GEMMA PARKER The Mother is Restless and She Doesn’t Know Why. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
For Gemma Parker, Nietzsche and nihilism were surprisingly liberating during lockdown, as she recounts in her memoir. I’ve long been interested in nihilism because I find the concept of a meaningless existence intoxicating, liberating. The Mother is Restless opens...
FIONA HARDY Old Games. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The morally flexible PI team of Alice and Teddy are back in a perfectly bonkers scenario in Fiona Hardy’s new novel Old Games. Alice and Teddy, introduced to readers in the excellent Unbury the Dead, are best mates and private investigators who work for ‘Choker’, a...
JANE MESSER Raven Mother. Reviewed by Sandra Hogan
In searching for the truth about her grandmother, Jane Messer brings together both Jewish and Palestinian histories. Michael Messer was sure his mother never loved him. She had abandoned him twice, leaving him with strangers for years on end. His father told him that...
KATE MILDENHALL The Hiding Place. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Kate Mildenhall’s fourth novel takes a group of progressive urbanites into the bush and exposes the conflicts and contradictions among them. This novel moves from the familiar and domestic to a place of unimaginable horror with an ending that will make you gasp. A...
HELEN PITT Luna Park. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Helen Pitt uncovers the history of Sydney’s iconic Luna Park and the history of amusement parks from world fairs to Coney Island and beyond. Like many Sydneysiders, Helen Pitt has vivid memories of a childhood trip to Luna Park. She and her friends got giddy and fell...
AARON ROBERTSON The Black Utopians: Visions of hope and resistance in America. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
What might utopia look like for African Americans? Aaron Robertson examines how Black communities have striven for a better life. In his preface to Black Utopians, Aaron Robertson asks, ‘How [do] the disillusioned, the betrayed, the confined, the forgotten, and the...
FRANCIS SPUFFORD Nonesuch. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Award-winning author Francis Spufford’s new novel is a historical fantasy set during the Blitz in London. Francis Spufford’s fourth novel, Nonesuch, is a beguiling combination of historical and speculative fiction. Spufford effortlessly blends the experience of living...
ZEYNAB GAMIELDIEN Learned Behaviours. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
The new novel from the award-winning author of The Scope of Permissibility examines assumptions about class, connection and culpability. A common question on forums like Reddit goes something like this: What moment in your life was so pivotal that everything since has...
TIM AYLIFFE Dark Desert Road. Reviewed by Viv Ronnebeck
Tim Ayliffe’s new thriller Dark Desert Road delivers claustrophic tension as twin sisters navigate extremists in the outback. The prologue to Tim Ayliffe’s Dark Desert Road begins with a woman trapped in a stranger’s suitcase, but the even more arresting detail...
CAMERON SULLIVAN The Red Winter. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Australian Cameron Sullivan’s debut fantasy features a demon, a monster, dark humour and a reimagining of French history. While romantasy is having a moment, another corner of the fantasy world – ‘grimdark’ – is also in good shape. Grimdark is a subgenre of fantasy...
MICHAEL BURGE Dirt Trap. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Twenty years have passed since the brutal death of James Brandt’s beloved cousin. Will an inquiry into gay hate-crimes offer any resolution? In 2021 journalist Michael Burge released his first novel Tank Water, a coming-of-age thriller that tackled the issue of...
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