What’s new at A Bigger Brighter World?

Over on A Bigger Brighter World, the world of books, Marjorie has been reading, reviewing and interviewing.

In The All Saints’ Day Lovers she found Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s seven stories (translated by Anne McLean) offered “a profound interiority that will entice readers to ponder the vagaries of the human heart”.

Griffith Review’s Forgotten Stories: The Novella Project II includes five diverse novellas that delve into Australia’s past to explore some of its trickier nuggets through fiction. “Cate Kennedy’s Former Glory, John Kinsella’s Refuge, Emma Hardman’s 1919, Masako Fukui’s When Blossoms Fall and Megan McGrath’s Whale Station all make forays into under-explored and interesting territory and are worth a closer look.”

In Claire Varley’s The Bit in Between, Marjorie read about two young Australians who land in the Solomon Islands. As Oliver’s second novel takes shape, coincidences start to happen that make him question how much life is influencing his book and vice versa. But would he and Alison have a happy ending? Marjorie attempts to find out in a Q&A with Varley.

Marjorie bookmarked so many bits of Wendy Suzuki’s new book Healthy Brain, Healthy Life it was embarrassing. “But I was genuinely fascinated by how she changed her life through regular exercise and through using simple cognitive workouts she calls Brain Hacks.”

And in A.S. Patrić’s Black Rock White City, “You will see into the heart of a marriage that’s imploding and into its inhabitants’ psyches as their wounds and desperation are laid bare. Jovan and Suzana are casualties of a brutal war and an alienating adoptive country. Their haunted lives and hobbled attempts to assuage their suffering will feel disturbingly real to you.”