AustLit

'A breathtaking, confronting memoir that examines class, poverty, neglect, masculinity, and the transformative power of books

'Things may have been good for a while, but it didn't last- they argued fiercely and he left. Weeks later, she tracked him down and said she was pregnant. So he moved back in with her and they prepared themselves for parenthood.

'Eleven months later I was born. By the time my father discovered the deception, it was too late.

'There is something chastening about this mode of conception, about knowing that, by most standards, your beginning was aberrant.

'In this arresting memoir, Shannon Burns recalls a childhood spent bouncing between dysfunctional homes in impoverished suburbs, between families unwilling or unable to care for him. Aged nine, he beats his head against the pillow to get himself to sleep. Aged ten, he knows his mother will never be able to look after him- he is alone, and can trust no-one.

'Five years later, he is working in a recycling centre-hard labour, poorly paid-yet reading offers hope. He begins reciting lines from Dante, Keats, Whitman, speeches by Martin Luther King, while sifting through the filthy cans and bottles. An affair with the mother of a schoolfriend eventually offers a way out, a path to a life utterly unlike the one he was born into.

'With its clarity of purpose and vividness of expression, Childhood is a powerful act of remembering that is destined to be a classic.' (Publication summary)


 

'And in the middle in khaki shorts, dusty knees, is he. Aged twelve he already has a certain earnestness, the solemnity, trying to comprehend what is incomprehensible, ‘he wouldn’t know what day it is’.

'He. is an elusive, elliptical, often beautiful thread of observations and memories. It is not autobiography, or even memoir, but a portrait of a figure shown to be passing through time and circumstances.

'In vignettes, sometimes mere fragments, we glimpse moments and lives—parents, teachers, wives; in Bombay of the 1960s, Paris and London of the 1970s, Melbourne and Sydney—as this figure remembers the years.

'These are Murray Bail’s last reflections on his life: the final book from the acclaimed author of such classic novels as The Pages, Eucalyptus (winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award) and Homesickness.' (Publication summary)

'In October 2018, the hashtag MeToo went viral.

'Since then we've watched controversy erupt around Geoffrey Rush, Germaine Greer and Junot Díaz. We've talked about tracking the movement back via Helen Garner, Rosie Batty and Hannah Gadsby. We've discussed #NotAllMen, toxic masculinity and trolls. We've seen the #MeToo movement evolve and start to accuse itself - has it gone too far? Is it enough? What does it mean in this country?

'And still, women are not safe from daily, casual sexual harassment and violence.

'In this collection thirty-five contributors share their own #MeToo stories, analysis and commentary to survey the movement in an Australian context.

'This collection resists victimhood. It resists silence. It insists on change.'   (Publication summary)