RENÉE Blood Matters. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Steeped in a sense of culture, people and place, Blood Matters is crime fiction set at the heart of a family and community. Author Renée is a towering figure in New Zealand. A legendary playwright, novelist and activist, Renée is of Māori (Ngāti Kahungunu), Irish,...
ANNA FUNDER Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Anna Funder reveals the significant and unacknowledged contribution of Mrs Orwell to the famous writer’s career. Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them … The process has to be...
DV BISHOP The Darkest Sin. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Set in Florence in 1537, The Darkest Sin is the second novel featuring Cesare Aldo, an officer of the feared Otto di Guardia e Balia. This series currently includes The City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin, with a third volume, Ritual of Fire, on the way. The first...
BENJAMIN MYERS Cuddy. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Benjamin Myers’ new novel is a homage to his home city of Durham and its patron saint. Award-winning British author Benjamin Myers was born in the northern English city of Durham in 1976. This is a fact to keep in mind when coming to his latest novel Cuddy,...
CYNTHIA DEARBORN The Year My Family Unravelled. Reviewed by Mary Garden
Cynthia Dearborn’s memoir recounts a confrontation with painful memories and a chance at redemption. This beautifully written memoir tells the story of one tumultuous year. It is 2007 and Cynthia Dearborn finds herself in the role of caregiver and advocate for...
PAUL GRACE Operation Hurricane. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Paul Grace details the shameful conduct of British atomic testing in Australia and its toxic legacy. Even though the Americans and British were allies during World War II, the Americans were not prepared to share their knowledge of atom bombs with the British. They...
EMILY PERKINS Lioness. Reviewed by Ann Skea
In this new novel from the author of The Forrests, a woman who appears to have it all begins to question her life choices. Therese and Claire live in the same four-storey former sewing factory once wholly owned by Therese’s husband’s family – but they have very...
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA Silver Nitrate. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Mexican horror movies, a Nazi occultist and dark magical powers – Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel has them all. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has not yet written two books in the same genre. Though that statement may depend on how you understand genre. Her latest novel,...
ROSS McMULLIN Life So Full of Promise: Further biographies of Australia’s lost generation. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Ross McMullin’s account of those who fought in World War I is a masterpiece of storytelling, weaving family, community, sporting, and military history into a satisfying whole. In previous books such as The Light on the Hill, his history of the Labor Party, and his...
ANN PATCHETT Tom Lake. Reviewed by Ann Skea
A mother tells her daughters the story of her past – or some of it – in this new novel from the author of The Dutch House. ‘Wait, wait, wait, you wanted to be a vet?’ Maisie shakes her head. ‘You never wanted to be a vet. You never said that before.’ Maisie will begin...
ANDREW NETTE Orphan Road. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
The third novel from pulp fiction aficionado Andrew Nette is a delightful, knowing nod to the genre. Following on from the enjoyable Gunshine State, Orphan Road again features Nette’s antihero Gary Chance, a survivor of military service in Afghanistan, in a new...
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