Cirrus@Austlit

'Gina says ‘It’s your world,’ but it doesn’t seem that way to Evie, especially after Evie’s dad has a brain haemorrhage. But Evie doesn’t just moan her plight; she writes it. She writes about a mother she never met, an aunt she hasn’t seen in forever and all the other stuff you’re supposed to get up to when you’re fifteen. But it doesn’t stop there. Alcohol, existentialism and hair dye, will Evie verse them all and come out on top of the world? After all, Evie’s not really evil, she’s just up to no good.' (Publication summary)

'At once a memoir and biography, a father and son contend with the fragility of their own relationship in Occupied Palestine. This exciting new work explores the discovery of identity and love, apartheid and trauma.

'Mark Rafidi is an alien in a foreign land, yet he hears the land of his forefathers sing to him. It will signpost his roots. It will offer a cup of suffering he must drink from. It will challenge him to move from indifference to empathy. His father, Ishmael, is returning to a past he tried to exorcise. Even though he fled after the Six Day War, he hasn't forgotten the land which belongs to him like a mother.

'Ishmael's Oud is a journey from Australia to Jerusalem, from naivete to knowing; the narrative of a son who travels through memory's alley and finds out what it means to be both Palestinian and Australian.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'“The range of these poems is as extensive as their generosity. There are multiple foci for this collection: the origin of songbirds, librarians of Alexandria (Egypt, not Sydney) and the psychic import of conditions such as prosopagnosia (face blindness); but underpinning the collection as a whole is a warm intelligence which reminds us of the many forms and dimensions of love. This surprises with its gentle insistence, coupled with an acutely inquiring poetic mind.”

• David Musgrave ' (Publication summary)