I’m a fan of Tony Birch, whose Women & Children was published late in 2023. Here, he writes of people living in suburban Melbourne in what seems to be the pre-decimal currency sixties. They are not proudly or ostentatiously Aboriginal, but we readers learn it very early. It is a recurring deep background aspect that does not feature. 

The Clooneys are a Catholic family of mother Marion, 12-year-old daughter Ruby and our main character, 11-year-old Joe. Marion’s father Charlie and sister Oonagh (spelling?) are also prominent. 

The book opens with a description of the school the two children attend, a Catholic school run by nuns who are all named Mary <and insert second name>. It is a place of rules and punishments. Joe is often harshly punished. And the Church representatives are, with the exception of the church caretaker, cruel and uncaring. 

This is a book about familial love and the family’s experiences, several of which are very unpleasant and centred on domestic violence. There is a slowly turning inevitability about it that still manages to go slightly elsewhere than expected. It is gently and compellingly told. Birch is such a good writer and the narrator, Tamala Shelton, is as excellent as she was in my recently-read Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko. 

#areadersjourney