Brunswick Bound Books

It was with great excitement that I picked up In the Garden of Fugitives  (Hamish Hamilton, $33)  by Australian author Ceridwen Dovey as I adored her short story collection Only the Animals . I wasn't disappointed. In the Garden of Fugitives is a story that encompasses the big stuff - history, humanity, art, love, power, race, belonging - and it is a witty, compelling and thought-provoking read. The book unfolds as correspondence between the much older and failing Royce and his one-time protege, Vita at a time of reflection for both of them. The frisson between the characters is bound up in the disappointment of their desires - a one-sided love affair for Royce and a sense of belonging for Vita - and by their obsessive natures. The consequence of money and the power it wields (no matter what your endeavour) is subtly explored as it underpins many of the relationships in the book. However, Vita's foray into psychoanalysis left me with no doubt that the true aim of thi...

So we took a look at what sold last year and this is what we saw.  Our Top 10 bestsellers were... 1.    Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo 2.    The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k by Mark Manson 3.    Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur 4.    Tinkering by (the late and great) John Clarke 5.    The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur 6.    Grungewick by Michael Winkler 7.    The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundahti Roy 8.    Quarterly Essay: Moral Panic 101 by Benjamin Law 9.    How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb 10. Punk Girls by Liz Ham It was no surprise that Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls took the #1 spot.  It featured heavily on our bestsellers' lists throughout the year.  What was more interesting was that only one fiction title made the list and the heavy presence of non-fiction books wi...

There was a feeling close to that of being punched in the stomach that came over me when I finished reading  Sing, Unburied, Sing  by Jesmyn Ward. In fact, I left the room where I had been sitting beside my partner so that I could collect myself and find a place in my brain in which it could sit without overwhelming me. That is how good this book is. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2017.  This is the second time that Ward has won this award (she first won in 2011 for her debut novel Salvage the Bones ) and I'm sure that she will receive further accolades for this fine book. A literary novel set in the American South, Sing, Unburied, Sing  is the story of thirteen year old Jojo and his mother, Leonie.  Both are living with Leonie's parents and each are struggling to come to terms with their circumstances. They embark on a road trip into the heart of Mississippi when Jojo's father is released from the infamous ...

I have to admit to being a little surprised that I enjoyed How Not To Be A Boy  as much as I did, but in my defence, it's just that Robert Webb wasn't really on my radar. My boyfriend has always been a huge fan of The Peep Show (the show in which Webb starred with David Mitchell), but I could always take it or leave it - I mean really, two gormless human beings trying to navigate the world as "men" - it is, at times, truly excruciating viewing. But the brilliance of this book stems from that very juxtaposition - what does becoming an adult have to do with being a man? And further, how are we helping our children prepare for their adult lives when we are still perpetuating the boy/girl tropes? Robert Webb does a great job of navigating these topics in this hilarious, candid and very moving memoir.  His is a story is about how cruel and incredibly crippling the guidelines he was given for being a man have proven - excruciating, indeed. There is no doubt Webb has...

You may have overheard me telling people recently that I think Philip Pullman is the Hilary Mantel of children's fiction. Too bold?  Or strange? It's true that Philip Pullman certainly doesn't need any comparisons, he is as beloved a children's author as Hilary Mantel is celebrated for her literary fiction. But let me tell you why I say this.  You see, it occurred to me whilst reading La Belle Sauvage  (the first book in Pullman's new companion series to His Dark Materials series) that their books are akin in many ways.  The broad scope, terrific characterisations and their ability to take the narrative to a dark place, but never lose the humour (droll as it may be) are all compellingly similar. His Dark Materials  started with Northern Lights , in which we meet Lyra and her gyptian friend, Roger, in the city of Oxford.  It is a world parallel to our own, in which human beings are attached to animal daemons by a dark matter known as Dust .  Th...

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...