SULARI GENTILL The Woman In The Library. Reviewed by Emma Foster
Best-known for her Rowland Sinclair detective stories, in this new novel Sulari Gentill puts merriment into a murder mystery. From the moment the action kicks off in The Woman in the Library with a scream piercing the rarefied air of the Boston Public Library, there...
SCOTT PEARCE The Rider on the Bridge. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Scott Pearce’s dreamlike second novel explores life on the edge of society. From the opening moments of The Rider on the Bridge it is clear that we are dealing with a protagonist whose path through life has been somewhat unusual. Kitten, as he later comes to be...
EDWINA PRESTON Bad Art Mother. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
Edwina Preston’s second novel conjures a rich portrait of the artist as a young woman. The protagonist of Bad Art Mother, Veda Gray, finds herself unable to reconcile her duty to motherhood with her duty to her inner life of the mind. Much is bound up in the title....
ASHLEY GOLDBERG Abomination. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Ashley Goldberg’s debut novel explores the impact of a scandal in the ultra-Orthodox community. While much global attention has focussed on the failings of the Catholic Church in relation to child sexual abuse, one Australian case has shone a dark light on...
JANE CARO The Mother. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Jane Caro’s new novel deals frankly with coercive control. Though I knew the gist of the issues raised by The Mother before I began – I’d read the devastating stories of victims of domestic violence, watched the news, and thought I understood the issues – this...
NIGEL FEATHERSTONE My Heart is a Little Wild Thing. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Nigel Featherstone’s second novel is a story of masculinity and modern Australia. Throwing a clock at his mother in frustration is, for Patrick in Nigel Featherstone’s latest novel, a realisation and a release. Conscious that if his mother hadn’t moved...
DIANA REID Love & Virtue. Reviewed by Emma Foster
Diana Reid’s debut novel poses some philosophical dilemmas. University campus culture was fresh for Diana Reid when she began writing Love & Virtue. She had recently graduated from The University of Sydney in early 2020 when Covid kyboshed her plans to tour...
MILES ALLINSON In Moonland. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The second novel from the author of Fever of Animals begins with a family mystery and explores the appeal – and consequences – of joining a cult. ‘Parents are only there to be memories for their children …’ Joe, who narrates the first part of this book, certainly...
WENDY JAMES A Little Bird. Reviewed by Kim Kelly
The ninth novel from Wendy James is a classic page-turning mystery that is both psychologically complex and authentically Australian. Best known as the ‘queen of domestic noir’, James brings a keen understanding of social and political history to her richly layered...
NICK EARLS Wisdom Tree: Five Novellas. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
This month’s Flashback Friday explores Nick Earl’s entwined Wisdom Tree novellas from 2016: Gotham, Venice, Vancouver, Juneau, and NoHo. The Tolstoy quotation about unhappy families could easily have been the epigraph to every one of the five novellas that...
MICHELLE DE KRETSER Scary Monsters. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser offers unsettling possibilities and questions to ponder in her latest fiction. Scary Monsters is really two novels in one book. The publishers decided to print each novel so that it starts from the opposite end of the book....
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