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British Fantasy Awards 2021 Kathleen Jennings has won the Best Newcomer category in the 2021 British Fantasy Awards for her Australian gothic novel Flyaway (Picador). Jennings’ debut novel, chosen out of a shortlist of six, weaves magic and mystery into an Australian setting, following a young woman living in a dwindling town as she searches for her
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders A 1943 US short film entitled “Bismarck Sea Victory!” is an object lesson in not letting the facts interfere with a good story. Comparing it to Michael Veitch’s written version of the same battle is the perfect advertisement for why we still read books. The battle took place in March 1943
Reviewed by E.B. Heath The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term. Wilfrid Sellars. Philosopher Tim Dean tells us that we are paragons of civilized behaviour compared to our closest hominid relatives, the chimpanzee,
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze, by Clayton Zane Comber, is written for young adults, but even if readers are decades older, they will enjoy being immersed into the world of Xander Maze and his friends. Xander is clearly ‘on the spectrum’, his father died when he was a toddler so
Reviewed by Rod McLary Thomas Mann — the subject of this biographical novel by Colm Tóibín — is regarded as a major 20th-century German writer, perhaps one of the best known of the so-called “Exilliteratur” writers — Germans in exile who opposed the Hitler regime. Author of works such as Buddenbrooks (1901), Death in Venice
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This book deserves a place in all primary schools in Australia as it introduces concepts, not only important for Australia and the world today, but issues which will need to be addressed well into the future. It is presented as a sturdy, colourful, hard covered 27x27cm book using good quality paper
The longlist for the Voss Literary Prize 2021 has been announced. Robbie Arnott, The Rain Heron (Text Publishing) Trent Dalton, All Our Shimmering Skies (HarperCollins) * Kate Grenville, A Room Made of Leaves (Text Publishing) Erin Hortle, The Octopus and I (Allen & Unwin) * Julie Janson, Benevolence (Magabala Books) Gail Jones, Our Shadows (Text Publishing) Amanda Lohrey, The Labyrinth (Text Publishing) Vivian Pham, The Coconut Children (Penguin Books) Mirandi
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The arresting title of this book comes from a 1928 account of an Aboriginal job applicant who had ‘escaped’ from Annie Lock’s mission because there was ‘too much Jesus Christ and cabbage.’ This is an indication of how cautious one must be in examining Annie Lock’s work in the missions. Sources
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve When I see books like the Noni series, I cannot but wish such gems had been available when I was a child. Today there is a wealth of wonderful children’s books; offerings for all, from babies to young adults. It is the much-loved books by Alison Lester that justly belong to
Reviewed by Rod McLary The first two sentences of this new book – ‘Terry Tice liked killing people. It was as simple as that’ [3] – immediately draws the reader into April in Spain the latest crime novel by John Banville; now writing under his own name rather than under Benjamin Black. The title of
Reviewed by Ian Lipke With some reservations, I endorse Hilary Jones’s Frontline as one of the best wartime stories that have appeared in the last decade. It is set in the years when men and women staggered through the dangers of World War 1 and tells of life in the trenches and at home. Its
Review by Richard Tutin The global community has regarded the effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic with great fear. Concerns about the future have dominated news broadcasts and commentaries over the past eighteen months. This fear has not been frivolous. People, nations and businesses have suffered and will continue to suffer for the foreseeable future.
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Well, I can’t help but think Friedrich Nietzsche would be chuffed! I imagine him sitting in his hereafter, one that he totally did not believe in, hearing that Wendy Syfret is busy reinstating his nihilist philosophy, and making a much better job of it than the Nazi regime. Reading The Sunny
Reviewed by Gerard Healy A terrific Scottish crime story from William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin about a murder in Glasgow in 1972 and the fictional beginning of maverick detective Jack Laidlaw’s career. I am a long-time fan of Ian Rankin and his John Rebus stories but to be honest, I hadn’t heard of McIlvanney (who