STUART EVERLY-WILSON The Maskeys. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
Set in a small Australian town dominated by a family of drug dealers, Stuart Everly-Wilson’s new novel is full of memorable characters. Possibly you’ve always been intrigued by the kind of people who feature prominently in Stuart Everly-Wilson’s The Maskeys, but never...
ERIN HORTLE A Catalogue of Love. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
Neika – scientist, surfer, and irresistible protagonist of A Catalogue of Love – attempts to classify emotions in Erin Hortle’s new novel. Neika is a scientist, an ornithologist studying the migration of the shearwater population of her beloved Bruny Island, where she...
GARRY DISHER Mischance Creek. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Senior Constable Paul Hirschhausen and his small community are once again put to the test in the fifth of this outstanding rural noir series. Paul Hirsch is out and about on his huge, drought-ridden South Australian beat doing firearms audits. Checking that guns are...
HEATHER ROSE A Great Act of Love. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The bestselling author of The Museum of Modern Love turns to historical fiction in her new novel set in convict-era Van Dieman’s Land. Do not be fooled by the cover of this book. In spite of the pretty young woman gazing at you through a tangle of ribbons and the...
LAURA ELVERY Nightingale. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Award-winning short story writer Laura Elvery’s first novel delivers a vivid portrait of Florence Nightingale and the horrors of war. Bodies fall apart. Things come to an end. Everyone wants to make me comfortable, I know that. How many times have I murmured...
RHETT DAVIS Arborescence. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The new novel from the award-winning author of Hovering asks big questions about the environment, AI, and what it means to be human. Rhett Davis burst onto the Australian literary scene in 2020 with the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award for his book...
BEN PEEK The Red Labyrinth. Reviewed by Lucy Sussex
Slim but richly imaginative, Ben Peek’s new novella combines dystopia and dark fantasy to hold a mirror to current times. In 1958, Patrick White decried Australian literature’s tendency to be the ‘dreary dun-coloured offspring of journalistic...
SIMON JAMES COPLAND The Male Complaint: The manosphere and misogyny online. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Why are lonely men drawn to online misogyny? Australian sociologist Simon James Copland explores this disturbing phenomenon. This book seeks to understand lonely and alienated men and their use of social media, as well as their impact on broader society, especially...
PATRICK LENTON In Spite of You. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Patrick Lenton is known for his sharply observed non-fiction; now his first novel delivers a fresh and funny romcom. I have been following Patrick Lenton on social media for many years and I enjoy Nonsense, his Substack featuring queer news and culture. As a...
HILDE HINTON The Opposite of Lonely. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
The new novel from the author of The Loudness of Unsaid Things has a lot to say about friendship and the border between eccentricity and red flags. Rose has been struggling for a long time. It’s been hard for her to navigate becoming a single mum and more...
JENNIFER MILLS Salvage. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The new novel from the author of Dyschronia and The Airways is climate fiction focussed on human adaptability. There is plenty going on in Australia at the moment that reflects the impacts of climate change. Massive bushfires, years-long droughts, tropical cyclones...
Recent Posts
- LYN DICKENS Salt Upon the Water. Reviewed by Ann Skea11 December 2025Lyn Dickens’s award-winning debut novel of an independent woman in colonial [ … ]
STUART EVERLY-WILSON The Maskeys. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey10 December 2025Set in a small Australian town dominated by a family of drug dealers, Stuart [ … ]
ALIX E HARROW The Everlasting. Reviewed by Robert Goodman9 December 2025Alix E Harrow’s time-travelling new novel asks questions about our most [ … ]
LUKE KEMP Goliath’s Curse: The history and future of societal collapse. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck4 December 2025Human history has seen many civilisations rise and fall. Luke Kemp contemplates [ … ]