Are you still there?
We are.
We're still open for browsing and, even if that changes, we'll remain processing and shipping orders – all the while clutching Jenny Offill's
Weather
to our chests and reciting its questionable prepper tips and motivating mantras. To ensure physical distancing, there's a limit of seven customers in store at any time, so if you see the door shut (there's a sign) it means we're at capacity until somebody leaves. We're doing our best at the moment and appreciate your patience and understanding – and are ever grateful for your support. We're still offering free shipping for any books in stock and our wonderful Zak is still delivering books locally from Friday to Sunday. Check out our social media for more information and pics of his shiny new bicycle! As always, call, DM or email us for book recommendations – that's what we're here for. Our booksellers are carefully selecting daily book stacks (no two piles are the same and all of them are guaranteed great reads) so stay tuned to our Instagram for these.
This newsletter, we have some fantastic new releases and reviews of our favourites from the Booker International Shortlist, including Australian novel
The Enlightenment of Greengage Tree
by Shokoofeh Azar. Two incredible collections by Indigenous poets were released this week:
Throat
by Ellen van Neervan and
Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power
edited by Alison Whittaker. More than ever, we think these books are the tonic this world needs.
Unfortunately, all of our April events are cancelled in store, but many will have virtual alternatives – including our book clubs. Please have a browse through our range of clubs
here
. The first, Other Worlds Book Club, takes place tonight (7th April) on zoom. We even have a new group, run by local writer Jonno Revanche, called
Archipelago: A Climate, Environment, and Society Book Club.
Everyone is welcome!
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EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
$29.99
Spectacular! Emily St. John Mandel’s previous book
Station Eleven is many reader’s favourite book!
The Glass Hotel
may not be speculative fiction, however St. John Mandel is an exquisite author and has written another powerful novel with a slightly surreal touch. I’m in awe of St. John Mandel’s finely crafted language and superior story telling skills and her new novel displays this talent brilliantly.
The lives of the characters are woven through the financial crash, Ponzi schemes and over a twenty-year span, which is achieved with an imaginative finesse, making this an absorbing, big wow of a book and a must must-read.
— REVIEWED BY DEAN —
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ARAVIND ADIGA
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
$29.99
Aravind Adiga’s latest book concerns Danny, a young Sri Lankan immigrant in Sydney faced with an impossible moral dilemma. Told within the time period of a day, it
takes us through the streets of Sydney as Danny grapples with the choice to let justice for a friend prevail, but at the risk of exposing his undocumented status to authorities. I found myself growing very fond of Danny as his story progressed. The textured way that Adiga writes lets the plot and characters unfold before you at a slow but steady pace. Danny represents asylum-seekers around the globe who, unsafe in their own country and unwanted in others, wonder, "Where does it end, then, and who is responsible for what has been done to us?"
— REVIEWED BY ANGELITA —
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BAE SUAH
TRANSLATED FICTION
$29.99
A fevered dream of a novel with bursts of Lynchian bizarre. In the peak of a sultry Seoul summer, Ayami finishes her last day on the job in a theatre for the blind, which is shutting down. The director, feeling a failed sense of loneliness in his disintegrating marriage, wanders through the night with his young ex-colleague. Both are disorientated, facing the next unknown chapter in their lives. The night drifts as they walk a fine line between their fragile reality, deja vu and a waking dream. Fans of Samanta Schweblin will adore this rising South Korean literary star.
— REVIEWED BY DEAN —
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EMMA FORREST
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
$29.99
In this beautiful storm of a novel, perfect tragicomedy is enacted. Emma Forrest’s evocation of 80s Britain is in part a queer homage to the love of Diana, part love of fashion and love of loving. Two disparate souls meet in a hospital ward, the enchanting aristocrat, Jasmine meets Steven, from an east end Jewish estate. Death is tricked. Roles of parent, child, lover, friend, and enemy are swapped and violated. Forrest’s turn of phrase is gloriously punchy & comic, each description vivid, and her characters grounded in deeply unstable realities. Superb!
— REVIEWED BY VIRGINIA —
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ELLEN VAN NEERVAN
POETRY
$24.99
Mununjali Yugambeh writer Ellen van Neerven is an inimitable voice in Australian literature and
Throat, their second poetry collection, is testament to their role at the centre of a renaissance of First Nations poetry. I loved this book – even more than their brilliant and award-wining previous works
Heat and Light and
Comfort Food – and found myself increasingly grateful to be living in the time of Ellen van Neervan and to have access to their words and insights in this book. A witty, soulful, dazzling collection by one of the fiercest intellects and brightest poets in this country. I read
Throat cover to cover and will do this again and again. Perfect.
— REVIEWED BY EMMA CO —
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ED. ALISON WHITTAKER
POETRY ANTHOLOGY
$24.99
Fire Front
is an innovative, muscular anthology of First Nations poetry, curated and introduced by Gomeroi poet and academic, Alison Whittaker. It's divided into five thematic sections, with each one introduced by an essay from a leading FIrst Nations thinker – Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Chelsea Bond, Evelyn Araluen and Steven Oliver. Featuring poems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Ellen van Neerven, Tony Birch, Claire G. Coleman, Jack Davis, Sam Wagan Watson, Archie Roach, Briggs, Mojo JuJu, Kevin Gilbert, Lionel Fogarty and Alexis Wright, this is one monumental collection. I can't recommend
Fire Front
enough!
— REVIEWED BY EMMA CO —
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ANGELA WILLIAMS
MEMOIR
$32.99
Angela Williams’ story, and her examination of the Australian criminal justice system, has stayed with me long after I finished her debut novel,
Snakes and Ladders. Her reflections on abuse of power are profound and her tenacity rings true through the pages – this is a gripping read that packs a punch. Angela’s story is a difficult one; however, the way she has turned her life around is a testament to her strength. She holds the reader's hand gently through her life, revealing enough for you to understand but not overwhelm, looking to her experiences as an addict, convict, sex worker, mother, student, and roller derby referee. I’d recommend this for fans of Orange Is the New Black and
The Trauma Cleaner.
— REVIEWED BY ANGELITA —
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SAMANTHA IRBY
HUMOUR / ESSAYS
$22.99
Wow, No Thank You chronicles Irby's life as the writer of "bitches gotta eat" blog, the unlikely wife and step-mother of two children in white, small-town America, and a woman living, aging, and cat-owning in these truly absurd times. Like David Sedaris, if you know Samantha Irby's voice – her deadpan, curmudgeonly tone – this will only add to your enjoyment of the book. Side-splittingly funny, unabashedly disgusting and seriously therapeutic.
— REVIEWED BY EMMA CO —
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BOOKER INTERNATIONAL SHORTLIST
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SHOKOOFEH AZAR
TRANSLATED FICTION
$24.99
This is a novel like no other I have ever read, and while the magic realism compares in some ways to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it has a distinct and warm voice that I adore. Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2018, Shokoofeh Azar weaves an astonishing narrative with political histories of Iran. Narrated by a twelve year old ghost who has died as a result of war – but returns to ‘live’ among his family and heavily populated with other ghosts and jinns, this is essentially a story about a family. Sporadic and colossal. Read it!
— REVIEWED BY VIRGINIA —
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DANIEL KEHLMANN
TRANSLATED FICTION
$32.99
Based on a character from German folklore, Tyll appears then is gone, leaving those who encounter him forced to face truths hidden deep within. As a player and jester in 17th Century Germany, we see Tyll run away from his village and travel through the countryside during the devastating 30 Years War, perplexing noblemen, royalty, soldiers and scholars along the way.
Dark and curious, Kehlmann’s finely woven and inventive imagined history is disturbing and compelling – just like Tyll himself.
— REVIEWED BY SYLVIA —
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FERNANDA MELCHOR
TRANSLATED FICTION
$29.99
I once heard the process of editing a book described as trimming away the tendon and sinew to get to the “muscle” of the story. Inspired by true events,
Hurricane Season is a strong beating heart concerning the townspeople of a remote village in Mexico. Melchor’s writing is intoxicating, taking the reader on a brutal journey, barely giving you time to breathe. It is a visceral depiction of how poverty and abuse can breed vindictiveness, trapping its prey in a cycle that spans generations.
On this book Ben Lerner has said that “most recent fiction seems anaemic by comparison” and I wholeheartedly agree.
— REVIEWED BY ANGELITA —
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YOKO OGAWA
TRANSLATED FICTION
$32.99
Yoko Ogawa is one of my favourite authors and this was one of my anticipated books of the year. The savage darkness of Ogawa’s writing is elegantly balanced with a gentile meditative approach. I am startled by this author and yet I just love her.
On the island where an author lives, the memory police take things away. Her mother, a sculpturer, disappeared when the author was a girl. Did the memory police take her? R, her editor is one of the few who can remember things and hides disappearing objects away, so that the memory is not lost. Where this story turns will shock, but it is fabulously dark and tremendously twisted for readers like me who love that kind of thing.
— REVIEWED BY DEAN —
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Simply share what you're reading while you're social distancing (with a book pic) and tag
@betterreadbookshop
and you will be in the running to win this book stack!
Submissions close midnight Sunday 13th April and winners will be notified via Instagram or Facebook messenger. Good luck!
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