Hessom Razavi – an ophthalmologist and poet – explains the workings and wonder of the eye, and the range of emotions he experiences treating diseases caused by modern life or without a cure.
Khin Myint (left) and his sister Theda.
Black Inc.
Khin Myint’s memoir explores family trauma and chronic illness, through the lens of his sister’s illness, childhood bullying and a brutal breakup that sparked a court case.
As a child protection worker, psychologist Ariane Beeston had taken babies away from their mothers. Then she had a baby, experiencing bouts of mental illness. Her memoir of this time is compelling.
In Splinters, Leslie Jamison confronts the expectations placed on women, especially mothers – including the dangers of making art, and being more successful at it than the man in their life.
An 8000-km hitchhiking trip is at the heart of Anna Broinowski’s Datsun Angel. Dominic Gordon, in contrast, kicks his young self around Melbourne’s alleys like a half-squashed can of energy drink.
Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus).
Bernard Dupont, via Wikimedia Commons
Rushdie feared until he dealt with the attempt on his life, he ‘wouldn’t be able to write anything else’. The book is a clearly cathartic story of courage and resilience, but it’s curiously one-eyed.
Adele Dumont’s affecting memoir, The Pulling, draws the reader into the secrecy, shame and impulses behind trichotilllomania, or compulsive hair-pulling.
At 27, Robyn Davidson trekked through the Australian outback with four camels and a dog. In her long-awaited memoir we come closer to knowing why she made this journey.
McKenzie Wark.
BaixaCultura, via Wikimedia Commons
Stephanie Land’s sequel to her mega-successful debut memoir Maid works as hard as she does – but while its details of low-income single-parent life as a student are valuable, it suffers by comparison.