cread | read & see

Theo Decker, a 'god of layers' perhaps, and that is what he is, surviving a bomb blast that kills his mother, comforting a dying antique trader and following his delirious urging to take hold of a treasure that takes hold of him in so many layered ways . There are times this book infuriates when characters fail to do what 99 per cent of people would do - what you the reader are urging them to do - and so end up in several long chapters of chaos. And then there are the thousands of sweeping words that carry you forward, heart racing. Or the long ragings at the world or detailed vivisections of meaning that cut so close to the doubts of your own heart. As a title, The Goldfinch suggests a stuffy but polite story of manners and it is a story of manners but never stuffy or polite and not what you would think at all. It tells of the world we all might nearly belong to if our deceptions were allowed to fester a little longer. A world just beyond ours, that world we wonder a

The story of a mother badly burned while protecting her children in the Ash Wednesday fires and a book challenging charities to hold fast to their original purpose are among titles shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of the Year The shortlist was announced tonight by SPCKA on the Australian Christian Literature Awards Facebook page , while the winners will be presented St Alfred’s Anglican Church, Blackburn North, Victoria, on August 8, 7.30pm. The shortlist features: A Faith to Live By - Roland Ashby | Mosaic Books  Driven by Purpose: Charities that make the difference - Stephen Judd, Anne Robinson, Felicity Errington | HammondPress  Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Ethics and the beginning of human life - Dr Megan Best | Matthias Media  Forged with Flames: A true story of courage and survival - Ann Fogarty and Anne Crawford | Wild Dingo Press  Paul: A Pastor's Heart in Second Corinthians - Paul Barnett | Aquila Press  Preach like a Train Driver - Ti

Questions of Travel by Michelle de Krester has won Australia's richest literary prize, the Miles Franklin, from a field of all-female finalists. Described as a 'dazzling, compassionate and deeply moving novel from one of world literature's rising stars' this mesmerising literary novel charts two very different lives. Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events. Around these two superbly drawn characters, a double narrative assembles an enthralling array of people, places and stories - from Theo, whose life plays out in the long shadow of the past, to Hana, an Ethiopian woman determined to reinvent herself in Australia. Award-winning author Michelle de Kretser illuminates travel, work and modern dreams in this brilliant evocation of the way we live now. Wonderfully written, Questions of Travel is an extraordinary work

On Tuesday, November 28, 1786 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge presented the First Fleet chaplain, Rev Richard Johnson, with about 4000 books and tracts, effectively establishing the first library on Australian shores. It's unclear what the original Australians would have made of this collection of white pages and humans, with their very different approach to collating knowledge and ideas. Now the story has come full circle (some painful detours along the way) with the biography of an Aboriginal leader winning the 2012 Australian Christian Book of the Year, presented this month by SPCKA at the Australian Christian Literature Awards in Melbourne. Murray Seiffert's Gumbuli of Ngukurr: Aboriginal elder in Arnhem Land ( Acorn Press ) was announced the winner ahead of 40 titles and was joined by runner-up A Short History of Christianity ( Viking-Penguin ) by Geoffrey Blainey and third placed Love, Tears and Autism: An Australian mother's journey from heart

Fresh from winning three out of 12 of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards announced on July 26, Allen & Unwin have also picked up two awards in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year. In the PM's Awards, Gillian Mears' novel Foal's Bread won the fiction category, Luke Davies' Interferon Psalms won the poetry category and Bill Gammage received the Prize for Australian History with The Biggest Estate on Earth . In the CBCA awards, Kate Constable’s Crow Country and Scot Gardner’s The Dead I Know were award recipients. Meanwhile, A & U's Top 10 Sellers right now are:   1 Between the Lines Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer  2 The Happiest Refugee Anh Do    3 Fit, Fifty and Fired Up Nigel Marsh  4 Hannah & Emil Belinda Castles    5 Life Without Limits Nick Vujicic  6 My Droving Days Pe