GAIL BELL Being Shot: A place between worlds. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
The victim of a random unsolved shooting, in this memoir Gail Bell offers a sober contemplation of the ramifications of gun violence. As 17-year-old Gail Bell walked home from the train station at Toongabbie, New South Wales, on a dark night in April 1968, a vehicle...
JUDITH BRETT The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, the new biography of Australia’s second, fifth and seventh Prime Minister, is a magnificent sweep of a book that demanded to be written. Deakin has been the subject of previous biographies and author Judith Brett quickly establishes her points...
ELEANOR LIMPRECHT The Passengers. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
Eleanor Limprecht’s new novel explores themes of love, resilience, and courage – the courage to make critical life changes and to endure the loss of what must be left behind. In The Passengers, Limprecht cleverly mixes fictitious elements with real events and the...
ALEXIS WRIGHT Tracker. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
In Tracker (winner of the 2018 Stella Prize), hundreds of stories are told to build up the portrait of an immensely complex and gifted man. This is a big book about a big personality but it’s not a traditional biography. Most of it consists of transcribed...
BRI LEE Eggshell Skull: A memoir about standing up, speaking out and fighting back. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Writing with raw energy and cool intelligence, in Eggshell Skull Bri Lee reminds us of the prevalence of abuse and injustice in our communities. The first pre-trial hearing Bri Lee worked on as a judge’s associate in the Queensland District Court involved a...
KATE LEAVER The Friendship Cure. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
There’s an antidote to loneliness, one Kate Leaver believes in powerfully, as her debut book The Friendship Cure shows. There is serious competition for the title of most pressing health epidemic of our time, including workplace stress, mental illness...
TRACY SORENSEN The Lucky Galah. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
There’s much more to Tracy Sorensen’s impressive debut than just an original premise. In Port Badminton, a tiny coastal town in Western Australia that’s watched over by a towering satellite dish, Evan Johnson, a radar technician in horn-rimmed glasses, is about...
EVA HORNUNG The Last Garden. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey
Eva Hornung shows us that the story of the Garden of Eden can have a different ending. The Last Garden is set in an unnamed New World, most likely South Australia, where many Germans settled in the 19th century seeking relief from religious persecution. The...
JM GREEN Too Easy. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Too Easy continues an absolutely terrific series that falls on the noirish side of comic farce. In 2015 JM Green’s debut novel Good Money launched social worker – and accidental detective – Stella Hardy onto the mean streets of Melbourne’s inner suburbs. It was...
PIP SMITH Half Wild. Reviewed by Robin Elizabeth
Half Wild is heart-warming, confusing and deeply unsettling all at the same time. This debut novel by Pip Smith is based on the life of the person variously known as Eugenia Falleni, Harry Crawford and Jean Ford. It is a work of impressive scope, covering three...
KAZ COOKE Ada: Comedian, dancer, fighter. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
Kaz Cooke’s Ada is like a heartbreaking firecracker, full of fun and history and emotion. The world of the theatre provokes a constant fascination. The razzle-dazzle of performance, whether dramatic or flash, is for the audience an exciting experience. But we...
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