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. Hardy is well-known in crime fiction circles as a Melbourne bookseller, crime fiction reviewer and, more recently, an award-winning author of children’s...
CLEM BASTOW and JO CASE (eds) Someone Like Me: An anthology of non-fiction by Autistic writers. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
This diverse anthology challenges stereotypes by bringing together Autistic women and gender-diverse writers to share their experiences. In their introduction to Someone Like Me, editors Clem Bastow and Jo Case say: Spending time with these twenty-five essays, piecing...
RACHEL MORTON The Sun Was Electric Light. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Set in Guatemala, Australian Rachel Morton’s debut novel of a young woman searching for her place in the world is already a prize-winner. Ruth is in her thirties and is disillusioned with life. She had moved to New York because it was the ‘furthest place’ from her...
DAVID MARR My Country: Stories, essays and speeches. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
In this collection, David Marr presents 50 years of his thinking and writing about Australia. David Marr is one of Australia’s leading journalists, and he has been commenting on things Australian for over fifty years. In his preface he says, ‘Curiosity, mischief and...
CHRIS FLYNN Orpheus Nine. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The dystopian new novel from the author of Mammoth imagines a shocking, and ongoing, tragedy to explore grief, community, and anger. Chris Flynn opens his new novel Orpheus Nine with a staggering, horrifying scene. At a children’s soccer game in Gattan, a small...
LIZ PELLY Mood Machine. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell
Liz Pelly’s analysis of music streaming giant Spotify and its impact on independent artists is both fascinating and disturbing. Since its beginnings in 2006, Spotify has grown into the largest provider of music streaming in the world. For almost the last decade, music...
ANDREA GOLDSMITH The Buried Life. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Each of Andrea Goldsmith’s three protagonists faces a reckoning with the past in this novel of life and death and friendship. The Buried Life begins with characters whose fates seem predictable, but Andrea Goldsmith is too good a writer to rely on clichés. Adrian...
PAT CUMMINS Tested. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
In Tested, Australia’s cricket captain speaks to leaders in diverse fields to discover their motivation and draw lessons from their success. The blurb on the front cover of Tested says ‘Big Decisions. Small Decisions. The remarkable power of resolve’ and this provides...
BRANDON TAYLOR The Late Americans. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Are the young aspiring artists in Brandon Taylor’s novel destined to be the last of their kind? The characters in The Late Americans are in their mid-twenties – elite graduate students in the arts at a mid-western university town: Seamus the poet, dancers Noah...
ALAN HOLLINGHURST Our Evenings. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
The Booker-winning author of The Line of Beauty delivers a novel about class, race – and Brexit. In his latest novel, Our Evenings, Alan Hollinghurst continues his exploration of outsider as insider, although in this novel his protagonist, Dave, has to contend with...
MAJA LUNDE The Dream of a Tree. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The new novel from the Norwegian author of The History of Bees imagines a dystopian future where seeds are more precious than ever. The year was 2097 and Tommy was five years old. He was playing on the beach of the abandoned container harbour in Longyearbyen on the...
Recent Posts
- FRANCESCA DE TORES Saltblood. Reviewed by Ann Skea24 April 2025Francesca de Tores’ novel is swashbuckling historical fiction, featuring [ … ]
- FIONA HARDY Unbury the Dead. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm22 April 2025Melbourne author Fiona Hardy has broken very different ground with her crime [ … ]
- CLEM BASTOW and JO CASE (eds) Someone Like Me: An anthology of non-fiction by Autistic writers. Reviewed by Kylie Mason17 April 2025This diverse anthology challenges stereotypes by bringing together Autistic [ … ]
- RACHEL MORTON The Sun Was Electric Light. Reviewed by Ann Skea15 April 2025Set in Guatemala, Australian Rachel Morton’s debut novel of a young woman [ … ]