by NRB | 13 Sep 2022 | Fiction |
Science fiction and fantasy writer Lavie Tidhar turns to the very real history of Israel in his latest novel, Maror. This is not the first time Tidhar has used Israel as a setting for his work. But his award-winning Central Station is set around a Tel Aviv spaceport,...
by NRB | 8 Sep 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The glamour of prewar Paris is the backdrop to a murder in this new novel from the author of The Lost Jewels. Drums rolled. The orchestra struck opening chords as the elegant hostess, Lady Eleanor Ashworth, stepped into the spotlight dressed in a black tulle Chanel...
by NRB | 6 Sep 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
Juliet Marillier’s Warrior Bards series is a joy to read and has a lot to say about tolerance. I remember the times when Brocc and I played and sang for weddings and festivals. That feels so long ago. Before Swan Island. Before I met Dau … A different world. But...
by NRB | 1 Sep 2022 | Fiction |
Victoria Hannan’s second novel is a study of friendships under pressure. After the success of her debut, Kokomo, in 2020, Victoria Hannan’s second novel is another study of friendship. Its five characters have been friends since university. They are now in their...
by NRB | 30 Aug 2022 | Non-fiction |
These essays are a tribute to one of Australia’s most significant historians, Stuart Macintyre. Stuart Forbes Macintyre has the distinction of being Australia’s leading historian of the last half century. Born in Melbourne in April 1947, educated at Scotch...
by NRB | 25 Aug 2022 | Non-fiction |
Dennis Altman’s new book isn’t a hatchet job on the Queen but a captivating and reasoned analysis of monarchical systems around the world. Distinguished professorial fellow Dennis Altman is quick to declare his republican sympathies in his introduction, describing...
by NRB | 23 Aug 2022 | Fiction |
The latest novel from the author of The Hoarder reimagines the tragedy and legacy of the Batavia. In The Night Ship, Jess Kidd brings together two disparate stories joined by location but separated by hundreds of years. The first, the wreck of the Batavia in 1629, is...
by NRB | 18 Aug 2022 | Fiction |
In her latest novel Kim Kelly blends a slice of Sydney’s history with an Irish love story. In February 1900, Sydney was sweltering in the sort of summer heat that, as The Rat Catcher’s Patrick O’Reilly says, sent ‘ale sizzling down your throat as if the amber...
by NRB | 16 Aug 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
After more than 25 years of writing true crime, Vikki Petraitis turns her hand to fiction. Australian true crime author Vikki Petraitis won the inaugural Allen and Unwin crime fiction prize for The Unbelieved, her first fictional outing. And while this is fiction, it...
by NRB | 11 Aug 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
Melbourne-based Astrid Scholte’s new novel pits its characters against injustice. Liars … recount their stories perfectly. As though they’ve memorised the story from start to finish. However, the truth is organic. Details are remembered in bits and pieces....
by NRB | 9 Aug 2022 | Non-fiction |
The Booker-winning author of Vernon God Little turns his attention to philosophy, mathematics, and the nature of cause and effect. DBC Pierre was in Trinidad to make a short commercial film with a parrot. Living in a house on a hill, beside which ‘someone had thought...
by NRB | 4 Aug 2022 | Non-fiction |
Nathan Hobby explores the life of one of Australia’s most controversial writers. Katharine Susannah Prichard’s novel Coonardoo is her best-known and most accomplished work. Published in 1929, and serialised in the Bulletin, it’s a tragedy about sexual longing...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm6 December 2024June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone [ … ]
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey5 December 2024This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is [ … ]
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith3 December 2024Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and [ … ]
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea28 November 2024Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in [ … ]