OCTOBER 2025 EDITION #7

From the Desk—October in Review

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Matilda Bookshop Review #7, your monthly chronicle of books and writing, where we share with you our current reads, author interviews, book club wrap ups, and other literary ephemera such as reviews, award news, and books we love. 

There's been a few very special highlights in October to mention. Firstly, Love Your Bookshop Day, which saw so many of you in the shop across the day celebrating books and bookshops with us in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Thanks for all who came by to show their love of Matilda Bookshop, and for us to return that love back to you. Sparkling wine, books, and cupcakes are wonderful bedfellows. Yay.

We've also celebrated four simply stunning Meet the Author Events with Lainie Anderson (talking murder on our very own North Terrace), Craig Silvey (& Kasey Chambers with a theatre full of thrilled young readers), Heather Rose (chatting sparkling wine, revolution and colonialism with Hannah Kent), and Bob Brown and Senator Hanson-Young to a sold-out Regal Theatre (moving, confronting, inspiring).

There are still tickets available to hear the radiant Sofie Laguna (The Choke; Infinite Splendours), chatting to Molly Murn in exactly two weeks about the underworld and her latest work of fiction. Join us for a fun evening of wine and conversation.

Don't forget to check out our new Ask Our Booksellers feature on the Matilda Bookshop website, for a curated recommendation by book-loving humans. Christmas is creeping ever-closer, but don't worry, we have all your bookish needs covered, as well as stationery, beautiful cards, gift-wrapping, gift-vouchers, and subscription services.

Our featured author in this month's Review is Miles Franklin shortlisted author, Hossein Asgari, whose profound novel, Desolation, was discussed at last month's Matilda Bookshop Book Club. Browse our archive of Author Q&As here.

Happy Reading,

Jo, Gavin, Molly, Kasey, Rose, Heather, Nadia & Emilie

What We're Reading

Emilie:  Ædnan: an epic by Linnea Axelsson (out now)

After reading fellow bookseller Heather's radiant review I had to pick this bought but unread epic verse novel off my shelf. Wow! The beauties and sorrows of life through the experience of a Finnish Sami family across generations are felt more with the heart than understood with the mind through the poetry of this novel. The perfect medium for a story such as this. 

Gavin: Conquest Of The Useless by Werner Herzog (out now)

Piercingly subtitled Fever Dreams in the Jungle, written while in South America during the making of the colossally grandiose movie Fitzcarraldo, this is a surprisingly lyrical delight. One for the cineastes. 

Heather:  Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (out now)

This is one of my most anticipated 2025 reads. I absolutely love a western - but throw some vampires and horror vibes? Obsessed. I'm only a little way in and I can already tell that I'm going to have a hard time putting it down.

Jo: Underworld by Sofie Laguna (out now)

Set in 1970s Sydney, Laguna tells the story of 15 year old Martha, a shy misfit, obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology and struggling to find her place in the world. 

Kasey: Bog Queen by Anna North (out now)

I picked up this book because it was by Anna North, and I loved Outlawed. I stayed for the title, and the dedication. This haunting folktale has captured my attention, with the narrative split between a contemporary forensic scientist, an ancient druid and a moss colony. What more could a reader want? Kasey

Molly: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett (out now)

A woman reflects on her now defunct relationship with a much older man--but it is the way Bennett writes that is so alluring: a kind of magic with sentences, and a unique way of thinking.

Nadia: Ædnan: an epic by Linnea Axelsson (out now)

Told in verse, this is a story of four generations and two Sámi families, as they are forced further and further out of their indigenous culture and way of life. It is beautiful and moving, and I am loving every moment.

Rose: Sagittarius by Natalia Ginzburg (translated by Avril Bardoni) (out now)

Daunt Books have been re-publishing works by incredible authors who have been overlooked in the English language, and I have to thank them for introducing me to the mid-century Italian powerhouse that was Natalia Ginzburg. Her spare, dry writing style is absolutely killer in every sense of the word in this almost unbearably bleak novella, and has prompted me to stockpile several of her other works. 

Kids Book Club News

Dear book-loving young people, we run three book clubs for kids, Magical Minds (Mondays after school, twice a term), The Matilda Society (Mondays after school, twice a term), and Chapter & Ink Book Clubs (Wednesdays after school, twice a term). Newcomers always welcome for engaged chats, snacks, cozy bookshop setting, cool reading matter.

Term Four Sessions Next Up:

Chapter & Ink: When We Were Monsters by Jennifer Niven on Wednesday November 26

The Matilda Society: Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones on Monday November 17

Magical Minds: Runt and The Diabolical Dognapping by Craig Silvey on Monday November 10

Highlight on Authors Series

Welcome to this month's Highlight on Authors series, where we ask authors (whose books we've read and absolutely loved) questions on books and writing. 

The next author we're introducing you to is Miles Franklin shortlisted Hossein Asgari, discussing his profound and extraordinary, Desolation.

(We've provided a glimpse of the interview  below):

Further Reading

Here's the literary ephemera that we've been loving this month, from the best in LitHub, Australian Book Review, The New York Times, The London review of Books, The Sydney Book Review, and others ...

"Simply vote for our children’s lives and happiness ahead of ... criminality and the personal inducements the old parties use to divert people from global collapse this century" says environmental and social justice campaigner, Bob Brown, in this fascinating Q&A.

We loved this short story about glow worms and facing death by Ann Patchett, author and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, in the New Yorker (can access a certain number of articles per month for free).

And this short story, Hunger, by Gazan author, Muhammad al-Zaqzouq, in The Paris Review, is breathtaking (it's worth supporting The Paris Review. An incredible source of contemporary and classic literature)

Small publishers and grass-roots books (featuring Adelaide's very own Pink Shorts Press): we love them!

We are entirely delighted that the Booker Prize recently announced a new prize for children's literature. 

And finally, A Taste of Thomas Bernhard. A few contemporary books we've read lately, are Bernhard retellings, such as Happiness and Love based on Bernhard's Woodcutters. 

2023 ABIA Australian Bookshop of the Year