But here are 10 books being published this month that might ease the shift into 2024. A new year and new books – what could be better?
Jack Beaumont,author and former spy with the French secret service.Supplied
Dark Arena,Jack Beaumont,Allen&Unwin,$32.99| January 3
This is the second novel by the former French Secret Service agent who goes under the name Jack Beaumont and in his post-DGSE days makes his home in Sydney and his living by writing spy thrillers that have the feel of authenticity about them. Perhaps that’s why his bestsellingThe Frenchman is being brought to the small screen by the sons of John le Carré,who were responsible for the brilliant adaptation of their father’s The Night Manager,in a version written byTrue Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.
The Buddhist and the Ethicist,Peter Singer&Shih Chao-Hwei,Text,$36.99| January 3
Peter Singer makes the point early in this series of dialogues between him and the Buddhist monastic Shih Chao-Hwei that he has never been a religious person,but finds Buddhism “closer to my way of thinking than any other major religions”. Over five years,the two engaged in an ongoing discussion about ethics,moral philosophy and the life we all lead,shining what Shih Chao-Hwei calls “the clear and bright light of wisdom”. Subjects include sexuality,capital punishment,abortion,euthanasia and much more.
Karen Viggers’ new novel focuses on sporting tensions,on and off the field.Karleen Minney
Sidelines,Karen Viggers,Allen&Unwin,$32.99| January 3
Anyone who watches children play any sort of competitive sport – perhaps particularly soccer – will be familiar with ugly parents living vicariously through their offspring,the obsessions of the players and the driving determination of coaches who think they’re the next Pep Guardiola with a win-at-all-costs attitude. Karen Viggers’ novel focuses on two girls playing in a mixed team and exploits to full effect the tensions within the team,on the sidelines and in the local community.
Cahokia Jazz,Francis Spufford,Faber&Faber,$34.99| January 3
If you relished Francis Spufford’s brilliant first two novels,Golden Hill and Light Perpetual,you’ll be itching to get your hands on his new,alternative historical fiction set during the ’20s in which the Native American settlement Cahokia has become the main city in Missouri. But when a body of a white man is discovered on a roof with his heart removed,it’s the signal for a noir novel that investigates not only crime,but race and the city’s precarious identity through the inquiries of a mixed-race detective.
Love for Libya lies at the heart of Hisham Matar’s books.Supplied
My Friends,Hisham Matar,Viking,$34.99| January 16
Hisham Matar’s love for the mother country he left permanently burns at the heart of two previous novels and his remarkable memoir,The Return. But this novel is as much about Libya and the dictatorship as it is about being away from the country and speaking out about it. Two friends studying in Scotland are wounded in an anti-Gaddafi demonstration in the early 1980s outside the Libyan embassy in London. A dissident writer,Hosam,later joins their friendship circle and Matar follows the men into the days of the Arab Spring. As Hosam points out,“We are in a tide ... in it and of it. As foolish to think we are free of history as it would be of gravity.”
Foul Play,Fiona McIntosh,Michael Joseph,$34.99| January 9
She’s so prolific,you wonder how Fiona McIntosh does it. It’s only a couple of months sinceThe Sugar Palace – her historical romance set in the world of confectionery in ’20s Sydney – came out,and yet here comes the fifth in the crime series featuring her London DS,Jack Hawksworth. This time,Hawksworth is tackling the blackmail of a football star who appears to have been caught in a compromising position with a woman who isn’t his wife. But was he? He says not. So who is trying this racket on him and other top-drawer athletes?
Naomi Osaka is the subject of a biography by Ben Rothenberg.AP
Naomi Osaka,Ben Rothenberg,Text,$36.99| January 9
Just in time for the comes this biography of the Japanese tennis star,one of the more interesting players on the circuit. Yes,Naomi Osaka has won grand slams and been number one in the world,but she’s also been honest about her mental health difficulties – she suffers from depression and anxiety – and has been an active supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Osaka is making her return to tennis in Australia after having a break to give birth to her daughter,Shai. Ben Rothenberg has covered tennis for years,mainly forThe New York Times,and fans will lap this one up.
Politica,Yumna Kassab,Ultimo,$34.99| January 3
Yumna Kassab’s fourth novel seems particularly timely,what with the conflicts raging in Ukraine and Gaza and its concern with the consequences of war. In five linked episodes,she takes us into the lives of the people,the town and the unnamed state where revolution and conflict have broken out. In one,a woman recalls what her father said when she was seven and being bullied:“You will learn to live with him.” But in this world of parables and revolution who will learn to live with whom,and will peace ever return?
A Dance with Murder,Elizabeth Coleman,Pantera Press,$29.99| January 3
It might be a dance with murder,but it’s a delightfully cosy one. Private investigator Ted Bristol is on the case of a stalker and out for a date with the prime suspect. But the ballet dancer target is the ex-wife of Spike Tereiti,her Swordcraft colleague and also a homicide detective and the man she has so nearly taken into her bed. To add to the troubles for Ted and her loyal schnauzer,Miss Marple,a man has vanished and his wife wants him found. A second mystery from theMiss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries screenwriter hits the summer-reading spot.
The Roadmap of Loss,Liam Murphy,Echo Publishing,$32.99| January 3
A mother’s death,an absent,violent father,a single son’s grief – these are the ingredients of Liam Murphy’s first novel. But when Mark sells his mother’s house and starts to clear it out,he finds a cache of letters that suggest his mother has lied to him about his father’s fate. It sets him on a journey to find the truth,a truth that will satisfy him and also teach him much about himself and the sort of man he is. As novelist Debra Adelaide says about the book,Murphy “has taken a great and familiar form,the American road novel,and infused it with his own lyrical and melancholic exploration of a young man’s pitfalls”.
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