JUNE 2018 | The Australian Women’s Weekly 189
Books
In 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton,
then 58, was released from
prison after 28 years on Alabama’s
death row for a crime he did not
commit. On the night a restaurant
manager was shot in 1985, “Ray”,
29, was cleaning the loor locked
inside a guarded warehouse, 15
miles away. The victim survived –
unlike two similar unsolved cases- and he misidentiied Ray. When
police arrested him, mowing the
lawn at his Mom’s, they found
a pistol, not used for 25 years.
Forensics asserted it was used in all
robberies; Ray was indicted on all
charges. His pro bono lawyer did not
call a competent ballistics expert.
Poor and black, Ray studied law at
school, but went down the coalmine
like his Dad, whose head injury at
work left him in an institution, and
his Mom with 10 children to raise
alone. Ray’s solitary cell was 30 feet
from the execution chamber; the
smell of “burning lesh and fried
organs” drifted up the row. His
book club gave fellow inmates
escape, but it was attorney Bryan
Stevenson who freed Ray. “Genuine,
compassionate, funny – it was easy
to want to help him,” said Bryan.
Ray’s Mom died in 2002. He walked
free to go straight to her graveside
and is now a public speaker giving
a message of forgiveness.
THE RULES OF
BACKYARD CROQUET
by Sunni Overend,
HarperCollins
A fabulous foray into the
world of fashion. Apple
oozes stylish eccentricity
right down to her
vintage Morris Minor.
Kicked out of design
academy on false
charges and duped by
a man she didn’t know
was married, she finds
sanctuary as manager
of a once high-end
boutique owned by
75-year-old Veronica.
When younger sister
Poppy gets engaged,
Apple feels old and
sleeps with a “Ken Doll”
at his penthouse; toast
and marmalade his
signature chat-up. But
when the Pimm’s and
croquet set embrace
her, she is seduced.
What is the one rule of
backyard croquet? The
Queen of Hearts in Alice
In Wonderland played
croquet with flamingos,
so their sartorial pink
presence is de rigueur.
If only the rules of love
were so elegant.THE HOARDER by
Jess Kidd, Allen & Unwin
London villa Bridlemere- home to purveyor of
curiosities Cathal Flood - is a house not at
peace. When carer
Maud puts her watch on
the sill, it reappears on a
hook. “Decrepit giant”
Flood has long curved
nails and last bathed in
- The previous carer
fled, but Cathal’s cursing
does not daunt fellow
Irisher Maud. The
letterbox is nailed up,
windows newspapered
over. Maud’s domain is
the kitchen, where she
wades through 25 years
of newspapers to
excavate the cooker. The
line is drawn at The
Great Wall of National
Geographics, behind
which Flood’s “museum
of terrible wonders” lies.
Renata, Maud’s landlady,
says Flood pushed his
late wife down the
stairs. When Maud finds
a photo of two children,
the girl’s face burnt out,
she determines to find
the truth about this
decaying eccentric.
EVERY NOTE PLAYED
by Lisa Genova,
Simon & Schuster
Genova’s story of early
onset Alzheimer’s in Still
Alice struck a chord
worldwide. Concert
pianist Richard is in
the midst of playing
Schumann when he
feels “on top of the
notes, not inside them”.
Six months after he is
diagnosed with ALS
diagnosis (the disease
the late Stephen
Hawking battled), rapid
seizures grip him. His
arms paralysed, he is a
fish without water. At
the clinic they ask if he
can still lick his lips. He
must order his
wheelchair, decide if he
wants a feeding tube,
and does he want to
“bank his voice” or have
it computer generated?
The stark end choice:
tracheostomy or
terminally weaned
(removal of breathing
tube). Ex-wife Karina
gave up a jazz career to
raise daughter Grace,
while unfaithful Richard
toured the world.Storytime
EHTUATS
RALIANWOM
EN
’S
W
EE- YLK
MAY.
2018The sun does shine
by Anthony Ray Hinton, PenguinReal life