Stories from the Otto Bin Empire
Judy Nunn
Penguin, $34.99

I still remember Judy Nunn as Ailsa from Home and Away. Married to Ray Meagher’s Alf, her character was killed off in 2000. The former soap actor is also a prolific and bestselling author. Stories from the Otto Bin Empire is a collection of short fiction introducing six characters from a loose community of rough sleepers. The lonely Polish immigrant, Oskar, whose moment to shine comes playing chess in the park. Teen runaway Adam, who arrives in the Otto Bin Empire too up against it to understand the joke. Benny, The Big Issue vendor with a heart of gold. The raffish Johnny, generous to a fault, who wants to turn around a life of habitual crime. A poet inspired by them all … and Madge the matriarch of the homeless clan, whose own story is a closely guarded secret. Nunn writes with an unaffected, clear-eyed warmth that focuses on the dignity of these homeless characters and tries to see them through their own eyes. The stories avoid slipping into cynicism or sentimentality, portraying poverty and vulnerability but also the companionship of surviving them together.

NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
The Best Australian Science Writing 2024
Editors Jackson Ryan & Carl Smith
NewSouth, $32.99

“Have you ever wanted to skin/ a cell just to watch the turning /wheel of the universe within?” asks Shey Marque in her Poetic Constellations as she gazes into outer space. It’s a question that distils the pure curiosity of science at its most lofty. At the same time, the universe within a single cell is also where science at its most earthy and practical begins. This is marvellously captured in Age reporter Liam Mannix’s story about slime moulds – alien-like single-cellular creatures that can solve mazes and achieve other surprising feats of computation. From the topical and quotidian to the existential and cosmic, this year’s anthology of science writing has achieved a satisfying balance of short breezy pieces – the chemistry of chip flavours and the science of a good coffee – and more in-depth features on the race to protect the world’s oldest cave art and how scientists are intervening to save the endangered pygmy possum from the cascading effects of climate change.

The Assault on the State
Stephen E. Hanson & Jeffrey S. Kopstein
Polity, $41.95

The “deep state”, “woke elites”, “the blob”. These are just a few of the alarmist put-downs that are invoked by those who are opposed to governmental agencies and the public service. While there has been increasing debate about the decline of democracy and the rise of autocracy, the authors of this work argue that equally concerning is the undermining of the administrative state: the often invisible safeguards that ensure our air and water are clean, our food and medication safe to consume, our laws upheld. Vladimir Putin, they argue, has laid the ground and provided the model for self-aggrandising strongmen like Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and Benjamin Netanyahu, who “treat the state like a family business”. In the wake of the election of Trump to a second presidency, reading this cri de coeur for the
“marvellous human invention of the modern state” is like peering into a disturbingly dark crystal ball.

Slivers, Shards and Skerricks
Shaun Micallef
Affirm Press, $34.99

A “miscellany” is a fitting word for this absurdist assemblage of writings, parodies and self-deprecating pontifications, all with an unashamedly old-school literary and philosophical bent. There are spoofs of well-known stories (Dickens’ A Christmas Carol ), genre styles (gumshoe detective fiction) and restaurant reviews (a guide to American eateries), along with extracts from Micallef’s political diary. Among the highlights are Marie-Antoinette’s complaints about her “let them eat cake” remarks being taken out of context, and a particularly haunting limerick: “There was a POTUS called Don/ Who found it hard to move on/ He’d lost an election/ Led an insurrection/ But fortunately now he is gone”. More than a touch of Swiftian satire is at work in these dissections of human folly. In a gentler mode, On the Origin of the Self is Micallef at his ruefully ruminating best.

Out of the Box
Madonna King & Rebecca Sparrow
UQP, $34.99

When a teacher thanks a neurodivergent (ND) student for “everything she taught him”, it’s a sign that society is changing for the better. This is a handbook for those diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and other forms of ND brain development, their parents, their teachers, their peers and anyone else who wants to be more attuned to neurodiversity. There’s advice for when and how to seek an assessment or diagnosis, counsel for ND children on navigating friendships and the schoolyard, tips for parents on finding the right school, guidance for teachers on how best to help students learn and how to deal with behavioural issues, plus strategies for job-seeking and dating. Myths are busted, damaging assumptions are exposed and emphasis is placed on the trend towards focusing on the potential of every child regardless of medical and social labels.

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