ANDREA GOLDSMITH Invented Lives. Reviewed by Jeannette Delamoir
This new novel from the author of the award-winning The Memory Trap explores what happens when an imagined life meets reality. The preface of Andrea Goldsmith’s Invented Lives cites Romanian author Norman Manea’s The Fifth Impossibility. ‘We are all exiles,’ writes...
JACLYN MORIARTY Gravity is the Thing. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Where is the truth? Jaclyn Moriarty’s second novel for adults pairs a single mother and a mysterious guidebook to deliver a story that reflects the lived experience of the 21st century. ‘Oh!’ he said suddenly. ‘Oh, you’re thinking it’s a metaphor! No! No!’ His...
JULIE KEYS The Artist’s Portrait. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
Shortlisted for the the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers in 2017, this debut novel from Julie Keys explores the life of a woman artist in Sydney in the 1920s. The first couple of times I passed her house there was no one around. Not that I saw anyone much at that...
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...
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