Statements from the Soul: The Moral Case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, edited by Shireen Morris and Damien Freeman
Essays, La Trobe University Press, $32.99
As Australia readies itself for what could be a highly divisive referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament, Statements from the Soul is a first shot across the bow for unity. In a series of essays – sometimes referred to as “prayers” – Australian religious leaders, from the archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, to Rabbi Ralph Genende, make the stirring moral case for the voice.
Joined in the second half by international religious leaders, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the book sets the standard for conversations not just about the voice, but the value and urgency of true reconciliation. – Celina Ribeiro
Did I Ever Tell You This? by Sam Neill
Memoir, Text Publishing, $39.99
Yes, I know he’s not technically Australian, but starring in The Dish should give you honorary citizenship. Details are scant about Sam Neill’s forthcoming memoir, but it’s hard to argue with cover lines from Meryl Streep (“Just so wonderful … made me laugh out loud”), Stephen Fry (“Hilarious, wicked, wonderful, kind, thoughtful, engaging and wise”) and Laura Dern (“he shares his stories … with delicious irreverence”).
An outsider with insider access, the book has stories from his childhood in Northern Ireland and New Zealand’s South Island, his ascent to accidental Hollywood A-list status, and his return to farm and family life in New Zealand. At over 400 pages long, and with a career like his, there are likely to be a few revelations as well as laughs. – Alyx Gorman
Infidelity and Other Affairs by Kate Legge
Memoir, Thames & Hudson, $34.99
If Nora Ephron taught us anything, it was to never betray a writer. Former chief executive of Fairfax media, Greg Hywood, apparently didn’t take heed – and his affairs have been chronicled by his ex-wife Legge, a former journalist for the Weekend Australian. Legge was “blindsided” to find her husband had been sleeping with a close friend – and after he admitted to adultery throughout their 30-year marriage, she climbed up and down his family tree – and consulted science, experts and other couples – to ask what informs the decision to cheat, and whether it might be hereditary.
Hywood, who she doesn’t name, has praised the book: “My career has been devoted to the stories of people’s lives,” he told the Australian. “I could hardly object merely because for a change I was the subject.” – Steph Harmon
The Bell of the World by Gregory Day
Fiction, Transit Lounge, $32.99
The Bell of the World is the latest novel from Australian author, poet and essayist Gregory Day, whose numerous accolades include the Patrick White literary award, the Nature Writing prize and a Miles Franklin shortlisting. It’s an ecologically rich tale following the life of Sarah Hutchinson, a troubled young woman who finds the “place of the drama of her healing” in the vast expanse of the Australian landscape.
Living with her uncle on a farm south of Geelong, the pair wax lyrical on philosophies of place, literature and music, as well as why it’s imperative we tune our ears to hearing nature’s own language. With overtones of White, the novel is a lyrical ode to the environment and Indigenous values, but amid the climate crisis, it’s also a treatise on humankind’s need to rethink our relationship with the land. – Jack Callil
Tanya Plibersek: On Her Own Terms by Margaret Simons
Biography, Black Inc, $34.99
Margaret Simons was initially reluctant to write about the Labor politician, initially wondering if Plibersek was “sufficiently absorbing”: “I didn’t leap at the chance … I didn’t understand the particular passion of her fanclub.” Two things convinced her: their shared love for Jane Austen, and the story of her Slovenian parents. In turn, Plibersek was a reluctant subject, but agreed to be interviewed after learning it would be written without her.
As political biographies often do, Plibersek’s recently made headlines, but this deserves more attention than the news cycle can grant. Simons is, as always, a perspicacious and sage writer, and this book is (to me, initially uninterested in Plibersek) surprisingly compelling. A revelatory portrait of a politician who wants “to live a large and useful life”. – Sian Cain
In Belinda’s Kitchen: Essential Recipes by Belinda Jeffery
Cookbook, Simon & Schuster, $49.99
Along with Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander, Belinda Jeffery is a name you’ll regularly spy in kitchens around Australia. The author has forged a reputation for uncomplicated recipes that yield results as delicious as they are joyful.
Her step-by-step recipes are part instructive, part good-natured patter; you can almost sense her leaning over the mixing bowl to gently explain why you shouldn’t overbeat your cake batter, for example, or play with pomegranates while wearing a white apron. Lemon roasted chicken, zucchini bake, meringue cake: Jeffery’s recipes neither reinvent the wheel nor break new ground, but you can put your trust in them – which is precisely the point. – Yvonne Lam
Dress Rehearsals by Madison Godfrey
Poetry, Allen & Unwin, $24.99
The first release from playwright and actor Nakkiah Lui’s imprint Joan, Godfrey’s second collection is a sensual and often funny “memoir made of poetry”. The poet, who is non-binary, traverses a decade of their youth: from a longing, emo fan girl; to an alter ego femme fatale, revelling in the gaze; to a person weaving femininity and masculinity into something new, embracing the menace and beauty of their new identity, and new love.
There’s a poem for Harry Styles, another for Halsey, even an ode to overlooked kneecaps (“I am sorry I didn’t look lower sooner”). There’s fury about chronic illness, about misogyny, about trauma – but there’s liberation here, too, in finding their queer community: “We arrive like daylight. Spin in wide circles with wide joy.” – Steph Harmon
Resistance by Jacinta Halloran
Fiction, Text Publishing, $32.99
Family therapist Nina meets the Agostinos: a mother, father and two children who have been mandated to see her after the parents steal a car and go awol in the outback. The parents, Claude and Lisa, are elusive and unwilling to reveal why; the children, Poppy and Theo, are eerily self-possessed. As Nina becomes more obsessed with the case of her mysterious clients, it begins to bleed into her own sessions with her therapist.
Resistance is a novel about secrets and shame, as well as the place of women among men in their families. Halloran, author of widely admired books including The Science of Appearances, writes very elegantly – I greatly enjoyed this one. – Sian Cain
