New reads for the bookworms

The Just
JAN BROKKEN
Scribe, $49.99

The Just is the latest book by Dutch author Jan Brokken, who gained international fame with a host of books including The Rainbird and The Reprisal. The Just tells the remarkable story of Jan Zwartendijk, a businessman in Lithuania who, in May 1940, became honorary Dutch consul in the capital Kaunas and went on to save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. With the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan, and the Dutch ambassador in the Latvian capital of Riga, Zwartendijk issued visas for up to 10,000 Jews to travel on the Trans-Siberian Express through Soviet Russia, Japan and on to safety in China through the ruse of issuing visas to the Dutch colony of Curacao. Brokken traces the journeys of a number of rescued Jews in an epic narrative that sheds light on the courageous efforts of Zwartendijk, whose actions have remained relatively unknown in his own country and around the world.

The Boy Who Stepped Through Time
ANNA CIDDOR
Allen & Unwin, $16.99

Children’s book author and illustrator Anna Ciddor has always been fascinated by the past and her latest novel, The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, sees an Aussie boy, Perry, transported back 1700 years to Roman times after stepping into crumbling ruins while on a family holiday in France. While Perry desperately tries to find a way back home, he must live the life of a slave while keeping his identity secret. Gradually, Perry is caught up in the fascinating world of grand Villa Rubia and a life he could never have imagined. But when he makes a new friend, he thinks he might already know her terrible fate and is faced with the choice of finding his way home or staying to guard her and risk being trapped in the past forever. Ciddor has written and illustrated more than 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction. The Boy Who Stepped Through Time is written for children aged 8-13.

Small Acts of Defiance
MICHELLE WRIGHT
Allen & Unwin, $29.99

Small Acts of Defiance is the debut novel of author Michelle Wright, who lives in the outer Melbourne suburb of Eltham, and stems from her love of French culture and history. In 2017, Wright was awarded a six-month Australia Council for the Arts residency in Paris to research life in wartime France for this book. The story starts in 1940 as French-Australian woman Lucie and her French mother Yvonne, are forced to leave home and seek help from Lucie’s uncle Gerard in German-occupied Paris. Drawing upon her artistic talents, Lucie risks her own safety to engage in small acts of defiance against the Nazis and the collaborations French regime, in which the authorities rewarded French citizens for denouncing so-called “traitors” in their community. Faced with the escalating brutality of anti-Jewish measures, and the indifference of so many of her fellow Parisians, Lucie must decide how far she will go to defend the rights of others.

Misanthropology
ADAM RISH
Primedia, $100

Adam Rish was born in London in 1953, but his family settled in Tasmania in 1962. He graduated in medicine from the University of Tasmania in 1978, moved to Sydney the following year and studied the art of printmaking. He has combined medicine and art ever since, creating ceramics, paintings, prints, sculpture and textiles that have been in numerous exhibitions over the past four decades. He is a fellow of the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and practises cosmetic surgery in Bondi Junction. The hardcover 336-page Misanthropology documents Rish’s work in cross-cultural collaborations and his pursuit of alternative art traditions such as Middle Eastern carpet-making, Tongan tapa cloths and Indonesian woodcarving. He has worked in collaboration with overseas artists as part of his “world art”. The book includes examples of his work and contributions by reviewers and critics. Misanthropology is available from select bookshops and from the author at adamrish.net.