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#16: Walking into the Wind by John O'Farrell
This book was a pleasant surprise in a week ground down by emotionally heavy but fulfilling short story collections...
#15: Fiesta, 1980 by Junot Diaz
Junot Diaz is probably best known for his first novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but Drown, released in 1996, is well worth a look. In tales that explore the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the rougher parts of New Jersey, Diaz creates a paradoxical world where ugliness and beauty lie awkwardly together, where characters are the walking semi conscious, half drunk from the kick of drugs, alcohol, and unreliable relationships...
#13: True Short Story by Ali Smith
Given that we here at the Gum Wall are all about celebrating the short story, it is only fitting that Ali Smith's True Short Story is the next inclusion on the site. While this book is uniformly strong throughout (The Child is a fine example of Alice Munro's adage that every short story is at least two stories, and No Exit is impressively creepy given it has fire-exits as its main topic),..
#11: The List of All Answers by Peter Goldsworthy
Thanks to school curriculums, many an Australian teen will be introduced to Goldsworthy at an early age: his debut novel Maestro is a common high-school text, and has been for a fair while now. What's sad about this is that in reading and rereading Maestro, they may never get around to reading his short fiction...
#7: Endgame by Louise Swinn
Lou Swinn is a publisher, review and small-press advocate. She wears a hat far better than most and is also one of the nicest people I know...
#5: What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved by Cate Kennedy
This is one hell of a story. For those who haven't read Cate Kennedy, she is an Australian poet, author, and short story writer. She has just written her first novel, The World Beneath, which Jo Case described as "a thought-provoking journey into contemporary Australia". Cate Kennedy is also the only person I know of that has won The Age Short Story Competition twice (!), and in reading What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved, it's not hard to see how she pulled it off...
#3: That Bali Smile by Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell is a Melbourne-based writer of prose and poetry who has appeared in Island, Overland and The Sleeper's Almanac 2007, among other journals. Martin Flanagan has prescribed Mitchell's writing for "people who think life hurts, rewards, bend, breaks and redeems."...
#2: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath
I have a guilty secret. Of all Sylvia Plathโs work, I have read only Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (and other Prose Writings) and Ariel . No Bell Jar, no Colossus , no Winter Trees...
#1: Scar Tissue by Patrick Cullen
I recently attended a salon celebrating some seriously talented writers, including Emily Maguire, Steven Amsterdam and Kalinda Ashton. The final writer was Patrick Cullen , who I had first read in 2007; it was this same writer that I feverishly sought immediately after the Salon, to soak up his words in a new light...