Eleven Letters to You by Helen Elliott
Memoir, Text Publishing, $34.99
Admired for her elegant literary criticism, Helen Elliott has pieced together an unusual memoir told through letters to neighbours, teachers, friends and family who shaped her when she was growing up in the Melbourne suburb of Boronia in the 1950s and 1960s. “I am not the centre of this book, but the hinge holding it together,” she writes.
There’s the neighbour who lent her Little Women; the austere teacher who taught her about art and “how to look”; her handsome, older boss who became “an instruction in both desire and decency”; and all the women who variously showed her how to be bold, self-assured, independent. This is intimate and generous writing. – Sian Cain
Sad Girl Novel by Pip Finkemeyer
Fiction, Ultimo Press, $34.99
Sad girl literature has become a movement of its own, as relatable and funny as it can be grating and self-centred. Melbourne writer Pip Finkemeyer turns the genre inside out in her debut, which follows Kim, a delusional 27-year-old Australian expat in Berlin, for a year as she tries to write a novel.
Kim’s ennui is revealed to the reader through her relationships – with her pregnant best friend, with her therapist, with denizens of the literary world – and her unreliable inner monologue. Both inhabiting and deconstructing the genre, it’s meta and twisty, with a wry narrative voice. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen
Feast by Emily O’Grady
Fiction, Allen & Unwin, $32.99
Yellow House author Emily O’Grady’s new novel is set in a gothic manor in rural Scotland, where former actor Alison and former rockstar Patrick live an enviable, idiosyncratic life answering to nobody. At least until Patrick’s daughter Neve comes to stay – and he invites Neve’s mother (his ex) to celebrate her 18th.
A sinister energy runs through this claustrophobic novel, as secrets slowly unravel and the tension – and darkness – builds. It’s a gripping read, and fun to dream cast too: Alison could be a witchy Helena Bonham Carter, Patrick played by Nick Cave, and Neve as pretty much any awkward emo teen who has dyed their hair black in a sink. – Steph Harmon
The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien
Nonfiction, Hardie Grant, $16.99
First Nations Australian advocate Thomas Mayo and journalist Kerry O’Brien believe that Australia needs an Indigenous voice to parliament. They co-wrote this pocket-sized explainer – illustrated by cartoonist Cathy Wilcox – to answer all the questions you or the people around you may have in the lead-up to the referendum, in an attempt to counter what they believe will be the biggest threat to a yes vote: confusion and misinformation. “If we lose [the referendum], it’s not just [a return to] the status quo,” Mayo told the Guardian. “This is a big step backwards.” – Michael Sun
Media Monsters: the Transformation of Australia’s Newspaper Empires by Sally Young
Nonfiction, UNSW Press, $49.99
Sally Young’s forensic historical accounting of Australia’s media history has its second instalment in Media Monsters – a follow-up to 2019’s Paper Emperors. Picking up in 1941 and finishing with the Whitlam era, Young’s latest title recreates the era of big personalities and concentrating media: Murdochs, Packers and Fairfaxes, with no small amount of drama.
A detailed, authoritative history of our media empires and diversity for anyone who cares about the state of media and the figures and politics which have shaped it. – Celina Ribeiro
The Shot by Naima Brown
Fiction, Macmillan Australia, $34.99
Kirsty is unhappy with her dead-end job and furiously longing for her high-school boyfriend Max. In swoops TV producer Mara with an irresistible and bonkers proposition: Kirsty will undergo extreme plastic surgery that will leave her unrecognisable so she can attempt to woo back an unsuspecting Max, all in the name of reality TV. If she doesn’t win him back in 30 days, all that extreme plastic surgery will somehow be reversed and she will be returned to her unfulfilling life.
The Shot is unabashedly gaga and compellingly nasty, in a way I found oddly retro: more reminiscent of Fay Weldon or Jilly Cooper than anything contemporary. Definitely one for the poolside chair. – SC
The Year My Family Unravelled by Cynthia Dearborn
Memoir, Affirm Press, $34.99
In 2007, Cynthia Dearborn was told she would be solely responsible for the care of her father, who had vascular dementia. She uprooted from Sydney to Seattle, leaving her partner and job behind to launch headfirst into what became a year of full-time caregiving.
In this warts-and-all memoir, Dearborn deftly weaves between her time as a first-time caregiver as well as her tumultuous upbringing and her experience with a flawed medical system. “I realised I had to become not just my father’s caregiver,” she wrote in a reflection for Guardian Australia, “but his care advocate.” – MS
The Days Toppled Over by Vidya Madabushi
Fiction, $32.99, Vintage
Thirty-six-year-old Malli has been selectively mute for 15 years, and lives a small life in a retirement village in Bangalore. All she has to look forward to is a weekly (one-sided) call from her brother Surya: an international student in Sydney living in squalor above the restaurant he works at, desperately trying for a permanent visa – before, one day, he suddenly disappears.
Vidya Madabushi’s lively debut flits between Surya and Malli’s narration as we follow her journey to Sydney to find him – and learn from him what has happened. With vivid characters and big heart, it speaks to the precarious existence of international students: a skyrocketing demographic seen as cash cows by a country which is leaving them hungry, homeless and at risk. – SH
