A famous pianist travels Europe and finds herself drawn to memories of her troubled and confused childhood.

Elsa M. Anderson is a gifted classical pianist, trained by her mentor / father figure Arthur Goldstein. An orphan, she never knew her parents, and was taken into foster care. At the age of six she was discovered by Goldstein, who adopted the girl. The two have an unusual relationship – musically close, but emotionally ambivalent. Elsa can't quite figure out if Arthur is really a father to her. When he becomes ill, she has feelings of guilt for neglecting him.

When in an Athens flea market, Elsa is drawn to a woman buying two mechanical horses. Pull the tail up and it sets the horse in motion, pull down and it stops. Elsa becomes obsessed with the woman, and when the stranger drops her hat – a stylish fedora – she picks it up and starts wearing it.

As Elsa travels across Europe – England, France, Sardinia, Greece – and meets up with friends and lovers, the mysterious woman keeps appearing. More than that, the woman has entered Elsa's head, conducting short, clipped conversations with her, questions really, about her identity, her essence as a human being. While Elsa entertains this alien consciousness, memories and surreal images from her childhood keep coming back. She especially recalls an image of two horses dragging a piano to her across a paddock, the piano representing her mother.

Strange images, evocative descriptions and uncanny happenings fill this engagingly surreal novel. Levy is a master storyteller, seducing the reader with her simple, sometimes droll language. There's humour to balance out the book's essential mystery, its brooding questions about identity and our place in the world.

Deborah Levy is also a poet and playwright, and these linguistic qualities come out in the text. She has the ability to create a special language all of her own, to command the reader's attention and trust in her unique style of storytelling.
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A wonderfully absorbing, dream-like book that will leave you stunned yet satisfied.

August Blue, by Deborah Levy. Published by Hamish Hamilton. $35

Published 9th May

Review by Chris Saliba

Two teenage girls type up lurid transcripts for Andy Warhol during the 1960s, and are transformed in the process

Seventeen-year-old Mae likes to ride the escalators in New York's department stores, especially Macy's. Life's possibilities seem to open up for her there. She feels less alone and more connected to the world. It's riding the escalators she meets Daniel, almost a male ingenue version of herself, which soon turns into an unsatisfactory one night stand. The morning after, she falls into a discussion with Daniel's mother, who suggests she see a doctor. At the doctor's appointment, things take an unusual turn when she gets a job referral, typing, as it turns out, at Andy Warhol's factory.

It's 1966. Mae feels she has an awkward personality and decides to drop out of school. Her home life is seedy and alienating, living with an alcoholic mother and Mikey, her mother's on-again, off-again boyfriend. At Warhol's factory she meets Shelley, a girl of similar age and background. The two are charged with typing up tape recordings of conversations between Ondine, a self-dramatising Factory habitue and “Drella”, Warhol's nickname (a mixture of Cinderella and Dracula). These conversations, along with contributions from other Factory “superstars”, will form a novel called "a".

Mae and Shelley soon get caught up in the Factory lifestyle – parties and performances – until it all gets a bit jaded. Too much experience turns excitement and novelty into nausea. Their deep involvement with the tapes – listening to hours of the mad ravings of Ondine – makes them feel that they are indeed the true authors of "a". What a shock then to see it published without their name on it.

Nothing Special is the debut novel from Irish writer Nicole Flattery, following on from her short story collection, Give Them What They Want. It's a strange yet absorbing book, written in an unsettling yet unique authorial voice. Mae's world is full of dinginess, morally limited behaviour, low expectations, bad sex and petty rivalry. She and her friend Shelly feel trapped in an existential funk – think Kafka in New York, stuck in a maze of frustrating dead ends. Or the damned souls of Sarte's No Exit, locked in a drab room for all eternity. Nor do they have a road map to get out – there are no ideas about education, marriage or career that might shine a light to salvation. They are imprisoned in an uninspiring eternal present.

The ironic, almost nihilistic tone of Nothing Special feels like it was almost written by Warhol himself. The clipped, detached dialogue echoes Warhol's laconic wit and love of the banal, exhibited in his best book, From A to Be and Back Again: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

A strikingly original novel examining the limits of experience, perhaps an acquired taste for some, but an author to watch nonetheless.

Nothing Special, by Nicole Flattery. Published by Bloomsbury. $29.99

Review by Chris Saliba

Laughs abound in this witty new satire from Robert Gott.

Gregory Buchanan is a state politician and minister with a healthy dose of self-regard. A blithe spirit, he commissions career artist Sophie White to capture his portrait. The sitting takes an unusual turn when Gregory decides to pose nude. He unveils the painting, executed in photo realist style, in his dining room. His wife, Phoebe, is gobsmacked. The painting has to go – otherwise his career will be destroyed. But Gregory has other ideas: he wants to submit it for the Archibald Prize.

The plot thickens when a host of friends and colleagues turn up and inadvertently see the portrait. There is Gregory's gin-swilling mother, Margaret, his fundamentalist Christian mother-in-law, Joyce, and lycra-wearing lesbian sister, Sally. Half way through the novel, a surprise visit is made by the state premier, Louisa Wetherly. This mix of forceful females ensures that a stand off is inevitable, but who will win? Blackmail, threats, theft and heated arguments over Christian theology ensue.

Most of Naked Ambition takes place in Gregory and Phoebe's living room and reads somewhat like a closed circle mystery. When a theft occurs, only the people present are suspects. Most of the story is dialogue driven, giving it a campy, stagey feel, with characters often facing off against one another. Witty and full of laughs, readers looking for an offbeat entertainment will find it here.

Naked Ambition, by Robert Gott. Published by Scribe. $29.99

This review first published at Books + Publishing.

Review by Chris Saliba

Meet Parsley the Lion and his friends from the herb garden.

Parsley the Lion and his friend Dill the dog live in a herb garden. The garden is watched over by Constable Knapweed, who always has a notebook at the ready to jot down any behaviour that seems out of order. Other characters include Mr Bayleaf, Sage the owl, Aunt Mint, the school teacher Mr Onion and his students, the Chives. The 18 stories in The Adventures of Parsley the Lion centre mostly around Parsley and Dill, with other characters making appearances. In one story Dill tries to sell his amateur paintings, which he passes off as masterpieces; in another Dill has an open day for his kennel, insisting it is one of England's stately homes. When Parsley buys a car, it is with disastrous results; and an important telegram is misinterpreted by the over confident Dill, leading the two friends to miss a fun barbeque.

Parsley the Lion first appeared in 1968 in a children's TV series called The Herbs, created and written by Michael Bond (Paddington Bear). The stories collected here are from published books that tied in with the TV series, with gorgeous new illustrations from Rob Biddulph.

Funny, endearing, whimsical and very British, the world of the herb garden is beautifully evoked in Michael Bond's superb storytelling. This is quality children's literature, with nothing dumbed down or made gross. The Herb Garden and its denizens have much to teach us, all in a good, fun way.
Ages 5 +

The Adventures of Parsley the Lion, by Michael Bond. Illustrations by Rob Biddulph.  Published by HarperCollins. $19.99

Review by Chris Saliba

An impassioned manifesto calling for fairness and equality for all.

Bernie Sanders has the distinction of being the longest serving independent senator in US congressional history. Being an independent politician clearly gives him the freedom to call it as he sees it. His grievances are fairly simple: American capitalism is off the charts, creating obscene inequalities in wealth. Large swathes of the country live in utter economic desperation – without healthcare and existing on starvation wages that have been stagnant for the last fifty years – while a miniscule section of the population have more money than they can ever hope to spend. By any standards, this is a societal bonfire awaiting a match.

It's Okay to be Angry About Capitalism is more impassioned manifesto than economic critique. Readers worried about getting bogged down in statistics, data and national budgets, can relax. Sanders gives the meat and potatoes of vital issues confronting Americans. He tackles the inequities and inefficiencies of the healthcare system, the poorly performing education sector, the concentration of media ownership and the reasons why billionaires should not exist. Sanders examines the failures of the Democratic party, which has not done a good enough job of defending the rights of working class Americans. The Democrats have sided with the rich, rather than the poor. Furious working class Americans have deserted them in droves, and parked their votes with Republicans. Gross inequalities in wealth, according to Sanders, can go some way to explaining the success of the Republican Party, especially under Trump. Americans are fed up, but have nowhere to turn.

The answers to these problems are all simple: tax the mega rich and stop giving tax breaks to behemoth corporations. And fix up campaign donation laws so American democracy can no longer be bought and traded.

Should Australians read this book? If you want to see how bad things can get when wealth is concentrated and greed lauded. Reading this book will make you thankful for living in a country with free healthcare, compulsory voting, a well funded public broadcaster and fair elections, overseen by the independent Australian Electoral Commission.
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It's Okay to be Angry About Capitalism is a fiery, gutsy, passionate book that holds no punches. It's a reminder that the price of democracy, economic security and freedom is eternal vigilance.

It's Okay to be Angry About Capitalism, by Bernie Sanders. Published by Allen Lane. $35