Brunswick Bound Books

Paul Filev is a Melbourne based literary translator and editor.  Paul translates from Macedonian and from Spanish.  Some of his translated work appears in 2018 Best European Fiction and he will be reading from his most recent translation (from Macedonian) Alma Mahler by Sasha Dimovski. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from a published work for First Chapters.   Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? After providing a brief context for the novel, I will read the first few paragraphs from the opening chapter in the original Macedonian to give people a sense of the language, and then read the translation, including a bit more of the chapter, which acts as the “overture” or “prelude”, introducing the main themes and preoccupations of the novel. 2. What kind of books do you write translate ? Literary fiction predominantly from Macedonian, but also from Spanish. Aside from reading Macedonian and Spanish li...

Roger Averill is a Brunswick based author who also works as a freelance researcher and editor.   Roger will be reading from Relatively Famous  (published by Transit Lounge) at our  First Chapters  event on  Friday 1 June. We asked Roger some general bookish questions because we were interested in finding out more about him and this is what he had to say. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work at First Chapters.   Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? I think I’ll read from Chapter 6. This is where the narrator, Michael Madigan, meets his father’s would-be biographer. This chapter deals with a couple of the book’s key themes, namely the way we can never really escape our parents’ influence, and the fraught allure of literary biography. 2. What kind of books do you write? RelativelyFamous is my second novel. In addition to those two books, I’ve also published a tra...

Robert Lukins is a Melbourne based debut fiction author.  He has written for Crikey , The Big Issue and Rolling Stone magazine amongst other publications. Robert will be reading from The Everlasting Sunday (published by UQP) at our First Chapters event on Friday 1 June. We asked Robert some general bookish questions because we were interested in finding out more about him and this is what he had to say. 1.      Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work at First Chapters.   Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? I'll be reading from the first chapter, and as it does for the central character I hope to take us into the cold and confusion of a crumbling Manor house; a home for those 'found by trouble' in rural England in 1962. 2.      How would you describe the kind of books that you write? The Everlasting Sunday is my first novel and I hope it is a lyrical and ...

 Last month we started an event series called First Chapters  at Brunswick Bound. We wanted to create opportunities for discovery and ways to connect more readers with some of our local authors. The idea was for authors to read from their books, either a piece or chapter, and to engage with the audience in a Q&A.  One author might bring their following, and another might draw a different crowd altogether.  And perhaps there would be an author with no existing audience yet to speak of. Together, four separate - and even very different - authors could find new readers from not only the bookshop's community, but that of their fellow authors.  Lovers of great writing could indeed discover authors they may otherwise never have heard of or even thought they might be interested in. This was our hope. So far, the event schedule is filled until October with talented and passionate authors who contacted us about participating. I must say, I take my hat off to...

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 ...