Culture Corner

MEMORIAL DAYS
by Geraldine Brooks

Memorial Days is a heartrending memoir from Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks. In it, Brooks offers readers a moving exploration of death and grief following the sudden passing of her husband Tony Horowitz in 2019. His unexpected death immediately requires countless practical tasks and much bureaucratic wrangling that hinders Brooks’ ability to embrace the emotional upheaval of her husband’s death.

Alternating chapters transport readers back and forth between the immediate events around his death and an intense period of emotional exploration that she undertakes three years later on remote Flinders Island off Tasmania. Brooks’ time on Flinders Island is spent in solitude, reflecting on her many years spent with Horowitz when both of them were working as journalists, foreign correspondents, and novelists.

Brooks also reflects on many different rituals and rules around death in other cultures and religions including her own Jewish and Christian experience and the comfort these offer those grieving, along with the failings of the US health system, and the perceived inhumanity it treats her with. This moving memoir is a sparce, honest and vulnerable journey through grief. It offers thoughtful insight into a shared experience of humankind and is another wonderful work by Geraldine Brooks.

Reviewed by Flora Matthiesson, Librarian

THE VALLEY
by Chris Hammer

Chris Hammer loves Australia and paints a wonderful backdrop within the rural landscape. The two trusty detectives, Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic featured in earlier work are back solving a mystery in The Valley.

The fascination with this writing is the history lesson that is given to the reader woven through the mystery that is difficult to decipher before the ending. Setting is important and it gives the reader sense of place. The plot is intriguing and will satisfy most armchair sleuths.

Reviewed by Jo Kennelly

THE DEAL
by Alex Miller

The most memorable book I read this year was The Deal by Alex Miller. Set in 1975, the main character, Andy, is an aspiring writer whose desire to provide for his wife and daughter leads him to a teaching career.

Miller creates a fascinating picture of the art teacher with whom Andy forms an unlikely friendship, and who introduces him to the dark intricacies of the art underworld.

Through Andy’s first-person narrative voice, the story explores issues of risk, loyalty, racism and the complexities of marriage in profound and intimate language.

Reviewed by Lisa Tabone, Teacher- Librarian

THREE BOYS GONE
by Mark Smith

Mark Smith’s Three Boys Gone is a gripping psychological thriller that centres around a devastating moral dilemma. Grace Disher, a high school teacher, faces a nightmare when three of her students drown during a camping trip. Caught in dangerous surf conditions, Grace has to decide whether to risk her life trying to save them. When she chooses not to

attempt a rescue, the decision haunts her as investigations, grieving parents, and the media scrutinise her actions.

As Grace is hounded by the aftermath of the tragedy, her own safety is jeopardised, and she must navigate a web of secrets. The story explores themes of guilt, blame, and the difficult choices that define us in moments of crisis. Fast-paced, intense, and filled with twists, Three Boys Gone keeps readers on edge until the final page.

The book only recently released has received praise for its complex, compelling narrative and its unflinching portrayal of guilt and responsibility. Critics have called it a tense, absorbing thriller that delves deep into human emotions and moral challenges.

Reviewed by Anna Antoniadis, Head of Senior School Library Services