AYESHA INOON Untethered. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Winner of the the ASA/HQ Fiction Prize, Ayesha Inoon’s debut novel explores the experience of moving from Sri Lanka to Australia. It was the silence that she noticed first. As they drove, Canberra unfolded in a series of stunning panoramas … The streets were empty,...
MYKAELA SAUNDERS Always Will Be. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Mykaela Saunders’ stories imagine a future where the connection to land and culture is central. Mykaela Saunders won an Aurealis award for her exciting and thought-provoking anthology of First Nations speculative fiction This All Come Back Now. In the same year her...
GRAEME DAVISON My Grandfather’s Clock: Four centuries of a British-Australian family. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Graeme Davison’s book is an elegant waltz through one family’s history and its connection to large events, from immigration to world wars. One of Australia’s leading historians, Graeme Davison notes in his introduction that ‘history is usually written forwards’...
SARAH OGILVIE The Dictionary People. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Sarah Ogilvie tells the stories of the thousands of volunteers whose assiduous reporting created the Oxford English Dictionary. About eight years ago, Sarah Ogilvie was making a nostalgic visit to the Dictionary archive in the basement of the Oxford University Press....
JO RICCIONI The Rising. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
The conclusion to Jo Riccioni’s high fantasy series The Branded Season brings Nara and her sister Osha to the Shadow City of Reis. This exciting sequel to The Branded concludes a thought-provoking and fast-paced story about two sisters finding their place in a harsh,...
LOL TOLHURST Goth: A history. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Lol Tolhurst reflects on Goth as a post-punk cultural movement, its resonance with the Romantic era, and its enduring appeal. Lol Tolhurst’s first memoir, Cured: The tale of two imaginary boys, was his account of The Cure’s early days. Tolhurst was one of the band’s...
RACHEL MADDOW Prequel: An American fight against fascism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Rachel Maddow’s account of how Nazism gained a foothold among US politicians in the 1930s holds lessons for the present. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in early 1933, he embarked on a long-term plan not only to keep the United States out of a future...
FERNANDA TRIAS Pink Slime. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The new novel from Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trias is set in a dystopian city and has unsettling echoes of recent events. When the fog rolled in, the port turned into a swamp. Shadows fell across the plaza, filtering between the trees and leaving the long marks of...
BENJAMIN STEVENSON Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Benjamin Stevenson’s sharp eye and love of the crime genre are on display in this follow-up to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. After the success of his last novel Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson has returned with a sequel of...
ROBYN CADWALLADER The Fire and the Rose. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Robyn Cadwallader’s third novel is set against the anti-Semitism of the thirteenth century and England’s expulsion of the Jews. ‘What you doing there, girl? Why stand and shiver when the sun shines? You must’ve heard the story of Little Hugh before. They recite it...
AW HAMMOND The Berlin Traitor. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
It’s July 1945, and the war in Europe is finally over. Auguste Duchene has survived, but the past will not let go. The second novel featuring Duchene, The Berlin Traitor closely follows the first, The Paris Collaborator, which was set in and around occupied Paris....
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