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Happy’s Best New Books (11th May- 18th May)

Updated weekly by the fine folk at Happy Mag, these are the best new books that this week has to offer from Australia and around the world!

Mieko Kawakami  All the Lovers in the Night

Mieko Kawakami’s latest novel is sweet, and subtle, and leaves a lasting impact long after you’ve read the last page. Set in contemporary Tokyo,  the story centers around Fuyuko, who lives alone and seems to like it that way. But deep down, she knows it’s not sustainable, and that in order to change things, she is going to have to step out of her comfort zones. Bravely, Fuyuko steps out, and it is on one of her outings that she has a chance encounter with a physics teacher, Mr. Mitstka, who befriends Fuyuko and gives her the opportunity to change her life.

BUY HERE

 

 

mieko kawakami

MIEKO KAWAKAMI
ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT

Jay Bergen  Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer

A little-known court case between John Lennon and Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records. Jay Bergen, who was Lennon’s lawyer at the time, has collated over 5,000+ pages in all of the court records and has spent the last four years, transcribing, and recounting the trial as it happened. Filled with all the high drama in the courtroom, Lennon, the Mobster, and the Lawyer also captures Lennon’s life on the cusp of the birth of his second son.

BUY HERE

Lennon trial

JAY BERGEN
LENNON, THE MOBSTER AND THE LAWYER

 

Minnie Driver  Managing Expectations

Minnie Driver: A-list actor, mum, singer, and songwriter, explores in this tell-all/memoir shares tales of an extraordinary life. Honest and funny,  Driver shares how the things that didn’t work out, so often worked out for the best, and how reaching for the dream is easily more interesting, expansive, sad, and funny than the dream itself coming true. Minnie states it best, ‘Now, though, I realize how apt that ambition was. It set up a template in my life of wanting something impossible to become true. How in trying to make something impossible happen, and failing repeatedly, other things happened. Things that became my life. A life I love, because it was made with so many holes that I enjoy filling in’.

BUY HERE

Minne Driver

MINNIE DRIVER
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

 

Isobel Beech  Sunbathing

Melburnian writer Isoabel Beech’s debut novel, Sunbathing is a sweet, funny, and moving exploration of life, death, and the restorative power of friendship under the warm summer sun of Abruzzo. Invited to stay with friends Giulia and Fab in an old villa in the mountains of Abruzzo, three weeks shy of their wedding, traversing through loss, and wondering how to go on, or if she can. With great feeling, Beech explores the workings of the inner self in the wake of devastation and regret and reveals the many ways that the every day can offer healing and hope.

BUY HERE

Sunbathing

ISOBEL BEECH
SUNBATHING

 

Wu Cheng’En Monkey King

Monkey King is one of China’s all-time greatest fantasy novels. In this newly translated edition, we follow the classic tale of Sun Wukong, aka Monkey King, the shape-shifting trickster on his quest for eternal life.  A master of subterfuge, Monkey can transform himself into who or whatever he wants. Accompanied by Pigsy, and Sandy, Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, battling along the way with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, and the Monstress Dowager. Neil Gaiman has said ‘Monkey King is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people” and he’s not wrong.

BUY HERE

Monkey King

WU CHENG’EN
MONKEY KING

 

Ashley Goldberg Abomination

An engrossing and warm-hearted debut novel about friendship, family, love, faith, and identity. Abomination follows the story of atheist Ezra and ultra-orthodox rabbi Yonatan’s friendship. Set in Melbourne, on the cusp of a new millennium their worlds are rocked by a scandal that throws them towards two very different paths. Twenty years later, they find one another again and find themselves facing the events of the past.  ‘I couldnt stop turning the pages even though I needed to do other things. No idea whether or not Ashley lived in a tight-knit Jewish community his character occupies but it sure as hell vividly matches up to what I’ve seen and lived through’ John Safran

BUY HERE

abomination

ASHLEY GOLDBERG
ABOMINATION