Tell Me Again (Amy Thunig, UQP)

Amy Thunig is an academic and social commentator on shows such as ABC’s The Drum. She also grew up in poverty, the child of parents battling drug addictions who provided often uneven care for Thunig and her siblings. Tell Me Again is the story of this upbringing, strongly situated within the First Nations understanding of time and Country, and interspersed with reflections and experiences of the daughter, sibling, homeowner, academic and mother that the author is today. This striking memoir is for anyone interested in insightful true stories and family narratives, and I especially recommend that it be put in the hands of anyone working in the fields of education, community and justice. Readers of Brendan James Murray’s recent release The School and Veronica Gorrie’s Black and Blue will appreciate Thunig’s raw, at times heart-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful account of life growing up in a family that society finds excuses to again and again discard. Tell Me Again is a compassionately written account of the struggles that people go through and how these struggles do not solely define us. While some of the subject matter is confronting at times, Thunig’s capacity to write insightfully, lyrically and matter-of-factly about her life—along with her subtle nods to code-switching throughout—make this memoir a pleasure to read and an experience to be pondered beyond the last page.

Portia Lindsay is the book buyer for The Book Nest Mudgee, on Wiradjuri Country.

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