Australia flag Cultural books from Australia

Recommended cultural books (6)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you are into cultural here are some cultural books from Australia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.

1.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. ... BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and pla... continue

2.

Dark Emu : Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Bruce Pascoe EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
In this seminal book, Bruce Pascoe uncovers evidence that long before the arrival of white men, Aboriginal people across the continent were building dams and wells; planting, irrigating, and harvesting seeds, and then preserving the surplus and storing it in houses, sheds, or secure vessels; and creating elaborate cemeteries and manipulating the landscape. All of these behaviors were inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag, which turns out have been a convenient lie that worked to justify dispossession. --back cover.

3.

Road No Good by Bridget Isichei EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
What happens when a young New Zealand woman feels the need to escape the online reality that is her life and goes in search of 'real' life experience in poverty-stricken Vanuatu? Bridget Isichei wanted to make a difference in the world; she wanted to help people. However, she didn't know what she was in for when she accepted a two-year volunteer humanitarian post to set up preschools and train women to be teachers in the popular tourist destination of Vanuatu. Instead of cocktails by the sea in a luxury resort, Bridget found herself in Luganville, a shanty town whose inhabitants were still pra... continue

4.

Sand Talk : How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Originally published as 'Sand Talk' in Australia in 2019 by The Text Publishing Company.

5.

The Yield by Tara June Winch EN

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
"After a decade in Europe August Gondiwindi returns to Australia for the funeral of her much-loved grandfather, Albert, at Prosperous House, her only real home and also a place of great grief and devastation. Leading up to his death Poppy Gondiwindi has been compiling a dictionary of the language he was forbidden from speaking after being sent to Prosperous House as a child. Poppy was the family storyteller and August is desperate to find the precious book that he had spent his last energies compiling. The Yield also tells the story of Reverend Greenleaf, who recalls founding the first mission... continue

6.

Too Much Lip : A Novel by Melissa Lucashenko EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
A gritty and darkly hilarious novel quaking with life--winner of Australia's Miles Franklin Award--that follows a queer, First Nations Australian woman as she returns home to face her family and protect the land of their ancestors. Wise-cracking Kerry Salter has spent her adulthood avoiding two things: her hometown and prison. A tough, generous, reckless woman accused of having too much lip, Kerry uses anger to fight the avalanche of bullshit the world spews. But now her Pop is dying and she's an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley for one last visit. Kerry plans t... continue