STEVEN HAMILTON and RICHARD HOLDEN Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Australia’s Covid response may have had problems, but Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden argue that our country fared far better than others. A mere four years ago our lives were turned upside down by the Covid pandemic. For the overwhelming majority of us, Covid now...
NOVA WEETMAN Love, Death and Other Scenes. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Nova Weetman’s memoir about the loss of her husband and its impact on her family is both intimate and surprisingly uplifting. Nova Weetman has written a beautiful book about death and being left behind. I was moved by the story of the passing of her partner,...
MAX EASTON Paradise Estate. Reviewed by Paul Anderson
The disparate residents of the sharehouse at the heart of Max Easton’s second novel reveal a microcosm of Australia’s housing crisis. New Year’s Eve 2022 bookends this social novel set in Sydney, in which good nature and resilience are demonstrated in the face of what...
MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM Day. Reviewed by CJ Pardey
In this new novel, New Yorker Michael Cunningham takes inspiration from lockdowns and their impact on relationships. In his most recent novel, Day, Michael Cunningham takes on the difficult business of fictionalising the Covid experience. In his Pulitzer-winning novel...
BRIOHNY DOYLE Why We Are Here. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Briohny Doyle’s third novel explores the impact of multiple losses in a single life, exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic. ‘What should survive and how? And how do you know when survival has transpired?’ This is the central question posed in Why We Are Here, the...
RONNIE SCOTT Shirley. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Ronnie Scott’s second novel explores themes of abandonment, attachment and the idea of home. Characterised from the beginning by a sense of uncertainty, Shirley is a novel where anything can happen, and probably will. Names are ambiguous, sexuality is fluid,...
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...
JODI PICOULT Wish You Were Here. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Jodi Picoult’s latest novel contrasts life in the Galapagos and New York during Covid-19. Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here is a story about the nature of reality. When Covid-19 first hit in the early months of 2020, few understood just how much of a swathe it...
LOUSE ERDRICH The Sentence. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The new novel from Pulitzer-winner Louise Erdrich is both a story for our times and a loving tribute to bookshops. Two years on and the pandemic is starting to colonise literature. Louise Erdrich’s latest book The Sentence feels like it started as one thing and was...
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