The Book Groups Team has been busy reading and choosing a great selection of books for our upcoming 2021 catalogue, Dialogue, which will be released later this year.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the fantastic titles we’ve chosen and what we loved about them.
The Godmother – Hannelore Cayre [B2320]
Widow Patience Portefeux is an underpaid translator. When she interprets some wiretaps ahead of the authorities, she decides to intervene and becomes embroiled in the drug trade. An offbeat and sly crime novel with a hint of French noir.
A crime novel with a difference, we loved this for its originality and sly humour.
Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo [B2319]
Grace, an orphan. Winsome, a young bride. Morgan, who used to be Megan. Meet twelve characters, mostly black and female, from different backgrounds in a portrayal of contemporary Britain like no other.
This Booker Prize winner is outstanding and complex, and provides much to discuss.
Invented Lives – Andrea Goldsmith [B2322]
In the 1980s, book illustrator Galina Kogan departs Leningrad and settles in Melbourne, knowing she can never return. She befriends the Morrow family, not realising the influence she will have on their lives. An exploration of what it means to be exiled in different ways.
We found this to be a compelling portrayal of the search for identity.
See What You Made Me Do – Jess Hill [B2327]
A searing investigation into the world of domestic abuse, this is a shocking but imperative read. Hill delves deep in the core issues behind domestic violence and coercive control and what we need to do stop this from happening. Strong themes of domestic abuse.
This year’s Stella Prize winner is an in-depth look at urgent issue of domestic abuse in Australia. Extensively researched and often confronting and disturbing, we found it a must-read.
The White Girl – Tony Birch [B2333]
Odette lives on the edge of a small town and is determined to keep her granddaughter Sissy safe. She knows authorities are removing fair-skinned Indigenous children from their homes, but it isn’t until a new police officer comes to town that she is forced to risk everything.
We found this Miles Franklin shortlisted novel to be an intimate and devastating story of the stolen generations through a highly personal lens.
Miss Austen – Gill Hornby [B2325]
It’s been twenty-three years since the death of Jane Austen. Her sister Cassandra calls upon the Fowle household in the village of Kintbury, where she unearths a collection of family letters – the contents of which she is determined to hide. In the correspondence, she delves into the secrets of Jane’s past, and her own. A beautiful imagining of the life of the Austen sisters, based on the real-life mystery of Jane’s lost letters.
We found this re-imagining of Cassandra Austen’s life to be thoughtful and poignant. A must for Austen lovers.
A Long Petal of the Sea – Isabel Allende [B2323]
Young ‘miracle’ doctor Victor Dalmau, caught up in the Spanish Civil War, is forced into exile with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser Broguera. Boarding a ship for Chile, they hope for the promised freedom of ‘the long petal of sea and wine and snow’, which will affect generations to come. A story of love and struggle, including appearances by the poet Pablo Neruda.
We loved this lyrical multi-generational saga and found it to be some of Allende’s best work.
What book are you most looking forward to reading? Get in touch on bookgroups@cae.edu.au