HARRIET CONSTABLE The Instrumentalist. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Harriet Constable’s debut novel takes inspiration from a real-life Venetian prodigy who was both a student of and rival to Vivaldi. Anna Maria della Pietà is destined for greatness. At eight, she knows it as surely as string knows bow, as lightning knows storm, as...
NATALIE BAYLEY Bone Rites. Reviewed by Sandra Nichols
The protagonist of Natalie Bayley’s novel embarks on an unusual and increasingly dangerous quest to honour the brother she lost in childhood. They are hanging me tomorrow … Each second is an eternity. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat. I lie wretched on the bed while...
LAUREN CHATER The Beauties. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Set in 17th-century London, Lauren Chater’s new novel brings together a royal artist, a young woman’s quest and the real-life Anne Hyde. What do you do if the king invites you to share his bed but you find the idea repulsive? A wave of nausea ripples through her...
LEIGH BARDUGO The Familiar. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The bestselling creator of the Grishaverse turns to the history of 16th-century Spain for this story of a young woman with magical powers. If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story. So it would. Luzia would not have used her magical skills, Doña...
KEVIN JARED HOSEIN Hungry Ghosts. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Kevin Jared Hosein’s debut novel is both a mystery story and a window into the lives of Caribbean indentured labourers and their families. The place is Trinidad, ‘sometime in the 1940s’. Four boys ventured to the river bank to perform a blood oath. Two brothers...
ROBYN BISHOP The Rust Red Land. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Through the story of Matilda, Robyn Bishop’s novel reveals the constrained lives of women in rural New South Wales in the late 1800s. It is July 1892 and Matilda is just old enough to help Clara out of her cot, change her nappy and dress her, but not old enough to...
TRACY RYAN The Queen’s Apprenticeship. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Tracy Ryan’s latest novel evokes the social divisions of sixteenth-century France and the stories of two independent-minded women. In The Queen’s Apprenticeship, Tracy Ryan tells the stories of two women. One, Jehane/Josse, the daughter of a journeyman printer who...
ROBYN CADWALLADER The Fire and the Rose. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Robyn Cadwallader’s third novel is set against the anti-Semitism of the thirteenth century and England’s expulsion of the Jews. ‘What you doing there, girl? Why stand and shiver when the sun shines? You must’ve heard the story of Little Hugh before. They recite it...
JENNIFER MACKENZIE DUNBAR Missing Pieces. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar’s new novel is inspired by the real-life discovery of a hoard of priceless chess pieces on a remote Scottish island. Directly in front of her, the queen held her hand against her cheek, as if aghast. ‘What have you seen?’ Marianne whispered,...
LAVIE TIDHAR Adama. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Lavie Tidhar’s new novel spans generations and embodies the ideals, contradictions and brutality within the establishment of the State of Israel. Lavie Tidhar is both incredibly prolific and remarkably eclectic. In the last couple of years alone he has released a...
LEAH KAMINSKY Doll’s Eye. Reviewed by Kim Kelly
Part literary romance, part cultural odyssey, Doll’s Eye is a lively challenge to the tropes of contemporary Australian Holocaust fiction. Author, physician, Jew, lover of science, nature and language: these bright strands of Leah Kaminsky’s real-life identity...
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