Reader recommends a Deal

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Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take a look...

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Hello and welcome to Hear This. I'm Frances Keyland, and you're listening to the Vision Australia Library radio show. Today we've got a good selection of our book samples. We've got a reader recommended, plus an autobiography and a biography that I think people will be really interested in, and some other books. So I do hope you enjoy today's show. 

Let's start off with a reader recommended from Bob. Thank you, Bob. Alex Miller, the Australian author - Bob has just recently discovered him, and I had forgotten about him myself. I remember years ago in the 1990s now we used to have a an award, the Braille and Talking Book Award for best audio book. And Alex Miller actually won. This is probably about... you know, maybe the early 2000s. He won the award from Vision Australia Library for... his book Conditions of Faith. And I remember he gave a lovely speech, and I didn't realise he's in his late 80s now, but yes, he's he's one of those understated Australian writers who have written quite a few books. 

So thank you for... unearthing him, Bob, you've read The Deal, and you said you heard him being interviewed about this book, and you recommend it for people who enjoy literary fiction. And The Deal, which I have a sample of, is a follow-on from the Miles Franklin Award-winning novel, The Ancestor Game. So you've read the older one first, and both books are to be recommended to lovers of great Australian fiction. Thank you so much, Bob. 

So in The Deal, which is the follow-on... so sorry about that, I should have put the first one, The Ancestor Game, but in The Deal by Alex Miller... it's 1975, and at the threshold of his writing career, Andy Macpherson is navigating how to be fully present, both for his partner Jo and their young daughter. When forced to take part time, part time teaching job, Andy meets Lang Tzu, a charismatic and intriguing man, and he is drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship. When Lang asks him to prove his friendship by brokering a risky deal for a much desired piece of art, Andy finally consents, despite Jo's opposition in the process. 

Andy is in fact negotiating his own deal with himself as an artist, and is compelled to face up to the conflict between his conception of art as a creative gift and the realities of the art market. Let's share a sample of Alex Miller's The Deal. It's narrated by Richard Bly.

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Many years have passed already since his visit to me, But still, I think back with a mixture of pleasure and sadness to that late summer evening before his return to England, when my brother and I sat together for the last time in the garden of the small house in the country where I was then living, across the lawn from where we were sitting that evening. There was an old apple tree. It was a tree of great character and was at that time of the year, and despite its extreme age, laden with a fine crop of ripe apples. 

My brother and I had been silent with each other for some minutes when he stirred himself, and, turning to me, reminded me with a kind of innocence of recollection, that there had been just such an apple tree as this one in our garden at home in England when we were children. He went on to remind me that when we were boys, we would check whether the apples were ripe by holding one close to our ear and shaking it. If it was ripe, the seeds rattled. So saying my brother returned to me this long forgotten memory of our childhood garden. 

I was moved to tell him that I had been prompted in my decision to buy the house, on account of this handsome apple tree that stood before us, and which had occasioned his recollection of our childhood. When I first came with a real estate agent to view this house as its prospective purchaser. I said to my brother the town and its location were not familiar to me. I had come to the town in the hope of finding relief from my situation in the city, a situation which had become intolerable to me. Jo had passed away the previous year and our only child was contentedly settled in Bordeaux. I hoped new surroundings and a degree of isolation from everything that had for so long been familiar to Jo and me would help restore my sense of purpose and well-being.

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And that was the deal by Alex Miller. Alex is [spells author's name], and that book goes for six hours. It comes under the library categories of 21st Century Literature, Australian Fiction, and Perceptive Fiction. There is also the book Autumn Lang... Autumn Lang has long outlived the legendary circle of artists she cultivated in the 1930s. Now old and skeleton gaunt, she reflects on her tumultuous relationship with the abundantly talented Pat Donlon and the effect it had on her husband, on Pat's wife and the body of work which launched Pat's career. 

There's also A Brief Affair at Coal Creek... Conditions of Faith, which I mentioned before... Journey to the Stone Country - and Journey to the Stone Country is available in Braille as well as audio - as is... Coal Creek and Autumn Lang. I'm on Alex Miller. 

Alex Miller - in the introductory page, To Who?... Alex Miller is, it says Alex Miller deals with ideas, moral choices and the direction of society. He writes of our interior lives within the artful carapace of a story. Miller is a storyteller. Each of his novels draws us into a fully created world, and each new story is fresh, even when there is continuity of character. His body of writing is now acknowledged as one of the great Australian literary achievements of the past half century. 

And that's from Morag Fraser in The Australian Book Review. So The Deal is his latest book and published in 2024. It's his 14th novel. Alex Miller was born in South London. He left home at 15 and worked as a farm labourer in the West Country of England. Then he travelled alone to Australia at the age of 16 and worked as a ringer in Queensland with indigenous stockmen on their country. In his 20s, he went to night school and gained entry to Melbourne Uni, where he studied history and literature. And there's quite a lot of... information about Alex Miller, of course, on his web webpage. Alex Miller - thank you, Bob, for recommending that author. 

Now I'm going to recommend a couple of... recent works that have been added to the library catalogue. And I think people will find these interesting and quite topical - especially the first one, which is Brainstorm, and this is by Richard Scholar and Gary Maddox. The Incredible Story of 2024... co-Australian of the year, Richard Scholar, as he uses his groundbreaking melanoma science to fight his own incurable diagnosis with brain cancer. 

Skin cancer is this country's most common cancer and melanoma the deadliest form of it. Richard Scholar, together with his colleagues at Melanoma Institute Australia, has dedicated years to Brown's groundbreaking research and succeeded in transforming even the most advanced cases of melanoma into a largely curable disease. Then last year, at the peak of his life, Richard was devastated when he was diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer. 

As a world leading clinician and cancer researcher, Richard was never going to accept the status quo, including a medical approach unchanged in nearly two decades and an expectation of little more than a year to live. He instead chose to undertake a world first experimental treatment for his brain cancer based on melanoma science. His brave decision could shorten or save his life. The only certainty is that it will push the brain cancer field forward and ultimately help save the lives of others. Let's hear a sample of Brainstorm by Richard Scholar. It's narrated by Tim Carroll.

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Kicking a football around in Launceston, walking the famous Overland Track to Cradle Mountain. Long summer holidays, camping in the same spot at Ulverston every year. My dad did a great job of documenting our family history in Tasmania with decades of photographs. He started in black and white, then bought his first colour camera in 1972. Whenever we were out socialising with family and friends or taking a trip around the state. Dad would get out a small Olympus or canon, which he carried around in his pocket and start clicking away. His dedication to recording our lives fills 80 albums, each with 100 photos that are filed by name and date on shelves in his living room. These 8000 photos are a treasure trove that shows dad's love for our family. I always enjoy going through them when I go back to Tassie on holidays. 

Well, I've never been anywhere near as meticulous at taking and filing photos. I've surrounded myself with pics of Katy and our kids in my office up on a shelf. The kids are eating ice creams or smiling in front of a tree at a long forgotten get together in a park. They're having fun in a swimming pool, enjoying an overseas holiday, or getting ready for school in their new uniforms. Even before I was diagnosed with a brain tumour, family pictures that came up on my iPhone from years ago could bring tears to my eyes. Take out just about any album from the early years on dad's shelves, and it will show what an active kid I was with blonde hair and a cheeky grin. I hammed it up for the camera as I played sport, camped, swam, went walking in the bush, rode my bike and explored. I enjoyed the attention. 

Then I'm quieter as an adult now. I'm driven by wanting to help other people rather than getting pats on the back.

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And that was Brainstorm by Richard Scholar. Brainstorm is one word, if you're going to search for the title - Brainstorm. Richard is [spells author's name]. That book goes for 7.5 hours. 

The next book is... by Grantlee Kieza, who has written quite a few biographies of very prominent Australians. And this one is called Sister Viv. Bangka Island, 1942: Vivian Bullwinkel was just 26 when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed. Miraculously, Vivian would be the lone survivor, and she committed the rest of her life to an exceptional career caring for others. The Lieutenant Colonel would also be the first woman to be honoured with a statue at the Australian War Memorial. A country girl who became one of the highest ranking women in the Australian Army when Japanese forces attacked Singapore. 

Vivian and 64 other nurses were ordered to evacuate, but soon their ship was bombed by enemy aircraft. Somehow Vivian lived, and for the next three and a half years she was a prisoner of war in brutal Japanese camps, where she helped others survive the horror. When peace was restored, Vivian became a giant of Australian nursing and a key driver of Operation Babylift. For her extraordinary bravery and service, Vivian was awarded numerous honours, but she never forgot her fallen colleagues. Living her life in tribute to them. Let's hear a sample of Sister Viv by Grantlee Kieza. It's narrated by Bridget Gallacher.

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Bullwinkel, nee Shegog. On the 18th of December at Kapunda, to Mr. and Mrs. G. A.  Bullwinkel, a daughter. Thus Vivian Bullwinkel arrived, kicking and screaming joyous sounds of new life into a world gone mad with killing. It was seven days before Christmas 1915, and Vivian's birth was a godsend for her first-time parents, Eva and George Bullwinkel. The baby girl's first cries came at the same time as thousands of Australian soldiers were at war on the far side of the world. Although the fighting in what had already been dubbed the Great War had not come close to Vivian's birthplace, a small South Australian farm town called Kapunda, about an hour out of North Adelaide on locomotive. Its aftershocks had local clergymen had already started making the sad pilgrimage to some of the Bullwinkels' neighbours to break the news that a son or brother, husband or father had died on a foreign field. 

Eva was 27 when she brought Vivian into the world from a well-established South Australian family. She was the daughter of William Shegog, a veteran policeman who was born in Londonderry, the second largest city in what is now Northern Ireland. William had come to Australia in 1857 as an infant, when his family migrated to the Victorian goldfields. A relative, James Shegog, had been a rough riding sergeant major in the charge of the heavy brigade in the Crimea. In 1854, an attack on Russian forces that took place just prior to the celebrated charge of the Light Brigade. William had been schooled in the central Victorian gold town of Maryborough before working as a farmer in the area. At the age of 25, he had moved to Adelaide to join the Mounted Police - his life for the next four decades.

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That was Sister Viv by Grantlee Kieza. Grantlee is [spells author's name]. That book goes for ten hours and 40 minutes, and I'm reading here from the Harpercollins.com... website: Grantlee Kieza is an award-winning journalist and the highly acclaimed bestp-selling author of more than 20 biographies. He has held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and the Courier Mail for many years, and was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia for his writing and some of his other biographies. 

Other acclaimed biographies are Banjo, about Banjo Paterson, and also Sir Joseph Banks... Flinders... he's covered the life of Flinders Hudson Fysh, who was a decorated World War 1 hero, who who founded... the airline Qantas. There's also Lawson, about Henry Lawson... Mrs. Kelly, the story of Ned Kelly's mother... so there's quite a few biographies there to enjoy. I think... he sort of ranks up there with Peter Fitzsimons for writing in-depth and great biographies. 

Last night at my local library, the Fitzroy Library. I was... lucky enough to see... it was a free event at the library, a chat between Tony Birch and Jack... or Jock Serong, two really wonderful Australian authors. And that was really entertaining. I went for an hour and... they talked about the writing process, talked about both of their ideas about writing. It was... fascinating. The main thrust of the evening was about promoting Cherrywood, which is Jock Serong's latest novel. And while we don't have that in the library at the moment, we do have quite a few Jock Serong novels, including the two of the novels from the Greyling Family series. So Part 1 of the Greyling Family series is Preservation...

On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors. Distressed and terribly injured, they have walked hundreds of miles across a the landscape, whose feature and inhabitants they have no way of comprehending. They have lost 14 companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive. It is Lieutenant Joshua Grayling's task to investigate the story. He comes to realise that those 14 deaths were contrived by one calculating mind, and as the full horror of the men's journey emerges, he begins to wonder whether the ruthless killer poses a danger to his own family. Let's hear a sample of Preservation by Jock Serong. It's narrated by Conrad Coleby.

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The governor's quill stopped in its flow as if it had struck some unseen obstacle. Tell me again, Lieutenant. Carefully, the nib hovered above the page. The hand suspended there. Steady and waiting. A small fishing boat, Excellency. It had been gone three days, working offshore from a bay to the south of here, about 20 miles distant. Guatemala, sir. Native word. The quill waited. Governor Hunter's powdered hair caught the sun through the window. Behind him, the serene beauty of Sydney and Autumn laying its soft light on the bookshelves and the chairs. It was one of the deckhands that saw them, a master Drummond early morning on his watch. 

Three men. He thought they were natives at first, as there wasn't much left of their clothing, and one's... dark. They were making their way up the beach from south to north. The inlet there forms a pronounced indentation in the coast, but the beach is very short. I'm told they were terribly distressed. The quill moved again, trailing blue words crawling. Yes, came the governor. You said that before. Such a striking detail. Is there no doubt about that? He was quite firm, sir. Could see the tracks they'd made up the beach. Go on. Their condition was pitiable. They were hoarse, although not delirious in any way. 

They were taken on board and identified as a Mr. William Clark, Super, cargo of a vessel named the Sydney Cove, a three masted country trader of 300 tons displacement. His Lascar manservant, name undisclosed. And a Mr. Figg, a tea merchant, travelling aboard the same vessel.

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And that was a sample of Preservation by Jock Serong. Jock is spelled [spells author's name]. And that book goes for ten hours. Preservation is based on the true story of the wreck of the Sydney Cove. And it sees master storyteller Jock Serong turn his talents to historical narrative. I am at the moment on textpublishing.com.au - text publishing. And... there are links on this to a whole lot of reviews and interviews, including a 3CR radio interview, 3RRR, ABC Hobart, ABC Melbourne. 

So if you go to text publishing and search for Jock Serong or search for Preservation, you'll come to the page where you'll see that it was listed for a whole lot of literary awards in the year 2019, but also all all these links to interviews, including the Wheeler Centre podcast as well with Jock Serong. We do have Part 2 of the Grayling family, which is The Burning Island. That's Part 2. There's also... The Java Ridge Quota, The Rules of Backyard Cricket and The Settlement. 

The next book is by Jo Nesbo and Blood on Snow. This is the story of Olav, an extremely talented fixer for one of Oslo's most powerful crime bosses. But Olav is also an unusually complicated fixer. He has a capacity for love that is as far reaching as is his gift for murder. He's our straightforward, calm-in-the-face-of-crisis narrator. With the storyteller's hypnotic knack for fantasy, he has an innate talent for subordination. But running through his veins is a virus born of the power over life and death. And while his latest job puts him at the pinnacle of his trade, it may be mutating into his greatest mistake. 

Let's hear a sample of Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo. It's narrated by Patti Smith, which is one of the reasons why this book caught my eye. The narrator is Patti Smith.

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The snow was dancing like cotton wool in the light of the street lamps, aimlessly, unable to decide whether it wanted to fall up or down, just letting itself be driven by the hellish ice cold wind that was sweeping in from the great darkness covering the Oslofjord. Together they swirled wind and snow. Round and round in the darkness between the warehouses on the quayside that were all shut up for the night, until the wind got fed up and dumped its dance partner beside the wall. 

And there the dry, windswept snow was settling around the shoes of the man I had just shot in the chest and neck. Blood was dripping down onto the snow from the bottom of his shirt. I don't actually know a lot about snow, or much else for that matter, but I've read that snow crystals formed when it's really cold are completely different from wet snow. Heavy flakes are the crunchy stuff that it's the shape of the crystals and the dryness of the snow that make the hemoglobin in the blood retain that deep red color. Either way, the snow under him made me think of a king's robe, all purple and lined with ermine, like the drawings in a book of Norwegian folktales my mother used to read to me. 

She liked fairy tales and kings. That's probably why she named me after a king. The Evening Post had said that if the cold carried on like this until New Year, 1977 would be the coldest year since the war, and that we'd remember it as the start of the new Ice Age. Scientists had been predicting for a while, but what did I know? All I knew was that the man standing in front of me would soon be dead.

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That was a sample of Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo. Jo is spelt [spells name]. That book goes for four hours - a short one. Where to start with Jo Nesbo? Phenomenally successful writer of detective fiction, starting off really with his series the Harry Hole series, featuring a detective - a bit of a maverick, troubled... the usual sort of private detective that we've come to know and love. Dishonored from the police force. So he's working on his own. Those Harry Hole books were greatly successful. 

It starts off with an a book set in Australia, The Bat. That's the first one in the Harry Hole series. It is dealing a lot with serial killers. So you're going to get the really outrageously bloodthirsty kind of details of how these bodies are found - so just be aware of that. But all of the series is available. The Bat was first published in 1997, but wasn't translated into English until 2012. And there's a the 13th book in the series, which was the latest one, is Killing Moon, published in 2023. 

Thank you once again for joining us on here this today. I'm Frances Francis Keyland and you're listening to the Vision Australia Library radio show. If you would like to recommend a book, or if there are any that stand out to you that you've discovered through borrowing from the Vision Australia library, just send an email or call the library. The phone number for the library is 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656. Or you can email library at visionaustralia.org - that's Library at Vision Australia dot org. 

And there are other wonderful resources through Vision Australia including the Hindsight podcast. And I thought I'd just mention that - so if you do go to the Vision Australia website and search for Hindsight ... one word... you can listen to people's stories. This is hosted by Jason Gibbs. Each episode offers a unique perspective about vision loss. This is a valuable support for family members and friends. The personal journeys of people and supporters of people living with vision loss. It covers topics such as insight from experience, the barriers of regional exclusion, the challenge of accepting help and let's talk about public transport, parenting and vision loss. Tips and tricks of assistive technology. Overcoming burnout. Staying independent at home. 

So a wonderful collection there. A wonderful resource for people who... may just want to feel a little bit included in what they're going through and to learn... ways to... get through any... issues that they're finding. So that is Hindsight, available on the Vision Australia website. Have a lovely week and we will be back next week with more Hear This.