PETER GRESTE The Correspondent. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Peter Greste’s 2017 memoir The First Casualty has been reissued and retitled following the release of the film. It remains timely reading. In 2013 Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government was overthrown in a military coup. Australian journalist Peter Greste was reporting...
JENNIFER TREVELYAN A Beautiful Family. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Jennifer Trevelyan’s debut novel is both a coming of age story and a mystery full of secrets set within a 1980s New Zealand beach holiday. All sorts of things might have happened to the girl’s body after it had drowned, Kahu said. It might have been carried out to...
JESSICA DETTMANN Your Friend and Mine. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
The new novel from the author of Without Further Ado and How to be Second Best is a story of friendship and second chances. Margot, you’re my best friend. I will take care of you. You are going to live to be a very old lady in a horrible nursing home where your...
TAN TWAN ENG The House of Doors. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, Tan Twan Eng’s novel reimagines the events in Penang that inspired a famous Somerset Maugham story. Those familiar with Tan Twan Eng’s writing, and that of Somerset Maugham, will know they are in for pleasant reading when in...
BEN PEEK The Red Labyrinth. Reviewed by Lucy Sussex
Slim but richly imaginative, Ben Peek’s new novella combines dystopia and dark fantasy to hold a mirror to current times. In 1958, Patrick White decried Australian literature’s tendency to be the ‘dreary dun-coloured offspring of journalistic...
SIMON JAMES COPLAND The Male Complaint: The manosphere and misogyny online. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Why are lonely men drawn to online misogyny? Australian sociologist Simon James Copland explores this disturbing phenomenon. This book seeks to understand lonely and alienated men and their use of social media, as well as their impact on broader society, especially...
SUZANNE DO The Golden Sister. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
Set on the Australian coast, Suzanne Do’s first novel is both a murder mystery and a story of grief, family and connection. Lili Berry is in her twenties, and her world is a mess of anxiety, dysfunction and pain. Compounding all her day-to-day problems in the...
PATRICK LENTON In Spite of You. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Patrick Lenton is known for his sharply observed non-fiction; now his first novel delivers a fresh and funny romcom. I have been following Patrick Lenton on social media for many years and I enjoy Nonsense, his Substack featuring queer news and culture. As a...
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA The Bewitching. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Silvia Moreno-Garcia mixes Mexican mythology with the history of US witchcraft in this new novel, once again reinventing genre tropes. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most varied – and consistently interesting – authors in modern fantasy and horror. She is...
HUGH WHITE Hard New World: Our post-American future. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Can Australia pursue a defence strategy independent of the United States? Hugh White presents a compelling case to do so. In this Quarterly Essay, Hugh White is hoping to influence the politicians and advisors who make strategic decisions concerning Australia’s...
AC GRAYLING Discriminations: Making peace in the culture wars. Reviewed by Ann Skea
At a time when ‘woke’ has become a term of abuse, AC Grayling argues that respect for human rights needs to be the basis of open debate. ‘Wokeism’ and ‘cancel culture’ became terms of war – culture war – in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The war...
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