The best Australian non-fiction books of 2018
Looking for a stocking stuffer? Look no further. From memoir to social history, war and crime, these are the nine books longlisted for this year’s Walkley Book Award.
Rachael Brown, Trace: Who Killed Maria James? (Scribe Publications)
The 1980 murder of single mother Maria James at the back of her bookshop was veteran detective Ron Iddles’ very first homicide case. He never managed to solve it, and it still hurts like hell. In her exhaustive and exhausting 16-month investigation for the podcast Trace, investigative journalist Rachael Brown reviewed initial suspects, found one of her own, and uncovered devastating revelations about a forensic bungle and possible conspiracies that led to calls for the coroner to hold a new inquest.
Tjanara Goreng Goreng with Julie Szego, A Long Way From No Go (Wild Dingo Press)
This is a memoir of an Aboriginal woman, Tjanara Goreng Goreng, who began life without any of the advantages of her fellow non-Indigenous Australians except for grit, humour and diverse talent in spades. A story of resilience, courage and Tjanara’s remarkable capacity to overcome unending barriers.
Peter Greste, The First Casualty (Viking)
In a world where the first casualty of war is truth, journalism has become the new battleground. Peter Greste spent two decades reporting from the front line in the world’s most dangerous countries before making headlines himself when he was incarcerated in an Egyptian prison. Charged with threatening national security, and enduring a sham trial, solitary confinement and detention for 400 days, Greste himself became a victim of the new global war on journalism. Based on extensive interviews and research, he shows how this war on journalism has spread to the West.
Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner (Text Publishing)
Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife… But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less. Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead — and the book she has written is equally extraordinary.
John Martinkus, Lost Copy: The Endless Wars (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
“We, his friends, never knew if it was suicide or not but the reality was Tor [Norwegian journalist Torgeir Norling], who had shared so many dangers, hardships and fear, with us was gone. Tor was a journalist’s journalist. I had covered East Timor with him in the late nineties. Like me he had gone on to cover Iraq, Afghanistan, Aceh, Sri Lanka and Burma. The conflicts that dominated our generation of journalists. There were not many of us doing that over and over again …” This memoir by celebrated Australian war correspondent John Martinkus examines the future of these recent wars.
Chris Masters, No Front Line: Australia’s Special Forces At War in Afghanistan (Allen & Unwin)
In an extraordinary investigation undertaken over 10 years, Chris Masters opens up the heart of Australia’s Special Forces and their war in Afghanistan. He gives voice to the soldiers, takes us to the centre of some of the fiercest combat Australia has ever experienced and provides the most intimate examination of what it is like to be a member of this country’s elite fighting forces. But he also asks difficult questions that reveal controversial clouds hanging over our Special Operations mission in Afghanistan.
Rick Morton, One Hundred Years of Dirt (Melbourne University Publishing)
Social mobility is not a train you get to board after you’ve scraped together enough for the ticket. You have to build the whole bloody engine, with nothing but a spoon and hand-me-down psychological distress. Violence, treachery and cruelty run through the generational veins of Rick Morton’s family. One Hundred Years of Dirt is an unflinching memoir and a testimony to the strength of familial love and endurance.
Helen Pitt, The House (Allen & Unwin) — 2018 Walkley Book Award-winner
The best-loved building in Australia nearly didn’t get off the drawing board. When it did, the lives of everyone involved in its construction were utterly changed: some for the better, many for the worse. Helen Pitt tells the stories of the people behind the magnificent white sails of the Sydney Opera House. With access to diaries, letters, and classified records, as well as her own interviews with people involved in the project, Helen Pitt reveals the intimate backstory of the building that turned Sydney into an international city.
Kate Wild, Waiting For Elijah (Scribe Publications)
In 2009, in the NSW country town of Armidale, a mentally ill young man is shot dead by a police officer. Senior Constable Andrew Rich tells police he “had no choice” other than to shoot 24-year-old Elijah Holcombe, who had run at him roaring with a knife. But some witnesses say otherwise, and this act of aggression doesn’t fit with the sweet, sensitive, but troubled young man that Elijah’s family and friends knew. The shooting devastates Elijah’s family and the police officer alike. The culmination of journalist Kate Wild’s six-year investigation, Waiting for Elijah asks what happened in that Armidale laneway — and how could it have been avoided?
