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Sulari Gentill

After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, Sulari Gentill now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW. Sulari is author of the Rowland Sinclair mystery series, historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s. Sulari’s A DECLINE IN PROPHETS (the second book in the series) was the winner of the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction 2012. She was also shortlisted for Best First Book (A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN) for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011.

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Anika Scott, author of The German Heiress

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended, and she’s left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about her family’s past. Clara decides to return home and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa. Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives home to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa.

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Madeline Miller, author of Circe

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child who possesses the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.

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Win 12 Copies of CIRCE by Madeline Miller for Your Group

Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

Our latest prize book is CIRCE by Madeline Miller, which is now available in paperback and will be an eight-episode series on HBO Max. This #1 New York Times bestseller is an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world. To enter, please fill out the form below by Wednesday, May 6th at 2pm ET.
 

Tanya Bush

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March 31, 2020

Before writing this newsletter, I looked at the last one we did. Though it was written on March 11th, it seems like it was a lifetime ago. I feel like March has had 1,000 days in it!

With huge thanks to our team, we have kept up the pace these past few weeks. In fact, we have been trying to bring you MORE book-related content. I am now shooting two “Bookreporter Talks To” interviews each week, coming to you from my dining room studio. And this week, in addition to the Bookreporter promo video (which will be up by Thursday), we shot a video about great books for book groups --- this time from our family room. Yes, I miss the in-person camaraderie of our team, but I am loving what we are doing from a distance. This week, I am interviewing Diane Chamberlain about BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN and Lisa See about THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN. I had been scheduled to talk to both of them at the Tucson Festival of Books, so I am happy to be doing interviews this way!

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Esther Safran Foer, author of I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir

Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching. So when Esther’s mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation --- that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust --- Esther resolves to find out who they were, and how her father survived.

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Chris Bohjalian, author of The Red Lotus

The first time Alexis saw Austin, it was a Saturday night. Not in a bar, but in the emergency room where Alexis sutured a bullet wound in Austin's arm. Six months later, on the brink of falling in love, they travel to Vietnam on a bike tour so that Austin can show her his passion for cycling and he can pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war. But as Alexis sips white wine and waits at the hotel for him to return from his solo ride, two men emerge from the tall grass and Austin vanishes into thin air. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, she uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austin go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in?

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Louise Erdrich, author of The Night Watchman

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel-bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953, and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

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Kate Elizabeth Russell, author of My Dark Vanessa

2000. Bright, ambitious and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager --- and who professed to worship only her --- may be far different from what she has always believed?

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