Page 89 - Marie Claire Australia (January 2020)

CULTURE

SILVER THE WRITING ON YEAR OF

by Chris Hammer THE WALL THE MONKEY
(Allen & Unwin, $32.99) by Juliet Rieden by Patti Smith
(Pan Macmillan (Bloomsbury, $29.99)
Martin Scarsden is Australia, $32.99)
back, baby! In all his Those familiar with
curious, smart and Following the death Patti Smith’s writing
flawed glory. The of her father, burning know how deeply
sequel to last year’s journalistic instinct drove personal it can be.
stand-out read Juliet Rieden to set in However, even her
Scrublands sees motion an 18-month biggest fans will be
Scarsden return to investigation to uncover taken aback by Year Of
his home town of the story of how he The Monkey. Beginning
Port Silver, where survived the Holocaust. on New Year’s Day
murder and mystery “Although he didn’t 2016, Smith navigates
await. “You can bury talk about it, my father’s her 70th year in the
your past, but you past revealed itself in context of a world
can’t escape it,” the everything he did,” gone mad during the
cover taunts – and writes Rieden in her presidential elections.
“IF YOU LOVED the inside pages gripping memoir. Beautifully written
LAST YEAR’S deliver. Another Her investigations with dreamlike prose,
BOY SWALLOWS masterpiece from take readers across Smith’s emotional and
UNIVERSE, former journalist the globe, but what she intellectual musings
YOU WILL Chris Hammer. finds will hit closer to on loss, death and
LOVE SILVER” home than she could ageing are both
have ever imagined. profound and moving.

THE DUTCH TALKING TO
HOUSE STRANGERS
by Ann Patchett by Malcolm Gladwell
(Bloomsbury, $29.99) (Penguin Random
House, $35)
Anne Patchett’s
latest novel is a In his most recent
slow-burning foray into theories
family saga about why people
that puts the act the way they do,
indestructible Malcolm Gladwell
bond between asks, “Why is it so
siblings under the hard to detect a lie,
microscope. As the read a face or
protagonists Maeve judge a stranger’s
and Danny cling motives?” Gladwell’s
to each other ideas will challenge
over the course you and force you to
of five decades, question everything
this becomes a you know. This is the
story of emotional kind of book that
survival. The Dutch will have you
House is a quietly reading passages
brilliant novel that aloud to anyone who
will move you. will listen, debating
the findings and
thinking about it
long after you
put it down.