With the new year barely begun, take a look back at our top ten reviews of 2025.
It’s always fascinating to see which reviews have attracted the most interest from readers. While this 2025 list leans slightly more towards fiction than non-fiction, it does include reviews of some standout memoirs and a thought-provoking history. Is your favourite review among them? Or perhaps you’d like to add a few titles to your TBR pile?
As always, many thanks to our wonderful contributors for all their words last year, and to you, our readers, for your ongoing support.
We’ll be back with new reviews a little later in January, but in the meantime please enjoy these highlights of 2025.
Helen Garner
The Season
Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Helen Garner’s account of a single season of her grandson’s AFL team is about more than football.
Read the review of The Season.
Mark Smith
Three Boys Gone
Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Mark Smith’s first novel for adults is both a psychological thriller and an exploration of a shocking moral dilemma.
Read the review of Three Boys Gone.
Suzanne Do
The Golden Sister
Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
Set on the Australian coast, Suzanne Do’s first novel is both a murder mystery and a story of grief, family and connection.
Read the review of The Golden Sister.
Lech Blaine
Australian Gospel
Reviewed by Mary Garden
Lech Blaine’s memoir recounts the ongoing harassment his family suffered from the parents of his foster siblings.
Read the review of Australian Gospel.
Ian McEwan
What We Can Know
Reviewed by Robert Goodman
How will the future judge us? Ian McEwan’s new novel looks back at our world from the perspective of 2119.
Read the review of What We Can Know.
Heather Rose
A Great Act of Love
Reviewed by Ann Skea
The bestselling author of The Museum of Modern Love turns to historical fiction in her new novel set in convict-era Van Dieman’s Land.
Read the review of A Great Act of Love.
Peter Godwin
Exit Wounds
Reviewed by Ann Skea
Peter Godwin’s memoir charts a life of exile, ranging from the horror of civil war to family eccentricity and life in London and New York.
Read the review of Exit Wounds.
Fiona Hardy
Unbury the Dead
Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Melbourne author Fiona Hardy has broken very different ground with her crime fiction debut Unbury the Dead.
Read the review of Unbury the Dead.
Sally Rooney
Intermezzo
Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Irish writer Sally Rooney is known for her succession of bestselling literary novels. Intermezzo is her best yet.
Read the review of Intermezzo.
Phil Craig
1945: The Reckoning
Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
This conclusion to Phil Craig’s Finest Hour trilogy shows how, far from marking an end to war and suffering, 1945 created more of it.
Read the review of 1945: The Reckoning.
Tags: Australian crime fiction, Australian fiction, Fiona | Hardy, Heather | Rose, Helen | Garner, historical fiction, history, Ian | McEwan, Lech | Blaine, Mark Smith, memoir, Peter | Godwin, Phil | Craig, Sally | Rooney, Suzanne | Do
Discover more from Newtown Review of Books
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
