Happy’s Best New Books (3rd May- 10th 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!
Brian Ferry – Lyrics
Bryan Ferry has put together a selection of his favourite lyrics of love and loss to mark the 5o year celebration of his impressive music legacy. A career that spans eight albums with Roxy Music, and sixteen solo albums, Ferry is regarded as one of the influential recording artists of all time. “The low points in life so often produce the most keenly felt songs, and it might be added, some of the best poetry” — Bryan Ferry.
WU CHEN’EN
MONKEY KING
Steve Toltz– Here Goes Nothing
Angus Mooney wasn’t a believer in the supernatural, until he died. “Nobody was ever thinking of me. Now that I am dead, I dwell on this kind of thing a lot.” Here Goes Nothing is a unique life after death story, darkly funny, perceptive, and original, safely placing Toltz among the best writers Australia has to offer.
STEVE TOLTZ
HERE GOES NOTHING
George Haddad – Losing Face
An engrossing novel about three generations of a Lebanese Australian family living in Western Sydney. The story follows Joey, young, drifting, allowing life to take him where it will. Joey doesn’t know it, but he is about to unwittingly take part in a violent crime, that will force him to take responsibility for his aimless ways. Deeply engaging, and almost a little too real for comfort, Haddad is a remarkable storyteller.
GEORGE HADDAD
LOSING FACE
Jonathan Bazzi – Fever
Fever is a bold, tender, and captivating multi-award-winning debut from Jonathan Bazzi. Jonathan is 31 years old and living in Milan with his partner. After a wave of illness hits him, he finally goes to the doctors, to be told the kind of news that will forever change his life. Jonathan is HIV positive. The story follows Jonathan as he comes to terms with his life-altering diagnosis, not only for what it means to him, but for his friends, family, and the future.
JONATHAN BAZZI
FEVER
Moya Sarner – When I Grow Up
Journalist and psychotherapist in training Moya Sarner takes us on a journey into what growing up really means, and what it involves. Drawing upon her conversations with adults in search of adulthood, and sharing her case studies and theories, When I Grow Up is an invigorating and thought-provoking novel. Tom Hiddleston calls it “Elegant and compassionate. It is about thinking, healing, and connecting. We need more like it.”
MOYA SARNER
WHEN I GROW UP
Victoria Chang – The Trees Witness Everything
Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called ‘wakas’, each poem is shaped by pattern and count. Cleverly utilizing space and form, Chang’s poems become an almost zen-like mediation. Deeply engaging and beautiful, you’ll find yourself flipping back to the start, once you have read to the end to luxuriate once again in the sunlight through the dappled leaves beauty that it is.
VICTORIA CHANG
THE TREES WITNESS EVERYTHING