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....
by NRB | 26 Mar 2024 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
In Sulari Gentill’s new novel, aspiring writer Theo and her brother Gus become embroiled in increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. The Mystery Writer is the latest book by the prolific and always intriguing Australian author Sulari Gentill. Set in the USA, as her...
by NRB | 20 Mar 2024 | Fiction |
Through the story of Matilda, Robyn Bishop’s novel reveals the constrained lives of women in rural New South Wales in the late 1800s. It is July 1892 and Matilda is just old enough to help Clara out of her cot, change her nappy and dress her, but not old enough to...
by NRB | 13 Mar 2024 | Fiction |
Tracy Ryan’s latest novel evokes the social divisions of sixteenth-century France and the stories of two independent-minded women. In The Queen’s Apprenticeship, Tracy Ryan tells the stories of two women. One, Jehane/Josse, the daughter of a journeyman printer who...
by NRB | 7 Mar 2024 | Fiction |
Susan McCreery’s novel recounts the lives of the residents of a block of flats in 1990s Bondi and the complexities of love. A few short sentences and a scene is set, a mood caught, a character revealed: all this is beautifully done. Then short passages are linked...
by NRB | 15 Feb 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
The conclusion to Jo Riccioni’s high fantasy series The Branded Season brings Nara and her sister Osha to the Shadow City of Reis. This exciting sequel to The Branded concludes a thought-provoking and fast-paced story about two sisters finding their place in a harsh,...
by NRB | 25 Jan 2024 | Fiction |
Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar’s new novel is inspired by the real-life discovery of a hoard of priceless chess pieces on a remote Scottish island. Directly in front of her, the queen held her hand against her cheek, as if aghast. ‘What have you seen?’ Marianne whispered,...
by NRB | 14 Nov 2023 | Fiction |
Jessica Dettmann’s third novel reinvents a classic tale of romantic complications to enjoyable effect. Jessica Dettmann’s Without Further Ado is based an old story – about 400 years old. It was 1600 or thereabouts when Shakespeare is thought to have written Much Ado...