1788 - DAVID HILL
	Step back in time and rediscover Australian history with recently published Australian nonfiction and historical fiction. Start with David Hill’s “1788 - the brutal truth of the first fleet.” Read more..

1788 - DAVID HILL

Step back in time and rediscover Australian history with recently published Australian nonfiction and historical fiction. Start with David Hill’s “1788 - the brutal truth of the first fleet.” This is the story of the biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen. Hill introduces the reader to the circumstances surrounding the decision to build a settlement in New South Wales before taking us on the journey with the 11 ships that sailed the English Australian pioneers and marine officers, most who travelled against their wills, in hideously crammed conditions to an unknown land. We learn about the characters Governor Phillip, Watkin Tench and Lieutenant William Dawes. Watkin Tench wrote two first hand accounts of the experience of the settlement with a focus on the  contact between the pioneers and the Aboriginal people. These books were bestsellers in their day and are re-released with an introduction by Tim Flannery in “Watkin Tench’s 1788.”  For a fictional account of the first settlement Kate Grenville’s “The Lieutenant” draws upon the notebooks and diaries of William Dawes to recreate a novel highlighting the marine officers friendships, the struggles facing the settlement and the relationship between the young astronomer and a young aboriginal girl.

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WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE -
MATT NABLE

“We Don’t live here Anymore” is an Australian debut novel by screenwriter, actor and ex rugby player Matt Nable. This is a novel about Australian families struggling to survive and communicate with themselves as they attempt to find their place and identity in our modern world. The story starts 25 years ago in a southern NSW beach holiday resort “Parkers Head” with the teenage protagonist Charlie Hudson.
The awkward teenager, unsure of his place in life, falls for a girl named Tess who saves him from a beating by the local bully Derek Garner.  The brief encounter with Tess sets the course of Charlie’s life as the memory of Tess lingers and alters him forever.  Charlie’s nemesis is neighbour, Lachlan Ford, schoolboy hero, loved by the girls and son of an ex footballer with grand expectations.
This is a book, where secrets are held close to the chest and most of the characters are rarely honest with themselves and one another. As the pressure builds the characters are confronted with their truth and their attempt s to find their identities and place in this contemporary world. Expectations placed on one another are rarely met and some characters choose to make life altering decisions. One decides to become absent and leave their loved ones for travel; others leave for an alternative life free of familiar expectations. Some turn to alcohol to avoid confronting their life and mask their disappointments and failures. One chooses death over being honest to all those around and himself.
Matt Nable has the ability to write about these ordinary people in a way that leaves the reader feeling compassion and heartache for them and the choices they make. The people in “We Don’t live here Anymore” are people we may encounter in our lives, their stories and secrets could be our own or that of our families.
This debut novel is set for our times, a must read for our generation and one that won’t disappoint the reader.

A TRUE HISTORY OF THE HULA HOOP -
JUDITH LANIGAN

The True History of the Hula Hoop is a fiction novel written by Australian Internationally acclaimed freelance circus performer and hula hoopist Judith Lanigan. It tells the story of Catherine, a young woman estranged from her family, introduced to the world of performance when she delivers her home made hats to two circus performers on the outskirts of Perth. Inspired and driven to learn various circus skills, such as clowning and acrobatics, she lands in freezing Russia to learn the art of Hula Hooping. Along with her partner Pete, they travel the world, landing gigs at festivals and busking in the street, until she realizes that love is not the emotion she feels for him.  To overcome the separation and inspired by Anna Pavlova, she invents an interpretation of “The Dying Swan’ with hula hoops and starts touring the world as one of the greatest Hula Hoopists. Life of a busker seems fun for the audience, but it is a hard slog for Catherine who lives from festival to festival, in a male dominated environment and on a tough timetable scrounging airfares, writing applications to land gigs at the many worldwide festivals and circuses and living out of a suitcase, with no true friends to depend upon.

Intertwined in this story is that of the famous Italian clowns of the 16th century and their journey to Paris to perform for the King of France. This is a fictionalized account of European Performance History, and we are introduced to another feisty woman, Columbina, a woman not unlike Catherine. Columbina is a female performer surrounded by male clowns, travelling across Europe from country to country performing in the town’s squares and streets to much applause. We know little of her family history until they are held to ransom by religious insurgents and as she begins to feel emotion for her captor, we learn more of her past.
Dotted between the modern and historical stories is anecdotal evidence of the history of the Hula Hoop. Judith or Miss Judy (her performance name) has researched the history of the Hula Hoop dating back to Russian and Chinese circus days, but claims the hoop was not spun around waists until Australia in 1955. The hoop, made from cane was spun around the waists of boarding school children in Queensland and at a performance in the David Jones foyer in Melbourne.

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THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - STIEG LARSSON

This edgy mystery/thriller is told by a great crime writer and former journalist Stieg Larsson, unfortunately now deceased. It is the first of the Millennium trilogy, and begins when a defamed investigative journalist, Michael Blomkvist, is asked to investigate and solve the mysterious disappearance of a sixteen-year old girl 40 years prior in 1966. Blomkvist must leave his native Stockholm, his business, his family and live amongst an insular community on a remote island in the North of Sweden and investigate the disappearance; a difficult task.

Meanwhile in Stockholm, an unusual, intelligent but angry young research analyst/computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander; employed by a security company to investigate and write security reports on people, is fighting a battle of her own. When Michael Blomkvist takes up residence on the island he eventually requires a research assistant; Salander’s formidable reputation for thorough report writing and computer hacking teams her up with him and together they must solve the mystery.

Through these characters Stieg Larsson’s story develops gradually. The theme of violence in society is explored brilliantly through the iron-willed Salander, who exacts revenge on perpetrators of violence and abuse. Blomqvist’s never say die attitude towards holding people accountable for their actions is both admirable and convincing. There is always a sense of something about to happen that keeps the reader immersed in this story. Larsson also explores corporate morality, corruption, family and relationships. He gives the reader subtle character development, interesting plots and subplots that all contribute to the unfolding of this story. He captures sense of place well and provides great descriptions of his native Sweden and to a dark side of society. A real page-turner.

JASPER JONES

Jasper Jones has won the Australian Independent Bookseller Award for 2009 and is Craig Silvey’s second novel.

Set in the fictional town of Corrigan in the sweltering heat of the Australian summer of 1965, it tells the story of outcasts, prejudice and bigotry and contrasting family relationships where everything is not as it appears.

Thirteen-year-old bookworm Charlie Bucktin suddenly wakes one hot night to an urgent knocking on his window. The visitor is the loner and outcast Jasper Jones, who is in urgent need of assistance and puts his trust in Charlie. Jasper encourages Charlie to sneak out into the night to his secret glade in the bush to reveal a shocking secret discovery.

When the town mayor’s daughter mysteriously disappears and the town’s main employer begins laying off staff, Corrigan’s townsfolk become paranoid and search for scapegoats to their problems. Charlie’s best friend and son of Vietnamese migrants are victimised, as is Jasper Jones and misfit Mad Jack Lionel. As the intensity and the summer heat simmers and boils over, lies uncovered for generations are bought to the surface and as the truth is revealed, relationships are fractured, tested and finalised.

With overtones of the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Jasper Jones is a well-written and heartfelt piece of Australian literature and is worthy of winning Awards. The dialogue and antics between Charlie and Jeffrey caused me to laugh out loud, whilst other sentences bought me to tears. Craig Silvey is a welcome new voice in Australian Literature and one to watch

INVISIBLE - PAUL AUSTER

Auster’s fifteenth novel is constructed in four interlocking parts, opening in New York City in the spring of 1967, when a twenty-year-old aspiring poet and student Adam Walker, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot.
Born sees Walker’s potential for success and employs him to devise and develop a new magazine in New York. Walker becomes captivated by the couple, and plunges himself into the magazine project, but before it can evolve, he also finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that alters the course of his life forever.
Three different narrators tell the story in Invisible, which spans thirty years from 1967 to 2007, between the cities of New York and Paris and ultimately to a remote Caribbean island. Invisible is a story of unbridled sexual hunger and a relentless quest for justice.
Auster challenges the reader to contemplate the ideas of truth and memory, and explore the concepts of authorship and identity. The result is an unforgettable work of fiction that leaves you still wondering weeks after finishing it.
This coming-of-age story pegs Paul Auster as one of America's greatest novelists.

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