![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/as-if.jpg\")
As If I\u2019m Really There\u00a0by Emilie Collyer.\u00a05 best new books.<\/p>\n
Poetry. We\u2019re big fans of Australian playwright and poet Emilie Collyer \u2013 see our five-star review<\/a> of Collyer\u2019s excellent play Super, performed at Red Stitch Theatre, Melbourne, a couple of months ago \u2013 and our views on Collyer\u2019s previous poetry collection, Do You Have Anything Less Domestic?<\/a><\/p>\n This second collection has us champing at the bit. Here\u2019s the blurb:<\/p>\n As If I\u2019m Really There\u00a0builds thematically and artistically on Emilie Collyer\u2019s award-winning debut collection\u00a0Do You Have Anything Less Domestic?\u00a0This second collection digs deeply into Collyer\u2019s avid feminine and feminist interest in the place of the body: what it feels like to have one, how bodies are gendered, assessed, analysed and valued, how the body of an artist and a body of creative work is forged.\u00a0<\/p>\n Walking Sydney: Fifteen walks with a city\u2019s writers<\/a>, Belinda Castles\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 1 Sep<\/p>\n Non-fiction. We\u2019re getting our walking boots on for this intriguing new book by award-winning author Belinda Castles. It\u2019s about walking, it\u2019s about writing, it\u2019s about Sydney \u2013 we\u2019re in! <\/p>\n Here\u2019s the blurb:<\/p>\n Walking Sydney\u00a0invites us to walk with a city\u2019s writers as they share places of home and imagination. From suburban streets to the shores of the harbour, as we walk amid diasporas, countercultures, activists, artists, dreamers and thieves, the city comes alive with story. Written by Belinda Castles from walks taken with fifteen writers,\u00a0Walking Sydney\u00a0is an opportunity to see the city afresh.<\/p>\n The writers featured include Jazz Money, Fiona Kelly McGregor, Eda Gunaydin and Malcolm Knox.<\/p>\n Ash<\/a>, Louise Wallace \u2013 2 Sep<\/p>\n Fiction. We can\u2019t wait for this novel. New Zealand writer Wallace is the author of four collections of poems, including\u00a0This Is a Story About Your Mother, published in 2023. She is the founder and editor of\u00a0Starling, an online journal showcasing the work of young writers from Aotearoa New Zealand, and the editor of\u00a0\u014crongohau\u00a0|\u00a0Best New Zealand Poems 2022.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the blurb:<\/p>\n Thea lives under a mountain \u2013 one that\u2019s ready to blow.<\/p>\n A vet at a mid-sized rural practice, she has been called back during maternity leave and is coping \u2013 just \u2013 with the juggle of meetings, mealtimes, farm visits, her boss\u2019s search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy.<\/p>\n But something is shifting in Thea \u2013 something is burning. Or is it that she is becoming aware, for the first time, of the bright, hot core at her centre?<\/p>\n Then comes an urgent call.<\/p>\n A summons to women everywhere,\u00a0Ash\u00a0is a story about reckoning with one\u2019s rage and finding marvels in the midst of chaos.<\/p>\n Songs of a Thousands Seas<\/a>, Zana Fraillon \u2013 2 Sep<\/p>\n Novel for ages 9\u201312. We\u2019re looking forward (as are the young people in our lives) to this new one by Zana Fraillon, the multi-award-winning author of\u00a0The Bone Sparrow\u00a0and\u00a0The Way of Dog. It\u2019s billed as a \u2018lyrical verse novel\u2019 and sounds great.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the blurb:<\/p>\n Houdini the octopus lives in an aquarium, but she misses her home in the wild Sea. She doesn\u2019t like the visitors who bang on her tank. Or the way she can\u2019t feel the sun on her skin or the wind rippling the water. It\u2019s a dull existence for a creature with nine brains.<\/p>\n Then one day she meets someone who is different to the other visitors. Juno\u2019s busy brain buzzes with so many questions and thoughts that Houdini\u2019s skin tingles with wonder.<\/p>\n But the singing of the Sea is growing stronger and harder to resist. Can Houdini make Juno understand what she needs before it\u2019s too late?<\/p>\n Mischance Creek<\/a>, Garry Disher \u2013 30 Sep<\/p>\n Crime fiction. Be warned: this is number 5 in Garry Disher\u2019s bestselling Hirsh crime series \u2013 which means, if you haven\u2019t read the previous four, you\u2019d better get your reading glasses on quick-smart. You won\u2019t regret it! <\/p>\n Here\u2019s the blurb:<\/p>\n Hirsch is checking firearms. The regular police audit- all weapons secured, ammo stored separately, no unauthorised person with keys to the gun safe. He\u2019s checking people, too. The drought is hitting hard in the mid-north, and Hirsch is responsible for the welfare of his scattered flock of battlers, bluebloods, loners and miscreants.<\/p>\n He isn\u2019t usually called on for emergency roadside assistance. But with all the other services fully stretched, it\u2019s Hirsch who has to grind his way out beyond the Mischance Creek ruins to where some clueless tourist has run into a ditch.<\/p>\n As it turns out, though, Annika Nordrum isn\u2019t exactly a tourist. She\u2019s searching for the body of her mother, who went missing seven years ago. And the only sense in which she\u2019s clueless is the lack of information unearthed by the cops who phoned in the original investigation.<\/p>\n Hirsch owes it to Annika to help, doesn\u2019t he? Not to mention that tackling a cold case beats the hell out of gun audits and admin \u2026 <\/p>\n Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on\u00a0<\/strong>ScreenHub<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>ArtsHub<\/strong><\/a>. Sign up for our free\u00a0<\/strong>ArtsHub<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>ScreenHub<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0newsletters.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Walking](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/castloe.jpeg\")
Walking Sydney: Fifteen walks with a city\u2019s writers by Belinda Castles. 5 best new books. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ash.jpg\")
Ash by Louise Wallace.\u00a05 best new books.<\/p>\n![\"Songs](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SONGOF.jpeg\")
Songs of a Thousands Seas by Zana Fraillon. 5 best new books. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mis.jpg\")
Mischance Creek by Garry Disher.\u00a05 best new books.<\/p>\n