James Bradley, Landfall

- Celebrated Australian literary author James Bradley has written a highly dramatic and very intense story about a police investigation into a missing child in Sydney, a city days away from being hit by a huge cyclone, the third in four years. 

- It's set decades into the future when the climate catastrophe is upending societies around the world. And as Bradley makes clear, disastrous weather events are not the only dimension to this crisis. Social cohesion is also being ripped apart. Anger, resentment, and the hatred of authority are dominant and destructive. 

- Sea levels have risen dramatically and have destroyed densely populated coastal areas. Houses, apartment blocks, shops, schools - all are in ruins. The wealthy can move into safer areas but the majority are stranded and unemployed, and are finding it difficult to cope with the dilapidation all around them. The heat is unrelenting, day and night. Daytime temperatures are frequently in the late forties and early fifties. The aged, in particular, are very vulnerable.  

- Bradley also addresses the refugee issue. The weather has become unbearable in many nations. Australia is seen as an attractive destination. Interestingly most names of the main characters in the novel are Indian, Indonesian, or Middle Eastern. Sadiya Azad, the leading detective on the case to find the missing young girl, Casey, is of Bangladeshi origin. 

- One Indonesian teenager's 'boat people' trip to Australia is described in horrific detail. Many of the refugees die on the way and their bodies are tossed overboard without ceremony. Abusive and contemptible border force officers with guns confront them on the beach when they land and they’re herded into camps. The teenager eventually escapes and becomes central to the story's resolution. 

- Digital technology is also at the forefront. AI ‘assistants’ are as common as smartphones. Unfortunately CCTV is not everywhere and videos still frequently lack sufficient clarity and quality.  

- The police investigation into the missing girl is described in rich detail. There are suspects and they are questioned relentlessly, including corrupt real estate developers, convicted child molesters, and low level desperates. Bradley portrays all these characters vividly, as he does the two police detectives leading the investigation. They are dedicated and work day and night, despite family issues. 

- When the cyclone hits Bradley provides a stunning description of it. He is a writer of extraordinary talent, and his deep understanding of the climate catastrophe we face has enabled him to write this ambitious and powerful novel. 

Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything

 

- Amerena's debut novel is written in punchy, lively, colourful prose, and has a delightful comic edge. It's absolutely captivating. 

- It's a brilliantly told story of literary liars. It's a damning critique of mothers and men. It's a story of love and devotion. It's a story of desperation and pain. 

- The unnamed narrator (what a cliche that is) tracks down an old woman he recognised at the local pool. He is certain she is Brenda Shales, a brilliant writer of only two highly controversial novels, who has not been seen for decades. She'd become a recluse. Both bestselling novels were a ‘controlled fury…resolutely against men, marriage and the family’. They were published in the early 1970's, at the same time as Germaine Greer's iconic The Female Eunuch.  

- He follows her to an aged care facility, and is mistakenly introduced to her by a nurse as her grandson. He submits to that lie, which becomes a central theme of the novel. 

- Over the course of a few weeks Brenda tells him her life story. She became pregnant when a high school student, and her very conservative parents - so typical of the time - forced her to put the baby up for adoption. She subsequently had numerous low paying jobs including one as a secretary for the Husbands Emancipation League, men who hated Gough Whitlam and his promise to introduce the No Fault Divorce legislation, which would enable women to divorce their abusive husbands without needing to submit to restrictive legal and court processes. Those meetings would inspire her second angry and ferocious novel which would become a worldwide bestseller. 

- There are many twists and turns in this novel, some surprising, but they all add a richness and depth to the tale. What is especially pleasing, and quite shocking really, is the ending. All the threads are brought together in a very surprising but satisfying way.

- This review by Bri Lee captures the book superbly:

This novel is that most exquisite rarity: a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed. Amerena has so precisely rendered and skewered Australian literary culture that I was shrieking with delight while I squirmed in recognition. The tease of a mystery plot had me turning the pages non-stop, but there were real gem-like sentences in here too. And on top of that, he can write women. And on top of that, he can write writing! 

Jens Beckert, How We Sold Our Future: The Failure to Fight Climate Change

 

- This is a depressing read, because it’s profoundly realistic. 

- Let's not kid ourselves. Where the world is now, and where it inevitably will be at the end of this century, despite the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degree target, is almost certainly going to be close to double that. 

- Jens Beckert has been Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and Professor of Sociology in Cologne since 2005. He previously taught in Gottingen, New York, Princeton, Paris and Harvard University. His new book, just published in English, is full of the gritty detail that makes his case utterly credible. It's a persuasive, sobering read. 

- Here's part of the blurb: For decades, we have known about the dangers of global warming. Despite this, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase. How can we explain our failure to take the necessary measures to stop climate change? Why are societies, in the face of the mounting threat to ourselves and our children, so reluctant to take action? 

Our apparent inability to implement basic measures to combat climate change is due to the nature of power and incentive structures affecting companies, politicians, voters, and consumers...climate change is an inevitable product of the structures of capitalist modernity which have been developing for the past five hundred years. Our institutional and cultural arrangements are operating at the cost of destroying the natural environment, and attempts to address global warming are almost inevitably bound to fail. Temperatures will continue to rise and social and political conflicts will intensify. 

- The book is only 174 pages long, plus 52 pages of Notes. Unfortunately it's a hardcover and is priced at A$51.95. Nevertheless, save up and buy it. Please. 

Dervla, McTiernan, The Unquiet Grave

 

- McTiernan writes in crispy prose, and her characters are sharply painted. They all have backstories. The novel is absorbing from the first page.

- Their relationships get pretty cosy as the story develops though, and quite sentimental. The book's weakness is the rather strange murders that take place and how the bodies are left. It's unrealistic in the extreme. And the main murderer uncovered in the end is, quite frankly, absurd.  

- The book also leaves a couple of subplots unsatisfactorily resolved. 

- Readers of the first three books in this series would be aware of the main characters’ past relationships and situations. There are obviously enriching backstories suggested. That's frustrating for new readers. 

- The focus on Ireland, mainly Dublin and Galway, is highly enjoyable. Although their annoying ‘grand’ litters the dialogue. 'How are you today?.... 'Grand'.