ROSE CARLYLE The Girl in the Mirror: extract
This week we’re delighted to bring you an extract from Rose Carlyle’s edge-of-the-seat thriller The Girl in the Mirror. Summer and Iris are identical twins, but Iris has always envied beautiful, easy-going Summer and her perfect husband, Adam. When the...
TARA JUNE WINCH The Yield. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
Tara June Winch’s multi-award-winning novel is told in three voices, one of which takes the form of a dictionary. Yield, bend the feet, tread, as in walking, also long, tall – baayanha. Yield itself is a funny word – yield in English is the reaping, the things that...
EMMA ASHMERE Dreams They Forgot: extract
This week we’re delighted to bring you the short story ‘Fallout’ from Emma Ashmere’s debut collection Dreams They Forgot. What haunting stories these are, with their ghosts, betrayals and secrets, ranging back and forth across time and continents. A...
STEVEN CONTE The Tolstoy Estate. Reviewed by Paul Anderson
You don’t need to have read War and Peace to enjoy Steven Conte’s second novel. Steven Conte returns to World War II as the mise en scène for his accomplished second novel, The Tolstoy Estate. His first, The Zookeeper’s War, won the 2008 Prime...
CAOILINN HUGHES The Wild Laughter. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Caoilinn Hughes’s second novel, The Wild Laughter, explores what happens in post-boom Ireland when a father makes a life-altering request of his sons. There is plenty of laughter in this book. Hart (Doharty) Black’s way of telling his story is unique, colourful...
SAM COLEY State Highway One: extract
We’re delighted to bring you an extract from Sam Coley’s debut novel State Highway One, winner of the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Told with intimacy and pace, it’s a story of reconnecting with home and confronting the wounds of the past. Alex hasn’t seen his...
JO LENNAN In the Time of Foxes. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
Predator or prey? Jo Lennan’s debut collection of stories lures the reader into a world where foxes can mean many things. In 2011, when the London Shard was under construction, workers were stunned to discover a fox had taken up residence on the...
JAY KRISTOFF Truel1f3: Lifel1k3 Book 3. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley.
Truel1f3 delivers a satisfying conclusion to Jay Kristoff’s dystopian Lifel1k3 series, a tale of love, sacrifice and betrayal. ‘You built a world on metal backs. Held together by metal hands. And one day soon, those hands will close. And they’ll become fists.’...
MICAIAH JOHNSON The Space Between Worlds. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Micaiah Johnson delivers a fresh take on multiple worlds and explores issues of power, nature and fate in her novel The Space Between Worlds. The idea of multiple worlds or multiple realities is a common one in science fiction. In her debut, The Space Between...
LUKE HORTON The Fogging. Reviewed by Amy Walters
Luke Horton’s tense debut novel asks uncomfortable questions about intimate relationships. In hindsight, the end of a relationship can take on an air of inevitability. But is it possible to pinpoint the exact moment when it irrevocably breaks down? Or is the end...
KIM KELLY Her Last Words. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Historical novelist Kim Kelly (author of Walking, Sunshine and Wild Chicory) turns to the 21st century in her new novel to deliver a tale of intrigue and literary ambition. What a strange year 2020 has been. The world has already had bushfires, floods, pandemics,...
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