The book of ordinary people

Author: Claire Varley

Publisher:  Pan Macmillan, 2018

Annotation: 

This hopeful and engaging character driven novel focuses on the lives of five strangers living in the suburbs of north Melbourne -- a woman in mourning, a man stuck on the corporate treadmill, a failed journalist, an idealistic lawyer and an asylum-seeker caught in bureaucratic limbo and unable to move forward with her life. 

Reviewer Amanda Mcleod says author Claire Varley's past experience working with migrants and refugee communities lends this book "an authentic voice and genuine gravitas", adding: “The Book Of Ordinary People perfectly captures modern-day multicultural Australia.” (Writing NSW)

For more information:

• Pan MacMillan (publisher)
• Goodreads
• Writing NSW

Questions of travel

Author:  Michelle De Kretser

Publisher:  New York: Little, Brown and Company 2013

Annotation: 

Questions of Travel tells the stories of Laura Fraser, an alienated Sydneysider who escapes to Europe and forges a new identity as an expat travel write after a beloved aunt dies, leaving her a modest inheritance. She returns home, aimless and unmoored.  Meanwhile Ravi Mendes, a Sri Lankan refugee has fled to Australia after the brutal murder of his wife and child in the country's civil war. Their stories are told in alternating chapters and, inevitably, their paths cross and their stories entwine. 

Questions of Travel both the 2013 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the 2013 Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction. Writing in Booklist, Hazel Rochman says of the book: "This ironic, contemporary view of finding home makes for heartfelt drama." 

Additional formats: Also available as an audiobook

For more information:

• Little Brown (publisher)
• Goodreads
• The Guardian
• Australian Book Review
  
  

Spinifex and sunflowers

Author: Avan Judd Stallard

Publisher: Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, 2018

Annotation: 

Spinifex and Sunflowers relates the story of Nick Harris, an unlikable debt-ridden drifter who finds employment as a prison guard at a refugee detention centre in Western Australian desert. As time passes, the detainees open up to Nick and tell him the stories of the lives and loved ones they left behind how they came to Australia's shores. 

Described by Books + Publishing magazine as "well written, confronting, passionate and often graphic," this gritty, haunting and, at times, disturbing novel, lends readers an inside view on life inside Australia's immigrant detention centres. 

For more information:

• Freemantle Press (publisher)
• Goodreads

Behind the moon

Author: Hsu-Ming Teo

Publisher: Crows Nest, N.S.W.:  Allen and Unwin, 2005

Annotation: Behind the Moon is a coming of age story centred on three young misfits who grew up together in the Sydney suburbs in the 90s, and their struggles to reconcile their families' traditions and expectations with their individual identities. Justin is an only child who bears all the pressure of meeting the expectations of his Chinese-Singaporean parents, Tien Ho who never knew her African American father and grew up without her Vietnamese mother, and Nigel Gibson (Gibbo), who hates sports and struggles to relate to his Australian parents. The friends drift apart with age but a dinner party held to commemorate the death of Princess Diana brings everyone back together for an ill-fated reunion. A Kirkus review finds that "the  book embodies the  immigrant experience ... and never loses its emotional intimacy."

For more information:

• Allen & Unwin (publisher)
• Goodreads

Farewell, my orange

Author: Iwaki Kei ; translated by Meredith McKinney

Publisher: New York: Europa Editions, 2018

Annotation: In this haunting novel, two women -- Salimah, a Nigerian refugee, and Sayuri, an immigrant from Japan -- meet in an English class in small town Australia and develop a deep friendship that both will rely on as they face desperate challenges and heartbreaking circumstances in their personal lives. 

Publishers Weekly says Kei "adroitly intertwines these remarkable characters’ dreams and determination, making for an immigrant tale that readers won’t forget." Farewell, my Orange was the recipient of the Kenzaburo Oe and Dazai Osamu literary prizes.

Additional formats: Also available as an eBook

For more information:

• Europa Editions (publisher)
• Goodreads
• Publishers Weekly