Notes from Murray :
Hoa Pham’s sixth novel Empathy is published by the University of London’s Goldsmith’s Press, was launched by Hoa and Lucy Sussex on 8 November 2022, and is reviewed by Ian Mond in the February Locus, but why not hear about it from the writer herself?
Hoa Pham is our guest speaker on Wednesday 1 March at the Nova Mob!
A face to face meeting at the Kensington Town Hall and also by Zoom. 8.00pm start, Melbourne time. Full details below.
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https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/publications/empathy/
“A science-fiction novel involving clones, a psychic, and empathy as a recreational drug.
“We have always been we. Then they forced us to become you and I…
“Empathy consists of two stories told in parallel.
“Vuong is one of five Vietnamese clones that have come of age at 25. The Department in Hanoi is allowing them to meet after being separated for twenty years. Lian has murdered her foster father after being forced to eat meat. Geraldine is dying of cancer in Australia. Giang and Khanh were brought up together as twins in New Zealand and are telepathic. They have been used for research over their lifetimes. Vuong discovers that the data kept on all of them has been used to develop empathy, the latest party drug.
“My meets Truong in Berlin who introduces her to empathy which makes the user supersensitive to other people’s feelings. My’s mother is a cleaner at CHESS, a multinational chemical company, and My comes to believe her mother is ex-Stasi and an industrial spy for Vietnamese government. My comes down from the drug after hearing about the saturation point when the penetration of empathy would be such that the world’s population would be pacified. She discovers that Truong is actually the one who is in the pay of the Vietnamese government and her mother is just a cleaner. She tries to out the conspiracy in the media but no one believes her…”
Copies are likely to be available on the night for purchase and author signing.
Publisher : Goldsmiths Press
Paperback : 256 pages =
Distribution: PenguinRandomHouse=
ISBN-10 : 1913380610 ISBN-13 : 978-1913380618
Kindle edition will be released on April 18, 2023
Hoa Pham
Hoa was a finalist for the 2000 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel for Vixen but lost to Juliet Marillier‘s Son of the Shadows. Hoa has published six novels, has tutored Novels and Identity at the University of Melbourne, published journal articles in Southerly and Text, and presented conference papers nationally and internationally. Hoa has been a panellist at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne. She founded Peril a magazine for Asian Australians, and has received funding from the Australia Council of the Arts multiple times. She has been on an Asialink residency in Vietnam, and held fellowships at the Tyrone Guthrie centre and the Goethe Institute Berlin. She has a doctorate in creative arts and holds master’s degrees in creative writing and psychology.
https://www.hoapham.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoa_Pham\
Peril: http://www.asianaustralian.org/
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Meeting details Nova Mob 1 March 2023 – Empathy by Hoa Pham
Please share this invitation with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at:
Wednesday 1 March 2023 8.00pm – 9.15pm or so, Melbourne Time / 7:30pm Adelaide
first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall,
30 – 34 Bellair St, Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. Zoom session broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be discussed as the opportunity permits, and you’ll have as much airtime as the other Mob members at the venue.
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Wednesday 1 March
8.00pm – 9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time
7.30pm – 9.00pm Adelaide time
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09
Passcode: nova
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
This is the standard web link. It doesn’t change. Maybe add it to your bookmarks.
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April Nova Mob – “1966 and all that” – Best Short Sf
April’s Nova Mob is Perry Middlemiss on “1966 and all that – best short SF of 1966”. A year in which Bob Shaw’s “Light of Other Days” about slow glass, did not get the Hugo.
See https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1967-hugo-awards/
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Pre-Mob dining – at the Doutta Galla Hotel
The usual pre-Mob location in Newmarket
Doutta Galla Hotel, 339 Racecourse Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3031, Australia
Table for 10 booked for 1 March under the name of Murray, 6.00pm for 6.30, through to 8.00pm. (Melbourne time)
There are other eateries in the area. If anyone wishes to arrange other locations, I’m happy to publicise those too.
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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