 An excellent primer on emerging power struggles in our region.
How does the world balance China's emergence as a global super-power? What are the risks ahead? How do nation states dilute China's hegemony and avoid capitulation to its interests? These and other pressing questions are examined in Rory Medcalf's elegant and absorbing Contest for the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific, a term first used in the mid-nineteenth century, is making a comeback in government circles, its geographically inclusive language seen as a bulwark against Chinese aspiration. Currently the region, spreading across East Africa to West Asia, is a strategic puzzle as countries jostle for power and position. Medcalf, an academic and former diplomat, argues that the so-called Indo-Pacific's middle players – Japan, Australia, Indonesia, India, etc. - could collectively hold China's power in check. By mid-century, the combined economic and defence capability of these middle powers will match China's. Cooperation and coordination in such an alliance would not be easy, but could bring substantial benefits. Contest for the Indo-Pacific provides a nuanced and subtle assessment of emerging power struggles in the region, with a strong focus on China. Optimistic, yet realistic about the possibilities of war and conflict, this is an essential guide for anyone – politician, policy specialist or informed citizen - interested in the future of the region. Contest for the Indo-Pacific: Why China Won't Map the Future, by Rory Medcalf. Published by La Trobe University Press $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba This review first published at Books + Publishing. Click here.  When Melbourne journalist Chrissie O'Brian gets a tip off that a string of fatal accidents at the Port of Melbourne may not be so accidental, she finds herself drawn into a frightening world of corruption and cover-ups.
Journalist Chrissie O'Brian has a secret past. Responsible for a tragic accident in New Zealand, she narrowly escaped a prison sentence. Now unable to continue working in New Zealand, her boss has managed to shoehorn her into a new job at The Argus in Melbourne, Australia. The trouble is, there is much resentment around her appointment at The Argus, especially from her new boss, Harry. Making matters worse, Chrissie is suffering constant anxiety attacks and nasty flashbacks from the accident. When Harry assigns Chrissie to write a puff piece about a female crane operator who works at the Port of Melbourne, things take an exciting yet scary turn. Chrissie is warned there are some dodgy practices happening at the port, which helps to explain the recent spike in serious accidents. Chrissie promises to investigate, but before she can, a workplace death occurs. The unions argue it's Grange Industries, who run the port, that is responsible for the accidents. Grange blames the unions. The police get involved, but their intentions look dodgy. Soon another fatal accident happens and Chrissie, too close to the investigation, fears she could be next. Set on the streets and gritty byways of inner city Melbourne, Karina Kilmore's crime debut Where the Truth Lies is a winner. With decades of experience as a print journalist, Kilmore has written a tale that explores a swag of important issues: the fate of the modern media in the digital age, gagging of information by politicians under the guise of anti-terror laws and the power of big business and the unions. Kilmore's gritty style and first hand knowledge of news rooms gives this debut a fire in the belly. The main character, Chrissie, is well drawn. She is tenacious and yet deeply vulnerable, flawed but human. Entertaining and informative, often gut wrenching in its honesty, Where the Truth Lies is a wild journey through Melbourne's murky underground. Where the Truth Lies, by Karina Kilmore. Published by Simon and Schuster. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A scruffy looking dog gets a make-over.
It's the day before Aunt Cathy's wedding. Father has decided the family dog, Osbert, cannot attend. He's too scruffy looking. The family has had Osbert since he was one month old, and they'd hoped he'd turn into a terrier, but they've had to settle instead for a black poodle with limp fur. The children – Ann, Peter, Jane and Andrew – are terribly upset. They decide to take Osbert to Monsieur Toto, a popular ladies' hairdresser. Monsieur Toto is very busy with appointments, but decides to take on this urgent job. When the children pick Osbert up they are delighted with the transformation. Osbert has had a permanent wave, his fur is shampooed, his legs shaved into cowboy trousers and his head topped off with a spray of orange blossom. He's the hit of the wedding! Noel Streatfeild, famous for her children's novel Ballet Shoes, first published Osbert in 1950. It fell out of print immediately after and has only now been revived, almost seventy years later. It's a charming, funny, quirky story, with delightful illustrations by Susanne Suba and sure to appeal to children and adults of all ages. A re-discovered gem that shouldn't be missed. Osbert, by Noel Streatfeild. Published by Scholastic. $24.99 Book review by Chris Saliba  A snappy, fast-paced primer on China's technological rise.
China's pursuit of technology dominance has progressed through three stages, according to business writer and China expert Rebecca A. Fannin. The period between 2003 – 2010 saw the flourishing of internet start-ups, phase two saw a boom in mobile phone-centric start-ups and today China is putting up stiff competition in artificial intelligence, biotech, self-driving cars, robotics, mobile payments and more. At first China was a quick and effective imitator, but is now pulling ahead in key areas. While there are pitfalls for China's tech titans – a repressive government that could close shop on any business that gets too powerful, a lack of profitability for many emerging start-ups, despite large market share – the overall picture is of an emerging tech dragon to rival the West. The way Fannin paints it, China could be on the cusp of global tech dominance, leading to economic dominance and a shake-up in the world order. Nothing is assured in this cut-throat world, but the sheer speed with which China has caught up with the West is no doubt ringing alarm bells in government and policy circles. A fast paced overview of a quickly evolving tech sector with enormous potential for global disruption. Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector is Challenging the World by Innovating Faster, Working Harder & Going Global, by Rebecca A. Fannin. Published by Nicholas Brealey. $29.99 Book review by Chris Saliba  A harrowing portrait of a young African woman's abduction and abuse by acclaimed Irish novelist Edna O'Brien.
A group of Nigerian girls are abducted from their school by a militant jihadi group. They are taken to a secret camp and undergo all sorts of horrors, including genital mutilation and pack rape. To show the girls their possible fate should they not submit to the militants' authority, they are made to witness a woman's public stoning. The focus of the novel is Maryam, who narrates her story. She has been through so much trauma and hardship that she is not even sure of her age. Married off to a jihadi soldier, she has a baby girl, but manages to escape the camp. Finally reunited with her mother after much danger, it would seem her ordeal has ended, but it's only really just begun. Irish novelist Edna O'Brien's new novel is a work of great courage, integrity and artistic risk-taking. Taking on the voice of a young African woman (the story is based on the Boko Haram abductions) is a brave step, but in such skilled hands it pays off. O'Brien's novel has urgency, fire and anger. Written with consummate skill, even grace, it's an unforgettable portrait of the shocking abuses of girls and women. Girl, by Edna O'Brien. Faber. $29.99 Book review by Chris Saliba  In this deeply pleasurable book, Erling Kagge discusses the magic of walking.
Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer and publisher, with a background in the study of philosophy. He's the first person to have travelled to the South Pole, the North Pole and Mount Everest. As can be imagined, he's done a lot of walking in his time. In Walking: One Step at a Time, Kagge takes us through a series of meditations on walking. It's a short, pleasantly meandering book that is personal in tone. It discusses many of Kagge's journeys by foot through snow and forest, but also odd urban odysseys, such as several days spent walking through pedestrian hostile Los Angeles and a trip through New York's sewer system. The personal is interwoven with references to writers and philosophers - from Dickens and Schopenhauer to James Joyce and Knut Hamsun. There are also discussions of new research into the psychological benefits of walking, giving the text a deeper and more resonant feel. Walking is a deeply enjoyable reading experience. With its evocative, impressionistic style and loose organisation – like a series of very short essays – the text can be enjoyed as a light escape or for the more introspective, a journey into the soul. Walking: One Step at a Time, by Erling Kagge. Published by Viking. $24.99 Book review by Chris Saliba  Brain researcher Shane O'Mara gives a new twist to the literature on walking.
Walking is something we all take for granted, little thinking how this unique ability is actually a complex feat. Author Shane O'Mara is a neuroscientist at Trinity College, Dublin, and the first half of In Praise of Walking concentrates on how the brain and body works together to take those seemingly easy steps. The second half of O'Mara's book devotes itself to the physical, social, health and even creative aspects of walking. It's no surprise that walking provides health benefits galore, what may surprise are its cognitive benefits. Research has shown that the part of the brain used for memory and learning actually grows extra cells when we exercise. O'Mara also includes research that demonstrates how walking can help with depression and foster creating thinking (he cites famous literary walkers who thought up their greatest ideas while walking). In Praise of Walking is a convincing primer on all the benefits of walking and will inspire the reader to drop all they are doing, put on some walking shoes and get out the door. In Praise of Walking, by Shane O'Mara. Published by Jonathan Cape $35 Review by Chris Saliba  Tove Ditlevsen (1917 – 1976) was a Danish poet and author. The Copenhagen Trilogy is a three part memoir Ditlevsen wrote at a time of great personal crisis.
Part one, Childhood, covers the poet’s early teen years. Ditlevsen’s family – parents and brother, Edvin – are shamefully poor, often embarrassed by their reduced circumstances and live in a slum-like area of Copenhagen. Young Tove hangs out with the local kids, especially her friend Ruth, gossiping and exchanging lurid stories. Tove is a sensitive girl, imaginative and introspective. She only feels truly alive and happy when she writes. Her true passion is poetry, compositions she enters in a private journal. Misunderstood by her parents and teachers, Tove plays dumb and hides her feelings. As a young poet she knows she will be ridiculed should her secret writing life be found out. When Edvin discovers her journal, he laughs out loud while reading her poems. Despite this, Tove will extend some forgiveness to her brother, who works as an apprentice printer, a job he hates. All in all it’s a lonely and alienating existence for young Tove. She feels no love from her parents, who can only see a traditional and unremarkable career for her as a nanny, minding other people’s children. The mean, gossipy world of her friends is limiting as well. Despite this, Tove dares to dream of one day being published as a poet. She continues to write, no matter how bleak her prospects seem. At one hundred pages, Childhood is a seductive, intimate self-portrait that ends too soon. How the reader longs for more! (Luckily, there are two more volumes, Youth and Dependency). Ditlevsen captures the essence of a troubled childhood – anxieties over belonging, grim expectations for the future and the indifferent adults who are more absorbed by their own worries. All this contributes to make Childhood a subtle work of existential brilliance. Ditlevsen shows the self stripped back to its vulnerable essence. Some of it is so private and revealing it's possible to feel like a trespasser, having almost stumbled onto a private journal. A moving self-portrait of the poet as young, damaged soul. Translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman Childhood, by Tove Ditlevsen. Penguin $22.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A young boy experiences exquisite happiness and terrible suffering in this Brazilian classic.
Five-year-old Zezé is going through some trying times. His father is unemployed and barely ekes out a living, while his mother and older sister slog it out at a local factory. Zezé has personal demons, often wondering if he's possessed by a bad spirit. The boy can't help but pull pranks which inevitably turn out worse than intended. When Zezé creates a snake out of an old, black stocking, the effect is so realistic he causes a pregnant woman to go into shock. Another time he thinks it a good idea to light a small fire under his uncle's hammock, with similarly dire results. Despite all this, Zezé's essence is sweet. He is touchingly fond of his younger brother Luis, who he calls King Luis, and when the family moves to a new house, Zezé makes friends with a small orange tree in the backyard, which he calls “Pinkie”. Pinkie is an imaginary friend and the two have many conversations about life and its problems. Zezé also likes to call Pinkie “Sweetie”. As troubles mount at home, Zezé makes friends with an older Portuguese man, Manuel Valadares. The two met in strained circumstances, when Zezé was secretly taking a lift on the bumper bar of his car, but have now developed a special closeness. Manuel almost becomes a father figure, giving Zezé solace and relief from his difficult family life. Zezé achieves great happiness and contentment in his friendship with Manuel, or the “Portuga”, as he calls him, but tragedy soon turns his world upside down. First published in 1968 by Brazilian author José Mauro De Vasconcelos, My Sweet Orange Tree is an autobiographical, coming-of-age story, set in Rio de Janeiro. Narrated by Zezé, its tone is both tender and endearing. The reader thrills at Zezé's cheeky and boyish adventures, but feels deeply for his hard life at home, where he is often the victim of domestic violence. Zezé's vulnerability and longing to be loved make for a unique story, deeply sad but also full of joy. Translated by Alison Entrekin My Sweet Orange Tree, by, José Mauro De Vasconcelos. Pushkin Children's $16.99 Review by Chris Saliba |
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