Tag: Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes

Pan Macmillan Australia, 2018

No Friend but the Mountains is a piece of literary genius, calling all Australians to account for the atrocities done in our name. The very way it was written, smuggled out of the Manus Island detention centre through text and Whatsapp messages, then painstakingly translated from Farsi to English, is astounding.

Written by Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani who has been incarcerated in Manus Island detention since 2013 and translated by Omid Tofighian, it is a first-hand witness account of – and an act of resistance to – our nation’s policies of detention and deterrence.

Behrouz Boochani tells his own story – and that of his friends – with empathy, respect and vivid descriptions bringing them to life through the pages. He mentions by name only those who have died on Manus Island, referring to others by nicknames and monikers. For those of us familiar with the men who have sadly lost their lives; The Smiling Youth (Hamid Khazaei) and The Gentle Giant (Reza Barati), his storytelling brings back the grief and anger we experienced when these avoidable tragedies occurred.
Each story is heartbreaking, personal and political.

The Wind Blows Where it Chooses, by Kevin Treston, Coventry Press, 2018

Kevin Treston’s passion is communicating faith in our context. His focus on emerging Christianity might be summed up in words of Bernard Häring: “If the church does not listen to the world, the world will never listen to the church.”

Treston seeks to listen well, noting consumerism, materialism, loss of ultimate meaning, disconnection between humans and the natural world, and Christian reluctance to reframe the Christ story within the universe story, among others. He advocates engagement with the paradoxes and ambiguities of life.

Treston also seeks to read the Gospels for this time and a need to reconsider tradition. For instance, he sees an obsession with sin as needing to be reframed, and describes resurrection as a  cosmic event – for the whole of creation and not just humans. He follows with discussion about the life of the church and personal spirituality, ending with ‘Reflections,’ where he offers specific  means of enriching spiritual life.

Treston aims at enabling conversations that promote holistic approaches to Christian faith and life. Although a Roman Catholic, he seeks to speak to all Christians to encourage connection with people, so that the gospel may be shared in this context.

Ian Tozer

The Girl in the Ice: by Robert Bryndza, Hachette, 2017

The Girl in the Ice, an international bestseller, is the first book in the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Erika Foster by British writer, Robert Bryndza.

Erika returns to work prematurely after some time off from a botched drug raid, where her bad judgement resulted in the death of her police officer husband and some team members. This traumatic experience leaves her a changed woman, harbouring a sea of guilt. Known for her skill in closing rape and murder cases, she answers a call from the South London police department to  step in as the lead investigator of a highly publicised homicide investigation.

Andrea Douglas-Brown, found frozen in a lake in South London, is a beautiful, wealthy socialite and daughter of a prominent businessman and influential Labour Peer who demands justice for his daughter’s brutal death. Erika’s mission is to find the killer, manage police politics, deal with Andrea’s family and patch up her broken life. Despite the push back from her police peers and Andrea’s family, Erika is tenacious and her nononsense style made me want to high five her.

“Now, DCI Sparks, you are in danger of contaminating the crime scene. If you wish to continue to observe, I’ll ask that you follow proper procedure, suit up and shut up.”

She does comes across as cold, sometimes irrational, but as her story unfolds throughout the book, we see her vulnerability beneath the hard exterior. I admired her determination to do the right thing, even if it means pushing for answers until it physically hurts. The closer she was to connecting the dots, the more her life was at risk.

Marathon Wheeler, by Heather S Coombes, Westbow Press, 2014

Now retired with the leisure of hindsight, Heather Coombes reflects upon her marathon journey in a wheelchair for the purpose of enriching life for those obliged to follow a similar rocky path.  Born with cerebral palsy, Coombes traces her family background to acknowledge the strength and inspiration she has received from the family into which she was born.

The author reflects on her adolescent turmoils in the years of her childhood and adolescence. Despite her father being the parish minister, her teenage thoughts were her own as she tried to make sense of being born into a body with physical disadvantages.