No Hebrew translation for Sally Rooney’s “Beautiful World, Where Are You”

15 October 2021

From a statement issued by the author of Beautiful World, Where Are You, Rooney’s most recent novel:

“I understand that not everyone will agree with my decision, but I simply do not feel it would be right for me under the present circumstances to accept a new contract with an Israeli company that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.”

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novels, Sally Rooney, writing

Lemon, by Kwon Yeo-Sun

15 October 2021

It is 2002 and Korea is in the frenzied grip of the football World Cup, an event the nation is co-hosting with Japan. At the same time, Kim Hae-on, a nineteen year old student, was murdered in a crime that became known as the “high school beauty murder.” On the day of her death she wore a yellow dress, from which the name for Lemon (published by Penguin Random House, October 2021), Korean author Kwon Yeo-Sun’s novel, derives.

The story traces the seventeen years following the unsolved murder, as a grief-stricken Da-on, Hae-on’s younger sister, struggles to move ahead with her life. The story also explores the perspective of two of Hae-on’s classmates, the fiancée of one of the suspects, and back to Da-on many years later, as she visits a food delivery driver, the last person to see Hae-on alive, himself also a suspect in the killing.

Although billed as a crime thriller, Lemon is more a meditation of trauma, loss and grief, and the impact of a single devastating moment that changed the lives of those close to Hae-on. But as the story progresses, it gradually becomes apparent Hae-on’s murder wasn’t the only crime committed…

The Power of the Dog, by Jane Campion

14 October 2021

The Power of the Dog, the latest film by Sydney based New Zealand director Jane Campion stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank, a rancher living in the American state of Montana in the nineteen-twenties.

When his brother George (Jesse Plemons) marries the widowed Rose (Kirsten Dunst), a furious Phil takes to tormenting Rose, and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Quite abruptly though, he seems to soften his stance, and begins warming to Peter. But is Phil’s change of heart sincere, or does he have an ulterior motive? The Power of the Dog screens at this year’s Sydney Film Festival on Friday, 5 November.

The Arrangement, by Kiersten Modglin

14 October 2021

Ainsley and Peter have been married for years. As far as the outside world is concerned they are happy and successful as a couple. Needless to say, behind closed doors though, it’s a different matter. In a bid to breathe life into their relationship, the couple decide to see other people. They call it the arrangement, which is also the title of American author Kiersten Modglin’s latest novel (published by Amazon Digital Services, January 2021).

But the arrangement comes with stipulations. Both partners must date a different person every week, and two, they are not to discuss with each other what happens while they’re seeing said other person. So far, so good. After all, it’s not as if they’re the only married couple with such an arrangement, no matter how formal. But Ainsley and Peter run into a problem when it comes to confiding in someone else about the other person.

Neither can tell their friends, because they all believe Ainsley and Peter are the perfect couple. So they take to talking to each other, and that’s when cracks start appearing in their plan. Before long they find themselves spiralling into despair, anger, and retribution, and soon the question is being asked, will they even survive, let alone their marriage?

The French Dispatch, by Wes Anderson

13 October 2021

The French Dispatch is the twentieth (or so) film by prolific American filmmaker Wes Anderson, and will be the closing feature of this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Set in the offices of a fictional American magazine, in a fictional French town named Ennui-sur-Blasé, the story follows the ins and outs of the paper’s journalistic staff.

Long time Anderson collaborators Owen Wilson and Bill Murray are among the star studded cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Anjelica Huston, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber, Saoirse Ronan, Jeffrey Wright, and Léa Seydoux. Count me in then for the closing night of the Sydney Film Festival.

The Ex Talk, by Rachel Lynn Solomon

13 October 2021

How far would you go to save the organisation that has employed you for ten years, a place so beloved, you couldn’t imagine working anywhere else? For Shay, a producer at a radio station in the American city of Seattle, the question seemed like a no-brainer until she was told she must co-host a new show with a colleague, Dominic, whom she detests.

As if that’s not bad enough, she and Dominic need to pose as exes, dispensing relationship advice to their listeners. This is the premise of The Ex Talk (published by Penguin Random House, January 2021), by Netherlands based American author Rachel Lynn Solomon. To the surprise of everyone, especially Shay and Dominic, the show becomes a hit, but as their success grows, the two hosts become ever more uncomfortable with the lie they are forced to live.

The Ex Talk has divided reviewers on Goodreads. Some people feel the story is a tad predictable – would a rom-com be a rom-com if it wasn’t? – while others are, if I may, enamoured by it. I’m yet to partake, so I can’t tell you what I think, but it was the plot outline that caught my eye: would devising story scenarios be the most enjoyable part of writing fiction?

Petite Maman, the new feature by Céline Sciamma

12 October 2021

The Sydney Film Festival opens on 3 November 2021, and hopefully heralds a hopefully welcome return to seeing movies at the cinema, after months of COVID enforced lockdowns. To mark this momentous occasion over the next few days, I’ll be posting trailers for some of the films screening at the festival this year.

Petite Maman is the latest feature by French filmmaker Céline Sciamma, director of the exquisitely heartrending Portrait of a Lady on Fire. At first glance Petite Maman appears to be a story about two young girls who become friends, but as we learn one of the girls is the mother of the other, who through some quirk of space-time has moved through time as a child to meet her daughter.

Happy as Larry, by Kaethe Cherney

12 October 2021

Happy as Larry, or Happy as Larry: A New York Story of Cults, Crushes and Quaaludes, to use its full title, is the debut self-published novel of London based American author and film producer Kaethe Cherney. Quaaludes, in case you’re wondering, was the brand name of a sedative–hypnotic medication intended to treat insomnia, though it was commonly used as a recreational drug in the 1970s and 1980s.

Set in the New York of the nineteen-seventies, the story follows, Saskia, a teenager who finds herself grief stricken following the sudden death of her father, and the subsequent disintegration of her family. Saskia also has to contend with a move from their comfortable home in Gramercy Park, to a not so desirable part of town, and adjust to the new high-school she’s forced to attend.

While Saskia is drawn into a world of partying and drugs, her mother turns to alcohol and takes up with a younger man. Meanwhile while her older sister and brother are lured in a cult, and cut-off contact with the family. Happy as Larry has been praised by reviewers for its keen depictions of a New York that no longer exists, making for a poignant reverie for the nostalgic, or a gritty illustration for those who weren’t there.

The Historical Novel Society Australasia shortlist 2021

11 October 2021

The shortlist for the annual Historical Novel Society Australasia historical novel prize has been announced. Presently there are two categories, adult, and children and young adult. Winners will be named on Friday, 22 October 2021.

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historical fiction, literature

Here Out West, the Sydney Film Festival opening feature

11 October 2021

Here Out West, which screens on the opening night of the Sydney Film Festival, on 3 November 2021, is an anthology film, combining eight stories which merge into one feature. Set over the course of a day, in Blacktown, a suburb in the west of Sydney, the story follows events precipitated by a woman who kidnaps her grandchild from a hospital, and goes on the run. Five directors, Leah Purcell, Fadia Abboud, Lucy Gaffy, Julie Kalceff, and Ana Kokkinos collaborated in the production of this feature.

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movies, Sydney Film Festival, trailer

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