'Australia and China: the two terms are so fluid, so contested, yet inescapably denotative – the China of the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the diaspora? The Australia that does not exist? Antipodean China, born of intercultural dialogue and exchange, goes against the typical hubris of the global north. Despite enjoying the freedom, power and privilege to learn from other cultures at its cosmopolitan leisure, Australia can often barely be bothered to understand one – whereas the global south, by necessity, must learn about northern cultures alongside its own (and often many others besides). In its inherent concern for this conundrum – and its vanishingly rare appreciation for issues of cultural essentialism and syncretism – Antipodean China practically sells itself.' (Introduction)
'It’s 1976, and in the small town of Repentance, on the edge of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales, the new hippies and the old families are about to collide over the issue of logging old-growth forests. Repentance, Alison Gibbs’s debut novel, takes as its focus a few key characters, and the larger drama of the township unravels around the ins and outs of their lives towards a fittingly moving denouement.' (Introduction)
'Based on his blog of the same name, Nick Gadd’s latest book, Melbourne Circle, is ostensibly about circumnavigating 50-odd Melburnian suburbs in a series of connected walks. But this book is also a tender tribute to Gadd’s late wife, Lynne, his partner in these perambulations. Their first date saw them traipsing around the ruins of Pompeii and, until cancer took her away, walking together was a marked feature of their relationship. They shared a love of globetrotting adventures before deciding to settle down and look more closely around their home town.' (Introduction)
