by NRB | 23 Feb 2023 | Fiction |
Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern continues her adventures among Yale’s elite societies, picking up where Ninth House left off. ‘… This is what your magic is for, isn’t it? This is what it does. Props up the people in power, lets the people with everything take a...
by NRB | 8 Jun 2021 | Fiction |
Laura Bloom’s third novel for adults explores the social upheavals of 1970s Australia through the experiences of three women. For a certain kind of person, there’s only one thing less welcome than a bill – and it’s an invitation. So opens The Women and the...
by NRB | 27 May 2021 | Fiction |
Set during a bushfire, Claire Thomas’s second novel juxtaposes the performance of a play with the inner lives of its audience. We turn to art for strange reasons. We see it as a ticket to help us escape from reality and somehow also as a way to make us more...
by NRB | 6 May 2021 | Fiction |
The sixth novel from the author of An Isolated Incident and Fishing for Tigers explores hoarding, shame and class. Narrated from the points of view of three people from the same extended family, Love Objects is a study of hoarding, violations of private spaces,...
by NRB | 29 Apr 2021 | Fiction |
Robert Horne’s novel reveals uncomfortable truths about the violence of colonial Australia. In September 1848, between nine and eleven Aboriginal people were murdered at Avenue Range Station in South Australia. However, Aboriginal Australians’ testimonies were...
by NRB | 27 Apr 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Aurealis award-winner Maria Lewis has created an imaginative world that is both compelling and addictive. ‘All the best characters have scars…not just the villains.’ Set in a fantasy universe shared with her other novels, but still satisfying as a standalone read, The...
by NRB | 25 Mar 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel is as much about what it is to be human as it is about artificial intelligence. Klara and the Sun is Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel since he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. He touches on AI towards the end of his Nobel...
by NRB | 25 Feb 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy series encompasses battles both mental and physical. A thousand quotes from noted scholars leapt to her mind. Accounts of what it was like to be in war. She’d read hundreds; some so detailed, she’d been able to smell the blood in...
by NRB | 15 Dec 2020 | Fiction |
Thomas McMullan’s debut novel explores truth, justice and punishment – and who gets to decide them. The air is rich enough to turn stones to men and men to stone. Careful not to step on anything that will make a noise, Peck edges towards the sound of heavy...
by NRB | 1 Dec 2020 | Fiction |
Tessa Hadley’s latest novel is one to savour as she examines four London lives with subtlety and elegant prose. In the London of Tess Hadley’s novel, everything inside her protagonists’ houses is cool, well placed and well maintained. It is the world outside...
by NRB | 19 Nov 2020 | Fiction |
Andrew O’Hagan’s new novel evokes Scotland in the 1980s, the music, the politics, and the bonds of male friendship. If Mayflies was a record it would be a double A-side seven-inch single with a literary sleeve. It is a remarkable novel of two equal...
by NRB | 5 Nov 2020 | Fiction |
Set among Harvard alumni, Ceridwen Dovey’s new novel explores power relations and hidden lives. Life After Truth is Ceridwen Dovey’s fourth work of fiction, following on the heels of her critically acclaimed 2018 novel In The Garden of the Fugitives. The story...
CHER The Memoir Part 1. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell16 January 2025Cher is a genuine superstar who has had an extraordinary career across music, [ … ]
PETER GODWIN Exit Wounds. Reviewed by Ann Skea15 January 2025Peter Godwin’s memoir charts a life of exile, ranging from the horror of civil [ … ]
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? [ … ]