These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tim Ayliffe is a journalist and author. Tim is the author of the standalone novel, Dark Desert Road, and the ‘John Bailey’ series.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Alan Fyfe is a maker of stories and poems who lives on unceded Noongar country.

Alan’s joining us today with his new novel The Cross Thieves

When his brother punched a wall and stalked off with a pair of scissors, Pell knew nothing good was coming but he followed Gark anyway.

Now the brothers are on the run, hungry and carrying the metal cross of a man they’d sworn to kill. 

And the night is still young…

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Gary’s latest novel is Good Young Men.

Carraway’s Point is an idyllic coastal destination. Kallum, Jordy, Dylan and Brandon grew up together on Chopin Drive, a ready made friendship group.

Fast forward eight years. The boys are staring down the end of high school. Well not all of them. Brandon was shot and killed by police and the upcoming trial has them all on edge because they know the public think this is just another death of an Aboriginal person in custody, but the boys know their friend better than that. 

While the community braces for the trial, the boys must deal not only with the possibility that Brandon might not receive justice, but what that means for themselves and their lives moving forward. They are no strangers to racism but now it is becoming as ugly and as dangerous as they have ever experienced it.

Kallum only just returned to Carrway’s Point. He’s been expelled from his fancy Sydney boarding school and lost his football scholarship. There’s something more though. Kallum isn’t sure if he can trust anyone with the real reason he was expelled.

Jordy’s happier since he’s come out but that doesn’t mean his whole life is easy. Since his mum died his dad has seemed lost and so Jordy’s had to act more like a dad to his little brother and sister.

Dylan’s just struggling. He was the only witness when Brandon was killed. He’s missing his mate and scared to death of what it might mean if he testifies. It’s barely left him any time to think about life beyond high school, but he’s got dreams just like everyone else.

Good Young Men is told across three narrative arcs; one for each of the boys. This allows the story of each character to build, while mingling the competing visions each of the boys has of the other. While we are assured the boys were fast friends in primary school we can see how they have grown apart, trading mateship for belonging as cliques become as important as closeness.

The novel works carefully to balance the boys' experiences of high school, home life, and the future. We are given each boy, and their family through multiple lenses and our understanding of the community is deeper for it. For example we see Kallum’s fraught relationship with his family since losing his footy scholarship. His dad’s taking it hard, redoubling his efforts to get Kallum a first grade trial, while his mum wants to welcome her son back home. Kallum’s mum is also police though and so her character within the family looks very different when seen through Dylan whose trauma runs deep.

This is a tremendous ensemble cast and it manages well the everyday world of teenage identity against the backdrop of racism and the broader sense that the trial of Brandon’s killer offers no long term solution for the racism the boys face.

I’d heard a lot of good things about Gary Lonesborough’s writing and now that I’ve had a read I can confidently say it’s all true.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Emily Lighezzolo is a publishing industry professional. She has won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and is joining us today with her debut novel, Life Drawing.

Charlie’s moved to Brisbane for uni. He barely knows anyone and it’s not helping that one of his new housemates is the model he’s been sketching in his life drawing class.

Maisie’s the heart of the house. People like to think they know her. Maybe too many people think they know her too well. But the parts Maisie keeps hidden are so deep most don’t even suspect they’re there.

As Maisie and Charlie circle each other’s worlds they will try to understand whether, hypothetically, they might go well together…

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Content note for references of sexual assault…

In coastal Australian towns around the country tourists come and go every summer, often oblivious to the locals and their lives outside their two week picture perfect holidays.

The Bastards disagree with this halcyon view of their home town. Vincent is a place to escape and winning the Battle of the Bands is the way to do it. They were on track to do it too, until their lead singer Lily quit the band and accuses their music teacher of sexual assault.

The Bastards know it can’t be true though. They’ve got a list of suspects a mile long. Their main job is to narrow down which of the likely culprits really did it.

As summer holidays end and the Battle of the Bands approaches The Bastards will sacrifice everything; school, family, friendships to find the truth. They know this is their big shot and nothing can stop them taking it.

You think you know the story of The Bastards. I did.

Moreover you hope you know the story of The Bastards because if you’re wrong the alternative is almost too horrible to contemplate.

Liz Allen’s In Bloom takes the familiar coming of age, artist shooting for the big time then darkens the edges.

The Bastards are so named because each of the girls comes from a single mother family. The girls openly disdain their mothers and the men that come and go in the role of ‘father’ in their life. As a group they have committed to escape and music seems like the best way.

Set in the early nineties, In Bloom makes full use of the rise of grunge and its associated cultural nihilism. The Bastards recognise their dearth of talent. Lily is the only one who can sing. They see this as a strength and frequently invoke their idols' approach to music and appeal to a kind of artistic purity in their commitment and drive.  

That this is a thin hope is revealed before the novel’s opening. Lily’s departure from the band leaves The Bastards scrambling. They fear their dreams may be over and it’s telling that the girls turn against Lily rather than seek to understand what she is going through.

In Bloom is cleverly and disconcertingly crafted around the chorused voices of The Bastards. Each chapter chimes with their shared voice creating a surreal sense of hive mind. The girls are so in sync they need only their band name and their vision. Thought and action blur as the group’s attempts to escape become increasingly desperate but also subsumed within the collective, with no one person seemingly taking any of the actions.

In Bloom will hook you before you realise that the story might just be spiraling. While you think you are investigating a mystery, the journey towards the truth creeps achingly slowly towards you. The Bastards never doubt their friend has been hurt and their seeming indifference to her plight is telling. 

I won’t say any more, other than to note the overall devastation In Bloom wreaks even as it draws you into its darkness. This is an incredibly effective look into a terrible subject and well worth your time in the reading. 

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin writer, whose young adult novels, The Boy from the Mish, We Didn't Think It Through, and I'm Not Really Here have been shortlisted for numerous awards.

Gary’s joining us today with his new novel Good Young Men.

Four Aboriginal boys growing up together on the same street in a coastal village. It’s a ready made friendship group.

Fast forward eight years and the boys are staring down the end of high school.

Kallum’s been expelled from his fancy Sydney boarding school and lost his football scholarship.

Jordy’s happier since he’s come out but that doesn’t mean his whole life is easy.

Dylan’s struggling. He was the only witness when Brandon was shot and killed by police. He’s missing his mate and scared to death of what it might mean if he testifies.

⁠Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.

Maria van Neerven is a Mununjali poet from the Yugambeh nation living in Meanjin. Maria was the winner of the David Unaipon Award in 2023 and was a Next Chapter Fellow in 2024. Two Tongues is her first poetry collection.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Penny Tangey is a librarian, mother and former stand-up comedian living in East Melbourne.

What Rhymes with Murder? is Penny’s first novel for adults.

Libraries are quiet respectful places full of avid readers, dedicated students, and occasional shushes. 

They certainly aren’t the place for crying babies, and absolutely not an appropriate place for a murder. 

And yet here Frida finds herself, trying to deal with both.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Ian Kemish’s Two Islands

Ian Kemish AM is a former Australian diplomat. His first book, The Consul, offered a personal perspective on Australia’s foreign affairs challenges. Two Islands is his first work of fiction.

The background to the novel are the war crimes trials conducted in the aftermath of The Wars in The Balkans in the 1990’s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague involved international teams, including many Australians and has been the subject of numerous books exploring their ongoing impacts. Sharp listeners may recall Gretchen Shirm’s Out of the Woods last year which explored circumstances around the trials.

The Two Islands of the title are Skarnsey and Thorkil’s Isle in Scotland’s Hebrides. It is there that Niko has fled on a desperate whim. There the residents are not unwelcoming of visitors and it is a world away from the violence he has seen and which he was due to testify about at the International Criminal Tribunal. Only now the past is threatening to catch up with Niko and he fears if he doesn’t run the violence will continue to threaten himself and his family.

Into this setting we meet Ronnie and the other villagers in Lamhraig. There is also Fergus, another stranger to the islands and seeking refuge from a different kind of threat; the one he fears he poses to himself and others.

A world away Anita has returned to Australia to see her dying father. She fears she’s neglecting her role as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal, but also what may happen if she fails to see her father.

The setup is deceptively simple; can Anita and the Tribunal find Niko before more sinister forces do, and will he be willing to continue to testify against the violence that continues to plague him.

Into this story we have the dueling narratives of Ronnie, Fergua and Niko. Each has seen war close up; Ronnie on the battlefields of the second world war, Fergus in Northern Ireland and Niko as a boy in his home town. Each must find a way to go on and it is through the narrative we are offered a glimpse of what that may be.

In all honesty I came to Two Islands for the scenic vistas of The Hebrides. The book evokes the peace of the islands and the way of life of the locals. It also takes pains not to romanticize it, even as it threatens to shatter the sense of isolation and peace in pursuit of Niko.

The novel does well to show us these parallel stories of war as brutal encroachments on the lives of these three men, and the toll they will carry through their lives. I might have liked to hear more of each, particularly Ronnie, to better understand and to counter the thriller aspect as a horrific consequence of ongoing tensions.

As we watch war in our world and look to how it touches our lives it can be helpful to explore narratives such as Two Islands. The Wars in the Balkans we mere decades ago and their impacts are still felt. We may hope to never feel the close up effects of conflict but must acknowledge that they are part of the world we live in. Two Islands shows us something of what that means

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Shailee Thompson is a writer and educator based in Brisbane, Australia.

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is her debut novel.

Content Warning or Trigger Notes

Let’s put a content warning on our chat Shailee because How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a slasher slash rom-com and all sorts of messed up stuff happens in both love and murder…

Jamie needs a break from her PhD thesis, so she and her best friend Jamie are going to a speed dating event at a local nightclub. Dating is hell and the apps are cooked but this should be a laugh. At least each ‘date’ is only ten minutes.

It’s all going so-so, a few sparks from aesthetically pleasing partners when the lights go out.

When they return, Jamie finds her current date slashed ear to ear as she is thrown into a fight for her life!

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Emily won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and her debut novel, Life Drawing.

Charlie’s moved to Brisbane for uni. He feels out of place crashing on his cousin’s couch and barely knows anyone in town. He’s trying to put himself out there with uni mixers and through taking a  life drawing class. 

Maisie’s the heart of the house. People like to think they know her. Maybe too many people think they know her too well. But the parts Maisie keeps hidden are so deep most don’t even suspect they’re there.

As Maisie and Charlie circle each other’s worlds they will try to understand whether, hypothetically, they might go well together…

Life Drawing is the story of Charlie and Maisie. It’s also the story of Maisie and Maisie.

When they find themselves in the same sharehouse Charlie feels awkward; this is the girl he was drawing naked just a few weeks ago. Maisie’s not bothered though. On the surface she’s all cool indifference. To the world she has a great body and is completely comfortable in her own skin.

Maybe if she can wear that mask for long enough she might even start to believe in it.

Share house life is a recipe for implosion though, so maybe Charlie and Maisie weren’t meant to be. Except that life and the internet insist on drawing them back towards each other’s orbit.

Life Drawing is driven by the ebb and flow of Charlie and Maisie as they try to discover their own grand romance. They will continue to stumble though as Charlie struggles to be ‘not all men’, while Maisie works to love herself half as much as she pretends.

The heart of the novel is Maisie’s journey through body image and self esteem. As a cis-het male I’d be disingenuous if I pretended I was watching this part of the story as anything other than an outsider. Maisie’s struggles are unique but also part of a world where women are compelled into devil’s bargains for their own sense of worth and achievement.

Growing through the years we watch on as Maisie and Charlie try to shape lives together and apart. From the first moment Charlie tries to capture Maisie on paper we can see that who they are and how they see each other are complex entities and prone to illusion and misalignment.

Maisie’s own story is similarly fraught with confusion and miscommunication. Knowing yourself is not a foregone conclusion of living a life and Maisie must make herself in her own image, not just through the eyes of others. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Maria van Neerven is a Mununjali poet from the Yugambeh nation living in Meanjin. Maria was the winner of the David Unaipon Award in 2023 and was a Next Chapter Fellow in 2024. Two Tongues is her first poetry collection.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

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George Kemp is a writer of fiction, plays and television. After a life as an actor and producing his own scripts on the stage, George was accepted into The Faber Academy, where he wrote his debut novel SOFT SERVE.

We are taken to a small town McDonald’s where four reluctant individuals gather to remember Taz.

Pat is still mourning the son she lost too young. 

Fern, Jacob and Ethan miss their best friend.

Taz died tragically after moving to Sydney and now the four find themselves adrift and struggle with how their lives have become stuck since his death.

As fires bear down on the Maccas, the four must confront how they are trapped not just by natural disaster but by their choices since Taz died.

As I read Soft Serve I couldn’t help but wonder about how George Kemp’s dramatic training had been brought to bear in his writing. The narrative of Soft Serve is simultaneously cinematic in its race against time drama amidst the fires, with big set pieces set amidst the flames, whilst also containing the intimacy of the stage as we zoom in on the four figures in  the remote fast food restaurant worrying through their all too human problems.

The novel is spare, but effective in establishing its central group. Pat grieves in a no-nonsense sort of way as she sets up the fryers and dreads the day ahead. Jacob and Ethan skirt around their truth and try to put on a face for the world. Fern doubts herself even as she shows the most vision of them all.

Against the backdrop of an unfolding disaster these all-too-human concerns of love and desire, reconciling the past and exploring the future become overwhelming. Soft Serve shows us the moment when years of avoidance must ultimately be faced. Shown through the eyes of the characters as they face themselves and each other it makes for compelling viewing.

And there I go again, talking about Soft Serve as if it were a film I was watching, as much a novel I read. The reader has this highly imaginative and visual experience ahead as they move through a tense and emotional ride of a narrative.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sara Haddad is an editor and writer. You first met Sara on Final Draft when we discussed he debut novella The Sunbird. Today Sara is returning with a young readers edition of The Sunbird.

The Younger Reader's Edition of the Sunbird rediscovers the story of Nabila and explores her story for a new audience.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Right off the top I’ll let you all know that How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a horror/slasher story. It has a lot of fun playing with the genre and that’s why I’m bringing it in for you, but if that’s not your thing right now just mute the next few minutes.

Jamie needs a break from her PhD thesis on the intersection of rom coms and horror movies. Academia can be murder! So Jamie and her best friend Laurie decide to go to a speed dating event at a local nightclub. Dating is hell and the apps are cooked but this should be a laugh. At least each ‘date’ is only ten minutes.

It’s all going so-so, with a few sparks from aesthetically pleasing partners when the lights go out. Not exactly romantic but when they come back on Jamie finds her current date slashed ear to ear as she is thrown into a fight for her life!

It only gets bolder and bloodier from here in How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates but this is a narrative that knows its genre.

Jamie quickly draws on her academic experience to teach the survivors the ‘Rules’; ten vital tricks to staying alive in a slasher film. These are the group's lifeline as they search for an exit and a way to return to the real world. But their villain has their own plan and besides people never follow rules.

Like so many of us Shailee Thompson has come of age in a post Scream world where it’s not enough to simply fill the screen with vicarious gore. The horror films of the seventies and eighties gave a whole generation some freudian insight into human nature and now the post modern slashers of the nineties are spawning their own progeny that know they’re in a story and really want to flip the script.

Thus How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is part slasher, part rom com, with a protagonist who doesn’t know whether she’s a leading lady or a final girl, and really prefers not to make the choice.

The novel is filled with jump scares, meet-cutes, blood spatter, and sexual tension (not necessarily in that order. From the outset, Jamie’s thesis introduces us to the notion that both genres share a lot in common and the rest of the story goes to extreme lengths to test that theory.

This is a lot of fun…

Genre heads will enjoy the way the tropes are both respected and inverted. Literary nerds can geek out at the high concept meta narrative. Armchair sleuths can try to solve it. Film nerds will love the myriad nods and easter eggs. And we can all enjoy the vicarious pleasure of not being stuck in the story ourselves.

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a knowing, pacy, well written look at the type of story we usually take for granted as entertainment. It reassures us it’s ok to have fun, but also the fun is part of a much more clever and dangerous world. 

Being a book nerd has never been so much fun.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Kay Kerr is an author and journalist based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia.

Kay’s latest novel, Might Cry Later, is out now.

Nora is home for Xmas, Actually she’s been home a little longer than that and will probably be staying a bit after.

At twenty-one and living in Melbourne Nora found her life imploding. What came next, well Nora’s not quite ready to face yet, but she came home with a brand new Autism diagnosis that no one in her family wants to talk about.

Holidays are hard enough, but as Nora watches all the people in her life gather round she questions whether her neurodiverse brain can regulate through all this stimulation.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Christian White is an Australian author and screenwriter. He is the bestselling author of titles including The Nowhere Child (2018), The Wife and the Widow (2019), and Wild Place (2021).

Christian’s joining us today with his latest The Long Night

On a quiet night in the sleepy little village of Talowin, Em sits in the Royal Oak pub waiting for her date.

Em’s convinced she’s going to die alone, but who knows maybe this date will be different.

It’s getting late and Em’s about to give up when a figure enters the pub, and what happens next will change Em’s life forever…

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

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Kay is an author and journalist based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She’s the author of Please Don’t Hug Me, Social Queue, and Love & Autism. Kay’s latest novel, Might Cry Later, is our book club title for today.

Nora is home for Xmas, Actually she’s been home a little longer than that and will probably be staying a bit after. 

At twenty-one and living in Melbourne Nora found her life imploding. What came next, well Nora’s not quite ready to face yet, but she came home with a brand new Autism diagnosis that no one in her family wants to talk about.

Holidays are hard enough, but as Nora watches all the people in her life gather round she questions whether her neurodiverse brain can regulate through all this stimulation.

Might Cry Later is the story of Nora and her journey through late-diagnosis of Autism. For context, and acknowledging differences in reporting, average ages for diagnosis are typically reported within childhood and females are generally diagnosed later than males.

Nora’s story of declining mental health before a diagnosis represents so many women’s experience of having their neurodiversity misunderstood or misdiagnosed on the pathway to diagnosis.

That’s the stats but what Kay Kerr gives us is the heartfelt and raw story of what that means in the real world and confronts us with the challenge that getting a diagnosis is just the beginning.

When we meet Nora at her parent’s home in the Gold Coast Hinterland it seems like she’s in paradise. Nora acknowledges how the peace and natural environment are good for her and helps her regulate a sensory system she’s learning reacts differently to other people’s. Nora’s also having to deal with how her family, and particularly her family at Xmas care little for sensory regulation if it does not fit in with a rigorous regime of decorating and social engagements.

The story weaves between Nora’s Xmas struggles and her memories of her younger, undiagnosed self and all the struggles that now make so much sense to her. These memories force her to face the ways she wasn’t supported as she needed, but also how her behaviours also hurt those closest to her, particularly her best friend Fran.

Might Cry Later flirts with a range of classic text structures including rom-com, bildungsroman and quest, whilst ultimately carving its own path through an inevitably messy world. Nora is both endearing and unlikable to the reader, as she is to herself and it’s a strength of the storytelling that we go on this journey of uncertainty with such confidence.

I found myself rooting for Nora in her everyday work to figure out her life. Her story is a wonderful look into the autistic experience, and part of a growing body of writing exploring the neurodiverse world.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

George Kemp is an award winning writer of fiction, plays and television.

In 2024, George was accepted into The Faber Academy, during which he wrote his first novel SOFT SERVE.

In a small town McDonald’s four reluctant individuals gather to remember Taz. Pat is still mourning the son she lost too young. Fern, Jacob and Ethan miss their friend and struggle with how their lives have become stuck since his death.

This is no simple anniversary though. As fires circle the town, bearing down on the Maccas, the four must confront how they are trapped not just by natural disaster but by their choices since Taz died.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Rhett Davis is the author of Hovering. Today we’ve got his new novel Arborescence

Arborescence is the state of having the root and branch like structures of a tree. Importantly it’s a noun, but Rhett Davis asks us to imagine if it were a verb…

Caelyn is at a loss. She’s bouncing between jobs that she quickly loses, like when she gets fired from a nursery for taking home the dying plants (they considered it stealing!). She hates that we’re destroying the world but feels powerless to stop it.

When she hears about a group trying to become trees, she and her partner Bren go to investigate. What she finds are people standing still in a field, with a support network of others caring for them as they attempt to Arboresce. It’s a mad dream, but what if it could be true?

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

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Kay is an author and journalist based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She’s the author of Please Don’t Hug Me, Social Queue, and Love & Autism. Kay’s latest novel, Might Cry Later, is our book club title for today.

Nora is home for Xmas, Actually she’s been home a little longer than that and will probably be staying a bit after. 

At twenty-one and living in Melbourne Nora found her life imploding. What came next, well Nora’s not quite ready to face yet, but she came home with a brand new Autism diagnosis that no one in her family wants to talk about.

Holidays are hard enough, but as Nora watches all the people in her life gather round she questions whether her neurodiverse brain can regulate through all this stimulation.

Might Cry Later is the story of Nora and her journey through late-diagnosis of Autism. For context, and acknowledging differences in reporting, average ages for diagnosis are typically reported within childhood and females are generally diagnosed later than males.

Nora’s story of declining mental health before a diagnosis represents so many women’s experience of having their neurodiversity misunderstood or misdiagnosed on the pathway to diagnosis.

That’s the stats but what Kay Kerr gives us is the heartfelt and raw story of what that means in the real world and confronts us with the challenge that getting a diagnosis is just the beginning.

When we meet Nora at her parent’s home in the Gold Coast Hinterland it seems like she’s in paradise. Nora acknowledges how the peace and natural environment are good for her and helps her regulate a sensory system she’s learning reacts differently to other people’s. Nora’s also having to deal with how her family, and particularly her family at Xmas care little for sensory regulation if it does not fit in with a rigorous regime of decorating and social engagements.

The story weaves between Nora’s Xmas struggles and her memories of her younger, undiagnosed self and all the struggles that now make so much sense to her. These memories force her to face the ways she wasn’t supported as she needed, but also how her behaviours also hurt those closest to her, particularly her best friend Fran.

Might Cry Later flirts with a range of classic text structures including rom-com, bildungsroman and quest, whilst ultimately carving its own path through an inevitably messy world. Nora is both endearing and unlikable to the reader, as she is to herself and it’s a strength of the storytelling that we go on this journey of uncertainty with such confidence.

I found myself rooting for Nora in her everyday work to figure out her life. Her story is a wonderful look into the autistic experience, and part of a growing body of writing exploring the neurodiverse world.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

William J Byrne’s debut novel is The Warrumbar.

Robbie’s not so different from the other boys in his class. He loves cricket, school not so much. His Mum is Aboriginal and his Dad is white. They live on the outskirts of town and don’t have much. 

When Robbie meets Moses his world is opened up. He learns about The Mission where his Mum grew up, about the world that Moses has seen after enlisting in the army. Moses tells him about life; the mistakes he’s made and how he’s worked to overcome them.

Robbie’s Dad thinks Moses is trouble. They have history and Robbie’s Dad warns him off seeing him. Of course Robbie doesn’t listen, which draws him down to the Dam one fateful day.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, editor and researcher. She is co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Evelyn’s first collection Dropbear won the Stella Prize in 2022 and she is joining us today with her new collection The Rot.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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I saw the other day that this year marks the 35th anniversary of Home Alone.

Feeling old yet?

This iconic Xmas movie is full of all the festive staples like child neglect, break and enter, and attempted murder (are we going to need a content warning Andrew?). And Macaulay Culkin has a job for life, trotting out every five years or so and acknowledging his place alongside Mariah Carey in the modern Xmas pantheon. 

On the occasion of Home Alone’s 35th Culkin decided to indulge another great Xmas tradition; weighing in on whether or not Die Hard is a Xmas movie. About now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with books. This is book club after all. 

Well Die Hard was a book; Nothing Lasts Forever, a 1979 action thriller novel by American author Roderick Thorp. Home Alone was novelised after the fact, so do with that what you will. What I’m interested in though is the fascination with danger and in particular our predilection for mayhem and murder alongside our carefully hung stockings.

Agatha Christie knew all about this. The phrase ‘A Christie for Xmas’ was synonymous with the reading public's love of a cosy crime around the holiday season. The Golden Age great wrote several books and short stories with Xmas at the centre of the narrative. The larger motif of festive murder was celebrated more through the release of a new novel around Xmas time each year. The tradition continues long after the author’s death through the release of adaptations of the novels around the festive season.  Cynics may wonder if this is simply a commercial imperative. Cashing in on a public with time on their hands, but of all the types of diversion I wonder why murder is so popular a choice.

It’s not just Agatha Christie. 

I’m waiting to read Benjamin Stevenson’s 2024 installment of his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. I gifted it to my wife, so I guess I have to wait for her to finish it first.

Horror is also a big part of the Xmas cannon. From the thorough exploitation of Krampus, through to Gremlins and with many straight up slashers in between, we love some violent Xmas storytelling.

It’s beginning to look a lot like whether it’s Kevin McCalister, John McClaine, or just Joe from How to Make Gravy, everyone is looking to survive their Xmas and praying that there’s no one in her who wants to fight.

So if you’re hanging out for a tightly plotted, or wildly bloody Xmas story this year, don’t fight it. You’re in good company, whether we acknowledge it or not.

The why may be harder to decipher, but I’ve got my elves working on it and I think I may have something for you for our next (and last) book club for the year!  

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Today Felix Shannon joins us in conversation with Benjamin Stevenson

Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author of the globally popular ‘Ernest Cunningham Mysteries’, including Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone.

Ten suspects. Ten heists. A puzzle only Ernest Cunningham can solve.

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Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, editor and researcher. She is co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Evelyn’s first collection Dropbear won the Stella Prize in 2022 and she is joining us today with her new collection The Rot.

Originally aired on 2ser 107.3

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Dr Katharine Pollock (PhD) is the author of Her Fidelity. Her new novel is Starry Eyed.

To say that Scarlett Fever is the centre of Addilyn’s universe would be to imply that there is only a finite number of universes and that Scarlett hasn’t traversed them all in her majestic ship Lynx. Ever since childhood, Addilyn has loved Scarlett Fever and the opportunity it’s given her to travel the cosmos in her mind.

Scarlett’s certainly offered her more than the real world seems willing to, and so when Addilyn is given the chance to interview Scarlett Fever’s Wunderkind director, Josh Jolly Courtney (now sexily salt & pepper at the temples) she doesn’t hesitate to jet off to New York.

Is this her hero's journey, or does another story await her?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sally Hepworth is a New York Times bestselling author of ten novels. Her novels have been translated into over 30 languages.

Sally’s novel The Family Next Door has recently been adapted for television.

Sally joins us today with her new novel Mad Mabel. 

Elsie just wants a quiet life. She’s been more than thirty years in her quiet little Melbourne lane and she’d happily stay thirty more if she thought she had that much time left.

Unfortunately for Elsie her elderly neighbour Ishaan has to go and die. Nothing suspicious of course and poor Elsie is the one to find the body.

Nothing suspicious, but it only takes one curious person, one probing question and a short search and Elsie’s past is there to discover. And try as she might Elsie can’t seem to escape Mad Mabel.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Luke Johnson is a physiotherapist and writer from Victoria. 

He’s joining us today with his debut novel King Tide.

When you’re young in a small town it can feel like there’s not much to do. So you make your own fun. Maybe it’s footy, maybe church camp in the summer.

Tate, Luther and Brylie are thick as thieves until the disappearance of Tate’s little brother shatters their world. The boys play footy and Brylie leaves town when her minister father gets a new posting.

Years later and Brylie and her dad are back. Their return coincides with the discovery of a body on the beach. Another disappearance that connects them all. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Rhett Davis is the author of Hovering. Today we’ve got his new novel Arborescence

Arborescence is the state of having the root and branch like structures of a tree. Importantly it’s a noun, but Rhett Davis asks us to imagine if it were a verb…

Caelyn is at a loss. She’s bouncing between jobs that she quickly loses, like when she gets fired from a nursery for taking home the dying plants (they considered it stealing!). She hates that we’re destroying the world but feels powerless to stop it.

When she hears about a group trying to become trees, she and her partner Bren go to investigate. What she finds are people standing still in a field, with a support network of others caring for them as they attempt to Arboresce. It’s a mad dream, but what if it could be true?

Caelyn throws herself into studying the phenomenon and becomes the worlds foremost expert. Respect does not follow. That is until people start disappearing, while trees appear fully grown in places they shouldn’t be. 

As the disappearances increase in frequency the world’s infrastructure is stretched to breaking. It’s simply not feasible to live with trees blocking streets and without the people required to run a global economy. 

Caelyn insists it’s for the best, but what of those lost?

For those of you who read Rhett’s debut novel Hovering, Arborescence will have you shouting ‘He’s done it again!’ (If you know you know)

The very simple concept of people becoming trees metamorphosises into a narrative both sprawling and deceptively personal. What could be some strange Ent fan fiction is instead a rumination on what it means to be alive.

Central to the narrative is the imperfect love story of Caelyn and Bren. Through them we are shown contrasting views of this world in flux, alongside a kind of model for how to respectfully disagree without being awful

Bren’s own job as a manager to a possibly AI workforce serves as a counterpoint to Caelyn’s increasing fervour about the Arborescent population. It also injects some dark humour into the possibility that we will be ruled one day by our computer overlords.  

It arises through the narrative that becoming a tree is a very human thing to do. Or more appropriately the sense of purpose and the wish to be a force for good is what makes it human. Within this space we must contend with the morality of our responsibilities to each other as social creatures and our responsibilities as the nominal stewards of the world in which we live. It’s a muddy question and this is not your grandparents' apocalypse.

I’m trying to have fun with this review because I had an enormous amount of fun reading Arborescence. And because it’s a book that will take me some time to process and figure out what I truly took from it. That’s not a bad thing but it does present a problem for filing copy.

Suffice to say that Rhett Davis has crafted an intellectually challenging novel with an intriguing concept and a personal, relatable soul. It’s the sort of novel I hope to find and I’m excited to be recommending it to all of you.

Maeve is the Artistic Director of Blue Mountains Writers Festival and the two explore programming a festival and exploring ideas that not everyone agrees with.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

January Gilchrist is  Brisbane based author. Her debut novel is The Final Chapter

Writers’ retreats are supposed to be about creativity. In the gardens of Thorne House and the surrounding bush writers, poets and creatives search for their muse.

But on one fateful weekend, as snow descends on the Blue Mountains, four writers arrive at Thorne House with more than literary success on their minds.

Desley has escaped her family and her demanding husband for a last ditch attempt to live her dream as an author.

Colette is seeking escape from the paparazzi who are more than usually ravenous about her public life.

Maia already has the success and the money, but is looking for something more.

Mix in two poets and trapped from the world by the blanketing snow. You have a recipe for murder!

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Today I’ve got for you her new novel Mad Mabel. 

Elsie just wants a quiet life. She’s been more than thirty years in her quiet little Melbourne lane and she’d happily stay thirty more if she thought she had that much time left.

Unfortunately for Elsie her elderly neighbour Ishaan has to go and die. Nothing suspicious of course and poor Elsie is the one to find the body.

Nothing suspicious, but it only takes one curious person, one probing question and a short search and Elsie’s past is there to discover. And try as she might Elsie can’t seem to escape Mad Mabel.

She’d always just accepted that the other children called her Mad Mabel, never asked why. She’d also accepted that friends were something the other children had, not her.

Mabel had her books. Her mother was distant, her father rich and important, but her aunt doted on her and for a gangly, red-headed girl in 1950’s Melbourne, that would have to be enough.

If only everyone could have left her alone. But when a series of strange and violent incidents occur around Mabel, it’s soon the whole community her Mad. Still Mabel yearns for quiet and privacy. She certainly was trying to become the youngest person ever in Australia to be convicted of murder!

Now, nearly seven decades later Elsie is telling the story of Mad Mabel. She wants to clear the air, but such notoriety doesn’t just disappear quietly.

Sally Hepworth is well loved for her character driven mysteries. In Elsie/Mad Mabel she has crafted a character who defies you to like her and yet despite her curmudgeonly exterior is destined to find a place in the hardest of hearts.

Mabel’s life exposes the impunity with which women and young girls were treated; in the 1950’s as now, and how that treatment, rather than receiving opprobrium often becomes a part of their larger ostracism. As a girl Mabel is sheltered from the truth of her family’s tragic history, but she is not shielded from the notoriety. Bereft of friends she has little resources to call on when her marginalisation leads to unwanted attentions.

As an adult, and believing she’d long since left her past behind, Mabel, now Elsie must figure out if she does have a community to rely on and what her role is within it.

The setup is simple. When a neighbour dies Elsie’s past come rushing in. Despite the clear innocuous nature of the elderly man’s demise people ask; but Mad Mabel was so close by.

We as readers are implicated in this speculation. Aren’t we here for the spectacle?

When a pair of online journalists come knocking on her door, how can we help but imagine Elsie as the latest in a long line of true-crime fodder.

Meanwhile the very human circumstances of Mabel’s life and the choices she made (and those taken from her) unfold in twinned narratives of the 1950’s and present day. The more we learn, the more we are challenged with the question of whether Elsie’s tough exterior is in fact a shield, and whether her proximity is an impending catastrophe or perhaps the best protection we could ask for.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Brandon Jack is the author of the acclaimed memoir 28. Brandon’s debut novel is Pissants. 

Brandon’s also a footballer, who played for the Sydney Swans but on this this show I think we’ll celebrate his writing achievements 

At the [Name Redacted] footy club the Pissants are waiting for the call up to the big leagues. In the meantime they will drink, take drugs, kidnap dogs and every now and then reflect on what they’re doing. Can the Pissants make the big leagues and will they actually discover themselves on the way?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Natalia Figueroa Barroso is a Sydney author of Uruguayan descent

Today we’ll be discussing her debut novel Hailstones Fell Without Rain.

Hailstones Fell Without Rain spans fifty years and three generations of women of the Ferreira family.

Graciela has lived in Western Sydney since she emigrated from Uruguay in her twenties. There she has raised three daughters, although her thoughts are never far from home despite the fact she is avoiding calls from her Aunt Chula.

Chula raised Graciela ever since her mother Tata, a political activist and freedom fighter, was disappeared by the military government in Uruguay. Chula much to tell Graciela, but a conversation would necessitate acknowledging she is estranged from her eldest daughter Rita.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Randa Abdel-Fattah is a researcher whose writing covers Islamophobia, race, Palestine, and social movement activism.

Her books include Coming of Age in the War on Terror, When Michael met Mina, and 11 Words for Love.

Her new novel is Discipline  

A high school student, Nabil is arrested for displaying a Hamas flag at a rally demanding Australia stop supplying weapons to Israel. As the media scramble to cover the story, politicians and the authorities work to present themselves as tough on this sort of thing.

Hannah, a Palestinian/Australian journalist is confronted with how she can represent her community in reporting the news, whilst still being perceived by her white colleagues as an impartial reporter.

Her husband Jamal seeks to use his academic voice to speak up for Palestine but must contend with his more conservative Phd supervisor Ashraf, who is concerned about establishing his own academic credentials free from controversy.

Hannah and Jamal are also monitoring their social media helplessly. There are attacks on Palestinians by Israel and they must wait for news of the escalating violence and pray that their families are safe.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Naima Brown’s essays have appeared in Vogue, the Guardian, and more. She wrote, along with Melissa Doyle, the non-fiction book How to Age Against the Machine and is the author of The Shot. 

Mother Tongue is her second novel.

Ever since the birth of her daughter Jenny, Brynn’s life has been ruled by The Schedule; a clockwork routine that means Jenny will love her and Brynn will be the mother she know she can be. 

Her husband Eric works hard for the family and Brynn will too. Her best friend Lisa always tells she has the perfect life and if Brynn doesn’t feel like that’s true well then maybe she just needs to work harder at it.

Maybe it’s the working hard that did it. Why Brynn was outside on the icy step, taking the fall and then ending up in a coma.

When Brynn awakes from her coma her life is still the same picture of suburban idyll. It’s just Brynn doesn’t seem to fit it anymore. She speaks fluent French, a thing called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and English is an effort.

Suddenly her world feels strange. Brynn is a new person, and while Jenny still accepts her mother, no one else seems to. Eric is becoming withdrawn, even hostile. Her parents are avoiding her and Lisa thinks she might be faking and is eying of Eric.

It’s all too much and so Brynn leaves…

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Omar is an award winning poet and writer from Western Sydney. His works include the novel, Son of Sin and the poetry collection The Lost Arabs, which won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award.

Omar joins us with his new collection The Nightmare Sequence, illustrated by Dr Safdar Ahmed

These are the stories that make us who we are.

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Thomas Vowles’s Our New Gods

Thomas Vowles is a screenwriter and novelist. His debut novel is Our New Gods.

Ash has recently arrived in Melbourne and is seeking to define himself outside of his small town existence.

When he meets Luke it’s love-at-first-sight, at least for Ash. Luke is gorgeous and seems to be everything; great apartment, cool friends, hot boyfriend.

Raf is something else; cool, in control, dangerous. At least according to Booth, and Booth is scared…

He’s also a footballer, who played for the Sydney Swans and in his debut novel Pissants he combines his sporting prowess and literary flare into a unique and memorable narrative.

At an unnamed footy club the reserves team are waiting for the call up to the big leagues.  Calling themselves the Pissants, they train at least as much as they complain, honing the skills that keep them nominally in the club’s good books. In the meantime they will drink, take drugs, kidnap dogs and every now and then reflect on what they’re doing. 

On its surface, Pissants could be taken for a romp through the bad behaviour of footballers. We get to know each of the group by their nicknames; Fangz, Stick, Squidman, Big Sexy and  Pricey. The nicknames, and the stories that coined them, get their own chapter leaving the reader in no doubt these guys have a knack for trouble.

There’s not a lot of football being played here, much to the Pissants' chagrin. But that doesn’t the boys don’t train and party hard, making sure they diligently uphold club culture, even if they don’t always remember doing it. 

The antics of the group are laid bare in a range of chapters as innovative in their style as they are often depraved in their action. We are privy to the many and detailed rules of pub golf, a closed Whatsapp group that couldn’t withstand public scrutiny, and an anthropologically driven interpretation of sports media interviews. In these sections Jack plays with form even as he dives beneath the surface of the players we might otherwise see as louts at best and criminals at worst.

Because Pissants tells us the tales that don’t make the papers.

Whilst it offers us an inside view of the semi-pro locker room it, Pissants also shows us exactly how raw, stupid and unthinking these guys can be. Except they’re not unthinking. Beneath the ill-advised decisions and startling acts of group think we are given an insight into the personalities and developing characters of a group of young men who probably have too much free time. 

Pissants isn’t a morality tale. That wouldn’t ring true for the assembled group of players, many of whom come out worse the wear they put themselves through. The novel does offer the reader a look at how the players are not just the drug-addled brats they sometimes pretend to be.

The offer of something more is exemplified by the novel’s counternarrative. Eliott is offered to the reader unadorned by a nickname and adrift from the club. He’s travelling through Europe and seems to possess none of the joie de vivre his playing companions take into every experience. In Eliott we are given a look at the personality behind the facade. His search for something outside the world that offered everything until it didn’t, mirrors the journey each of his player mates is inching towards. 

Pissants is a cleverly written and immensely readable novel. Its larrikin air both depicts and subtly critiques its subject matter, giving the reader a chance to pull back the dirty socks and find out a little more about the masculinity fueling Australian sporting culture.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Samuel Wagan Watson is a poet of Munanjali, Birri Gubba, German, Dutch and Irish descent. He’s won the 1999 David Unaipon Award for Emerging Indigenous Literature, and The Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize amongst others.

Paul Collis is a Barkindji man, born in Bourke in far western NSW on the Darling River. Dancing Home is his first novel and won the David Unaipon Award in 2016.

The First Nations Classics series  from UQP ranges across genres, including memoir, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The series is inspired by the richness and cultural importance of First Nations writing, and aims to bring new readers and renewed attention to brilliant, timeless books that are as relevant today as they were on first publication.

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Ash has recently arrived in Melbourne. Like so many who’ve come from a regional town he’s looking to define himself whilst feeling wary of being . 

When he meets James it’s love-at-first-sight, at least for Ash. James is gorgeous and seems to have everything; great apartment, cool friends, hot boyfriend. James may not want Ash for a lover but his friendship gives Ash entry to a cool new world, with an equally cool set of friends. Amidst this group is James’s boyfriend Raf. Raf is something else; cool, in control, dangerous. Ash sees this firsthand at a party and hears it from Raf’s ex Booth. 

Booth is scared, and Ash is desperate to find out why before James gets dragged into it.

—

Our New Gods is a stunning thriller with more twists than I rightly know what to do with in our short time together.

On its surface we have a love triangle with James and Raf at the centre and Ash staring on, unrequited but willing to do anything for James. As James tries to find his footing in Melbourne’s gay scene he can’t help but acknowledge to the reader that it’s only James he wants. Thus Ash is flung into an increasingly ill-advised set of scenarios as he frantically scrambles to protect James from the danger he sees in Raf.

The novel plays with the tension between Ash’s desperation and the very real set of escalating circumstances surrounding the young men’s lives. Everyone in Our New Gods feels poised on the cusp of something whilst living at the breakneck speed of your twenties when everything seems possible but nothing feels like it has consequences.

When it all comes to a head we as readers must also accept that we’ve dragged along for the ride, but now things are going to get real. Our choices in identifying and feeling kinship with the characters will extract a toll on us as we have our expectations thrown to the wind in the novel’s third act.

Our New Gods is exciting, fun reading. Vowles’s skill as a screenwriter is brought to bear in the pacing and visual styling of the novel. His writing compels, even as it beguiles and tricks the reader into placing their trust in smoke.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Matt Rogers is the best selling author of more than thirty novels and is joining us today with his new novel, inaugurating his Logan Booth series, The Forsaken.

You never know who your neighbours are behind closed doors.

Logan Booth is counting on that. He doesn’t want to get chummy with the denizens of Brownsville and he doesn’t want them knowing anything about him. Especially not his past.

It’s a Devil’s Bargain. One that will see Logan’s only friend killed before his eyes, forcing Logan back into a life he thought he’d left behind forever. 

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sinead Stubbins is a writer, editor and cultural critic, and the author of In My Defence, I Have No Defence. Her debut novel is Stinkbug.

The advertising agency where Edith works is going through a restructure. Everyone’s worried the new Swedish owners will bring their own team and they’ll be out of a job. With redundancies the hot topic round the watercooler, a select group of Winked employees are chosen for a corporate retreat. Edith’s made the cut and assumes this is her chance to show her worth.

The assignment is simple; find a best work friend. Easy for Edith, she’s already got Mo and while she’s got some other stuff going on, surely she can fake her way through a weekend.

Sure there’s dead birds at the perimeter and Edith is hiding a dark secret. But really, what could go wrong in a converted Convent watched over by a saint called Christina the Astonishing?!

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*Content Warning - contains discussion of the genocide in Gaza

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Robbie Arnott is the award-winning author of Flames, The Rain Herron and Limberlost, and as is appropriate for an award winning author, he is joining us today because his most recent novel Dusk has won the Literary Fiction Book of the Year at the ABIA Awards.

Twins Iris and Floyd figure they are close to the bottom when they receive word of a bounty on offer for anyone who can stop a Puma killing stock and shepherds in the highlands. With no guns and no experience, but also no other choice the pair make the journey into the unknown 

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Laura Elvery is the author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter. As readers of Ordinary Matter will know, Laura has an interest in women who have been ignored, or perhaps misunderstood by history.

Nightingale takes us into the final days of the life of iconic nurse, statistician and social reformer Florence Nightingale. At ninety years old, Nightingale knows how much she has achieved in her life. Yet as she lies in her bed, all of that still doesn’t compensate for the infirmity she feels. That and the fact her only visitor is Mabel, her housekeeper and nurse. At least the window is open, bringing in the lifegiving air she has sought out her entire life.

At her age a knock on the door could as well be a dream, and so it is with some surprise that Florence welcomes into her home a young soldier. A man who says he met Florence in Scutari, a man named Silas Bradley. 

From here we are thrown back into Florence’s past as we revisit her time at Scutari, the military hospital where she made her reputation. We confront the horrors of war and the reality of women who sought to be more than the confines of the society that raised them.

As I began reading Nightingale I reflected on how my understanding of Florence Nightingale exists in broad brushstrokes and contains perhaps as much myth as fact. Her historical figure can sometimes seem two-dimensional as the lady with the lamp, the founder of modern nursing. Of course she was also famed for her statistical work that helped identify the impacts of unclean environments in war mortality, significantly ahead of the development of germ theory. 

The novel acknowledges the legend as well as the woman in an intricate narrative exploring the very human factors of the work of nursing. Of course Nightingale is heralded for the lives her pioneering work saved, but the novel gives equal hearing to the lives lost and the impact these losses made on the life of Florence Nightingale.

Florence’s story entwines with that of Jean, a young nurse in Florence’s care and that of Silas, equally young and a soldier in the war. That their lives are given central concern highlights the fact that so many like them were to die with their lives untold. 

Elvery’s narrative offers an ingenious trick of immortality in the telling of these exemplary lives and also offers us as readers a chance to wonder at the whole process of celebrating the brutality they were forced to be a part of.

There’s a central conceit to Nightingale that I’m going to leave unspoken in this review. It asks the reader to consider the myth making as only one part of the story of Florence Nightingale and offers up a different type of endurance to the legacy of being so great in the face of so much horror. This conceit can be paired with the refrain ‘Let me tell you what it’s like’, wherein characters seek to explain, to offer up, or perhaps transfer something of their experience as form of bondage but also connection.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Hilde Hinton is the bestselling author of The Loudness of Unsaid Things, and A Solitary Walk on the Moon.

Hilde is joining us today with her latest novel The Opposite of Lonely.

Rose is grateful for her life. Her beautiful son and their little house. Her kind boss and caring inlaws. 

Rose is also aware that she’s not quite the person she thought she’d be, or used to be. Rose isn’t sure when life got off track, but feels inspired when a new friend comes into her life like a breath of fresh air and with the possibility of new things.

Ellie is full of promises about enlarging Rose’s little life. Rose just has to figure out what size she is comfortable with.

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Mandy’s latest novel is The Thrill of It.

*Content Warning for Violence Against Women*

In the late 1980’s Sydney is a long way from the global city we know today. From the beach to the Mountains awash with fluro tracksuits, hypercolour t-shirts, thongs and walkmans the harbour city can still feel like a village in your own little patch 

Emmerson gets to enjoys the best of it, with harbour views courtesy of a legacy from her grandmother, the socialite and designer Marlowe Kerr.

But when the body of a woman in her eighties is discovered in the northern beaches the city will be thrown into chaos. Older residents lock themselves in their homes for fear the killer may strike again. 

Emmerson herself is thrust back to another legacy of her adored grandmother. Marlowe was killed in a strikingly similar way. A case that was never solved.

Emmerson knows the police won’t make the link, and she doesn’t trust them to. But what does that mean for Marlowe and this other woman. More importantly, if the killer has returned after twelve years, could they kill again? 

—

Mandy Beaumont has taken as the basis for her novel a series of murders committed against women in 1989-90 in Sydney. At the time the press dubbed the murderer ‘Granny Killer’, thereby robbing the women of their identities and reducing them to a vicious parody of their age. In Beaumont’s story it is the killer who will be reduced while the women are given their due and through the fictional figure of Marlowe Kerr, celebrated for all the mess and wonder of their storied lives.

The Thrill of It has all the promise of true crime and mystery in its set up, yet is neither and offers a wholly original beast. Simultaneously thriller and social critique, a takedown of the establishment that failed these women and as Mandy describes it, a love-story between a granddaughter and the grandmother taken too soon.

The character of Emmerson defies the literary conventions she seems destined to embody. As we begin the narrative she is listless, but quickly galvanises herself into action with the discovery of the first body. Emmerson has dreams of entering the police academy and avenging her grandmother, but these desires cannot simply overcome the fact that the late eighties was still dealing with gender equity (not that we’ve solved that one yet).

The narrative swings between Emmerson’s story and the dark journey of the killer. In a grim but effective juxtaposition we travel along with the killer on his crimes and are given insight into the twisted psychology by which he justifies and exonerates himself. It’s a tremendous feat to carry such dark and violent impulses and Beaumont balances it without becoming gratuitous.

The novel works within the historical setting and follows the case, whilst maintaining the distance of fiction. It allows us to see the problems that existed at the time and how limited perspective and oversimplification lead to so much death.

I loved Mandy Beaumont’s The Furies for its righteous anger and driven storytelling. The Thrill of It offers the reader a completely different sort of tale, propulsed by the same energy and spirit.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Shelley Burr is the bestselling author of Wake and Ripper. Her debut Wake won the UK Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award, the Australian Book Industry's Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and the Australian Crime Writers Association's Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction.

Shelley’s joining us today with her new novel Vanish

It’s virtually impossible to be a private investigator from prison but that’s not stopping Lane Holland. When the opportunity to do some real investigating arrives, Lane jumps at the opportunity, even if it could jeopardize his parole.

The Karpathy farm is full of outsiders but even still Lane is on the fringes as pokes around the spate of missing persons that have moved through the farm over the years. 

As Lane tries to figure out whether the organic, peace and love is for real or just a front, he must also contend with the possibility that someone knows his true purpose on the farm. That he might just be next person to vanish without a trace.

⁠Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠

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The advertising agency where Edith works is going through a restructure. Everyone is worried that the new Swedish owners will bring their own team and they’ll be out of a job. When a select group are chosen for a corporate retreat Edith assumes that this is her chance to show her worth.

The assignment is simple; find a best work friend. Easy for Edith, she’s already got Mo and so the retreat should be a piece of cake.

I mean what could go wrong in a converted Convent watched over by a saint called Christina the Astonishing?!

—

I found Stinkbug an absolutely wild ride. Full disclosure, I don’t work in the sort of corporate environment where you get sent on retreats, although I have done the odd team planning day. For all I know the narrative of Stinkbug could be an accurate reflection of modern corporate culture. I really hope not though.

Stubbins has offered us up the perfect satire of the modern workplace. The sort of story that confirms all our worst fears whilst also inviting us to root for… probably Edith but at the very least that they all get out of this alive.

As the team from Winked arrive at Consequi (yes, the names) we have already learned a little about the cast of misfits masquerading as the impossibly hip and talented. Our point of view, Edith is variously a complicated mess of neuroses, or an aloof and intimidating cool kid in the company. That all important perspective is going to become very important as we not only delve deeper into Edith’s psyche but also fall down the rabbit hole of Consequi’s attempts to break down the barriers of the Winked employees and make them a better family of creatives.   

Edith is fearful she is the perpetual outsider and this has made her an almost perfect cipher and corporate chameleon. I genuinely vacillated between loving and hating her machinations, and am still a little unsure how I feel about the narrative's resolution.

The story treats us to the banal and unhinged things that can happen on a corporate retreat. The stakes are constantly being upped by the impossibly calm ‘Group Leaders’ and only Edith seems to get that something weird is going on. But then again, for all I know psychological warfare is completely normal in modern office settings.

The uncertainty is part of the fun of Stinkbug and so maybe I should just say that this book had me giving the odd snort of laughter that I generally try to avoid unless I’m completely alone.

As an outsider to the culture I found it fascinating; both hilarious and horrifying. I’m hoping to meet a corporate insider who can give me more insights into whether or not this really was just a fever dream! 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Vijay Khurana is a writer and translator from German. He’s joining Andrew with his debut novel, The Passenger Seat, which was shortlisted for the Novel Prize.

On the verge of their final year of high school, Adam and Teddy are looking for adventure.

On a whim they pack some camping gear and drive north. Teddy isn’t sure whether his girlfriend will miss him, if they’ll even be a couple when he gets back

Adam. Well Adam’s plan only points in one direction, and he has no intention of ever returning.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Laura Elvery is the author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter, which won the 2021 Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection. Laura’s joining me today with her first novel Nightingale.

At ninety years old, Florence Nightingale knows how much she has achieved in her life. All of that still doesn’t compensate for the infirmity she feels. That and the fact her only visitor is Mabel, her housekeeper and nurse. At least the window is open.

At her age a knock on the door could as well be a dream, and so it is with some surprise that Florence welcomes into her home a young soldier. A man who says he met Florence in Scutari, a man named Silas Bradley. 

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The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Gretchen Shirm is the author of Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. You’ve met her on Final Draft before and today she joins us with her new novel Out of the Woods.

Jess has taken a job in the Hague, working as the secretary to an Australian judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of war crimes.

As she struggles to find an equilibrium listening to the horrors committed in war, Jess also  struggles within herself to reconcile conflicting feelings about her role as mother and daughter, and what they mean to the people she loves.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Content warning for mentions of violence.

On the verge of their final year of high school, Adam and Teddy are looking for adventure.

On a whim they pack some camping gear and drive north. Adam’s got a drivers license and a truck. Teddy has a gun license and on their way out of town the boys stop at a camping goods store and buy a rifle. They’re not sure what they’ll encounter in the wild but they want to be prepared for anything.

Teddy’s family don’t seem too fussed by the whole affair and he isn’t sure whether his girlfriend will miss him. It’s no0t that serious and he doubts they’ll even be a couple when he gets back

Adam’s dad’s weirdly gotten worse since he stopped drinking. Teddy may be talking about school but Adam’s plan only points in one direction, and he has no intention of ever returning.

The Passenger Seat begins with Adam and Teddy egging each other on to jump off the bridge outside their town. In this moment they are exploring the ways they can both push, and rely on each other. A sudden jolt before he is ready and Teddy is furious at Adam as he hurtles towards the water, only to emerge triumphant, laughing at his friend beside him. In this moment neither they, nor the reader suspect what is to come for them. They are simply two boys, or perhaps young men trying to understand their place in the world.

Their road trip begins as all road trips begin, full of promise and the expectation that what comes next is unpredictable. We ride alongside Adam and Teddy, sleeping in the cramped tray of the truck and wondering exactly when they plan on washing. The titular passenger seat working as both a metaphor for who is in control, and a reminder of how uncomfortably close we are to the two in their self imposed exile.

Now about now I’m going to acknowledge that I’m glossing over some events in the novel. This inflection point changes the journey for Adam and Teddy and forces both the boys and the reader to wonder exactly where the story could possibly go from here.

Adam and Teddy’s journey is remarkable simply because it need not be remarkable. Khurana uses the everyman disaffection of the two boys to offer up a perfectly innocuous trip that spirals out of control. At a certain point we are privy to Adam’s gleeful reflection that when people come searching for answers their story will be devastatingly inscrutable.

I found The Passenger Seat to be one of those genuinely unputdownable books. Much like the boys trip it takes on its own momentum and refused to let me go as I devoured it in a weekend. 

If I go too much into themes I run the risk of spoilers but I will say that it engages somewhat topically with the broader social conversation around young men and the forces that compel them in their actions. 

In this Teddy and Adam’s story is juxtaposed with a vignette of a seemingly minor character in the aftermath of the road trip. The two stories are seemingly disparate but highlight the same sense of control or relinquishing of one’s control that underscores so much of what makes male behaviour unconscionable.

The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana is a tremendous novel; timely and urgent. Read it now and I suspect you’ll be ahead of the conversation to come as this book gathers momentum.

Chris is the award winning author of Mammoth - the story of a loquacious fossil, The Glass Kingdom - a drug fueled romp through outback Australia and perhaps the strangest of all Here Be Leviathans - a collection of Monkey’s, Platypuses and Sabretooth Tigers working well outside their pay grade. 

Chris is back with his new novel Orpheus Nine and he’s going to hold up the mirror once again whether we’re ready or not…

And just a quick content warning that this narrative talks about death and pandemics, just in case you don’t want to hear about that…

On a Saturday morning in the small coastal town of Gattan, families are gathered for the local under tens footy when it happens. One moment all eyes are on the action of the game, the next, confusion reigns as all the players, bar one stand stock still, frozen on the pitch. Next comes the eerie chorus from the players; a line in Latin from King Lear, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” before all dropping dead.

The horror inflicted on Gattan is repeated all over the world. Scientists are helpless to explain why children aged nine are dying when they reach their ninth birthday.

In Gattan families are struggling to understand the tragedy and it quickly threatens community cohesion. Families of the dead are known as Orpheans and are pariahs in their own town. Meanwhile the families of ten year olds are regarded with suspicion, while those families of eight year olds desperately search for a way out.

On its surface Orpheus Nine looks like a book about the pandemic. It certainly references Covid-19, even if it’s to show how much worse the Orpheus Nine crisis is becoming. Through the novel we see something of the calamity that could have been.

More than the global terror that often felt so far removed from our everyday lives, Orpheus Nine shows us how we suffered at the personal and community level.

By focussing in on the fictional town of Gattan, Flynn shows us the cost of the tragedy across the town. How the deaths were only the beginning as mistrust quickly spread and families and friends come to question their loyalties. 

The novel shows us the roots of the mistrust that festers when everything goes wrong and challenges the notion that banding together is protective, when people can be so quick to turn on each other and declare you now an outsider.

There’s also something of a mystery at the heart of the novel. This isn’t the promised answer that we all secretly hope might save us in these impossible situations. Rather Orpheus Nine shows us how futile our situation is in the face of enormous threats. Or at least how futile things are when our best bet is just to continue with the same petty complaints we’ve always held.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

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In the near future, Sydney is dominated by seemingly monolithic corporate structures. From prisons to transport and even medicine, the city skyline is overcome by these enormous structures that obscure the sky and channel the increasingly destructive storms that swamp the city..

Alice’s husband is locked in one of these high-rise prisons. Jailed for a crime he claims to be innocent of and vehemently protesting the cost cutting of the same corporations that have locked him away. 

Alice wants a baby but first she has to get her husband out of jail. There’s the legal costs and she’s not even sure she can afford to keep their house let alone pay for the experimental fertility treatments. With nowhere to turn Alice is increasingly desperate for respite.

When another catastrophic storm hits on Alice’s way home from work she must hurry to escape the environmental destruction. In the morning as the neighbourhood takes stock of the latest damage, a strange and shadowy figure appears on Alice’s doorstep… 

Ann Dombriski’s future imperfect tale of a barely recognisable Sydney is a fascinating look at possible consequences of our rapid modernisation. While Alice lives in a townhouse in a so-called heritage neighbourhood, we are privy to the changes that have divided Sydney up into sectors and splintered the social fabric along ghettoized economic lines.

Alice’s life is teetering on the verge of collapse and we are forced to watch on as blow after blow makes it seem increasingly unlikely that Alice will be the heroine who rides off into the sunset.

The novel explores the seeming inevitable moral ambiguity of a world that has continued to develop and sell off its assets for increasing growth. All of the characters, Alice included must look to how they can best codify themselves or the things in their lives, to leverage the necessities and just survive. 

We are shown just how far technology can take us, even as we are challenged with a vision of capricious development for its own sake. Alice works in the field of medical research and advancements and we are challenged with the for-profit access to health and its impacts on care. Lurking behind all of this though is the secret hidden in Alice’s home. A secret that may represent the solution to her problems, even as it damns her.

I feel deep into the world building of After the Great Storm and enjoyed traveling through this convincing, if chilling version of Sydney. I couldn’t see where there’d be room for 2ser in this corporate wonderland but reassuringly the aging millennials still sported fading tattoos. Even if the next generation disapproved.

After the Great Storm is a fascinating deep dive into the future that strays only slightly from our current concerns. The personal becomes political and Alice’s story forces the reader to explore their own morality as we watch Alice consider what she would do for her family.

There’s some terrific speculative and climate based fiction coming out of Australia and After the Great Storm is well worth your time for a glimpse towards tomorrow.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Chris is the award winning author of Mammoth - the story of a loquacious fossil, The Glass Kingdom - a drug fueled romp through outback Australia and perhaps the strangest of all Here Be Leviathans - a collection of Monkey’s, Platypuses and Sabretooth Tigers working well outside their pay grade.

Chris is back with his new novel Orpheus Nine and he’s going to hold up the mirror once again whether we’re ready or not…

And just a quick content warning that this narrative talks about death and pandemics, just in case you don’t want to hear about that…

On a Saturday morning in the small coastal town of Gattan, families are gathered for the local under tens footy when it happens. One moment all eyes are on the action of the game, the next, confusion reigns as all the players, bar one stand stock still, frozen on the pitch. Next comes the eerie chorus from the players; a line in Latin from King Lear, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” before all dropping dead.

The horror inflicted on Gattan is repeated all over the world. Scientists are helpless to explain why children aged nine are dying when they reach their ninth birthday.

In Gattan families are struggling to understand the tragedy and it quickly threatens community cohesion. Families of the dead are known as Orpheans and are pariahs in their own town. Meanwhile the families of ten year olds are regarded with suspicion, while those families of eight year olds desperately search for a way out.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Ann Dombroski is a writer whose prize-winning short fiction has appeared in literary journals and anthologies.

Ann’s debut novel is After the Great Storm

Alice’s husband is in jail for a crime he claims to be innocent of. Alice wants a baby but is unsure if she can afford to keep their house let alone pay for the experimental fertility treatments. There’s also her grandmother and Daniel’s mounting legal fees.

With nowhere to turn Alice is increasingly desperate for respite.

And then a strange and shadowy figure appears on her doorstep… 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Caro Llewellyn is the author of the Stella Prize shortlisted memoir Diving into Glass, and has worked with writers in publishing and as a Festival Director and human rights advocate.

Her new novel is Love Unedited

As an editor, Molly is used to receiving manuscripts. Even incomplete manuscripts, from mysterious authors aren’t completely out of the ordinary. But there is something about this new manuscript that has gotten under Molly’s skin…

Maybe it’s the tale of lovers reuniting after decades apart, or the hearkening back to a literary world so familiar and yet so romantic. Or perhaps it’s Edna. Something about Edna that seems so familiar.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Mother Tongue is her second novel.

Ever since the birth of her daughter Jenny, Brynn’s life has been ruled by The Schedule; a clockwork routine that means Jenny will love her and Brynn will be the mother she know she can be. 

Her husband Eric works hard for the family and Brynn will too. Her best friend Lisa always tells she has the perfect life and if Brynn doesn’t feel like that’s true well then maybe she just needs to work harder at it.

Maybe it’s the working hard that did it. Why Brynn was outside on the icy step, taking the fall and then ending up in a coma.

When Brynn awakes from her coma her life is still the same picture of suburban idyll. It’s just Brynn doesn’t seem to fit it anymore. She speaks fluent French, a thing called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and English is an effort.

Suddenly her world feels strange. Brynn is a new person, and while Jenny still accepts her mother, no one else seems to. Eric is becoming withdrawn, even hostile. Her parents are avoiding her and Lisa thinks she might be faking and is eying of Eric.

It’s all too much and so Brynn leaves…

Mother Tongue is about the expectations placed on women’s lives and how these narrow standards manage to choke everyone no matter your position or privilege.

When Brynn wakes up speaking French she equates this as not just a second chance, but a second soul. Freed from so many of the conventions of her world, Brynn suddenly finds that this world is becoming intolerable to her. 

While those around her seek to gaslight her experience Brynn comes to raise that the only choice she may have is to opt out.

Lisa is in many easy Brynn’s foil. Where Brynn opts out, Lisa will opt in. Taking Brynn’s place in the family she will allow Eric to use her for her labour to raise Jenny whilst never truly loving her or wanting her there.

The novel only builds momentum from here exploring how each character’s lives unfold when they are untethered from their ‘typical’ everyday existence.

I’d tell you more about the trajectory of the narrative, playing out over the next fourteen odd years, but you probably wouldn’t believe me. Mother Tongue is incisive in its wit even as its wildly dark and sardonic in its narrative twists.

The personal is political here and Brynn’s choices, indeed all of the characters choices seem to play out against a wider social current of inclusive vs xenophobic impulses. While Brynn lands on her feet in Paris she is not free from the suspicion that drove her out of her home. Meanwhile back in Elderpool Eric is flirting with the absolute worst of humanity as his chance to escape his own personal malaise.

Mother Tongue is clever, fun and wild. Even as it asks big questions, it offers a guiding hand on the journey to some kind of answer.

As Brynn might say ‘C’est un grand livre. Je la recommande’

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Rachael Johns was an English teacher before making her dreams of becoming a novelist come true. Her book The Patterson Girls won the ABIA Award in 2016 for General Fiction and she has also won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award twice.

Rachael is joining us today with her new novel The Bad Bridesmaid

Fred has the conviction of her beliefs. She’s writing a book on how not to catch feelings and is refreshingly honest with all her partners about where she stands on this.

Fred’s also seen some things and she’s pretty keen on stopping her mum from catching feelings as well. So it’s with some surprise and consternation that Fred greets the news that her mother is getting married. Soon. And it’s a destination wedding.

Fred’s practically trapped on Norfolk Island, but all is not lost when she finds a hot accomplice in Leo and together they set out to break up their parents… 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Karina is the author of Duck a l’Orange for Breakfast (April 2023), which was longlisted in the Indie Book Awards for Best Debut Fiction, and Never Ever Forever. Karina, alongside her friend and author Clare Fletcher, is the founder and co-host of the successful That Rom Com Pod.

Karina’s new novel That Island Feeling takes us to the secluded beaches of Pearl Island where Andie is determined to help her best friend Taylor through her divorce. A week on Pearl Island is just the beginning. Andie has an itinerary designed to help them forget men and melt away all their dramas.

Except that Andie certainly hasn’t prepared for double booked bucks parties to crash their house. She’s underwhelmed by her friend's immediate gravitation towards these overbearing men. This week is meant to be about the girls and so she definitely hasn’t planned for any handsome, barefoot boat captains to come paddleboarding her way.

Pearl Island is paradise for tourists and locals alike but that doesn’t happen without a little effort. Jack has been working any job he can ever since the Island’s oyster industry was decimated. The environmental catastrophe could quickly become a personal catastrophe if he can’t wrangle all the locals and support whatever industry the island has left, even if that means supporting the local resort.

Jack’s been looking out for everyone else for so long he’s not sure he can trust his instincts when it comes to other people caring for him.

There’s so much at stake and everyone else to look put for. Can Andie and Jack get out of their own way long enough to see what the other has to offer.

So let’s do this a little differently today…

I need all the fellas to lean in here. Because I know a bit about how books are marketed and I know that the powers that be are exactly expecting males to be picking up copies of That Island Feeling. 

People think straight men don’t go for meet cutes and we shy away from romance. But even if that were true let’s just look at the breakdown here; we’ve got a guy shouldering responsibilities and feeling overwhelmed but having difficulty asking for help. He loves to get out on the water and is handy but not too showy about it. He’s trying his best to be a gentleman and he looks out for his mum.

I’m thinking we’d all like to identify with this bloke (except for the asking for help - why can’t we get better at that guys?!) I’m also thinking there’s more than a little to aspire to here, including the shirtless paddleboarding.

It’s also time we shuck off the stereotype of not liking romance. Let’s all embrace our inner sweetheart and agree to surprise our significant others with a sweet gesture tonight. 

We love a little love and just need to overcome all the manosphere garbage and tap into our emotional selves with a delightful beach read.

Now there is also Andie’s story and she’s great, but I think a lot of you already knew that.

I bet you also know there’s going to be rough waters for the Andie and Jack, and will they or won’t they make it?

The joy of these stories is in how we can constantly rediscover things we think we know and embrace the full spectrum of human emotion from the safety of our armchairs.

Karina May’s That Island Feeling. Read it if you have a heart that you’re still regularly using…  

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Eileen  Chong is an award winning poet.  You’ve met her on Final Draft with her last collection A Thousand Crimson Blooms and today she’s joining us with her new collection We Speak of Flowers.

We Speak of Flowers comprises 101 interconnected fragments that can be read in any order, attempting to make sense of grief in the face of great pain.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.

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Her new novel is The Buried Life.

Adrian’s colleagues affectionately call him Doctor Death. As a renowned scholar of death in the modern age he has surprisingly little insight into the impacts death has wrought in his own life.

Kezi is a young artist torn between the freedom of her life and the tug of the fundamentalist christian life she escaped to lead it.

Laura is a brilliant town planner anchored by her marriage to an underappreciated scholar.

Each of these characters orbits the other, leading lives of quiet expectation. 

Adrian seeks to find a way forward after the breakdown of his relationship to Irene. Kezi hangs on to the possibility of forging a life outside of the church that rejected her for her sexuality. That she can reconcile and occupy the space carved out when she was so young. Laura is animated by a growing realisation that there is more to her cloistered world and she has been ignorant to what has been holding her back.

The Buried Life takes place across Melbourne and into the lives of Adrian, Kezi and Laura. Here the city is a village inhabited by relationships near and far, and into which we are invited. There we discover how life can give us glimpses of possibility but stubbornly refuse to help us unless we first help ourselves.

The novel is animated by the music and poetry that come to be central to the characters' existence. 

Adrian so long a rationalist has always enjoyed music but failed to appreciate how others can be in its thrall. Returning from a conference, he chances on a recording of Mahler in a coastal cafe and discovers a kind of transcendence that drives him forward. 

When he meets Laura he is similarly enthralled and comes to question the certainties of his life and come to favour living with passion and emotion.

Each of these characters is shadowed by their buried life. 

Imagine, if you will, a sense of incompleteness. A gnawing worry that there is something more to do. That you are living in sepia but aware that brilliant technicolour is waiting if you could just see it. The Buried Life chronicles the journey into discovering that life and the journeys; both physical and spiritual we must take to get there.

I found this novel both moving and challenging. Searching and yearning are such human traits but we all walk a tightrope of wishing ourselves and trying to live in our world. 

Within the novel we are confronted with pain and uncertainty and must consider if we can ever undo some of the damage we’ve lived through. 

I’m reluctant to suggest whether there’s a destination because so often it's the journey, cliched as that might sound. So to the novel as I found myself transfixed by the growing dynamic between Adrian, Laura and Kezi. As they become each other’s family I found myself increasingly concerned with where this might take then and less so if they got to go together.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Steve MinOn is the winner of the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer 2023. First Name Second Name is his first novel

Stephen Bolin lies in a coma in a Brisbane hospital. 

In the hours before his death Stephen awakens long enough to write a cryptic message to his sisters, asking them to carry his body north to the town of their birth.

Stephen’s sisters ignore this bizarre request and so some time later Stephen awakens in a mortuary, stiff with rigor mortis. His now dead brain animated by a single desire, to complete the trip north to Innisfail.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Diana’s new novel is Signs of Damage.

How could everything have gone so wrong?

In the summer of 2008 the Kelly family are enjoying a holiday in the south of France. Bruce, Vanessa, their daughters Skye and Anika and Anika’s best friend Cass.The holiday seems something of an idyll until Cass goes missing. She is  discovered hours later locked in an ancient icehouse but the question remains how? 

Sixteen years later and the funeral for Bruce Kelly is being held a mere week before the wedding of his eldest daughter Skye. Partway through, the service is interrupted when Cass collapses in a seizure. After the shock of her collapse subsides, doctors will cast doubt on whether Cass’ seizures are the product of epilepsy, or some deeper, more mysterious malady. 

What is happening to Cass and how does it relate to that summer in the south of France?

Signs of Damage has me intrigued from the get go. As we open on a coroner's office in Tuscany we understand immediately that something is very wrong. The narrative then throws us back in time where we will watch the events of the preceding week lead us up to the fatal moment. 

Structurally, the novel pairs the fateful weeks in 2008 and 2024 and we travel alongside the characters from the Monday through the Saturday. While Cass emerges as our strongest point of view, with her first person narration bookending the narrative through the prologue and epilogue, we are treated to the perspectives of each of the main characters as we wind through their lives across the paired weeks.

These glimpses of perspective and insight serve to set up a tension between the story as it is lived and the way it is being perceived by each character. No coincidence in Cassandra’s name, as like her namesake from Greek mythology she seems cursed not to be believed as other characters make up their own mind about truth, and how the events of the past have shaped their present.

Signs of Damage works as a taut thriller but also as a kind of commentary on how the work of gripping storytelling turns on both the revelation and obfuscation of facts. We as readers are drawn into the web of storytelling as we too make our assumptions and tease out our theories about how the stories will fit together to reveal the greater picture.

At various times throughout my reading I wondered if I might be in the middle of a speculative, fantastical narrative or even perhaps an ‘all-in-their-head’ type psycho drama. The truth was in fact even more wonderful as I realised that I had become as active a participant in the action as any of the characters, only I was saved from having my theories impact, or perhaps injure the other players.

Signs of Damage is an insightful and entertaining exploration of trauma, mental health and our inner lives. It sets the stage for a drama and then allows its characters and yes even its readers to play out their theories until the inevitable and tragic ending.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Zane Lovitt is the award winning author of The Midnight Promise and Black Teeth

Jamie’s back on Carnation Way. It was a mostly conscious decision, although the dissolution of his marriage wasn’t meant to be part of the move.

It’s not so bad though. A lovely cul-de-sac full of friendly neighbours who look out for each other.

Except for that body they found under the house next door thirteen years ago. Oh and now Claire across the way has disappeared in the middle of the night.

Maybe Jamie should look into this…

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Stephen Bolin lies in a coma in a Brisbane hospital. 

In the hours before his death Stephen awakens long enough to write a cryptic message to his sisters. They are to carry his body north to the town of their birth.

Stephen’s sisters ignore this bizarre request and so some time later Stephen awakens in a mortuary, stiff with rigor mortis. His now dead brain animated by a single desire, to complete the trip north to Innisfail.

If that synopsis sounds like a lot, that’s because it is a lot. First Name Second Name completes an ingenious sleight of hand in being one of the more bizarre, yet compelling heartfelt novels you are likely to read in long time.

First Name Second Name grew out of Steve MinOn’s discovery that his surname was an amalgamation of two Chinese first names. This discovery compelled him to explore the history that could lead someone to give up something so crucial to their identity.

The narrative twists itself between the contemporary story of Stephen, now a Jiangshi or  Chinese hopping vampire, and the generational story of the Bolin family, beginning with the meeting of Pan Bo Lin and Bridget Wilkie; One a migrant from China and the other from Scotland.

The historical narrative charts a story of determination as both Bo Lin and Bridget must overcome others perceptions to carve out a life in the colony of Queensland. The reader is privy to the imbalance between men and women, but also between anglo and chinese and how the colony’s British origins see Bo Lin’s identity chipped away even as Bridget’s children and grandchildren come to embrace more of their Scottish heritage.

The generations trace their way down to Stephen who as a young man in the eighties struggles to come to terms with a host of identities. Stephen feels the difference between himself and his family all the more acutely as he realizes that neither his cultural, nor his queer identities are things they want to hear about.

Alive and dead we follow Stephen’s journey through the landscapes of Queensland and the chapters of his life. As a Jiangshi he is drawn to lifeforce even as he’s overwhelmed by the pull that takes him into his past.

This journey was compelling and slightly horrifying as we come to realise that the animating force of Stephen’s undead existence seems to be drawing him to discover some kind of space. It’s perhaps not clear whether this is meant to be a peaceful resting place or simply a destination that brings together all the disparate elements of his identity.

First Name Second Name is a wild ride. This is without a doubt a very thoughtful, literary novel but it blindsides the reader with moments of horror and humour. 

While the author acknowledges a wish to explore cultural loss and the pressures that migrants feel in a society that can be hostile to their existence, the text invites its own exploration of this question for the reader to discover.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Vanessa McCausland is author of DREAMING IN FRENCH and THE BEAUTIFUL WORDS.

Paige White's beautiful life is documented closely for her thousands of followers: lakeside picnics with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic dinners with her husband. So when she posts an ominous image, and her body is shortly after discovered in the lake, everyone immediately wonders - suicide or foul play?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Catherine Jinks is the award winning author of more than forty books. You’ve met her on Final Draft when we discussed her novel The Attack…

Catherine’s new novel is Panic.

Bronte’s gone viral in the worst possible way. After being doxed by an ex she needs to get out of town, fast.

Taking a job caring for an elderly woman on a farm sounds like the perfect job; low-key, private and the farm is a health retreat. What wasn’t in the brochure was a group of sovereign citizens attempting to disconnect from mainstream society.

Bronte isn’t sure whether to be worried or bemused, all she knows is she’s got nowhere else to go.

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We Speak of Flowers comprises 101 interconnected fragments that can be read in any order, attempting to make sense of grief in the face of great pain.

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Katoomba’s a small community. There’s not a lot of places to hide when people know your name and Bronte’s gone viral in the worst possible way. Getting social media drunk and angry is never a good idea and now Bronte’s been doxed by her YouTube famous ex and she needs to get out of town, fast.

Fortunately the gig economy is full of jobs for people desperate enough to take them…

Caring for an elderly woman on a farm sounds like the perfect job; low-key, private and the farm is a health retreat. Bronte’s on the first train and ready to wait out her notoriety in the countryside around Bathurst. It should be idyllic, unfortunately what wasn’t in the brochure was a group of sovereign citizens attempting to disconnect from mainstream society.

Bronte isn’t sure whether to be worried or bemused, all she knows is she’s got nowhere else to go.

Catherine Jinks’ stories have a ripped from the headlines quality and Panic is no exception. The narrative captures a bitter melange of our modern insecurities and then throws our protagonist Bronte headfirst into them.

Bronte is eminently sympathetic. She’s likeable, but not saccharine and when we meet her she’s already throwing hands with the internet douches, so we know she’s got the right idea. Bronte’s also capable but not well resourced and so we must follow her as she’s buffeted by fate's ill winds.

That Bronte lands on the doorstep of a group of sovereign citizens is an increasingly more likely plot twist. Once the curious province of current affairs programs, we now know these groups exist, trying to escape their problems by denying the authority of the government they don’t feel like following anymore.

In Panic the group are a mix of the extreme and the sympathetic as they try through bluster and hubris to talk themselves into reality. Veda and Troy want to escape their debts and live off the land, but they can’t even get to town and back in an unregistered car.

Bronte’s dilemma is to be both caring and vulnerable. She’s stuck caring for Veda’s mum Nell. Nell has her own secrets and when her health takes a turn they threaten to spill out and ruin the whole show. Now Bronte must battle to stay out of danger as the sov cits raise the stakes and the police answer in kind.

Panic is a engaging thriller, filled with pacy writing and larger than life characters that will have you guessing. The setting and structure bring clever elements of horror to the tale, even as we dive deep into the procedural dilemmas of trying to emancipate yourself from local government and authority.

If you’re finding the headlines a little too real lately, then Panic might be just the escape to help you work through the issues in an entertainingly hyperreal way.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sean Wilson is a writer, playwright and communications professional. Sean is the author of Gemini Falls. He has been shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award by Sydney Theatre Company. 

Sean joins us today with his new novel You Must Remember This.

On a warm autumn evening Grace decides to go for walk. It must be autumn judging from the temperature, and Grace was going to… she’s well, surely it will come back to her.

Grace's daughter Liz assures her she’ll like her new room, but nothing feels quite right and Grace is sure things keep going missing.

Ranging across Grace’s life, You Must Remember This is a story of love and family and the struggle to hold onto your very sense of self in the face of failing memory.

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Invisible Boys is the award winning debut novel from Holden Sheppard and is now a smash hit series on Stan.

Holden even pops by to talk about pioneering queer storytelling and adapting his show for the screen.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the author of Dark Mode, shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year. Her new novel is Cold Truth.

Ashley is in conversation with Felix Shannon

Harlow Close has made a career as an influencer uncovering the secrets of Winnipeg, dubbed ‘North America's strangest city’. The region is renowned for its sub-zero temperatures, dropping to minus 40 degrees – sometimes for months at a time. Yet, it’s not just the frigid winters and geographic seclusion that render Winnipeg peculiar.

When Harlow’s father mysteriously disappears amid a brutal cold snap, suspicions of foul play arise. It’s not like Scott to miss phone calls – and he’s been even more cautious since that time he was catfished by a romance scammer. Unhappy with the pace of the police investigation, Harlow launches her own search, enlisting her sister Blaise’s reluctant help.

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Felix is the renowned host of Death of the Reader and joins us with fresh ideas and a unique way of reading and discovering books.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Karina is the author of Duck a l’Orange for Breakfast (April 2023), which was longlisted in the Indie Book Awards for Best Debut Fiction, and Never Ever Forever. Karina, alongside her friend and author Clare Fletcher, is the founder and co-host of the successful That Rom Com Pod.

Karina’s joins Andrew today with her new novel That Island Feeling.

Andie is determined to help her best friend Taylor through her divorce. A week on Pearl Island is just the beginning and Andie has an itinerary planned to help forget men and all their dramas.

Andie certainly hasn’t prepared for double booked bucks parties and she definitely hasn’t planned for handsome, barefoot boat captains…

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Sean’s new novel is You Must Remember This.

On a warm autumn evening Grace decides to go for walk. It must be autumn judging from the temperature, and Grace was going to… she’s well, surely it will come back to her.

Hours later, and with her family panicked Grace will be helped home by the police.

Grace's daughter Liz assures her she’ll like her new room, but nothing feels quite right and Grace is sure things keep going missing.

As Grace searches for a foothold in her new home she finds that the past and the present seem to blur. Moments of time blend into memories and Grace is thrown back across her life trying to make sense of it all.

I’m going to start with a strong recommendation because You Must Remember This is a novel that brings heart, intelligence and literary verve to the topic of dementia.

Ranging across Grace’s life, You Must Remember This is a story of love and family and the struggle to hold onto your very sense of self in the face of failing memory. 

The reader travels with Grace through her life and through the stylistic device of a melange of chapters we are given some insight into Grace’s experience of the world. Between the pages Wilson has created a linear narrative and then parsed it erratically to try and capture Grace’s own sense of confusion and the unsettling nature of memories blurring. The overall effect is less of memory loss, than of the overwhelming sense that all of life is happening in an unfiltered and uncontrolled way.

The figure of Grace is alluring for her vulnerability but also for her strength. As her past unfolds we learn about her childhood and come to see what shaped the woman she is. This story engages deftly and with compassion the issue of making Grace a whole person and not simply an object of pity. As we move between generations of mothers and daughters, always with Grace as our anchor we are shown how that life has worked on so many others.

Novels have a tricky way of trying to impose order onto events and create these things we call stories. They give us hope that we will find meaning in a sequence of moments. This is very much something that Grace finds is slipping from her, ever more, the harder she tries to grasp it.

In Wilson’s hands we are shown how Grace works through this and also how sometimes she simply must experience life in its jumble. It’s humbling as a reader to have our expectations overturned and then work to discover a new way of seeing through Grace’s eyes.

You Must Remember This is a slim book that came to occupy an outsized space in my thoughts. It offers compassion and the opportunity to understand through the character of Grace and perhaps in the way we carry our experience of reading back into our everyday lives.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. His new work is Australian Gospel.

Australian Gospel is a family saga, it’s Lech's family saga, detailing the lives of his mum & dad, and his foster siblings. It’s also about the lives of Michael and Mary Shelley, the biological parents of three of Lech's brothers and sisters and the religious zealots who hounded their existence.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Esther hails from Cork, Ireland and lives in the North West of Tasmania. Esther is the author of Leaving Ocean Road and The House of Second Chances. She’s joining us today with her new novel The Writing Class.

We’d all like to believe we’re the authors of our own story, but when Vivian’s husband Dave abandons her, she learns the hard way there are some twists she wouldn’t have plotted for herself.

Back home in Tasmania, Vivian is at a loss for what to do with herself until a chance encounter sees her teaching a writing class. Amidst the diverse students Vivian learns discovers new things about herself, and about the power of raising up your voice when you have something to say.

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Lech Blaine’s Australian Gospel

‘A Family Saga’. Australian Gospel tells the story of Lech’s siblings. It’s a big family and Lech’s mum and dad Tom and Lenore fostered five children in the years before Lech was born. Three of those children, Lech’s brothers and sisters, happen to be the biological offspring of Michael and Mary Shelley. 

Buy it for - Anyone looking for a good Aussie Yarn

Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead

Across a single day we are thrown into the life of Winona Dalloway. From the moment she wakes, stealing a few precious moments before her time is not her own, to the dinner party that looms over her calendar, the reader follows Winona as she tries simply to be herself…

Buy it for - Lovers of literary fiction who are looking for a gorgeously written, stimulating read

Sara Haddad’s The Sunbird

The Sunbird tells the story of Nabila Yasmeen. As a six year old she and her family were expelled from their village in Palestine. Now in her eighties and living in Sydney, Nabila stills feels the weight of this trauma in her daily life…

The Sunbird has been included in a reasoning pack being sent to Australian MPs by a group of authors including Tim Winton, Charlotte Wood, JM Coetzee, Anna Funder, Michelle de Kretser, André Dao and Rosie Batty. Their goal is to educate our leaders in the history of Palestine and the Israel/Gaza conflict

Buy it for - Anyone who wants (or needs) to learn a little more about Gaza

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

In the fractured kingdom of the Yue, Xishi is regarded as a peerless beauty.

Her beauty is famous across her homeland and leads her to be sought out by the advisor to the king. The Yue have suffered terrible defeats at the hands of the Wu. This humiliation and the threat of ongoing war has lead the king to try a desperate plan. With Xishi’s help they will infiltrate the Wu king’s court, win his heart and overthrow his tyrannical rule. 

Thrust deep into the heart of the enemy Wu kingdom, Xishi must use all her skills, not only to survive but to bring justice for her people.

Buy it for - Lovers of historical fiction 

Honourable Mention Emily Maguire’s Rapture

The Echoes by Evie Wyld

Max waits in the London flat he shares with Hannah. He’s had little to do but wait since he died. He’d never given much consideration to being a ghost and even still it’s not living up to the hype.

Buy it for - Lovers of Ghost Stories, humour and love alike

Sharlene Allsop’s The Great Undoing.

Scarlet Friday is a truth teller in a hyper connected world. Her job is to explore archives and provide context for the official narrative of history. But the past is never truly buried and outside Scarlett’s archives the rest of the world is teetering on the brink. As systems shut down around the world, Scarlet finds herself on the run. Unwelcome in England, she is now a refugee seeking safe passage back to Australia.

Buy it for - Lovers of Speculative Fiction 

Honourable mentions Alice Robinson’s If You Go and Jordan Prosser’s Big Time

Siang Lu’s Ghost Cities

Xiang is working as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate when it’s discovered he really doesn’t speak much Chinese. This is considered a less than desirable outcome and Xiang is both fired and culturally shamed for his lack of national pride. 

Xiang is quickly whisked off to the Ghost City of Port Man Tou, where he is set to star in the city wide production of Baby Bao’s simulation of reality. A movie within a city within a movie that is aiming to create an economy so circular it might just get vertigo. 

Buy it for - Anyone with Eyes! Probably my book of the year

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Emma Grey is a writer, novelist and photographer. Her novel the Last Love Note was a global bestseller and today she’s joining us with her new novel Pictures of You.

At sixteen years old Evie Hudson feels too young to be married, let alone a widow. And that’s the problem, Evie’s not sixteen but the accident that killed her husband Oliver also stole her memory.

Now she believes she’s a teenager. Thrown back to a time when she felt safe.

But safe from what? 

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Australian Gospel has the subtitle ‘A Family Saga’. It takes only a cursory glance at the back cover synopsis to understand why Australian Gospel works to reassure readers that this is a very real, very true story. The story contained between the covers and the ride Lech Blaine is about to take you on, well if it wasn’t true, you absolutely would not believe it.

Lech Blaine was born in 1992 and by the time he came along the story of Australian Gospel was already many decades old.

Australian Gospel is the story of Lech’s siblings. It’s a big family and Lech’s mum and dad Tom and Lenore fostered five children in the years before Lech was born. Three of those children, Lech’s brothers and sisters, happen to be the biological offspring of Michael and Mary Shelley. 

Michael and Mary Shelley were charismatic Christians, or itinerant and chronic god botherers. The definition really depended on which side of their charms you happened to find yourself on and whether you were standing between them and something they wanted.

The Shelley’s wrought havoc across Australia and the Tasman throughout the 70’s right through till the 2000’s. Thanks to the kindness and good heart of his parents, Lech and their extended family find themselves in the Shelley’s crosshairs as they seek to reclaim the children who were removed for their safety.

Australian Gospel is a wild ride. In his prologue Lech hints at the mammoth task of research an interviews he undertook to bring the story to the page. As a result we are transported to an Australian growing out of the post war period and transforming into the modern country that likes to think it can take on the world (and most of the time can at least give it a shot in sports).

Lech’s prose is spare and as such is able to embrace the competing interests of a sprawling historical narrative and tense domestic fare. It’s a remarkable feat that the narrative can seamlessly jump between a bush prophet’s screed and a domestic drama with nary a blink.

And that could be it for this review; Australian Gospel is worth your time for its fascinating story and Lech’s engaging style. This is a cracking yarn, but it’s also more than just a cracking yarn.

Brimming beneath the surface of Australian Gospel and cleverly hinted at in its title is another, perhaps deeper reason to pick up a copy. Between the fanatical Michael Shelley  preaching his own narcissistic version of the bible and Tom and Lenore Blaine’s quiet (and sometimes loud) search for the great Australian idyll, Australian Gospel gives us competing views of what the so-called lucky country could be.

Where Shelley derides Australia’s love of beer and sport, Tom Blaine embraces these as part of life’s purpose. Where Shelley coaxes and gulls all and sundry to get them to see him as the second coming, Tom Blaine gets on with the job and finds himself quietly adored by his children and community alike.

This is a fascinating book about a bizarre chapter in Australian history told through the eyes of a child (now man) who knows it as his family’s story. It’s a story about fear and hope that goes to the heart of who we are and how we love the people around us so that they feel more of the latter.

It is a family saga and in the telling it’s about the triumph of that family and the incredible story that got them there.  

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and writer, former Wallaby and a member of the order of Australia. Peter is celebrated for his history and biography writing and today he's joining us with his new book The Legend of Albert Jacka.

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   ---------

We’d all like to believe we’re the authors of our own story, but when Vivian’s husband Dave abandons her, she learns the hard way there are some twists she wouldn’t have plotted for herself.

Back home in Tasmania, Vivian is at a loss for what to do with herself until a chance encounter sees her teaching a writing class. Amidst the diverse students Vivian discovers that everyone has their own battles to fight…

Marilyn always dreamed of more but when she got married to an older man it quickly became kids and looking after her pensioned husband. Marilyn always knew her husband was mean but as she comes to know the members of her writing group she discovers he’s also a racist and is holding her back with his insular ideas.

Oscar has always been ashamed of his difficulty with reading and writing. It’s held him back from visiting his son in Japan and may have even cost him his marriage. He’d always believed literacy just wasn’t a skill he’d learn but soon Oscar learns there’s lots he can achieve with the right support.

Sienna was barely out of high school when Cole whisked her off her feet and down to Tasmania. Now with a new baby, Sienna must face up to the fact that Cole is not the man she thought her was. He’s gaslit her into thinking she’s worthless but with the help of The Writing Class she might finally be able to pursue her dreams and escape Cole’s clutches.

   ---------

The Writing Class is simultaneously feelgood and very much the emotional rollercoaster. The ensemble cast are brought together to lift each other up but we are also privy to their lives and the obstacles they must overcome.

The Writing Class doesn’t shy away from dealing with issues and I’d acknowledge that this novel explores a range of heavy topics including sexuality, abuse and coercive control. Each of these stories moves the characters towards realising their true selves even as they fight back against the forces that have worked to keep tied to their old sense of self.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Writing Class as both a page turner that gave me the strong character arcs I expected but also for its ability to surprise and challenge me with hard left twists. 

At its heart is the notion that we can realise our dreams but that this is not some fantasy but involves real work. Through each of the characters we see that what has taken them from their path is that someone else has tried to tell their story and only when they take back control of the narrative, only when they start to write their own stories can they truly live.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Emily is a lawyer and writer of Greek heritage based in Western Australia. Her writing has been published in Westerly, Griffith Review and Science Write Now. Emily is joining us with her debut novel Matia.  

When Sia emigrates from her village in Greece to Perth in the aftermath of the Second World War she is looking for a new beginning. Sia brings with her four Matia and four prophesies that will shape the lives of the women in her family.

Across four generations Matia weaves the stories of Sia, Koula, Athena, and Clara as they seek to forge their own lives and stay true to their culture in an ever changing world.

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At sixteen years old Evie Hudson feels too young to be married, let alone a widow. And that’s the problem, Evie’s not sixteen but the accident that killed her husband Oliver also stole her memory.

Now she believes she’s a teenager. Thrown back to a time when she felt safe.

But safe from what? 

Evie’s lost her memory, which throws up more than a few problems. The last thing she remembers is her parents cautioning her against getting into cars with strangers and talking to people on the internet. Now she somehow has to figure out Uber?!

A week after awakening in a hospital a stranger to herself, Evie is freaking out that none of her so-called family seem to like her and her real parents haven’t tried to contact her.

Evie flees her husband’s funeral and jumps straight into Uber waiting outside.

Only problem, that’s no Uber and this guy seems to know a lot about Evie’s past.

Pictures of You is a pacy and thought provoking thriller that races the reader to discover how Evie wound up so isolated in her own life.

I’m going to give you the spoiler free review here but that means I’m only really touching on the opening chapters of the novel. 

Suffice to say though that when you buy your ticket you can expect an edgy mix of drama, social commentary and a mystery to solve just for good measure.

The narrative alternates between Evie’s contemporary battle to remember who she is and flashes back to her life at sixteen. The life she thinks she has returned to. 

We meet an idealistic and driven young woman who knows exactly where she’s going in life. The contrast couldn’t be more stark between adolescent Evie and the isolated, desperate woman struggling to understand what’s happening to her.

Pictures of You asks important questions about love and how far it’s meant to go whilst still remaining healthy. Evie believes in a Romantic vision of love but the book challenges the idea that our romantic notions should be trusted.

Eagle eyed listeners might have noticed that this is one of a few novels we’ve discussed this year that involve a character with memory loss. This device thrusts the reader into the protagonist's shoes as the act of reading mirrors the slow unraveling of a story that could very well mean life or death. 

Evie’s story hits the beats of hope and loss in satisfying ways that keep us going till the bitter end. Will we like the Evie who emerges when her memory returns? 

That’s the joy of storytelling. By taking the ride with her, whoever emerges by the end we will hopefully have greater understanding and compassion for her journey.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Mike Barry is an award winning writer and artist. His Action Tank series has won the Comic Arts Award of Australia and has been shortlisted for a slew of awards including the NSW Premiers Literary Award and the Aurealis.

Mike’s joining us today because Action Tank 3, the conclusion of the series, is out now!

A young boy wakes up on the other side of the solar system, with little more than his brains, courage and an incredibly powerful piece of space technology to rely on. 

Strap in, it’s going to be a wild ride home for his mum’s spaghetti carbonara.

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In Emily Maguire’s new novel Rapture, the life of a young woman in ninth century Europe is fraught at best.

Under her father’s roof Agnes is indulged in her reading and stands out for her intelligence and wit. But this is no life for a girl, let alone a woman and Agnes must soon face the prospect that she will be married off.

Rejecting this fate Agnes implores her father’s friend to hide her. Obscuring her sex, Agnes enters a Benedictine monastery where she must forever be on guard against discovery.

The story of Agnes is based on the history or perhaps legend of Pope Joan/Ioannes Anglicus, an officially unofficial female Pope. The story has long fascinated and perturbed the sorts of people who gatekeep these sorts of male spaces and you can see how the possibility of a learned woman who rose to the top of the Catholic Church might ruffle a few feathers.

In Maguire’s hands Agnes’ story moves between the worldly and the divine. 

At an early age Agnes is gored by a hog. This brutal action both convinces her she is not fit for marriage and also foreshadows the brief but also visceral encounters she will have with men in her future.

Agnes must negotiate a life wholly embodied; she is never able to forget her sex despite it going unnoticed by the myriad men around her. This life of the flesh convinces her to try and transcend it through her studies where she excels at academics beyond her male monkish peers.

Her excellence is taken for granted, because I guess they couldn’t possibly imagine a woman might be this clever, and Agnes rises through the clergy. Her talents put her on a course for Rome where she is destined to be seen as a paragon of learning.

It is perhaps because of her efforts to efface her womanhood that Agnes comes to be desired by so many around her. The tension and enjoyment of Rapture comes in the characterisation of Agnes’ struggle and the inner torment she suffers as she tries to find the place she has always craved in the world.

Maguire is a tremendous writer of character and through Agnes’ story we see both a history of submission challenged and a paralleling with women’s experience of success and the quest to live a public life today.

Rapture is  far from the narratives of Australian life that have occupied earlier novels like An Isolated Incident and Love Objects. What the reader can expect though is the same concern with power structures and who gets to tell the story that occupies all her novels. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Ann Liang is a New York Times bestselling author of YA novels This Time It’s Real, If You Could See the Sun, and I Hope This Doesn't Find You.

She’s joining us today with her new novel A Song to Drown Rivers.

In the fractured kingdom of Yue, Xishi is regarded as a peerless beauty.

In another time her beauty might see her make a good marriage and support her family, but when she is sought out by the advisor to her defeated king she sees a larger destiny on her horizon.

Thrust deep into the heart of the enemy Wu kingdom, Xishi must use all skills not only to survive but to bring justice for her people.

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Kidan Adane has been living a half life since the disappearance of her sister. 

Ever since Kidan and her sister June were rescued as children they have lived in fear that they will be discovered by the dranaics, immortal creatures who live on the blood of humans. The dranaics power has been tempered somewhat by their bond to specific human bloodlines. Unfortunately Kidan’s family is one such bloodline.

Kidan has crossed lines to try and recover her sister and has all but given up when she is summoned by the Dean of Uxlay University. The University's long relationship with the dranaics is threatened by the ambition of one Susenyos Sagad. Susenyos is bonded to house Adane and now Kidan must return and take up her birthright, or risk an imbalance that threatens her whole world.

  -----------

Immortal Drak is a fresh and compelling reinvention of vampire lore that dives deep on the parasitic relationship between the immortal bloodsuckers and the humans they prey on.

As Kidan returns to Uxlay University and enrolls in the courses that will allow her to come into her inheritance, we are taken on a history tour of the world of Immortal Dark. A world where vampires and humans are bound to each other. It limits the blood loss but ramps up the intimate tension to eleven.

Kidan presents as a loner, but she’s no Bella Swan or even Buffy Summers. For starters Immortal Dark’s mythos traces its origins to Africa and this feeds into the history and character of the families of Uxlay. 

Kidan is also neither a clear slayer, nor consort of the sexy vampire/dranaic. Rather there is a lot of brooding and even more on and off screen violence.

The journey into the world of Uxlay University works hard to balance world building and driving narrative. We are privy to this strange outpost of humans and vampires through Kidan’s eyes and so it is appropriately strange. The novel doesn’t seem to want the reader to get too comfortable and so be prepared for blood and angst in equal measure.

Immortal Dark, Kidan and Uxlay defy any stereotype about supernatural schooling you might bring to your reading of the novel. There are obvious parallels to be drawn here with other franchises both magical and bitey, but that’s only going to thwart the reader. It’s not until you take Immortal dark on its own terms that the narrative of legacy, disenfranchisement and attraction can work their own magic on you.

I’ll confess, I think this is my first foray into the genre known as Romantasy (a portmanteau of Romance and Fantasy) and I was pleasantly surprised. The angst is heavy, but no heavier than I’m sure I was when I was an angsty, university aged person. The lore and the worldbuilding offer a hook that lets you discover and rediscover what you thought you knew about undead bloodsuckers. As for the narrative, it provides mystery and suspense in a pacy way that invites page turning.

Immortal Dark is a must for lovers of genre but should also be on the TBR of readers who like to challenge their preconceptions. You know what they say about vampires; into every generation a new take on the undead is born. Maybe Immortal Dark is the latest to take us by storm.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Lauren Keegan is a psychologist and writer. Her debut novel is All the Bees in the Hollows.

With the death of her husband, Martye must take care of the family’s hollows. She is not alone, although her daughter Austeja has always fiercely resisted her families vocation as beekeepers. There is more loss to come though when the Hollow Watcher is found dead beneath an abandoned hollow. With suspicion turning onto the community Martye and Austeja must learn to rely on each other, and they must trust to the bees. Bees don’t sting good people.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Emily Maguire is the author of seven novels and has been shortlisted for the Stella, the Miles Franklin and many more awards. You’ve met her on Final Draft before and it is a pleasure to welcome her back with her new novel Rapture. 

The life of a young woman in ninth century Europe is fraught at best.

Under her father’s roof Agnes is indulged in her reading and stands out for her intelligence and wit. But this is no life for a girl, let alone a woman and so Agnes must hide herself and her sex to enter a Benedictine monastary and embark on a most remarkable career.

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In the fractured kingdom of the Yue, Xishi is regarded as a peerless beauty.

Her beauty is famous across her homeland and leads her to be sought out by the advisor to the king. The Yue have suffered terrible defeats at the hands of the Wu. This humiliation and the threat of ongoing war has lead the king to try a desperate plan. With Xishi’s help they will infiltrate the Wu king’s court, win his heart and overthrow his tyrannical rule. 

Thrust deep into the heart of the enemy Wu kingdom, Xishi must use all her skills, not only to survive but to bring justice for her people.

------

A Song to Drown Rivers is based on the ancient Chinese story of  Xishi, one of the four famed beauties of legend. From this source material Liang weaves a compelling tale that blends political intrigue with the all too human story of Xishi.

The conceit that Xishi is valued only for her beauty is tested against the development of the character as she prepares to enter the enemy Wu kingdom. Early on Xishi is shown to be jaded by her reputation as a beauty and longs to find more purpose than that found at the end of a man’s gaze.

Through her training and then in the court of the Wu King Fuchai Xishi is challenged to be bold and clever if she is to rise above the level of concubine.

The novel works hard to explore the inner world of Xishi and build on the legend that exists through history. We see Xishi questioning the rituals of the court and comparing them to the practicality of her village life. Xishi must confront that the tragedy of her family's life and loss through the war is mirrored in many other families, including those of the Wu.

Xishi is also embroiled in an impossible love story that can only be further complicated by her mission to seduce the king.

A Song to Drown Rivers works to complicate the romance and spectacle of so many epic tales of Kingdom’s clashing. Xishi is both an ethereal figure of legend and a kind of every person, struggling to find a morality that can encompass the brutal world she finds herself in.

Ann Liang’s writing takes in the source material and embellishes it both for our times and with a sense of pacy, engrossing storytelling. Xishi’s tale rockets forward even as we feel the encroaching moment where she must make a decision about who she is  after so long living a lie.

This book is a must read, ready to appeal to lovers of epics, history, war and romance. It hits its beats in thoughtful and  engaging ways and had me hanging on to the last page.

Maeve Marsden is a writer, producer and theatremaker. She is also the Creative Director of Varuna the National Writers’ House and Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival.

Blue Mountains Writers Festival brings together incredible minds and exciting new talent set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Stephen Downes is a writer and a journalist with an expansive career in news, TV and radio. His debut novel The Hands of Pianists was shortlisted for the 2022 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. He joins us today with his new work Mural.

What drives a person to commit unspeakable acts?

At the request of his psychiatrist ‘D’ is recording his thoughts. Held ‘at her majesty’s pleasure’ D has little else to occupy his time. 

But is D complying with Dr Reynold’s humble request and if so what should we make of this strange journey into the mind of a self confessed madman? 

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All the Bees in the Hollows takes place in a remote beekeeping community in 16th century Lithuania. With the death of her husband, Maryte must take care of the family’s hollows. She is not alone, although her daughter Austeja has always fiercely resisted her family's vocation as beekeepers.

The death of their father is compounded when Austeja discovers the Hollow Watcher dead beneath an abandoned hollow. As the representative of the Duke he was not a beloved man but his sudden death, alongside the disappearance of the bees, does not bode well for the upcoming harvest.

Their little community is small and not used to outsiders and so suspicion turns inward and onto the families. Maryte and Austeja must learn to rely on each other, and they must trust to the bees. Because bees don’t sting good people.

—

All the Bees in the Hollows is a pleasing mix of genres and a fascinating exploration into a way of life that has been changed utterly by our modern world.

It was interesting to read this novel at the onset of our spring, as the bees gathered in my garden and everywhere I turned they were working to collect pollen. Our relationship to bees is so very fundamental to our entire ecosystem and is also one of the most precarious relationships we have with our natural world.

In the novel we are treated to the traditions of Hollows Beekeeping, where swarms are attracted to the hollows of trees and the families manage their development and are careful to harvest only the barest necessity to maintain their livelihoods.

The questions of production and how the profits of the bees are used emerges as a theme when Maryte and Austeja must confront the upcoming spring without their beloved husband and father. Maryte is proud of her skills as a beekeeper but worries at how she will be accepted by the community. There is also the question of the encroaching influence of the church that threatens the practices that have supported the community and their hives for generations.

All the Bees in the Hollows explores the impact of colonial forces in the form of religion and economics at the point when the communities ways are most tested. The sixteenth century was a turning point for beekeeping in Lithuania and so the novel takes advantage of the stakes in this history.

By focussing on the family and the wider biciulyste (the community of beekeeping families) we have both the satisfaction of a contained narrative and the ability to closely observe the psychology of each of the players. That there is a murder mystery in the mix adds an extra frisson driving the narrative forward.

Between the thematic reach and the character driven tension, All the Bees in the Hollows is a wonderfully entertaining read. Even if you don’t share my fascination with bees, you’ll undoubtedly find something to hook you in this tale.  

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Lauren Crozier won the 2023 Text Prize for her debut novel The Best Witch in Paris.

Luna has three loving aunts and a whole lot of questions. Being raised in a witch family comes with all the familiar trappings; an out of control broom, charms & curses and a whole lot of black.

Luna hasn’t found her familiar yet and so it’s with trepidation and surprise that she greets the offer of a Boobook Owl from a shadowy figure in the Forgotten Forest.

Sounds legit doesn’t it?

Luna’s about to find out…

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Our guest today is possibly Australia’s best loved storyteller and science communicator.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has been many things in his life from a physicist, a roadie and a taxi driver, but that’s not my story to tell, because today Dr Karl, who is the author of nearly fifty books, is joining Andrew with his latest, the book only he could write. A Periodic Tale - My Sciencey Memoir is the Dr Karl story.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Maryam Master is a screenwriter, playwright and author. Her novels Exit Through the Gift Shop and No Words were both critically acclaimed gaining listings and prizes and today Maryam joins Andrew with her new novel Laughter is the Best Ending.

Zee would rather drink a maggot smoothie than have to attend a youth camp during the holidays. But Zee’s parents are worried she hasn’t made any friends in their new town and Zee’s worried they’ll resort to more mortifying tactics if she doesn’t at least give it a go.

Camp doesn’t offer much for a Oscar Wilde loving loner, but Zee’s about to go on a wild adventure and make a friend who just might change her life!

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Lisa Kenway is an Australian writer and anaesthetist. Her debut novel, All You Took From Me, was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize

When Clare wakes in a bed in the hospital where she works as an anesthetist she has only questions.

When doctors inform her she was in a car accident, that it took the life of her beloved husband, she realises how much she has lost.

Clare can’t remember a thing about the accident. Why were they on the deserted road? Why was Ray wearing chainmail armour? And why is a towering figure stalking Clare, leaving her threatening warnings?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Publisher Mills & Boon are famous, sometimes infamous and definitely synonymous with romance. Their  novels are published in more than 150 countries, in over 30 different languages, with a book sold every two seconds, worldwide. 

This year Mills & Boon are celebrating their 50th year in Australia (we were their first country outside the UK)

I’m a reader but no expert on romance and so to help me celebrate this literary milestone I’m joined by three Mills & Boon writers Clare Connelly, Ally Blake and Melanie Milburne to talk all things romance.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jordan Prosser is a writer, filmmaker and performer from Victoria. His short story ‘Eleuterio Cabrera’s Beautiful Game’ won the Peter Carey Short Story Award in 2022. Big Time is his first novel.

In the Free Republic of East Australia where everything is just bonza and we all toe the line because whatareya a tall poppy or something?!

Julian Ferryman’s been summoned home lest he lose his spot on Bass for his band’s sophomore album. Julian’s not returning alone though; he’s seen the world and the FREA doesn’t love outsider perspectives. Julian’s also seen the future courtesy of the new designer drug ‘F’, but once you’ve seen your future, where does that leave your present? 

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Lisa Kenway is an Australian writer and anaesthetist. Her debut novel, All You Took From Me, was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize

When Clare wakes in a bed in the hospital where she works as an anesthetist she has only questions.

When doctors inform her she was in a car accident, that it took the life of her beloved husband, she begins to realise how much she has lost. How did it come to this?

Clare can’t remember a thing about the accident. Why were they on the deserted road? Why was Ray wearing chainmail armour? 

As Clare struggles to pull her life back together she is tormented by a towering figure, seemingly stalking her and leaving threatening warnings. The hospital is insisting Clare must see a counselor if she wants to return to work, but it's looking to Clare like she’ll need even more drastic measures if she wants to regain her memories before what she has lost comes back to take what is left.

All You Took From Me is a fascinating exploration into memory and identity. Clare embodies the unreliable narrator and the reader is invited along as she tries to discover if she can even trust herself.

The novel traverses Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains so you know I enjoyed seeing my local area represented. The relative and expanse and solitude of the Mountains is used to effect as the story unfolds and we learn what Clare and her husband had been up to in the days and weeks prior to their accident.

As we follow Clare in her confusion, the tension is ratcheted up by the appearance of her mysterious stalker. There is a certain inelegance to the threats that Clare is in no position to ignore. The rising tension increases the stakes to the point that Clare is willing to try some radical, even desperate means to regain her memory and control over her life. What follows is an innovative exploration of memory and how our subconscious feeds into our everyday.

Clare’s journey of self discovery is suitably fraught and makes for an entertaining look into the depths contained within our seemingly everyday lives.

All You Took From Me is an effective thriller and a must read for lovers of Sydney and surrounds.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Evie Wyld is the award winning author of five novels including the 2021 Stella Prize winning The Bass Rock.

Max waits in the London flat he shares with Hannah. He’s had little to do but wait since he died. He’d never given much consideration to being a ghost and even still it’s not living up to the hype.

Max’s non-corporeal existence is giving him a view into all the things Hannah never told him during their relationship though. Her life before, her life in Australia was always closed to him but now there’s a lot that Hannah must grieve.

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The adults in Shy’s life might describe him as troubled, erratic, violent even. Shy himself doesn’t exactly know why these things keep happening but it’s ended him up in Last Chance, a home for wayward kids, itself on its last legs as developers converge on the property threatening its future.

What does Shy care?! He’s pushed away his mum and his foster dad and now in this haunted old pile he figures he’s not worth much more than a backpack full of stones and a walk to the local pond.

The events of Shy cover a mere few hours of a climactic night in Shy’s life, and yet as he sets out through the window of Last Chance and into the surrounding countryside we are taken on an expansive trip into the confusing and often chaotic world that has brought Shy up to this juncture.

I called Shy’s life chaotic there and it is with style and compassion that Porter brings this chaos onto the page. Both the prose and the typeset veer wildly across the sections evoking thoughts and snatches of conversation. Shy’s confusion and spiraling into the trap of his half realized adolescent life are vividly brought to life even as Shy plods towards a seeming conclusion.

I found the novel both confronting and comforting. Shy is troubled but the novel doesn’t seek to wrap his pain up into a neat bow. The possibility of transformation is elusive and Shy’s fate is a seemingly forgone conclusion; he’s writing himself off as surely as others have written him off.

Shy as ‘angry young man’ let’s you stay angry yourself at the senselessness of angst ridden masculinity whilst also revealing the pathos at its empty core.

This is a slim volume and if you let it, a quick read but the sense that it is reaching for something longer, more tangible is inescapable as you struggle to make sense of the life on the page. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

On today's show Tim Ayliffe is in conversation with the indomitable Felix Shannon

"When Sydney socialite Tottie Evans is found dead at a house in Palm Beach, Detective Holly Sutton is called in to investigate. She immediately suspects the boyfriend,a millionaire property developer and ex-mercenary soldier, who refuses to cooperate with police.

Across the city, old-school reporter John Bailey – still haunted by the death of his girlfriend, former cop Sharon Dexter – gets a call about a break-in. It leads to the unearthing of an old case file on a murder at the men-only Sydney Club that Dexter had been pursuing a decade earlier. Her notes reveal a link between that murder and the killing of Tottie Evans.

Suddenly, John Bailey and Holly Sutton have the same mission. And for Bailey, this is a chance to finish a job for the woman who saved his life.

The only problem: a serial killer is already serving a life sentence for the Sydney Club murder."

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Celebrate Book Week with a fresh new read and maybe even get dressed up as your favourite character

CBCA Book of the Year Winners:

Book of the Year: Older Readers

Karen Comer - Grace Notes

Book of the Year: Younger Readers

Tristan Bancks - Scar Town

Book of the Year: Early Childhood

Briony Stewart - Gymnastica Fantastica!

Picture Book of the Year

Kelly Canby - Timeless

Eve Pownall Award

Isolde Martyn & Robyn Ridgeway (text), Louise Hogan (illustrator) - Country Town

CBCA Award for New Illustrator

Erica Wagner (text by Johanna Bell) - Hope is the Thing

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Belinda Cranston is a Canberra based writer. She’s joining us today with her first novel, The Changing Room.

Rachel has left Australia and is determined to find herself in the world.

When London fails to offer her the adventures she is seeking, Rachel and a friend travel first to Egypt and then into Israel.

Rachel still feels unsure of herself, but surely somewhere in the world she’ll discover the person she’s meant to be?

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Max waits in the London flat he shares with Hannah. He’s had little to do but wait since he died. He’d never given much consideration to being a ghost and even still it’s not living up to the hype.

Max’s non-corporeal existence is giving him a view into all the things Hannah never told him during their relationship though. Her life before, her life in Australia was always closed to him but now there’s a lot that Hannah must grieve.

The hook for Evie Wyld’s new novel works on multiple levels.

For starters Max isn’t a terribly convincing ghost. Early in the novel he confesses that he probably wouldn’t have believed in himself if he weren’t currently the one doing all the haunting. 

Max’s existential  irony is further compounded when it becomes apparent that this will be something of a mutual haunting. Even as Max tries desperately to harness some kind of spectral energy to reach out to Hannah he will discover aspects of their shared life together that he was unaware of.

The power of stories; told and hidden lies at the heart of The Echoes.

Hannah and Max have built their life together after Hannah fled her old life and her family back in Australia. Kept afloat by a photo of a grandmother she barely knew, taken in front of a house on a London street, Hannah will seek to escape into a life she feels she might have had were it not for the unfortunate circumstance of migration.

Hannah feels her life could have been better had her family never moved to The Echoes. Their story plays out on land that was once a so-called school for Aboriginal children. When Hannah was growing up she learned the euphemisms but now she appreciates they were stolen from their families.

Their stories haunt the land untold even as Hannah’s stories haunt the apartment she shared with Max.

The Echoes is masterfully told over alternating chapters of then and now. 

Max’s impotent haunting skates painfully close to our collective experience of lockdown (much of the novel was written while Wyld was in London lockdown with her partner) and as such Max’s experiences wax and wane between the tragic and the hilarious. 

There is something for all of us in Max’s pent up navel gazing and engrossing study of the local spider. He is at times hapless and at others haughty; a foil to the other men who have occupied Hannah’s life.

The men of the novel are better at causing pain than witnessing it. Much like the ground where Hannah grew up there is more buried than the surface might suggest.

Hannah’s story is one of loss and reconciliation. Where Max is confined to the apartment she is stuck in the life she lived in Australia and how her attempts to escape it prevent her from ever reconciling with herself.

Wyld’s prose allows the reader to occupy this space with Hannah and Max, feeling both their loves and losses. An apartment’s not a large space but Wyld fills it with the lives that fill it and this transports the reader out across time and the world.

The Echoes is a novel about trauma and the ways we deal with or avoid it. As she did in The Bass Rock, Wyld reminds us that we are not alone in time but that we must look to the stories that have come before us to understand our place.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Patrick Holland is a novelist and short story writer. He is the author of seven books, most notably The Mary Smokes Boys (2010), which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

Patrick’s new novel is Oblivion.

In a bar that wouldn’t let you in, sit men you can’t afford to drink with. These men make the deals that shape our world. 

One such man is on the make. He’s seeking a fortune that will allow him to escape and is conscious that this is not a game for old men. 

A few more months and he might escape into his own oblivion.

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In the Free Republic of East Australiaeverything is just bonza. The people toe the line because nobody likes a tall poppy and the threat of indefinite detention is too real to tempt fate.

Music  helps to keep the population placated and no one does it better than The Acceptables. Their first album Artificial Beaches on Every Mountain, Artificial Mountains on Every Beach launched them into the public consciousness and now Julian Ferryman’s been summoned home lest he lose his spot on Bass for the band’s sophomore album. 

Julian’s been travelling outside the tightly controlled borders of the FREA and he’s not returning alone though; he’s seen the world and the FREA doesn’t love outsider perspectives. Julian’s also seen the future courtesy of the new designer drug ‘F’, but once you’ve seen your future, where does that leave your present? 

…

Big Time is a wild ride into a fascist dystopian future where everybody is tightly monitored but seems ok with it if it keeps the peace.

The Acceptables made good in this climate with their crowd pleasing debut but now they have to face up to sophomore album syndrome. Julian would love to just keep the public happy but lead singer Ash has other ideas. He’s got dreams of being a rock’n’roll messiah but seems to have forgotten how that story ended.

As the band enters their recording sessions the only thing keeping Julian going is looking into his future on ‘F’. These glimpses of his soon-to-be keep him calm. Nothing can surprise him and so he just lets life happen.

But ‘F’ isn’t just some benign vision of the future. People are tripping forward past their own deaths and all around the world an epidemic of coincidences make it seem like time has run out and is starting to repeat on itself.

It’s almost impossible to not make pithy comparisons to try and sum up Big Time. My best effort is Aldous Huxley writing Almost Famous as directed by David Lynch. I think the comparisons are a way of trying to grasp the originality and throw a blanket over the wild ideas long enough to try and wrap your mind around them.

At its heart this is a story about art and how it might just be our salvation, if we can truly embrace it and not just brush over its surface.

Stylistically the novel weaves throughout this future imperfect at a satisfyingly breakneck pace. Counternarratives weave through The Acceptable story building towards a dark horizon. Just as you start to think you can hum along to the tunes on the Acceptables new album, the bands about to go full Rumours and we find ourselves getting a little road trip freedom fighter and pulls the rug out again.

There’s a lot of buzz around Big Time and I have to agree that there’s something to hype here. Jordan Prosser has created a narrative that feels like it's talking to our era whilst also fizzing with an energy of a different time. The story is punchy and the characters as frustratingly real to the point that you’ll be rooting for them even when they start to annoy you with their poor decisions.

Hard recommend from me for Big Time. This is one I’d like to hear more from.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Alice Robinson is the author of Anchor Point, which was longlisted for the Stella Prize and the Indie Book Awards and The Glad Shout, winner of the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction.

Her new novel is If You Go.

Esther awakens in a strange room.

Strapped to a table, hooked up to machines and with a breathing tube down her throat, Esther has no memory of what this place is and how she got here. 

As the days pass Esther is attended by a single woman. Grace is attentive but Esther is in no mood for mystery and in her disoriented state she struggles to understand her situation.

Where are her children and how did she get here?

As her strength returns Esther searches her memory and latches onto a singular mission; that she must get out and find her kids.

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Patrick’s new novel is Oblivion.

In a bar that wouldn’t let you in, sit men you can’t afford to drink with. These men make the deals that shape our world. 

One such man is on the make. He’s seeking a fortune that will allow him to escape and is conscious that this is not a game for old men. If he can survive a few more months, he might just be able to escape into his own oblivion.

…

Oblivion transports the reader into a world far above the everyday. We follow an unnamed protagonist as he moves throughout the one percent brokering the sort of deals that make the world turn.

The story opens into a whirlwind of airports and bars as we follow our man from one business meeting to the next. Our hero, if he is in fact the hero, lives in these liminal spaces where he can meet with the influential and this disappears to the next occasion.

The settings are lavish and the movers and shakers are aware of their privilege.

As we come to know our man, although never his name, we discover that he is on a personal mission of deliverance. The power wielded by those around is not so attractive as it is a means to disconnect. He is looking to make money fast and then get out. From the sleepless nights and the drugs and booze, he is looking for his own personal oblivion.

This demi-monde of powerful people offers access at all levels and our man has his official face as well as his scams. When he is manipulated into a government mission on the same day he meets the most beautiful woman he can imagine it becomes certain that loyalties will be tested. 

Oblivion is a stylish novel with a heart.

I’ve drawn a picture of a pacy thriller and that is certainly in there, but the novel also concerns itself with why we do what we do. From the outset the reader's eyes are drawn to the sky. To the semi-charmed world of high flyers who feel they cannot be touched. In this world where anything (it seems) is possible there is a tangible unease in our protagonist's mind. We quickly learn he is not planning on growing old and so it is even more enthralling when is drawn into attachments.

The pace of the plotting is juxtaposed with the interior world of a man who isn’t sure if any of it matters. As we meet other’s convictions our protagonist deftly sidesteps offering anything so gauche as an opinion.

But in trying to opt out he is vulnerable to being caught by something that might truly matter to him.

Oblivion is a treat with its sumptuous locations and for the balance it strikes being international espionage and matters of our interior world.

Come for the cocktails but stay for the conversation. Oblivion is a novel of ideas with an edge.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Deborah Callahan has had a distinguished career in publishing working as a publicist, a publisher, and a literary agent.

Audrey Mendes knows she’s got talent, so why can’t anyone else see it?

Audrey’s the rock everyone else seems to be building their success on and that’s just not enough for her anymore. Whether it’s at the law firm where she works, in her love life, even the trivia team she plays with each week, everyone tells her she’s funny and then moves on to the next, more interesting thing.

It’s not nice being invisible but there’s also a lot you can get away with when no one’s looking.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Susannah Begbie grew up in rural New South Wales on a sheep farm and is now a GP who has worked all over Australia. She is the winner of Hachette's Richell Prize for 2022.  The Deed is her first novel.

Tom Edwards has spent most of his life running the farm by himself. He’s not well pleased that his kids never came back to take their place on the land as he wanted.

Tom’s also dying and so he’s come up with a plan.

His kids will return to the farm and build him a coffin, in four days no less. They’ll build him a coffin and they’ll do it right, or he’ll disinherit the lot of them. 

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Her new novel is If You Go.

Esther awakens in a strange room.

Strapped to a table, hooked up to machines and with a breathing tube down her throat, Esther has no memory of what this place is and how she got here. 

As the days pass Esther is attended by a single woman. Grace is attentive but Esther is in no mood for mystery and in her disoriented state she struggles to understand her situation.

Where are her children and how did she get here?

As her strength returns Esther searches her memory and latches onto a singular mission; that she must get out and find her kids.

Alice Robinson’s If You Go is a gripping, heart wrenching novel.

I’m really only setting up the beginning of the book there with my intro, and I’m going to be very careful how I proceed because If You Go packs one hell of a surprise for the reader.

The narrative follows Esther as she slowly orients herself to her strange surroundings and her mysterious carer Grace. Most difficult of all for Esther is that she cannot recall how she came to be in the strange place and struggles to recall the last moments of her life before awakening.

Esther is driven by an overwhelming urge to remember herself and return to her children. While she does not know her fate she is certain it cannot be good and she knows her kids will need her. This leads to her treating Grace with hostility, certain that there is something she is holding back; a secret to the strange building and Esther’s fate.

If You Go is concerned with the relationship between mothers and their children. 

Esther wakes with an overwhelming urge to find and protect her children, even as she finds herself reduced to the state of a child. She is completely at Grace’s mercy, not only for physical support but for a sense of orientation to her world.

Esther's vulnerability compels her to look back on her own jet-setting mother. Vivienne was formidable both in her presence and in her absence. This relationship in turn sets the stage for what Esther believes she might achieve with her own children.

As Esther pours over her past searching for a clue to her current fate she also looks for clues about how these relationships shaped her. Nagging at the back of her mind is the complete absence of family. No one has come to visit her and she wonders at how she became the person who could be abandoned.

I’m going to wind up the thematic discussion here and go back to referring obliquely to the incredible progress of the novel (that I just can't spoil here). Robinson deftly weaves Esther’s past and future into a rich evocation of families in all their messy glory.

Such is our immersion in Esther’s life you’ll forgive yourself if you are completely blindsided when revelation after revelation shows you this is not the world you thought it was.

If You Go is a powerful look at motherhood and family that shows us how a sense of belonging can carry us through so much and it’s absence is utterly devastating.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jenna Lo Bianco is a writer, teacher and Italophile. Her debut novel The Italian Marriage came out in 2023 with Pan Macmillan, part of a three book deal. Today Jenna joins us with her latest; Love & Rome.

When Stella Chiaro left Australia for the Eternal City, Rome it was always going to be all or nothing. Stella escaped a toxic relationship determined to never let anyone diminish her light again.

Now Stella’s on a deadline. Find a job in the arts by April 2nd or its back home to Australia.

She’s firm. Nothing can dissuade her. Especially not a handsome bar owner, and definitely not a brooding photographer…

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Siang’s new novel is Ghost Cities.

Xiang is working as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate when it’s discovered he really doesn’t speak much Chinese. This is considered a less than desirable outcome and Xiang is both fired and culturally shamed for his lack of national pride. 

If that wasn’t insult enough Xiang soon discovers he is going viral in mainland China as the #BadChinese. Something of a cultural parody of the diaspora population. His digital notoriety sees him drawn into the orbit of the megalomaniacal director/entrepreneur Baby Bao. 

Xiang is quickly whisked off to the Ghost City of Port Man Tou, where he is set to star in the city wide production of Baby Bao’s simulation of reality. A movie within a city within a movie that is aiming to create an economy so circular it might just get vertigo. 

Siang Lu’s debut The Whitewash set the stage for his flair for cultural observation and a shrewd type of observational humour that honestly reminded me of the late great Terry Pratchett.

Xiang is a kind of everyman who is constantly off-balance in the funhouse mirror world of Baby Bao, who is himself a chimeric beast of modern globalist enterprise.

Now if this isn’t enough Ghost Cities establishes that the whole enterprise of Port Man Tou is a strange echo of a far distant Emperor and his quest to build a city and a dynasty that will carry his legacy into perpetuity. 

Ghost Cities is a novel that offers many rewards for both the casual or the committed reader. Lu’s writing is effortlessly clever and glides from misadventure to catastrophe, challenging the reader to root for both Xiang and Baby Bao despite their clearly being at odds (and Baby Bao truly seeming like a monster). This reading easily offers up the kind of blockbuster Baby Bao would love to make.

In the paralleled storylines, the clever mix of language and the intricately woven plotting we can also find a intellectually stimulating read; a kind of arthouse cinema for the soul that equally Baby Bao would also like to make (I mean he has taken over a whole city and is simultaneously filming all its inhabitants to film multiple movies at once).

Ghost Cities is a marvel and beyond all that just tremendously fun to read.

Go check out Ghost Cities from Siang Lu.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Bri Lee is the award winning author of Eggshell Skull, Beauty and Who gets to be Smart. 

The Work is her first novel.

The art scene in New York is one of the toughest in the world. After years of struggle Lally is finally making her gallery work; supporting emerging artists and paying the bills.

Patrick feels like he is teetering on the verge of something. It feels like everyone in Sydney’s antiquities scene is suitably antique but maybe, with the right connections he can lower the age range.

Lally and Patrick both know they have to prove themselves. That success might as well be a synonym of sacrifice, but maybe there’s more than just The Work…

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Siang is the author of The Whitewash which won an ABIA for best Audiobook. His new novel is Ghost Cities.

Xiang is working as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate when it’s discovered he really doesn’t speak much Chinese. Going viral online as the #BadChinese he is drawn into the orbit of megalomaniacal director/entrepreneur Baby Bao. 

Whisked off to the Ghost City of Port Man Tou, Xiang is about to star in the city wide production of Baby Bao’s simulation of reality, itself a strange echo of a distant Emperor and his quest to build a city and a dynasty that will carry his legacy into perpetuity. 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Today’s book for book club has been on my radar since that time and so to inspire you all to dive deep into your to be read pile I’ve got Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites.

Back in 2013 Hannah Kent was a debut author and this would have been a short introduction. Now she is an international best selling, and multi award winning author. And it all started with Burial Rites.

In nineteenth century Iceland Agnes Magnusdottir stands accused of murder. 

As she awaits her sentence; execution, she is sent to labor on the farm of the district officer. There she is nothing more than a murderess. The family are horrified that they must keep Agnes in their home and throughout the surrounding district Agnes is a curiosity; part freak show, part warning on the fate of sinners.

Only a young clergyman, sent to deliver Agnes' soul, sees her as someone more than the sum of the charges laid against her.

Burial Rites was an extremely well regarded book on its arrival a decade ago and it is immediately apparent why…

The book balances character development with the sort of knife edge tension you need to keep the pages turning. It is deceptive in this as the bulk of the action occurs on the farm, and within the turf homestead where Agnes has been sentenced to live out her final days. It is through the dripping of Agnes' story; her life and the events leading up to the murders, as well as the developing relationships between Agnes and her gaolers that we are driven to believe that there is more here than first appearances.

The Icelandic setting is intriguing and I confess I knew little going in. What is apparent is that Agnes has suffered for her sex and her lowly status in the community. The mistreatment we are shown is both distant in space and time but also familiar as Agnes is used by men who have power over her.

The developing relationship between Agnes and the priest, Toti, allows us to glimpse into Agnes’ humanity even as she prepares to die. The book asks questions of life and what it can be, challenging the petty cruelties visited on those who cannot defend against them.

Of course all this is subject to Kent’s ability to render these characters, so distant from our experience convincingly. Of this there can be no doubt. Told through shifting perspectives we come to know the various characters through their dealings and impressions of Agnes. The writing reinforces the lives and evokes the harsh conditions, taking us into the freezing winter of Agnes last season.

I’m so glad I finally picked up this book and highly recommend it to lovers of both Australian fiction and historical fiction alike.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Victoria Purman is a bestselling author in Australia and the US. Her historical fiction includes A Woman’s Work, The Nurses’ War, The Women’s Pages, and The Land Girls.

Victoria’s new novel is The Radio Hour.

The year is 1956.

When Martha Berry started out at the national broadcaster nearly thirty years ago she couldn’t imagine where it would take her…

Not so far it turns out, as she shunts between jobs as secretary for men who wouldn’t know one end of their pencils from the other if they didn't occasionally stick it in their… ear.

Now Martha has been tasked with looking after the new wunderkind writer. He’s been commissioned to create a new hit series but all he’s got so far is a title.

With television on the horizon, Martha refuses to believe that the days of the radio serial might be over. But if no one steps up to write As The Sun Sets, well the title might become more than a little prophetic!

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John Richards was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Award in 2021 and the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in August 2022. The Gorgon Flower is his first published work of fiction.

The Gorgon Flower is a wonderful collection of dark and macabre stories. I’ve always thought of short story collections like albums or mixed lolly bags. The best of them have something for everyone but you’re probably still not going to share because you love it all.

The range of ideas in The Gorgon Flower extends from the historic to the speculative. Each story challenges the reader with tilted perspectives and invites you in to discover the world in a new way.

I’m not going to try and cover every tale in the book but I would like to give you a sense through the longest and perhaps darkest tale; the titular The Gorgon Flower.

The Gorgon Flower

In the mid nineteenth century Lord Tobias Henry Edmundson embarks on a quest to rediscover the enigmatic Gorgon Flower. The flower was first brought to European attention by Tobias' father, an eminent botanist.

Since his youth Tobias has been plagued, some might say obsessed with the flower that he remembers as a carnivorous marvel that entranced those who saw it. His father’s original find was destroyed in a fire that also took his father’s life and now Tobias plans to pick up the trail

This is a strange and dark story told in two parts; first through Tobias’ field diaries and then through testimony from the ship’s doctor. 

Tobias’ diary chronicles the long march into the jungle where the flower was last sighted. The expedition are met with horrific discoveries of missionaries left in some sort of decay that seems to pass over the indigenous inhabitants. The crew are alarmed, with many fearing it is only a matter on time before they are stricken by the horrible malady.

The Gorgon Flower combines psychological thriller with body horror to create a kaleidoscopic spiral into Tobias’ obsession. 

Within the story the Gorgon Flower is both a siren and something of a post-colonial wrecking ball leveling the ambitions of those who would exploit the terrain.

The prose is crafted just so to entice the reader to believe whilst sowing seeds of doubt (forgive the botanical reference). This is fun, intellectual horror at its best.

And that’s just one part of the collection!

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Nikki Mottram has a psychology degree from The University of Queensland and has worked in child protection promoting the welfare of children at risk of harm. These experiences inform her writing beginning with her 2023 novel Crow’s Nest.

Nikki’s latest novel is Killarney.

Dana Gibson has more than a little on her mind when she accompanies her colleague Lachlan on a welfare check in the town of Killarney.

With local tensions simmering, possible drug running through the town and an allegation against a member of the clergy things are starting to look bad. Then torrential rain breaks the banks of the river trapping Dana in Killarney.

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The Work is her first novel.

The art scene in New York is one of the toughest in the world. While artists stay locked in their studios creating works of inspiration, the industry of ‘the arts’ whirs away creating the buzz that keeps it all relevant.

After years of struggle Lally is finally making her gallery work. Her risk is paying off and she is finally able to support emerging artists and pay the bills. Never mind the occasional cost if the art is good and the buyers are excited.

Patrick feels like he is teetering on the verge of something. It seems like everyone in the Sydney antiquities scene is suitably antique but maybe, with the right connections he can lower the age range. One big client is all he needs and there’s a new client with their eye on the handsome young associate 

Lally and Patrick both know they have to do The Work to prove themselves. In their world success might as well be a synonym of sacrifice.

They are together alone, until a chance meeting at a New York art conference throws them into each other’s orbits.

If you’re familiar with Bri Lee’s non-fiction you are certain to be a fan of The Work. If you’re not familiar with Bri’s earlier books, well then have I got a reading list for you.

The Work continues with the themes of Eggshell Skull and Who Gets to be Smart, exploring power and privilege; who has it and how they use it to perpetuate power dynamics in our world.

For Lally and Pat, Lee inverts many common stereotypes; Lally is older, she’s got money while Pat is struggling. Lally commands respect while Pat is essentially a handsome nobody. All this serves to highlight the level of scrutiny that Lally puts herself through, wondering at the fragility of her position. Pat meanwhile works hard but essentially believes he will get there.

As first they meet and then explore a transcontinental relationship we are treated to dynamic and vibrant dialogue that ranges from art history to the zeitgeist. There are some truly memorable moments as they spar with each other (and noone, not even the local community fundraiser is safe).

The Work deals with a darker side of the glittering world Lally and Pat inhabit. As power is leveraged against people based on their sex, their background or even just for the hell of it, we are confronted with our world as a place where caprice and indifference rise to the level of assault. Shock and awe are vehicles for public affirmation and it can be hard to find anyone with any principles left.

The Work is a striking, character driven exploration of the world of art, culture and the capital that drives it all. It asks questions of its characters and doesn’t flinch from their dark sides.

I know I was rooting for a happy ending for Lally and Pat, but in the journey I found so much more as their lives clashed with the issues and ideas driving us today.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

John Richards was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Award in 2021 and the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in August 2022. The Gorgon Flower is his first published work of fiction.

His debut short story collection, The Gorgon Flower is a wonderful blend of dark and macabre stories ranging from the historical, speculative fiction and the joyfully uncanny.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Victoria’s new novel is The Radio Hour.

The year is 1956.

When Martha Berry started out at the national broadcaster nearly thirty years ago she couldn’t imagine where it would take her…

Not so far it turns out, as she shunts between jobs as secretary for men who wouldn’t know one end of their pencils from the other if they didn't occasionally stick it in their… ear.

Now Martha has been tasked with looking after the new wunderkind writer. He’s been commissioned to create a new hit series but all he’s got so far is a title and a drinking problem.

Martha loves the radio and she can’t believe that its future could be in the hands of this buffoon. Someone has to step up and save As The Sun Sets, but could that someone possibly be Martha?

The Radio Hour is a gorgeous evocation of the golden years of radio and a period of enormous transition as Australia prepares for television to debut on screens across the country.

The conceit of the social transformation wrought by television is matched by the social rumblings wrought by the mass consumption of popular stories on the radio…

When we meet Marha she is fifty years old and considered somehow left behind by a world that prides women only in the domestic sphere. Sexist attitudes are matched by sexist laws and even Martha’s existence in government service is only supported by the fact she never married (married women were barred from working for the government).

The Radio Hour cleverly illustrates this through Martha’s friendship with ‘The Calendar Girls’. In the world of 1956 Australia April, May and June could equally be Martha’s daughters or her peers and their work relationship fosters tremendous dialogue that explores the mores of this world, whilst pointing a way forward.

Martha’s is by no means the typical hero's journey but it’s a journey she must undertake. Sexism and patriarchy may not look like your typical end level boss, or dragon guarding a mountain of treasure (but then maybe you’re just not looking at it the right way!)

In the world of the novel, radio serials are the communal fire the country gathers around. Martha loves them too much to see them fail and so she must undertake to rescue her hapless boss by writing As the Sun Sets herself.

You can’t be it if you can’t see it and so Martha must simultaneously write herself into the story even as she crafts a narrative that opens up the Australian public to the modern world (or at least modern as it was in the 50’s_

The Radio Hour unapologetically tugs at the heart strings as it follows Martha’s creative journey. The novel doesn’t hide her trajectory towards success, not does it pretend that Martha alone can fix the problems of a top-heavy masculine culture, that still predominates some seventy years later.

Instead the novel revels in the power of stories to facilitate change, their power to show people a different world, or perhaps just the world they live in just without a prejudicial lens. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Paul Morgan was born in London, and now lives in Melbourne. He is the author of The Pelagius Book and Turner’s Paintbox. His new novel is The Winter Palace.

As Germany prepares to march into Poland, Anton Lewicki-Radziwill prepares to join his company in the Polish Army. He leaves behind his wife Elisabeth and their home, affectionately dubbed The Winter Palace.

Anton is sure it will be a short campaign and he will join Elisabeth again in time for the harvest.

Of course we know better and the war to come is more than anyone could imagine…

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Tom Edwards has spent most of his life running the farm by himself. He’s not well pleased that his kids never came back to take their place on the land as he wanted.

Tom’s also dying and so he’s come up with a plan.

His kids will return to the farm and build him a coffin, in four days no less. They build him a coffin and they’ll do it right, or he’ll disinherit the lot of them.  

Jenny is the first back to Ellersly. She never really left the area and is the one to find Tom’s body. Christine is reliably prompt, Dave hurries because as the only son he thinks he’s getting it all and Sophie gets there, as she always does in her own time.

The conditions on Tom’s will at first puzzle then infuriate the siblings. Worse, the local lawyer stands to benefit from their disorganization and works to sow confusion in the ranks.

The Deed is a tremendous family drama that variously shocks, delights and intrigues the reader with the machinations of the town of Coorong.

The novel is told from the varying and contradictory points of view of the four Edwards siblings and their father Tom. Tom’s view is hard bitten and uncompromising. He feels he never got any favours and so he’s not about to start handing them out himself. 

As we flit between each of the children we see what this has meant through their lives. Jenny as eldest feels almost invisible and just wants someone who can see her for herself. Dave’s role as the only son ultimately drove him away from the pressure. Christine feels noone ever appreciated her work keeping everything together, a role she’s continued in her own family. And Sophie as youngest always tried to keep Tom smiling and perhaps never learned that she could be serious.

The interplay of the siblings and the obvious tension arising from the reading of the will lights the fuse that plays out in a kind of battle between allies. As readers we are poised to choose sides but ultimately root for the four to come together and overcome. It’s an interesting tension and hard to escape that for many people managing wealth transfer following the death of a parent is a macabre journey into bitterness and avarice.

The conceit of building the coffin is brilliantly set to allow us to discover something of the landscape around Ellersly. For mine I had no idea about how this might be achieved and still imagine a rough hewn box not unlike the pencil boxes we all made at school writ large. The journey itself is set up to trouble the power dynamics and drive forward the characters.

The Deed is a strange journey that is carried by the strength of its characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing and energy of the narrative opening up parts of greater Australian life outside of my day to day. 

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Donna M Cameron is a novelist and an award-winning playwright and short film writer. Her new novel is The Rewilding.

Jagger Eckerman is the office joke. As son of the billionaire boss everyone knows he’s a nepo baby with no real role in the company. But even nepo babies can tantrum and that’s what happens when Jagger realises he’s being used as the fall guy for the company's dodgy dealings.

Blowing the whistle was easy but Jagger wasn’t prepared for what comes next. Now he’s stuck in a cave hiding out from a hitman and firmly in the sights of a climate activist who already called that cave home!

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Ernest Price is a transgender man working as a secondary English teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. His writing has been published by Queerstories and Overland.

The Pyramid of Needs is his first novel.

Linda is about to hit the big time. The fact that there aren’t a lot of seventy year olds going viral just means it will be even more sensational when she does, and viral clicks can't help but lead to more sales of her Supreme Self Supplements.

Jack is living his best life as a teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. Or at least he’s trying to when his older sister Alice gives him a call. Their mother has taken a fall while live streaming at their home in Noosa.

Jack hasn’t spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man more than ten years ago. Alice can talk to him about regret, but why does he have to put himself at risk for the family who rejected him?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Yumna Kassab is the author of  novels including Australiana and The Lovers. Her writing has been listed for prizes including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Queensland Literary Awards, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and The Stella Prize. 

Yumna Kassab is also Parramatta’s first laureate in literature

In Politica the reader is transported to conflict engulfing a country. Through glimpses of ordinary life and revolutionary struggle we are shown the cost of war on a people and the tenacity, the fierceness of will required to carry on.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Miranda Darling is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. She has published both fiction and nonfiction; Thunderhead is her fifth book.

Across a single day we are thrown into the life of Winona Dalloway. From the moment she wakes, stealing a few precious moments before her time is not her own, to the dinner party that looms over her calendar, the reader follows Winona as she tries simply to be herself…

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Miranda is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. Her latest novel is Thunderhead.

Across a single day we are thrown into the life of Winona Dalloway. From the moment she wakes, stealing a few precious moments before her time is not her own, to the dinner party that looms over her calendar, the reader follows Winona as she tries simply to be herself…

Stepping out into the streets of Sydney, Winona has her lists and her responsibilities, all punctuated by the incessant buzzing of texts and reminders from her husband lest she stray from the day’s purpose. 

Winona wonders, perhaps suspects that she is looking at the world differently to everyone else. That might explain how they seem to navigate it so effortlessly while she only manages to muddle through.

The Thunderhead of the title looms large over the narrative, threatening to burst, drenching the fragile balance of Winona’s life.

Winona Dalloway is a wonderfully original character for the sharpness of her insights and the myriad of voices she offers on the minutiae of her day to day.

Throughout the novel the reader is confronted, as is Winona, by the specter of mental health. Within the novel it is both the reality of Winona’s experience of the world and a cudgel used to beat her into some semblance of the everyday. As we travel alongside Winona it becomes apparent that the way she looks at the world is not the problem so much as the voices that tell her she needs to be other or more than they perceive her to be.

Within the world of Thunderhead Winona is in fact a guiding light and even as we shift back and forth between her contradictory views of the world, we are certain that her fresh take on the everyday must be more wonderful than simply blindly living it.

There is a lyricism to Darling’s rendering of the inner world of Winona. Images float in and out of view as she encounters her world both as its surface and its potential.

We are introduced to the Transcendence Project; Winona’s search, perhaps striving to make an authentic connection with another person. Something that could lift them both out of the humdrum and confirm that there is a point to this existence.

As the day passes and Winona moves toward the inevitable, we learn that she is not simply one person struggling with the pressures of her world. Winona is subject to something more sinister, something threatening to strip her of her very essence.

But… I’ve said too much.

Thunderhead is a tremendous evocation of life lived on the edge of a threatened if perhaps not enacted violence. A study in control and escape that offers the reader a glimpse into a world of expectation imposed and shattered.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sharlene Allsop is the debut author of The Great Undoing which through its journey to publication was shortlisted for a 2019 Overland writing residency, and Highly Commended for the 2020 Boundless Indigenous Writers’ Mentorship.

Scarlet Friday is a truth teller in a hyper connected world. Even as everyone hurtles towards the future Scarlet delves into the past to understand our place, her place.

While Scarlet weaves the threads of her past, discovering her Great-Grandfather’s military service and the hostile reception he received as an Aboriginal man returning to a country that wouldn’t recognise his humanity, the rest of the world is teetering on the brink.

As systems shut down around the world, Scarlet finds herself on the run. Far from home she is a refugee seeking safe passage back to Australia.

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This means that we've been working hard to develop episodes that will be shared across Australia on the hundreds of community radio stations that contribute to the diverse media landscape of this country.

In this special news update Andrew talks about the process and let's you know when the podcast will get back to its regular scheduling!

Linda is ready to hit the big time. The fact that there aren’t a lot of seventy year olds going viral just means it will be even more sensational when she does. She’s a young seventy anyway, barely even sixty really and tik tok takes off ten years. The fame is important and viral clicks can't help but lead to more sales of her Supreme Self Supplements.

Yes, Linda is just one livestream away from fame and fortune and nothing can stand in her way.

Jack is living his best life as a teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. Or at least he’s trying to when his older sister Alice gives him a call. Alice and Jack’s mother has taken a fall, apparently she was live streaming at their home in Noosa and tripped over a garden rake?!

Alice insists they fly up to Queensland and look after their parents but Jack hasn’t spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man more than ten years ago. Alice can talk to him about regret, but why does he have to put himself at risk for the family who rejected him?

The Pyramid of Needs is a dark and insightful comedy about family dynamics that takes an unflinching look at what it means to be trans in a world where your very humanity can be leveraged for clicks and hate online.

The novel throws us immediately into Linda’s delusion that she will make it; fame, fortune the whole shebang is only she can leverage her downline to maximise subscribers before m month end. See Linda is into pyramid schemes (at least that’s what the haters call them).

In Linda we are presented with the triumph of individualism about to breathe its last gasp. Linda has been manifesting success for so long she has not only ignored her son for ten years, she might even be leveraging Jack’s transition for clout.

We are not meant to love Linda, probably not even meant to like her. But we are meant to understand what Jack has gone through to be who he is.

The novel counterpoints Linda’s narrative with Jack’s more balanced, albeit anxious storytelling. Jack knows the trip is a bad idea but like so many a Shakespearean tragic hero before him he must go along for the ride.

The action of The Pyramid of Needs is in the brilliant interplay between the Kelly family as they try, or perhaps fumble towards family unity. Even as Alice tries to negotiate some sort of detente, Linda maneuvers the siblings to become props in her next big livestream event.

The parallels between Linda’s Pyramid scheme fetish and her life as a Noosa influencer in all its smoke and mirrors glory are clear. What the novel also cleverly shows us is how Linda tries to marshall that same level of self delusion to reshape Jack’s reality and his life since his transition.

The novel shows us the personal pain and struggle as Jack faces his mother misgendering and dead naming him. We get to see inside Jack’s world, where he works to be a good person, the sort of teacher he never had, but also must deal with the loneliness and difficulty of the damage from his youth.

I loved The Pyramid of Needs in its darkness and its light. It has an ending I won’t quickly forget and in Jack we have a character who grabs your heart almost as quickly as Linda tries to poison it with vitriol.

Twelve Years ago a fire in a remote town rocked the country, killing nine people. The Caravan Murders, as they came to be known, were never solved. The suspect, seventeen year old Sabine Kelly went on the run and has remained hidden.

To the authorities it was an open and shut case. Sabine and her family were bad news and it was only a matter of time before something happened; that a group of innocents and a police officer were killed made it a tragedy.

Journalist Rachel Weidermann investigated the case years ago to no avail. Sabine was a ghost and no one was talking. In a world saturated with true crime she couldn’t make the story work.

Now divorced and made redundant from her job, Rachel lives on the river, a long expanse of bush and perhaps just the perfect place to hide.

The first thing to say about To the River is that its setting is immaculate. Wakefield based the long expanse on sections of the Murray in South Australia. The novel’s eponymous river is a site of both beauty and danger and onto its shores we find Rachel and Sabine.

The novel’s narration alternates between the two women as the navigate lives that seem to be held in limbo. Rachel is struggling to redefine herself having lost her job and her marriage. Sabine has lived for twelve years as a fugitive and is now threatened with losing her last living relative, her pop Ray.

Whilst seemingly as different as they could possibly be, Rachel and Sabine are thrown together by circumstance. Sabine has lived too long on the run and needs someone to tell her story. Rachel wants this story but is unsure whether she is willing to follow it into the past and a truth she might never be able to verify.

To the River is pacy and thrilling with overlapping points of view promising quick cuts between the action. The story pits a race to find the truth against our modern sense of fake news. Rachel’s journey into Sabine’s life threatens to offer up more questions than answers and hovering over it all is the question; can she trust this woman who may have murdered her family.

At the heart of it all is a big question; who gets to be heard, who gets to be believed?

To the River is a tremendous page turner of a novel. The kind you’ll read in a weekend and then wish you’d taken it a little slower just so you had more to enjoy.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Elizabeth Coleman is a screenwriter and playwright. Her play Secret Bridesmaids Business has been adapted into a tv series and she’s also written for Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Today Elizabeth is joining us with her new novel, the second in her Ted Bristol Mystery series; A Dance With Murder.

Ted Bristol is trying to balance the personal and the private. Her latest case, protecting a ballerina from a stalker, is complicated by her burgeoning relationship with the ballerina’s ex. Meanwhile there are complicated couplings everywhere and while Ted definitely wants to grow her PI business she’s hoping to avoid the body count!

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Yumna Kassab is also Parramatta’s first laureate in literature

In Politica the reader is transported to conflict engulfing a country. Through glimpses of ordinary life and revolutionary struggle we are shown the cost of war on a people and the tenacity, the fierceness of will required to carry on.

I’d like to begin this review with the tremendous narrative style that guides this storytelling. Kassab weaves voices together to reveal a story that is both grounded in these people’s everyday lives and allowed to float through the passions, concerns and petty jealousies that guide us all, whether we acknowledge them or not.

This style was also in evidence in Kassab’s early novel Australiana. In that work the reader found the voices of an Australian town laid bare and the perspectives of the townsfolk, often at odds, found a cohesion in their shared geographic and historical journey.

Politica weaves together these voices to chronicle the history of the conflict from its early days, through the height of the violence and into a strange liminal zone where people question whether they ever knew another way of life.

The power of these competing and complementary voices is to keep the reader constantly shifting between space, time and perspective and so while we may not ever have the first hand knowledge of Politica’s contested ground, we are forced to look at it from every angle. In a way we both feel alienated from the action but also cannot fail but to resonate with some of those we hear from.

The narrative is divided across five sections. In each we discover aspects of life through the conflict; a father and son’s relationship, a dynasty of resistance fighters, or a woman’s struggle to eke out a space for herself.   

Politica is not a linear narrative and in this we find another impact and power of Kassab’s style. As we work through the novel we may be rocketed backwards or forwards through events or memories. The conflict is both fresh and seemingly endless and in this we discover something of the horror that is carried by all who are touched by the violence. Life in the conflict may seem to age prematurely whilst also leaving individuals in stasis. After years the people may wonder if they have really lived at all outside of the conflict. 

Be careful though. I want to avoid trying to draw too easy a conclusion from Politica; about its purpose, or inspiration, or the message it may have for our world right now. What seems apparent to me is that the novel offers a chance to explore something of the violence that I have never had in my life, but that I know exists in the world. This violence is a real part of people’s lives and their shared histories. It’s not that a novel like Politica can necessarily bridge that gap in my understanding (if anything can), rather it is another nod to the power of narrative to reach out across one groups ignorance and misunderstanding and offer stories that might help us be better.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

David Brooks is an award winning essayist, short-fiction writer, novelist and poet.

His new collection, The other side of daylight explores our connection to the world, the environment and the non-human animals we share it with.

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The Great Undoing offers up a speculative future where our endless drive for connectivity and security threatens to turn society on its head.

Scarlet Friday is a truth teller in a hyper connected world. Her job is to explore archives and provide context for the official narrative of history. Knowing is something of a state of being in Scarlett’s world. With everyone connected by BloodTalk it can seem like the world is unifying. Yet even as everyone seems to be hurtling towards the future Scarlet delves into the past to understand our place, her place.

Scarlet work becomes something of an obsession when she discovers her Great-Grandfather’s military service and the hostile reception he received as an Aboriginal man returning to a country that wouldn’t recognise his humanity. Scarlett feels driven to unlock his past to make sense of her own present. 

But the past is never truly buried and outside Scarlett’s archives the rest of the world is teetering on the brink. As systems shut down around the world, Scarlet finds herself on the run. Unwelcome in England, she is now a refugee seeking safe passage back to Australia.

The Great Undoing is a strange and compelling novel about what it means to live in a world that runs on information. As protagonist, Scarlett Friday is both victim and foil to this ever present need to know.

Sharlene Allsop’s speculative future sees us all connected through the (hopefully) fictional technology of BloodTalk. Conceived as kind of biohack that links us all into a hyper online world wide web, BloodTalk both facilitates and hinders life depending on who you are.

Allsop is playing with ideas of an ever evolving world order that demands accountability. BloodTalk connects but it also compels, meaning people can fall out of its good graces and then they are adrift. In this world the right people are always at home but also seemingly never connected to land or place so much as their digital existence.

Connection is also inextricably linked to the past and Scarlett's role as a truth teller shows the reader something of this future’s need to reconcile itself to its past. The conceit of truth telling is creatively imagined through the literal writing of Scarlett’s story; the book is written over the pages of a faded tome, Ernest Scott’s A Short History of Australia. Scott’s work is a triumph of colonial, ‘victor’ history and the very thing a truth teller would seek to contextualize not overwrite. Through this device we see the interplay of present and past and must work to read these coherently, even as they intrude on each other.

The real battle for connection builds in pace as Scarlett is forced on the run. When she was safe in her world Scarlett seemed to project the luxury of time, that sense that we will always have tomorrow to figure things out. Thrown out of her old life she must try to find the things that connect her, even as she makes a desperate bid to get back to the land that has raised her up.

The Great Undoing is a fascinating and insightful novel about identity and where we draw our sense of self. The narrative works hard to hold together its threads as we shift back and forth through Scarlett’s story. Like most speculative fiction it is most satisfying, and most terrifying when it skirts closer to our contemporary world than we might otherwise feel comfortable with.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Today SWF Artistic Director Ann Mossop joins Andrew to discuss the Sydney Writers Festival 2024 Program Launch. Discover the festival theme, Ann's picks of the festival and a hot take on when AI authors will be gracing our festival stages!

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Today I have for you David Brooks new collection. David is an award winning essayist. He's a short fiction writer. He's a novelist. He is a poet and an academic.

I wanted to share his poem. It is called An Invasion of Clouds from David’s collection The other side of daylight.

The collection has a real preoccupation and consideration of animals, our relationship to our non human friends and an invasion of clouds is just a such a great exemplification of that.

So for today on the on the book club, can I please share David Brooks reading and invasion of clouds…

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Dr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, teacher and researcher. She is the editor of the Aurealis Award–winning This All Come Back Now, and the winner of the 2022 David Unaipon Award for Always Will Be.

Always Will Be carries the subtitle; Stories of Goori Sovereignty from the Futures of the Tweed. The collection explores possible futures where First Nations sovereignty is both reclaimed, respected and offers a future for a fragile planet.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Great conversations looks back at some of the fantastic authors and writers we feature every week on Final Draft. It’s not always possible to use the full conversation live to air and this is your chance to discover more secrets and hidden gems about the books you love…

We love to hear about what you’re reading, what you love about books and what you've discovered from the show!

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Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician and writer. Her poetry, short stories and non-fiction have been published in Australia, the United Kingdom and USA. 

On a suburban street in the south of Sydney Grub waits in her car. In the house opposite lives the man who was her brother’s best friend. Grub is there to confront him. To finally wring from him the confession that her family’s life would have been better if he’d never entered it.

Grub is still mourning for all her family has lost. Each of their lives seemed untouchable and now she struggles to recognise the happy family of her teenage years.

Unfolding across the years of their adolescence, Tidelines is the story of Grub and her family. Of her bond with her brother, and the different directions their lives took.

  ----

I read Tidelines over the summer and there is a lot about this book that screams ‘beach read’. From the atmospheric cover featuring a figure suspended, afloat in water, to the opening chapters; alive with the saltwater promise of Grub and her brother enjoying the dwindling days of a teenage summer in the early 2000’s.

Tidelines is that glorious afternoon at the beach, but it is also the early evening when you realize you didn’t wear enough sunscreen. 

I don’t love that analogy but I’m hoping it conveys the sense that this book wants to complicate simple enjoyment and show us a world full of complicated motivations and far reaching consequences.

The book begins in a Sydney summer ringed by heat and fire. The ever present danger is backdrop to the siblings exploring their world and pushing into that space between adolescence and adulthood.

Grub is in awe of her brother Elijah and this sheen of talent and cool carries them both into new experiences. Compared to Elijah’s seeming effortless ability to turn his hand to anything, Grub feels adrift.

As they grow Grub will harness her talents and turn to medicine and Elijah to art but always they will have each others back.

It’s here that the story turns and Grub must reconcile her youth and her ideal vision of her family as their world threatens to crash down around them.

The power in this novel lies in the struggle between the ideal that we all want to occupy and the reality that too often overcomes us. Grub is confronted with a world that perhaps was hidden, perhaps she had chosen to ignore. In discovering her brother’s struggles with his mental health, she must reevaluate the life she had thought they had enjoyed.

Tidelines is a nuanced exploration of grief and loss shown over a young life. It’s never enough to look for simple answers when things fall apart and Grub must come to terms with her whole life if she is going to make peace with how her present seems so chaotic.

I appreciated that this book looked unflinchingly into the dark corners of Grubs world and showed us how this could be so many of our lives. It’s a book to read critically and one to allow to sink in, even as you appreciate the storytelling of this tremendous new author.

Sarah Sasson joined me on Final Draft and you can look out for that interview on the podcast.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jane Harrison is a playwright & author descended from the Muruwari people. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed play Stolen and we most recently spoke last year about her acclaimed novel The Visitors.

Jane is also the festival director for the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival

Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival started in 2016. This year the event is happening over four days in Naarm (and digitally countrywide) Blak & Bright celebrates the diverse expressions of First Nations writers and covers all genres from oral stories to epic novels and plays to poetry.

Check out the full Blak & Bright lineup

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Today I’ve brought in Grace Chan’s techno-futurist novel Every Version of You.

In the not too distant future Australia, like much of the world around it, is a harsh and hostile place to live. Those with the means can protect themselves in hermetically sealed apartments and even afford the occasional luxury of fresh food that grew in the earth rather than a lab.

Tao-Yi and Navin have grown up in a world in decline and have watched as their existence moved into increasingly digital spaces. The world of Gaia began as a digital frontier but now it is the place where Tao-Yi works and socialises.

Gaia’s immersive nature parallels the declines in Navin’s health until it seems there is little choice but for Navin to upload himself permanently into the system.

What harm could it do?

Navin is convinced there are only benefits as he stares down his own mortality. So much of their lives already pass in Gaia, this would just be making it official. Tao-Yi is less sure. Her mother stubbornly refuses to log in and Tao-Yi doesn’t know what it will mean for all of their humanity if she lets go of this terrestrial life.

---------

I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy from way back, and while I rarely worry about the emergence of dragons into my workaday life, there is always something of a concern about bracket creep when it comes to near future speculative fiction.

Where twenty years ago Every Version of You might have sat alongside The Matrix as firmly in the realm of science fiction. Now we can read updates on our own digital proxies about Neuralink implant chips into people’s brains. I’m confident that I’ll get this to you before the tech outpaces the story but not so much about the longevity of this review as anything other than an artifact.

And so it becomes essential to engage with stories like Every Version of You, and so much the better that Grace Chan’s novel is such a compelling read!

The story is refreshingly ordinary even as it stretches us into the digital fantastic. The world of Tao-Yi and Navin is circumscribed much in the ways all our lives were during the pandemic and hence their escape into Gaia all the more relatable.

The world of Gaia is both incredible and prosaic. Never fear that tachyon processing will free us of our most banal predispositions. Every Version of You assures us that we will still have insecurity and jealousy, but so also will we have ambition and love.

Traveling alongside Tao-Yi we must face the possibility that the digital world is our world but that it cannot perfectly coexist with our flesh and blood selves.

This entanglement is not clear cut and I cannot assure the book offers answers. It is the journey that is the adventure as we struggle alongside Tao-Yi and Navin to understand how they might continue to exist and to be themselves when so much of what that means is disappearing.

This is also a love story and that was what completely suckered me into the futurism. I’m not so sure what it might mean to live forever, digitally or otherwise, but it has long been a concern of fiction to wonder how that long life and all its changes might impact our hearts.

Could you love someone digitally and how do we let go of the humanness that comes with life as we know it. These are the real questions of speculative and science fiction; not how do we transcend our mortality, but how do we hold on when it seems to be escaping us?

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Povo is the latest anthology from Sweatshop.

Sweatshop is a literacy movement based in Western Sydney which is devoted to empowering culturally and linguistically diverse communities through reading, writing and critical thinking. Today's panel features:

Adam Novaldy Anderson

Adam is a mixed-race Australian-Indonesian writer and activist. Adam’s short stories and essays have appeared in various anthologies and publications. He is the editor of Povo (Sweatshop, 2024).

Natalia Figueroa Barroso

Natalia is a Uruguayan-Australian writer from Penrith. Natalia’s poem, “Anew”, was shortlisted for the 2015 Lane Cove Literary Award and her screenplay, “Roots”, was selected for a 2018 Breakthrough Emerging Screenwriter Development. Natalia was also longlisted for the 2021 SBS Emerging Writers Competition, which resulted in the collection Between Two Worlds (Hardie Grant Books, 2022). Natalia is currently working on her debut novel.

Katie Shammas

Katie is a Palestinian Australian writer. She has been published in Red Room Poetry and kindling & sage magazine.

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Robert is also the founding editor of The Canary Press, Australia’s greatest and possibly only short story magazine. This accolade should serve as a recommendation for his prose and again also as something of a spoiler for the events of I’d Rather Not.

Now about here I’m forced to acknowledge that the lion's share of the enjoyment in I’d Rather Not come less from the series of mishaps and adventures in Skinner’s life and more from the deft and entertaining way he describes them.

Arriving in the city, running a literary magazine from a corridor, sleeping in a swag in a ditch; these are not inherently entertaining things (actually they do sound rather entertaining as long as they’re not happening to me) but flowing from the pen of Robert Skinner they are transformed into astute and often inscrutable insights into the human condition.

Beginning in the unemployment line and ending in the back of a police car, I’d Rather Not embodies the truism about the inherent value of the journey. Whether failing up or falling down we as readers are buckled in for the ride and I’d Rather Not seems determined to give us value for our ticket.

It’s about here in this bookclub/review that I’m beginning to realize the impossibility of the task before me. By trying to convince you in my own words of the value and enjoyment in reading Robert Skinner’s words I might as well be trying to describe the invisible man. Sure I can’t give you the general outline and realistically you need to just run headlong into it to get any sort of impression.

What I can describe is the pure pleasure I got from immersing myself in fun and thought provoking prose. Riding along as Robert discovers himself in the Melbourne literary scene or walking through the outback beside a camel it’s impossible not to think on life and how we live it.

I’m still trying to paint you that impossible picture, when in fact I should just be exposing you to a little piece of I’d Rather Not. So to finish of this book club I decided to open the text to a random page, confident that I’d find a delightful and bizarre observation that would set you on the path to reading I’d Rather Not.

Here’s Robert on his time editing the Canary Press:     

“Somehow, without meaning to, and without really knowing that such a thing existed, we became part of the Melbourne Literary Scene. It was like running joyously along a beach and accidentally joining up with a triathlon. Suddenly you find yourself jostling for space, measuring your progress not against the beach but against the people around you.”

Go check out I’d Rather Not and discover the pleasure of reading for the sake of wonderful words!

Discover Robert at - https://www.mrrobertskinner.com/home 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician and writer. Her poetry, short stories and non-fiction have been published in Australia, the United Kingdom and USA. Today we will be talking with Sarah about her debut novel Tidelines which has already met with acclaim, being shortlisted for the Varuna House Publisher Introduction Program and longlisted for the Queensland Writers’ Centre Publishable Program.

On a suburban street in the south of Sydney Grub waits in her car. In the house opposite lives the man who was her brother’s best friend. Grub is there to confront him. To finally wring from him the confession that her family’s life would have been better if he’d never entered it.

Unfolding across the years of their adolescence, Tidelines is the story of Grub and her family. Of her bond with her brother … and the different directions their lives took.

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Her fantasy writing has won a British Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for amongst others the World Fantasy awards and the Aurealis.

Today I’m bringing you her latest novel Serengotti.

(I’m just going to note that Eugen’s protagonist Ch’anzu uses the gender neutral pronouns ze/hir)

   -----

A single day sees Ch’anzu’s life come crashing down around hir. First losing hir job, then Chanzu’s wife betrays hir and disappears.

The world doesn’t seem to want to relent and so Ch’anzu decides to pack up and leave, taking a job in the community of Serengotti.

Serengotti is a township for African migrants and refugees. It is meant to be a space for settling and healing for so many who have been displaced.

Ch’anzu arrives hoping for a new start only to find that when everyone is looking for renewal the past often follows them close behind.

Sernegotti is a breakneck novel that seems fueled by Ch’anzu’s sense of loss and displacement. The ruptures in hir life are underscored by Ch’anzu’s sense that hir identity is a live topic and perhaps an unspoken discussion amongst the people around hir.

In taking the leap and transposing hir chic Melbourne life for a rural African/Australian village we can feel Ch’anzu almost bargaining for a place to belong. In reality Ch’anzu is trading one feeling of being an outsider for another.

Within the borders of Serengotti the residents struggle to make sense of histories barely contained by their present calm. The weight of the violence and displacement that has brought them to Serengotti lives beneath the surface of the town waiting to erupt.

I was transfixed by Serengotti from the start. Within these pages we have lyrical, gorgeous prose telling a tale that is simultaneously strange and highly relatable. Ch’anzu’s search for belonging may take hir further than most but it is a journey we all feel. This is also a novel of mystery that weaves disparate voices together to bubble up the histories of the characters.

Serengotti is a surprisingly brisk read, or at least I found I flew through it. The novel is constantly hinting at more and layering characters and identities in a way that give it substance beyond its less than three hundred pages.

Finally Serengotti gave me that frisson of excitement and unease that you get when you see something familiar in a new way. From its unique look at rural noir, through the strange dynamics of half-met characters this book had me wondering if I really understood what I thought I was reading.

    -----

Serengotti is a tremendous contemporary Australian novel that defies what many may think of as contemporary Australian writing. Read it for the pure entertainment of it and then stay for the thought provoking ideas.

At the time of writing Serngotti has been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award’s Fiction Prize

These are the stories that make us who we are.

A.W. Hammond is the author of The Paris Collaborator and today we are seeing a return of his hero Auguste Duchene in The Berlin Traitor.

As Allied forces declare victory in Europe a sense of peace slowly reemerges on the streets of Paris. Parisians seek to welcome the calm but only for those considered blameless.

Auguste Duchene is in hiding. The men who would brand him a conspirator would not stop to hear his side of the story and so Duchene must eke out a living any way he can. 

But would he go so far as to re-enlist?   

That’s the proposal of the powers that be who seek Duchene’s help in hunting a war criminal through the bombed out streets of Berlin…

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we look back to Randolf Stow's classic Tourmaline

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we look back to Kate Jennings' classic Moral Hazard

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we are taking a look at Amy Whitting's classic I for Isobel

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All summer long discover incredible writers in the Australian Classics Book Club. This week we feature Robin Klein's Came Back to Show You I could Fly

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All summer long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today on the show we look at Boyd Oxlade's darkly comic Death in Brunswick.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All summer long we are diving back into the archives and exploring great work's of Australian Writing. Today it's Criena Rohan's The Delinquents in the Australian Classics Book Club.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

All across the summer we are looking back into the archives and discovering great works of Australian writing. Today it's Madeleine St John's The Women in Black in the Australian Classics Book Club.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tune in to discover the Final Draft - Australian Classics Book Club delivering you incredible classics all summer long!

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jack Heath is the bestselling author of forty novels beginning with Hangman which he wrote when he was seventeen. Today Jack joins me with his new novel Kill Your Husbands.

It’s hard to find a chance to disconnect and relax in our modern world. When six friends get a weekend away in the woods it seems like the perfect opportunity to let their hair down. 

Couple swapping may not be the most conventional way to unwind but when everyone agrees the scene is set for a wild night. That is until one of the six turns up dead and the race is on to discover the killer before they strike again.

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Michael Thompson's How to Be Remembered

For the romantics.

How to be Remembered has a fantastic concept that begs you to root for the protagonist and then whisks you along on a terrific ride of a narrative.

Monica Vuu's When One of Us Hurts

Thriller with a twist

When One of Us Hurts entwines narratives of a dysfunctional family inn a small town and slowly unravels to a big reveal!

Emily Spurr's Beatrix & Fred

No category here and I can’t say too much because spoilers, but just trust me it's incredible!

Emily Spurr is terrific and always surprises. I could say this is a heartfelt character driven novel (and it is) but it is sooo much more.

Kirsty Jagger's Roseghetto & Shirley Le's Funny Ethnics

For the Sydney/Gadigal-philes.

This is a made up category to capture two terrific books that both do not disappoint story-wise but also will have locals pointing at the page like some sort of Leo DiCaprio meme as they recognise their local.

Helena Fox's The Quiet and the Loud & sydney khoo’s The Spider and Her Demons

Young Adult pick

Two very different novels about being young, growing up and finding your place in the world. Both these novels explore how being in the world is tough and that it’s important to find your tribe (even if they have eight legs)

Tony Birch's Women & Children

Literary Pick of the Year.

If I had to say just one, this is that one. Tony gives us a story that breaks down so many concepts at the heart of our society and opens up a world where we can be better.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

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Lucy Treloar is the award winning author of Salt Creek and Wolfe Island. Today we’re discussing her new novel Days of Innocence and Wonder

Till is on the run from life, taking to the open road in a quest to keep moving, getting as far as possible from where she’s been. It is the project of a lifetime, ever since Till’s best friend was snatched off the street when they were young. 

Driving far from Melbourne, inland and away from the familiar. Till doesn’t know what she’s looking for… Yet.

When Till arrives in Wirowie she’s immediately drawn to its quiet streets. Things start in a temporary way. Till squats in the abandoned and derelict train station. Then she makes it her home. Slowly she starts repairing; first the station's crumbling stonework and then her own ability to trust in others. 

It takes time to adjust, and time for Wirowie to open up to Till. Small towns can be suspicious of people from the city who think they know better.

But just as good and kindness can be found most anywhere, so can darkness and Till must again face her fear and discover whether she is truly as alone as she thinks.

Till’s story is a journey of discovery and Till must find herself in a world she doesn't even feel comfortable saying her own name. 

The reader is anchored immediately to the trauma that continues to define Till. From these sparse memories we understand that danger is banal and often so nondescript you won’t even recall its face. Nonetheless danger is everywhere and it can creep up on you when you least expect it.

This is Till’s reality and that of the women of Wirowie, plagued by their own mysterious attacker, snatching women off the streets and violently humiliating them.

Within the narrative Lucy Treloar weaves stories of escape, restoration and recourse. Till is offered opportunities and she must carve out her own chances to move forward. We see that through the relationships she builds that there is hope she can learn to reconnect but that the women she is connecting with have their own damaged lives they are trying to live.

Days of Innocence and Wonder feels like a thriller but reads with the subtlety and deft hand of a carefully drawn ensemble piece. As Till befriends the women of Wirowie she finds her own pain is part of a tapestry that belongs to them all.

The novel entwines Till’s life with the towns and suddenly all their histories are of a kind and they must come together to find a way through. In these depictions of loss and pain we see the impacts of trauma in all their embodied terror and witness a chaotic world where loss is perpetuated when there is no resolution.

The book explores the ways that violence exists as both an act and as a culture that builds up perpetrators and excuses their actions. Power is called into question and Days of Innocence and Wonder is so named for the illusion that such a time ever existed.

I was fascinated reading Days of Innocence and Wonder for its ability to intrigue and excite; forcing me to turn pages even as I paused to think about the implications of what I was reading.

If you’re looking for a summer read that asks some big questions, Days of Innocence and Wonder is definitely one to pack wherever you’re heading this holiday period.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Nicholas Jose has published eight novels, three collections of short fiction and a memoir, as well as a wide range of essays—concerning Australian and Asian life and arts and exploring stories that link Australia and China.

An Australian defense analyst, Jake Treweek, is found dead in his Washington home. Officially it has been ruled a suicide but Jake’s widow Anne isn’t convinced. 

Jake has been working gathering intelligence in East Timor. The country is boiling under Indonesian occupation and calls for an independence referendum. Jake is always tight lipped but Anne knows he’d discovered something. Was it something that cost him his life? 

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Loved this review?

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Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Mirandi Riwoe is an acclaimed author of historical fiction. Her novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the 2020 Queensland Literary Award. Mirandi’s new novel Sunbirds.

In the shadow of war a wealthy Dutch family celebrate on their tea plantation. The war has not yet touched their wealth and status but on this fateful night the players will be assembled who represent the future of their colonial endeavor.

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In the 1850’s Meanjin/Brisbane is a mix of people from across the world, some transported for hard time, others drawn to the region for economic gain. Since the invaders arrived the local Yagara people have viewed them with suspicion and curiosity, unsure whether they might ever be able to regain their ancestral lands.

Mulanyin has come to the area now known as Edenglassie and there he has discovered the beautiful Nita. Torn between his love and his home Mulanyin must navigate his path into manhood and the fraught times he finds himself in.

In 2024 Meanjin/Brisbane is on the verge of two hundred years if settler colonial occupation. That might mean more to Granny Eddie if she wasn’t stuck in the hospital waiting for whatever it is these doctors do. Eddie is more than a hundred years old and she’s got a few stories to tell about the city. But that doesn’t mean she’ll give up her secrets easily and certainly not to the first white guy who asks. 

Edengalssie weaves two tales separated by time but bound by place. Melissa Lucashenko takes us back to the beginnings of the occupied lands around Maiwar, which we now know as the Brisbane River. She reminds us that the land was not unoccupied and in fact these are the traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrball people. 

Against the backdrop of struggle for dominance we meet Mulanyin and Nita. what follows is ostensibly a love story set to the rhythm of a land that is poised for violence. 

Mulanyin is certain of his love for Nita but he is also eager to prove himself and unsure of the ways of the white people who are ignorant of the law and the land. Mulanyin and Nita will pursue their love but they must do so in a world that may not want them to succeed.

All these stories are so much history to the residents of Granny Eddie’s world but she knows the truth. That doesn’t mean she’s going to tell it straight. As Granny Eddie’s tales of early Brisbane bring her fame and notoriety she watches her niece Winona and her Doctor Johnny play out their own courting rituals. Johnny’s only recently discovered his own blak heritage and that won’t fly for Winona. She’s sick of people claiming heritage they haven’t earned and isn’t going to make it easy on him.

Edenglassie is a thought provoking, disarming and at times hilarious novel. Through the contrasting narratives Lucashenko effectively overthrows simplistic views of early colonial interventions and reclaims the story on behalf of the people whose land was stolen.

She gives us a time when perhaps history may have taken a different direction and allows us to understand the vicissitudes of time and power that shaped the world we live in today.

Fast forward to 2024 and Lucashenkpo reminds of the very real and ongoing history those events have created. Through Granny Eddie and particularly in the sparring between Winona and Johnny we see the ongoing pain and struggle to reconcile the past with a present and a future that does not tell the truth.

Edenglassie is a tremendous novel and one well worth the reading.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tony Birch is the author of novels, poetry and short fiction. You’ve met him on the show before with his collection Dark as Last Night which won the Steele Rudd award at the Queensland Literary Awards. Today Tony is joining us with his new novel Women & Children.

Joe Cluny lives with his Mum and his sister Ruby. He attends the local Catholic school where he generally wishes he got in less trouble and could avoid the hell the nuns keep threatening him with.

Joe’s no stranger to violence, getting the strap more often than accolades at school. In Joe’s world there’s plenty of violence to go around and his sister Ruby has warned him that you don’t ask questions about other people’s bruises.

But then when one day Joe’s aunt Oona arrives at the house bruised and shaken, Joe’s mother must act to keep her from further harm. Joe doesn’t understand what is happening but he will come to learn how much violence lurks in all their lives and what it takes to stand up to it.

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In the shadow of war a wealthy Dutch family celebrate on their tea plantation. The war has not yet touched their wealth and status but on this fateful night the players will be assembled who represent the future of their colonial endeavor.

Anna is the daughter of the house and finds it both her world and something of a prison. With her hopes of finishing her education in Europe dashed by the war she has little to look forward to. 

Mattijs is a handsome Dutch pilot in search of adventure. With his homeland torn asunder by war he looks to the colonies for his fortune.

Sigit has enjoyed an education in Europe thanks to the benevolence of Anna’s family, but he has returned with ideas that perhaps he and his people should be able to work their land for themselves and not for foreign overseers

As Anna enjoys her father’s position of privilege she must also duck her mothers remonstrations that she not behave like a local girl. Her history has one foot in Java and the other in Holland and this tears her between her family's past and ties her to the future of the people around her…

Sunbirds begins in the closing days of 1941 as occupied Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies) fears the arrival of Japanese troops. 

Within the Van Hoorn household the relatively recent history of their possession of the land makes them jealous of maintaining it both against invading forces and internal agitators for independence.

The narrative centers Anna as the daughter of a Dutch father and Indonesian mother. As their homes are threatened, she is confronted by the truth of her heritage and the confusion of pride and shame she must navigate to come to some sort of identity.

Anna finds in Mattijs the perfect vision of the Europe she may never truly get to discover. He offers her possibility and adventure; a veritable hero who can fly her away from it all.

Through Sigit, Anna is offered a chance to discover a part of herself long hidden and shamed. He confronts her with the injustice of her current life whilst offering a vision of freedom outside of colonial rule.

The novel builds this love triangle even as the war draws closer, teasing us with the inevitability of a history that has already come to pass.

In Sunbirds Mirandi Riwoe builds a stunning ensemble cast that allow her to explore the social and political movements of this turbulent time in world and Indonesian history. The novel foreshadows the coming Indonesian independence movement even as it highlights postcolonial politics that continue to grip our world today.

Sunbirds is a compelling story; adventure and romance, historical and yet strikingly politically relevant.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Graham Akhurst is a Kokomini writer who grew up in Meanjin. He is a Lecturer of Australian Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing at UTS. Borderland is his first novel.

Jono is finishing high school and trying to figure out his place in the world.

At school he always felt like he stuck out. As one of only two Indigenous students, along with his best friend Jenny, Jono was targeted by students and always felt like he had to work twice as hard to get half as far. 

Now Jono and Jenny are starting at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre, and Jono’s still not sure. He doesn’t know who his mob are, he feels adrift and the other students still single him out.

When an opportunity comes along for Jono and Jenny to work with a documentary crew filming in the Queensland desert they both jump at the chance. The gig is in support of a fracking project though and Jono’s instincts are telling him there’s a lot more to this trip than he initially suspects.

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Joe Cluny lives with his Mum and his sister Ruby. He attends the local Catholic school where he generally wishes he got in less trouble and could avoid the hell the nuns keep threatening him with.

Joe’s no stranger to violence, getting the strap more often than accolades at school. In Joe’s world there’s plenty of violence to go around and his sister Ruby has warned him that you don’t ask questions about other people’s bruises.

But then when one day Joe’s aunt Oona arrives at the house bruised and shaken, Joe’s mother must act to keep her from further harm. Joe doesn’t understand what is happening but he will come to learn how much violence lurks in all their lives and what it takes to stand up to it.

Tony Birch’s Women & Children takes us back in time but not so far that we won’t recognise the behaviors and attitudes that fuel domestic violence and fear. Through Joe Cluny’s eyes we see a world where beatings and even the threat of violence are used to control people, beginning in the institutions where children should feel safest.

The novel is about the reality of this violence but it is not the perpetrators that are central to the books. As the title suggests, Birch zooms in on the lives of the Women & Children who must face up to the daily grind of fear and how they are able to carve out space for themselves.

Joe is a powerful character, whose perspective allows the reader to indulge their incredulity at the prevalence and frequency of beatings across all levels of life. Through Joe we are able to witness the horrible injuries which his aunt arrives with and understand that these are shocking but also understood. Joe reminds us that even at an age when this should all be foreign he knows that this can happen.

Against this we see Joe’s mother Marion, his aunt Oona and even his teenage sister work themselves up to the point that they can resist, whatever that may look like.

Through Joe we see the horrible paradox as a vicious cycle, where only more violence might see an end. The constant remonstrations that Joe shouldn’t be witness to this only serve to reinforce that violence perpetuates itself.

Birch counters this narrative through the friendship between Joe’s Grandfather Charlie and Ranji Khan. The two men meet and discuss their lives in the manner of showmen regaling an audience and through their comradery give Joe a glimpse of life well lived through bonds built on love.   

As Joe explores Charlie’s collections and Ranji Khan’s bric-a-brac it may well be that he finds the solution to all their problems but, the narrative asks us; will it be right to use it?

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Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Chris Womersley is the award winning author of  four novels including Cairo and City of Crows. He’s joining us today with his new novel The Diplomat.

Stepping off a plane in Melbourne, Edward Degraves seems resigned to his fate. Edward and his wife Gertude committed the largest art heist Australia has ever seen, but after years in London Gertrude is dead and Edward is lost. After listing this litany of struggles Edward informs the reader “All I had to do now was survive the rest of my life. Which was no small order, of course.” 

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Chris Womersley is the award winning author of  four novels including Cairo, The Diplomat and City of Crows. He’s joining us today with his new novel Ordinary Gods and Monsters.

Summer, the end of high school, family dysfunction. Nick’s life has shifted into some sort of liminal zone.

When his best friend Marion’s father is killed in a hit and run, Nick wants to be there for her. But a series of spooky actions seem to indicate that the best way to support Marion is to track down her father’s killer!

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Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar writer, from Western Australia, now based in Naarm. Claire’s debut novel is the award winning Terra Nullius as well as the author of The Old Lie and the acclaimed non-fiction book, Lies Damned Lies. Calire’s third novel, the one I want to talk about today is Enclave.

In the community of Safetown residents live a comfortable life, secure in the knowledge they are protected by the wall. Within that concrete edifice security patrol their streets and drones surveil the airway to ensure even the smallest transgression is met with swift consequences.

Christine has spent her entire life basking in the comfort her fathers wealth and Safetown’s security provide the daughter of an influential family. Sure her father is a distant figure, her mother a high functioning alcoholic, but they’ve just bought her an apartment and extended her a line of seeming unlimited credit.

Safetown was built to protect families like Christine and she should be happy with this safety. Except her best friend Jack is missing and Christine has begun to notice her servants, people who don’t look quite like her…

I think the potency of Enclave will hit readers in different ways. 

On a first pass, Enclave seems to have taken the worst of the days headlines: Trump’s wall, fake islands in the South China Sea, almost sentient algorithms watching our online behaviors. Enclave has taken these ideas and extended them to their horrific conclusion. This can seem like a grossly distended version  of reality and may strike some as Escher-like, while to others it’s a kind of dystopian porn. 

Coleman sets us up in Safetown, allowing us to walk alongside Christine, but it is not with the sort of familiarity or sympathy we might expect from an anointed heroine/protagonist.

At this point it would be easy to see Enclave as commentary on the wrong turn society took too-long ago and Christine as an exemplar of our own generation coming to the realisation we are on the wrong side of history.

But this is Claire G Coleman and just as the reader starts to feel safe that they know where Christine’s story is heading she pulls back the proverbial curtain.

Fans of Claire’s first novel Terra Nullius will know her ability to stage an about face that changes everything you thought you know about the story.

Enclave is a dark tale of excess and the absolutely destructive path of privilege. It exposes racism by showing the absolute mundanity of the everyday actions that reinforce power. There were times as I read that I thought the book was moving too slow, not showing me anything I needed to see. But that was Claire lulling a reader like me, someone who’s lived close enough to privilege to not see it, into believing that this world could exist.

The horror she paints of a segregated society and rampant excess doesn’t look terribly different to a real housewives episode and therein lies the power.

Enclave is an absolute recommendation from me but beware. It’s a story that has your expectations in its sights and knows that we don’t change anything by maintaining the status quo… 

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of Foreign Soil, The Hate Race, and poetry collections Carrying the World and How Decent Folk Behave. She is also the author of children's picture books including The Patchwork Bike and When We Say Black Lives Matter. Today she’s joining us to discuss the absolutely joyful We Know a Place.

We Know a Place is about the joys of wandering bookshop shelves in search of adventure. Following a family as they make their weekly pilgrimage to their local bookstore after completing weekend chores and coming home with a world of wonder.

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Davina is also the author of two incredible books for young readers that I like to turn to for a little inspiration. They are What to Say When You’re Not Sure What to Say, and the recently released What to Do When You’re Not Sure What to Do.

Both What to Say and What to Do introduce children (and adults) to simple things they can share that promote kindness and inclusivity. Each page is its own little world; containing a simple aphorism and picture that gently unfolds a story about how to approach, deal with or overcome some of the difficult moments in our lives.

The book is designed to show children that while the world often looks scary, and is full of new and unfamiliar things, that we can take it one step at a time and best of all we can approach it with a helping hand from a friend.

These books are gorgeously illustrated by Hillary Jean Tapper. Hillary’s illustrations craft whole narratives in a single image. The pictures feature a revolving cast of children moving in and out of each other's lives; offering support and a smile at all the right moments.

What to Do and What to Say are the sort of books that invite sharing. They read best when sat alongside someone else to explore the story and discover things in the pictures. 

Each moment is both general and specific and invites memory and empathy as we come together over moments in our near or distant past.

I haven’t got much more to say about these books. They are such that they need to be discovered but I can assure you that they almost certainly contain something you’re looking for right now and some words that will help you along, even if they can’t make everything right.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Today's show features Felix Shannon in conversation with Sara M Saleh.

Sara M Saleh is a writer, human rights lawyer, organiser, and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published widely in English and Arabic.

Songs for the Dead and the Living is described as a coming-of-age tale played out across generations and continents, from Palestine to Australia. 

Discover more from Sarah M Saleh

Hear more from Felix on Death of the Reader

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Jono is finishing high school and trying to figure out his place in the world.

At school he always felt like he stuck out. As one of only two Indigenous students, along with his best friend Jenny, Jono was targeted by students and always felt like he had to work twice as hard to get half as far. 

Now Jono and Jenny are starting at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre, and Jono’s still not sure. He doesn’t know who his mob are, he feels adrift and the other students still single him out.

When an opportunity comes along for Jono and Jenny to work with a documentary crew filming in the Queensland desert they both jump at the chance. The gig is in support of a fracking project though and Jono’s instincts are telling him there’s a lot more to this trip than he initially suspects.

Jono’s story centers around the question of identity and explodes that notion to explore how identity, country and culture are entwined for Indigenous people.

Jono feels like many of us will at some point in our lives. He’s clearly talented; he achieved a scholarship at an exclusive private school and won his audition for the documentary, but Jono never feels like enough. Throughout Borderland, Graham Akhurst shows us that Jono’s achievements are only part of the journey he is on.

In a key early scene Jono must perform for his dance class. He is unprepared but takes to the floor and expresses something within himself. It’s an opening up that takes Jono on a step towards becoming his true self.

As we move from school, the performing arts center and out to the desert, where the documentary will be shot, we meet an ensemble cast each of whom is on their own journey into identity. From those strong in their ties to the land, to those just learning about this connection, Borderland is at pains to ensure all readers can see the process and the individuality of learning.

Borderland is a pacy novel that hurtles the reader along Jono’s path into manhood. The pace of this journey is reflected in Jono’s own unpreparedness. As he learns more about himself he is shocked by the ruptures and is even beset by what he thinks are panic attacks. We are given the sense that Jono must overcome if he is going to survive.

At the heart of the novel is the transformation that Jono will make as he learns about his true self. There’s an incredible twist here that I only want to allude to, but I feel safe in reflecting on my conversation with Graham Akhurst where he reflected that he wanted the kind of inspiring story about a young Indigenous man that he didn’t have when he was growing up.

Jono’s journey of discovery takes him into the Queensland desert and onto traditional lands being denuded by fracking. Jono and the documentary crew must reconcile their work communicating about the mining and the communities it potentially threatens. Jono in his turn must also reconcile the deeper threats to country and the deep bond he is only just discovering within him.

As a white reader I can reflect that I have only a shallow understanding of country in Indigenous cultures and cosmologies. It’s a concept that I feel we must approach with open minds and respect if we’re going to learn about this land we live on. Graham Akhurst’s Borderland is a terrific read that opens the door to learning more about how culture and country exist for First Nations and their importance in both the past, but also the present and our future together.

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Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Love Your Bookshop Day celebrates the unique role our local bookshops play in helping to expand our worlds. Join Andrew as he celebrates the role bookshops play in fostering our imaginations and find out whether anyone picks up when he calls his favourite, local bookshop!

Find your local bookshop at loveyourbookshop.com.au

Shop Megalong Books gorgeous collection or visit the store...

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Emily Spurr is the author of the gorgeous and surprising A Million Things and she is joining us today with the equally gorgeous and even more surprising Beatrix & Fred.

Beatrix is aggressive alone. If you were to quote Sartre’s Hell is Other People to her, Beatrix would probably remind you that you are one of those other people. 

Beatrix’s solitude is getting out of hand but adopting a stalker was not on her bingo card of ways to break out of her shell.

*This is the spoiler free version of our conversation with Emily. If you'd like to here more get in touch below!

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

AJ Betts is a teacher, speaker and author of Young Adult fiction. Her books include Zac & Mia which has been adapted into a hit streaming series and today she’s joining us with her novel One Song.

Eva entered Unearthed High in Years nine, ten and eleven. Now in Year Twelve she’s got one last chance to break into music before she’s old and the world has left her behind. 

Eva has always been a soloist but Cooper Hunter has convinced her to form a band. Bands are good, bands can win, but how do you even begin wrangling three other teenagers to write music, especially when your muse is playing guitar next to you?

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Beatrix is aggressive alone. If Hell is Other People then Beatrix is happy to sit on the committee for tormenting her coworkers. She wasn’t always like this but lately it just seems like life is going out of its way to annoy her. 

Beatrix’s solitude is getting out of hand but adopting a stalker was not on her bingo card of ways to break out of her shell.

Who is the mysterious elderly woman who seems to be appearing wherever Beatrix goes? Is she a figment of Beatrix’s imagination or a malevolent force in a sensible knit cardigan?

Even as I offer up this brief introduction to Beatrix & Fred, I’m practically bursting  with all the things left unsaid about this novel. For those of you that read Emily Spurr’s A Million Things, you’ll recall the absolutely jaw-dropping twist at the end… Well Beatrix & Fred leaves that in the dust for surprises.

For the first hundred or so pages I was convinced I was reading some sort of psychological horror, so creepy was the build up.

Told through entwined narratives; primarily led by Beatrix’s dark perspective on the world, but interspersed with short and sharp interjections from a strange observer. The novel works at least initially to keep you off-kilter, waiting for its moment.

This is by design and Spurr wants us to travel alongside Beatrix as she both questions her sanity and seeks out answers, anything that might help her to understand the strange turn her life has taken.  

Emily and I spoke for Final Draft (and that conversation will be up on the podcast next week) and she told me about the experience of trying to find answers in a medical system that is too-often not designed to support or even listen to women. Beatrix’s experiences may prove to be absolutely novel but she can’t even guarantee that the mundane will not be dismissed as some random act of female biology.

As Beatrix searches for answers she finds herself coming under closer scrutiny and feeling like her whole world is imploding.

I’m going to stop myself here, because what comes next in the novel is truly original and I would never take that surprise away from you. As luck would have it, when Beatrix & Fred landed in the world the news sought to show us exactly how strangely original it was with some timely weird science news. 

It is the heart in Beatrix & Fred though that sets this novel apart.

If I circle back to where we began and talk about Beatrix’s feelings of social isolation at the beginning of the novel, I’m reminded of how too often we only ever brush against each other’s lives. To her coworkers Beatrix may look like a nightmare but in Emily Spurr’s telling she is someone who cares but is also suffering. Through the darkness and strange emergences of the narrative we come to see how that loneliness is isolating but it doesn’t have to be a terminal condition.

All that’s left to say is go out and read Beatrix & Fred and then come back to me so we can talk about it together in all its strange glory!

These are the stories that make us who we are.

On today's show Andrew calls up Kate & Jol Temple, authors of the Bin Chicken books, The Underdogs and so many more, to say thank you for their support of 2ser.

Discover Kate and Jol's books and support their incredible work at katejoltemple.com

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tegan Bennett Daylight is a writer, teacher and critic. Her books include The Details and Six Bedrooms which was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Tegan’s latest is Royals.

5.17pm on a day much like any other, in a shopping center in Western Sydney six teenagers find themselves alone. 

Shannon only glanced from her phone for a second, then when she looked back down her phone was frozen and the world had gone quiet. Surprise, then annoyance forces Shannon out into the mall’s concourse which is eerily still.

Fear then curiosity lead her to explore the mall where she finds Tiannah, Grace, James, Akira and Jordan; equally alone and equally confused. What has happened to the world and are they truly as alone as they believe?

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Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of Foreign Soil, The Hate Race, poetry collections Carrying the World and How Decent Folk Behave. 

Maxine is also the author of children's picture books including The Patchwork Bike and When We Say Black Lives Matter. Today we're discussing the absolutely joyful We Know a Place and getting excited about visiting our local bookstores!

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At 2SER we have BIG LOVE for our Subscribers and Donors. They are vital for the station – they help us maintain our independence and provide us with some stability in an ever-shifting cultural and economic environment.

If you'd like to support Final Draft and 2ser head over to 2ser.com for all the details.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Cellnight is the new verse novel from poet John Kinsella

Cellnight takes us into a prison where a protestor sits having been taken in for demonstrating against nuclear warships. In the cells the protestor bears witness to abuses even as the sounds of the harbour wash in through the windows and the whole, the truth of the evening becomes a matter of remembrance. Of a clash between what occurred and what is chronicled in the official record.  

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Shayla’s working on an assignment for her newspaper when she returns to Westminster Way. She's exploring a new integrated housing development when she is confronted with the ruins of the suburb she grew up in. Shayla grew up in Westminster Way but despite her difficult past she wasn’t prepared to see the street and surrounding suburb leveled in preparation for shiny new homes. 

The destruction transports Shayla back to her childhood and how she and her mum had to survive each day together. It also leads Shayla to wonder did she get to where she is today because of these struggles or in spite of them.

I found Roseghetto to be an enormously affecting novel. I should note that while I’m not going to go too deep on all the novel’s plot points, this is a book that deals with violence; domestic and social. It’s a book that takes these topics seriously as problems that reverberate throughout lifetimes.

If you’re thinking of checking out Roseghetto be prepared and if these topics are upsetting for you, know that help is available through organizations like Lifeline on 13 11 14 or https://www.lifeline.org.au/ 

Roseghetto is searing in its portrayal of Shayla’s young life. We meet Shayla as a toddler and Jagger’s point of view storytelling compels us to understand the world through her young perspective.

Shayla is exposed to the world and becomes something of a moral compass in the story. While we are not always shown the worst of Shayla’s world we are forced to confront it through Shayla’s growing understanding. 

In this way the violence and neglect of the men in Shayla’s world is not just a series of terrible acts but subsequent and compounding betrayals of the trust Shayla at first puts in them and then is forced to endure as her mother finds herself with increasingly few options.

It feels like something of a cliche that narratives of domestic violence ask ‘why don’t they just leave’. Through Shayla’s eyes the answer is a world where women have little to no control or have it wrested from them by controlling men. We see duty and love for one’s family serving as both a source of hope and the reason you feel you have to keep going. 

The story offers something of a window into another world as Shayla dives deep into stories and books. It’s something of a truism in the Final Draft world that books are doorways to the world and through Shayla we see how important it is to be able to view life outside her own.

I don’t mind saying that Roseghetto got more than a few tears from me as it opened up Shayla’s world. It’s a book well worth your time as it strips back the veneer of daily life to tell a story too often unheard.

Be sure to check out my conversation with Kirsty for Final Draft on the podcast!

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jane Harrison is a playwright & author descended from the Muruwari people. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed play Stolen and today I am going to introduce you to the novelisation of her most recent play The Visitors.

The Visitors takes us to Gadigal Land in January of 1788. On this sweltering day a strange sight appears in the harbour and immediately spurs the locals into action.

Messages are sent to the Nations of the coastal and river regions calling seven men, elders in their clans to congregate and decide what must be done now that The Visitors have returned.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Del swore she’d never return.

But years after she left Bower and the Messiah Church Del finds herself drawn back into its orbit by a mysterious message from her ex Lars. Del also swore she’d never talk to Lars again after he left her for her friend Eve, but now Lars sounds contrite.

Before Del has the chance to call Lars back though she discovers he’s been killed. The press are calling it a tragic accident but Del knows better about Messiah and how they always protect their own.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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The Visitors takes us to Gadigal Land in January of 1788. On this sweltering day a strange sight appears in the harbour and immediately spurs the locals into action.

Messages are sent to the Nations of the coastal and river regions calling seven men, elders in their clans to congregate and decide what must be done now that The Visitors have returned.

My first thoughts as I started reading The Visitors was that this is a story that is both known and completely unknown to me. As I thought back to my education, sparse as it may have been on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, I realised that the landing of Arthur Phillip in what we now call Sydney is not a story that is told as much as it’s an assumption that is made and then built upon.

The genius of The Visitors is that it not only unpacks those assumptions it seeks to explore the story; the stories of the land and the people before that fateful day.

As the group congregate  to consider their options, one man, more thoughtful than his peers considers not just the sight before but its meaning. He asks…”I am wondering… how we will remember this day”. The irony of course is that these words must be put onto the lips of a fictional witness because remembering is not something we do well in this country.

In The Visitors Jane Harrison is challenging readers with the omissions in the narrative.

We awake on unceded land (as we do each since incidentally) to the surprise and interest of men and women intrigued but also put out by the interruption to their daily lives. We meet each of the emissaries as they prepare for the meeting assembling weapons and considering tactics. It’s a particular genius of the novel that it translates the story culturally, allowing the reader to understand the tension and the mundanity of such an important day; we learn of petty differences and old grudges. We come to understand that ceremonies are important but that this doesn’t mean someone’s not going to interrupt or get impatient.

When I looked back on the paucity of education I received about what really happened when British ships invaded these shores, I was struck that in all my learning I was given the impression that the people who arrived were there by right. By consequence this meant that the people they met on the shores were just in the way.

In The Visitors Harrison tells a history that shows us these men and women were custodians and lawmakers; tied to their lands and seeking to defend it. The novel asks us to take another look at what we think we know about that history and everything that has been built on it.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Kirsty Jagger is a journalist by trade. She won the debut Heyman Mentorship award and has now published her debut novel Roseghetto.

Shayla’s working on an assignment for her newspaper when she returns to Westminster Way. Her brief is exploring new integrated housing developments and how they mix social housing with private.

Shayla grew up in Westminster Way and wasn’t prepared to see the street and surrounding suburb leveled in preparation for shiny new homes. The sight throws up memories of Shayla’s early life and how it has brought her to where she is today… 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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The Spider and Her Demons

High School can be hard at the best of times but somehow Zhi juggles study, tutoring and working in her Aunt’s dumpling shop.

Zhi’s Aunt Mei has sacrificed a lot so that Zhi can attend a private school and all she asks in return is that Zhi maintain an 85 point grade average and hide the fact she has fangs, spinnerets and four prehensile limbs that emerge from her back!

This story is wild!

We dive headfirst into the world of Zhi as she navigates being a teenager with more than the regular amount of challenge to her life.

The world building here is terrific. Zhi attends a (fictional) Sydney private school, whilst working in a dumpling shop in Chinatown. Everything is laid out for local readers to orient themselves to this world, which makes it particularly effective when it all goes sideways.

On the one hand there is the regular amount of teenage angst and we ride alongside Zhi as she and her friends are just normally being normal. On the other we are treated to Zhi’s anxiety as she revels in this normalcy, even as she feels it can’t last. The aforementioned spider biology is a cause for constant stress and Zhi knows she has to be less than normal, she has to be practically invisible.

The Spider and Her Demons takes the reader into the world of Zhi’s hyper consciousness of her body. We are shown that who she is is both exceptional and terrifyingly normal. Zhi’s daily routine to style her hair so that it hides her spider eyes is not so far any teenagers styling their way into some semblance of what they hope their peers will deem acceptable. 

The difference Zhi struggles to accept in herself is only highlighted by the constant gossip surrounding the most popular girl in school, Dior Panne-Nix. While Zhi just wants to be like everyone else she must also confront that she doesn’t even exist in Dior’s orbit.

Of course all this is primed for chaos as Zhi’s secret is threatened one fateful night and she finds herself thrown into the path of Dior!

The Spider and Her Demons works both as a fantastical new world to discover and as a character driven exploration of individuals just trying to make it through their days.

sydney khoo writes her protagonist with power and doubt and so what might otherwise fall into superhero fare becomes a journey of personal discovery. 

Right now it’s probably important to note everything I’m not saying about The Spider and Her Demons. This book is brand new so I’m not going to go about blabbing all the best bits for a bit of analysis.

Suffice to say that Zhi’s spider form is just the beginning of a vast world that is hurtling towards Zhi. In short measure getting a pass mark is a thing of the past and even survival looks like the wrong question as a whole world unfolds before us.

I’m a big fan of genre and the fantastic and The Spider and Her Demons gives us these in spades. It also takes the outcast hero out of the comfortable worlds of Marvel and DC and shows us how this works at the intersection of multiple identities.

I can’t talk around the spoilers any longer so let me just recommend you go and check out sydney khoo’s The Spider and Her Demons so we can all revel in it together.

Bonus - There’s a full conversation with sydney on the Final Draft podcast…

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Rachel is an award winning painter from WA 

The story of New York City Glow is deceptively simple…

An octopus named Strawberry and a snake named Ray road trip across the continental USA in the late seventies landing in New York in time to save the city from the forces of darkness and secure the future of music forever!

Discover Rachel's incredible story and award winning art today on the show!

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Today I’ve brought you her latest novel The Sitter

A writer sits in a hotel room in Paris early 2020. By her side is the disembodied form of Hortense Cezanne.

The writer has traveled to France to capture the essence of Hortense for a book about the wife and muse to Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Hortense has returned to the country of her birth for reasons not yet clear to her.

Now the two are confined to their hotel room as the world descends into a strange and unknowable illness, forced to observe the quietening world outside.  

The Sitter is a strange beast of a novel. Narrated in turns by the long dead Hortense and the reminiscences of the unnamed writer the book asks the reader to ponder creativity both from the perspective of the creator and their subject.

When we meet Hortense Cezanne she is variously the wife and muse of the painter Cezanne and the freshly reincarnated spirit of the same grappling with her place in the world a century after her death.

This is no fantastical mode of the author but rather a realisation of the author’s work in creating. So often I’ve spoken with authors who talk of their characters being ‘real’ to them. O’Keeffe takes this a step further inserting Hortense into the narrative as she grapples with becoming a reality through the writer’s words.

O’Keeffe’s writer must in her turn work to discover the reality of the Hortense who sits by her side. This disembodied spirit is perhaps not enough to justify her book but how can she discover and then in her way create a fuller figure?

The books turns on an empty street near the center of Paris. As the world succumbs to the early days of the as yet unknown Coronavirus the writer witnesses a tragedy that turns her thoughts inwards. Now she can no longer simply write Hortense’s story.

Stuck in her hotel room she is drawn to a new narrative. Abandoning Hortense’s story the writer turns to her memories to write the story of her own drive and creativity.

I was fascinated by The Sitter for its exploration of the creative process and its questioning of the artists motivations.

Hortense is given voice to expose how she has been silenced and the writer must delve into her own silence to uncover the story she needs to tell.

Both of these stories ruminate on women’s bodies and the ways they are made subject and subjected to a process that renders them voiceless. A process that is rectified somewhat in the ultimate telling of the tale.

The Sitter is an intriguing work and please don’t doubt that I have oversimplified it even as I worked to understand it. I’ll be going back. This is the sort of novel that rewards rereadings and asks of its reader that they take the time to think about the voices and the characters given voice. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

sydney khoo (they/them) is a nonbinary and aromantic asexual writer, born on Dharawal Country in South Western Sydney, to Malaysian Chinese parents.

They are the recipient of the Penguin Random House Australia’s Write It fellowship.

sydney joins us today with their new novel The Spider and Her Demons.

High School can be hard at the best of times but somehow Zhi juggles study, tutoring and working in her Aunt’s dumpling shop.

Zhi’s Aunt Mei has sacrificed a lot so that Zhi can attend a private school and all she asks in return is that Zhi maintain an 85 point grade average and hide the fact she has fangs, spinnerets and four prehensile limbs that emerge from her back!

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Irene Diakanastasis presents a gripping interview with Mercedes Mercier on her new novel Black Lies

Only a handful of inmates in Westmead Prison have committed crimes so atrocious that they've been locked away for life, and for fifteen years, convicted murderer Tomas Kovak has refused to disclose where he hid the body of his victim, a vulnerable young woman.

When Kovak is diagnosed with terminal cancer, intense pressure is put on Dr Laura Fleming, criminal psychologist, to find the location of Kovak's victim so her grieving family can find some sort of closure.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Each year Red Room Poetry celebrate Australian poets and poetry through a series of events, workshops and showcases throughout August. Red Room Poetry are now in their 20th year and are celebrating Poetry Month this August.

Gamilaraay/Gomeroi poet Lulu Houdini shares her poem 'Mangrove Girls'.

For more details check out redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Amy Lovat is a writer, a curator and researcher. She hosts the Secret Book Stuff podcast alongside Laura Kebby. Amy joins Andrew on the show with her debut novel Mistakes and Other Lovers.

El has some questions she’d like answers to. Like why did she implode her old life? Is this new life necessarily better, or just different? And is it Mace, or Kik, or both that she really loves?

They’re questions for herself, but that doesn’t mean the answers are necessarily forthcoming.

As El’s life careers further from her control she knows something has to give, but does that something move her forward, or take her back to where she came from?

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Del swore she’d never return.

But years after she left Bower and the Messiah Church Del finds herself drawn back into its orbit by a mysterious message from her ex Lars. Del also swore she’d never talk to Lars again after he left her for her friend Eve, but now Lars sounds contrite.

Before Del has the chance to call Lars back though she discovers he’s been killed. The press are calling it a tragic accident but Del knows better about Messiah and how they always protect their own.

Lay Your Body Down is at turns a mystery and a thriller. The reader travels alongside Del as she returns to her hometown and into the hostile arms of the extended church she fled after high school.

Within the world of the Messiah it’s all ‘nothing to see here’ and we must take Del at face value that the church is an insidious threat. At its core Messiah church and the teachings of its charismatic Pastor Rick are fairly stock standard evangelical stuff. The twist here though is a regressive sense of gendered duty that compels women in the church to go above and beyond in a doctrine they call ‘Noble Wife’.

‘Noble Wife’ compels the women of the church into extremes of purity and is spearheaded by Del’s best friend Eve. Eve has written a blog about the Noble Wife teachings that exported the smalltown doctrine around the world. The same Eve who stole Del’s boyfriend and is why Del can’t believe this is all just a simple accident.

Off-balance is one way to describe the experience of reading Lay Your Body Down.

We meet Del and she is off-balance in life. It’s a state we come to understand has been her normal since she left Bower and her entire life in Messiah.

Del’s state of personal and social vertigo follows her as she tries to investigate Lars' death. We quickly learn it’s one thing to have suspicions and another entirely to prove them (or even get others to believe they might be true).

Del’s uncertainty at the truth of her case mirrors the social unease she feels ostracized from her church. Even if she was no longer able to follow their misogynistic doctrines that doesn’t mean she knows how to exist in a world outside of the church’s oppressive embrace.

The novel is terrifically terrifying because even as we are rooting for Del to solve the mystery at the heart of Lars’ death we understand that it may just lead her to lose so much more. The spiritual death she felt when she left Messiah the first time is visited on her again and again making her constantly doubt herself.

As we follow Del on her quest we come to view in its full horror the methods and means of control exercised on all the women at Messiah. Lay Your Body Down may ostensibly be about the death of one man but it comes to reveal a much darker and deeper violence being perpetrated.  

This was a real page turner and got me as much with its social commentary as its whodunnit style.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Andrew is joined by Dr Tamryn Bennet, a poet and the Artistic Director of Red Room Poetry.

Launched in 2021 by Red Room Poetry, Poetry Month aims to increase access, awareness and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences.

Poetry Month features a range of accessible online events and live streams, workshops by international guest poets, writing prompts via our daily #30in30 comp, and poetic installations.

Find out more at Red Room Poetry - https://redroompoetry.org/ 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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It’s Paris. August 1944.

Auguste Duchene is renowned for his ability to find missing people. He doesn’t see race or nationality, only people who need his help.

But Duchene is about to find himself in an impossible situation; as the Allies close in on Paris Duchene must find a missing priest and a German soldier.

The set up is deceptively simple; Duchene must help the Resistance to find a missing priest with a cache of guns, whilst also help the Nazis find a missing soldier in a war full of missing people.

If he fails in either mission his daughter will be killed. If either side finds out about the other, Duchene's own life is forfeit. 

Into this intriguing setting Hammond crafts a story about loyalty in a time of extremes. 

I was first drawn to The Paris Collaborator as a flight of pure escapism. Rightly or wrongly stories of war time heroism can offer a means of simplifying the world. In Duchene though I found something more than simply a white hat on his way to riding off into the sunset.

The Paris Collaborator pits polarised ideologies, both equally willing to brutalise and kill and both equally assured of their righteousness. From the distance of history we might say there was only one way, but as we walk the streets of a war torn city with Duchene we are shown the difficulty of individual clarity. 

and believes that this is enough to survive the war. 

And so we come to the heart of The Paris Collaborator, because even though we do not find ourselves fighting on the streets of Sydney we are equally thrown into ideological battles that seem to give no quarter.

As Duchene races to complete his mission the Allies approach Paris and its ultimate liberation. The question becomes as much will Duchene prevail, as how will his actions be viewed in the aftermath.

Hammond has drawn an immensely satisfying historical novel with beautifully realised scenes at the ground level. Drawing on archives and photographs of the time, the writing makes you feel as if you are walking the cobbled streets.

In mixing genres we also find ourselves shifting between war, crime and espionage wrought in sepia, noir tones. I could almost see Bogart playing Duchene (only he’d destroy the accent).

The Paris Collaborator is a tremendous read with some important ideas. Before you get online and destroy someone anonymously you might want to think about how pitted ideologies actually serve us as a community. As this novel shows us when we see only stereotypes everyday kindness is destroyed and that tends only to help the powerful at all our expense. 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Dale has a secret that’s eating away at him. He saw something, guys he knows from school, at a party, with a girl. She didn’t look like she was awake. They didn’t look like they were asking.

Dale was drunk. He didn’t do anything and now he doesn’t know what he saw or what it means.

Dale’s really wrapped up in what this means for him, when maybe he should be thinking about what it meant for Chloe.

Join Andrew and Robyn as they discuss Blind Spot

Content Warning - This episode contains discussion of sexual assault

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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New York City Glow is the debut  novel from award winning portrait artist Rachel Coad. Just in case it doesn’t come up later, Rachel’s paintings are amazing and yuo should check them out on her website… https://www.rachelcoad.com.au/ 

New York City Glow’s synopsis is just about the most fun I’ve ever had summarizing a text…

An octopus named Strawberry and a snake named Ray road trip across the continental USA in the late seventies landing in New York in time to save the city from the forces of darkness and secure the future of music forever!

So this is a graphic novel. Rachel’s art blends sepia, photorealistic cityscapes with the cartoonish reptiles and an almost horror movie-like quality to her protagonists tentacles. The overall effect is a kind of phantasmagoric period piece set in 1970’s America.

The story is something of a hero’s quest. Strawberry is a bioluminescent octopus (look it up) whose perennial glow keeps getting her in trouble. She’s got an ex-con with an FBI record but all she really wants is to make music.

During her last prison stint Strawberry was subjected to horrific experiments and on the day she’s released she meets Ray who drives them cross country to New York.

Strawberry seeks fame and stardom in the Big Apple but all she finds in rejection. Finally she winds up as the janitor at CBGB’s and is there front and center to see The Ramones play live on the infamous night in 1977 when the entirety of New York is thrown into chaos as the city blacks out (look it up).

The book is an absolute riot for the senses as Coad goes out of her way to engage her reader on every level.

The story is minimalist but that does not mean it’s lacking (it’s so wild you’d be overrun  if anything more happened). Marry this with the gorgeous visuals that offer the reader a world in every panel. To top it all off Coad has a suggested playlist; each page is matched to a song and the whole thing is collected in its own Spotify playlist so you can sing along.

I’m 90% recommending this book because it’s just so much fun. Maybe I don’t emphasize this enough, but these book club reviews are all about books I’ve personally enjoyed and this is one I’ve already read twice.

New York City Glow is not without its themes though and in Ray and Strawberry’s journey in search of meaning I found a little of the existential crisis we all go through as we try to find our way in life. 

Sure none of us are glow-in-the-dark cephalopods (and more power to you if you are) but that doesn’t mean Strawberry’s tale won’t resonate. Go and check out New York City Glow and don’t forget to turn it up to eleven! 

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Sarah Hutchison arrives at Ngangahook adrift. She has floated from her boarding school days in England, through continental Europe to arrive on the bush property outside Geelong.

At Ngangahook Sarah is surrounded by nature and soon begins to infuse her world. In her poetry and through her music, played on a posthumanist piano modified with elements plucked from the world around her, Sarah finds a sense of self not as apart from nature but as a piece in its whole.

Sarah and her Uncle Fernny fashion Ngangahook as their own paradise, but could it also be a bastion against the fast encroaching modern world?

Join Andrew and discover Gregory Day's The Bell of the World

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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It’s called The Voice to Parliament Handbook and it has been written by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien.

Thomas Mayo is a Larrakia man who has written extensively about the Uluru Statement including Finding the Heart of the Nation, and Finding Our Heart, a book for young readers with illustrations by Blak Douglas.

Kerry O’Brien is an award winning journalist whose is known for his work on 7.30, Lateline and Four Corners.

Now this is not our usual fare of Australian Literature that I have each week for book club. But I wanted to bring this particular book in because the discussion around The Voice is so very important and this book offers a straightforward exploration of what is ‘The Voice’, how we got here and what it means to have this opportunity to vote in a referendum.

Each week when I present Final Draft on Saturday mornings, I talk about how these stories we read, that they are the stories that make us who we are. Stories have the power to reflect our world and in reading them; in taking them to heart or roundly rejecting them we in turn shape our world.

The Voice to Parliament Handbook doesn’t deal in abstractions though. It very clearly lays out the history, the movement to the voice and the issues that impact us as we prepare for a vote later this year. In a very real sense this book is part of a story that will shape who all of us are. So don’t we owe to ourselves to do the work, to read the information and make sure when we vote, we vote with as much information as possible.

The Voice to Parliament Handbook is a slim volume, clocking in at just under a hundred pages. It’s inexpensive too (I saw it online for just twelve dollars). The goal seemingly to make this information as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. With all the shouting and political arguments, not to mention the seemingly contradictory misinformation out there this is a wonderful opportunity to get information from respected writers.

Each chapter of the book opens up a facet of the history, journey and future of The Voice. 

The book begins with a transcript of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. This powerful document is a must hear for all. The book takes us on a journey through the history of the struggle for First Nations peoples to have an effective voice and to ensure it is heard.

Later chapters describe for readers ‘what is a referendum?’ The purpose and mechanics of the vote. Many of the frequently asked, or accused questions are laid out to debunk myths and misinformation. We are also treated to eminent scholars including Professor Fiona Stanley and Professor Marcia Langton discussing the practical implications of the Voice for supporting communities and closing the gap.

This book is an invitation to everyone out there who is wondering about the voice or is perhaps feeling like they need more information to give to their loved ones. As we listen to opponents of the voice run a scare campaign behind the slogan “If you don’t know, vote no”, this book claps back with “If you don’t know, take the time to educate yourself”.

I’ve got my copy and I’m going to pass it along to whoever wants to find out more. Many people will do the same and I’d challenge all you booklovers, you lovers of knowledge and those of you who want to find out, go and get a copy of The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien. When history is made later this year it will help you to understand why this is such an important step forward for all of us.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Robbie Egan is the CEO of Book People, formerly the Australian Booksellers Association. Book People are a not-for-profit advocacy group for booksellers.

Robbie joins Andrew today to discuss the ‘Importance of Imagination’ study, a report commissioned by Book People that looks into how Australians build their imaginations and the role reading plays in that process.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Stella is an organisation that celebrates and promotes books by Australian women and non-binary writers. They support greater participation in the world of literature, and in doing so create a more equitable and vibrant national culture.

The 2023 Stella Prize has been won by Sarah Holland-Batt's The Jaguar.

Sarah joins Andrew on the show to talk poetry, life, death and her win.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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In the coastal town of Port Brighton the locals look after each other. When two deaths occur too close together the town is on edge.

Port Brighton has always been wary of outsiders so suspicion naturally falls on the drowned boy Sebastian’s best friend Johnny and his mother Marie. 

When a reporter descends on the town seeking to unearth the truth of the events all anyone knows is that they have to protect their own, because in Port Brighton when one town member hurts, they all hurt.

…

When One of Us Hurts is an absolutely wild ride through a dark pastoral landscape where small town values are viewed through the prism of a funhouse mirror.

Monica Vuu draws the reader into the township of Port Brighton and its xenophobic tourist policy through the eyes of Livvy and Marie. Marie is an outsider. Although she has lived with her son Johnny in Port Brighton for years, the residents still view them as foreign and untrustworthy. Livvy is an insider. When her father moves in with Marie she inherits Johnny as her step brother.

Livvy and Marie don’t agree on much but they are both fiercely loyal to Johnny. When suspicion falls on him following the discovery of two bodies both will do whatever they can to protect Johnny and the town.

…

It’s tangled web of loyalties that ties together the narrative of When One of Us Hurts.  The bucolic pastoral idyll of small town life is magnified to horrific proportions as we see a town attempting to deal with the twin blows of death and notoriety. 

Livvy sits on her favorite seat in the local cafe watching as towns folk come and go talking of the recent terrible events. The cafe is a hub for all in the area and the perfect place to gather information.

It’s almost as if Vuu is challenging the reader along with Livvy to unpick the strange occurrences before the nosy reporter unearths something he shouldn’t.

Marie sits in her room at Lacey House. Working through her memories of arriving in town, the death of her partner and Livvy and her father joining their family she seems to be seeking some clue as to how it all came to this.

Monica Vuu’s characterisation of the residents of port Brighton is a chill to behold. She slowly draws out the mystery even as she draws us deeper into the fold of Port Brighton’s windswept streets.

There’s a mystery barely acknowledged in this review but one that grips you as you work your way into the story. It’s a testament to the storytelling that the darkness that grips this novel is so cleverly hidden as to elicit a genuine shock as it comes to the surface.

Too often we talk about summer reads and beach books but When One of Us Hurts is the perfect companion to curling up by the fire on these cold windswept nights!  

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Yasmin Smith is an editor, writer and poet of South Sea Islander, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage. Today Yasmin joins Andrew as the series editor of UQP’s First Nations Classics

The First Nations Classics series gathers prominent Indigenous voices who continuously, as they have always done, revive the literary landscape of this continent.

The First Nations Classics includes:

• Unbranded by Herb Wharton, introduced by Kev Carmody
• Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington), introduced by Tara June Winch
• Blood by Tony Birch, introduced by Larissa Behrendt
• Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven, introduced by Alison Whittaker
• Don't Take Your Love to Town by Ruby Langford Gibini, introduced by Nardi Simpson
• The Window Seat by Archie Weller, introduced by Ernie Dingo
• Purple Threads by Jeanine Leane, introduced by Evelyn Araluen
• Holocaust Island by Graeme Dixon, introduced by Ali Cobby Eckermann

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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Chloe was diagnosed as Autistic at age thirteen and all of her incredible and varied work aims to support, make visible and build understanding about Neurodiversity.

Different, Not Less is something of a clarion call to a Neurotypical word that Neurodiversity exists and that it is Different, Not Less. Chloe’s story is part biography, part manifesto, part warm hug for neurodiverse folk (who incidentally, make up about 12% of the population according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics).

Full disclosure here, In my day job I am a Speech Pathologist and supporting neurodiversity is a big and important part of what I try to do every day. For too long the work of understanding and making decisions for people on the Autism Spectrum has been left to Neurotypical people. I wanted to bring you all this book because it speaks so well to things that many of us don’t have in our daily experience, but that we need to understand to better make the world a place that is open for everyone.

Chloe’s book pulls back the veil on the ways that a neurotypical world too often gets it wrong when it comes to neurodiverse people. 

Taking the structure of Autobiography, Chloe explores her experiences from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. In these stories she talks about her confusion at not understanding why she didn’t fit in, her torment at the hands of people who wanted her to conform to a certain way of being and the harms she experienced trying to be someone she’s not.

Along the way she teaches the reader about what it means to be Autistic and (to come back to the title) why it is different not less.

Chloe bares her soul to help the reader understand sensory difference and how sensory processing underpins so much of our daily experiences. The book works to bring a relatable understanding of sensory processing and how extreme sensations can disrupt a person's daily experiences.

The story takes in what it means to feel apart, or outside the everyday of peers and family. Chloe explores her own pain to help people understand both what it means to be Autistic, but also what isn’t inherent, but is in fact a product of the way society treats people who are different.

Mental Health is a big and important conversation in the book. Chloe has a wonderful way of introducing the topic and of preparing readers with signals for topics that may be too much. 

And there’s a lot in this book that feels too much. We are shown the harm that is done in a one-size-fits-all world, a world that has little tolerance for difference.

There’s a lot to recommend Different Not Less but I would say it is hard to go past its heart and the generous way Chloe Hayden takes her platform and uses it to support a world that has not done its fair share to understand. 

Neurodiversity is about all of us and supporting neurodiverse folks means taking more time to listen to their stories and then changing our world to be a more open place.

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You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

George’s life feels too loud. Her best friend Tess has decided to get pregnant at eighteen, but George will be there for her just like she always has been.

She’ll be there for Tess just like she’s there for her family and her friends. George is even trying to find a way to be there for her estranged dad when he calls her out of the blue to drop some world shattering news.

George will be there for them all because she doesn’t know how to not be there for them. It’s all too noisy.

And now with fires ringing the city, her dad’s incessant calls and a new girl appearing on the beach. George can’t help feeling when something might just be for her.

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The First Nations Classics collects incredible writers and brings their works back to the reading public. This series opens up the landscape of writing in so-called Australia and asks questions about who gets to tell the story and what it means to be a classic.

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Martha Elliott’s approach to psychotherapy is unconventional, but her unorthodox methods have not gone unnoticed… 

The arrival of a mysterious couple in Martha's office sets in motion a series of events that will cut to heart of Martha’s practice and deep into the raw truths about human nature, forcing Martha to confront her own demons. Who are they, and what do they know about Martha? 

Join Andrew and discover Hugh Mackay’s The Therapist

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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It's time to revisit our book club and see how it stands up.

Did you check it out (and if so what did you think?!?)

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Benjamin Law is a Guest Curator for this years Sydney Writers' Festival. Ben joins Andrew to talk books, writing and how the stories we tell help shape the world we live in.

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Today, we have "The Bell of the World" by Gregory Day. 

Gregory Day is a writer, poet and musician. I loved his last novel A Sand Archive and so am excited to be bringing you Greg’s latest, The Bell of the World

In The Bell of the World Sarah Hutchison journeys to Ngangahook, a bush property near Geelong. Ngangahook is run by her Uncle Ferny and Sarah is there to rediscover herself after drifting from her days in an English boarding school. 

Surrounded by nature, Sarah the world as distinct from the trappings of ‘society’. Ngangahook attracts the unconventional and Sarh begins to infuse her poetry and music with elements plucked from her surroundings.

As the coterie of like minded souls at Ngangahook grows, so too does the world surrounding it. How long can Sarah and her uncle hold out against a world that seeks to civilize them and destroy the natural world they protect? 

As I delved into the pages of "The Bell of the World," I found myself drawn into the expansive scope of Sarah's journey. The majority of the narrative unfolds during the early years of Australia's Federation but Day’s narrative is concerned with the entirety of so-called Australia’s history and white Australia’s struggles to reconcile itself to the land it overtook.  

Gregory Day brings this era to life as a creative era of development, highlighting its significance in shaping the country's identity. Against this we have the destructive impulse of the civilising force represented in the ‘bell’ that the townsfolk would have hung in their rural outpost.

While the bells toll would bring time and structure into their daily lives it would sound out the natural call of life that has resonated through the region for thousands of years; Sarah’s Bell of the World.

Building on the themes from his previous work, "A Sand Archive," Day continues to examine the relationship between humanity and nature. In "The Bell of the World," the tension between Ngangahook and the encroaching modern world represents the struggle to preserve and appreciate nature amidst relentless progress and societal pressures.

This struggle is not simply anm environmental concern. Rather it represents a severing of our human nature from the world around it. Sarah and Ferny strive to live with the land and move away from a sense of human exceptionalism while the town clings to its separateness as a kind of talisman against what it views as wild and unforgiving.

Day’s treatment of this tension dives into the human impulse to create art and offers up fascinating ideas of this creative process.

Ferny's is shown to be infatuated with Joseph Furphy's novel, "Such is Life." The novel is a talisman for Ferny with its evocative capturing of Australian life, and when it wears out is rebound in a most surprising way that was reminiscent to me of modern sample culture and remixing of ideas and influences.

Another fascinating element is Sarah's modification of the piano at Ngangahook, using found natural elements. The resulting songs become a blend of ephemeral sounds and representations of their world. This raises questions about the possibility of creating art that remains wild and natural, or whether our very presence adulterates nature.

In the midst of the growing unrest in the region, the bell becomes a focal point of the town’s feelings about Sarah, Fernny, and Joe's unconventional living arrangements. There's an undercurrent of cultural clash, that mirrors our modern sense of tension and unease at things we don’t want to understand.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

In this special presentation Felix Shannon, host of Death of the Reader sits down with Pip Williams to discuss her new novel The Bookbinder of Jericho.

Pip Williams is the much loved author of The Dictionary of Lost Words

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying at Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.

When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.

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The town of Darnmoor promises itself as ‘The Gateway to Happiness’. Within the town though is a world divided. The white population live on the paved streets and brick buildings, while down the old black road, past the tip are The Campgrounds.

Margaret lives out at the Campgrounds with her daughter Celie and Celie’s husband Tom. The family have their lives and their love for each other but they also know that once all the lands surrounding Darnmoor were theirs. 

Tom’s got a mind to fix things though. He’s heading to the city where there’s the promise of men who’ll listen. Men who might affect change.

Except the people of Darnmoor aren’t looking for change and they don’t want the campgrounds and its residents closer to town.

Song of the Crocodile is a generational tale. Across decades of the mid-twentieth century the reader travels alongside members of the Billymil family and their lives in Darnmoor.

The book is a fiction about the very real stories of dispossession, oppression, often outright murder that are woven throughout the history of this country. Too often understood but rarely told.

As we move through the generations, Song of the Crocodile paints a tale of resilience against incredible hardship. I don’t want to say too much and reveal the story but truthfully much of this story is the stuff that we often feel cannot be spoken aloud.

From the outset we learn that lives in the Campgrounds are considered cheap. Even as Tom sets out to try and find a way to improve their lives forces are mustered against him.

The actions of the white townspeople; both overt and covert are heaped against The Billymil family as they are against all of the residents of the campgrounds. Despite this Song of the Crocodile shows us the endurance of The Billymil and how their connections; to each other, to their land and to their history carries them forward. 

A part of this connection is the entwined lives of the family and teh ways their connection transcend their terrestrial existence. That felt like a mouthful, but I wanted to express the way that Simpson brings in elements of a broader conception of culture and spiritualism without resorting to overused terms like ‘magic-realism’.

Within the novel characters interact with cosmic, creator beings and thus we see their lives and their roles in the grand narrative extended. That’s not to say this is a fantasy novel, or that the book takes us into genre in any of the conventional ways. 

The feeling I got as I read is that Nardi Simpson has invited us as readers to experience something of the storytelling that is intrinsic to her being. In doing so she shares an understanding of the world that includes multigenerational lineages that aren’t necessarily ended upon death. It also includes an entwined relationship between land, water and sky that sees human beings a part of the greater whole and hence subject and responsible for how they treat their environment.

I can’t help but reflect that my thoughts here are inadequate. They don’t fully capture my reading of Song of the Crocodile; the joys and rage at the turns of the family. My horror and guilt that as white Australians we are inheritors of the wrong side of these stories. Yes this is fiction but it speaks to a myriad tales that were covered up. Stories that must be heard and understood.

Go check out Nardi Simpson’s Song of the Crocodile

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Addi Road Writers' Festival is now in its third year.

Festival Artistic Directors Mark Mordue and Sheila Ngọc Phạm join Andrew on the show to talk about their festival theme for 2023 ‘Inner Worlds’ and creating an unofficial fringe to the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

DETAILS

Date: Saturday 20th May, 2023

Venue: Addison Road Community Centre

142 Addison Road

Marrickville

Time: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

Tix: https://events.humanitix.com/addi-road-writers-fest 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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This week's Book Club features an exclusive reading from Sarah Holland-Batt's The Jaguar

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Michael Thompson is a journalist, producer, media executive and co-founder of the podcast production company Fear and Greed. How to Be Remembered is his debut novel.

Tommy Llewelyn’s got a problem. Tommy wakes up every fifth of January to a world that's forgotten him. Each year his life resets; No records, no belongings, no memories. No trace Tommy ever existed.

It’s a problem Tommy’s been enduring ever since he was born and the universe is showing no sign of letting up.

When Tommy meets Carey Price though, everything changes. 

The universe still seems to be out to get him but Tommy’s finally got a reason to fight back. This time he’s going to be remembered.

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These are the stories that make us who we are.

Paul Ashford Harris is the author of books for adults and children as well as two plays. He’s joining me today with his new historical novel Love, Oil, and the Fortunes of War

It is the early twentieth century and Europe is in a state of unrest. German ambition and growing naval power threatens the balance of power in the region and across the world.

With an aging, ailing navy holding it back Britain finds itself vulnerable on the high seas and at home. 

Love, Oil, and the Fortunes of War is the story of three unique, disparate individuals and the role they played in modernizing ancient battleships and changing the course of history…

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Helena’ debut novel, 2019’s How it Feels to Float was an incredible exploration of mental health and resilience, garnering the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.

In The Quiet and The Loud Fox again takes us into the messy, complex and wonderful world of being young, showing the reader that while it will present us with seemingly immense problems it will also surround us with people who can support us.

George is going to be there for Tess. Sure their other friends had big questions when Tess decided to get pregnant at eighteen, but George will be there for her just like she always has been.

George will be there for Tess just like she’s there for her grandfather, her mums, Laz. George is even trying to find a way to be there for her estranged dad when he calls her out of the blue to drop some world shattering news.

George is going to be there for them all because she doesn’t know how not to be there for them all and she doesn’t know what to do with these feelings for Calliope, the new girl on the beach. The new girl who’s giving George feelings that might just be for her.

The Quiet and the Loud throws us headfirst, hands bound and with no life preserver into the life of George. George finds her world is too often, too noisy. The only place she can get any quiet is out on the water.

Now even paddling is getting complicated as memories resurface. Memories of when she was younger. Memories of how her dad could be erratic; like the night he took George out on the water in a canoe and left her there to go swimming.

Through George’s narration we are taken, sometimes too-close, into the world of complex trauma. George’s childhood has left her with difficulty managing the relationships in her life. She has trouble saying no, trouble keeping enough of herself quiet to stay above water.