fiction
Fiction book of the month
Later, Only Love Remains
Leah Swann
Australian Author Paperback
$ 29.99 $ 34.99
Bestselling author Leah Swann returns with Later, Only Love Remains – a taut literary thriller that will touch your heart. Jack Wolfe retreats from his grief and remorse following a car crash that cost him his wife’ s life where he was the driver. Jack is determined to live out the rest of his days in isolation, reliving the crash repeatedly, but the arrival of Lotus – a lonely young woman – changes all of that. When a completely different stranger shows up at the door of Jack’ s Otways escape, dripping wet and shaken, Jack and Lotus don’ t realise it, but they will be fighting for their lives soon.
Whistler
Ann Patchett Paperback
$ 34.99
When Daphne notices an older gentleman following her around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she doesn’ t expect it to be Eddie, her former stepfather. Married to her mother for a short time when Daphne was nine, she hasn’ t seen Eddie for many years; not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again now, Daphne and Eddie feel that time has fallen away. Their earlier relationship was brief but had a profound impact on both. Together, they consider not only their past, but the joys of the present and their commitment to face the future together. A moving, luminous story about family, memory and love.
Villa Coco
Andrew Sean Greer Paperback
Available June 9
$ 29.99 $ 34.99
Broke and directionless, our young protagonist takes a job in the Italian countryside as the assistant to Lisabetta – better known to her friends as Coco – a strong-willed, wealthy aristocrat of great local renown. Trained as an archivist, he thinks he’ s been hired to catalogue the contents of the beautiful, crumbling mansion nestled in the green Tuscan hills. But what are his actual duties? Days are spent in a series of increasingly eccentric pursuits: entertaining an endless carousel of guests, attending a funeral to make off with the urn, and aiding and abetting Coco’ s great and final plan – to reunite with the lost love of her life before it’ s too late.
A conversation with the author
Congratulations on being the Fiction Book of the Month! Can you tell us a bit about your book?
Thank you, I’ m thrilled my novel’ s been chosen! Later, Only Love Remains opens with an older man called Jack Wolfe. He’ s complicated and difficult, half-mad with grief and guilt over his wife’ s death in a crash where he was the driver – and a few other bad things he’ s done. What he wants is to be left alone in his remote shack, but what he gets is to meet an exuberant but lonely young woman, Lotus, and we learn they have an unexpected connection. He’ s also shocked to find someone, wet and shivering, hiding on his property. Is this man dangerous, or does he just need help? His late wife would want him to be kind, but he can’ t quite overcome his own suspicious nature. These three – Jack, Lotus and the stranger – end up in what becomes a fight for their lives.
What was it that inspired you to write a story exploring grief and redemption?
Jack led me into this story. He is deeply flawed, and we soon learn he once killed someone; he has let people down, hurt them, betrayed them – and he yearns for redemption. But the people he wronged are dead, so forgiveness seems impossible. This is the underlying conundrum the story wants to resolve. And Jack himself is a puzzle-maker who sets a riddle for his grandson, Christo, which intersects with the plot in surprising ways. Despite his mistakes, Jack knows something about love, and his honest, anguished remorse could be seen as redeeming in itself – or is it? Fiction is a unique space to examine intense psychological states, hard moral questions, and how we are with one another. Do we see our own flaws, do we forgive flaws in others, do we listen, do we help, can we help, or must we stand back and let people work out the puzzle of their own lives?
The Otways setting feels almost like a character in itself. How did you bring that landscape to life on the page?
The feeling I get there is unlike anywhere else! When I visit, I write madly in my notebook and take photos and videos to try to capture how your soul opens in the wind and sand and water and light on those beaches and cliffs, while the forests are full of ferny gullies, tall trees, birds and creatures, sounds and textures, all lulling you into nature’ s rhythm. It feels ancient. The whole haunted coastline of the Great Ocean Road is superb for amplifying a sense of unease, or creating a gothic psychosphere, which is what I wanted for Later, Only Love Remains. The treacherous seas have caused hundreds of shipwrecks – it’ s also known as‘ The Shipwreck Coast’ – and there are many strange stories, and appalling histories, such as the massacres. The landscape is wild and beautiful, with an inhospitable edge – there seems to be an intranquility in the land itself. My earlier novel, Sheerwater, is also set there.
Finally, do you have any recommendations for books you have loved recently?
Well, don’ t be jealous, but I got an advance copy of the new Meg Mason novel, Sophie, Standing There, and once I started, I couldn’ t stop. It’ s witty and tender and utterly absorbing. I am late to Evelyn Araluen’ s prize-winning Drop Bear, but am blown away by its beauty and fury – it shifts your mind. Currently, I’ m entranced by Laura McPhee Browne’ s exquisite new novel, Worry Doll, about erotic obsession, delusion, and fragility. Heloise’ s dreamlike subjectivity at times reminds me of Duras’ The Lover or Nin’ s A Spy in the House of Love. I haven’ t finished yet, but I’ m getting the feeling things aren’ t quite as they seem, which I always enjoy.
Touch Grass
Mary Colussi Australian Author Paperback
$ 34.99
Charlie deletes other people’ s worst moments for a living; ironic, considering she’ s been trying to forget her own for years. When her consciousness starts spontaneously ejecting from her body, Charlie becomes the first known case of a bizarre new phenomenon – and the unwilling centre of a global crisis. And an immortal sheep might be the key to everything. The memories she worked so hard to delete won’ t stay gone, and the only way to survive a world splitting at the seams may be to reclaim the self she tried to erase. Touch Grass explores identity, consent and the hilariously messy business of being a friend, sister and person – especially when someone keeps editing the footnotes.
The Midnight Train
Matt Haig Paperback
$ 34.99
When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were. For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice. Before he gave it all away. He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything … A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library which has been a number one Sunday Times bestseller and a number one New York Times bestseller. Flip to page 7 for a staff review of The Midnight Train.
Honey
Imani Thompson Paperback
$ 34.99
The first time, Yrsa doesn’ t intend to kill. But the Cambridge professor sitting opposite has manipulated her friend and stolen her research. When she flicks the bee into his Sanpellegrino, she thinks he’ ll get a nasty sting. Then he’ s dead. And Yrsa, who – let’ s face it – has been bored for a while, is alive. It’ s a sweet feeling, finally having some control. Comic, sexy, addictive, unpredictable, Honey is about the notalways-righteous path of taking justice into your own hands. The essential next read for fans of Butter, My Sister the Serial Killer, Such a Fun Age, Luster or Boy Parts. Quoting Sophie Duker,‘ Yrsa serves up the unhinged hot girl homicide I didn’ t know I needed’.
All Grown Up
Daisy Buchanan Paperback
$ 34.99
After 30 long years, Louisa’ s daughters can finally look after themselves... or so she thinks. Because suddenly, they’ re back and apparently for good. Meg’ s second-guessing her marriage. Jo’ s career hangs in the balance. Amy has inexplicably quit university. None of them empty the dishwasher. Louisa knows it’ s time for some life lessons. She adores her girls, but if she’ s ever going to get her( sex) life back, they’ ll have to grow up – and go. But maybe they’ re not the only ones with lessons to learn... And Louisa might just discover that her daughters have something to teach her about being an adult too. A brilliantly heartfelt and funny novel of family life in all its chaos and glory, inspired by Little Women.
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