What dictates the choice of book we choose to read each year? I regularly start out with a plan, even a detailed list, and in January 2018 it was to read as many works in translation as I could, mainly to enjoy authors I had never read before, as well…
When Australian Prime Minister Adrian Fitzwilliams decides to throw a snap election he feels secure that another Liberal victory is a done deal. His Cabinet is functional if mediocre, the Greens are in receivership after losing a billion dollar defamation case, and the Labor opposition party has emerged from the…
When Paddy Hirsch started out researching America’s first financial crisis, the Panic of 1792, he intended to write a history book, but as he delved deeper into the colourful but brutal world of the fledgling New York Stock Exchange it quickly morphed into a high octane murder mystery that is his…
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. Agoraphobia has imprisoned child psychologist Anna Fox in her home in the more gentrified part of Harlem. Sustained by bulk-bought alcohol and a cornucopia of heavy-duty drugs she spends her time watching a cache of classic movies (think Hitchcock) and her…
We almost missed it. Heading for the car park we only just remembered seeing a small gallery, slightly tucked away from the vaulted ceilings of the main display area of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Should we go back? Thank goodness we did. Midawarr (Harvest) is a glorious exhibition showcasing the…
“The baby is dead.” It’s a confident author who opens with the end. Particularly an ending so shocking, so visceral, that it might repel the reader. But Lullaby by French-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani does the opposite. The description of the scene surrounding the baby’s death, is so devastatingly succinct, that…
Is a guy who does bad things to bad people a bad guy? Does it make any difference if he’s carrying an NYPD detective’s badge? Ben Sanders’ new book, The Stakes, pitches veteran NYPD detective, Miles Keller, under internal investigation after a dodgy shooting, against taciturn, behatted hitman Bobby Deen,…
So many books. So little time. As another year comes to a close it’s time for a some literary accounting. Discounting January, when my focus was entirely on uni text books, I read 69 books in 2017, including four non-fiction and one play. I did not count books that I…
Two writers. Two excellent, contrasting, collections of short fiction both, in their way, exposing the simple truths and glorious complexities of everyday of life.
First Helen Garner, one of Australia’s most under-stated yet wise and clear-sighted writers has consistently held up an unwavering mirror up to the country through more 13 books (including forensic studies of two highly publicised court cases), two plays and numerous magazine articles. Stories ( Text Publishing) a collection of fiction, some of which dates back more than 20 years, has been released to coincide with her 75th birthday. It showcases her meticulous, pared back, observations on the magical and the mundane. She has a glorious ear for the vernacular so mesmerising you can hear the conversations in your head as you read. Postcards from Surfers will resonate with anyone who has tried to bridge the gap between childhood holidays and the present. Stories is a partner to a volume of her non-fiction work.
There was no shortage of artistic inspiration for Louise Erdrich’s latest book Future Home of the Living God, a dystopian portrayal of an America where evolution has suddenly, and inexplicably, reversed itself. There’s the last scene in the movie Planet of the Apes, P.D.James’s The Children of Men, Lidia Yuknavitch’s…