NRB, Author at Newtown Review of Books

Must-reads of 2018

by NRB | 20 Dec 2018 | Fiction, Non-fiction | 0 comments

From fiction to crime to history, essays, memoir and literary letters, the NRB editors choose ten of the reviews we published in 2018 of books we think deserve to go on your TBR pile. Jean’s picks: Ali Smith Winter The first of Ali Smith’s...

SYLVIA PLATH The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume II: 1956-1963, edited by Peter Steinberg and Karen V Kukil. Reviewed by Ann Skea

by NRB | 18 Dec 2018 | Non-fiction | 0 comments

The iconic poet continues to fascinate and Sylvia Plath’s letters shed light on her astonishing work ethic, her marriage to Ted Hughes, and the final years of her life. This second volume of Sylvia Plath’s letters takes up her correspondence from where Volume I...

ROXANE GAY (Editor) Not That Bad: Dispatches from rape culture. Reviewed by Justine Ettler

by NRB | 13 Dec 2018 | Non-fiction | 0 comments

Feminist Roxane Gay brings together dispatches from the front lines of rape culture. This anthology of personal essays asks one of the harder questions about rape: ‘What is it like to live in a culture where it often seems it is a question of when, not if, a...

ANGELA CHADWICK XX. Reviewed by Robert Goodman

by NRB | 11 Dec 2018 | SFF | 0 comments

This debut novel from Angela Chadwick is both speculative but also intensely topical, exploring gender, politics, science and the media through what becomes an intensely personal journey. XX starts with a day-after-tomorrow (or possibly even day-after-today) premise:...

ASHLEY KALAGIAN BLUNT My Name is Revenge. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

by NRB | 6 Dec 2018 | Fiction | 0 comments

A real act of terrorism in Sydney in the 1980s inspired Ashley Kalagian Blunt to write My Name is Revenge (a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award*). This work is in two parts – a novella, and an essay reflecting on the motivations and...

JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST I Always Find You. Reviewed by Dasha Maiorova

by NRB | 4 Dec 2018 | Fiction | 0 comments

The bestselling author of Let the Right One In, Lindqvist clouds the division between horror and memoir in this new novel. Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist is known for transforming staples of horror into new and compelling configurations, tapping into fears...

Spring Fever 2018 Giveaway #8

by NRB | 30 Nov 2018 | Giveaways | 0 comments

Yes, it’s our last Spring Giveaway for this year … You know the drill: to go in the draw to win all four of the titles below, simply email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with ‘Spring 8′ in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the...

LEIGH SALES Any Ordinary Day: Blindsides, resilience and what happens after the worst day of your life. Reviewed by Shelley McInnis

by NRB | 29 Nov 2018 | Non-fiction | 5 comments

The striking feature of this book is how much of herself Sales reveals as she takes a close look at a number of people blindsided by the ‘poison darts of fate’. A kind-looking grey-haired man sitting across from me downstairs at the National Library of Australia...

MADELINE MILLER Circe. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley

by NRB | 27 Nov 2018 | Fiction | 0 comments

In Circe, Orange Prize-winner Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles, weaves more ancient Greek myths into a new, gritty and spellbinding tale. Circe, lowly daughter of the sun god Helios, first uses witchcraft in pursuit of her doomed love for a mortal. For...

Spring Fever 2018 Giveaway #7

by NRB | 26 Nov 2018 | Giveaways | 0 comments

We’re in the final week of spring, and down to our final two spring 2018 giveaways. Will one of them be yours? To go in the draw to win all four of the titles below, simply email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with ‘Spring 7′ in the subject line and your...

Spring Fever 2018 Giveaway #6

by NRB | 23 Nov 2018 | Giveaways | 0 comments

Four more terrific books to win in our spring giveaway. To go in the draw to win all four, simply email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with ‘Spring 6′ in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the email by midnight tonight, Friday 23 November...

JULIAN BARNES The Noise of Time. Reviewed by Kurt Johnson

by NRB | 22 Nov 2018 | Fiction | 1 comment

Barnes has made the leap across time, culture, language and artform to believably invoke the thoughts of a brilliant but troubled Soviet composer. A composer, famous even beyond the razor-wire girdling the border of the Soviet Union, receives a bad review in Pravda,...