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...
by NRB | 2 Aug 2022 | Fiction |
Holden Sheppard’s second novel is more Lord of the Flies than teen exploitation story. Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys (2019) was a stunning debut that got a lot of attention when it was released. It’s a raw and real read – an honest novel about being young and...
by NRB | 28 Jul 2022 | Non-fiction |
David McRaney explores how to convince people to change their views. The blurb on the back of this book states: ‘Our most deeply held opinions and beliefs can change – here’s how.’ It turns out that for some of the people whose stories science journalist David McRaney...
by NRB | 26 Jul 2022 | Non-fiction |
Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins make the case for Australia’s public broadcaster. If the title of Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins’s book is a question, the subtitle – ‘Why taking it for granted is no longer an option’ – implies the answer: everyone....
by NRB | 21 Jul 2022 | Fiction |
Madeline Miller reimagines Ovid’s story of Pygmalion and Galatea, the work of art brought to life. … he sculpted white ivory happily with wondrous art and wondrous skill and gave it form with which no mortal woman is born, and he fell in love with his...
CHER The Memoir Part 1. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell16 January 2025Cher is a genuine superstar who has had an extraordinary career across music, [ … ]
PETER GODWIN Exit Wounds. Reviewed by Ann Skea15 January 2025Peter Godwin’s memoir charts a life of exile, ranging from the horror of civil [ … ]
MARK SMITH Three Boys Gone. Reviewed by Michael Jongen14 January 2025Mark Smith’s first novel for adults is both a psychological thriller and an [ … ]
NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 202419 December 2024Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? [ … ]