April was another big month for me reading wise. I didn't expect to get through so much with so many other things going on my life, but I am pleased to see that I was still able to find a good amount of time for myself to relax and escape into another world for a while. I was also pleased to see that three of the six books were by Australian authors.
I read a quote the other day by Jeanette Winterson that I absolutely connected with:
"Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world".
That's what reading allows me to do - spend some time immersed somewhere else, with other people, and live their lives for a time.
Sydney Writers' Festival choices
With the Sydney Writers' Festival coming up, I have been pretty keen to read as many of the books that I can by the authors that I will be going to see. In April, I read two:
- Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
- Unfinished Business by Shankari Chandran
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
It was almost by chance I came to this. A colleague mentioned that she was reading it, and within a week I found it on sale and thought "why not"? It wasn't until a few weeks later that I realised I was going to see Madeleine Gray at the SWF and so it jumped up the priority list.
The novel follows Hera, a 24-year-old Australian navigating the disillusionment of post-university life. She has finished her degrees, still lives with her father and despite feeling completely disconnected from herself and those around her, she concludes its time for her to do something to move her life forward. She begins working as an online comment moderator and finds herself drawn into an intense affair with Arthur, her older, married colleague. Despite identifying as a lesbian, Hera becomes infatuated with Arthur, finding in him a source of excitement and escape from her mundane routine. Their relationship, largely sustained through digital communication (hence the green dot connection - that good old green dot on Teams) begins to consume Hera's life.
In short - this was a compulsive read, and I highly recommend it. A longer review is scheduled for 10 May 2025.
Unfinished Business by Shankari Chandran
Shankari Chandran first came to my knowledge when she won the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award with her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. While that novel remains on my wish list, I picked up Unfinished Business because I will be seeing her speak about this book at the SWF (with Ian Rankin).
The book itself is a political thriller set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka's civil war. The novel opens in 2009 with the assassination of Ameena Fernando, a prominent journalist known for her fearless reporting. In response, the CIA dispatches agent Ellie Harper to investigate, but with instructions only to do the bare minimum of an investigation so that the US can look as though it is contributing - without actually contributing in any meaningful way. The narrative moves back and forth between 2005 and 2009. In 2005, Ellie was part of a failed mission to Sri Lanka that haunts her, along with her failed relationship with Sathyan - who it turns out was Ameena fiancé at the time of her assassination.
I am pleased to have read this before the SWF event, but there were some aspects of the novel that meant it wasn't something that I would recommend, even if I wouldn't go so far as to say that I recommend you give it a miss. A review is scheduled for 12 May 2025.
American Slavery
I'm not quite sure how American slavery became a theme in April 2025, but it definitely was. I read two books dealing with the tragedy of slavery and the indelible mark it left on its victims: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and James by Percival Everett.
Underground Railroad is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel which reimagines the historical Underground Railroad as a literal underground train system used by enslaved people to escape bondage in the American South. It follows the plight of Cora, a young woman fleeing a Georgia plantation, as she travels from state to state, encountering different, often horrifying manifestations of racism and oppression. It's essentially a blend of historical fiction and speculative fiction - or historical fiction with speculative elements. It certainly feels far more historical than anything in the way that it describes the brutality of the lives of enslavement that so many people were subjected to.
James is a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but this time told from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huckleberry on his journey. Similarly to Underground Railroad, James is a piece of historical fiction with speculative element. Everett imagines that enslaved people only speak in the stereotyped dialect when white people are listening. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that this use of language by the enslaved is a strategic performance rather than a reflection of their reality. What I took from this is that Everett was trying to reclaim the voice of the enslaved by challenging the historical depiction of enslaved people as ignorant or unintelligent. It acknowledges that white cultures (whether in the past or present) often see and hear what they expect to see and hear. A longer review of these books is scheduled for 27 May 2025.
Others that caught my fancy
Death of a Foreign Gentleman by Steven Carroll
Kobo reviewed my reading habits and suggested this to me as a book that I might enjoy. Seeing that it was by an Australia author, was literary crime fiction in an historical setting, I agreed that it looked right up my alley, so I purchased it on a whim (well done Kobo).
The story is set in post WWII England (1947 specifically). The story begins with the death of Martin Friedrich, a renowned German philosopher and former Nazi Party member, who is hit killed by a speeding car while cycling to deliver a lecture at Cambridge University. Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born Cockney Jew whose parents were interned during the war, is assigned to investigate the case.
Minter starts investigating, looking into Friedrich's life and uncovering unsavoury truths about the man - his past as a Nazi supporter, his arrogance and selfishness, and his dishonourable treatment of the women that he tricks into his life until they have served their purpose for him. The story oscillates between the different characters, slowly drawing together the threads of their individual narratives to reach the culmination where the truth behind Freidrich's accident is exposed.
It is definitely a very thoughtful novel and I recommend it - even if I couldn't honestly say that I loved it. A review is scheduled for 19 May 2025.
The Sweeping Sword by Brenda Jagger
This was my 'insomnia read', something I have mentioned previously on this blog. This is the book that I read many times before that keeps me company through the long, lonely nights when insomnia has me in its grip.
This is the third instalment of one my all-time favourite series and books of all times - The Barforth Trilogy, which I have previously reviewed. It is historical fiction, feminist but still a romance. If I had to talk about books that I think undeservedly go under the radar, these would be them.
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