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New books - Summer 2006/7


SCENT OF ORANGES by Melbourne author Joan Zawatzky $24.95

A novel of an African homecoming to a past that won't be buried.

Joan Zawatzky evokes images of a South Africa of a striking beauty, but as we delve into the family history of the main character, Linda, we learn much about the differences between the old and new South Africa, coming face to face with race relations, the weakness of humanity, skin colour divisions, and the love that can exist despite race and dogma.
   
WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN by Peter Godwin $32.95

This powerful memoir is a story of the disintegration of a family, set against the collapse of a country.

Peter Godwin, an award-winning journalist is living in Manhattan when he returns to Zimbabwe, his birthplace, having received the news that his father is dying. He finds the former breadbasket of the continent entering a vortex of violent chaos and famine.

But his parents refuse to leave their home. Against this backdrop, Godwin discovers a fifty-year old family secret: his father's identity is an invention. This Anglo-African colonial in a safari suit and desert boots is, in fact, a Polish Jew whose family was torn apart by the Holocaust.

Godwin's memoir is a searing portrayal of a son's effort to rescue his family, and a family's struggle to belong in a hostile land.
  Review in The Australian December 16, 2006
   
ONE SPLIT SECOND The Death of David Hookes and the Trial of Zdravko Micevic by Michelle Schwarcz $29.95

You don't have to be crazy about cricket to be totally absorbed with ONE SPLIT SECOND by local author Michelle Schwarcz. The analysis of this fateful and very public incident, and particularly the trial and its aftermath, has been deftly handled by the author.

She explores the relationships and personalities of the key figures in this complex story, and tackles issues dealing with public grief, the role of our judiciary, the dominance of sport in our culture and its association with alcohol, and the influence of the media, in a literary non-fiction style accessible to all.
   
THE JEWISH CENTURY by Yuri Slezkine is now available in paperback $33.00

Winner of the 2005 National Jewish Book Award, this book will appeal to readers with an interest in Russian, Soviet or modern Jewish history.

About a million Russian Jews emigrated between 1897 and 1915, some to the United States, others chose to go to Palestine, but the history of the ones who chose to stay, has been to a large extent, lost or not known.

This migration from the old Pale of Settlement to Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Krakow and other cities of the Soviet Union was comparable in size to the one to the United States, much, much bigger than the one to Palestine, and according to Slezkine, was ideologically much more charged than the one to the United States.

Slezkine offers a provocative argument on the role of these Jews and their contribution to the many faces of modernity - nationalism, socialism, capitalism and liberalism.
   
THESE ARE THE NAMES Jewish Lives in Australia, 1788-1850 by John S Levi with a foreword by Howard Nathan.

Between 1788 and 1850, more than 1500 Jewish men and women were either transported to Australia as convicts or arrived as free settlers. This important biographical dictionary presents the details--occasionally sketchy but sometimes extensive--of these pioneers.

Rabbi John Levi's painstaking research through the fragmentary and often contradictory colonial records has culminated in an invaluable reference work and resource.

A wealth of information, including birth names, extra names, nicknames, aliases and maiden names, together with details of marriages, children and occupations, makes THESE ARE THE NAMES a major contribution to an important but little-recognised aspect of Australia's settlement history. For the first time, the earliest generation of Jews to settle in Australia is named and remembered. In hardcover $79.95
   
AMERICAN VERTIGO by Bernard-Henri Levy

Prominent French philosopher, also known as BHL, sets off on a year-long tour to get to the heart of present myths about American culture.

Levy's crisp diary entries elegantly blend journalism, literature, chance encounters, a cinematic eye and a philosopher's depth, as he interviews Americans at a time when they seem to be uncertain about their identity.

From extensive critical dialogues with neo-conservatives, as well as conversations with people from various backgrounds including Woody Allen and George Soros, a proud prostitute in Nevada and a psychotic death-row convict in New Orleans, Levy forms his attitudes to modern America.

You may not agree with all of his views but this book makes for fascinating reading. Available in hardcover $42.95. Levy is the author of Who Killed Daniel Pearl?
   
THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI by Andrew Sean Greer

An extraordinarily haunting love story told in the voice of a man who appears to age backwards.

Max Tivoli is writing the story of his life when he is nearly seventy years old, but he looks as if he is only seven.

The tragedy of Max's life was to fall in love at seventeen with Alice, a girl his own age - but to her, Max looks like an unappealingly middle-aged man.

However when Max reaches the age of thirty-five, with an appearance to match, he has his second chance at love. But tragedy befalls this star-crossed couple, and desperate measures are required. Beautiful writing that deals with the simple art of human connection.
   
MAN WALKS INTO A ROOM by Nicole Krauss $22.95

Samson Greene, a young and popular professor at Columbia, is found wandering in the Nevada desert.

When his wife, Anna, comes to bring him home, she finds a man who remembers nothing, not even his own name.

The removal of a small brain tumor saves his life, but his memories beyond the age of twelve are permanently lost.

Here is the story of a keenly intelligent, sensitive man returned to a life in which everything is strange and new.

An emigrant from his own life, set free from all that once defined him, Samson Greene believes he has nothing left to lose. So, when a charismatic scientist asks him to participate in a bold experiment, he agrees. Launched into a turbulent journey that takes him to the furthest extremes of solitude and intimacy, what he gains is nothing short of the revelation of what it means to be human.

Nicole Krauss displays the same concise and perceptive writing skills in this earlier novel that generated such admiration from readers and critics in her recent publication, A History of Love.
   
ETCHINGS is a journal of fiction, essays, photography, poetry and art, published by Ilura Press based in Elsternwick.

Journeying into many arenas over many continents, ETCHINGS is open to all writers, artists, and their audiences. The editors are Sabina Hopfer, Christopher Lappas, Patrick Allington and Lucia Angela Cavegn, whose inspiration for the first issue was the eternal desire for storytelling.


Although the focus is international, the first volume of ETHINGS is inspired by local talent.

The colourful lanes of Melbourne are entered to showcase the rising art of stencil graffiti. Stencil artist FORM invites the reader to share in his philosophy on the importance of stencil graffiti as a means of re-claiming city walls and of creating an urban space alternative to that controlled by advertising.

Available in paperback $28.95
   
RADIANT DAYS, HAUNTED NIGHTS Great Tales from the Treasury of Yiddish Folk Literature
translated by Joachim Neugroschel

A unique and rich anthology of Yiddish folk tales that have never before been available in English, compiled and translated by the award-winning Joachim Neugroschel.

RADIANT DAYS, HAUNTED NIGHTS reveals the enormous breadth and depth of Yiddish folk literature, from its roots to its full blossoming in the modern era.

Standing at the intersection of the spoken folk tale and the European tradition of printed literature, the Yiddish folk tales collected in this volume provides a fascinating glimpse into four centuries of Jewish cultural life. In paperback $39.95
   
KLEZMER Book One: Tales of the Wild East by Joann Sfar

The prodigious Joann Sfar has over 100 books in print and an international following among readers of all ages.

The son of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Sfar is near legendary for his raw, insightful and cutting edge drawings and story telling.

In his bestselling and critically acclaimed Rabbi's Cat, he took us to his paternal country of Algeria; now, in KLEZMER Book One, he steeps us in the music, pathos and relentless adventure of his mother's Eastern European heritage.

In a startling, loose watercolour style, Sfar evokes the Jewish communities of pre-World War II Eastern Europe and the itinerant klezmer musicians who performed at celebrations, festivals and cabarets.

Following the tradition of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories and rambling Yiddish folktales, Sfar's colourful characters personify the multifarious influences that have poured into the music of klezmer. Available in pb $24.95
   
   
 
Notable books that also deserve another mention:
ONE GOOD TURN by Kate Atkinson $32.95

Several plots thread this novel like a set of Russian dolls.

Find out if one good turn really deserves another in this intriguing novel set in the underworld of Edinburgh.

The Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. A compelling read even for those of us who are not normally crime reading buffs. Kate Atkinson is a superb writer.
   
INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai $32.95

An embittered old judge lives in Nepal and wants nothing more than to retire in peace.

But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook's son trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy.

When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai's blossoming romance with her handsome tutor, they are forced to consider their colliding interests. The judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world of conflicting desires.

A worthy winner of this year's Man Booker Prize for literature.
   
THE LAY OF THE LAND by Richard Ford $32.95

Frank Bascombe is back.

The protagonist of Richard Ford's acclaimed novels, The Sportswriter and Independence Day, is now in his late middle age.

Recovering from cancer, he looks back on his marriages, friendships, children and career. Elegant, melancholic, full of understated irony, THE LAY OF THE LAND is a remarkable portrait of a seemingly ordinary man as he assesses the life he has led.

If you haven't read the previous two novels, it doesn't matter. Richard Ford invites you into the world of Frank Bascombe as if you were an old friend. Shortlisted for the 2006 New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
   
THE WORLD TO COME by Dara Horn $29.95

Set simultaneously in present day America and post-revolutionary Russia, Dara Horn interweaves a real art heist of a Chagall painting, history, biography, theology and Yiddish literature in this richly satisfying novel that opens the door to the world to come - not life after death, but the world we create through our actions right now.
   
  These book summaries provided for Jewish Australia readers by Margaret Brener of Sunflower Bookshop
 
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