North & South – June 2019

NORTH & SOUTH | JUNE 2019 | 95

aspect of daily life is relent-

lessly recorded; it’s the

responsibility of every citizen

to document “reality in pro-

gress”. And liars are the ulti-

mate criminals. So when

Laszlo Ratesic, a “truth

crimes” police officer, is

called to an accidental death

and notices a distortion of the

truth, he starts digging – only

to find more lies than he

thought possible and more

dangers than he could have

imagined. The determined,

big-hearted lynchpin of the

story, Laszlo immerses us in

his society and engages us

with its citizens, while we’re

taken on an unsettling ride

through what could be our

own future. Golden State

feels like a warning: relevant,

prescient and disturbingly

possible. But it’s also intrigu-

ing, exciting and ultimately

hopeful. No word of a lie.

JULIE COOK

The Strawberry Thief

Joanne Harris (Hachette, $35)

I read this in the aftermath

of the Christchurch attacks

when I was a big ball of

emotion and needed a

distraction. Thankfully the

fourth, and possibly final,

novel in a series that began

with Chocolat 20 years

ago is like snuggling into

a comfy old cardigan. It’s

been a while since Harris

Fiction

How We Disappeared
Jing-Jing Lee
(Bloomsbury, $33)

“Comfort women” was a
euphemism for sex slaves
during World War II. In more
than a dozen occupied coun-
tries, Japanese soldiers visited
“homes” where women and
teenage girls abducted from
their families were raped
and half-starved. This novel
is about Wang Di, taken from
her rural Singapore family
aged 16. That story strand is
intertwined with a plot set in
2000, when an elderly Wang
Di finally breaks her silence.
“All that history [felt] like a
large, wriggling fish she was
trying to wrestle to shore,
how she had to fight not to
get pulled under.” While it’s
harrowing, there’s no gratui-
tous detail, and Jing-Jing Lee
really brings to life the char-
acters, and the streets and
villages of Singapore. The
celebrated Chinese author
Xinran called this “a bril-
liant, heart-breaking story”.
I agree. SARAH LANG

Golden State
Ben H. Winters
(Penguin Random House, $37)

All citizens of the Golden
State live with a fanatical
devotion to the truth. Every

last visited chocolatier Vianne

Rocher, whose arrival in the

cutesy French village of our

travel dreams caused all

sorts of ructions. Rocher’s

cafe is now the centre of the

community, but when the

village’s recently deceased

florist leaves land to Rocher’s

mute daughter, rivalries,

conflicts and secrets are

stirred up. It’s not nearly as

mouth-watering as Chocolat

but as a distraction from the

world’s madness, it’ll do.

SHARON STEPHENSON

The Narrow Land

Christine Dwyer Hickey

(Allen & Unwin, $45)

After World War II, Michael

• a dišcult, traumatised and
  probably German boy – was
  fostered out in the US as one
  of “Truman’s orphans”. At age
  10, he’s spending the summer
  with Orphan Fund benefac-
  tress Mrs Kaplan, her two
  daughters and grandson in
  Cape Cod, where the wealthy
  holiday. Here, Michael forms
  an unexpected friendship with
  neighbour Jo and her husband
  Edward, a famous artist. Their
  marriage is toxic at worst and
  dišcult at best, with Jo resent-
  ing her husband’s success,
  forcing her own artwork
  onto Edward’s gallery-owner
  friends, and irritating every-
  one. We witness the charac-
  ters’ inner lives and situations

where “words are the deadli-

est weapons”, with everything

coming to a head at a garden

party. This languorous,

elegant and insightful novel

left me contemplating

marriage vows, wilful blind-

ness and human fallibility.

SARAH LANG

Wakenhyrst

Michelle Paver

(HarperCollins, $35)

Wakenhyrst is a darkly Gothic

thriller set in an Edwardian

manor house in an isolated

corner of the Suffolk fens,

narrated by the sharply ob-

servant, enduring Maud,

a plain child in a suffocat-

ing world dominated by

her father’s medieval ide-

as of sanctity, “a woman’s

place”, witchcraft and his

own nightmarish demons.

Paver is a master of spare,

lyrical prose and chilling

suspense as she reveals

Maud’s dawning awareness

of an unhappy truth: her

hero worship of her cruel

and coldly distant pater is

dangerously misplaced. Set

over five centuries and in-

tricately researched, Paver’s

novel o¡ers a window into

the imaginings of an intelli-

gent young woman yearning

to fly free, and an evocation

of the strange and compelling

power of nature.

JENNY WHEELER

INTERNATIONAL BOOKS / the best of the month

edited by VIRGINIA LARSON