LYN DICKENS Salt Upon the Water. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Lyn Dickens’s award-winning debut novel of an independent woman in colonial South Australia explores prejudice, power and identity. Salt Upon the Water is an historical fiction; also, according to the blurb on the back cover, ‘an epic love story’. Both are true, but...
STUART EVERLY-WILSON The Maskeys. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
Set in a small Australian town dominated by a family of drug dealers, Stuart Everly-Wilson’s new novel is full of memorable characters. Possibly you’ve always been intrigued by the kind of people who feature prominently in Stuart Everly-Wilson’s The Maskeys, but never...
ALIX E HARROW The Everlasting. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Alix E Harrow’s time-travelling new novel asks questions about our most cherished national myths and what might happen if they were to change. Alix Harrow’s latest fantasy is a story about the power of stories. And while there have been plenty of these, this is a...
THOMAS SCHLESSER Mona’s Eyes. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Art historian Thomas Schlesser brings 52 artworks to life in this fable-like story of a grandfather discussing art with his granddaughter. Mona is a ten-year-old French girl living in Paris with her parents, Camille and Paul, and near to Dadé, her beloved grandfather,...
CLAIRE NORTH Slow Gods. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Claire North’s new novel might be science fiction, but the problems her characters face have many resonances with those of our world. Since the time-looping The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North has explored many of the more popular corners of...
ERIN HORTLE A Catalogue of Love. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
Neika – scientist, surfer, and irresistible protagonist of A Catalogue of Love – attempts to classify emotions in Erin Hortle’s new novel. Neika is a scientist, an ornithologist studying the migration of the shearwater population of her beloved Bruny Island, where she...
KESHE CHOW For No Mortal Creature. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Australian Keshe Chow’s award-winning debut The Girl With No Reflection became an international bestseller. Her second does not disappoint. In her hidden magical village, Jia Liu hasn’t felt as though she belongs for a long time, ever since it became clear...
NICOLA BARKER TonyInterruptor. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Nicola Barker interrogates the nature of honesty, creativity and improvisation with sharp-eyed humour in her new novel. Nicola Barker is a prize-winning author. Several of her books have been long- or shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, but she is known for...
T KINGFISHER Hemlock and Silver. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Poison, mirror worlds, a life in danger and a seemingly impossible task – T Kingfisher’s latest fantasy has them all. And a talking cat. Healer Anja isn’t fully comfortable with being called a healer, as her main passion is studying poisons and their antidotes...
ANDREW PIPPOS The Transformations. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
The second novel from Andrew Pippos draws inspiration from the epics of ancient Greece as its characters navigate a fraught world. Early in the story, George Desoulis reveals that his family came to Australia from Ithaka, Greece, and that their surname, Desoulis, is a...
JOHN BANVILLE Venetian Vespers. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell
Set in Venice in 1899, John Banville’s new novel blends crime and the gothic as it skewers literary pretension. From 2006 to around 2020, Irish novelist John Banville began publishing crime fiction under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. The Man Booker Prize winner (and...
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