Since tribal days, and probably before, women have been the instigators of, and largely predominant in, several arts – usually demoted to ‘crafts’ in our patriarchal world. (How did men get the ‘martial arts’?) Primarily these womanly arts are...
This fictional rendition of a true crime by Sarah Schmidt is full of brilliant and off-kilter imagery that reinforces the unsettling mood of the novel. Reading Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel See What I Have Done is like pressing down on a blossoming...
The Crying Place is a big novel that juggles even bigger ideas. For the first time in his life, Saul, a drifter, has remained in the same place for nearly a year. He has a steady job, and he’s renting a tiny Sydney apartment, its door marked with...
While Peter Corris takes a break to heal a break, in lieu of Godfathers we are publishing random thoughts from the NRB editors. This week it’s Linda’s turn. I love a good biography. During my career I have been fortunate to publish two...
The Family is a chilling account of how a cult arose that would leave a legacy of damage in its wake. What is true? What is false? In the quest for enlightenment what does it take to convince regular – often well-educated – members of society to...
Very very sharp and very very funny: Fay Weldon is on form as she follows up her 1980s hit The Life and Loves of a She Devil. Nearly 60 years ago, in a Hobart pub called The Man at the Wheel, I had a conversation with the novelist Christopher Koch...
