by NRB | 31 Aug 2021 | Non-fiction |
David Lindenmayer’s homage to the beauty of the Victorian Central Highlands and Meg Lowman’s memoir of a career spent among the treetops both explore the importance of our forests. These two books are very different but the purpose of both is the same: to...
by NRB | 12 Aug 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Clare Moleta’s novel canvases big questions as a mother searches for her child in a hostile landscape. The opening scene of Clare Moleta’s debut novel describes two farmers standing in the rain. Their daughter runs towards them – she’s scared; she’s five years...
by NRB | 18 Jun 2020 | Fiction |
Ghost Species, James Bradley’s terrifyingly relevant seventh novel, is On the Beach for a globally warmed generation. Its proposed roadmap of where humankind’s false belief we’re in control will lead us is bleak but beautiful, its climate mayday embedded within a...
by NRB | 14 May 2019 | Non-fiction |
How did the politics of climate change become so intractable? Power Failure gives an account of the Rudd–Gillard years – a pertinent reminder as Australia goes to the polls in 2019. Again, something is in the air. It is the acrid tang of a looming election. With it...
by NRB | 4 Oct 2018 | Non-fiction |
From asylum seekers to politics, climate change and the personal challenges of dealing with cancer, Robert Manne’s essays are a rich canvas and urge us to interrogate prejudice and injustice wherever they threaten to take root. When Robert Manne, Emeritus...
by NRB | 9 Nov 2017 | Non-fiction |
Tim Flannery sends us an urgent but optimistic message in Sunlight and Seaweed. Out of the ashes of investigative newspaper journalism little books have arisen: non-fiction, novella-length essays on topical subjects. Tim Flannery isn’t a journalist, but he has been...
by NRB | 3 Mar 2015 | SFF |
James Bradley’s new novel reveals a frightening future that grows more possible day by day. A near-future novel that uses the devastating effects of climate change as its setting and yet isn’t a complete downer: that’s quite an achievement, particularly as it also...
by NRB | 29 Apr 2014 | Non-fiction |
This book details what may be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. There is nothing more terrifying than the irreversible. Whether it’s an old family photo lost in a move, the death of a loved one, or the trust...
by NRB | 3 Dec 2013 | Non-fiction |
In its pursuit of cool ideas, this diverse anthology – from essays to poetry to memoir – gives a fresh window into what’s happening in the world of science. This collection of essays, by scientists and non-scientists, is a joy for lay-people like me, those of us who...
by NRB | 19 Feb 2013 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
This dystopian Finnish crime novel is well above the ordinary. The Healer is set in Finland in the near future of drastic climate change. Floods, earthquakes and disease have ravaged most of the world, causing widespread cultural upheaval, the disintegration of...
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MARK SMITH Three Boys Gone. Reviewed by Michael Jongen14 January 2025Mark Smith’s first novel for adults is both a psychological thriller and an [ … ]
NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 202419 December 2024Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? [ … ]