Book news, reviews and recommendations
It’s seems an age since I reviewed Hannah Kent’s debut, Burial Rites. For a long time, it was one of my most visited posts and I’ve never been able to work out why. Despite enjoying it, I didn’t get around to The Good People but enthusiastically accepted when I was offered Devotion. Both her previous …
Devotion by Hannah Kent: ‘My life was only ever a hand’s breadth’ Read More »
Billed as a novel, Michelle de Kretser’s Scary Monsters is split in two rather like Carol Shields’ story of a marriage from both sides, Happenstance. One part is set in early ‘80s France, the other in a near-future Australia. I could have tossed a coin to decide which half to read first or made a …
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser: A tale of two parts Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. The pleasures of reading fiction are many and varied but broadly speaking they tend to fall into two …
Blasts from the Past: Eucalyptus by Murray Bail (1998) Read More »
I spotted Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the Centre of the Earth on Netgalley, reminding me of how much I enjoyed his novel, Nothing to See Here. It’s a new edition of his first short story collection comprising eleven pieces. Knowing that many of them were written when Wilson was a student, my expectations weren’t particularly …
Tunneling to the Centre of the Earth by Kevin Wilson: ‘I don’t think I belong here’ Read More »
It’s that old art theme again. Given the popularity of my Five Books I’ve Read… on the subject, it’s clear I’m not the only reader who favours it. Australian author Alison Booth’s The Painting has the additional lure of being partly set in Budapest which I loved when we visited it back in 2017. Set …
The Painting by Alison Booth: The best kind of restitution Read More »
It was its setting and structure that attracted me to Claire Thomas’ The Performance, although that brightly coloured jacket played some part. A clever design which fits the novel well. As its title suggests, the backdrop for Thomas’ novel is a Melbourne theatre where three women are watching a performance of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days …
The Performance by Claire Thomas: A night at the theatre Read More »
Towards the end of 2018 I was sent a review copy of a book that I wasn’t at all sure about. It looked a little too wacky for my taste but the publisher was a favourite of mine so I decided to give it a go. Not only did Robbie Arnott’s Flames end up on …
The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott: Dystopia, hope and redemption Read More »
Australian writer Favel Parrett’s beautifully expressed When the Night Come made quite an impression on me when it was published in the UK back in 2014. It was its Antarctica setting that first attracted me but it was Parrett’s gorgeous writing that left me wanting more. It’s clear from its dedication that There Was Still …
There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett: A poignant tribute Read More »
I’m sure this isn’t the first reread I’ve reviewed here but aside from Amy Bloom’s Rowing to Eden, which turned out to be made up of several collections of short stories, nothing comes to mind. Australian writer Helen Garner’s The Spare Room was published in 2008 and has recently been reissued. I remember reading it …
The Spare Room by Helen Garner: Stretched to the limits Read More »
I was a little wary of Gail Jones’ new novel, having been somewhat disappointed by A Guide to Berlin a few years back. All the poetic elegance of Sorry and Sixty Lights was present and correct but it felt a bit strained to me. The Death of Noah Glass flows much more smoothly. When the …
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones: Love, death and art Read More »
I spotted An Isolated Incident on Twitter and liked the look of it but thought it might be too much of a crime novel for me. My appetite for crime fiction is more than sated by TV. Then it turned up in the post, sent by Eye Books the tiny publisher who’ve released it here …
An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire: A crime novel for those who don’t read crime Read More »