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If you drive down the Pacific Highway, and I know it is a very long road, you can probably feel the pulse of excitement pumping through the Random House office. Frank Moorhouse has delivered the third novel in his League of Nations series and it is a CRACKER. Edith Campbell Berry and her ‘rules to live by’, first demanded readers attention in Grand Days in 1993, and as Bert and I discussed with Frank recently as we peppered him with questions, (all editorial meetings should take place in The Wine Library in Woollahra) Edith is the kind of character that is so vivid, perplexing, admirable, frustrating and real, that readers feel they own her. Quite a responsibility for the author!
Edith returned to us in Dark Palace in 2000 where she laboured to make the world a better place post-WWI and through WWII – what a time to be a ‘provincial’ Australian woman in Europe. In addition to helping create the Doctrine of Non-recognition, she also found time to explore the Diplomacy of Bibulation and contemplate Hen’s which do not Lay Eggs. I won’t spoil the plot but can’t wait for Cold Light to be released in November so that I can share the wonders of what is truly a great Australian character and novel with readers far and wide.
Something else that has us all excited is Water Under Water, a first novel by Peter Rix that we will publish in June. Peter has been thinking about writing a novel, this novel, for more than twenty years, but was a reasonably fast worker once he got started. Quite a few working writers, like Peter who has written a number of marketing text books, sign up to complete postgraduate writing degrees such as the courses at UTS or UWS to help realise their dream of focused writing time and encouragement. Kevin and I have simply loved every minute we have spent on this story about how a family forms and exchanges love. A proofreader just returned it with a note that said ‘what a gutsy and honest book – superb. Brilliant.’ Who am I to argue with that?
Meredith Curnow, Publisher – Knopf, Vintage
I love the life lessons I learn from novels and most of the books on the Knopf Vintage lists are fiction. But the variety of information you take in when you work on non fiction is extraordinary and I always look forward to adding to the bank of knowledge you never know when you might need. The two non fiction books I will release in the coming months couldn’t be more different. First up is Crack Hardy by Stephen Dando-Collins a wonderful WWI memoir written from primary sources. Three of Stephen’s great-uncles and many of their cousins and friends, all from the Tasmanian town of Westbury, fought long and ugly campaigns on the front line in Gallipoli, the Somme, Ypres and Hamel. Using the journals and letters to and from the three Searle brothers, Stephen has written a wonderful narrative that will shock you with its honesty and insights and make you appreciate all the more how tedious, torrid and bitter war is. You will also learn plenty, such as what the expression Crack Hardy means and how to treat trench foot.
In June I will publish El Sicario: Confessions of a Cartel Hitman. This is a very unusual book. Based on the award-winning documentary El Sicario the words come direct from the mouth of the Mexican assassin, as he tells us ‘I’m going to tell you about 20 years of my life dedicated to serving the cartel. Serving them with these hands. Torturing people. And killing.’ It makes for chilling reading, and feels more like listening. Molly Molloy translated the interviews our hitman did, talking direct to camera, and she provides vital background and contextual information on Mexico, its government, military and police forces and drug trafficking between Mexico and the US. Charles Bowden, a much-awarded investigative journalist gained the trust of El Sicario and met with him over and over to put the interviews together. Charles’s story of this process, which forms the introduction to the book, is as extraordinary as that of our assassin. Things I have learnt? How to behave when kidnapped to cause myself least harm, the exponential growth of murders in the city of Juarez, Mexico, over the last four years, and just because it isn’t in our backyard, don’t think that this drug trade doesn’t have an enormous impact on life in Australia.
Meredith Curnow, Publisher – Knopf, Vintage
Novels, like diamonds, tend not to display all of the toil that goes into producing the final product. Everything starts with the writer. Then add a combination of agent, readers, mentors, peers and friends before publisher and editor get involved. Next up are typesetters, designers, production experts, proofreaders, sales, marketing and publicity before the final ingredients of printers and digitisers, inventory, warehouse and distribution people who get it to the booksellers – be they of the electronic or print variety. All these people to ensure that books arrive in the most vital hands of all – the readers – wearing attractive outfits and ready to stimulate, entertain and sustain.
Who amongst us can not name favourite books from their childhood, teen and adult years? I even remember, though I would prefer to forget, the novel that made me aware of my mortality and encouraged me to fear ageing when I was just approaching twenty-five – thank you very much Nina Bawden’s Family Money and Felicity Howell for recommending I read it! It is a wonderful thing to be involved in an industry with a tangible and lasting end-product. Little can beat the joy of learning that a novel that you have watched grow for a couple of years has gone out into the world and is being embraced by readers and critics with an enthusiasm that matches that of all at Random House. Five Bells by Gail Jones was launched at Gleebooks last week and seems to be a bit of a word-of-mouth sensation. Not surprising, perhaps, given I have read it perhaps eight times and still shed tears and feel my heart leap in the same places on each read.
I am looking forward to sitting in the audience, like a reader, and listening to Gail Jones sharing more about Five Bells at the Perth Writers Festival in early March. I think she is attending every writers festival going this year so I hope you too take the opportunity to go and listen to a generous, thoughtful and oh-so-talented author talk about the gorgeous diamond they have released into the world.
PS Please tell me I am not the only reader who has had an anxiety attack brought on by reading a novel?
Meredith Curnow, Publisher – Knopf, Vintage
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