Reviewed by Ian Lipke Deng Thiak Adut is a remarkable man. His biography lays it all out before us as though, by committing it to paper, he will finds a means of coping with his elder brother’s death.  It is a complex story that unfolds at several levels. Deng was six years old when he

Reviewed by Ian Lipke When I picked up a copy of Old Scores and read the story of former detective Frank Swann I did not have to be told that the story was set in the early 1980s. I just had to keep reminding myself that this story belongs to Western Australia, not my home

Reviewed by Ian Lipke A really good collection of short stories is a rarity these days. It takes a whole host of skills to do the job properly – the selection of just the right word, the sentence that encapsulates exactly what the writer wanted to say, the discipline that never eases because parameters have

Reviewed by Eve McCormack Anna Gare’s personality shines through in this book – friendly, relaxed and with a fun sense of humour. She understands that the everyday cook has a lot of other things to juggle besides providing themselves and their families with nourishing, healthy, easy to prepare meals. Indeed, the cover sums up her

Reviewed by Ian Lipke This is a story about a group of distinctive individuals, men and women, who place themselves in danger in a nerve-racking convergence on a strip of land of no real importance in Yemen. We meet the leading character in this story before this adventure begins. He has become legendary as a

Reviewed by Donald Lawie Commemorations of the centenary of the First World War have so far, in Australia, concentrated on Gallipoli and Fromelles/Pozieres. The war against Turkey that continued after Gallipoli has been largely ignored. Phillip Bradley’s Australian Light Horse  will go a long way to correct that omission and turn the spotlight on the

Reviewed by Ian Lipke “Not another thriller!” you groan as you pick up the latest James Phelan novel. There is substance in such a reaction to ‘thrillers’ these days. Contemporary audiences are so wedded to the short and snappy episodes we watch on television that the thought of reading a full length book is the