2ser Book Club

Lorraine Peck’s The Second Son is an all out riot of action and ideas that takes us into the dark heart of Sydney.

I’m going to try not to use too much in the way of cliches here but The Second Son is the kind of novel that pours petrol on the drama and then dangles a lit match while you squirm.

All right, that's enough, let me tell you about it...

Among the gangs of Western Sydney Johnny Novak has always played second-fiddle to his brother Ivan. But when Ivan is murdered in his driveway; a professional hit that threatens to ignite a gang war, Johnny will be forced to step up.

Johnny’s always played his gang connections close to his chest. He manages the more legitimate parts of the family a choice that makes him weak in his father Milan’s eyes. Now Milan wants Johnny to avenge his brother. It should be a simple eye-for-an-eye but something doesn’t seem quite right...

Lorraine Peck’s debut novel is a testosterone charged ride through Sydney and is resplendent with an arsenal of fast cars and weaponry fit for a fast and furious movie. There’s also a lot of riffing on family and the ties that bind and it’s here that Peck really got my interest.

Johnny’s father is a real ‘make him an offer he can’t refuse’ kinda guy. And there would be enough in this tension between the family to keep the pages turning except that Peck splits her point of view and gives us interlacing narratives of both Johnny and his wife Amy.

Amy is very much not part of the family. She’s the light to his dark and she knows Johnny’s Dad wished he’d married a good Croatian girl. Milan loves his grandson Sacha but is not so sure about Amy. In the tension between Amy’s wish for a normal life and the twisting, interweaving perspectives we have the driving ethos of family first split with Johnny torn in his loyalties.

This dynamic plays out particularly well in the fight for Sacha’s future. Both Amy and Johnny are terrified that as the violence gets closer to home that Sacha will inevitably be drawn into the family business.

Maybe it’s me but I can’t read (or even watch) violence in an unproblematic way these days. Here in the Second Son the violence always has stakes.

Johnny Novak is a hard character to like but we are backed into a corner as the rogues gallery lining up around him look increasingly less appealing. He’s our hero like it or not but as Amy continually reminds us, his choices are putting all their lives at risk.

The treatment of women and violence against women also comes in for scrutiny in the Second Son. I’ve gotta say I’d have preferred more vigorous exploration of the ways violence is enacted both physically and through coercive control but the book does explore these forces and gives Amy agency in her story even as she falls victim of many of the mobster wife tropes.

The Second Son is a tense and pacey thriller that also makes you think. I’ll admit there were chapters that I finished at a gallop and realised my heart was racing and that’s not something a lot of books make me do.

Check out Loraine Peck’s The Second Son; it’s got all the Sydney action we used to enjoy before we had to do our secret back alley exchanges at a social distance.

Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. He was nominated for the Booker Prize for his 1996 novel The Sunken Road and has a lifetime Ned Kelly award. And today I want to share with you the latest in his rural noir series centering on his protagonist Constable Paul Hirshhausen.

Hirsch is the only cop in the poorly heated police station in Tiverton. He was run out of Adelaide when he turned whistleblower on corruption leaving behind a promising career in the city. But the town has come to know him, they even trust him enough to play Santa on the annual parade, but there’s always an edge when police are around.

Consolation opens with Hirsh investigating a Snowdropper - that’s when someone sneaks around stealing women’s underwear in the night. It’s the sort of weird crime that Hirsch knows can escalate.

When you’re the only cop and everyone knows your number it’s not hard for things to get busy pretty quickly; Hirsch is called to a house where a homeschooled child is being neglected, then back to town where a disgruntled father is taking it out on the teachers.

I recently spoke with Garry ( and you can catch that conversation on the Final Draft podcast _wherever all good podcasts are found). He wrote this novel during lockdown and even though he deliberately avoided going into our Covid times (although he teased the next novel would) Garry was clearly interested and influenced by ideas that have been percolating for many of us.

Consolation asks questions about how we work as a community. The ties that bind and who we trust. Even small towns have their mystery and Consolation explores the divide between the public and the private sphere - who and what are we responsible for? What do we owe each other?

Technology plays a big role in the novel. It’s power to connect is juxtaposed with the ways it can be used for abuse. There’s an interesting subplot where Hirsch (whose number is always freely available to the townsfolk of Tiverton) suffers unwanted and escalating attention via txt. Most fascinating is the way that Hirsch is exposed as vulnerable and has his conviction that he can handle the situation challenged.

This book felt like an opening up of Hirsch’s character. We see a delicate balance of thoughtful and tough which makes for a genuinely engaging portrait of a series detective.

Garry Disher’s rural noir series featuring Hirsch is an incredibly satisfying look at everyday Australia.

Sophie Laguna is the author of the Miles Franklin Award winning Eye of the Sheep, the Indie Book Award winning The Choke. Sofie's latest novel is Infinite Splendours.

Infinite Splendours takes us back to 1950’s Victoria...

Lawrence lives an idyllic life with his mother and younger brother Paul. Lawrie’s father was killed in the second world war and the boys roam free around their homestead in the shadows of the Grampians.

Lawrie’s a good student, and a faithful brother and son. Art is his passion and Lawrie can see the world differently to others until a horrific trauma robs him of his sense of freedom in the world.

That’s the first thing to know about Infinite Splendours; it confronts trauma head on and does not flinch from the damage and the repercussions suffered throughout the lifespan.

This is a difficult topic and it will hit home for too many people. I’m not going to go into the details of what Lawrie experiences but for anyone out there going through a difficult time know that help is available and you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Infinite Splendours takes us from Lawrie’s childhood, through his twenties and into his fifties. Lawrie has been scarred by the trauma he experienced and is prevented from talking about it both psychologically and physically through a stammer that manifests, preventing him from clearly articulating.

Lawrie finds no comfort or understanding in the men around him and returns to the art that he discovered as a boy.

In the natural world Lawrie is able to explore a multitude of expressions from the interplay of colour to the contrast of dark and light. It is in this way Lawrie is able to communicate, in a language of the senses and in a constant dialogue with the Masters who have gone before him.

Sofie’s prose effortlessly moves between Lawrie’s interior world and the shifting landscapes of Australia in the second half of the twentieth century. Lawrie’s voice retains a childlike naivety balanced with a developing sophistication as he learns the various modes and techniques of his art. In exploring the landscape around him, sitting at the foot of the Grampians Lawrie seems to transcend time and space as he explores the meanings of his life.

Into this world perpetual interruptions obscure the beauty of pure art. Lawrie must try and hold a job, Paul grows up and cannot understand what has happened to the brother he once looked up to. We as readers are presented with the impossible contradiction of Lawrie’s world; cut off but so much more connected with himself.

Back in 2016 when I read The Eye of the Sheep I was blown away by Sofie Laguna’s powerful insights into our humanity and in Infinite Splendours she has done it again...

Ceridwen Dovey is a writer of fiction, creative non-fiction essays and profiles. Her books include Blood Kin, Only the Animals and In the Garden of Fugitives.

I’ve got Ceridwen’s new novel, Life After Truth, for you and it is fantastically entertaining as well as thought provoking and genre defying.

On the eve of their fifteenth reunion five friends return to Harvard University. The school has been formative for the group. As the scene of their fondest memories it has bound them together. Now spread around the world, the excuse of the reunion propels them back towards younger conceptions for themselves.

Unfortunately reunions are never limited to friends and the group must confront old flames, bullies and the ubiquitous jerk, who is now the son of the American President.

Fred Reese is one of the most despised men in the country, second only to his father, but when he winds up dead - did anyone hate him enough to kill him?

Life After Truth leads with the discovery of the dead Fred Reese and seemingly sets up the reader for a detective style mystery as we seek to uncover the truth. Dovey flips these conventions though and propels us back to the beginning of the reunion and into the psyches of the friends;

Mariam and Rowan were married after graduation. They’ve bucked the trend and stayed in love.

Jomo is charismatic and beautiful, and as a celebrity gemologist gets to see the world.

Eloise never left Harvard. As a celebrated professor of hedonics she seems to have an inside scoop on the happy life.

Jules was a star when the group met her and she still lives the life of one of the world’s most famous actresses.

Back in their old dorms the group are ready to celebrate each other but amidst the triumphs no one can help but look on with some envy at the choices they never made.

Life After Truth is an incredibly sophisticated exploration of life and living. Through flashbacks we come to see how the group have grown from their student days, subtly altering themselves at life's various challenges. Thrown into the reunion, however, we see how amongst old acquaintances we remain the sum of our ill-advised youthful moments.

The story opens up the mysteries of time and the seeming impossible leap from adolescence into adulthood. Dovey exposes each and every one of us for our grappling insecurity and desire for support. In a world of fake news she challenges us with the possibility that the greatest falsehood are the lies we tell about ourselves.

Oh, and the dead son of the president?

You’ll have to read on to find out...

This week's book club celebrates NAIDOC week 2020.

The theme for this years NAIDOC is “Always was Always will be”. The theme acknowledges that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this land for more than 65, 000 years.

First Nations people across the lands that we now collectively call Australia have the oldest oral traditions and stories in the world so I thought it appropriate to bring in a new collection called Maar Bidi - next generation black writing.

Maar Bidi grew out of the creative writing program for young Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students at the school of Indigenous studies at the University of Western Australia.

The collection brings together nine new Indigenous writers aged between eighteen and twenty one and is edited by Elfie Shiosaki and Linda Martin. Published by Magabala books

Maar Bidi is a Noongar language phrase. It’s translated in the introduction as ‘to create a pathway with one’s hands’. A possible alternative translation of Maar Bidi is handwriting. It’s an interesting thought there; the connection between writing and creating pathways.

In his introduction to Maar Bidi, Noongar author Kim Scott describes how the reader will “assist in recovering and forge connection between an internal heritage and the external world as it is right now. You will help give voice to dreams and desires and wounds, and realise that individuals -and reading - can reveal and renew spirit and energy that connects all.”

Now I don’t know where I’m speaking to you; in your car, on your morning run, at home, or even where that place is around Sydney. But I do know that so many of us are limited in our experience and our exposure to the stories of young black men and women. That we are more likely to experience these lives in tragic headlines than through personal stories.

So I wanted to introduce you to Maar Bidi so that you might discover the lyrical beauty of Angelica Augustine as she explains to us how the “ocean is playing its own kind of music”, hear Savannah Cox explain in ‘Mother Earth’ that

Every Hole You Carve From Her

She dies a little

And learn to listen with humility as Jarrad Travers’ ‘Stolen’ asks

But Why? I still ask

They were morally bankrupted. I now live my life

Sorrily, disgusted

I’ve shared just a few words from the collection here. You don’t more from me, these words recommend themselves and challenge you to get out and discover more.

Go and check out Maar Bidi...

Then go read Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance, or Anita Heiss’ Tiddas, or Claire G Coleman’s The OLd Lie, or Karen Wyld’s Where the Fruit Falls, or any of the hundreds of incredible novels being written by Aboriginal authors that are not only terrific reads but offer us all a chance to learn and get smart about the 65, 000 year old continent we live in...

Today’s book is one that has been on my mind all year.

Jess Hill’s See What You Made Me Do won the Stella Prize back in April and while I’m usually immersed in Australian literature for Final Draft, I knew this was a book that I had to read.

I’ve spent the interceding months reading this work of incredible research and journalism. Before I get into the content I wanted to put a content warning on the book club today. See What You Made Me Do deals with abuse and with the systems that enable it and that may hit close to home to many people.

If you want to tune out for the next few minutes, but also know that help is available and if you are in a difficult situation you can call 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732 for confidential information, advice and support services.

See What You Made Me Do is a powerful and confronting book that flips the usual narrative of abuse, centered on why didn’t she leave, on its head. Combining deep research and heartbreaking storytelling Jess Hill turns the lens of abuse on the perpetrators and tries to understand why men abuse and how they are enabled by systems that are supposedly designed to protect victims.

And before anyone starts angrily ‘#notall…’ tweeting, Jess Hill delves into relationship abuse perpetrated against men. But we have to deal with the reality that abuse and abusive behaviours are predominately committed by men against women and that this happens because the world is set up with messed up ideas around power and who gets what.

This is a thoroughly researched piece of narrative journalism that explodes the assumptions and preconceptions that fuel our reactions when we hear about abuse, or read in the news about the horror of violence.

It’s hard to encapsulate in a short review the detail that See What You Made Me Do goes into. A part of this is because the systems that Hill explores run throughout our society working to minimise and marginalise the voices of women who have been abused.

Just as we have learned terms like gaslighting and privilege as part of our everyday understanding of the operations of power, Hill familiarises the reader with concepts such as coercive control; a form of abuse that sees insidious chipping away at the abused’s sense of agency through behaviours like controlling finances, isolating a partner from social supports and checking on their phone and social media.

See What You Made Me Do sounds a call on the need to reexamine the systems of our world, whilst also reminding us that these calls have been made before. In a huge way I wanted to talk about this book because the call should be taken up by men. So much of what is described by Hill in the book is allowed because men who want to call themselves allies do not call out behaviours, do not believe women when they say things are wrong and do not want to give up any of the power and privilege that has buffered them from the consequences of their actions.

Get out and read Jess Hill’s See What You Made Me Do, everyone.

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You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

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The beginning of the school year brings a late enrollment into Allison Walsh’s Kindergarten class. Gracie has moved to Wirriga to be closer to the hospitals and treatments that hold the only hope for saving her young life.

Allison prides herself as a caring person but since her husband left, taking their son she's been struggling. Taking Gracie and her Dad into her home Allison determines to save the family. But can she help this little girl with the tragic story, and what are the lines that a good teacher should never cross?

The tragic story of Gracie and her dad Luke capture the hearts of the community. Allison rallies the school to fundraise and Luke's new colleague at the gym Maz sees health and fitness as a key to helping everyone live their best lives amidst the struggle.

The Good Teacher is a thriller and at its heart there is a mystery to be solved, but more intriguingly is the way that mystery collides with our modern covid crisis of faith in information and facts. When I spoke with Petronella for Final Draft (check out the podcast) she told me the story was originally meant to be set in 2020. This required a few rewrites as the plot progression could not be sustained in a socially distanced world, but it still intersects with our search and our struggle for reliable information in 2020.

As Gracie’s illness progresses everyone wants to be the one to save her. Diving deep into the world of online remedies each of the characters find information to support their theories and contradict the others. Maz begins to research supplements and quickly dives deep into an internet rabbit hole of fabulous and miraculous miracle cure testimonies.

Here on the page we see the tragedy and trauma of our own scientific illiteracy play out. Characters fall into echo chambers of their own self-belief and cannot see any other way. And this blindness comes to shape their behaviour and impact their wider world.

We see this in Allison. After her husband leaves her she is driven to extraordinary behaviour; following them home and waiting outside the house desperately seeking some clue as to why this has happened to her. These extremes are reversed when she takes in Luke and Gracie hoping through kindness to restore some sort of equilibrium. Driven to these extremes Allison indulges in other transgressions, sneaking Gracie treats against her father’s wishes, convinced she knows better.

Throughout The Good Teacher plays with our understanding of truth and what is real and this of course leads the reader to the mystery that has been lurking beneath the surface…

But I’m not going to tell you about that!

Check out the good reader and as you marvel at the lengths the characters will go to convince themselves take a look at how our modern lives have similarly become a war of weaponised information and competing versions of truth...

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Paul Dalgarno is a journalist and writer. He was born in Aberdeen Scotland and came to Australia in 2010. His first book entitled And you may find Yourself is a memoir about his journey into fatherhood and I’m going to tell you about his first novel Poly.

Poly is the story of Chris and Sarah, or maybe it’s the story of Chris and Biddy, or it might even be the story of Chris and Zac.

Chris and his wife have decided to open up their relationship; to become polyamorous. Chris and Sarah have a loving partnership, and two adorable kids. They also haven’t had sex for years and after discussing it figure this is a way to get something back in their relationship.

This is the first thing you notice about Poly; Chris and Sarah communicate with an almost radical sense of openness. From the outset we are privy to Chris’ inner world and walk alongside him as he anxiously shares that world with those around him. Chris is admirable for not being admirable. We witness his petty jealousies (and not so petty jealous moments) and feel him battling to put others first.

This is not a vision of masculinity we are often privy to. Chris faces up to the versions of being a man we are served in the media (heck his wife is dating some of them) the conflict between competing ideals is intense and Chris suffers for not knowing how to be the ideal when that ideal means different things to all his loved ones.

Life gets complicated when Chris opens himself up to the openness of the Poly life. Zac is welcomed into their family home as a sort of adopted adult child while Chris also falls for Biddy. These competing loyalties pull at Chris until he finds himself unable to take the strain of expectations.

It is in depicting the anxieties of not being enough that Paul gets at the heart of our modern uncertainty. Chris wants to be all things. He wants a vision of masculinity that lets him be tough and soft, sexual but also understanding of Sarah’s inability to have sex with him. Chris wants the impossible and has no way to separate reality from all the competing versions of his life.

As I got into Poly I thought that Paul’s decision to focus the reader exclusively through Chris’ point of view was a mistake. As the relationships deepened it felt a little lacking that we didn’t have challenging perspectives, particularly from female characters. But Paul also had one hell of a surprise in store.

Ultimately Chris’ increasingly claustrophobic narrative voice builds us into the tensions that drive at the heart of the story. Poly is definitely a read for anyone who wants to explode their preconceptions and open up new ideas about life, love and aussie blokes.

If any of these issues have brought up things for you there is help available.

In Australia, where we broadcast from, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. If you're anywhere else in the world search online for mental health support services and know that help is available.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal is the debut novel from Anna Whateley. Anna has a PhD in literature from Queensland University. She’s an own voices author of young adult fiction that engages with diversity and the depth of human experience.

Peta Lyre lives in a world that isn’t made for her brain. She’s got an alphabet to contend with including ASD, ADHD and SPD. She’s also been brought up with a list of rules about what to do and what to avoid to help her seem ‘normal’ for whatever normal is worth.

From the offset Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal engages with Peta’s diagnoses, or alphabet. We are given insight into her feelings about being on the Autism Spectrum, her challenges managing the range of sensory sensitivities that present in her life and her need for medication to manage her day. We understand that Peta’s neurodiversity is who she is but that it also presents challenges that she must face, in large part because the neurotypical world does not cut her much slack.

The novel centers on friendship. Peta has her best friend Jeb. They’ve known each other for years and Jeb is the kind of person who cares enough to know when Peta needs him. Jeb is a study in masculinity that refuses to fit rigid definition. He’s strong enough to stand up for himself but does not let that make him hard. It was wonderful to see portrayed the ideal of men as supportive and present without needing to be dominant.

When a new girl starts at school, Peta suddenly finds herself with two best friends and a whole lot of confusion. Sam wants to know if Peta and Jeb are a thing. Maybe she is a third wheel. Peta’s not great with idiosyncratic language and even less sure about the language of relationships. As Peta revels in having an expanding circle of friends she must also deal with exactly how she is feeling about Sam and their growing closeness.

Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal shows us the journey Peta has to make to fit into a world that won’t shift for her. The story takes us into her family (her parents abandoned her with her aunt), the world of therapy (where it’s a mix-bag of individuals who both help but also patronise) and the world of just life.

Peta has always been told she needs to follow the rules to be normal. But not why normal is so desirable. As we move with Peta we see the enormous cost constant vigilance takes on her and come to question whether a rigid notion of normalcy is really so great?

I read because reading opens up windows on worlds that I could never hope to visit without books. Books take us outside ourselves and into other people's perspectives. In Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal we are given access to a world that is too often hidden behind labels and stereotypes.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Lona is nineteen. She’s dropped out of uni but still sneaks in to use the photo lab. Lona longs for life to be bigger than the collection of mundane events that her friends and family keep drawing her back into. She’s constantly bemoaning social niceties but also longing for her friends to provide the momentum she needs to not just disappear.

Do you remember that feeling in life before you had everything figured out. That feeling of unlimited potential and absolutely soul-shattering uncertainty because everyone’s telling you that they know the right thing better than you do. Lona’s moving through life insubstantial “...she’s barely touching it, barely any place long enough to make an impact.”

And that’s it… Lona is pretty aimless and she’s not sure what to do about it…

If this were in black & white (ok, all books are technically in black & white) with a cool grunge soundtrack I would be riffing on the nineties vibe. As it goes Georgina Young may have written the best worst book for our socially locked in times.

Ok Lona gets to go out and she gets to date (in crowds). Her share house situation is definitely not what you want to be locked down in. But despite all this Lona has a lot to say about being there for yourself.

Lona struggles to be herself around others but that’s because she hasn’t quite figured out how to be herself around herself. She’s selfish and I vacillated in my feelings for her. In prioritising herself though she firmly acknowledges that there’s nothing else she can give until she looks out for her.

Lona is also about art in its many forms and what art could mean in our world. For starters Lona wants art to be about something and she isn’t into all the navel gazing. The book strikes its own visual style (again, remarkable for black type on white page) which lent it that feel of being indie and of a time and place.

I really enjoyed Georgina Young’s Loner for what it said about searching, even if it just says it’s ok to do it...