Final Draft - Great Conversations

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tune in to discover the Final Draft - Australian Classics Book Club delivering you incredible classics all summer long!

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

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The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Jack Heath is the bestselling author of forty novels beginning with Hangman which he wrote when he was seventeen. Today Jack joins me with his new novel Kill Your Husbands.

It’s hard to find a chance to disconnect and relax in our modern world. When six friends get a weekend away in the woods it seems like the perfect opportunity to let their hair down. 

Couple swapping may not be the most conventional way to unwind but when everyone agrees the scene is set for a wild night. That is until one of the six turns up dead and the race is on to discover the killer before they strike again.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Here are our top picks to help you find something for the booklover in your life!

Michael Thompson's How to Be Remembered

For the romantics.

How to be Remembered has a fantastic concept that begs you to root for the protagonist and then whisks you along on a terrific ride of a narrative.

Monica Vuu's When One of Us Hurts

Thriller with a twist

When One of Us Hurts entwines narratives of a dysfunctional family inn a small town and slowly unravels to a big reveal!

Emily Spurr's Beatrix & Fred

No category here and I can’t say too much because spoilers, but just trust me it's incredible!

Emily Spurr is terrific and always surprises. I could say this is a heartfelt character driven novel (and it is) but it is sooo much more.

Kirsty Jagger's Roseghetto & Shirley Le's Funny Ethnics

For the Sydney/Gadigal-philes.

This is a made up category to capture two terrific books that both do not disappoint story-wise but also will have locals pointing at the page like some sort of Leo DiCaprio meme as they recognise their local.

Helena Fox's The Quiet and the Loud & sydney khoo’s The Spider and Her Demons

Young Adult pick

Two very different novels about being young, growing up and finding your place in the world. Both these novels explore how being in the world is tough and that it’s important to find your tribe (even if they have eight legs)

Tony Birch's Women & Children

Literary Pick of the Year.

If I had to say just one, this is that one. Tony gives us a story that breaks down so many concepts at the heart of our society and opens up a world where we can be better.

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!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Lucy Treloar is the award winning author of Salt Creek and Wolfe Island. Today we’re discussing her new novel Days of Innocence and Wonder

Till is on the run from life, taking to the open road in a quest to keep moving, getting as far as possible from where she’s been. It is the project of a lifetime, ever since Till’s best friend was snatched off the street when they were young. 

Driving far from Melbourne, inland and away from the familiar. Till doesn’t know what she’s looking for… Yet.

When Till arrives in Wirowie she’s immediately drawn to its quiet streets. Things start in a temporary way. Till squats in the abandoned and derelict train station. Then she makes it her home. Slowly she starts repairing; first the station's crumbling stonework and then her own ability to trust in others. 

It takes time to adjust, and time for Wirowie to open up to Till. Small towns can be suspicious of people from the city who think they know better.

But just as good and kindness can be found most anywhere, so can darkness and Till must again face her fear and discover whether she is truly as alone as she thinks.

Till’s story is a journey of discovery and Till must find herself in a world she doesn't even feel comfortable saying her own name. 

The reader is anchored immediately to the trauma that continues to define Till. From these sparse memories we understand that danger is banal and often so nondescript you won’t even recall its face. Nonetheless danger is everywhere and it can creep up on you when you least expect it.

This is Till’s reality and that of the women of Wirowie, plagued by their own mysterious attacker, snatching women off the streets and violently humiliating them.

Within the narrative Lucy Treloar weaves stories of escape, restoration and recourse. Till is offered opportunities and she must carve out her own chances to move forward. We see that through the relationships she builds that there is hope she can learn to reconnect but that the women she is connecting with have their own damaged lives they are trying to live.

Days of Innocence and Wonder feels like a thriller but reads with the subtlety and deft hand of a carefully drawn ensemble piece. As Till befriends the women of Wirowie she finds her own pain is part of a tapestry that belongs to them all.

The novel entwines Till’s life with the towns and suddenly all their histories are of a kind and they must come together to find a way through. In these depictions of loss and pain we see the impacts of trauma in all their embodied terror and witness a chaotic world where loss is perpetuated when there is no resolution.

The book explores the ways that violence exists as both an act and as a culture that builds up perpetrators and excuses their actions. Power is called into question and Days of Innocence and Wonder is so named for the illusion that such a time ever existed.

I was fascinated reading Days of Innocence and Wonder for its ability to intrigue and excite; forcing me to turn pages even as I paused to think about the implications of what I was reading.

If you’re looking for a summer read that asks some big questions, Days of Innocence and Wonder is definitely one to pack wherever you’re heading this holiday period.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Nicholas Jose has published eight novels, three collections of short fiction and a memoir, as well as a wide range of essays—concerning Australian and Asian life and arts and exploring stories that link Australia and China.

An Australian defense analyst, Jake Treweek, is found dead in his Washington home. Officially it has been ruled a suicide but Jake’s widow Anne isn’t convinced. 

Jake has been working gathering intelligence in East Timor. The country is boiling under Indonesian occupation and calls for an independence referendum. Jake is always tight lipped but Anne knows he’d discovered something. Was it something that cost him his life? 

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Sara M Saleh is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants. Sara’s first novel is Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm Press, 2023) and her first poetry collection is The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat

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!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Mirandi Riwoe is an acclaimed author of historical fiction. Her novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the 2020 Queensland Literary Award. Mirandi’s new novel Sunbirds.

In the shadow of war a wealthy Dutch family celebrate on their tea plantation. The war has not yet touched their wealth and status but on this fateful night the players will be assembled who represent the future of their colonial endeavor.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Melissa Lucashenko is a Miles Franklin award winning author of Bundjalung and European heritage. Her novels include Killing Darcy, Mullumbimby and Too Much Lip. Today we’re going to be discovering her latest, Edenglassie.

In the 1850’s Meanjin/Brisbane is a mix of people from across the world, some transported for hard time, others drawn to the region for economic gain. Since the invaders arrived the local Yagara people have viewed them with suspicion and curiosity, unsure whether they might ever be able to regain their ancestral lands.

Mulanyin has come to the area now known as Edenglassie and there he has discovered the beautiful Nita. Torn between his love and his home Mulanyin must navigate his path into manhood and the fraught times he finds himself in.

In 2024 Meanjin/Brisbane is on the verge of two hundred years if settler colonial occupation. That might mean more to Granny Eddie if she wasn’t stuck in the hospital waiting for whatever it is these doctors do. Eddie is more than a hundred years old and she’s got a few stories to tell about the city. But that doesn’t mean she’ll give up her secrets easily and certainly not to the first white guy who asks. 

Edengalssie weaves two tales separated by time but bound by place. Melissa Lucashenko takes us back to the beginnings of the occupied lands around Maiwar, which we now know as the Brisbane River. She reminds us that the land was not unoccupied and in fact these are the traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrball people. 

Against the backdrop of struggle for dominance we meet Mulanyin and Nita. what follows is ostensibly a love story set to the rhythm of a land that is poised for violence. 

Mulanyin is certain of his love for Nita but he is also eager to prove himself and unsure of the ways of the white people who are ignorant of the law and the land. Mulanyin and Nita will pursue their love but they must do so in a world that may not want them to succeed.

All these stories are so much history to the residents of Granny Eddie’s world but she knows the truth. That doesn’t mean she’s going to tell it straight. As Granny Eddie’s tales of early Brisbane bring her fame and notoriety she watches her niece Winona and her Doctor Johnny play out their own courting rituals. Johnny’s only recently discovered his own blak heritage and that won’t fly for Winona. She’s sick of people claiming heritage they haven’t earned and isn’t going to make it easy on him.

Edenglassie is a thought provoking, disarming and at times hilarious novel. Through the contrasting narratives Lucashenko effectively overthrows simplistic views of early colonial interventions and reclaims the story on behalf of the people whose land was stolen.

She gives us a time when perhaps history may have taken a different direction and allows us to understand the vicissitudes of time and power that shaped the world we live in today.

Fast forward to 2024 and Lucashenkpo reminds of the very real and ongoing history those events have created. Through Granny Eddie and particularly in the sparring between Winona and Johnny we see the ongoing pain and struggle to reconcile the past with a present and a future that does not tell the truth.

Edenglassie is a tremendous novel and one well worth the reading.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Tony Birch is the author of novels, poetry and short fiction. You’ve met him on the show before with his collection Dark as Last Night which won the Steele Rudd award at the Queensland Literary Awards. Today Tony is joining us with his new novel Women & Children.

Joe Cluny lives with his Mum and his sister Ruby. He attends the local Catholic school where he generally wishes he got in less trouble and could avoid the hell the nuns keep threatening him with.

Joe’s no stranger to violence, getting the strap more often than accolades at school. In Joe’s world there’s plenty of violence to go around and his sister Ruby has warned him that you don’t ask questions about other people’s bruises.

But then when one day Joe’s aunt Oona arrives at the house bruised and shaken, Joe’s mother must act to keep her from further harm. Joe doesn’t understand what is happening but he will come to learn how much violence lurks in all their lives and what it takes to stand up to it.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Mirandi Riwoe is an acclaimed author of historical fiction. Her novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the 2020 Queensland Literary Award. Mirandi’s new novel Sunbirds.

In the shadow of war a wealthy Dutch family celebrate on their tea plantation. The war has not yet touched their wealth and status but on this fateful night the players will be assembled who represent the future of their colonial endeavor.

Anna is the daughter of the house and finds it both her world and something of a prison. With her hopes of finishing her education in Europe dashed by the war she has little to look forward to. 

Mattijs is a handsome Dutch pilot in search of adventure. With his homeland torn asunder by war he looks to the colonies for his fortune.

Sigit has enjoyed an education in Europe thanks to the benevolence of Anna’s family, but he has returned with ideas that perhaps he and his people should be able to work their land for themselves and not for foreign overseers

As Anna enjoys her father’s position of privilege she must also duck her mothers remonstrations that she not behave like a local girl. Her history has one foot in Java and the other in Holland and this tears her between her family's past and ties her to the future of the people around her…

Sunbirds begins in the closing days of 1941 as occupied Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies) fears the arrival of Japanese troops. 

Within the Van Hoorn household the relatively recent history of their possession of the land makes them jealous of maintaining it both against invading forces and internal agitators for independence.

The narrative centers Anna as the daughter of a Dutch father and Indonesian mother. As their homes are threatened, she is confronted by the truth of her heritage and the confusion of pride and shame she must navigate to come to some sort of identity.

Anna finds in Mattijs the perfect vision of the Europe she may never truly get to discover. He offers her possibility and adventure; a veritable hero who can fly her away from it all.

Through Sigit, Anna is offered a chance to discover a part of herself long hidden and shamed. He confronts her with the injustice of her current life whilst offering a vision of freedom outside of colonial rule.

The novel builds this love triangle even as the war draws closer, teasing us with the inevitability of a history that has already come to pass.

In Sunbirds Mirandi Riwoe builds a stunning ensemble cast that allow her to explore the social and political movements of this turbulent time in world and Indonesian history. The novel foreshadows the coming Indonesian independence movement even as it highlights postcolonial politics that continue to grip our world today.

Sunbirds is a compelling story; adventure and romance, historical and yet strikingly politically relevant.

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!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/