News & Reviews

May — Our Book of the Month

05 May 2021 News & Reviews
He was of course an insufferable egotist, as well as a liar, and not even a very believable one; and I, alone in Paris for the night, with my disapproving husband and child waiting back at home, was so thirsty for love I would drink, it seemed, from any source. Truly, Jeffers, I was a dog – there was such a heavy weight inside me, I could only writhe senselessly like an animal in pain.

Oh, Rachel Cusk. So cool and indifferent. Inspirer of division among literary friends; omnipotent and intentionally obtuse. Half of Bookoccino love you, and, because we love our better halves we dedicate May to you.

Second Place addresses those timely topics of sexual power, creative ego & male privilege.

M is a writer living in a secluded coastal landscape with her second husband. Untethered and restless, she invites a famed artist to use her guesthouse in the belief that he might dislodge the source of her mental and psychic malaise. But his provocative presence over a long and hot summer exacerbates M’s troubles. A terrifically insightful study of female fate and male privilege, of the geometries of human relationships, and of the struggle to live morally between our internal and external worlds.
With its examination of the possibility that art can both save and destroy us, Second Place is deeply affirming of the human soul, while grappling with its darkest demons.

You can read an excerpt here, and buy it here, though you’re better to visit in person and claim your free ‘Book of the Month’ coffee, on us.

66 Old Barrenjoey Rd
Avalon 2107
Australia

(02) 9973 1244