Catch Me When You Fall
Eileen Merriman
Penguin, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143770930
Ash Arising
Mandy Hager
Penguin, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143772439
Eileen Merriman’s Catch Me When You Fall – a title that provokes a head-tilt to begin with and that takes multiple possible meanings upon reading the book – is narrated by 17-year-old Alex Byrd, and it tells the story of a particular autumn (or fall, as they would say in America) in her life.
The Deadly Sky
David Hill
Puffin, $20.00, ISBN 9780143308157
The Red Suitcase
Jill Harris
Mākaro Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780994106902
Spark
Rachael Craw
Walker, $22.00, ISBN 9781922179623
David Hill’s The Deadly Sky is set in 1974, when the nuclear proliferation of the Cold War was at the forefront of political debate, and France was, quite literally, dropping bombs in the South Pacific. Modern global terror has a different focus (the Big Red Button seems old-fashioned from today’s perspective), but the ethical quandaries at the heart of the arms race – whether militarisation works to promote security or to endanger it; whether national and global security is worth its economic, ecological and individual cost – remain pertinent.
The Enchanted Flute James Norcliffe Longacre, $20.00, ISBN 9781869799267 Heart of Danger Fleur Beale Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9781869795436 In The Enchanted Flute, James Norcliffe (author of the celebrated Loblolly Boy series) makes classical myth the source and…
Issue 124 Summer 2018