Tag Archives: australian authors

Book Review: Denizen by James McKenzie Watson

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Nothing is as it seems in this thriller debut by Australian author James McKenzie Watson.

Nine-year-old Parker grows up on a farm in outback New South Wales. His mother kills herself and his father is distant and Parker blames himself, knowing that something is wrong with him. An incident at a creek solidifies his growing terror and guilt about what happened. As an adult, the birth of his baby son brings back disturbing memories and doubts via flashbacks and when he returns to the creek on a camping trip with friends, he’s forced to face his past with drastic consequences.  

The first two parts of this novel was a slow reveal of Parker’s past and some of his present, his friends and his foes. The tension grows as does the disquiet drawn not just from Parker but from the very bleakness of the landscape, the town and its desolation and hopelessness. The relationship between mother and son is as disturbing as it is ferocious.

When I finished part two, my head was swimming trying to work out what the hell just happened, as everything I thought I’d known about this character tumbled away. Had I been sucked in by an unreliable narrator? It certainly seemed so. It took a couple of days to get back into the book as I needed that time to process the shock.

This story burrows into your mind as you try to make sense of the unfolding event, all the while compelling you to turn each heart-thumping page. It’s beautifully written, evocative of language and place.

At the core of this novel is mental health issues in rural Australia, the lack of resources for people and the consequences of what it can do. It’s not a happy or even hopeful story and may be very confronting for some, but nevertheless it’s a powerful and important read.

Book Review: Penny Wong by Margaret Simons

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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.

Book Review: The Mother by Jane Caro

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A fictional debut by Jane Caro, this story about coercive control sheds a light on an ugly and little-known side of domestic violence. 

Newly-widowed, Miriam is grappling with her husband’s sudden death when her younger daughter, Ally marries a man she doesn’t know. Her relationship with Ally hasn’t always been steady made all the more difficult by her distance of a few hours where she lives in a country town. Ally’s new husband, Nick seems to say and do all the right things. Yet when he calls her to discuss Ally’s mental health issues after her son is born, Miriam is concerned enough to visit her daughter to help.  After much cover up, the truth emerges of what has been going on behind closed doors when Ally eventually leaves Nick to seek refuge with Miriam. And so, this sets off a reign of terror unleashing a painful dilemma for Miriam about the right course of action.

The first half of the novel was understandably slow as we meet and understand the characters, in particular Miriam.  You can’t help but feel sorry for her as she grapples with something she’s doesn’t understand. Her internalising for me was a little repetitive taking me out of the story at times.

Nevertheless, the author does a great job showing us what the subtlety of coercive control looks like. Is her Ally overreacting, believing she is the problem? Is Miriam really listening and questioning? Is anyone picking up the many red flags like surveillance, constant phone calls, and withholding money?   The second half however really comes into its own as the tension and suspense rachets up. I was unable to put this one down until the end.

There was a struggle in my head as I put myself into Miriam’s place wondering what on earth I would do in the same situation. How far would you go to protect your children? Surprisingly, I think many of us would want to go as far as we could. But whether we have the capacity is another matter.

This story, while topical is nevertheless an important one highlighting the gaps in our collective understanding of coercive control and the law’s inability to do much about it. As I write, there is debate by our politicians to change the law as well as educate everyone about what it looks likes and its consequences. Until there are serious consequence for this type of control, then it will only continue.

This one is  thought provoking and one to read.

Book Review: The Good Mother by Rae Cairns

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Whew, just closed the last page of this debut mystery thriller and am still trying to recover.

Sarah Calhoun, a Sydney divorced mum of three is living her life, arguing with her children, making the school lunches and working. She gets along with her ex-husband and negotiating their family life in two separate households. Along comes a detective who pops into her life digging up her past, a past in Ireland when she worked as a youth worker during the nineties.

The detective wants her to testify against a man who has become a leader of the IRA, and he is not about to let her forget the terrifying past when she dodged bullets and grenades. To complicate matters she sixteen-year-old son has won a trip to play soccer in Ireland.

That same IRA leader finds her whereabouts and threatening her family, he directs her to return to Ireland. Trusting no-one, she reluctantly turns to her estranged father for help. Having no choice she and her father leave Australia, leaving her two daughters in the care of her ex. The detective assures her safety and her father protects her son but she doesn’t reckon on what the IRA leader will do to her.

This debut novel is simply astounding. It sets a cracking pace of tension and edge-of-your-seat page-turning action. I found myself screaming (in my head of course) for Sarah not to make the decisions and action she chose. But having no idea what else she should do, you just know you’d probably do the same to save and protect your children no matter what the cost.

Cairns has captured the very essence of the mother lion in all of us and thankfully, is very rarely tested in the circumstances that Sarah faces. Yes, there’s some violence, a lot of tension and even a bit of romance. It’s well-written and there’s a lot to learn about the battles between Protestants and Catholics during the 1990’s. It’s also about resilience and learning to trust.

If this one isn’t a movie soon, then it really should be. Calling all movie producers! Get this one made. Move over Jack Reacher for Sarah Calhoun. In the meantime, go out,  buy this one and prepare to read it quickly.

Book Review: The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

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As with many of Sally Hepworth’s books this is a  page turning novel full of intrigue and suspicion.

The book opens at a wedding and while out the back during the signing, someone is injured. Then we meet Stephen Aston, a highly respected heart surgeon and his daughters, Tilly and Rachel. It seems a happy family but we soon realise that not all is quite right with Tilly, whose middle-class lifestyle is falling apart, when her husband loses the family fortune and she turns to shoplifting to cope. Her sister, Rachel is a baker-extraordinaire who hasn’t been with a man since she was sixteen.

Sound interesting? Well then, there’s more when we meet Stephen’s new young fiancé, Heather, an interior designer whom he met while she was designing Stephen’s house for him and his wife.  How’s that for a bit of drama as the reader is taken on a guessing game of intrigue. What happened to the wife?

The story flicks in and out of Tilly, Rachel and Heather’s point of view and their characters are well drawn as we see their perspective about each other as well as their growing awareness of who their father really is. Not to mention that we are sporadically taken back to the church by an unknown character.

There were a lot of clues along the way and I could see what was coming fairly easily which merely pushed me to see if the three women could work it out too. I quite like that technique of letting the reader know first, yet teasing us along as well.

Overall, a quick and easy read – very enjoyable.

Book Review: Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey

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A powerful story of love and guilt, this novel won the Miles Franklin prize in 2021.

Erica’s son is in jail and she relocates to Tasmania to live near the jail to be near him.  She is used to strange people and strange places because she was brought in a mental asylum where her father was the head psychiatrist. It’s at the asylum where she used to play in a labyrinth and so she tries to recreate one in her garden at the seaside hamlet in Tasmania where she now lives.

The story of her life unfolds as does her obsession to recreate the labyrinth of her childhood searching for strength, will or perhaps happiness. She befriends a stone mason, an illegal immigrant who understands her vision and after doing menial jobs is happy to help her build the labyrinth.

‘I am the prisoner of an idea with no path to its realisation. Were it not for the dream I would not persist, but for now I remain its captive.’

Lohrey explores the relationship between mother and son which begins with little to no communication and is slightly reminiscent of We Need to talk about Kevin. But it’s not so much a reflection of their relationship but rather a journey of introspection into Erica’s life and the relationships which holds dear. But the one with her son is the most painful – ‘the hatred of the mother who is not enough, who is not the longed-for father.” Just that sentence conveys such pain.

It’s a beautifully written novel, descriptive as it is evocative.

“I light a fire in the living room fireplace, which is shallow and smokes; it spits embers onto the rug and the first billow of smoke stings my eyes.’

Erica’s house on the beach, is rundown yet holds a charm and she soon becomes immersed into the community and eventually acquires a sense of belonging and peace. And now I know what a labyrinth is.

It’s a wonderful read.

Book Review: Loveland by Robert Lukins

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Photo of a woman reclining in a rowboat on a lake- courtesy of Goodreads

‘Two women stand in the shallows, a man dead at their feet, while around them buildings burn.’

This dual timeline story centres around Casey and her granddaughter May. When May inherits her grandmother’s house in Nebraska, she leaves Australia to sell the house which has sat vacant since 1958. The house is part of an estate set up by the Love family who envisaged a resort on the banks of a lake. May, escaping a controlling and violent husband and a remote teenage son, wonders when she arrives whether her grandmother has given her the opportunity to escape.

The run-down house fronts a stagnant poisoned lake and as May works to put the house on the market, she learns why her grandmother abandoned it for a life with her small daughter in Australia and discovers how their lives interconnect.

This is a beautifully written book and my first by Australian author, Robert Lukins.  He does a superb job drawing out the characters as well as the sinister relationships they deal with. The treatment of abuse by controlling men was sensitively as well as brilliantly portrayed.

I enjoyed the description of the town, the people and the lake. Underneath the welcoming and friendly veneer lies economic and environmental issues which create a running tension pushing us to urge May to stay strong. A trip to the countryside provides a tour guide to the state which although interesting seemed a little out of place.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable read full of tension and great pace. Highly recommend this one.