Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekov and Andreyev by Maxim Gorky

Three Russian greats are seen up close and personal in this classic memoir, newly translated.

Maxim Gorky published his short, sketch-like memoir of Tolstoy in 1919, and the following year Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press published an English translation. In 1934 the memoir was expanded to include two other greats of Russian literature, Anton Chekhov and Leonid Andreyev. Fitzcarraldo Editions has now published a new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, with a useful introduction by J. M. Coetzee.

Gorky writes in a luminous, magical prose that is a delight to read. All three memoirs - especially the Tolstoy one - are composed of short chapters, more like sketches or snapshots, designed to capture the essence of these great authors in casual moments. For example, one entry simply quotes Tolstoy saying, “Look after thyself first and foremost - for then there shall be more left for others.”

Maxim was friends with all three of his subjects, but they were complicated relationships. Tolstoy is prickly, brilliant, charismatic and sometimes full of arrant nonsense. After his death, Gorky reflects that he doesn’t know whether he loved or hated him. Chekhov is the least complicated of the trio, a warm and easygoing character, someone who is kind at heart. It’s with Leonid Andreyev that Gorky has the closest friendship. This is ironic, as the two were quite opposite characters. Gorky is consistently critical of Andreyev, his aesthetic choices and politics, while also proclaiming his deep affection.

Reminisces of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev is enjoyable on many levels. It examines complicated relationships, provides fascinating biographical sketches on some of world literature’s biggest figures, and finally, is written in a pleasurably immersive prose style, one that continually astonishes with its shrewd observations and inventive analogies. 

Fans of Russian literature will find this mandatory reading, but for those not particularly invested, Reminisces may spur a further interest in these greats of literature.

Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekov and Andreyev by Maxim Gorky. Translated by Bryan Karetnyk. Published by Fitzcarraldo. $32.99

MAR26

A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern's insightful and revealing memoir.

Jacinda Ardern was raised a Mormon but grew more and more at odds with her church’s teachings. How could she be pro gay rights and abortion and yet keep faith with her religious upbringing? Ardern loved the church and its people, but this tension between personal belief and religious moral codes would cause an identity crisis. Who was she? Painfully, after much struggle Ardern left her faith and became a warrior for progressive politics. That road was not an easy one. Filled with self-doubts and more than susceptible to imposter syndrome, New Zealand’s future prime minister was nudged, almost pushed, into leadership roles. It was a surprise for the reluctant politician to find herself prime minister, but once there, she hoped to govern with kindness and compassion.
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A Different Kind of Power is indeed a different kind of political memoir. It tells a story of vulnerability and inner-conflict, rather than a myth-making march to power. The book is refreshingly devoid of ego and political preaching, and offers an array of surprising insights told with clarity and humour. Jacinda Ardern’s memoir opens a fresh window on the possibilities of politics beyond the usual grind of point scoring and confected conflict.  

A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Jacinda Ardern. Published by Penguin. $55

SEP 25

Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work, by Sarah Wynn-Williams

The inside story of Facebook from a former employee.

​A former New Zealand diplomat with extensive experience in international affairs, Sarah Wynn-Williams early on saw that as Facebook expanded globally, it would find itself in moral and political trouble. She envisaged a role for herself in helping Facebook navigate these perilous waters and made a pitch to its leadership team. Her ideas and vision didn’t impress at first, but the times would soon suit her, and a position was eventually offered. 

Wynn-Williams started work at Facebook in 2011 and would eventually become the company’s global public policy director. The position would take her around the world to many important summits, hobnobbing with business leaders and prime ministers. Careless People, a memoir of her six years at Facebook, is notable for its coruscating portraits of former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. She also claims that her supervisor, Joel Kaplan, sexually harassed her over many years. 

In the author’s telling, Facebook had an expand-at-all-costs culture that had little to no regard for the harm it caused, turning a blind eye to the help it indirectly gave authoritarian regimes. A gripping if stomach-turning read on corporate greed and how power deranges.

Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work, by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Published by MacMillan. $36.99

July 2025

Confessions of a Sociopath, by M.E. Thomas

A clinically diagnosed sociopath tells her story​

Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas (a pseudonym, as you can imagine), was first published in 2012 and is now re-issued in a Picador paperback. Thomas, whose clinical diagnosis as a sociopath prefaces the book, wrote Confessions as part explainer of her condition and part plea (this may sound strange) for more tolerance of sociopaths. 

Despite the alarming subject matter, and the author’s openness about her abilities to manipulate and ruin people (it is worth noting here that she is non-criminal and non violent), Confessions makes for a gripping, insightful and often darkly amusing read. M.E. Thomas writes with wit and precision about the psychology of sociopaths and examines whether they are born or made. The author’s work as a lawyer and academic comes through in her razor sharp analysis and highly original view of the world. She also makes many interesting references to literature and science when making her points, discussing sociopathic characters in the great novels.

Sociopaths are renowned for their lack of remorse, guilt or negative emotions. As M.E. Thomas slices and dices how we all behave - our guilt, vulnerabilities and weak spots, also our aggressions and tendency to try and manipulate the world - it feels like a confronting therapy session. Strangely enough, Confessions could almost double as a self-help manual. The book prompts self-analysis.

It does seem unlikely that a sociopath should write a book and essentially give the game away  (sociopaths like to work in the shadows.) But Thomas hopes that by explaining her condition, that sociopaths might be able to live more in the open. She lists all the types of work that sociopaths are good at, such as the law and high level business. They see more clearly because they’re less likely to get emotionally involved. She also argues (backing this up with research) that sociopaths brought up in good homes, given structure and an education framework, are less likely to offend criminally. (Thomas was brought up Christian and still practices her faith, writing that religion gives her a rulebook that keeps her out of trouble.)

Confessions of a Sociopath is an unforgettable book. A true original. It rips the mask off the world, showing a side we rarely contemplate in nuanced detail. A must read.

Confessions of a Sociopath, by M.E. Thomas. Published by Picador. $24.99

FEB 25

Murriyang: Song of Time, by Stan Grant

Acclaimed author and journalist Stan Grant writes very personally about faith and Aboriginality.

After decades spent roaming the globe as a journalist, covering wars and disasters, Wiradjuri man Stan Grant has turned his back on politics and media to search for peace through faith. Murriyang (meaning “Skyworld” - home of the creator spirit, Baiyaame, or God) fuses Christianity with Indigenous beliefs. In Grant’s telling, Baiyaame-God existed before, or outside,  the power structure that is the Christian Church. Indigenous people have always known God. 

​“When I hear stories of Jesus, I hear our story. Jesus was a dark-skinned man in a land of empires - oppressed and colonised: a tribal man. I hear the story of someone speaking back to power. I hear the words of an ancestor.”

There is a rather Hamlet-esque tone to Murriyang - Grant sounds world weary. Sick of politics, sick of the media. And like Hamlet, sick of words: “I am tired of words of certainty, tired of polled words, words with dollar signs in front of them, funded words. Reconciliation is not a word. Not anymore…What once were words are now antiseptic.”

While Murriyang is a book that seeks personal peace and emancipation from perpetual turmoil by aligning oneself with the universe and Baiyaame-God, the polemics of Grant’s previous books still come through. There is an underlying tone of anger with the world, with the injustices done to Australia’s First Nations. The book is hence a bit of a mix, travelling from rage to spiritual transformation. It feels like Grant has one leg stepping towards the light, with one leg still left behind in the gross material world of petty politics and naked self-interest. He most definitely wants out.

Interspersed among all of these philosophical and spiritual ruminations, are chapters titled “Babiin” (father), devoted to Grant’s ailing father, Stan Grant Sr. These are touching sketches of his father’s life and struggles, his wisdom and generosity of spirit.

Murriyang will appeal to the religious and non-religious alike. It is sometimes a bitter book, but overwhelmingly it fulfills its brief of guiding the reader to a place of oneness and forgiveness. Stan Grant is one of the nation’s best writers, tackling a difficult subject with maturity and erudition. 

Murriyang: Song of Time, by Stan Grant. Published by S & S Bundyi. $39.99

DEC 24

Don't Take Your Love to Town, by Ruby Langford Ginibi

Ruby Langford Ginibi's classic memoir is a no holds barred story of pain, joy and survival

As part of its new series of First Nations Classics, University of Queensland Press is re-publishing Ruby Langford Ginibi's acclaimed memoir Don't Take Your Love to Town (1988).

Langford Ginibi, a Bundjalong woman, was born in 1934 and raised in the small New South Wales town of Bonalbo. Her mother left the family when she was six, to marry another man. By age 16 Ruby was pregnant and she would go on to have nine children by several fathers. These relationships started out good, but would eventually turn sour, ending in either neglect or abuse. Langford Ginibi, in wiser old age, would swear off men, hence the book's title. Tragically, three of her children died, causing her years of grief – and a drinking problem that she finally kicked.

It's hard to understate how extraordinary a memoir this is. Langford Ginibi, viewed as a character on the page, is a mix of Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Brecht's Mother Courage, a woman of irrepressible life force and a tough survivor. She is a workhorse providing for her brood, living rough in outback tents and killing her own food. She brawls and drinks, would give you the shirt off her back if asked and raises a glass to life despite its endless hardships, especially for First Nations people.

At 400 pages long, there is never a dull moment in Don't Take Your Love to Town, as it chronicles a life lived to the fullest. Despite the vein of pain and suffering that runs through the book, Langford Ginibi is also very funny. She has an ironic turn of phrase and delightfully blunt sense of humour that gives her story heart and humanity.

An incredible memoir, an incredible life lived. Indeed, a classic.

Don't Take Your Love to Town, by Ruby Langford Ginibi. Published by Queensland University Press. $19.99

MAY23

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington)

The famous story of three girls who walked 1600 kilometres home.

The extraordinary story of three young girls' escape from an internment camp for mixed-race Indigenous children and their 1600 kilometre journey by foot Jigalong, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, first appeared as Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence

In 1931, three young girls escaped the Moore River Native Settlement, an internment camp for Indigenous children of mixed-race heritage and made the 1600 kilometre journey, all on foot, to their home in Jigalong. Traces of the story were on the official record, but by and large the girls' walk had been forgotten. It was only when author Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimara) was told the story by her aunt Daisy, that she began to research it in earnest.

Pilkington's book is an interesting mix. Not quite a biography, and not quite a history, it pieces together the journey of fourteen -year-old Molly, her half sister, eight-year-old Daisy and 10-year-old cousin Gracie in a fragmentary manner, as one would expect. The book is a sort of palimpsest – layers of personal story, official records and truth-telling – neatly set down in Pilkington's clear prose to offer a humbling account of three children, members of the Stolen Generation.

The great tragedy is that Doris Pilkington was forcibly removed from her mother, Molly, when she was three-years-old and taken to Moore River Native Settlement. She didn't see her for another 21 years.  

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington). Published by University of Queensland Press. ISBN: 9780702265976

Love, Pamela, by Pamela Anderson

The former Baywatch star and Playboy pin-up tells her story.

Pamela Anderson has always been perceived as a two-dimensional figure – a pin up girl and Baywatch star, more famous for her red swimsuit than any acting ability. She married drummer Tommy Lee in a bikini on the beach and found her life dragged through the gutter when some private videos were stolen from her house and edited into a sordid “sex tape”. In later years a different side to Anderson emerged. There was her animal welfare work for PETA and advocacy for Julian Assange.

Now middle-aged and with two adult sons, Pamela Anderson has decided to write her own story. An avid reader (everyone from Anais Nin to Noam Chomsky is referenced) and diary keeper since childhood, Love, Pamela seamlessly blends poetry and prose and has a brisk, almost chatty tone. She discusses growing up in Canada, her parents' turbulent relationship and childhood traumas such as when she was molested by a female babysitter. There are entertaining chapters on working for Playboy Magazine, her passionate and often extravagant lifestyle with Tommy Lee and the more settled years of activism and farming on her Canadian property, where she lives with her parents.

Love, Pamela could be best described as a book of forgiveness and healing. Anderson is candid about the many mistakes she has made in life, but seems to shrug them off as all par for the course. No one's perfect and nor should they expect to be. Where others have done her wrong, she holds no grudges or bitterness. Indeed, this is a sweet and hopeful book that strives to see the best in people.

An inspiring memoir, written in Pamela Anderson's unique authorial voice. The blonde pin-up now speaks, her words wise and compassionate.    

Love, Pamela, by Pamela Anderson. Published by Headline. $34.99

FEB23

Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani, by Behrouz Boochani

A selection of Behrouz Boochani's writing from his time detained on Manus Island.

Behrouz Boochani fled his native Iran in 2013, his work as a journalist having brought him the unwelcome attention of the authorities. He was on his way to Australia via Indonesia when the boat he was travelling on was intercepted by the Royal Australian Navy. He was detained on Manus Island from 2013 until 2019, when he managed to travel to New Zealand for a literary event and was subsequently granted refugee status.

Freedom, Only Freedom is a collection of Boochani's prison writings, translated and edited by Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi. The book is divided into ten parts, covering key events of Boochani's time in detention and also addressing philosophical and political questions regarding Australia's asylum seeker policies. Each part finishes with two pieces by different writers – academics, activists, journalists and supporters. These pieces aim to give context and perspective to Boochani's writing. While these contributions are interesting, they tend to be densely academic in tone. 

Boochani wrote the majority of the work presented here on his phone – an amazing feat of determination and commitment. He covers all aspects of detention – the constant humiliation, the hunger, dirt, filth, squalor, poor health of detainees and lack of appropriate services. The aim of detention, it seems, is to psychologically break down detainees until they are mere shells. One man whose only pleasure was playing his guitar had it confiscated. The official reason was the strings were considered a suicide risk. Despite so much misery and indignity, Boochani strives to show the humanity and hopes of his fellow detainees. If prison life offers only sadness and desperation, there are still the beauties of nature: birds, sea, sunshine. When all promise and dignity is stripped from the individual, nature allows detainees to still feel themselves as human.
Another aspect of detention the book addresses is the political. Boochani asks why Australia has chosen such a cruel and merciless system. Does it have roots in our colonial past, our former White Australia policy? Manus and Naru are like a gulag, where people are disappeared. Boochani sees his writing as a history project, a secret history that Australians don't want to confront.

“This writing that comes out of Manus is the unoffical history of Australia, a history that will never be authorised by the government.”

Freedom, Only Freedom proves to be a unique and critical document chronicling Australia's detention policy. It will surely only grow in status and relevance in the years to come.

Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani, by Behrouz Boochani. Published by Bloomsbury. $32.99

DEC22

Readme.txt: A Memoir, by Chelsea Manning

 

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning has written a compelling and insightful memoir.

Chelsea Manning, a former US soldier and intelligence analyst, leaked some 700,000 classified documents pertaining to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. She felt an increasing cognitive dissonance at how both wars were portrayed at home, compared to the reality on the ground. At first she tried to get what she knew published through mainstream media channels, anonymously approaching journalists and editors. Little interest was shown, so she decided on the bold plan of simply releasing all the documents online. Wikileaks soon made a name for itself in publishing the leaked documents.

Much has been written about Manning's motives. To set the record straight, she has decided to write her own story. Too many times, Manning writes, she has been held up as a figure head for certain political movements. As the pages of Readme.txt reveal, she sees herself more as a transparency activist, someone striving to put the truth before the public.

Born Bradley Manning in Oklahoma, she experienced a tough upbringing with a violent father and alcoholic mother. As a teenager she spent a period homeless, living on the streets and hustling for food and board. Desperately poor, with no prospects and trying to gain acceptance from her father, she decided to join the army. Since childhood Manning had been grappling with gender dysphoria and she hoped the army would somehow resolve these issues. Despite this, the dysphoria remained, with the need for secrecy influencing career decisions that would see her eventually stationed in Iraq.

Readme.txt is written in crisp, concise prose, neatly putting Manning's endlessly fascinating story into a satisfyingly digestible form. She claims to have always been a voracious and wide reader, and a sharp intelligence comes through in the text. Her story is one of surviving extreme psychological duress during seven years of prison, especially her early years of incarceration, where it was clear the authorities wanted to mete out the toughest possible punishment. Despite this, she managed to advocate for herself as a trans woman and receive appropriate gender treatment. Manning is a complex and fascinating character. She comes across as both incredibly vulnerable and resolutely strong. A gifted computer technician and analyst, she's also a passionate activist, someone ready to face jail for her beliefs. A trans woman who has had to fight for her identity.
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Chelsea Manning is certainly a polarising figure, but one who can't be ignored. Readme.txt deserves a wide readership.  

Readme.txt: A Memoir, by Chelsea Manning. Published by Jonathan Cape. $35

DEC22

Take Me to Paris, Johnny, by John Foster

A heartbreaking AIDS memoir.

John Foster was an historian, specialising in German history. For many years he taught at Melbourne University. His home was North Melbourne, where he lived with his partner Juan Céspedes. Foster was a practising Anglican and a parishioner at St Mary's. He rented a flat from the church in Howard Street, North Melbourne. (Residents of the inner-city suburb will recognise many locations and streets.)

In 1981, on a trip to New York, John met Juan and they enjoyed a long distance relationship for several years, until their battle with the Australian immigration department started to yield results and Juan moved to Australia. It was the early days of AIDS and information was slowly emerging. There had been a disturbing rise in what were called “gay cancers”. New York was an area where such mysterious illnesses seemed to be proliferating.

For many years, Juan had complained of stomach problems and had cast around for various cures to his condition. The idea that it could be AIDS was something the couple thought a remote possibility, but too terrible to contemplate. As Juan's health deteriorated, the possibility had to be confronted. By the time Juan found out he was HIV positive, he was living in Australia. The cherished dream of building a life together started crumbling apart as John took on a carer's role.

AIDS is a slow and cruel death. Take Me to Paris, Johnny is candid and matter-of-fact about how the disease relentlessly ravages the body. Juan was once a vibrant and energetic dancer, but near the end he weighed under 40 kilograms. He was only thirty-three when he died.

This is a lyrical yet unsentimental memoir that documents not only the illness itself, but social attitudes and the lack of legal protections for gay couples. There are, however, bright rays of sunshine in the support John and Juan received from St Mary's and the small community of friends they belonged to, but unbearable pain in the hopelessness of Juan's condition.

John Foster died of AIDS in 1994, the year after Take Me to Paris, Johnny was published. John and Juan are buried together at Kew cemetery.

A heartbreaking story told with restraint, humanity and dignity.

Take Me to Paris, Johnny, by John Foster

AUG 2022

Train Lord: The Astonishing True Story of One Man's Journey to Getting His Life Back on Track, by Oliver Mol

 
A successful young writer describes a personal season in hell.

Oliver Mol found a degree of early success with his debut memoir, Lion Attack! He was broadly feted and received the Scribe Non Fiction Prize for Young Writers. Yet it was this very success that precipitated a chronic, 10-month migraine. Depressed and not knowing what to do with himself, Mol took on a job as a train guard. If he couldn't read or write, at least there was the possibility of staying employed and useful.

Train Lord is not so much a memoir about his work as a train guard, although there are plenty of entertaining workplace vignettes interspersed throughout, but more a story of mental breakdown. Mol suffered low self-esteem and depression. It's tempting to surmise that his vaulting ambition as a writer somehow backfired into a crisis of confidence: his migraine affliction made it painful to look at screens, read books or write.

What recommends Train Lord is Mol's heartbreaking honesty. He's clearly suffered a season in hell and has managed to put his experiences on paper. The writing is plain and direct, yet haunting and melancholy. Anyone who struggles with their mental health may find a friend in this book.

Train Lord: The Astonishing True Story of One Man's Journey to Getting His Life Back on Track, by Oliver Mol. 

JULY 2022

The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody

 

A crowd pleasing transgender memoir.

Cadance Bell grew up in Mudgee, New South Wales. Hers is your usual story of growing up in country Australia – trips to the local fish and chip shop, hunting expeditions with your father – except for one thing. Cadance had a frightening secret. Born a boy and named Benjamin Lynch, she knew that something was wrong. Her male body, and all the cultural expectations that go with being a boy, didn't fit. She felt seriously out of whack. Cadance tried to right the wrongs of her male body by secretly buying women's clothing and wearing bras underneath her blokey clobber. She would keep stashes of women's clothes in hidden bags, terrified that someone would find out. Shame, guilt, secrecy, self-loathing. All these emotions would drive her into the arms of a drug habit to try to dull the pain and make life bearable. Finally the dark clouds started to break and Cadance found a way out. She started to transition. It wasn't easy. Most difficult of all was finding acceptance from her parents. While they did struggle with her identity, they eventually came round.

The above may make The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody sound like a misery memoir, but it's actually a boisterous, rollicking, laugh out loud ride through  working class Australia. Cadance Bell has a magic gift for capturing personalities in their true vernacular. Her dialogue leaps off the page and shakes you about. The portraits of her knock-about parents – her mother, a  tough-as-nails nurse who's seen it all and her father, a mine worker – are unforgettable. The various snapshots of growing up in rural Australia resonate as unmistakably authentic. This may be a trans memoir, but readers will see themselves and their family in its pithy descriptions of Australian life.
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Ultimately, The All of It is a funny, big-hearted memoir of growing up Australian, one that also deftly explains the pain and mental anguish of feeling you don't belong in your body. An absolute winner. 

The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody, by Cadance Bell

JUNE 2022

Ten Steps to Nanette, by Hannah Gadsby

 

The stand up comic shows herself to be a formidable writer.

Hannah Gadsby's fame now stretches the world over, but her unpropitious beginnings were in the north Tasmanian town of Smithton. As described in Ten Steps to Nanette, the northern half of Tasmania was rampant with homophobia before the gay law reforms of the early nineties. It was then unremarkable for major public figures to stoke fear and violence against gay people. Gadsby chronicles this terrible time in considerable detail. 

While Nanette presents as a memoir, it's a multi-faceted, left-of-field one. Gadsby depicts the struggle of growing up queer in a hostile environment and the trauma that ensues. She also examines the art and psychology of comedy, how tension is built and released in an audience. At one point Gadsby confesses to being able to play her audience like an instrument. Finally, Nanette works as a confessional, delving deeply into Gadsby's troubled psyche and then resurfacing victorious, having subdued many personal demons. There's a good deal of therapy and working through problems in these pages.

Fans of Hannah Gadsby won't be disappointed with this intelligent, perceptive and often very funny memoir. A substantial work of autobiography with not a word wasted.

Ten Steps to Nanette, by Hannah Gadsby

April 2022

Unknown: A Refugee's Story, by Akuch Kuol Anyieth

 

A compassionate and candid memoir about the South Sudanese refugee experience.

Akuch Kuol Anyieth spent a large part of her childhood in the Kakuma refugee camp, located in the North-western region of Kenya. In  her memoir, Unknown: A Refugee's Story, she details the poverty, violence, danger and desperation of living for almost a decade in Kakuma. (In South Sudanese culture, names are sometimes selected to reflect the circumstances surrounding a person's birth. "Akuch" means "unknown" or "I don't know", signifying the author's birth during a time of uncertainty and war.) There were times of the day you didn't walk out alone, for fear of being abducted and raped. Or worse, killed. Food was always scarce, sanitation poor and people's mental health precarious. The UN promised food and protection, but could never deliver these basic human rights. Life in the camp was one of constant struggle.

The second half of Unknown chronicles the family's experiences in Melbourne as migrants.  Akuch's mother, a formidable force despite many limitations,  moved heaven and earth to get her family to Australia. In 2005 they arrived – two brothers, Gai and Anyieth, and sister Atong. Language difficulties and cultural differences meant the family struggled to lay down stable roots in Australia. Anyieth's elder brother, nicknamed Dragon due to his volatile nature, took to drink, drugs and street fighting, causing immense suffering and heartache for the family. A younger brother, Gai, also found adjusting to Australia difficult and took to the streets. (Thankfully, both brothers eventually found stability in their lives and settled down.) Meanwhile, Akuch threw herself into study and work, determined to succeed academically and financially, but also to help members of her community overcome the trauma they had experienced.

Unknown is a remarkable memoir. Akuch Anyieth lays out the horrible reality of life in a refugee camp and the difficulties of settling into a new country. Australian bureaucracy can be complex and daunting to deal with, and ingrained racist attitudes make life difficult for South Sudenese refugees. The sections discussing race are informative, giving the reader first hand insights into how people with darker skin are treated.

Besides being a bracing memoir of an extraordinary life, Unknown is also deeply compassionate. It asks us to suspend our quick judgements on troubled South Sudenese youth until we know the complicated background story of war, displacement and trauma.  

April 2022

Real Estate, by Deboarh Levy

 

The third instalment of Deborah Levy's autobiographical series.

Real Estate forms the third part of Deborah Levy's “Living Autobiography”, following on from Things I Don't Want to Know and The Cost of Living. In it, Levy discusses different concepts of real estate, the things of value we own or even produce ourselves. The condensed timeline of the autobiography follows various trips around Europe, meetings with film producers, visits with friends, literary parties and so on. Some dramatic effect is added with the shenanigans of her best male friend, whose romantic life is up in the air. The autobiography's most central concern, one that is treated fairly lightly, is the author's impending sixtieth birthday. This is seen as a coming milestone, but not particularly meaningful.

Levy sprinkles her book with quotes from favourite authors and ruminates on some feminist themes. It would have been nice if some of the book's intellectual ideas were expanded a bit, mainly because they were quite interesting, offering a diversion from the concentration on day-to-day minutiae.

A pleasant enough ramble, a thoughtful meditation on ageing that is often fairly upbeat.

Real Estate, by Deboarh Levy. Published by Penguin. $22.99

The Broken House: Growing Up Under Hitler, by Horst Kruger

 

An unforgettable memoir of growing up in Nazi Germany.

First published in Germany in 1966, The Broken House is a memoir of growing up in Nazi Germany. Born in 1919, novelist and journalist Horst Kruger was fourteen when Hitler came to power. He was part of a resistance movement, escaped serious punishment and eventually was conscripted into the German army. When all was lost, he surrendered prematurely to the Americans and gave them vital coordinates, helping close down a battlefront early.

Kruger looks back to his youth in Eichkamp, Berlin, to try and figure out what the appeal of Hitler was. The enigma of the century, why was Hitler so popular, how did he get away with the murder of six million Jews? The irony, as he writes it, is that the sentimental, suburban, middle-class Germans who adored Hitler were not paid up Nazi members. Although in one passage Kruger describes his mother buying him a “pretty” swastika to put on his bicycle. It was this broad cohort of non-political Germans, Kruger maintains, who created Hitler. Without them Hitler couldn’t have existed. Indeed, it’s easy to see how respectable middle-class Germans turned a blind eye to the looming Holocaust. Jewish neighbours were disappearing left, right and centre, yet no alarm bells went off. People merely shrugged their shoulders.

In other chapters Kruger describes the strange middle class preoccupation with respectability. When his sister commits suicide, what seems more important, to his mother at least, is that appearances are kept up. They lie to the neighbours about her sudden and dramatic ambulance journey and Mrs Kruger is relieved that she died a virgin, her sacredness intact.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing and compelling chapters is the description of the trials for war crimes. A parade of unremarkable men – doctors, academics, public servants – are assembled in court. A seemingly innocuous bunch. It’s hard to put these respectable images next to the hideous crimes they performed. A perfect example of Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil.

For anyone trying to understand this incomprehensible period of history, The Broken House offers the feel, smell and mood of a Germany that thinks itself innocent, having emerged from the humiliations of the 1918 Versaille Treaty. Hitler offers the country self-esteem, hope and a bright future. But anti-semitism is everywhere around these simple German folk. It’s essential to Hitler’s madness. Failure to see these wrongs will form a large part of Germany’s downfall.

For some reason this fascinating time capsule has only recently been re-discovered in Germany, republished in 2019. It appears now in English for the first time. With the novelist’s gift for narrative, lyrical description and compelling character studies, Horst Kruger’s memoir is both aesthetically pleasing and of deep historical value. 

The Broken House: Growing Up Under Hitler, by Horst Kruger. Published by Jonathan Cape. $32.99

Lapsed, by Monica Dux

 

Monica Dux comes to terms with her Catholic means

Writer and columnist Monica Dux grew up Catholic during a time of social upheaval. At home and at school, she was taught about Jesus, Mary and the Apostles. It was a way of life, and a very specific identity, being Catholic, one that never left you. But as young Monica grew up she became sceptical and left the church's teachings way behind. The thing about Catholicism, however, is that you may leave it, but it never leaves you. Lapsed is Dux's attempt to come to terms with what influence Catholicism continues to exert over her life, looking back from middle age.

The result is a mix of humour (lots of laugh-out-loud moments, in fact), memoir and Catholic history, examining in detail the church's many weird beliefs and practices. The section on child abuse scandals covered up by senior clergy burns with rage and indignation.

A highly entertaining book, chock full of gags and zingers, but with a serious core of self-examination.  

Lapsed, by Monica Dux. Published by ABC Books. $34.99

Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss, by Nick Gadd

Novelist Nick Gadd remembers his wife Lynne through their many walks through inner city Melbourne. ​

Nick Gadd and his wife, Lynne, spent two years circling Melbourne's inner-city suburbs. “Psychojogging”, they called it, walking and exploring, theorising and researching the many odd and uncanny places they visited. When Nick's wife died from cancer, he decided to write up their expeditions as a way of dealing with his grief. Throughout the book an intimate portrait of Lynne is built up through remembered conversations and shared experiences.

In many ways, Melbourne Circle is a quirky and enchanting history of inner Melbourne, from the working class suburbs of Yarraville and Footscray, to the glamour of South Yarra's 1930's outre apartments, as designed by architect Howard Lawson. Many will be surprised to read about Maribrynong's once bustling bomb factory, the Yarraville retirement flats built on toxic waste that sank and that masterpiece of modern architecture, the ETA Peanut Butter Factory in Braybrook (its design was internationally recognised.)

For those who like to absorb their history on the streets – pondering the life of former arcades and post offices, piecing together “ghost signs” faded on old brick walls and staring in wonder at our architectural curios – there is much to delight in Melbourne Circle. 

Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss, by Nick Gadd. Published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. $29.99

Car Crash: A Memoir, Lech Blaine

Lech Blaine revisits a deeply traumatising event from his youth.

In 2009, Lech Blaine and six of his friends were involved in a horrific car crash in Toowoomba, Queensland. No drink-driving or breaking of speed limits was involved, although the car was clearly overloaded (two were travelling in the boot). The group was still in their teens, just boys. They were travelling at 95 kilometres an hour, five kilometres under the limit. When a back tyre hit some gravel the car spun out of control. People at the accident site later commented that Lech was hysterical, crawling out of the car despite being told to sit still until help arrived. Being young and fit, Lech presumed everyone would pull through. Death never entered his head. But over the coming days the seriousness of the injuries would provide a harsh dose of reality. Three of his friends died. One close friend suffered permanent brain damage, unable to walk or talk.

Car Crash, a memoir of this grief stricken time, describes the author stumbling numb and confused through the aftermath. It covers an hallucinatory, nightmare year and paints an emotionally complicated portrait of a group of young teenagers, ill equipped to deal with sudden, inexplicable death.

Lech Blaine is a preternaturally gifted young writer, still in his twenties. His prose shows an easy sophistication and surreal wit, constantly throwing out pleasant surprises. While the book is ostensibly about a group of young Toowoomba teenagers, describing their culture of sex, sport and alcohol, Blaine also spends much of the memoir concentrating on his relationship with his separated parents. His father is a sports loving, Labor voting union man, while his mother is the sensitive lover of literature, burdened with mental health issues. These sections brilliantly evoke complicated familial relationships, how children are formed by their parents, but also act to counter their influence.
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Grief and confusion as experienced by young men, leavened with a smart sense of humour and a true writer's gift for subtle observation.
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Car Crash: A Memoir, by Lech Blaine. Published by Black Inc. $29.99