New books for August 2016

It is my turn to host Book Club in August so I bought the new books from Booktopia.  This year I went through my newspaper cuttings to produce a "long list" of 20 which was drastically reduced to eight.  Click on the link to learn more about the book and read reviews.  I hope we will enjoy them.

The Strays by Emily Bitto is the author's debut novel. Lily is invited to a retrospective exhibition of the art of Evan Trentham, one of the early Modernists.  Lily, now middle-aged, met Eva Trentham on her first day at school. The invitation reminds Lily of members of the Trentham family and their artist colony founded in the 1930s on the outskirts of Melbourne.  In 2015 The Strays won the Stella Prize, a major literary award that celebrates Australian women’s writing.

Treading Air by Ariella Van Luyn is another debut novel from an Australian female author.  A young working-class couple, Joe and Lizzie O'Dea, eke out a living in 1920s Townsville until Lizzie turns to an old and lucrative profession.

The Dry by Jane Harper is also a debut novel set in a drought ravaged Australian country town where an horrific murder-suicide takes place. A policeman returns to the town to attend the funeral and is reluctantly drawn in to the investigation.

The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop  is set in 1963 when an English family migrates to Australia hoping for a better life.

The Muse by Jessie Burton is set in 1936 and 1967.  In 1967 a young woman from Trinidad begins her job at a London art gallery.  A masterpiece with a secret history is delivered.  The painting's story goes back to 1936.  The two stories then become entwined. (From the author of The Miniaturist.)

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave is a love story set in World War II inspired by the lives of the author's grandparents.  Grandfather served in Malta and grandmother drove ambulances during the Blitz.

The Words in My Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd is author's first novel and based on the little-known story of Helena Jans, who worked as a maid in Amsterdam and was Rene Descartes' lover. Although many books have been written about Descartes, about Helena almost nothing is known.   She desperately wants to be able to write but her gender and position in society makes this very difficult.

Precious Things by Kelly Doust  tells the story of a beaded collar which makes it way through the years to be found by a young woman in the present time.