Biography
Emma Viskic is author of the internationally acclaimed Caleb Zelic series. Her novels have won numerous prizes, including a Ned Kelly Award and an unprecedented five Davitt Awards.
Emma’s debut novel, Resurrection Bay, was shortlisted for the UK’s prestigious Gold Dagger and New Blood Dagger Awards. It was recently voted one of the decade’s best crime novels by Crime Time UK.
Emma consulted extensively with people in the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing communities in order to create the character of Caleb, who is profoundly deaf. Her attempts to learn lipreading were a dismal failure, however she continues to enjoy learning Auslan (Australian sign language)
Publications
Caleb Zelic series:
Resurrection Bay (2015)
Winner – Ned Kelly Award, Best Debut
Winner – Davitt Award, Best Novel
Winner – Davitt Award, Best Debut
Winner – Davitt Award, Readers’ Choice
Shortlisted – Gold Dagger Award UK
Shortlisted – New Blood Dagger Award UK
Shortlisted – Barry Award for Best Paperback US
Best Crime Fiction of the Decade, UK Crime Time
Crime Book of the Year – iBooks Australia’s
Best Crime Books of the Year – UK Financial Times
Top 10 Crime Books of the Year – US Publishers Weekly
Publications
Caleb Zelic series:
And Fire Came Down (2017)
Caleb Zelic used to meet life head-on. Now he's struggling just to get through the day. His best mate is dead, his ex-wife, Kat, is avoiding him, and nightmares haunt his waking hours.
But when a young woman is killed after pleading for his help in sign language, Caleb is determined to find out who she was. And the trail leads straight to his hometown, Resurrection Bay. The town is on bushfire alert and simmering with racial tensions. As he delves deeper, Caleb uncovers secrets that could threaten his life and any chance of reuniting with Kat. Driven by his demons, he pushes on. But who is he willing to sacrifice along the way?
Publications
Caleb Zelic series:
Darkness for Light (2019)
After a lifetime of bad decisions PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, his business is recovering and his relationship with his estranged wife Kat is on the mend. But soon Caleb is drawn into the tangled life of his troubled ex partner Frankie, which leads to a confrontation with the cops. And when Frankie's niece is kidnapped, she and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But can Caleb trust her after her past betrayals?
Publications
Caleb Zelic series:
Those Who Perish (2022)
The thrilling finale of the groundbreaking Caleb Zelic series.
Caleb's addict brother, Anton, has been missing for months, still angry about Caleb's part in his downfall. After almost giving up hope of finding him, Caleb receives an anonymous message alerting him to Ant's whereabouts and warning him that Ant is in danger.
Caleb reluctantly leaves his pregnant wife's side and tracks his brother to an isolated island where Ant has been seeking treatment. There, he finds a secretive community under threat from a sniper, and a cult-like doctor with a troubling background.
Caleb must hunt for the sniper to save Ant, but any misstep may ruin their faltering reconciliation, and end in death. When body parts begin to wash up on shore, it looks like the sniper is growing more desperate
Pushkin Press Interview
I grew up on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. It was the perfect place for a free-range kid, with lots of bushland, swamps and building sites to explore, but it had a darker side too – one of the highest crime and unemployment rates in the country. Also a fair few murders, including two separate serial killings, one of which has never been solved. So I guess I was destined to write Australian noir.
In many ways I was destined to write the hero of my series, too. Caleb Zelic strode onto the pages of my debut novel, Resurrection Bay, as though he’d been waiting impatiently for me to notice him. A loner PI with a dry sense of humor, he was watchful and unwaveringly stubborn. And profoundly deaf.
Caleb’s deafness helps add a lot of tension to the novels. There’s a constant danger someone could sneak up behind him, or he could miss an important clue because he’s lipreading. Not to mention his urge to thump some of the patronizing ‘hearies’ he encounters along the way.
Pushkin Press Interview
But the origins of his character go deeper than that.
Like Caleb, I’ve often had my feet in two different worlds: a working class kid who became a classical musician; an author whose grandparents were illiterate. But where my experiences most line-up with Caleb’s is that I’ve got ADHD. Although that term often conjures up ‘annoying kid who can’t concentrate’, it’s a complex neurological condition that can sometimes make day-to-day life pretty challenging. And can sometimes be a gift. Just as Caleb’s deafness makes him an astute investigator, ADHD makes me an observant writer – when you don’t instinctively understand the rules of the world, you tend to become a keen people-watcher.
Pushkin Press Interview
It’s nearly ten years since Caleb first strode out of my subconscious and into his own story, and I’ve just finished the fourth book in the series, Those Who Perish. I’ve been lucky enough to have the support of readers and publishers to write exactly the kind of books I love – novels with meaty stories that can be read as standalones, or as a series where you can go on an emotional journey with the characters.
I wanted to avoid the cliché of an investigator who lurches from case to case, book to book incapable of change, so Caleb’s grown a lot along the way.
In Resurrection Bay, he’s at odds with himself and estranged from family and friends. Not part of the hearing world, or the Deaf, but in a no-man’s land in between. By the beginning of Those Who Perish, he’s more sure of his place in the world. At least, he is until he and I blow it apart again.
After all, we were destined to do it.
Interview from her website
What inspired you to write Caleb as a deaf character?
Caleb’s deafness adds a lot of natural tension to the novels. There’s a constant danger someone could sneak up behind him, or that he could miss an important clue because he’s lipreading. But it goes a lot deeper than that. Some of the inspiration for his character comes from my own outsider status, and some from my grandparents who were Croatian immigrants. They didn’t speak English and I wasn’t raised to speak Croatian, so when they came to live with us when I was seven or eight, our inability to communicate loomed pretty large in my life.
Despite all that, it took me months to start writing the first Caleb novel, Resurrection Bay. I was a professional clarinettist for many years, so I’ve spent a lot of my life thinking about sound. Writing about deafness felt too far from what I knew. But I couldn’t get Caleb out of my head, so I eventually began what ended up being five years of writing and research.
Interview from her website
What inspired you to write Caleb as a deaf character?
I spoke to people in the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, did an online lipreading course and tried out my lipreading skills in the world. Quickly realized I didn’t have any. I missed buses and received the wrong food in cafes, couldn’t understand anyone with a beard. My mishaps helped me understand Caleb’s stubborn streak, and also wonder if I should make his life a little easier by occasionally letting him use Australian sign language (Auslan).
Where lipreading is exhausting and difficult, Auslan is a natural and expressive language. I enrolled in a class and realised within minutes that it would also be the perfect way to show Caleb’s closeness with other characters. So I continued learning Auslan and Caleb signs with the people he loves.
Interview from her website
Caleb Zelic is a true outsider. Is this something you identify with yourself?
It’s a bit of a cliché for a writer, but I have to say yes. I’ve often had my feet in two different worlds: a working class kid who became a classical musician, an author whose grandparents were illiterate.
Interview from her website
What new challenges does Caleb face in Those Who Perish?
After a few rough years, Caleb’s life is finally back on track – he’s reconciled with his beloved ex-wife and is looking forward to his impending fatherhood. Even his recent commitment to only accepting safe cases is keeping him entertained as he investigates the ‘kidnapping’ of his hometown’s cherished footy mascot, Ned the Numbat.
But his new-found happiness is threatened when he receives an anonymous message that his estranged brother, Anton, is in danger. A man has been shot and Anton might be next. Caleb reluctantly leaves his pregnant wife’s side and tracks Ant to a remote island. When the sniper starts terrorising the isolated community, the brothers have to rely on each other to survive.
Interview from her website
Were you happy with the finale to Caleb’s journey?
Once it fell into place it felt exactly right. I wanted to capture the feeling that Caleb and his friends would still be there, going about their lives long after the reader had closed the book. But I haven’t quite said my final goodbyes yet. Although it feels right to end this series here, I love writing Caleb’s character, so I can see myself revisiting him in a few years to see how he’s getting on.
How do you go about building a series while ensuring that each title can also be read as a standalone novel?
It’s a bit like designing a building. Each book in the series is a self-contained room. You can walk straight in and explore just that space, or start at the front door and explore the entire building. My job is to make all of it architecturally cohesive but still interesting, whether it’s for a first time visitor, or an old acquaintance.
Interview from her website
How do you go about building a series while ensuring that each title can also be read as a standalone novel?
To keep the story flowing I give readers the information they need by threading it through the first few chapters. The tricky part is to do it in a way that’s meaningful. I often pin a memory to an object or place. I might link Caleb’s past marital woes to the kind of tea his wife drinks, or show his childhood closeness with his brother by describing a game of dare they used to play in a neighbour’s garden.
I did make things a little hard for myself, because I wanted to avoid the cliché of an investigator who lurches from case to case, book to book, incapable of change, so Caleb’s evolved a lot over the series. I’m always rapt when readers message to say that they jumped in at book 2 or 3 and understood him immediately.
Interview from her website
Which writers inspired you when writing this series?
I think every book I’ve ever read has influenced me in some way, even ones I’ve hated (No, I’m not going to name names!) Some writers I’ve loved and reread in recent years are Dorothy Porter, Peter Temple, Jock Serong and Kate Atkinson, along with many non-crime writers from Melissa Lucashenko to Elizabeth Strout. All very different authors but their writing jumps off the page.
Interviews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxLymdeOoTw (15:35)
From Sisters in Crime: Multi-Davitt Award-winning author Emma Viskic talks to Karina Kilmore about her development as a crime writer, her next book, and the importance of our writing community and organsiations like Sisters in Crime. Emma is the author of the Caleb Zelic series: Resurrection Bay, And Fire Came Down, Darkness For Light ... and well, you'll have to watch and see!
Books by Indigenous Authors
From ABC (EveryDay)
What narratives do we tell ourselves about our history? And more importantly, from what perspective?
Indigenous storytelling offers what Bundjalung/Kullilli/South Sea Islander presenter Daniel Browning describes as an "authentic and unvarnished version of Australia".
There are numerous lists of the 7 best, 10 best, 12 best books written by indigenous Australians, also known as First Nations Australian.
The following is a list of books recommended by various sites.
Am I Black Enough for You? Anita Heiss (2012)
A successful author, and passionate campaigner for Aboriginal literacy, Wiradjuri-born Anita Heiss was raised in the suburbs of Sydney and attended a local Catholic School.
In her autobiography, she delves into the crime of being too ‘fair-skinned’ to be classed as an Australian Aboriginal. These accusations see her take on one of the ‘most important and sensational Australian legal decisions of the 21st century’ in this deeply personal memoir.
She explains that just because she is Aboriginal doesn’t mean that she should be stereotyped or enjoys walking around barefoot or camping in the desert. Despite her actions, repercussions of being identified as an Aboriginal have continued in what she believes is during a time when ‘Australians are struggling for an identity as a nation’.
Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia, Anita Heiss (2018)
As the author of several novels, including a gaggle of very successful and readable romance novels with Indigenous women at the center, Anita Heiss, of the Wiradjuri nation, is one of the most recognizable First Nations writers in Australia.
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia features 50 original chronicles of what life was, and is, like for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Written by school children, well-known authors, music teachers and celebrities, the stories cover racism, bigotry, family, identity, culture and respect.
As confronting as this one may be, Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia is an absolute must-read. Compiling the perspectives from a number of people like Tony Birch, Adam Goodes, Deborah Cheetham, Terri Janke and a whole heap more, this groundbreaking anthology reveals, to some degree, the impacts of invasion and colonization—on language, on country, on ways of life, and on how people are treated daily in the community, the education system, the workplace and friendship groups.
Tiddas, Anita Heiss (2014)
Five women, best friends for decades, meet once a month to talk about books … and life, love and the jagged bits in between. Dissecting each other’s lives seems the most natural thing in the world—and honesty, no matter how brutal, is something they treasure. Best friends tell each other everything, don’t they? But each woman harbors a complex secret and one weekend, without warning, everything comes unstuck.
Izzy, soon to be the first Black woman with her own television show, has to make a decision that will change everything. Veronica, recently divorced and dedicated to raising the best sons in the world, has forgotten who she is. Xanthe, desperate for a baby, can think of nothing else, even at the expense of her marriage. Nadine, so successful at writing other people’s stories, is determined to blot out her own. Ellen, footloose by choice, begins to question all that she’s fought for.
When their circle begins to fracture and the old childhood ways don’t work anymore, is their sense of sisterhood enough to keep it intact? How well do these tiddas really know each other?
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams, Anita Heiss (2021)
Winner 2022 NSW Premier's Literary Award Indigenous Writer's Prize, 2022 Abia Shortlist, 2021 Ara Historical Novel Prize Shortlist, 2022 Stella Prize Longlist, 2022 Indie Book Awards Longlist
Gundagai, 1852: The powerful Murrumbidgee River surges through town leaving death and destruction. It is a stark reminder that while the river can give life, it can just as easily take it away.
Wagadhaany is lucky. She survives. But is her life now better than the fate she escaped? Forced to move away from her miyagan, she walks through each day with no trace of dance in her step, her broken heart forever calling her back home to Gundagai.
When she meets Wiradyuri stockman Yindyamarra, Wagadhaany’s heart slowly begins to heal. But still, she dreams of a better life, away from the degradation of being owned. She longs to set out along the river of her ancestors, in search of lost family and country. Can she find the courage to defy the White man’s law? And if she does, will it bring hope ... or heartache? Set on timeless Wiradyuri country, where the life-giving waters of the rivers can make or break dreams, and based on devastating true events, (River of Dreams) is an epic story of love, loss and belonging.
Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko
"Wise-cracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things—her hometown and prison. But now her Pop is dying, and she's an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley. Kerry plans to spend twenty-four hours, tops, over the border.
She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people. Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river. And the unexpected arrival on the scene of a good-looking dugai (white) fella intent on loving her up only adds more trouble - but then trouble is Kerry's middle name."
Like The Yield, Too Much Lip is a multiple award-winning novel, clinching the 2019 Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Lucashenko is a Goorie author of Bundjalung heritage. There's a strong sense that the past is contemporaneous, and that country knows us, sees us and makes its presence felt in ways we don’t always perceive.
"This book is very much about us as a country: our way of speaking, the structures that exist such as class and race and it’s a statement about who we are, good and bad."
The Yield, Tara June Winch
"Knowing that he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. He has spent his life on the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains, determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind.
August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for 10 years when she learns of her grandfather's death. She returns home, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends, she endeavors to save their land—a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the stories of her people, the secrets of the river."
The Miles Franklin Award Winning novel – also the winner of the NSW Premier’s Literature Award and shortlisted for the Stella Prize – is her third book. An urgent story, written in the incredible prose of Winch, a Wiradjuri author, this novel is one of our favorites.
Carpentaria, Alexis Wright (2006)
Wright uses a casual Indigenous voice to describe the lives of eccentric characters in a small NW Queensland town in the second half of the 20th century. The book explores themes of native title rights, politics, spirituality, family and race and received widespread critical acclaim when published in mid-2006, winning the Miles Franklin Award and being described by the New York Times as a "literary sensation."
Epic and all encompassing in scope, Carpentaria is an expansive novel with a huge story at its center. Peopled by a diverse range of characters, the story follows two sparring families up in the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and their relationships with each other and the white officials in the coastal town of Desperance. Waanyi nation author Wright has a lyrical style, which she blends in this extraordinary book with folklore, fairytales, music and philosophy.
That Deadman Dance, Kim Scott (2010)
Touching on the initial decades of British presence along a fictional settlement on the coast of Western Australia, Kim Scott – who holds a mixed Noongar and English heritage – delves into this flawlessly written tale adding a whole new depth to the impact European colonization had on the lives of the Indigenous Australians. Revolving around Bobby Wabalanginy and the touch the Noongar people have on the landscape, Scott portrays a promising relationship that quickly deteriorated between the British and Noongar people, forcing Bobby to choose between the old world he knew or the new one.
That Deadman Dance has won the Miles Franklin Award, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book in 2011.
Taboo, Kim Scott
From Kim Scott, two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, comes a work charged with ambition and poetry, in equal parts brutal, mysterious and idealistic, about a young woman cast into a drama that has been playing for over two hundred years.
Taboo takes place in the present day, in the rural SW of Western Australia, and tells the story of a group of Noongar people who revisit, for the first time in many decades, a taboo place: the site of a massacre that followed the assassination, by these Noongar’s descendants, of a white man who had stolen a black woman. They come at the invitation of Dan Horton, the elderly owner of the farm on which the massacres unfolded. He hopes that by hosting the group he will satisfy his wife’s dying wishes and cleanse some moral stains from the ground on which he and his family have lived for generations.
But the sins of the past will not be so easily expunged.
We walk with the ragtag group through this taboo country and note in them glimmers of re-connection with language, lore, country. We learn alongside them how countless generations of Noongar may have lived in ideal rapport with the land. This is a novel of survival and renewal, as much as destruction; and, ultimately, of hope as much as despair.
Terra Nullius, Claire G. Coleman
Noongar author Claire G. Coleman has made a name for herself for her thought-provoking stories that both shine a spotlight on, and reimagine, Australia’s colonial history. Terra Nullius, her debut novel, was highly acclaimed upon its release in 2018. The book posed the question: what if Australia went through colonialism again in the near future? What would we say about the process of colonization then? Terra Nullius is an incredible book that will have you thinking long after you turn the final page.
Terra, meaning land in Latin, and Nullius, meaning belonging to no one, examines colonization, race and resilience through multiple character points of view.
Coleman's debut novel takes place in the near future and tells an all too familiar story of “Settlers” and “Natives” with a big twist.
Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe (non-fiction)
Considered a classic and a must read ever since its publication in 2014, Dark Emu celebrates the role that First Nations people have played in the history of agriculture in Australia.
"This text accesses the diaries and notes of the invaders/settlers/explorers to challenge the stories of exactly what was first seen and 'discovered' when this continent was invaded some 230+ years ago."
It questions the accounts in history books of the colonial era and present a new story about what life really looked like for Indigenous Australians throughout the past.
Written by Yuin and Bunurong man Bruce Pacoe, their experience includes work as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archeological site worker and editor. Dark Emu reconsiders the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians, slamming the colonial myths that found no evidence of agriculture, aquaculture and engineering.
The White Girl, Tony Birch (2019)
The White Girl is a story of hardship, violence and racism as much as it is a tale of love, spirit, faith and unbreakable family bonds. Birch's protagonist, Odette Brown, and her granddaughter Sissy live in a time when the Australian government dictated what Indigenous Australians could and couldn’t do — including whether or not they could keep their children.
"Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. Raising her granddaughter Sissy on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing Aboriginal children from their communities. When the menacing Sergeant Lowe arrives in town, determined to fully enforce the law, any freedom that Odette and Sissy enjoy comes under grave threat. Odette must make an impossible choice to protect her family. In The White Girl, Tony Birch has created memorable characters whose capacity for love and courage are a timely reminder of the endurance of the human spirit."
My Tidda, My Sister, Marlee Silva
Silva's debut novel, My Tidda, My Sister, shares the struggles and lives of First Nation women and girls. Their stories are heartbreaking and inspiring and, for non-Indigenous readers, will leave you appreciating the strength, power and resilience of our First Nations sisters. If anything though, the stories are all interconnected through an empowering and unbreakable bond of sisterhood.
Cast of characters
Caleb Zelic
Partner in Trust Works, with Frankie Reynolds, a firm that does corporate security, fraud and insurance investigation. They've been in business for the past 5 years or so
He's been deaf since age 5 as a result of meningitis
Frankie Reynolds
Caleb's partner, an ex-cop, 57 years old, who has substance abuse problems. Her sister is Maggie, or Margaret Petronin, whom Caleb sees in a photo. Frankie never mentioned having a sister
Anton "Ant" Zelic
Caleb's brother; now clean, but has had a drug problem, served jail time
Cast of characters
Kat (Kathryn) Anderson, Caleb's ex-wife, an artist, with a "porno" VW
She's Black, Abo, with blue eyes, and could probably "pass" as Indian or Pakistani, although she doesn't try.
Dr. Maria Anderson—Kat's mother, a physician.
Kat's father is also a physician, but away during the novel. And Kat has 3 sisters, also not featured in the book
Gary "Gaz" Marsden, Senior Constable that Caleb found murdered in the first chapter of the novel. They had been friends since childhood. He has a wife, Sharon, and children.
Sean Fleming—Manager at City Sentry, the firm who provides guards for the warehouse that was recently robbed
Elle--his assistant
Cast of characters
"Grey-face"—police detective, part of the gang
"Boxer"—Michael Petronin, 38 years old, hired killer, with a daughter
Vince Kovac, wife Honey
O'Brien brothers
Brad—"the floating turd in the toilet bowl that was his family" and Steve; great grandfather (torches the cars, has a "thing" for Kat)
Uri Tedesco—detective—"good guy"
Detective Sergeant Hamish McFarlane, Ethical Standards, also "Scott"
Senior Constable Anthony Hobbs, killed on the same day as Gary, in the photo Gary took of the robbers and the heist
Arnie Giannopoulos and Spiros Galto, committed second warehouse robbery, copy of the first, using keys and alarm codes from Vanessa Galto, daughter of Spiros
Questions for discussion
Last week, we talked about some of the characteristics of modern Australian novels. I picked this one because it includes indigenous Australians. What other characteristics in this novel are representative of Australian literature?
Questions for discussion
The primary indigenous character in this novel is of course Kat, Caleb's ex-wife. How is she characterized?
Questions for discussion
What's your opinion of Frankie? Sympathetic? Not?
Is drug addiction, alcoholism, a disability just as is hearing loss, being aboriginie?
Is corruption, like "Scott" and his troupe, including "Boxer."
Questions for discussion
At the end of the novel, in the epilogue: Tedesco and Caleb at the hospital:
Tedesco’s mouth moved, testing some idea. ‘Have you considered counselling? It could help.’
‘Yeah, she’s getting some.’
‘I meant you.’
‘Me? I’m not the one McFarlane tortured.’
‘You sure about that?’
He felt a flash of heat. ‘Pretty fucking sure. And Kat’s got the scars to prove it.’
‘There’s all kinds of pain, mate. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.’
He turned away before Caleb could respond.
Questions for discussion
In chapter 18, he has a similar conversation with Kat, after he's seen the sapling sculpture she created, representing her two miscarriages, hidden in the garden.
What do you want me to say, Kat?’
She stepped back and the wasteland he’d been glimpsing all week opened between them. He’d been wrong about its size: it wasn’t vast; it was tiny. Small enough to cradle in his hands.
‘You’re fluent in two languages, Caleb. You go to speech therapy once a month to make sure of that. You’ve fought, begged and battled to be able to say anything you could possibly want to say. So talk to me.’
He lifted his hands, but they were empty of words.
Question for discussion
In Chapter 12, Caleb and Kat go to a coffee house and Caleb has trouble with the waitress:
When she’d gone, Kat continued. ‘It’s the business of waitresses who don’t understand why you’re looking so angry, of taxi drivers who don’t know why you’re not answering them. And, more importantly, it’s the business of people who love you. You’re putting so much effort into pretending you’re normal, you can’t be anything like your real self with any of them.’
And all these years he's thought they couldn’t have had a worse date than their first one. Not that this was a date – that was pretty fucking obvious. More like an inquisition. Flayed alive: nothing left except raw, weeping flesh.
Question for discussion
Continued:
She touched his hand. ‘I’m not attacking you.’
‘I know.’
‘No you don’t, you’re wound so tight you’re barely breathing. Which is exactly why I’ve never … Look, I’m doing this all wrong. I think what you’ve managed to accomplish …’
‘… despite being black. Is that how that sentence ends?’ Her eyes were ice-blue slits.
‘It’s not the same.’
‘Some people regard being black as a disability.’ ‘
Putting all these together, what's going on with Caleb?
Breakout room question
What did you think of this novel in general, and more specifically, of its ending? It has a violent, gruesome, painful ending. Why?
Books by Indigenous Authors
Butterfly Song, Terri Janke
Looking for a Torres Strait Islander perspective? Butterfly Song could be the novel for you.
"This book follows the story of Torres Strait Islander woman, Tarena Shaw, as she navigates her first case as a lawyer — a case intertwined with her family's past."
"I loved it because I saw familiar words, people and stories within the pages.
"This is one of the few fictional stories I've read with a Torres Strait Islander main character. It could possibly show readers a perspective and history of First Nations Australians that perhaps they don't normally access."
Living on Stolen Land, Ambelin Kwaymullina
If you're strapped for time but looking for an Indigenous view on colonization, then check out Living on Stolen Land.
"What I love about this book is how comfortably it welcomes the reader into what can be confronting and challenging concepts," Amy says.
"In the lead up to Invasion Day you will see a rise in terms used online and in the media that may be unfamiliar to you. If you’re looking for an accessible introduction to significant matters such systemic bias, stolen lands, sovereignties, time and more, this is a thought-provoking and brilliant place to start."
Why are these narratives important?
"It's often difficult for non-Indigenous peoples to appreciate what it is we fight for today, if they don't fully understand what has been stolen [or] what colonialism has sought [or] seeks to destroy," she says.
Song of the Crocodile, Nardi Simpson
Released just last year, Song of the Crocodile is the debut novel by Yuwaalaraay author Nardi Simpson. Telling the story of four generations of First Nations people, living in a small community on the outskirts of a rural town, this book is written with a poetic lyricism and a tenderness to the storytelling. Simpson is also a PhD candidate in musical composition and it shows. She has an ear for language and words that is truly musical.
Talking to My Country, Stan Grant
Acclaimed journalist Stan Grant turned his viral 2015 speech on how racism and bigotry are ruining the Australian dream into his second, heartbreaking book.
Published in 2016, Talking to My Country sees Grant tell a personal story of growing up in a racist country and the urgent need to transform society.
Songlines, Margo Nylle and Lynne Kelly
Having only dropped last year, we’ll forgive you (for now) if you haven’t sunk your literary teeth into the brilliance that is Songlines (which is actually part of a wider six-part series you need to get into) written by two of the best female authors of 2020.
This is an absolute staple in any home library because Songlines is an archival read of knowledge stemming from Australia’s First Nations people which saw its culture flourish for over 60,000 years. While other books in this series delve into First Nation knowledge around design, land management and medicine, Songlines is a vice to provide greater understanding in how First Nations people kept knowledge alive, not through written recordings, rather through song, art and most importantly—Country.
Bindi, Kirli Saunders
Bindi is the only book you need to be gifting any of the little people in your life and hey, if you want to flick through its pages, you’ll be pretty breath taken too. Telling the story of 11-year-old Bindi who’s an absolute force in art class and on the field when she’s playing hockey. While it seems like her year strays from how it should have been with big assignments, droughts, bushfires and a broken wrist, the beauty of Bindi is that it subtly intertwines the realities of climate bushfires and intergenerational healing. The book is also seamless in the way it interweaves English words and Gundungurra words.
Black is the New White, Nakkiah Lui
The smash-hit play, in print for the first time with a foreword and notes from multitalented playwright, writer, commentator and actor Nakkiah Lui. Love, politics and other things you shouldn’t talk about at dinner.
Charlotte Gibson is a lawyer with a brilliant career ahead of her. As her father Ray says, she could be the next female Indigenous Waleed Aly. But she has other ideas. First of all, it’s Christmas. Second of all, she’s in love.
The thing is, her fiancé, Francis Smith, is not what her family expected — he’s unemployed, he’s an experimental composer … and he’s white! Bringing him and his conservative parents to meet her family on their ancestral land is a bold move. Will he stand up to the scrutiny? Or will this romance descend into farce?
Love is never just black and white. It’s complicated by class, politics, ambition, and too much wine over dinner. But for Charlotte and Francis, it’s mostly complicated by family. Secrets are revealed, prejudices outed and old rivalries get sorted through. What can’t be solved through diplomacy can surely be solved by a good old-fashioned dance-off. They’re just that kind of family.
Catching Teller Crow, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Catching Teller Crow is another book that uses fiction to mirror the lived realities of Indigenous people.
"Australia's colonial history and racism within our police is a clear theme in this story. It shows a very real reality for some — that some readers may not be aware of," says Jasmin, junior editor at black & write!
"The story explores trauma, injustice and serious problems that we see in the real world today. It shows this country’s history, and the impacts of grief which the authors crafted deeply and sincerely through each scene and word.
"For me, while it was heartbreaking, I found the characters all still gave me hope."
Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta (non-fiction)
"What happens when global systems are viewed from an Indigenous perspective? How does it affect the way we see history, money, power and learning? Could it change the world? This remarkable book is about everything from echidnas to evolution, cosmology to cooking, sex and science and spirits to Schrodinger's cat.
Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from an Indigenous perspective. He asks how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently?"
Next Week
Thanksgiving!
Week after
Nov 30 and Dec 1
Background on British Raj
Dec 7 and 8
A Rising Man, Abir Mukherjee
Dec 14—optional
Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres