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PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES. TEXT BY HANNAH-ROSE YEE
THE GOOD PEOPLE
by Hannah Kent
Picador Australia, $32.99
Homegrown literary
wunderkind Hannah Kent
(Burial Rites) is back with
another historical epic, this
time set in 1800s Ireland,
where a widow stands trial for
using folk magic to cure her
crippled grandson. Out now.
SMALL GREAT THINGS
by Jodi Picoult
Allen & Unwin, $32.99
A new Jodi Picoult novel is
always cause for celebration
in the marie claire office and
this one is a cracker of a
story with all her trademark
elements: medical dilemma,
courtroom drama and a
hot-button talking point
(racism). Out now.
THE TIES THAT BIND
by Lexi Landsman
Bantam Australia, $32.99
Fans of Lisa Genova will love
this Australian author’s
debut, which follows a
mother who will do just
about anything to save her
terminally ill son. Out now.
AUTUMN
by Ali Smith
Hamish Hamilton, $35.00
The first in a four-part
series, this novel by our
all-time favourite scribe,
Ali Smith, is an elegant,
intelligent ode to the cyclical
nature of time. Out now.
TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT
by Maria Semple
W&N, $32.99
Former screenwriter Maria
Semple – she’s the woman
behind Arrested Development
- has an effervescent writing
style, and you’ll be charmed
by her latest, in which a
madcap illustrator tries to
outrun her chequered past.
Out October 11.
Fire up the little grey cells.
Agatha Christie is back! Or
perhaps she never really left,
and the queen of the polished
whodunit beloved of your
Nanna’s bridge club is having
a much-needed resurgence.
And how: this month two
new books will be released with
Christie at their core. The first –
Closed Casket (Harper Collins,
$29.99) – is a reimagination of
the author’s much-loved Belgian
detective Hercule Poirot. The
other – On The Blue Train (Allen
& Unwin, $29.99) – unpicks the
infamous true story of Christie’s
11-day disappearance in 1926.
Those mysterious 11 days are also
the subject of a major new film
starring Emma Stone. Alicia
Vikander has also signed on to
her very own Christie biopic. And
then there’s Kenneth Branagh,
who will direct and star in
Christie’s most famous mystery
- The Murder On The Orient
Express – as Poirot himself.
So why the sudden resurgence
of Christie’s twist-and-turn laden
stories? A cynic would point to
the purchase of the late author’s
estate by Acorn Media, a
production company keen to
capitalise on the length and
breadth of her archive,
numbering some 78 novels.
But a more generous take is
that Christie’s tales are just what
the doctor ordered for modern
readers oversaturated with that
specific kind of brutality we’ve
come to expect from Nordic noir.
They’re a throwback to the days
when murder mysteries came with
vials of arsenic and five-course
dinners. When plots trundled
along merrily like a WWI girl
on a bicycle. And – spoiler
alert – the butler always did it.
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BOOK
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Refresh your
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these new titles
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thing is clear: Agatha Christie ... She’s so hot right now
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