non-fiction book of the month
CHINESE PARENTS DON’ T SAY I LOVE YOU Candice Chung
$ 34.99 $ 29.99
Chinese Parents Don’ t Say I Love You is our Non-Fiction Book of the Month. At 35, when a 13-year relationship ends, food journalist Candice Chung finds herself losing not only her first love, but also her most reliable restaurant review partner. Then, her retired Cantonese parents step in, offering to be her new dining companions, and she faces a dilemma: is it easier to eat in polite silence, or to confront the unspoken – to ask how they drifted so far apart over the past decade? This deeply personal memoir explores love, food, and family reconciliation with warmth and honesty. We hope you enjoy reading it.
Congratulations on being the Non- Fiction Book of the Month! Can you tell us a bit about the book?
Thanks so much for giving Chinese Parents Don’ t Say I Love You a special place in May. I feel very honoured. My book is a memoir about the small intimacies in our eating lives – the private rituals we have with ourselves, our lovers and with each other. And the way that food, like words, can bring us together – but also keep us apart.
The main action takes place at a time in my life when I worked as a freelance food reviewer for a Sunday paper. In that job, you need someone to eat with – so that you’ re not too conspicuous when you’ re ordering three plates of pasta or a breakfast for two on your own. After I broke up with my partner of 13 years, my retired parents offered to be my review plus ones. We ended up getting to know each other in new and somewhat unexpected ways, until I met a geographer and found myself having to make a difficult choice between a new love and my family.
Your memoir is a beautiful exploration of the complex relationship between food, love, and communication. Can you share a specific moment when you realised food was acting as a silent language in your family?
That’ s a great question, and I love the way you describe food as a‘ silent language’. It’ s fascinating, because we often think of communication as a verbal experience. When of course other gestures, like the moment you notice a crush catching your eye; or the way an angry parent looks at their child, can also be deeply impactful and say just as much.
For me, it’ s hard to pinpoint a moment when I realised food was acting as a placeholder for tricky feelings – if only because I didn’ t know any differently. It never occurred to me it was possible to hug my parents until I was in my early 30s, for instance. Though I’ ve since found out some of my friends felt similarly. We’ re the kind of people who wave at our crushes really hard.
What stands out, however, is the fact that my parents have always treated dinnertime at home as a priority. I never got the feeling that they wished they were elsewhere or had better things to do( though I have no doubt they did sometimes!). It was a kind of unspoken pact to be there for each other at the end of a day. Looking back, there is a real feeling of comfort and security in that. My mum is very observant at the dinner table – she would always notice if we were eating slower than usual or not feeling great. Then the next night she would produce an antidote in the form of a favourite dish or one of her elaborate Cantonese soups. It’ s pretty amazing.
Were there any surprising revelations or shifts in perspective that emerged as you put your experiences into words?
While drafting the book, I realised I was at a crossroads about where to call home at exactly the same age my Dad was when our family moved from Hong Kong to Sydney.
While the book is about your family, it is deeply relatable. What do you hope readers will take away from Chinese Parents Don’ t Say I Love You?
Sometimes I think of my book as a story about longing. And all the research that I did, all the sources I turned to – artists, poets, philosophers, food lovers, cooks – are basically translators of desire. Anyone who has ever wanted to feel close to another person has experienced a private loneliness. In a way, I wanted to show it’ s OK to feel that. It sucks, no doubt. But there can also be beauty in our innate desire for connection, and to experience intimacy in a meaningful way.
Finally, what has been your parents’ response to the book?
I’ m happy to report they have been incredibly supportive. While working on the book, I interviewed my parents to get a sense of how they met, and to fill in some gaps of our family history. So they’ ve known for some time I was writing this.
Still, the idea of showing my parents the full draft was terrifying. I remember having some sleepless nights. Dad likes the radio, and at one stage I wondered if I could just read out parts of the book to them like a radio serial – then I would get the chance to explain myself in real time if there was something they didn’ t like. These were very 2 AM thoughts. In the end, it was my sister Esther who gave me the courage. She said,‘ It’ s your story – that’ s the truth of it. But I’ m sure Mum and Dad would appreciate being your early readers.’ And they did.
biography & memoir
FROG: THE SECRET DIARY OF A PARAMEDIC
Sally Gould
$ 36.99
Life as a paramedic, writes Sally Gould in this candid, witty memoir, can be traumatic, gross, dull, hilarious, magical. But behind the sirens and the life-or-death scenes, and the absurdity of non-urgent callouts, a paramedic’ s career is very different to how most people imagine it. Based on years of
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meticulously kept journals, Frog is an intimate look at the human cost of the job and the cumulative effect of trauma. Sally shares a personal story that is searingly honest and truly inspiring, one which offers a heartfelt tribute to the resilience, courage and camaraderie that define the highstakes world of emergency medicine.
ONE DAY AT A TIME
Jordan Ablett, Ellen Whinnett
$ 35.99 $ 30.99
On a Melbourne afternoon in the eerie early days of the pandemic, young parents Jordan and Gary Ablett finally learned why their beautiful
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baby boy, Levi, had not been hitting the milestones that most new parents celebrate and are reassured by. Raw and honest, this is a story of devastating grief and pain, but it is also the story of how, with the love and unwavering support of her family, and with her faith as her anchor, Jordan and her AFL legend husband found the courage to go on and learned to celebrate every day with Levi as a blessing.
ALWAYS HOME, ALWAYS HOMESICK
Hannah Kent
$ 36.99
‘ In my brief breath of life, might
I find a way to fit light to paper?’ In
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2003, 17-year-old Australian exchange student Hannah Kent arrives at Keflavík Airport in the middle of the Icelandic winter. That night she sleeps off her jet lag and bewilderment in the National Archives of Iceland, unaware that, years later, she will return to the same building to write Burial Rites, the haunting story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland. The novel will go on to launch the author’ s stellar literary career and capture the hearts of readers across the globe. Always Home, Always Homesick is Hannah Kent’ s exquisite love letter to a land that has forged a nation of storytellers, her ode to the transcendent power of creativity, and her invitation to us all to join her in the realms of mystery, spirit and wonder. In a land soaked in myth and ethereal beauty, a young woman discovers the story that will change her life. |
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