Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Jessie Tu’s debut novel, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, presented an author who is remarkable in her wide ranging talent. Her second book, The Honeyeater, does not disappoint. There is the same narrative brilliance and quiet intensity, relating the story of Fay, a translator bringing a modern English novel
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This novel has nothing to do with Elvis Presley’s song or the 2015 American psychological thriller film of the same name. Instead, it is a coming-of-age story about family, friendship, love, stereotyping and a strong connection to the past. There is a rebel, a dead letter office, a mystery from the
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Australian author, Maya Linnell, has become well known for her rural fiction books about realistic people in small towns. She gathers inspiration from her own rural upbringing and the small communities she has always lived in and loved. Her affection and respect for Australia’s flora and fauna shines through in her
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend I have long since thought the publishing industry’s insistence that novels fall into a genre straight-jacket somewhat unnecessary, not to mention unimaginative. Breaking through the mundane, Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel The Ministry of Time creates its own mixed-genre benchmark. Written in the first person, our narrator is a bi-racial, jaded, civil
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve It is impossible to resist the power of a book that is deeply perceptive in its unwaveringly honest scrutiny of family relations. The ties between two sisters, dealing with the death of a mother who was emotionally difficult and remote, is the focus of this exceptional novel. They come together at
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve This slender volume by Sydney writer, Sara Haddad, comes at a time when the world’s eyes are trained on the catastrophic events that daily occur in the Middle East. While much of the West is appalled by the relentless destruction wrought by Israel, Sara Haddad’s book does not engage in the
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve A small community in 1990s Ireland is the backdrop of Alan Murrin’s first novel, The Coast Road. Its focus is on three women’s battle with lives constrained by having to deal with their country’s law which made divorce illegal even in the face of challenging marriages. Colette, a passionate, uncompromising character
Reviewed by Rod McLary Apparently, there are a number of ‘ghost cities’ in China all of which have the infrastructure but lack any population. These uninhabited cities are the inspiration for this imaginative and labyrinthine novel by Brisbane writer Siang Lu. There are a number of narratives running through the novel but the consistent one
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Ouyang Yu’s view of the modern world is humorously summed up when he suggests that if Shakespeare wrote the famous quote “To be or….”, it would become “To be or not to be entertained”…. The general population is obsessed with money, sex, distractions, food and are merely ‘animals with clothes’. Poetry,
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Fleur McDonald first introduced readers to Detective Dave Burrows in the early 2000s when he was the main character in her novel. Since then, he has appeared as a secondary character in sixteen contemporary novels. In this story, Shock Waves, he is the main character but at a time when he
Reviewed by Rod McLary The Walker Brothers once sang ‘breaking up is so very hard to do’ and those of us who have broken up with a loved one will know exactly what the Brothers mean. In his debut fiction novel, Jonathan Seidler explores the break-up of a marriage. As with much else in life,
Reviewed by Rod McLary An epigraph to this new novel by Stephen Orr is a quote from the esteemed Australian author Patrick White. He says: The mystery of life is not salved by success, which is an end in itself, but in failure, in perpetual struggle, in becoming. Epigraphs by definition point to the theme
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve By today’s standards, Thunderhead is unusually brief in length. This belies the fact that here is a book that must not be overlooked or dismissed. It encompasses writing that is poetic, lively and very clever in its portrayal of a woman trying desperately to master ‘how to be’ in her ordinary
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Australia is fortunate in the 2020s to have so many talented writers who celebrate the Australian landscape while at the same time presenting heartwarming human stories. Jennifer Scoullar is one such author. Her latest Australian rural fiction, The Rivertown Vet, which is her thirteenth offering, is set in rural South Australia.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke When reading the latest book by Fiona McCallum called Looking Out it took me some time to see the significance of the title. The story focusses on one family and a couple of close friends set in the post pandemic years. Natasha and Mitchell have two bright daughters. Natasha is striving