by NRB | 30 May 2024 | Fiction |
Set in 17th-century London, Lauren Chater’s new novel brings together a royal artist, a young woman’s quest and the real-life Anne Hyde. What do you do if the king invites you to share his bed but you find the idea repulsive? A wave of nausea ripples through her...
by NRB | 29 May 2024 | Fiction |
Gabrielle Zevin’s bestselling novel set in the world of game designers has a lot to say about writers, too. In Macbeth’s soliloquy beginning ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,’ Macbeth foreshadows his own death, the finality of it and the ephemerality of life....
by NRB | 28 May 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
Oliver K Langmead combines science fiction with poetry to deliver a fresh and thought-provoking take on the genre. Just when you think you have come across every possible version and trope of the generation-ship (taking hundreds of years to take colonists to a new...
by NRB | 23 May 2024 | Fiction |
The bestselling creator of the Grishaverse turns to the history of 16th-century Spain for this story of a young woman with magical powers. If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story. So it would. Luzia would not have used her magical skills, Doña...
by NRB | 21 May 2024 | Non-fiction |
This memoir of a young woman’s recovery from a traumatic brain injury becomes an unputdownable detective story. Broken Girl, Caroline Laner Breure’s memoir written with Bradley Trevor Greive, opens with light, breezy snapshots of a young woman ready to burst forth...
by NRB | 16 May 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
John Wiswell gives an outsider’s view of human behaviour in this novel of a shape-shifting monster told with violence and dark humour. John Wiswell must be in the running for title of the year for his debut fantasy novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In. The title not...
by NRB | 15 May 2024 | Giveaways |
There’s a ton of great writers appearing at this year’s Sydney Writers Festival, which opens next week, and we have a very special book pack to give away. To go into the draw to win all FIVE titles by writers appearing at the festival, simply email...
by NRB | 14 May 2024 | Fiction |
The protagonist of Cameron Stewart’s novel finds solace in solitude as he walks through Australia, encountering both kindness and cruelty. NOW I EAT ROADKILL. When I’m desperate for food I drag dead animals off the road. Rabbit, kangaroos, goannas – as long as the...
by NRB | 9 May 2024 | Non-fiction |
Mary Garden’s memoir reveals her physical and mental abuse at the hands of her sister – and an extraordinary case of plagiarism. Mary Garden has written a fascinating and brutally frank memoir of her troubled relationship with her sister and the impact it has had on...
by NRB | 7 May 2024 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Devil’s Breath is the first novel in a new crime series built around a neurodivergent professor of botanical toxicology, Eustacia Rose. Eustacia Rose is currently ‘separated’ from her position at a university, disgraced after an incident in her laboratory. She...
by NRB | 2 May 2024 | Fiction |
Shubnum Khan’s magical debut set on the east coast of Africa features a djinn, a house, and a story that reaches down the generations. A djinn, according to various encyclopedias, is a creature created by Allah from smokeless flames. It has a subtle body and is...
by NRB | 1 May 2024 | Fiction |
The disparate residents of the sharehouse at the heart of Max Easton’s second novel reveal a microcosm of Australia’s housing crisis. New Year’s Eve 2022 bookends this social novel set in Sydney, in which good nature and resilience are demonstrated in the face of what...
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 [ … ]