KIRSTY JAGGER Roseghetto. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Kirsty Jagger’s debut novel is a confronting story about growing up in the worst of circumstances, and how violence and poverty can happen to anyone. Potential readers will need to take into account the author’s note at the front of this novel: This book is...
JANE CARO The Mother. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Jane Caro’s new novel deals frankly with coercive control. Though I knew the gist of the issues raised by The Mother before I began – I’d read the devastating stories of victims of domestic violence, watched the news, and thought I understood the issues – this...
AMANI HAYDAR The Mother Wound. Reviewed by Sanchana Venkatesh
Last month Amani Haydar’s powerful memoir won the non-fiction prize at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. When Amani Haydar was five months pregnant with her first child, she received the unimaginable news that her mother, Salwa Haydar, had been...
NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA On Violence. Reviewed by Justine Ettler
Natasha Stott Despoja makes a compelling case for more action to confront the attitudes at the heart of domestic violence. Don’t let this book’s diminutive size fool you: Despoja’s On Violence packs a powerful punch and carries a big message. It’s a manifesto of...
SL LIM Revenge: Murder in Three Parts. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Following her first novel Real Differences, SL Lim explores the weight of family obligations and betrayals in her second, Revenge. The three parts of this ‘Murder’ appear to be the Prologue ‘The Demon Brother’; 11 chapters culminating in one titled ‘Revenge’; and an...RICHARD BEASLEY Me and Rory Macbeath. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
No, it’s not OK to hit your wife: this coming of age story has a devastating heart. It’s summer, 1977, when 12-year-old Jake and his best friend Robbie meet Rory Macbeath, whose family have just moved from Glasgow to their suburban Adelaide street. Rory may not be...
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