Kate Forsyth is one of Australia’s most treasured storytellers. On today’s edition of What Katie Read, she gives us the rundown on all of the best books she’s been reading lately …
Devotion
by Hannah Kent
Devotion by Hannah Kent is so beautiful, so compelling, so filled with awe and joy and grief at the terrible beauty of life, it’s humbling. It’s leapt into my list of ‘Best Books of All Time’ which is a very select list indeed.
It’s a story of two young women, both outsiders in some way in their strict German Lutheran village, who find each other, first as soul sisters and kindred spirits, and then – slowly and delicately – as lovers. The book begins when they are fifteen, and their community is suffering religious persecution as Prussia’s king determined to unify the state religion under his lead. Hanne lives with her parents and twin brother in a small village whose church is chained and locked, their pastor fled. Hanne is an odd girl, unlike the other girls. She has a strong connection to nature, and can hear its song. Her parents try to keep her in check, but there’s a wildness in her that resists all attempts to bridle her. One day a new family comes to live in the village. They have a daughter named Thea. Hanne is drawn irresistibly to her. Like Hanne, she does not fit in – her mother is a midwife and, it is rumoured, a witch. The two become the dearest of friends.
The Old Lutherans (as they are known) decide to emigrate to Australia so they are free to worship as they please. Hanne fears being separated from Thea, but the two manage to make sure they will travel together. Once on board the ship, though, tragedy strikes as typhus claws its way through the overcrowded accommodation.
To say anymore is to diminish the pleasure of discovering this exquisitely constructed and composed novel. I could not put it down, and I did not want to leave it. It’s a book I will keep forever, and read again and again and again, for the luminous purity of its language and the bittersweet beauty of its story. Beyond wonderful.
Buy it here
Dinner with the Schnabels
by Toni Jordan
Toni Jordan’s new book is just delightful! Dinner with the Schnabels is a modern comedy of manners that pokes affectionate fun at many aspects of contemporary Australian society – without once losing Toni’s trademark warmth, sensitivity and wit. I’ve loved all of her books, but this one had me laughing out loud. It tells the story of Simon Larsen, a middle-aged man whose business went under during the pandemic and who is struggling to recover. He loves his family, but he feels as if he has failed them. His misery is compounded by his wife’s family, the Schnabels, who are all loud, confident, and sure of themselves. Simon feels sure they think him a failure too. To try and keep them off his back, Simon agrees to take on the landscaping of a friend’s garden ahead of a memorial service for his wife’s father. But muddles and misunderstandings abound, and it looks as if Simon is going to fail at this too.
Honestly, this book is just a joy. It’s so clever, so funny, and so true. I think it’d make a brilliant film or TV series. I’m pressing it into the hands of everyone I know. Read it!
Buy it here
The Long Call
by Ann Cleeves
I am a huge fun of Shetland and Vera, the TV series inspired by Ann Cleeves’ crime novels, but have actually only read one of her books. Most unlike me! So I thought I’d try her newest book, the first in a new series. The Long Call is set in Devon, and features a gay detective who grew up in a cult-like evangelical religion until he realised both his sexual orientation and his atheism. He has not spoken to his family since. On the day of his father’s funeral (to which he was not invited), a body is found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.
Compulsively readable, with really interesting and vital characters, The Long Call is top-notch contemporary crime. I was not at all surprised to hear it has been turned into a TV series too!
Buy it here
Sisters of the Resistance
by Christine Wells
I hugely enjoyed Sisters Of The Resistance by Christine Wells – it’s her best book yet!
I’ve been interested in the story of Catherine Dior and her work with the French resistance for a while, and so when I heard that she was a major character in Christine’s new book, I was very keen to read it. Catherine Dior was the younger sister of couturier Christian Dior; he is said to have named his perfume Miss Dior after her. She worked with the underground resistance in France during the war, but was arrested in July 1944 by the Gestapo, tortured, and deported to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp where she almost died. After the end of the war, she spent the rest of her life growing flowers in Provence. She was a very private woman, and not much is known about her personal experiences during the war. Christine Wells solves this problem by weaving an imaginary story of two Parisian young women around the apartment block in which she lived. One is twenty-five-year-old Gabby who does her best to look after her mother, her sister, and the tenants of the ten rue Royale, where she works as concierge. Her younger sister Yvette is far impetuous, however, and determined to fight the Nazis. Both sisters find themselves in every-growing danger, as they follow Catherine Dior into the shadowy world of rebels and spies. A real page-turner of a novel!
Buy it here
Lisette’s List
by Susan Vreeland
I’ve long been a fan of Susan Vreeland and her novels inspired by art and the lives of artists. I’ve had Lisette’s List on my to-be-read bookshelf for a long time, however, and somehow never got to it. At last I picked it up this month, and was soon absorbed in its gently unfolding story of love, grief, and art.
Set in France during the dark days of World War II, it is a novel about the power of art to bring light into dark days. Lisette is just an ordinary young French woman seeking to survive through the German occupation. Her husband has died in the first days of fighting, and she is left alone to try to bear it. Before he left for the front, her husband hid his family’s collection of paintings and she determines to find them again and bring them home. She has always found beauty and consolation in art, and her fascination with painters is only deepened by a meeting with Marc Chagall who is in hiding near her village. She only meets him a few times, but he teaches her something important about the need for freedom, self-expression and creativity. Her search for the lost paintings brings her into conflict with the Germans and the village policeman, but her fear does not prevent her from keeping on trying.
A quiet, deep, beautiful book full of grace notes.
Buy it here
The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant was published about 25 years ago, and was a huge bestseller. I never got around to reading it, though, and so I was intrigued when it was chosen by my book club. I did not know much about it, other than that it’s a retelling of a biblical incident involving a woman named Dinah. My knowledge of the bible is absolutely zilch, and so I came to the story with no expectations whatsoever. Rather to my surprise, I loved it!
Basically, Dinah is the daughter of Jacob, who married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, and had about a dozen sons including Joseph of the many-coloured coat. The red tent of the title is the place where women go when they are menstruating. Men are not permitted within, and so the women wait out their cycle, telling stories, singing songs, and sharing feminine wisdom, including forbidden myths of the Great Goddess. Dinah’s aunt Rachel is a midwife and teaches her the craft. But tragedy strikes when Dinah’s brothers murder her husband and all his people. Dinah’s story then becomes one of recovery from her grief and horror, and the rebuilding of her life in Egypt. The book has a wonderful rhythm to it, making it impossible to put down, and Dinah’s voice feels urgent and true. A wonderful reinvention of a lost woman’s story.
Buy it here
Kate Forsyth (Photo by Amelia Soegijono).
About Kate
Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller. Her most recent novel is The Crimson Thread, a reimagining of ‘The Minotaur in the Labyrinth’ myth set in Crete during the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.
Other historical novels include The Blue Rose, set during the French Revolution and the first British embassy to Imperial China; Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ told in the voices of four women of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales which was named Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; and Bitter Greens, a retelling of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction.
Kate’s non-fiction books include Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author, co-written by her sister Belinda Murrell, with the assistance of the Nancy Keesing Fellowship. It was longlisted for the 2021 Readings Non-Fiction Prize. Her collection of essays, The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower, won the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism in 2017.
Books for children include the Long-Lost Fairy-Tales collection, illustrated by Lorena Carrington. The first in the series, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, won a silver medal in the 2018 US Readers Favorite Book awards. Other titles in the series are The Buried Moon & Other Tales of Bright Young Women; Snow White, Rose Red & Other Tales of Kind Young Women; and The Gardener’s Son & the Golden Bird & Other Tales of Gentle Young Men.
Kate has a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She has taught writing retreats in Australia, Fiji, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
Discover Kate Forsyth’s Author Page here
The Crimson Thread
May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka a young Greek woman saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.
Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains of the Allied forces over the towering White Mountains...
Comments
April 11, 2022 at 9:24 pm
I really enjoy reading your column Kate. The new Toni Jordan sounds great 😊