End of Year Wrap Up: 8 Books You May Have Missed in 2021
It's the end of another year, which means it’s time for one of my favourite things: “Best Of” lists! This year at Aniko Press, we thought we’d do something a little different and showcase some of the books that didn’t receive as much time in the spotlight.
Our dynamic duo, Elaine and Fruzsi, have selected some of their favourite reads of the past year that may have slipped off your radar, but absolutely deserve to be read and celebrated. From the first English-language short story collection by a Japanese counter-cultural icon, to a satirical takedown of Australian politics, there’s a wide variety of voices and stories to discover.
If you're in need of some last-minute Chrissy present ideas, or just you're looking for some reads to keep you going for the holiday season, we highly recommend picking up one of these gems!
Elaine’s Picks
Every Day is Gertie Day by Helen Meany
Publisher: Brio Books, 2021
Winner of Viva la Novella 2021, Every Day is Gertie Day tells the story of Nina, a tour guide at a small museum in Sydney who is unwittingly drawn into a major cultural brouhaha. When Gertrude Thrift’s remains are found inside her house after an indeterminable amount of time, it is soon discovered that she was the sitter for a series of forgotten paintings ‘Girl with Greyhound’. The local government steps in to reclaim the antique home, turning it into a museum of her life and a small gallery for overlooked female artists. From here, the narrative of Gertie, the paintings and the museum transforms into a story that has to be read to be believed. Meany’s creativity and superb prose sparkles, as we are drawn deeper into a web of potential cover-ups, governmental lies, and cultish antics. The brilliance of this slightly weird and engrossing book lies in how close to our own reality it truly is. This is, without a doubt, a hidden gem you must get your hands on.
Sexy Tales of Paleontology by Patrick Lenton
Publisher: Subbed In, 2021
Patrick Lenton’s collection of short stories distills a world of queer romance, connection, cultural disbelief and artificial intelligence into “an absolute romp” of a read. Filled with imagination, bizarreness and laugh-out-loud humour, readers are introduced (in no particular order) to a pile of rats having an identity crisis; a sexy robot rebellion; and a lesser-known Kardashian who lives on the moon. At its heart, Sexy Tales of Paleontology is about relationships, the foolhardiness and joy of love, and the gut-wrenching havoc of heartbreak - no matter what shape, gender or species those relationships take form in.
Read Emily’s full review here.
Assembly by Natasha Brown
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2021
Assembly (2021) is the debut novella by British writer Natasha Brown. Told in a highly effective and vibrant, fragmented style, Assembly offers a deeper perspective into one woman’s life in the face of Britain’s colonial legacy. Through dedication to her education and working up the ranks within a prestigious investment bank, our unnamed narrator, a black British woman from a working-class background, has done all the things she was told to do to be ‘successful’ - but finds herself questioning, at what cost? Brown takes the popular narrative of women asking if they can have it all and gives it a nuanced perspective that has long been missing. A thoughtful and ingenious book that speaks volumes to some of the cultural shifts that have happened in recent years around gender and race.
Read Elaine’s full review here.
The Magpie Wing by Max Easton
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing, 2021
A distinctly Australian-oriented coming of age debut, that many will find some form of identity and connection with. The Magpie Wing follows Helen, Walt and Duncan, as they attempt to establish who they are. Idealistic Walt wants to prove a point and turns to petty vandalism. Duncan is committed to his fledgling football career, seeking out sexual encounters in unfamiliar houses. Walt’s sister, Helen, is forced by scandal to leave the family home. Set in Sydney’s western suburbs, Easton navigates the reader across football pitches and grimy sharehouses, underground punk gigs, and gentrified pubs. Pulling the threads of various disconnected sub-cultures together in surprising ways, The Magpie Wing is a testimony of that adolescent ideal - to escape our youthful histories through fleeing the nest, only to realise the nest wasn’t such a bad place after all.
Fruzsi’s Picks
Repentance by Alison Gibbs
Publisher: Scribe, 2021
Repentance follows the lives of two families living in a regional town in a time when environmental politics really began in Australia. It explores both sides of an imaginary – and at the same time, very real – problem: logging and deforestation. You won’t believe that this is a debut novel; the writing is nuanced, strong and beautifully balanced, with nature creeping in at every edge. If you haven’t read any Australian fiction so far this year, make this the one!
Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
Publisher: Verso, 2021
Terminal Boredom is the first English-langauge collection of short stories (mostly written in the 1970s) by Japanese counter-cultural icon Izumi Suzuki. In each of these little worlds, things are just different enough to remain intriguing, and yet the problems faced by their characters are familiar enough to truly unsettle you. The dystopian pictures they paint provide ample opportunity to measure our own reality against, even fifty years on. This book will make you think twice about technology, gender, and the effects of the modern world on the people, beings and things that inhabit it.
Oreo by Fran Ross
Publisher: Picador, 1974
Oreo is a picaresque retelling of the mythological tale of Theseus with a feminist twist – its protagonist, Oreo, is a half-Black half-Jewish girl of wit, strength, and an inappropriately confident demeanour, roaming the streets of New York on a quest to find out the secret of her birth. Having been published in 1974 by a Black woman, this book didn’t receive nearly enough of the attention it deserves – but it is a brilliant, satirical, genre-defying piece of literature. A modern classic that should be read by everyone.
The Speechwriter by Martin McKenzie-Murray
Publisher: Scribe, 2021
The Speechwriter follows Toby’s bureaucratic rise and fall as speechwriter to Australia’s PM, an often hilarious, other times enraging path that winds itself around the corridors of power in a satiric, absurd, but highly entertaining way. It’s funny, it’s singularly Australian, and it lends both a self-awareness and a freshness to Australia’s literary landscape. After the past couple of years, everyone needs a good laugh – and McKenzie-Murray provides just that.
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
Fruzsina Gál is an aspiring writer, born in Hungary but living in Australia. She has been a reader all her life, and her first short story, 'The Turul' was published in Griffith University's 2018 anthology, Talent Implied. Her writing is often focussed on identity and the effects of immigration on the self. You can find her online at www.fruzsinagal.com or @thenovelconversation.