Straight from the authors’ mouths
Recommended reads
Looking for something to read in your next quiet moment? Never fear! Word of Mouth TV is here. Lauren Chater, author of The Lace Weaver, Kate Forsyth and Sarah Mills serve up the best books they've read lately, and a couple of their favourite cookbooks.
The Lace Weaver – Lauren Chater
Sarah's review
A charming debut novel from author Lauren Chater, The Lace Weaver is set in Estonia, just prior to World War II. Squeezed between the two major powers of the Soviet Union and Germany, Estonia is coveted by both. Maintaining independence is all but impossible, and the Estonians endure great hardship as two evil empires - the Russians, then Germans - occupy their land. The people take great heart from their traditions, particularly lace weaving.
The Lace Weaver – Lauren Chater
Kate's review
A heart-wrenching novel of love, war and resistance set in Estonia in the 1940s, The Lace Weaver tells the story of two very different young women and their struggle to survive in a country caught between two of the greatest evils of the 20th century: Stalin’s Red Army and Hitler’s Third Reich. This is a novel of love and war, heartbreak and hope, and the bonds between women, delicate as lace and yet as unbreakable as steel.
Richard Fidler’s enticing Icelandic fish stew
Portrait of a recipe
We caught up with Richard Fidler at the 2018 Sydney Writer's Festival to talk about his latest book Saga Land, which he co-authored with his dear friend Kari Gislason. In it, he included a recipe for Icelandic fish soup because, says Richard, "wherever you go in Iceland ... they tend to have these little cafes ... that only have about four or five things on the menu ... and nearly every one of them had Icelandic fish soup.
Loving the Sydney Writers Festival!
Wow! What a fabulous few days we’ve had at the Sydney Writers Festival. The Carriageworks is a great venue – plenty of space, groovy eateries and bars, and wonderful lounges to relax after author sessions. And what a fabulous line-up of authors. It has a great central hub that makes it easy for people to mingle and meet, and watch the authors zooming through to their next appearance.
Hello ladies!
Welcome ladies to Word of Mouth TV. We say “ladies” because statistics tell us that the vast majority of bibliophiles are women. Women buy more books than men, attend more book clubs, use libraries more often, write more than men, and attend more creative writing courses than men. Heaps more! Having said that, we expect that the literary banquet we serve this year will feed the souls of both sexes.
