MICHAEL TRANT No Trace. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Is Michael Trant Australia’s Lee Child? No Trace delivers a heroic protagonist and a rush of adrenalin in the remote Pilbara. Michael Trant’s Wild Dogs (2022) was an action-packed thriller that introduced Gabe Ahern as Australia’s answer to Jack Reacher. Thankfully...
ESTHER WOOLFSON Corvus: A life with birds. Reviewed by Ann Skea
First published in 2008, Esther Woolfson’s Corvus is part memoir, part natural history, and conveys her fascination with the birds living in her home. As I write, the bird is behind me on her branch. From time to time she mutters, a sound softly bearing the imprint of...
CARMEL BIRD Love Letter to Lola: extract
Carmel Bird gives voice to the extinct, the endangered and the overlooked in her new collection of stories. Carmel Bird is one of Australia’s most gifted and original writers, and we’re delighted to bring you the title story from her latest collection, Love Letter to...
ROBERT GOTT Naked Ambition. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
If you’ve ever wondered what a crime novel written by Noel Coward might be like, Naked Ambition could provide some clues. Fans of Robert Gott’s earlier William Power series, or his newspaper cartoon The Adventures of Naked Man, will not be all that...
SHIRLEY HAZZARD The Transit of Venus. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
The recent release of Brigitta Olubas’ biography of Shirley Hazzard has prompted Catherine Pardey to reflect on Hazzard’s 1980 novel The Transit of Venus. After re-reading The Transit of Venus it is always surprising to re-remember it was published in 1980, as it...
MAX PORTER Shy. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Why does Shy act the way he does? Max Porter’s new novel achieves an unlikely empathy. What goes on inside the head of a very troubled teenager? Shy has, by his own account, been expelled from two schools, been arrested and cautioned, and has ‘sprayed, smoked,...
JAMES MCKENZIE WATSON Denizen. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith
James McKenzie Watson’s thriller-like debut brings coherence to a life breaking apart. James McKenzie Watson’s first novel Denizen is partly a thriller and partly a depiction of generational abuse and its consequences, drawing on the author’s upbringing in rural...
KATE MORTON Homecoming. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Set in Sydney and the Adelaide Hills, Kate Morton’s new novel unwinds a mystery stretching across generations. Anyone who has read Kate Morton’s earlier novels will know that she excels at setting the scene, creating interesting and likeable characters, leading...
DENNIS LEHANE Small Mercies. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Dennis Lehane returns to familiar territory in his latest novel, but Small Mercies is far from predictable. American writer Dennis Lehane burst onto the crime scene with his hard-hitting debut A Drink Before the War (1994), the first of his Kenzie and Gennaro novels....
JULIANNE SCHULTZ The Idea of Australia: A search for the soul of the nation. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Julianne Schultz finds difficult truths – and some hope – in her examination of the Australian psyche. Is it a good thing to be racist? For one group of people to believe they are superior to others and to act accordingly in the name of creating a ‘perfect society’?...
ANN-HELÉN LAESTADIUS Stolen. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Translated from the original Swedish, Stolen reveals the dangers – and prejudice – faced by the reindeer-herding Sami people. This is gentle but strong story about Elsa, a young Sami woman, growing up in her homeland, Sampi, in the Arctic north of Sweden. It is...
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