True North.TRUE NORTH
Brenda Niall, Text, A$32.95
Once the Duracks owned huge pastoral properties in Australia. They also produced two very talented women, writer Mary and artist Elizabeth. The sisters grew up privileged but had to work hard for their art. They knew their riches depended on dispossession and acted as mediators between white and black culture. Mary encouraged Colin Johnson (Mudrooroo); Elizabeth exhibited her best work under the name Eddie Burrup. Niall explores with warmth a contradictory pair of sisters.
THE SHIP
Stefan Mani, Pier 9, A$29.99


Icelandic fiction is famous for cool, intelligent crime thrillers by writers such as Arnaldur Indridason. Mani is completely different. He is rough, raw and goes for the throat. In this award-winning novel, a freighter casts off for the tropics with a motley crew aboard. They all have problems (family, drugs or fear of imminent redundancy) and one of them is a career criminal. The narrative is never less than unsettling and at best very powerful. As claustrophobic as the film The Boat.
Blue by Pat Grant.BLUE
Pat Grant, Top Shelf/Giramondo, A$20
Blue is a series of short strips, a tale of Australian seaside life. The influence of surf cartoons is felt, also some of the sentiments and melancholia of Shaun Tan. Bolton is an average coastal town - until it is overrun by octopoid blue aliens with a taste for graffiti. The production is beautiful, being restricted to sepia and blue tones. The vision is very personal, a memoir expressed graphically. Grant's essay on Australian comic history is a bonus. For zine and comic fans.