The November issue of The Monthly is packed with great journalism and writing.
Our cover story gives a taste from the non-fiction book of the year – Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein’s series of conversations driving to and from the magistrates’ court in Morwell to watch the trial of Erin Patterson. The story captured the national imagination, but to read these three keen observers and chroniclers of human misery grapple with the nuances of the case is a privilege. Madison Griffiths grew up in a horse-racing family, and she’s written an excoriating look at the repressive, violent and abusive culture in that industry. It’s a horrifying story of decades of pain and an industry unwilling or unable to honestly reckon with the damage done, but Griffiths’ conversations with victim-survivors and her commitment to laying out the abuses of power and system are powerful and necessary.
The assistant minister for productivity, competition, charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, is the author of several books, and a rare kind of politician: one committed to interrogating ideas and process to find ways to better govern and represent his electorate. Here, he considers the role randomised trials could and should play in improving our politics.
In the arts pages, Abi Stephenson reports from the London premiere of the new Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, with the Boss himself in attendance, and Beejay Silcox delivers an uncompromising assessment of the state of Australian rural noir to coincide with the publication of Jane Harper’s new novel, Last One Out. Robbie Arnott’s “Life Sentence” is a cricketing sledge to make a career author’s blood run cold, and there’s much more besides.