by NRB | 25 Feb 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
The author of the Sevenwaters series returns to the magic of ancient Ireland and the mysterious Otherworld in her latest novel. The Harp of Kings is the first in the new Warrior Bards series from Juliet Marillier. It is loosely connected to her Blackthorn and...
by NRB | 20 Feb 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
The world has literally stopped turning in Andrew Hunter Murray’s dystopian thriller. Andrew Hunter Murray’s debut novel The Last Day is one of an interesting new strain of post-apocalyptic dystopian thrillers. Unlike standard cli-fi apocalypses that project...
by NRB | 13 Feb 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
An outback mining town is the setting for the apocalypse in Lili Wilkinson’s novel. In a parallel universe, a version of me gets to have a normal life, where ‘being prepared’ means bringing a cardigan… Pru’s father is a doomsday prepper. She and her twin sisters...
by NRB | 11 Feb 2020 | Fiction |
Jeanine Cummins’s novel about the journey of a Mexican mother and son fleeing to the US has sparked a storm of controversy. American Dirt opens with a scene that is as shocking as it is gripping. Eight-year-old Luca is going to the toilet when a bullet fired...
by NRB | 6 Feb 2020 | Fiction |
The bestselling author of Room returns with a novel about a reluctant guardianship. With an impressive string of awards and shortlistings behind her, including the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction for her historical novel Slammerkin (2000), Emma Donoghue is...
by NRB | 28 Jan 2020 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
A Murder at Malabar Hill is the first instalment of Sujata Massey’s crime series set in 1920s Bombay featuring lawyer Perveen Mistry. Bombay, February 1921. Perveen Mistry is about to enter Mistry House, where she works as a solicitor in her father’s law firm....
by NRB | 21 Jan 2020 | Fiction |
Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel reveals the impact of history on contemporary Indigenous lives, and richly deserves its Miles Franklin Award. In telling the truth about the reality of many Aboriginal families’ lives, Melissa Lucashenko has created a...
by NRB | 16 Jan 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
Marc-Uwe Kling’s satirical dystopia QualityLand is set in a world uncomfortably close to our own, where algorithms rule. Welcome to QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling (translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle), the newest book in the over-the-top,...
by NRB | 14 Jan 2020 | Fiction |
Step inside: the new novel from author of Bel Canto unravels a family mystery spun around a grand house. The Dutch House, as it came to be known in Elkins Park and Jenkintown and Glenside and all the way to Philadelphia, referred not to the house’s architecture but to...
by NRB | 19 Dec 2019 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The author of the bestseller Call Me Evie returns with a chilling story inspired by the real-life cult The Family. In a small town in rural Victoria, amid oppressive heat and the threat of bushfire, Freya lives the life of a single mother, raising...
by NRB | 17 Dec 2019 | Fiction |
Madhuri Vijay’s first novel, set in Bangalore and Kashmir, reveals how middle-class good intentions can go awry. I am thirty years old and that is nothing. I know what this sounds like, and I hesitate to begin with something so obvious, but let me say it anyway,...
by NRB | 24 Oct 2019 | Fiction |
The new series from the author of the bestselling His Dark Materials continues in The Secret Commonwealth. For young adults, breaking up with a lover who seems to know your inner thoughts is a heart-wrenching experience. How painful then to break up with your actual...
NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 202419 December 2024Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? [ … ]
RONNI SALT Gunnawah. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm17 December 2024Ronni Salt’s debut is historical crime fiction at its best, with a strong [ … ]
TIMOTHY SNYDER On Freedom. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck12 December 2024Historian Timothy Snyder asserts that freedom is something we must work for – [ … ]
SUE PRIDEAUX Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin. Reviewed by Ann Skea11 December 2024Sue Prideaux separates the man from the myth in this new account of the [ … ]