8 Great New Books By Young Australians You Should Read Over The Summer
So much to catch up on from 2016!
Young Aussies are killing it across every creative field, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the literary world. From memoirs to novels, short stories to poetry, the current crop of writers are sharing their stories with readers around the country and the world.
These brilliant recent releases offer plenty of excuses to switch off your screens (or, er, switch on your ereader screen, if you swing that way) this summer. And keep an eye on these literary young guns — you’ll be hearing plenty from them in years to come.
Yassmin’s Story by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s public profile has risen steadily this year, with a little help from a controversial walk-out at American novelist Lionel Shriver’s Brisbane Writers Festival keynote, and the incendiary public debate over cultural appropriation that ensued. But though ‘Shrivergate’ made headlines around the world, this was just the latest episode in a remarkable life, which Abdel-Magied shares candidly in her memoir.
Yassmin’s Story traverses the experiences that have informed her boundary-breaking journey, from holding her own as a mechanical engineer working in the hyper-masculine environments of offshore oil and gas rigs, to her strong feminist principles and work in social activism (including founding non-profit organisation Youth Without Borders at 16 years old). These are all told candidly through the perspective a young Muslim woman guided by her faith.
Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down
When her best friend since childhood commits suicide, Audrey is set adrift on the uncertain terrain of grief. Her chaotic family and steadfast boyfriend don’t know how to fix her, and she’s not sure whether she wants to fix herself.
If Helen Garner turned her razor-sharp eye to a new generation, Our Magic Hour might be the result. Down unravels the self-obsession and shortsightedness of youth with insight and affection, and turns the grit of modern twenty-something life — breakups, breakdowns, new jobs and new towns — into something profound, beautiful and hopeful.
Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa
This debut novel weaves a story of a country and a family in pieces in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war. Ruins juggles multiple characters and perspectives as it shifts between ethnic, generational and class boundaries, but avoids the potential pitfalls of the “sprawling family epic” label thanks to its skilful plotting and authentic characterisation.
Parents, children and servants each deal with their own private battles; from infidelity, to career pressures, to sexuality. In every character’s life, the weight of Sri Lanka’s political upheaval looms large, as Savanadasa reveals the deep impact of national conflict on individual identity.
Wasted by Elspeth Muir
Elspeth Muir’s charming, gregarious brother Alexander was always the life of the party. Growing up in Queensland, his heavy drinking didn’t raise many eyebrows among his friends and family. But after a big night out when he was 21, Alexander wound up at Brisbane’s Story Bridge, where he took off his shirt and shoes, removed his phone and wallet from his pocket, and jumped into the river below.
In Wasted, Muir attempts to come to terms with all the unknowns of her brother’s drowning, including how his blood alcohol content of 0.25 impacted his actions that night. This devastating personal story of loss and grief is also an unflinching examination of the damaging drinking habits of young Australians, and of a society that not only permits, but encourages, them.
Comfort Food by Ellen van Neerven
Yugambeh woman Ellen van Neerven is a prodigious talent across several literary disciplines. Her debut fiction book Heat and Light earned her the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelist gong in 2015, she also spearheaded the State Library of Queensland’s black&write! fellowship program for several years, working closely with young Indigenous writers and editors and nurturing the next bunch of young talent. Now, she’s mastering poetry.
Her debut book of poems, Comfort Food, was released this year and draws on recurring themes of food, identity, family and sexuality, in poems that are both vulnerable and political. Food becomes a source of intimacy and connection in each of the poems throughout this sumptuous, evocative collection.
Songs of a War Boy by Deng Thiak Adut
Deng Thiak Adut’s story became a national conversation in 2015 after his alma mater, Western Sydney University, released a moving short video profiling his life. His memoir forms a powerful counter-narrative to Australia’s political rhetoric of hatred and intolerance towards refugees.
Born in Sudan, Adut was fed into his country’s insatiable war machine: conscripted into the ruthless People’s Liberation Army at just six years old, given military training and sent into battle. He eventually escaped and was smuggled out of the country, coming as a refugee to Australia, where he worked to build a new life and taught himself English by watching The Wiggles. Named this year’s NSW Australian of the Year, he now works as a pro bono lawyer in Western Sydney, where he provides other Sudanese refugees with support and legal advice.
Inspiring doesn’t begin to cover it, but Songs of a War Boy is not just capital-I important — it’s an unforgettable and vital read.
The Love of a Bad Man by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
This collection of stories fictionalises real-life relationships between women and ‘bad’ men of history, from Hitler to Charles Manson. The stories are deeply researched and informed by memoirs, letters, and news reports related to the cases Woollett depicts.
While the details of violent rape, murder, assault and torture are harrowing and often disturbing, Woollett looks obliquely at the cases, teasing at the threads of the impossible question: why would anyone love a person whom the rest of the world agrees is completely evil? While she doesn’t presume to offer any answers, her inhabitation of her protagonists is creatively daring and always psychologically astute.
No to Feminism by Rebecca Shaw
One of Australia’s most popular young comedic writers (and the country’s self-declared second-favourite lesbian after Ruby Rose), Rebecca Shaw (aka @brocklesnitch) is the brains behind the viral parody Twitter account @NoToFeminism. Shaw’s most hilarious, incisive, absurd and delightfully misspelled tweets have now been gathered in a deceptively cute gift book.
I don’t need feismsms because i don’t want my men to be FEMINIZED once i saw my husband cry so i made him collect his tears and wash my car
— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) December 14, 2014
It’s a perfect Christmas pressie for keen teenage girls just beginning to engage with gender politics — and an even better one for a grumpy old uncle who is yet to discover the magic of feminism for himself.
Veronica Sullivan is a writer from Melbourne and the manager of the Stella Prize for Australian women’s writing. She tweets at @veronicaahhh.