Winner of The Novel Prize in 2021, this story is about a daughter and her mother’s holiday through Japan. They visit galleries and museums, eat at restaurants and generally act as tourists do.

This is a short novel of only ninety-nine pages and the narrative is filled with the daughter’s observations of art, or literature, her family or her mother. We get little sense of the mother’s thoughts or feelings and she comes across as reserved with little personality. Their relationship seems strained with a portrayal of detachment across a cultural divide.

The narrator makes the following observation to her mother. “Maybe it’s good, I said, to stop sometimes and reflect upon the things that have happened, maybe thinking about sadness can actually end up making you happy.”  Yet we are given nothing about the mother’s response which left me a little frustrated.

There is a lot of minute detail some of which leaves little to the imagination for the reader. This together with the ‘tell’ nature of the prose served to take me out of the story, giving me nothing to feel or even at times to care about the daughter or the mother.

Almost like a travelogue of observations and although nicely written, I found this one difficult to engage with. I’m glad it was a short one.

Interestingly this book was published in 2019 before the world spun into total unpredictability. But it’s taken that long for me to pick this one up despite being a fan of Penny Wong.

Nevertheless, I knew little about her until she was recently appointed as our Foreign Minister. After the election in May, she hit the ground running, impressing me even more.  

This biography reveals a lot about her background, her mother, Australian with ancestors dating back to the 1800’s and her father of Chinese descent. The history of her childhood is fascinating and her battle with racism heartbreaking. Yet this is where her passion and her ethics were created making her into the person she is today.

I was fascinated to learn the machinations of the party and her role in it and reminded of the disgusting behaviour by the Liberal Party under John Howard (who could forget his role in dividing the country on race by the pictures of the children overboard scandal).

I don’t often read biographies let alone ones on politicians but I’m glad I read about this inspiring woman.  I’ve seen her interrogating politicians on the Senate’s committee asking the questions I wanted answered.  No wonder she is seen as formidable. Because she is and a whole lot more.

This biography goes beyond the personal as it delves into Australian politics forcing the reader to confront the past, the good, the bad and the ugly, particularly when it comes to the slow and painful machinations of change such as marriage equality, climate change and our indigenous voices. At times it is dry, plodding and insightful, sometimes all at once.

I will certainly be taking a lot more notice of what Penny Wong does, now that I understand her just that little bit more. If you like your politics then this one is for you.