
An epic adventure of courage and survival, the love-struck Wurrtoo and his cheeky koala friend face all sorts of calamity from dangerous creatures to a deadly bushfire and discover the value of friendship and the importance of conquering fear.
This outstanding debut of First Nations author Tylissa Elisara weaves traditional stories and the meaning of Country with a deep appreciation of astronomy, flora, fauna, and distinctly Australian food. And in the tradition of beloved characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Blinky Bill, Wurrtoo will find a place in the heart of children everywhere.
With charming black-and-white line illustrations scattered throughout, this brilliant read-aloud will entertain any family or classroom, and is highly recommended for independent readers aged 8+.
YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE MONTH
Deep Is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson
Reviewed by Angela Crocombe, senior buyer for Readings Kids
'It’s a brilliant read that will be devoured by feminists and/or fantasy lovers.'
Lili Wilkinson’s stories are always a delight and her foray into fantasy has been particularly successful, with her most recent novel, A Hunger of Thorns, winning the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Writing for Young Adults in 2024. This latest novel is set in the same magical world, which is highly sophisticated and rich in potential stories, but featuring an entirely new cast of characters.
Merry, Sol and Teddy are 17 and have known one another forever. Now, on the cusp of adulthood and potentially going their separate ways, Merry is hoping for one last summer of fun together. But they are swept along by a much more dastardly plot instead.
Merry’s dad is part of a men-only secret society, the Toadmen, that has meetings and some unusual rituals, which Merry thought were harmless until Teddy decided to join them. Merry sneaks into their secret meeting and discovers that they are using forbidden magic and taking each initiate’s life force in exchange for their membership. Merry is desperate to stop her friend joining and is offered help by her aloof school rival, Caraway Boswell, if she comes as his date to a secret Toad wedding. These two arch-enemies must travel into the swampy forest of Deeping Fen, where all sorts of mysteries and power plays unfold.
This is a world where magic is controlled by corporations and powerful men think they can manipulate the populace without consequence. The story features witches, despicable Toads, a queer romance and an enemies-to-lovers plotline that is wonderfully snarky and fun. It’s a brilliant read that will be devoured by feminists and/or fantasy lovers aged 13+.