CHRISTINE BALINT A Single Witness. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Christine Balint’s fourth novel takes inspiration from the courage of a teenage girl in a real-life criminal case in 18th-century Italy. ‘It takes seven women to make a single witness.’ Old Venetian Proverb. Anna Maria did not have seven women to turn to for proof,...
VERONICA ROTH Seek the Traitor’s Son. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Set in a future Earth, the first instalment of Veronica Roth’s new science-fiction series imagines the consequences of alien gifts. Veronica Roth is probably best known as the author of the popular YA-pitched Divergent series (and the not-as-popular movie series...
FRANCESCA DE TORES Cast Away. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The new novel from the author of Saltblood again traverses the high seas, this time inspired by a real-life Scottish adventurer. When they leave me on the island, I do not scruple to beg. I chase the last boat into the bay, wading and shouting, ‘Sir, sir, mercy, have...
CLARA BRACK The Secret Landscapes: On not pleasing your mother. Reviewed by Sandra Hogan
Clara Brack finds her own voice in exploring the differences between her parents’ lives as artists and their lives as parents. The artists John Brack and Helen Maudsley both defied their mothers – he when he chose to be an artist and she when she chose to marry...
PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE London Falling. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell
The award-winning author investigates the mysterious death of a teenage boy in London, and uncovers the dark side of the city itself. Patrick Radden Keefe’s books are so deeply researched, and his storytelling so compelling, that readers might feel they are in...
GABRIELE TERGIT The Effingers: A Berlin Saga. Reviewed by Sandra Hogan
A new translation of this German classic tells the story of a Jewish family in Berlin from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. In 1932, Gabriele Tergit’s Berlin publisher asked her to write a novel about a Jewish family because middle-class Jews were the best...
CARI THOMAS Threadneedle and Shadowstitch. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
The first two instalments of Welsh author Cari Thomas’s bestselling fantasy series are full of magic, danger, coercion and rebellion. In the first volume, Threadneedle, Anna’s future is all planned out for her: study hard to become a doctor and have her magic...
BERNICE BARRY The Names of a Hare. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Set during England’s witch persecutions, Bernice Barry’s novel draws on the magical associations of the hare and tips its hat to Lorna Doone. There are things you’ll be wanting to know and I will tell you most of them, but there’s one thing I will not give and...
FIONA WRIGHT Kill Your Boomers. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell
Poet and essayist Fiona Wright’s funny and furious debut novel tackles generational inequality and Australia’s housing crisis. How did it come to this? As one character puts it in Fiona Wright’s new novel Kill Your Boomers, ‘Do you know anyone, literally...
INGA SIMPSON Once We Were Wildlife. Reviewed by Ann Skea
These stories from the author of The Thinning and Understory are driven by human interactions with nature – and nature’s response to us. More meltwater, more bright machines grinding back and forth, marking snow. There is panic in their colony, like the penguins. They...
ALAN FYFE The Cross Thieves. Reviewed by Paul Anderson
Alan Fyfe’s second novel is a zany, punchy, circuitous literary picaresque set in the regional city of Mandurah on the southwest coast of WA. The story of The Cross Thieves works like a strange Rube Goldberg machine. One small act of kindness is followed by a tragic...
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RACHELLE UNREICH A Brilliant Life. Reviewed by Sandra Hogan19 May 2026Rachelle Unreich tells her mother’s extraordinary story of surviving the horror [ … ]
CHRISTINE BALINT A Single Witness. Reviewed by Ann Skea14 May 2026Christine Balint’s fourth novel takes inspiration from the courage of a teenage [ … ]
VERONICA ROTH Seek the Traitor’s Son. Reviewed by Robert Goodman12 May 2026Set in a future Earth, the first instalment of Veronica Roth’s new [ … ]
FRANCESCA DE TORES Cast Away. Reviewed by Ann Skea7 May 2026The new novel from the author of Saltblood again traverses the high seas, this [ … ]