ANITA HEISS Tiddas. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
The personal is political in this joyful, and poignant, novel of five women friends on the cusp of turning 40. Tiddas is a delightful novel that covers 12 months in the lives of five friends as they struggle with life, love and lust and the consequences thereof. The...ELISABETH STORRS The Golden Dice: Tales of Ancient Rome Book 2. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The second book of Tales of Ancient Rome intertwines the stories of three women to again create a fascinating novel of love and war, richly steeped in history. There is an intriguing hiatus between the previous novel in this series, The Wedding Shroud, and The Golden...KIRSTEN KRAUTH just_a_girl. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
More than a coming-of-age story, this novel is a meditation on loneliness in the age of social media. I see him from the train as it pulls in at Newcastle. He’s not bad enough to make me run away. But he’s older than I thought. Old enough to be my …...Crime Scene: REBECCA JAMES Sweet Damage. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Things that go bump in the night add to the suspense in this cautionary tale of young adult friendships. Marketed as Young Adult, Sweet Damage is the second novel from Rebecca James delving into the nature of friendship and relationships in a way that works for older...KAREN FOXLEE The Midnight Dress. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
A lyrical gem from the award-winning author of The Anatomy of Wings This is a story of friendship set in a Queensland town, not far from Cairns, between two young women: Rose, 15 going on 16, whose father is an itinerant artist; and Pearl, an endearing, vibrant girl...DAWN BARKER Fractured. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
Dawn Barker’s novel is an insightful and devastating story of mental illness. Anna and Tony Patton seem to have it all: great careers, a loving marriage and their beautiful new baby son, Jack. But six weeks after Jack’s birth, he and Anna go missing and Tony is...MELISSA LUCASHENKO Mullumbimby. Reviewed by James Tierney
This sure, funny novel of an Indigenous woman and her land is alive with the tensions of new ways of belonging. Meaning is a messy act. Its fusing of memory, testimony and narrative is a selective one that shapes cadence and line out of life’s awkward arrhythmia....COURTNEY COLLINS The Burial. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
A book of dark humour and beautifully polished prose. Men have returned from the Great War to hard times and meagre living, many out on worthless, waterless selections with ‘a few skinny cows’. At the dawn of the Australian twentieth century, Jessie is on...
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