Brunswick Bound Books

This is a book about a very complex person. A complex person doing a complex job. Meet Sandra.  Sandra is a trauma cleaner. Written by Sarah Krasnostein, this book is on a level with Susan Falludi's In The Darkroom and anything by Helen Garner . The Trauma Cleaner  is an exercise in empathy, whilst at the same time a compelling page turner. When we meet Sandra she is cleaning the home of "Kim", a person most of us would consider irredeemably lost.  Her house is self-vandalised on the outside and the interior shows levels of self-neglect that Krasnostein regards as a type of "living death".   Sandra is not only able to reach Kim, but also relays her a sense of dignity in the process. A remarkable gift, considering what Sandra herself has suffered. Sarah Krasnostein's investigation into Sandra's story - her real story - is a remarkable achievement.  Sandra is the most unreliable source of her own narrative, and who can blame her.  Gender tran...

There's a lot of fun to be had reading  The Accidental Heroes , the new junior fiction novel by Lian Tanner. Talking cats, assassination plots, mysterious sorcerers, and a folktale baddie called The Harshman are just some of the travails Duckling and Pummel face when Duckling's grandfather Lord Rump convinces them to be involved in his very last Scheme inside the walls of the Stronghold of Berren. The streets of Berren are no picnic either, and the reader will take great delight in navigating it's streets where Snuffigators are trained to avoid citizens disappearing into Snares - created, as told by the authorities, by Saffie sabotage - and where the mere belief in superstition and magic is considered sedition. Set in Lian Tanner's world of The Keepers , this is the first book in The Rogues  series with a new cast of characterss.  Readers aged 9-12 will enjoy this first chapter of Duckling and Pummel's adventures in friendship, courage and magic and will be...