by NRB | 3 Oct 2024 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
These two new crime thrillers from Australian writers Anna Downes and Lisa Kenway bring fresh takes to the genre. Writers groups are an increasingly popular way for new and established novelists to workshop and complete their manuscripts. It’s always been difficult...
by NRB | 1 Oct 2024 | Fiction |
Memories are not merely recounted in Antonia Pont’s novella. How would you like to share someone else’s memories? No, not to just listen to them or read them, but to experience them, to be where they were, do what they were doing, hear what they heard (voices, birds,...
by NRB | 17 Sep 2024 | Fiction |
Comedian Steph Tisdell’s first novel tackles serious issues in this story of growing up in a First Nations family. Set in Brisbane, The Skin I’m In opens with Layla, the youngest daughter of a First Nations mother and a white father, getting ready for her last year of...
by NRB | 10 Sep 2024 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
In Claire Sutherland’s debut crime novel, a body is found on an isolated track on the Wimmera Plains, where Mount Arapiles towers over all. Anybody who has ever spent any time in the Wimmera around Gariwerd (the Grampians) in Victoria will know how striking the...
by NRB | 22 Aug 2024 | Fiction |
The lyrical second novel from the author of The Burial criss-crosses through time following one girl’s parallel lives. Bird is the pensive, defiant 14-year-old protagonist of Courtney Collins’ new novel. In the opening chapter, she’s living with her family in a...
by NRB | 13 Aug 2024 | Non-fiction |
Ariane Beeston’s memoir chronicles her experience of postpartum psychosis, a devastating but little-understood condition. Because I’m Not Myself, You See casts a spotlight on an issue I knew nothing about. Postpartum psychosis is the most severe form of postpartum...
by NRB | 30 Jul 2024 | Fiction |
Winner of the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award, photographer Kirsty Iltners’ first novel explores both darkness and light. If you want to freeze something fast, you increase the shutter speed – but it makes the image darker. Tom’s memories of his first encounter with Adeline...
by NRB | 16 Jul 2024 | Fiction |
The second novel from the author of A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing unpeels secrets in the life of a young Taiwanese translator. Fay’s widowed Taiwanese mother brought her to Australia when she was still a baby. Now, Fay is a well-qualified translator, teaching at...
by NRB | 27 Jun 2024 | Extracts, Fiction |
Deborah Callaghan’s sharply observed debut explores what can happen when a woman feels invisible – and starts pushing the boundaries. Audrey, the 38-year-old protagonist of The Little Clothes, is a smart lawyer who lives alone with her pet rabbit, Joni. As the...
by NRB | 11 Jun 2024 | Fiction |
Set in an old house in the Tasmanian countryside, nothing is quite as expected in this second novel from Vogel-winner Kate Kruimink. The first thing to say about Heartsease is that – despite its title – it is not a comforting read. This is a story about loss...
by NRB | 4 Jun 2024 | Fiction |
The protagonist of Natalie Bayley’s novel embarks on an unusual and increasingly dangerous quest to honour the brother she lost in childhood. They are hanging me tomorrow … Each second is an eternity. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat. I lie wretched on the bed while...
by NRB | 4 Apr 2024 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Donna M Cameron’s second novel is both a fast-paced tale of a whistleblower on the run, and a paean to the beauty of the natural world. The instant he ruins his life a vision of his mother explodes in his head. He can’t see her face, yet he knows she is smiling....
TIM WINTON Juice. Reviewed by Robert Goodman24 October 2024Tim Winton’s new novel dives into a post-climate-change world where violence [ … ]
EMILY TSOKOS PURTILL Matia. Reviewed by Ann Skea22 October 2024Emily Tsokos Purtill’s debut novel ranges across continents to tell the stories [ … ]
STEVEN HAMILTON and RICHARD HOLDEN Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck17 October 2024Australia’s Covid response may have had problems, but Steven Hamilton and [ … ]
ELIZABETH STROUT Tell Me Everything. Reviewed by Michael Jongen15 October 2024Pulitzer-winner Elizabeth Strout explores themes of isolation and connection in [ … ]