The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Book Club picks for May 2020

Our Great Read for May:

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Historical fiction

“I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.” This is the arresting opening to Sue Monk Kidd’s new novel, an intriguing tale offering a feminist perspective on the life and times of Christ with a testament from an audacious new voice.

Ironically, inspiration for the novel came from a piece of fake news, “I was reading an article about a fragment of an ancient manuscript that referred to Jesus’ wife,” Sue tells The Weekly.

“The fragment later turned out to be a forgery, but that was irrelevant to the creative storm the article set off in me.

“It occurred to me that if this wife had really existed, she would be the most silenced woman in history.”

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler

Literary fiction

This tender love story is also about our need for meaningful connectedness, and while Micah Mortimer is an unusual protagonist, there is also an everyman quality to his woeful attitude to romantic attachments.

Micah is a creature of habit and maintains an organised life that fulfils his selfish needs. But Micah’s world is thrown off kilter when the son of his college girlfriend turns up, claiming Micah as his father.

Micah is shocked but it prompts a rethink of his past relationships, and for the first time he realises an alarming pattern. Will Micah ever be capable of real love?

The Salt Madonna by Catherine Noske

Literary fiction

Chesil is a remote fictional island off the coast of Western Australia, where creeping economic collapse and an exodus of young people have brought dark times.

Hannah’s childhood community is falling apart at the seams, the men out of work, children with no direction and an underbelly of violence threatening.

This is a powerful, evocative tale set against a rugged landscape watched over by ancient cypress trees.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Fantasy

Fumiko, 28, had bought a special outfit to meet boyfriend Goro. He wanted them to have a serious chat and she was sure he was going to propose. Instead, he tells her he’s emigrating from Japan to America.

Returning a week after her lover has gone, Fumiko discovers this is the famous Tokyo time-travelling cafe. It has the power to take you back to the past and she wants to go back one week.

The Lizard by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

Thriller

When his girlfriend, Ellie, dumps him, naive philosophy student Alistair Haston decides to follow her to Greece and try to win her back.

It’s a foolish plan which soon takes a very dark turn when he ends up in jail for murder.

A wicked, dramatic and dripping in the intensity of summer heat.

Where the Truth Lies by Karina Kilmore

Thriller

Journalist Kilmore brings a wealth of insider knowledge to this explosive crime thriller, set in Melbourne’s underbelly.

Down at the docklands the unions and big business are facing off, sparking the interest of investigative reporter Chrissie O’Brian who, in her new job at The Argus, is keen to make her mark.

But when one of her sources turns up dead, Chrissie becomes embroiled in a dangerous world.

Chanel’s Riviera by Anne De Courcy

Biography

De Courcy whisks us off to the Riviera, circa 1930s, for the golden coastline and Coco Chanel.

Unlike the rich who flocked to Cannes and Nice, Coco followed the Fitzgeralds and Hemingways to the cheaper Riviera.

In 1938 the burning question at Coco’s was not what Germany was going to do next, but “would curtsey win over correctness?” when meeting the Duchess of Windsor.

Fourteen by Shannon Molloy

Memoir

Journalist Shannon Molloy’s memoir about his 14th year, a time of torment, self-loathing and near tragedy, is heartbreaking.

At an all-boys Catholic school in coastal Yeppoon, Shannon was always an outcast and soon became a victim of extreme violence.

Shannon’s bitter struggle is painfully recognisable and happening in playgrounds around the world. But he not only triumphs, he relives his past using his best weapon: beautiful words.

The Secret Life of Shirley Sullivan by Lisa Ireland

Fiction

Lisa Ireland taps into the Shirley Sullivan in all of us in this charming study of a happy marriage struggling with the traumas of old age and illness.

Shirley and Frank have been together for 57 years and they are not ready to part. So Shirley hatches a plan to take Frank out of the Sunset Lodge nursing home and back to some of their favourite places.

The Foundling by Stacey Halls

Historical fiction

Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter at London’s Foundling Hospital, Bess is back to reclaim her child.

But Clara has already been picked up, by someone claiming to be Bess. From the author of The Familiars comes another compelling and powerful story with a pleasing feminist subtext set in Georgian times.

Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon

Historical fiction

This thrilling story of danger and adventure is based on the life of real-life Aussie spy Nancy Wake (aka The White Mouse), who worked as a journalist in Paris before being recruited by the British for Special Operations.

It’s 1944 and Nancy – code name Hélène – parachutes into occupied France to help the Resistance.

Jumping back and forth in time we trace Nancy’s life before the war, in Paris, and witnessing the rise of Hitler.