Name: Where the Bird Disappeared - Gazebo Books
Price: 24.99 AUD
Availability: InStock

Read the World Gift Pack

12/12/2024 No Comments

For the armchair traveller, see Melbourne and Odessa with The Swift Dark Tide by Katia Ariel. Explore Malaysia with Jungle Without Water & Other Stories by Sreedhevi Iyer. Understand the hidden parts of Afghanistan with Love Marriage in Kabul by Sanaz Fotouhi. Traverse Delhi, Burma, and Soviet-era Moscow with George Orwell’s Elephant & Other Essays by Subhash Jaireth. Cap off your journey with Around the world with writers, scientists and philosophers by Michel Serres (tr. from the French by Gila Walker).

Women in Translation Gift Pack

12/12/2024 No Comments

For the reader looking to broaden horizons, four extraordinary works: On the Royal Road: The Burgher King by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek (tr. from the German by Gitta Honegger); Blindspot by Myriam Tadessé; Shades of Black by Nathalie Etoke (tr. from the French by Gila Walker); and The Mud of a Century by Yūka Ishii (tr. from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell).

Schoolgirl

05/12/2024 No Comments

In Schoolgirl, a wealthy housewife, dogged by ennui, struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, who turns to YouTube to vent her frustration with the climate crisis and muse about her day-to-day life in Tōkyō. Through the fog of generational tension and unresolved ethics, mother and daughter find a shared connection in Osamu Dazai’s 1939 novella Schoolgirl.

In Bad Music, a music teacher named Sonata, the daughter of a famous composer, contemplates the path she has taken. Through correspondence with her roommate Sae, a painter, she discovers art’s capacity to exceed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour — or perhaps, to stay within them. As she plots something perverse enough to risk her job, Sonata considers how truth is lost — or found — through performance.

Darkly funny and stunningly mysterious, these two novellas pinpoint the effects of technology, conflicting desires, and the shifts and rifts in relationships. Rie Qudan, winner of one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards, the Akutagawa Prize, explores the affectation and compromise required of us all, providing a disquieting view of the many faces of modern life.

The Strange Matter

05/12/2024 No Comments

The Strange Matter invites you into a world both familiar and strange, capturing the moments in between — catching the bus, looking up at the moon, baking bread, listening to music, spotting onionweed, and snacking on Jatz. These poems span streets and gardens, books and films, people and things, creating a landscape that feels both close and surreal.
Sometimes the language is sharp, sometimes lavish, each poem a document of life as a waking dream, a relentless exploration of the everyday. Ali Jane Smith writes, ‘It is a relief to turn thoughts and feelings into a poem. Sometimes it is like making a chair, and sometimes it is like smashing concrete with a crowbar.’ Here, the chair might wobble, the cracks in the concrete twist like rivers. They take you somewhere, or they tell you something.

Dreaming Out Loud

05/12/2024 No Comments

Miguel de Cervantes’s 17th-century masterpiece Don Quixote remains a pillar of world literature, often celebrated as the greatest novel ever written.

In Dreaming Out Loud, award-winning writer Lydie Salvayre pens a series of letters to Cervantes — both satirical and sincere — interrogating his intentions and reflecting on our modern world. Using the enduring figure of Don Quixote as a lens, Salvayre explores how we can resist forces that threaten our humanity. By bridging art and life, the absurd and the profound, she reveals what is truly timeless and inevitable.

Written with wit, passion, and the energy of a devoted reader, Dreaming Out Loud captures the indomitable human spirit.

Praise for Dreaming Out Loud

‘A magnificent defence of literature, this remarkable book is also a joyful antidote to the disillusionment of our times.’

– Les Inrockuptibles

Lisette

23/08/2024 No Comments

In the early 1990s Catherine Rey formed a deep bond with Lisette Nigot, a kindred spirit whose colourful past and sharp humour made her an invaluable confidant and mentor. As Lisette aged and faced mounting discomfort, she became determined to end her life on her own terms.

This book is Catherine Rey’s heartfelt tribute to their unique relationship, honouring their rare connection through candid honesty and empathy. In exploring their bond and the sorrow of its loss, Rey delves into profound questions about the nature of death and the autonomy we seek in our final moments. With a refusal to settle for conventional wisdom on grief, Rey examines what it means to remain connected to others and ourselves, and the ethical complexities of euthanasia.

Lisette is both a moving homage to a vibrant woman and a reflective meditation on how time shapes our understanding of what is truly significant. It offers an intimate look at the details that become precious as life progresses and challenges us to consider how death influences our lives and the choices we make about our end.

Praise for Lisette

‘What a wonderful work this is. Not a word wasted, and so much space for pain and ambiguity and speculation to do its work. In Rey’s hands, an exquisitely intimate choice becomes universal, a deep meditation on life and its endings.’

– Hugh Riminton, journalist, author of Minefields: A life in the news game