By the book: Father’s Day Reading Guide

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By the book: Father’s Day Reading Guide

By Nicole Abadee

Whatever Dad’s tastes and interests, there’s a book right up his street.

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Fiction

There have been two beautiful recent novels about fatherhood: The Other Half of You, by Australian writer Michael Mohammed Ahmad, and Bewilderment, by American Richard Powers, whose last novel, The Overstory, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Ahmad’s book is about Bani Adam, a young Lebanese man under extreme family pressure to marry a girl from the same background, and the chaos that unfolds when he does. Ahmad is a bold, original voice and his writing can be both moving and laugh-out-loud funny. Addressed to his newborn son, this is an achingly tender story of heartbreak, courage, love and being true to yourself.

Bewilderment is about the struggles of Theo, an astrobiologist, to raise his nine-year-old son, Robin, whose mother has died. Robin, who feels deeply about the environment, sometimes can’t control his rage, and Theo is searching for ways to manage this without using drugs. Set against a background of unfolding climate catastrophe, Bewilderment is both a lament for a changing world and a profoundly moving portrait of the challenges of raising an acutely sensitive child. Not out until September 28, this will need to be an IOU.

In American writer Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, the narrator works as a translator at an international criminal court for crimes such as genocide. Her life is complicated. She is dating a man unclear about his feelings for his ex-wife, and she is interpreting for a man accused of heinous crimes, which she finds confronting, especially as he tries to make an ally of her. Kitamura explores the nuances of language and relationships between men and women, and the moral complexities of the international criminal justice system.

Best-selling Australian crime writer Michael Robotham’s latest thriller, When You Are Mine, deals with domestic abuse, police corruption and toxic friendships. After the main protagonist, police officer Philomena McCarthy, is called to a domestic violence scene, she becomes close to the victim, Tempe, and determines to bring to justice the perpetrator, a highly decorated police officer. As always, Robotham delivers a carefully crafted plot, great dialogue and authentic characters who keep you guessing until the end.

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Non-fiction

Stan Grant’s brilliant The Falling of the Dusk is about the threat posed by tyranny to liberal democracies. He examines the rise of China and the threat of war between it and a weakened United States, the erosion of civil liberties due to COVID-19 and the resurgence of populism. He also pays tribute to the resilience and courage of oppressed people, including Indigenous Australians, that give him hope. It’s an insightful analysis of the current global order.

The Premonition by American writer Michael Lewis, bestselling author of The Big Short, is about a random group of science geeks who foresaw the COVID-19 pandemic and devised strategies such as stay-at-home orders and social distancing to combat it. This “rogue group of patriots” had to battle to have their advice heeded. The subject matter, the personalities and Lewis’s excellent storytelling ability combine to make this a riveting tale that reads like a thriller.

Empire of Pain is an exposé by New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe of the corporate skulduggery of the Sacklers, a wealthy family renowned internationally for their philanthropy. The family business, Purdue Pharma, produced the opioid OxyContin, responsible for more than 450,000 American deaths. Keefe describes in forensic detail the tactics employed, from marketing OxyContin as non-addictive “hope in a bottle” to denial and obfuscation as the facts emerged.

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Those with a passion for justice and an interest in Cold War politics should head for Anne Sebba’s Ethel Rosenberg, a biography of the American woman executed with her husband, Julius, in 1953 for espionage. Sebba’s portrayal of the mother of two young sons betrayed by her own brother captures the pathos of the case, and Sebba makes a strong argument that while Ethel was, like Julius, a Communist, unlike him she was not a spy.

Brush up on your leadership skills with Some Achieve Greatness by much-admired thespian John Bell, who draws on decades of reading, performing and directing Shakespeare’s plays to extract the Bard’s lessons on leadership. Bell’s accessible, entertaining discussion highlights which qualities to aspire to – courage, decisiveness, integrity – and which to avoid – arrogance and entitlement.

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For the baker, All Day Baking: Savoury Not Sweet by Michael and Pippa James, the team behind Melbourne’s much-loved (now sadly closed) Tivoli Road Bakery, is a celebration of home-baked savoury goods: think delicious pies, quiches, tarts and sausage rolls. With advice on how to make all kinds of pastry, this is one for the comfort-food fan.

And for those in NSW, Day Trip Sydney by Andrew Grune and Evi O is an ode to the joys of exploring the state capital and just beyond. From Barangaroo to the Blue Mountains, Bouddi National Park to the Royal National Park, it’s packed with practical tips, maps, photos and vivid descriptions of the local wildlife. Get the backpack ready.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

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