5 Weeks of Christmas Giveaway #2
The festive spirit continues … To go into the draw to win these four great titles, just email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with CHRISTMAS #2 in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the email by 6pm Tuesday 22 November 2016. As we...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on being reviewed
The worst review I ever got was back in my academic days. My MA thesis, Aborigines and Europeans in Western Victoria from First Contact to 1860, a typically cumbersome title, was published in 1967 by the Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra as an occasional...
Crime Scene: B MICHAEL RADBURN The Falls. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Emotion, reaction, damage and recovery are at the core of B Michael Radburn’s dark thrillers. In 2011 The Crossing arrived in the Australian crime fiction landscape, combining aspects of the supernatural with the story of Taylor Bridges as he dealt with the extremes...
Crime Scene: HERMAN KOCH Dear Mr M. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Metafiction is pushed to the limit in Dear Mr M, a sardonic and self-conscious thriller. This is a multilayered story told with conviction through multiple viewpoints: the jaded downstairs neighbour of ageing bestselling author Mr M, the writer himself and the...
5 Weeks of Christmas Giveaway #1
Christmas? Already? Yes, it’s time to get festive with the first of our five NRB Christmas giveaway bundles. To go in the draw, email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with CHRISTMAS #1 in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the email by...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on reviewing
I must have written hundreds of book reviews. I cut my teeth at the business when I was an academic, reviewing books in the fields of my own research – race relations in Australia and the Pacific. I was lucky; these were popular areas of research and published writing...
JOHN LE CARRÉ The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my life. Reviewed by Peter Corris
The distinctive flavour of le Carré’s writing is unmistakeable from the first page of The Pigeon Tunnel. This review is of the audio version of the book. That format has given me an extra insight into the abilities of David Cornwell, aka John le Carré. In his...
ANGELA SLATTER Vigil. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
Vigil makes a very rich pudding. Neil Gaiman and Ben Aaronovitch have both blended crime and fantasy in a very seductive fashion and Angela Slatter has done the same with this tale of the crimes that result from a clash of the Weyrd and the Normal, set in...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on The Grapes of Wrath
I’ve written before about how audio books have enabled me to enjoy works I found too ponderous when I tried in recent years to re-read them – books by Hardy, Trollope, Galsworthy and others. So far, two authors regarded as classic have defeated me – Melville and...
JOSHUA HAMMER The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And their race to save the world’s most precious manuscripts. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
This book reveals not only Africa’s significant literary heritage but also the courage of the librarians who endangered themselves to preserve it. This is the story of Abdel Kader Haidara, one of the librarians of Timbuktu, and how he smuggled 350 000 ancient...
Crime Scene: TANIA CHANDLER Dead in the Water. Reviewed by Robin Elizabeth
Crime fiction is blended beautifully with elements of commercial women’s fiction in Dead in the Water. Tania Chandler brings back the femme-fatalesque Brigitte in the sequel to her Davitt and Ned Kelly Awards shortlisted debut novel, Please Don’t Leave Me Here, but...
Recent Posts
MARIANA ENRIQUEZ Somebody is Walking on Your Grave. Reviewed by Ann Skea11 November 2025No casual tombstone tourist, Mariana Enriquez details her fascination with [ … ]
DAVID PRICE The Shameful Isles. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck6 November 2025David Price’s history of Western Australia’s lock hospitals and the [ … ]
BRIAN STODDART Playing the Game: How cricket made Barbados. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress4 November 2025Brian Stoddart’s multi-faceted account of a small island’s cricket history is a [ … ]
ANDREW PIPPOS The Transformations. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey30 October 2025The second novel from Andrew Pippos draws inspiration from the epics of ancient [ … ]