Dispatch #009
Launches, opening nights, prize winners and new releases that are so hot off the press we don't even have the covers yet.
And we’re launched: Steve Toltz’s new book, A Rising Of The Lights it out in the world, and getting great reviews already.
We had to move the launch event to the Bondi Pavilion Theatre to accommodate all the guests. Steve’s folks were in attendance, as was his young son, cheering for him from the front row.
Steve and Caroline talked about life and love, loneliness, consciousness, and the future of AI. Everyone says it’s going to take over the world. We think messy, gorgeous humans are going to triumph over the machines.
Steve also talked about how he writes longhand because he feels a better connection to the story that way.
“The first draft is always awful,” he said. Every writer I’ve ever met says the same thing :) He got the audience laughing with his readings. In the opening scene, you’ve got parents divvying up the kids by rolling a set of dice to decide who should get their daughter and who should get their son.
The mum said, “Let’s do the pets first.”
It’s dark, funny, thoughtful, and real.
If you missed the launch, you can still see him in person; you really won’t regret it. He’s going to be on two panels at The Sydney Writers Festival; our friends at The Constant Reader are going to be hosting him; and you’ll catch him at Words on the Waves with the luminous Sarah Wilson. I will also be hosting a Book Club at G&A with the Bondi Literary Salon in June, so be sure to join us.
Still with AI: a popular book called Shy Girl was pulled from the shelves in the US last week after allegations that it had been largely written by AI. The New York Times says:
Shy Girl is about a desperate young woman who is held hostage by a man she met online and forced to live as his pet, was self-published in February 2025, before being picked up by Hachette.
On Thursday, a day after The New York Times approached Hachette citing evidence that the novel appeared to be AI-generated, the company said it was pulling the book from publication.
It won’t be the last, that’s for sure. The “100 per cent human content” stickers can’t be far away, surely.
Opening night: My Brilliant Career, the musical based on the book by Stella Miles Franklin, opened last week, and our verdict is: don’t walk, run. It’s exuberant. They have one of those Dixie bands on stage, all foot-stomps and fiddles, and the lead, Kala Gare, is near-bursting out of her petticoats with verve and brio. It’s at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. Don’t miss it.
The winners of the Indie Book Awards have been announced: Book of the Year went to Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Australia), with the judges bowled over by the beauty of the language and the poignant story. It’s been a word-of-mouth sensation, with readers pushing it onto their friends, so this is a great result. Other winners were:
NON-FICTION: Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent (Picador Australia)
DEBUT FICTION: When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin (Hachette Australia)
YOUNG ADULT: Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire by Amy Doak (Penguin Australia)
Author interviews: Caroline was lucky enough to interview two of Australia’s finest writers for the Books pages of The Weekend Australian this week:
First up, she talked to Cynthia Banham about her new book, Mother Shadow. Cynthia is a journalist and academic who was badly injured in the Garuda plane crash in 2007. She had her legs removed to save her life. She has rebuilt her life in magnificent ways. She is married and professionally successful; she still swims in the ocean and now uses prosthetics and a wheelchair to get around. But then, when she became a mother, she started worrying that she wouldn’t be “good enough” because there were some things she wouldn’t be able to do with her son, like take him by the hand, and stroll down the beach with him to inspect the rock pools:
Somewhere deep in her psyche, Banham had absorbed the idea that motherhood was innate, rather than something we learn by fumbling along.
“So, when I fell out of my wheelchair, or couldn’t do something with my son, I would think: I’m deficient.”
That’s obviously an unwelcome thought to have in your brain. Cynthia is a brilliant Mum. You should hear her talking about her young son. But this idea that she somehow wasn’t up to it kept plaguing her. Then, while going through some family papers, she came across evidence suggesting that one of her ancestors in Italy had given up her baby. Intrigued, she went on a journey and learnt a great deal about her family - and herself - in the process. Five stars, Cynthia.
She also interviewed Debra Adelaide about her new book, When I Am Sixty-Four:
It’s about her 50-year friendship with the writer Gabrielle Carey, who wrote Puberty Blues with Kathy Lette. Gabrielle suffered from an intense and debilitating depression, and she took her own life in 2023, having promised her friends and family that she would never, ever do it. Debra’s book is a loving tribute to the bond she shared with Gabrielle. She doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of maintaining a friendship with somebody who has a mental illness:
“She felt the walls were closing in on her,” says Adelaide. “She would say she had contributed nothing to the world, that her whole life had been worthless, which was preposterous.”
Friendships in such circumstances can be absolutely exhausting. Debra writes about having to buoy her friend’s spirit, trying over and over to lift her, but it was as if Gabrielle was “living at the bottom of a well.” It’s a beautiful book, which will fill some of the gaps for people who can’t understand how someone so talented and successful might want to end her life.
Vale, Gabrielle. Thank you for writing Puberty Blues and everything else that followed. You are missed.
The Lucky Son by Li Cunxin: the long-awaited sequel to Mao’s Last Dancer. But you’ve got a while to wait, because it won’t be out until October.
I Can’t Tell You But I Will by Magda Szubanski: This news is so fresh we don’t even have a proper cover yet! It’s about Magda’s complicated relationship with her dying mother Margaret.
Life Drawing by Emily Lighezzolo: this won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards. Maisie and Charlie meet at a life-drawing class asundergraduates: she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their connection carries them across two decades. Emily is a book publicist, and a real champion of other people’s work, so do get behind this one !!
The Damned by Matt Rogers: Simon & Schuster has snapped up this heart-pounding new thriller, and says Matt is one of the new breed of writers “doing things differently.” He wrote The Damned in real time creating the book’s characters, setting and plot day-by-day, recording his writing journey on his Instagram account, where he also updated his followers daily with his new ideas for the book.
Teeth Kicker by Glenn Orgias: In 2009, while surfing at Bondi Beach, Glenn Orgias survived an encounter with a Great White shark that resulted in the loss of his left arm, which he wrote about in his 2012 memoir Man in a Grey Suit. He is now working as an energy trader; he’s still a writer and a surfer. Teeth Kicker is his debut novel, and it sounds like a cracker:
Vincent Silk is back in the decaying maw of Australia’s Steel City after losing everything - his money, his self-respect, and his friends and family. He wants to make amends but first he has to pay off his debts to an unhinged loan shark. With no way to make good, Vincent is forced to take on a brutal new role: working as an enforcer, a Teeth Kicker, collecting debts in a town where everyone owes someone something.
Author Talk: Kathryn Heyman, An Evening with the Author, Tuesday 21 April: A chat about her latest novel Circle of Wonder with Michaela Kalowski at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Tickets here.
If you can’t make our event in store, Kathryn will be at the April Readers - Books and Conversation series at Petersham Bowling Club on Thursday, 30th of April. We’re the official booksellers there. Tickets here.
Author Talk: Lauren Keegan, with The Woman in the Seal Skin, Wednesday 22 April: in conversation with Kelly Doust to discuss her new historical fiction novel at Woollahra Library at Double Bay. Tickets here.
Book Club: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, Tuesday 28 April: A special Bondi Literary Salon gathering to celebrate Harper Lee’s 100th Birthday at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Tickets here.
And that’s all for today, folks! Thank you for reading, and please do forward our newsletter to your friends so that we can build our community here.
Have something you’d like to include? Our newsletter is compiled by a Bondi local, Caroline Overington. You can follow her on Instagram or Facebook, or get in touch here if you’ve got news to share.