Scribe Publications: New Releases, Latest Scribe News and Henry's Blog

CAL/Scribe Fiction Prize Party

2010-03-09T14:57:28Z

On Thursday 18 February, Melbourne's literary community gathered at The Wheeler Centre to celebrate the announcement of the winner of the CAL/Scribe Fiction Prize. The winner was Maris Morton for her manuscript, A Darker Music. Maris Morton has received a$12,000 book contract from Scribe and A Darker Music will be published in October 2010.

Henry Rosenbloom, Scribe Founder and Publisher

The crowd at The Wheeler Centre

Aviva Tuffield, Scribe Fiction Acquisitions Editor and the winner of the CAL/Scribe Fiction Prize, Maris Morton.

Congratulations to Cate Kennedy

2010-03-09T11:22:41Z

Cate Kennedy has been shortlisted for the 2010 Barbara Jefferis Award for her first novel, The World Beneath. For details of the shortlist announcement click here.

The Australian Society of Authors administers the Barbara Jefferis Award, awarded each year for the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society.

The Boy in the Moon: a father's search for his disabled son

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

Ian Brown’s son, Walker, was born with a genetic mutation so rare that doctors call it an orphan syndrome: perhaps one hundred people around the world live with it. At twelve, Walker is still in diapers: he is globally delayed, he can’t speak, and he has to wear cuffs on both his arms so that he won’t constantly hit himself. Yet those details don’t capture him. Despite the turmoil and pain of his life, Walker still delivers to the world moments of joy so intense they seem supernatural. ‘Sometimes watching Walker,’ Brown writes, ‘is like looking at the moon: you see the face of the man in the moon, yet you know there’s actually no man there. But if Walker is so insubstantial, why does he feel so important? What is he trying to show me?’

The answers to these questions are hard-won and haunting. As Brown describes the life Walker lives and the way he and his family help him live it, first at home, and later in a special group house for disabled children, he never shies away from the humour or the intense pathos of life with his son.

With a tender imagination and stark honesty, Brown infuses The Boy in the Moon with the quality of love: for this amazing boy, for his family, and for life. As much as this book is about one frail boy and the tiny constellation of people who surround him, it is also about all of us who try so hard to be parents worthy of our children.

The Hidden Brain: how our unconscious minds elect presidents, control markets, wage wars, and save our lives

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

Most of us would agree that there’s a clear — and even obvious — connection between the things we believe and the way we behave. But what if our actions are driven not by our conscious values and beliefs but by hidden motivations we’re not even aware of?

‘The hidden brain’ is Shankar Vedantam’s shorthand for a host of brain functions, emotional responses, and cognitive processes that happen outside our conscious awareness, but that have a decisive effect on how we behave. The hidden brain has its finger on the scale when we make all of our most complex and important decisions — it decides whom we fall in love with, whether we should convict someone of murder, or which way to run when someone yells ‘fire!’ It explains why we can become riveted by the story of a single puppy adrift on an ocean but are quickly bored by a story of genocide. The hidden brain can also be deliberately manipulated to vote against its interest, or even to become a suicide terrorist. But the most disturbing thing is that it does all of this without our knowing.

Shankar Vedantam, author of The Washington Post’s popular ‘Department of Human Behavior’ column, takes us on a tour of this phenomenon and explores its consequences. His original reporting combines the latest scientific research with compulsively readable narratives that take readers from the American campaign trail to terrorist indoctrination camps, from the World Trade Center on 9/11 to, yes, a puppy adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Vedantam illuminates the dark recesses of our minds while making an original argument about how we can compensate for our blind spots — and what happens when we don’t.

The Egyptologist

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

From the bestselling author of Prague comes a witty, inventive, brilliantly constructed novel about an Egyptologist obsessed with finding the tomb of an apocryphal king.

This darkly comic labyrinth of a story opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, then winds its way from the slums of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston, by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, and a royal court in turmoil.

Just as Howard Carter unveils the tomb of Tutankhamun, making the most dazzling find in the history of archaeology, Oxford-educated Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush is digging himself into trouble, having staked his professional reputation and his fiancée’s fortune on a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Meanwhile, a relentless Australian detective sets off on the case of his career, spanning the globe in search of a murderer. And another murderer. And possibly another murderer. The confluence of these seemingly separate stories results in an explosive ending, at once inevitable and utterly unpredictable.

Arthur Phillips leads this expedition to its unforgettable climax with all the narrative bravado that garnered Prague such critical acclaim. Exploring issues of class, greed, ambition, and the very human hunger for eternal life, this staggering second novel demonstrates Phillips’s range and maturity, for which he has been hailed as one of the most exciting authors of his generation.

The Eternal Son: a novel

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

In this multi-award-winning autobiographical novel, Cristovão Tezza draws his readers into the mind of a young father whose son, Felipe, is born with Down syndrome. From the initial shock of diagnosis, and through his growing understanding of the world of hospitals and therapies, Tezza threads the story of his son’s life with his own.

Felipe, who lives in an eternal present, becomes a remarkable young man; for Tezza, however, the story is a settling of accounts with himself and his own limitations and, ultimately, a coming to terms with the sublime ironies and arbitrariness of life. He struggles with the phantom of shame, as if his son’s condition were an indication of his own worth, and yearns for a ‘normal’ world that is always out of reach.

Reading this compelling book is like stumbling through a trap door into the writer’s mind, where nothing is censored, and everything is constantly examined and reinterpreted. What emerges is a hard-won philosophy of everyday life.

It is extraordinary to encounter a common human drama — the birth of a disabled child — investigated profoundly by a father who happens to be a gifted writer. The Eternal Son is an honest and insightful story by one of Brazil’s foremost contemporary novelists, here beautifully translated by Alison Entrekin. It is world literature at its finest.

The Brain That Changes Itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science: Revised edition

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

An astonishing new scientific discovery called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the adult human brain is fixed and unchanging. It is, instead, able to change its own structure and function, even into old age.

Psychiatrist and researcher Norman Doidge, MD, travelled around the United States to meet the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed — people whose mental limitations or brain damage were previously seen as unalterable, and whose conditions had long been dismissed as hopeless.

We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole; a woman labelled retarded who cured her deficits with brain exercises and now cures those of others; blind people who learn to see; learning disorders cured; IQs raised; ageing brains rejuvenated; stroke patients recovering their faculties; children with cerebral palsy learning to move more gracefully; entrenched depression and anxiety disappearing; and lifelong character traits changed.

Doidge takes us onto terrain that might seem fantastic. We learn that our thoughts can switch our genes on and off, altering our brain anatomy. We learn how people of average intelligence can, with brain exercises, improve their cognition and perception, develop muscle strength, or learn to play a musical instrument — simply by imagining doing so.

Using personal stories from the heart of this neuroplasticity revolution, Dr Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting: ageing without growing old

2010-03-01T00:00:00Z

'It’s up to us, the baby-boomer generation, to invent a new way of growing old – and paradoxically, this means accepting the ageing process but without becoming "old". How do we become the life and soul of the party and not the party poopers? This impetus behind this book is the certainty that there is something in us that never grows old. I like to call it the heart. Not the organ, which clearly does grow old, but the capacity to love and to desire. This inexplicable, incomprehensible force is what keeps human beings alive.'

The inevitable ageing process does not condemn us to solitude, suffering, degradation or dependency. Without mincing her words, Marie de Hennezel guides us through a true ‘art of growing old’. She recalls her encounters as a clinical psychologist with 'those who grow old gracefully' – and through her experience shows us how to make the most of this time in our lives, to avoid depression and to stay happy.

Melbourne launch of So Greek

2010-02-25T16:48:46Z

On Sunday 21 February at Readings bookstore in Hawthorn, Anrew Robb MP, launched Niki Savva's political memoir: So Greek: confessions of a conservative leftie.

A large crowd gathered for the launch

Andrew Robb launches So Greek

Niki Savva and Senator Mitch Fifield

You can read Andrew Robb's launch speech here: Download

The launch of Our Father Who Wasn't There in Melbourne

2010-02-23T16:51:40Z

On Wednesday 17 February at Readings bookstore in Carlton, Kevin Brophy launched David Carlin's moving memoir: Our Father Who Wasn't There

Kevin Brophy launches Our Father Who Wasn't There

David Carlin signs copies of his book

The winner of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize is... drumroll please ...

2010-02-19T14:14:20Z

Scribe is thrilled to announce that the winner of the inaugural CAL Scribe Fiction Prize is:

Maris Morton for her manuscript, A Darker Music, a mystery that uncovers the buried secrets of a family who own a merino sheep station in Western Australia.

The winner was officially announced on February 18 at the newly opened Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne. Maris Morton will receive $12,000 and a book contract from Scribe.

Maris Morton was born in 1938 and A Darker Music will be her first published book. She currently lives in Uki in rural NSW but has worked in various jobs around Australia including as an English teacher, shearers’ cook, shed hand, artist, art restorer and director of an art gallery.

Maris said of the win: ‘Winning the CAL Scribe Prize has made what seemed to be an impossible dream come true. I'm still pinching myself. Winning has given me an added incentive to go on doing what I love best: telling stories!’

It was a very tight contest in the end — almost a dead heat between the three shortlisted works — but after much wrangling and negotiation the three judges agreed that Maris Morton’s work was the standout. The judges were Kerryn Goldsworthy, Mark Rubbo, and Aviva Tuffield. Of the winning manuscript, judge Mark Rubbo said: ‘It has a strong narrative and personally I found it was an extremely satisfying read.’

Both Meg Mundell’s Black Glass and Jane Sullivan’s Little People were highly commended and will be considered for publication.

The CAL Scribe Fiction Prize for writers over 35 attracted 534 entrants, with the eldest born in 1919 (90 years old), while 22 entrants were born in the 1920s and 64 in the 1930s. The standard was very high and it was a tough task to narrow the longlist down to just three manuscripts and then to choose a winner. Aviva Tuffield, Fiction Acquisitions Editor at Scribe, says: ‘The judging process was quite lengthy and the judges admired all of the ten longlisted manuscripts.’

The Scribe Fiction Prize will be run again this year, with entries opening in a couple of months. Watch our website for more details.

Niki Savva in Sydney

2010-02-17T16:20:06Z

Niki Savva, author of So Greek: confessions of a conservative leftiewill be in conversation with Lateline Presenter and author, Leigh Sales.

Gleebooks
49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe

Cost: $10/$7 conc. gleeclub welcome
Book: gleebooks - 9660 2333

Date: 24 March 2010

6.30pm for 7.00pm

Laurie Oakes launches So Greek

2010-02-12T09:31:32Z

On Wednesday 10 February at Paperchain bookstore in Canberra, Laurie Oakes launched Niki Savva's political memoir: So Greek: confessions of a conservative leftie.

Henry Rosenbloom introduces Laurie Oakes

Niki Savva signs copies of her book

Laurie Oakes, Niki Savva and Andrew Robb MP

You can read Laurie Oakes' launch speech here: Download

So Greek enters our list at #1; outsells The Brain on weekly Bookscan

2010-02-12T09:50:06Z

This week's Bookscan results show that So Greek: confessions of a conservative leftie has knocked The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doige off the number-one spot on the weekly Scribe bestseller list. It’s the first week since September 2008 that a new release has outsold The Brain.

Ian Brown wins the 2010 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction

2010-02-12T10:27:32Z

Canadian journalist Ian Brown has won the 2010 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction book for his book, The Boy In The Moon: A Father’s Search For His Disabled Son. The CAD$25,000 prize was announced earlier this week in Toronto.

Ian Brown is a journalist for The Globe and Mail and is the anchor of TVOntario’s Human Edge and The View from Here.

The Boy In The Moon: A Father’s Search For His Disabled Son - out in Australia next month - and it follows Brown's son Walker who was born with a genetic mutation so rare that doctors call it an orphan syndrome.

For more information on the Charles Taylor prize click here.

Jill Jolliffe at the Northern Territory Library

2010-02-08T11:47:31Z

Jill Jolliffe, author of Balibo will talk about how she has been following the Balibo Five story for 34 years. She has a long association with East Timor and witnessed the first incursions of Indonesian regular troops into East Timor in September 1975, ans how she had to report the death of her five colleagues at Balibo.

Over the years, she has maintained an unwavering commitment to bringing out the truth about what happened to them on that mid-October morning.

Northern Territory Library
Parliament House

Free event – open to the public.
Bookings preferred 1800 019 155

Date: 25 February 2010

5.15pm

Our Father Who Wasn't There

2010-02-01T00:00:00Z

Can a memoir begin without memories? Can a father be invented? When David Carlin was only six months old, his father, Brian, died. It was the 1960s in isolated Western Australia, a place in which emotions were discreetly veiled, women did not attend funerals — and suicide was a sin. Brian became a mysteriously absent figure in David’s family story, hardly spoken of again.

As an adult, David yearns to conjure up his father, to uncover what led to his death at his own hand. Gradually, he begins to piece together Brian’s story from the faltering memories of friends and relatives, and from the voices and incidents that emerge from Brian’s medical records. Into the inevitable gaps that remain, David cannot help but stray with his own imaginings.

Through David, Brian’s story starts to fill out — up rise the hessian walls of his childhood house on the edge of the wheat belt during the Depression, the outposts of heady undergraduate bohemia in late-1940s Perth, and Brian’s happily married life with a brilliant and loving young wife, and an equally brilliant career. But, in among it all, there also rises a darkness — a damaging undertow of electric-shock therapy, insulin comas, and whispered wartime events.

In this masterfully rendered memoir, David moves like a ghost through time and place, deftly weaving a story from what he has always known, and from all that he will never know.

The Black Russian: a Jack Susko mystery

2010-02-01T00:00:00Z

After yet another slow week at the cash register, that fine purveyor of second-hand literature, Susko Books, is facing financial ruin. Jack Susko sets off to a gallery in Woollahra to scrape up some coin with the sale of an old art catalogue. With his usual panache and exquisite timing, he arrives just as De Groot Galleries is being done over by masked thieves. Along with a mysterious object from the safe, the robbers seize a valuable first edition from Jack’s bag, too.

When the owner of the gallery doesn’t want to call the cops, Jack is offered a sizeable sum to keep silent: but when de Groot arrives at the bookshop with his heavy to renege on the deal, all bets are off. With an ease that almost constitutes a gift, Jack Susko finds himself at the centre of a world full of duplicity, lies and art theft.

So Greek: confessions of a conservative leftie

2010-02-01T00:00:00Z

From one of the most senior correspondents in the Canberra Press Gallery comes a rare account of life as a political insider.

Born in a small village in Cyprus, Niki Savva spent her childhood in Melbourne’s working-class suburbs — frontiers where locals were suspicious of olive oil, and Greek kids spoke Gringlish to their parents.

Only a few decades later, despite all the challenges of being a migrant woman in Australia, Savva had risen through the ranks of political journalism at The Australian, and had gone on to head the Canberra bureaus of both the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Age.

Then in 1997, family tragedy struck, and she was forced to reassess her career. In spite of her own Labor convictions, she became Liberal treasurer Peter Costello’s press secretary, a role that she kept for six years before moving on to join John Howard’s staff.

This is one of the few books about Australian political life written by an insider with decades of exposure to its major players. Hilarious, moving, and endlessly fascinating, Savva’s is a story that moves between countries, cultures, careers and, ultimately, political convictions.

Tokyo Vice: a Western reporter on the police beat in Japan

2010-02-01T00:00:00Z

From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, here is a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.

At the age of 19, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquillity. What he got was a life of crime … crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious Yomiuri Shimbun. For twelve years of eighty-hour work weeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake. But when his final scoop brought him face to face with Japan’s most infamous yakuza boss — and with the threat of death for him and his family — Adelstein decided to step down … momentarily. Then, he fought back.

In Tokyo Vice, Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his transformation from an inexperienced cub reporter to a daring investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and candid exploration of the world of modern-day yakuza that even few Japanese ever see, Tokyo Vice is a fascination, and an education, from first to last.