BETH SPENCER The Age of Fibs: extract
Award-winning author Beth Spencer ranges across popular culture, the environment, and the body in her new collection. Forthright, feminist, full of wry wit and insight whether dissecting relations between men and women or contemplating the fragility of nature, The Age...
MYF WARHURST Time of My Life. Reviewed by Virginia Muzik
Myf Warhurst’s memoir of life, music, and the media is like reminiscing with an old friend. Many of us can recall a song we heard in childhood that blew open our world the first time we came across it. For a young Myf Warhurst, that song was ‘Howzat’ by 1970s...
ISOBEL BEECH Sunbathing. Reviewed by Robyne Young
Isobel Beech’s debut novel explores the grief left behind by a father’s suicide. From the opening scene when the unnamed daughter in Sunbathing crawls into the attic to retrieve her father’s dying cat, Donna, Isobel Beech creates an intimacy with the reader, bringing...
KIRSTY MANNING The Paris Mystery. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The glamour of prewar Paris is the backdrop to a murder in this new novel from the author of The Lost Jewels. Drums rolled. The orchestra struck opening chords as the elegant hostess, Lady Eleanor Ashworth, stepped into the spotlight dressed in a black tulle Chanel...
JULIET MARILLIER A Dance with Fate and A Song of Flight. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Juliet Marillier’s Warrior Bards series is a joy to read and has a lot to say about tolerance. I remember the times when Brocc and I played and sang for weddings and festivals. That feels so long ago. Before Swan Island. Before I met Dau … A different world. But...
VICTORIA HANNAN Marshmallow. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Victoria Hannan’s second novel is a study of friendships under pressure. After the success of her debut, Kokomo, in 2020, Victoria Hannan’s second novel is another study of friendship. Its five characters have been friends since university. They are now in their...
VIKKI PETRAITIS The Unbelieved. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
After more than 25 years of writing true crime, Vikki Petraitis turns her hand to fiction. Australian true crime author Vikki Petraitis won the inaugural Allen and Unwin crime fiction prize for The Unbelieved, her first fictional outing. And while this is fiction, it...
NATHAN HOBBY The Red Witch: A biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
Nathan Hobby explores the life of one of Australia’s most controversial writers. Katharine Susannah Prichard’s novel Coonardoo is her best-known and most accomplished work. Published in 1929, and serialised in the Bulletin, it’s a tragedy about sexual longing...
TONI JORDAN Dinner with the Schnabels. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
Toni Jordan’s sixth novel navigates post-lockdown Melbourne with a memorable family. Before the pandemic, Simon Larsen was a successful architect. He had everything a successful person would have – an expensive watch, a luxury car. He, his wife Tansy, and their...
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...
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....
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