SAMANTHA HARVEY Orbital. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
It may be set on the International Space Station, but Samantha Harvey’s fifth novel is grounded in the beauty and fragility of Earth. Samantha Harvey’s new novel Orbital is an extended love letter to the Earth. It charts the 16 orbits made by the International Space...
BEN SANDERS Exit .45. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
When Marshall Grade agrees to meet his former NYPD colleague Ray Vialoux, he does not expect Ray to end up dead on the floor of a New York restaurant. Exit .45 is the third Marshall Grade novel by New Zealand-based author Ben Sanders, following on from American Blood...
MICHAEL FITZGERALD Late. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Evoking Sydney in the 1980s, Michael Fitzgerald’s third novel plays with ideas of identity, celebrity, and mortality. I’m not always Zelda, and Zelda is not always me. The voice is not Zelda’s and yet it is, and this is a very strange book, which is not at all what...
VIDYA MADABUSHI The Days Toppled Over. Reviewed by Sanchana Venkatesh
Exploitative work and striving for a visa: Vidya Madabushi’s novel highlights the plight of international students in Australia. Thirty-six-year-old Malli lives in a home for the elderly in Bangalore. Young and fit, unlike the other residents, her only ailment is her...
BRYAN BROWN The Drowning. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Actor and Australian icon Bryan Brown brings his laconic style to his first full-length crime novel. The Drowning is set on the northern beaches of New South Wales in a small town that is mostly occupied by surfers, retirees, outsiders and backpackers. But with the...
JESSICA DETTMANN Without Further Ado. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Jessica Dettmann’s third novel reinvents a classic tale of romantic complications to enjoyable effect. Jessica Dettmann’s Without Further Ado is based an old story – about 400 years old. It was 1600 or thereabouts when Shakespeare is thought to have written Much Ado...
NADINE J COHEN Everyone and Everything. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Encompassing grief, trauma and recovery, Nadine J Cohen’s debut novel is also very funny, navigating its dark themes with wit and compassion. ‘Immersed in water as the sun announces its arrival, I feel weightless. I feel free. It’s how I imagine other people feel all...
ALICE HOFFMAN The Invisible Hour. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
Best known for her Practical Magic series, Alice Hoffman delivers a time-travelling homage to the power of books in The Invisible Hour. This novel charts the lives of a mother and daughter and their search for independence and control over their lives. Ivy Jacob grows...
SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN He Who Drowned the World. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Shelley Parker-Chan’s award-winning tale of an alternate ancient China continues in He Who Drowned the World. ‘… the most dangerous person in a game is the one nobody knows is playing.’ Dive back into the fascinatingly complex alternate ancient China of Shelley...
BRENDAN RITCHIE Eta Draconis. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Winner of the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award, Brendan Ritchie’s third novel is set in a dystopian Western Australia, the landscape pummelled by meteor showers. Elora closed her eyes and waited for the flashes of light to dissolve. It took longer these days. Hours...
TOM BARAGWANATH Paper Cage. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A finalist in the Ngaio Awards for Best First Crime Novel, Paper Cage is the story of a divided community and a string of missing children. There’s not much that happens in Masterton that Lo Henry doesn’t know about. One of two Pākehā sisters who married...
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