Home Truths

In 2018 journalist Chris Hammer penned a best selling debut novel, Scrublands, an exciting, page-turning thriller. In the time since, Hammer has written two more novels featuring Martin Scarsden, foreign correspondent returned home to Australia. 

Silver (2019) picks up some months after the previous novel finished. Scarsden has been in Sydney writing his true crime tale of the events in Riversend, while his girlfriend Mandalay (Mandy) Blonde and her infant son Liam have moved up the NSW coast to Port Silver seeking a new start. Mandy has inherited a house in this seaside town, and Port Silver just happens to be where Martin grew up and his uncle Vern still lives.

The novel opens with Martin driving the windy road down to his hometown, arriving at Mandy's door to find a dead body inside. The body belongs to Martin's childhood friend, Jasper Speight, whom he has long lost touch with. Mandy is a suspect, and Martin begins his own investigation to help his girlfriend. Along the way there are many twists and turns, red herrings and subtle clues with Martin exploring property development, missing persons, drug-fuelled parties, backpackers, bumbling police and a mysterious swami. 

We learn more about Martin's history. He grew up in the 'Settlement' - a poor area of Port Silver, where he and his neighbours all dreamed of escape. When he was eight years old, his mother and twin sisters were killed in a car accident. Left with his father, Martin watches the man become increasingly unstable. Martin depended on uncle Vern, who was there for him no matter how much distance Martin drove between them. 

We also learn more about Martin's relationship with Mandy, which doesn't quite gel as she is not a fully formed character. Perhaps it is because I have only been reading books authored by women for the past 18 months, but I found the female characters in Silver to be very one-dimensional and lacking substance. 

While this novel does not live up to the expectations of Scrublands, it is a rapid-paced thriller. A perfect beach-read escape. I look forward to the next Scarsden outing - Trust.

Miles Franklin Longlist 2021

This week the longlist was announced for Australia's most prestigious literary awards, the Miles Franklin Award, with twelve authors vying for the $60,000 prize. Richard Neville, Librarian from the State Library of NSW, said on behalf of the judges: 

“The 2021 Miles Franklin longlist is a rich mix of well-established, early career and debut novelists whose work ranges from historical fiction to fabulism and psychologism. Through an array of distinctive voices these works invite their readers to engage with questions regarding the natural and animal worlds, asylum, sexual abuse, colonialism, racism and grief. These are stories about trauma and loss, and also about beauty, resilience and hope.” 

Let's check out the Longlist:

Aravind Adiga - Amnesty

Booker Prize winning author of The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga's latest novel is about an illegal immigrant fleeing Sri Lanka. Danny arrives in Sydney and tries to create a new life for himself. When he learns of a crime he needs to make a choice - come forward as a witness and risk deportation, or stay silent. Taking place over a single day, this novel raises important issues about systemic racism, Australia's immigration system, and the lack of assistance available to migrant communities.

Robbie Arnott - The Rain Heron

Tasmanian author Arnott is is the award-winning writer of Flames (2018). His second novel, The Rain Heron, focusses on the relationships between humans and the natural world. Ren lives alone in the mountain forests of a country devastated by a coup.  Her solitude is disrupted when a young soldier comes to her mountains.

Daniel Davis Wood - At the Edge of the Solid World

High in the Alps a husband and wife are grieving the death of their firstborn child. Back home in Sydney, a man commits a violent act that brings international attention, and the husband becomes fixated on this crime. This is a novel of loss and resilience in the face of unbearable grief. Australian author Davis Woods is the author of Blood and Bone.  I am not sure if I want to read this novel but I am intrigued by his PhD monograph on 'Frontier Justice in the Novels of James Fenimore Cooper and Cormac McCarthy' which sounds fascinating.

Gail Jones - Our Shadows

In 1893 gold was discovered in Kalgoorlie by an Irish-born prospector, Paddy Hannan. Our Shadows is set in this goldfields town and focuses on three generations of a family. Raised by the grandparents, sisters Nell and Frances, struggled with the loss of their parents and have grown apart. Returning to the goldfields as an adult, Frances attempts to learn more about her father and understand her roots. Jones has been long/shortlisted for this prize five times but has never won. Will 2021 be her lucky year?

Sofie Laguna - Infinite Splendours

Lawrence is a smart young boy with a bright future ahead of him. His trajectory abruptly ends when he becomes a victim of child sexual abuse at the age of ten. As a young adult he withdraws from the world and lives with shame and secrecy. This sounds like a dark and depressing novel, but it is extremely topical. I am sure that this is a brilliantly written novel, but I am not sure I want to read it. Sofie Laguna won this award in 2015 for The Eye of the Sheep. 

Amanda Lohrey - The Labyrinth

When Erica Marsden's son is imprisoned, she leaves her life in Sydney to move to a small coastal town to be closer to the correctional facility. In a rundown shack near the ocean, Erica obsesses over building a labyrinth as she reconciles her past and her feelings of maternal guilt over her son's actions. Lohrey is an author of fiction and non-fiction, she was longlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize for her novel A Short History of Richard Kline. 

Laura Jean McKay - The Animals in that Country

Jean is a grandmother who prefers the company of animals to people. She works as a guide at an outback wildlife park, and has formed an attachment to a dingo named Sue. When a pandemic spreads across the country, people begin to lose their minds. Fearing for the safety of her granddaughter, Jean and Sue take off on a road trip to find her. The Animals in that Country won the 2021 Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize. 

Andrew Pippos - Lucky's

Debut novelist Andrew Pippos has drawn on his life growing up in his family's Greek-Australian cafe too create his book Lucky's. In 2002 a writer flies to Sydney to research an article for The New Yorker about restauranteur 'Lucky' Mallios. Emily needs a win, having lost her job and her husband. Lucky also needs a win. He came to Australia from Greece and built a chain of successful restaurants, then things went bad and he lost everything. Now he wants to rebuild, atone for his past and leave a legacy to his family.

Miranda Riwoe - Stone Sky Gold Mountain

Set in the gold-rush era, this is the story of two siblings who leave China for Australia to seek their fortune. They find work in a town near the goldfields and begin to form relationships in the community. But when a crime is committed, all outsiders are considered suspects. Riwoe was previously shortlisted for the Stella Prize for her novel The Fish Girl. Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction and the ARA Historical Novel Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize. 

Philip Salom - The Fifth Season

Jack is a writer obsessed with 'found people' in which unidentified people are found dead and now one knows who they were or why they died. He moves to Blue Bay, a small coastal town and befriends Sarah whose sister Alice went missing. He then discovers a book about the townsfolk written by a mosaic maker called Simon. Salom was shortlisted for the 2017 Miles Franklin Award for his previous novel Waiting and longlisted in 2020 for The Returns. 

Nardi Simpson - Song of the Crocodile

Darnmoor is the home of three generations of the Billymil family, who reside on the outskirts of a rural town. Over the years they experience the impacts of racism, violence, dispossession and colonialism and the intergenerational trauma that endures. The judges describe the Song of the Crocodile as 'a novel that contributes to a deeper understanding of Australia's history, and tells the stories of First Nations people in a voice and tone that has for so long been missing from our literary canon.' Simpson is a musician, playwright and Yuwaalaraay storyteller. This novel was shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and Indie Book Awards, and longlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize.

Madeline Watts - The Inland Sea

The narrator of Watts' debut novel works part time as an emergency dispatch operator, tracking the natural disasters that ravage Australia each year. Drinking heavily, reckless and ungrounded, she feels surrounded by disaster. A descendent of explorer John Oxley, she becomes obsessed with his search for the mythical inland sea. Watts hails from Sydney but now resides in New York. 

I am pretty disappointed with this longlist as I had expected Richard Flanagan's The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves and possibly Trent Dalton's All our Shimmering Skies to be recognised.  

At this stage I have not read any of these novels (and may not read any before the winner is revealed), however I will guess that Laguna, McKay, Riwoe and Simpson will make the shortlist. The Shortlist will be announced 16 June 2021 and the winner will be revealed on 15 July 2021.

The Observer

Australian writer Tegan Bennett Daylight has always been surrounded by books. As a child she was encouraged to read by her mother, who would gather a stack of books for her children to explore whenever they said they were bored. As a young woman she would escape into the many different realms that fiction offers. Later, she would pick up her mother's tradition of quoting from great literature and poetry as a way of communicating with her own children. 

Now an author and English lecturer, Bennett Daylight has gathered a collection of essays in The Details - On Love Death and Reading (2020). Here she does a deep dive into her love of various authors - Helen Garner, George Saunders, and more - with a critical eye over their use of language and their focus on the details which give their work immediacy and presence. 

Many of the essays are deeply personal. In 'Vagina' she talks about the physical and emotional trauma of child birth, while in 'Detail II' she shares her mother's last days, and 'Georgia Blain' is about her dear friend who died too soon. Along the way we learn about Bennett Daylight's family, her tight friendships with fellow authors, and gain an insight into her work as a lecturer. 

Throughout The Details Bennett Daylight would mention preparing to facilitate sessions at the Sydney Writers' Festival and I recalled the many times I attended her sessions, admiring her erudite and insightful commentary on literature. I first saw her at the 2015 Festival where she spoke with Helen Garner in a session on ' Lives and Writing'. The following year at the 2016 Festival she had a great talk with Jonathan Franzen about the books that influenced him.  I also recall seeing Bennett Daylight and Charlotte Wood at the 2018 Festival where they spoke about humour in serious literature.

There were many aspects of The Details that I enjoyed, such as her commentary on tertiary education, her linking of literature with memory, and her analysis of works that showcase the importance of detail. Her personal accounts of grief were heartbreaking, and brought back memories of my own deathbed vigil experience. But overall I found this collection uneven and lacking flow. While I am glad to have read The Details, but I must admit that I prefer Bennett Daylight's fiction, especially her short story collection Six Bedrooms (2015).  

Three Women

Late last year I picked up a copy of Australian/British author Evie Wyld's third novel The Bass Rock (2020). I thought it would be an intriguing novel as I knew of Wyld from her critically acclaimed All the Birds, Singing (2013) and also because I have fond memories of travelling to North Berwick and seeing the famous rock on travels to Scotland with my Glaswegian husband. When The Bass Rock was shortlisted for the Stella Prize (and eventually won), I moved it to the top of my pile and spent several evenings transported to rugged Scottish coast. 

The Bass Rock tells the stories of three women who have a connection to this place. In the 1700s, Sarah is on the run, fleeing from villagers who accuse her of witchcraft. Her tale is narrated by a young man who, with his father, is helping Sarah escape. 

Shortly after WWII, Ruth has just married Peter, a widower with two young sons. He has bought a large house for Ruth to reside in, with a view of the Bass Rock. Ruth loves Peter's sons, but dreams of having a child of her own to complete their family. But Peter has other plans, as he ships the boys off to boarding school and returns to his work in London, leaving Ruth alone for long periods in this isolated place. 

Viviane lives in the present day. She is approaching 40, but lives the ramshackle life of someone twenty years younger. Grieving the death of her father (Peter's son Michael), Viv heads to North Berwick to housesit her grandmother Ruth's home while it is being sold. 

While the story of these three women is told in alternating chapters, there are plenty of other intriguing women who make an impact in the story. Betty, Ruth's house keeper, who is a keen observer of what is happening in the town. Maggie, who befriends Viv and stays with her at Ruth's house. Viv's sister Katherine, who is leaving her partner and has a love-hate relationship with her sibling. 

The undercurrent in all these women's stories is male violence - built up over centuries. This violence takes many forms - coercive control, gaslighting, physical harm, addiction, predatory behaviour, denial of affection, threats, intergenerational trauma, institutionalisation - but is often normalised and down-played by the men who were just 'tickling' or 'playing' or performing gender roles. The men in this novel are not necessarily menacing, although they can swiftly turn to become so. Instead they and their behaviours are so normalised and commonplace that it is unseen.  

Pitched as a gothic novel, the atmosphere created by Wyld from the rugged landscape, Ruth's house and the ghostly elements within, draw the reader in and build the intrigue. Wyld's ability to describe the landscape - the screeching of the seabirds, the biting wind that rattles the windowpanes, the looming shadow of the Rock - bring the setting to life. 

Despite this dark subject matter, the book does not feel oppressive. I really enjoyed The Bass Rock and would highly recommend it. My only quibble is that I could have done without Sarah's story - keeping the tale more contemporary with just Ruth and Viviane - as it seemed to serve little purpose and was not as well considered as the other two.