LAUREN CHATER Gulliver’s Wife. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
In her first novel, The Lace Weaver, Lauren Chater took readers to Estonia; in her second she imagines the life of the woman left behind in London when Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver went off on his travels. There’s an old saying: behind every great man there’s...
HAFSAH FAIZAL We Hunt the Flame. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Hafsah Faizal draws on Arabic culture in her first novel, spinning a tale of an evil forest, a lost jewel, and a magical quest. Love is for children, said the girl. Death is for fools, said the shadow. Darkness is my destiny, said the boy. Allegiance is my...
ROMESH GUNESEKERA Suncatcher. Reviewed by Ann Skea
This new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Reef explores memories of a Sri Lankan childhood. Kairo is looking back at his younger self: at a summer in his home in Colombo in 1964, when school was closed and he was aimlessly riding his bike around a...
KIM KELLY Walking. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Kim Kelly’s newest novel is a story of love, ambition and prejudice in the medical world. When Kim Kelly stumbled across the true story of how a brilliant German–Australian orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Max Herz, had been interned as an enemy alien during World War I,...
ARAVIND ADIGA Amnesty. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Booker Prize-winning author Aravind Adiga takes on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers in his latest novel Amnesty. Set in Sydney, on a day sometime in the recent past, Amnesty concentrates on Dhananjaya Rajaratnam, aka Danny the Cleaner, as he grapples with his...
SOPHIE HARDCASTLE Below Deck. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Sophie Hardcastle’s second novel explores the lure of the sea, and the cost of violence. It starts below deck. Olivia (Oli) has been kidnapped. Well, not actually kidnapped but rescued late at night, in a drunken stupor, by Mac, an old man who now needs to...
JULIAN LEATHERDALE Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club. Reviewed by Kim Kelly
The author of Palace of Tears and The Opal Dragonfly returns with a new historical novel that encompasses murder and an exotic all-female club in 1930s Kings Cross. Julian Leatherdale’s third historical novel is a lavish escapade through Sydney’s Kings Cross...
EVIE WYLD The Bass Rock. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
Evie Wyld won the Miles Franklin Award for her last novel, All the Birds, Singing. Her latest, set on the coast of Scotland, contains both beauty and violence. The Bass Rock opens with a small girl, who we will shortly meet as the grown-up Viv, finding the body of a...
JULIET MARILLIER The Harp of Kings. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
ANDREW HUNTER MURRAY The Last Day. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
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...
LILI WILKINSON After the Lights Go Out. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
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