MICHELLE ARROW The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern Australia. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
The 1970s in Australia was more than flared jeans and satin pantsuits: in this overview Michelle Arrow charts the decade’s transformation of the social and political landscape. The seventies was a decade of upheavals in political, economic and industrial life....
MARY-ROSE MACCOLL The True Story of Maddie Bright. Reviewed by Kim Kelly
The True Story of Maddie Bright captures the challenges of the writing life with wit and romance. Intriguing from the opening scenes, which play out in the grim between-wars London of 1921 and a possum-ridden Brisbane house 60 years on, Mary-Rose MacColl’s sixth and...
JESSICA NORTH Esther. Reviewed by Ann Skea
This biography recounts how Esther went from being convicted in London’s Old Bailey and transported to Botany Bay with the First Fleet, to becoming First Lady of the colony. Do not be misled, as I was, by the cover of this book, which shows a young...
MELISSA FERGUSON The Shining Wall. Reviewed by Dasha Maiorova
In Melissa Ferguson’s imaginative and original debut, Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal clones inhabit a bleak and desperate dystopia. The Shining Wall questions the nature of humanity and compassion in a world bereft of both. The depiction of an unhappy future, societal...
KELLY RIMMER The Things We Cannot Say. Reviewed by Kim Kelly
Kelly Rimmer’s fifth novel ranges from family stresses in present-day Florida to uncovering secrets from the darkness of Poland during World War II. Australian author Kelly Rimmer is establishing herself as a master of gritty journeys of the heart, of families...
KATHERINE COLLETTE The Helpline. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Katherine Collette’s Germaine may not be ‘good with people’ but The Helpline charms and delights. The plot of The Helpline sounds a bit dull: late-thirties mathematician Germaine Johnson is made redundant from her role at an insurance company and,...
BARBARA SANTICH Wild Asparagus, Wild Strawberries: Two years in France. Reviewed by Jeannette Delamoir
A charming gastronomic memoir of two years in France from Barbara Santich, Wild Asparagus also creates a multi-dimensional portrait of a country on the cusp of political and social change. On New Year’s Day, 1977, Barbara Santich and her husband John jetted from...
ROSALIE HAM The Year of the Farmer. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
The author of The Dressmaker returns with The Year of the Farmer – a novel of romance and skullduggery in a small farming community. Part mystery, part romance, part social comedy and part slapstick, The Year of the Farmer brings together an engaging cast...
MOLLY MURN Heart of the Grass Tree. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Kangaroo Island is an enduring presence spanning multiple generations in Heart of the Grass Tree. Not too tight, not too loose. You have to keep adding in the rushes – not all at once, she said – like adding to a family. Keep it growing. When you finish you can’t see...
KRISTINA OLSSON Shell. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
The struggle over the building of the Opera House is part of Australia’s ongoing quest for a national identity and the country’s truncated sense of itself at this time resonates through Shell. Shell is set in Australia in the months before the sacking...
HEATHER MCNEICE Yak on Track: An unforgettable adventure in the last Himalayan kingdom. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Yak on Track shares McNeice’s 16-day trekking adventure in Bhutan, while offering a traveller’s insights into the country’s history and culture Nestled in the Himalayas between India and China, the Kingdom of Bhutan is a nation of forested mountain peaks...
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