The Burrow by Melanie Cheng, Text, 2024
Amy, Jin and their daughter Lucy have been a family caught on a loop ever since the death of baby Ruby. But then they get a rabbit and Amy’s mother comes to stay and the rub of company be it welcome or not forces them out of their stasis.
Set during the pandemic, lockdown feels like the perfect backdrop for a grieving family. Life already feels like it has no future just more of the same on repeat. This beautiful book is subtle and understated and the right read for me at the right time.
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose, Allen & Unwin, 2016
You need to sit a moment with this one if you want to capture and contemplate the questions it raises about art and love, loyalty and self, amongst life’s other big questions. Arky Levin is a New York composer of nearly-great heights. His wife Lydia has a blood condition which leads to deteriorating health and eventually a stroke. Before she was completely incapacitated and moved into care, she made a legal provision for Arky not to visit her.
At the same time, performance artist Marina Abramovic is sitting for 75 days in MoMA for The Artist is Present. The experience of this both collective in the gallery and individual for those who sit opposite her connects disparate characters and leaves everyone asking their own questions about art and their own lives.
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, Walker Books, 2015
Reading this absolute explosion of a books feels like you’re standing in the middle of a rainbow. It’s constant ka-pow and total absorption into the lives of twins Noah and Jude. Don’t think you’re too old for it because of the YA listing – first love, artistic agony, sibling rivalry and grief are timeless!
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton, Granta, 2008
Whoa, give me a moment. This one is so cleverly plotted and well executed that I did have one of those, ‘Why do the rest of us even bother?’ moments. As if Eleanor Catton winning the Booker Prize at 28 wasn’t enough. This is her debut novel, published when she was 23 and successfully pulling off a premise which could easily not work.
The Institute is an elite drama school and every year their First Years put on a self-devised production. This year it’s about a teacher/student scandal at a local high school. The novel concurrently covers the fall-out from the scandal as well as the rehearsal process and you are never entirely sure what’s real and what is performance.
Love, just In by Natalie Murray, Allen & Unwin, 2024
Natalie was our guest for the May Books at the Bowlo and her debut contemporary romance was so much fun to chat about. What’s not to love about a little bit-of-friends-to-lovers set in your own city? As much a love letter to Newcastle as it is the love story between school besties Zac and Josie, this one keeps you turning the pages as the will-they-won’t they sexual tension ramps up.
If you enjoyed reading this and want to hear about the next bookstack, subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter below.
Nina Cullen 