‘Blood-pumping', ‘outstanding', ‘urgent and essential': the best Australian books out in April
Twenty years after she fictionalised her ex-convict great-great-great-grandfather Solomon Wiseman in The Secret River, speculating he took part in killing Dharug people, Grenville makes a pilgrimage through the landscape of northern New South Wales to better understand more than two centuries of suffering by Indigenous people dispossessed by colonisation.
Moments of profound clarity ensue in Unsettled: looking down on Mogo Creek to the Hawkesbury River's north, Grenville's imagination tracks her great-great uncles riding horseback armed with guns. 'In the great humming silence of this landscape – a silence created in part by what people like my forebears did – I know how little I really belong.' – Steve Dow
Fiction, Ultimo Press, $34.99
In former Triple J presenter Vijay Khurana's debut novel, two schoolboys flee their small town in Canada for a road trip to wherever. Adam is the alpha, an apparent student of Tate and Peterson and the only licensed driver – but it's Teddy who has the gun licence, and the money to put it to use. The devastating story that follows – narrated by each character in alternating chapters – is a tense and gripping power struggle of toxic masculinity, as the teenagers push each other further and further down a violent road of no return.
Where hit UK TV show Adolescence illuminated the myriad societal failures that are driving young boys to violence, this outstanding debut takes us inside the darkest and most vulnerable parts of their minds. – Steph Harmon
Poetry, UQP, $29.99
Safdar Ahmed, whose graphic memoir Still Alive was a searing indictment of Australia's refugee detention system, teams up with poet and author Omar Sakr (Non-Essential Work; The Lost Arabs) for this collection of poems and illustrations responding to the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October 2023.
Read cover to cover, it evokes Sakr's excruciating, sometimes bewildered, experience of bearing daily witness from afar (heightened by recently becoming a father), while the poet and artist both grapple with the moral complexities of their roles documenting what Sakr describes as 'the daily immiseration of Palestinians in the brutal reality of apartheid'. As the people of Palestine continue to suffer systemic violence and dehumanisation, this is urgent, essential work. – Dee Jefferson
Fiction, Hachette, $32.99
Chris Flynn's fourth novel follows a trio of old friends – who grew up together in the small country town of Gattan – in the aftermath of an inexplicable global catastrophe, which sees every nine-year-old on the planet suddenly drop dead. Each of them is struggling, in their own way, to regain some sense of agency in the face of this threat, and to protect or honour their children as the world threatens to collapse around them.
This is a fast-paced and compelling novel, written with Flynn's characteristic dark humour, and great generosity of heart as well. – Fiona Wright
Fiction, Allen & Unwin, $32.99
Debut author Sophie Quick's sharp, pacy satire centres on an unexpected antihero: a scammer with a heart of gold. Christina is a single mum in suburban Melbourne who has created a Zoom-only alter ego – Dr Ruth Carlisle – for the purposes of life coaching, then blackmailing her clients. As we learn more about her background, Christina's actions take on a Robin Hood quality. Her targets are wealthy – grifty influencers and sleazy marketers – while her financial situation is shaky at best.
Taking aim at TedCore and the self improvement industrial complex, the story also contains shades of Caroline and Natalie. Timely and slyly funny, it is a gut-check for anyone who's ever taken social media-sized slivers of life advice too seriously. – Alyx Gorman
Fiction, UQP, $34.99
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The premise might feel a dime a dozen: disillusioned woman flees big city to find herself in an exotic location. But this short, sparse, deeply absorbing debut – which won the 2024 Victorian premier's literary prize for an unpublished manuscript – is about so much more than that.
Ruth's refuge is Guatemala: a tourist town called Panajachel, painted so vividly you can almost see it. There she meets two women who inspire two very different infatuations; and soon, without us even noticing, Ruth is stuck – with a job, a house, and a desire to go deeper into the country and into herself. The promo calls the novel 'perfect for fans of Deborah Levy, Miranda July and Rachel Cusk'; as a fan of all three, I loved this one too. – Steph Harmon
Fiction, Transit Lounge, $34.99
What does it mean to bear witness? To listen to the survivors of war crimes recount their experiences and suffering? Out of the Woods, Gretchen Shirm's fourth novel, offers a poignant, insightful answer.
Incorporating real witness testimony, the narrative is closely intertwined with real events: namely the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in 1995, and the conviction at The Hague of a senior military commander for genocide. Though imperfect, the story asks probing questions about how we can begin to comprehend the incomprehensible. – Jack Callil
Crime/thriller, Penguin Australia, $34.99
This is a return-of-sorts to familiar territory for Bradley, who writes timely and thrilling novels imbued with a sense of social urgency, often involving the climate crisis and scientific developments. His last book, Deep Water, was a nonfiction hit – but he's back on fiction again, this time a crime novel set in a future Sydney that has been transformed by rising sea levels.
This propulsive novel follows Senior Detective Sadiya Azad's efforts to find a missing five-year-old who disappeared 'in the tideline', amid submerged apartments and pontoons as a huge storm approaches. – Sian Cain
Graphic novel, Scribe, $39.99
Rachel Ang's graphic novel is made to be devoured. Blood-pumping and fresh, these five loosely connected tales revolve around Jenny, a young Australian woman who stumbles through interactions with lovers, family and strangers with a sense of paralysis. From feeding fetishes, repressed childhood horrors and surreal exchanges with her future child, Jenny endures much in her painful quest to overcome bodily shame, and to connect.
Ang's expressive compositions and darkly comic voice perfectly capture these hermetic moments, which appear so slight and mundane on the surface but belie an interior storm. A bold, hallucinogenic collection that feels uncomfortably human. – Claire Cao
Nonfiction, UNSW, $34.99
By her own admission, Jane Rawson is not a nature natural. A novelist, former environment editor at the Conversation and literary magazine editor, her comfort zone is less bushcraft, more towncraft. In Human/Nature, she weaves in her own complex relationship with nature as she dissects the broader human understanding of the natural world, offering a moment of pause as the environment changes around us.
With levity, beauty and deep contemplation Human/Nature interrogates how our own ideas of purity, intelligence, care (for starters) affect how we impact, ignore, undermine and protect all the wild things which are not human. – Celina Ribeiro
Cookbook, Murdoch Books, $29.99
Zucchinis were the gateway veg for Alex Elliott-Howery's pickling habit. Her partner had a bountiful back yard crop that her kids didn't want to eat, so she taught herself to pickle. Her hobby became an obsession and then a business, when she opened Sydney's now-closed neighbourhood cafe Cornersmith in 2012. Four cookbooks, community cooking classes and another cafe later, she's a leading force in delicious solutions to food waste.
Her fifth book goes back to basics, featuring 80 quick, achievable recipes for condiments, such as bread and butter cucumber pickles, cauliflower relish and banana ketchup. It's no-fuss, light on storytelling and keeps it seasonal. A truly compelling pocket-sized guide to making your kitchen scraps worth keeping. – Emma Joyce
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Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trailblazing Indigenous actor and dancer who was awarded an Order of Australia dies aged 90
A trailblazing Indigenous actor and dancer who was awarded an Order of Australia in 2015 has died in Melbourne. The arts world is mourning the loss of Noel Tovey AM, a multi-award-winning dancer, actor, director, choreographer, mentor and storyteller. Noel, who passed away earlier this month aged 90, was a true pioneer - the first Aboriginal Australian male ballet dancer and a globally celebrated figure in the performing arts. Born in Melbourne on Christmas Day 1934, Noel's early years were marked by hardship - but his hard work and commitment saw him rise against the odds to worldwide recognition. Noel earned multiple awards and global acclaim over a career spanning more than seven decades. This included recognition as a dancer, actor, director, choreographer, mentor, writer and storyteller. He rose to fame in the late '50s as a stage actor and dancer, and appeared in Australia and London in many renowned productions, including William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II. The talented dancer also appeared in the groundbreaking 1959 Channel Seven TV series Beauty and the Beast opposite late actor Paul Karo, and featured in the popular 1963 TV movie The Hot Potato Boys with actor Peter Aanensen. His achievements broke new ground for Indigenous Australians in ballet and the wider performing arts, opening doors for future generations. In 2015, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts. Noel's work included collaborations with internationally renowned figures such as Vanessa Redgrave, Boy George, and Damian Hirst and extended across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition to his artistic accomplishments, he was a passionate advocate for First Nations rights and LGBTQ+ communities. He played a key role in significant cultural moments, including the Indigenous welcome ceremony at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. At the time, he staged the incredible achievement of directing a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Sydney featuring an all-Aboriginal cast. Heartbroken fans took to social media to share their memories of Noel. 'A testament to human dignity and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. Rest in peace, dear Noel,' one person wrote. 'What a life! Vale,' a second added. 'Rest in power, Uncle Noel - travel safe to the Dreamtime,' a third person chipped in. Despite health challenges in recent years, Noel remained committed to mentoring emerging Indigenous artists. He later helped foster new talent through initiatives such as a scholarship established in his name. In his later years, he was frequently seen giving political speeches at rallies across Australia.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
The trivial schoolyard spat with heartbreaking consequences: What Harvey Willgoose's classroom murder reveals about Britain's knife crime epidemic
It is a case chillingly reminiscent of the Netflix series Adolescence, in which a bullied schoolboy shatters his family's life by stabbing a classmate in an unexpected eruption of violence. But while this year's hit drama led to a national conversation about online radicalisation, the murder of teenager Harvey Willgoose in February raises far darker questions about the state of schooling in Britain. The trial of the pupil who fatally stabbed 15-year-old Harvey in a school courtyard in Sheffield has laid bare the extent to which knife culture has crept into the classroom, allowing once trivial student disputes to turn deadly. And there are now fears this frightening trend has been too readily allowed to take root in corners of our education system – with the school at the centre of the case accused of ignoring critical warnings that its pupils were coming to class armed. A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was yesterday convicted of Harvey's murder following a five-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court. Unusually, the teenager had denied murder, arguing instead his actions that day were manslaughter due to a loss of self-control; the 'end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence', as his barrister put it. A jury was unconvinced. The teenage killer's story has proved so alarming precisely because it does not conform to the all-too-familiar script of the country's knife crime epidemic. It was not an act of gangland revenge, nor a drug dispute, nor the horrifying crescendo of a feud between two violent young offenders. Indeed, it was little more than a schoolyard spat - but one turbocharged by the spectre of knives in their adolescent psyches. The fear of knives; the status on offer to those carrying one. Another unusual feature of the case was that the victim - Harvey - barely featured in the whole sorry tale until virtually the moment he was stabbed. To understand the violence of that day, the trial spent much time tracing the long, lonely spiral of the boy who wielded the knife. There was no dispute he had been bullied for many years. From primary school through to secondary school, he was serially targeted over a medical condition. On one occasion, he was beaten up so badly that he was taken to hospital. 'It makes me not confident, I'm upset all the time,' he told a jury from the witness box. One teacher who spoke to the boy last year spotted, with eerie prescience, the impact this bullying appeared to be having on his state of mind. 'I made an assumption: I said since the incident where (the defendant) was badly hurt he changed, he has become more reactive and angry perhaps because he doesn't feel safe and wants to prove he is strong,' the teacher said. He described how the boy stayed quiet for a moment, before replying sheepishly: 'Yes.' This was all complicated by a tough home life. His mother struggled with mental health issues, leaving him to do all the cooking and cleaning. He claimed his father would often beat him for minor indiscretions. As he got deeper into secondary school, a shift seems to have taken place. Suddenly, his school record started to feature more and more references to knives. On one occasion, he and his friends were reprimanded for joking about stabbing each other, on another he was placed in seclusion for the 'dangerous use of craft knife during a DT lesson'. Put simply, the evidence presented at his trial suggests that he and his friends had started to think that having a knife was cool. The allure was perhaps obvious. After years of humiliation, it offered a quick and easy way to claw back respect, status and a long-forgotten sense of personal safety. He was soon searching frequently online for knives, swords, machetes and various other weapons over the course of last year. He used his parent's bank card to order himself a replica knife from the popular video game Assassin's Creed. At some point last autumn, the boy bought a small axe - by his account, from another pupil in school - which he then smuggled into class hidden in his trousers. He would boast about his new weapon to his friends and ask other students to feel the outline of it through his clothes. His mother would eventually find the axe in his gym bag and alert the school, who called the police in December last year. An officer was dispatched to give the boy a lecture about the dangers of carrying weapons, but was met with blank denials. The school, for reasons that are unclear, did nothing. But it was only when the latest in a long line of school tormenters entered his life that his new obsession became truly dangerous - a violent classmate with links to older boys willing to mete out brutality on his behalf, who we will call Pupil A. In a very real sense, Pupil A was the true target on the day Harvey died. He had begun casting a shadow over the defendant's life towards the end of last year. Two of his friends were ambushed in town by Pupil A's associates, while Pupil A listened over the phone. He became convinced a similar fate awaited him. Significantly, it was after a scuffle with Pupil A in mid-January that the defendant ordered his eventual murder weapon. It was into this combustible situation that Harvey fatefully inserted himself over the weekend before he was killed. Harvey had actually once been friends with the defendant, but, since he only attended school for 20 days that academic year due to a series of personal struggles, did not see him much. For a boy who had so long struggled to fit in, friendship with someone as popular as Harvey must have seemed a lifeline. Ms Willgoose, who had no prior knowledge of the boy, was left with the impression he was in 'awe' of Harvey after hearing the evidence at trial. It no doubt made his sense of betrayal all the more visceral when, that weekend, Harvey decided to express support for Pupil A on social media. In a group chat with other pupils, Harvey threatened to fight anyone that had a problem with him and began arguing 'non-stop' with the defendant, the trial heard. Ms Willgoose believes this was cynically exploited by the defence to suggest, wrongly, that her son was a violent bully. 'He used to big himself up, but he wasn't a fighter,' she said. 'Harvey was a bit of a busybody and it cost him his life.' His intervention could not have been worse timed. Unbeknownst to him, the defendant had recently entered a state of intense paranoia after seeing Pupil A's violent cronies loitering in his neighbourhood, staring at him. It meant that, when both boys went to school on the morning of Monday, February 3, only one went armed. It was the defendant's first day back since Pupil A's alleged stabbing threat and teachers knew his history with weapons. The risk he might arm himself was clear. Tragically, no search was carried out, with assistant head teacher Morgan Davis happy to accept the boy's word he had not 'brought anything with him'. 'If you've got a reason to ask, you've got a reason to search, as far as I'm concerned,' Ms Willgoose said. A series of escalating confrontations took place between Harvey and the defendant that morning, culminating in them squaring up in a science class. Then, when Harvey left the class, he told teacher Eleanor Kidder the defendant had been pretending to take something out of his trousers. He was 'acting like he had a knife', as he put it to a friend. The teacher, however, made no attempt to raise the alarm - something Ms Willgoose finds particularly hard to understand. 'Harvey took himself out of the science lesson as soon as this child walked in and he told the teacher 'the way he's acting, it's as though he's got a knife' and within that hour, Harvey was stabbed to death,' she said. 'How many warnings have they had?' Ms Kidder's failure to escalate Harvey's concerns would be seized upon by the defendant at trial as he denied acting like he had a knife that morning. He said: 'Why wouldn't Ms Kidder report it? Because that's a big thing to be accusing me of.' What happened next, by the defence's telling, was a boy snapping after years of bullying. Harvey's aggression, they said, was simply the final straw. Prosecutors argued it was as an act of retribution for Harvey's betrayal. At 12.15pm, Harvey approached the defendant in the school courtyard to confront him and could be seen on CCTV pushing his shoulder. A split second later, the defendant was clutching a five-inch hunting knife. He lunged at Harvey, twice. The first stab alone proved enough. It was dealt with such ferocity it broke through a rib and pierced his heart. Somehow, the entire confrontation had lasted just nine seconds. Harvey collapsed to the floor and slipped into unconsciousness. Haunting CCTV released yesterday by police showed the defendant then retreating inside and waving around his murder weapon. Seeing the footage from that day proved particularly hard for Harvey's family during the trial. His mother would leave the court when it played, while his father quietly wept. But, despite how he tried to portray her son, Ms Willgoose said she felt no hatred towards the defendant. 'I'm not angry, because when you see him, he's just a child,' she said. 'Maybe it's the mother in me. He's been let down as well.' The school is now facing accusations that it failed to properly stamp out troubling signs of knife culture among its pupils. The Mail has learnt that a concerned parent contacted All Saints as far back as October 2024 after hearing the defendant had been showing other pupils an axe in school. But the school apparently failed to take any action against the pupil, with no reference made to it in his official school record, despite the parent being told the matter would be investigated. The revelations suggest the school was aware of the killer's dangerous fixation with weapons months earlier than previously realised - but failed to act. Ms Willgoose also accused the school of attempting to minimise the knife scare on January 29. A letter about the lockdown incident sent to parents by headteacher Sean Pender - and seen by the Mail - makes no mention of knives. 'A lot of these schools are academies, they're a brand, and when anything's found, it's shoved under the carpet,' she said. The conclusion of the boy's trial, however, will be far from the end of the story for All Saints Catholic High School, or the police. A serious case review - an official inquiry which typically involves multiple agencies such as schools and social services - is now due to examine the circumstances of Harvey's death. The police watchdog has also confirmed it has asked South Yorkshire Police to investigate a complaint 'in relation to the actions and decision-making by officers regarding the alleged offender prior to the incident'. 'A complaint was also made regarding the actions of a South Yorkshire Police officer following the incident on 4 February,' the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said in a statement, adding this complaint too would be investigated by the force. Harvey's family hope the serious case review can provide answers about what more could have been done to save their son. 'There's been no winners here. There never are any winners,' Ms Willgoose said. 'We're never going to be happy again. I've got to live with this. You've got to carry on without our Harvey. It's horrific.' Steve Davies, CEO of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust which includes All Saints Catholic High School, said: Harvey's death was an unimaginable tragedy for all, and one that understandably gives rise to a number of questions from his family and others. 'Now that the trial has finished, a number of investigations aimed at addressing and answering these questions will be able to proceed. 'We will engage fully and openly with them to help ensure every angle is considered and no key questions are left unresolved.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Ninajirachi: I Love My Computer review – a surprisingly moving tribute to 2010s EDM
In case the title of Ninajirachi's debut album didn't make it clear, the Australian producer spells out her love for all things electronica on its turbo third track: 'I wanna fuck my computer / Cuz no one in the world knows me better.' A glitched-out cacophony of bleeps, mechanical spirals and sirens, the track – titled, descriptively, Fuck My Computer – is a firework display of raw energy and excitement. That freneticism rarely lets up across I Love My Computer, an immensely fun and inventive dance album that doubles as a surprisingly touching coming-of-age story from one of Australia's minted electronic exports. After first gaining prominence as a triple j Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, Ninajirachi – real name Nina Wilson – established herself at the forefront of Australia's then burgeoning hyperpop community. But as the genre's saccharine synths, irreverent samples and pitched-up vocals went increasingly mainstream post-2020, Wilson expanded her sound further. She released a cerebral 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, and played a series of slots at major US festivals including Lollapalooza and Las Vegas's Electric Daisy Carnival. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The now 25-year-old producer has started identifying her genre as 'girl EDM' – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the 2010s electronica she first fell in love with as a teenager online. Across the album's dozen tracks, Ninajirachi pays tribute to that nascent period. Repeatedly, music reaches out in a language only she can hear: On Fuck My Computer, 'it calls my name'. And CSIRAC, a throbbing track named after the first computer to play music (an Australian invention, incidentally), feels like a deranged, borderline inscrutable trip into Wilson's laptop. Across three minutes, the track jumps from chipmunk vocals to squelching acid-house breaks, metallic drones and pixelated breakbeats, as well as an eerie spoken-word bridge about following a sound. Which is exactly what the track is doing, racing through Wilson's computer at breakneck speed and transcribing its bleeps and bloops. But you don't need to overthink I Love My Computer to grasp the sincere depth of feeling Wilson has for her tech. In iPod Touch, another album highlight, Wilson links her music player to a flood of teenage memories. 'It sounds like high school, front gate, smoke in my face / It sounds like iPod Touch / yellow Pikachu case,' she sings, her sugar-rush delivery thrashed against a frantic beat. Not to will another reboot into existence, but it'd make a great theme for a gen Z take on Puberty Blues. Here, images of archetypal Australian teenage rebellion (including wearing tiny Supré shorts) are just as nostalgic as memories of 'me and my computer hanging out till late', blasting a bass-boosted Porter Robinson song and trying out free music production software. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Even with its 2015-specific imagery, iPod Touch encapsulates something universal. It sounds like the giddiness of adolescent discovery, where a song or artwork can cut through the confusion and awaken something so personal that you have no choice but to make it your entire personality. You might scoff at Wilson's awakening through EDM – arguably the defining sound of the previous decade thanks to the likes of Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Diplo. But I Love My Computer proves how much juice the genre has, especially stripped of its noxious frat bro connotations. Wilson readily embraces steady builds, squelchy drops and a relentless BPM rarely below 120. I Love My Computer isn't all euphoria, either. Delete is a twinkling ode to embarrassing Instagram stories, while Battery Death is a burnout lament built over dystopic error-synths. And on eurotrance track Infohazard, Wilson recalls stumbling upon a photo of a decapitated man on her computer as a teen. Led by a piano, it's one of the few times a non-digital instrument is easily identifiable on the album – offering a strange sense of warmth to the confused, confronting memory. Indebted to electronic pioneer Sophie, Wilson has never been focused on real-life restrictions, more interested in what she can create than replicate. With her debut album, Ninajirachi charts a long-term (and fruitful) relationship with her computer. It's very fun and surprisingly moving. I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi is out now via NLV Records
