RaveReadings (AU)Not for the faint heart or the closed mind, but thank goodness because July is shaking up the status quo of reading, writing and living in ways that we desperately need.
Anne Michaels
RaveReadings (AU)A book about the experience of reading, and the places literature can still take us. It’s a marvel.
Stephanie Bishop
RaveReadings (AU)[A] major new achievement ... I can’t speak highly enough of this literary work. It’s an absolute pleasure to read, and is the kind of book that makes you beg your household to leave you alone so you can get back to it. Its story is tense and engrossing, and the reading experience intellectually challenging and supremely rewarding. At times, this reader was left marvelling at the talents of its writer, rereading her beautiful sentences, delighted by her skill and her ideas.
Lisa Taddeo
RaveReadings (AUS)... a novel of female revenge that promises to be just as sensational as [Taddeo\'s] debut ... If anger and rage simmered quietly under the sentences of Three Women, Animal allows them to boil over. There is something incredibly compelling about Taddeo’s writing style, and I found myself unable to resist its flow. There are so many brilliant one-liners in this book; Taddeo is particularly skilled in distilling a whole gamut of historical iniquities against women into one pithy sentence. Animal is full of emotion and you’ll find it infuriating, disgusting, outrageous, depressing and triumphant. This is the kind of blockbusting novel that requires immediate discussion, debate and dissection, so make sure you have someone ready to debrief with when you’re through. If there’s one book you need to form an opinion on this year, this is it.
Chloe Hooper
RaveReadings (AUS)Hooper begins with a beautifully poetic, mournful account of the ruin wreaked by the fire – she writes the landscape so very well – before focusing on the police and the investigation that eventually results in the arrest of Sokaluk ... It’s a tough book to read in parts. I think I cried solidly for thirty pages near the beginning as Hooper describes some of the heartbreaking events with stunning, lyrical clarity. But the care she has taken with this story and its people is also care for the reader, who she accompanies on this journey like a close friend. The Arsonist is not just our book of the month; it’s one of the books of the year. Absolutely not to be missed.
Kikuko Tsumura, trans. by Polly Barton
RaveReadings (AUS)There’s a lot to laugh at, relate to, and despair about here, all conveyed in a lively translation by Polly Barton ... This is the first book by award-winning Kikuko Tsumura to be translated into English, and I’d love to read more of her sharp observations.
Megha Majumdar
RaveReadings (AUS)... a compellingly written portrait of contemporary life in Kolkata, but is also a story that taps into the issues facing many nations around the world ... Most striking about this novel is the richness of detail that brings this captivating moral tale to life. If you read books for ‘feelings’ – both those the characters experience and your own as you read – then this book is for you. I couldn’t help but be caught in its grip. I think Megha Majumdar is a name we will come to know well; her talent for storytelling is undeniable.
