Books in the Brewery – Maylands – Jan: Translations by Jumaana Abdu

Book of the Month: Translations by Jumaana Abdu

Books in the Brewery is a free casual event combining great beer with good chat and an Aussie novel. Readers and drinkers are invited to take part in a guided conversation with our resident host.

Maylands meetings will be held at 6pm on the second Monday of the month.

Adult readers of all experience are invited to think and talk about books in a safe and encouraging space. Expect to be discussing books from both award-winning Australian authors and new voices from around the country.

About the book: Jumaana Abdu is extraordinary and I will read everything she writes.
– HANNAH KENT

Amid a series of personal disasters, Aliyah and her daughter, Sakina, retreat to rural New South Wales to make a new life. Aliyah manages to secure a run-down property and hires a farmhand, Shep, an extremely private Palestinian man and the region’s imām.

During a storm, she drives past the town’s river and happens upon a childhood friend, Hana, who has been living a life of desperation. Aliyah takes her in and tries to navigate the indefinable relationships between both Hana and her farmhand. Tensions rise as Aliyah’s growing bond with Shep strains her devotion to Hana.

Finally, all are thrown together for a reckoning alongside Hana’s brother, Hashim, and Aliyah’s confidante, Billie – a local Kamilaroi midwife she met working at the hospital – while bushfires rage around them.

Translations is clearly the creation of that rarest thing in Australian literature – an original mind – and Abdu’s enigmatic, delicate and robust storytelling displays literary talent every bit as critically engaged and eloquent as Nam Le’s. – Cameron Woodhead, Fiction Pick of The Week, Sydney Morning Herald

Translations is a bracing, timely, deeply felt novel. Abdu’s characters came to haunt my day-to-day thoughts. Her supple, musical sentences feel thrillingly new. This is an assured debut from a writer with masterful control over language. – Jennifer Down