Reviewed by Ian Lipke A description of a novel, set in an Australian town, the story described as an “unputdownable, supernatural thriller about a mysterious global event” contains more than enough emotive terms to get the blood of the most jaded reader surging. This is the case with Chris Flynn’s Orpheus Nine, a publication of
Reviewed by Rod McLary Andrea Goldsmith, until now, was not an author with whom I was familiar but having read The Buried Life I believe that to be a serious omission on my part. The novel explores with intelligence and elegant writing the vicissitudes of personal and family relationships across the broad range of relationships.
Reviewed by Rod McLary Irma Gold’s second novel Shift centres on Arlie a thirty-something reasonably successful photographer yet one who seems unable to really pull his life together. After another relationship break-up, he decides to leave Australia and travel to South Africa ‘to work up a new exhibition’ [40] as he does his best work
Reviewed by Rod McLary After the Great Storm is the debut novel from Australian short fiction writer Ann Dombroski and is set in Sydney sometime in the near future – a future in which moral ambiguity seems endemic. Alice Kaczmarek is the protagonist whose husband David is serving a life sentence accused of orchestrating an
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve This is Garrett Carr’s first novel for adults. Set in Donegal, on Ireland’s west coast, it brings to life the small community of Killybegs, with its deep connections, struggles to maximise its meagre assets, and wrestling with relationships. The boy is in fact a small baby, a few days old, washed
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Love Unedited is the work of Caro Llewellyn, an Australian business executive, artistic director, festival manager and nonfiction writer. Her publications include the 2020 Stella Prize-shortlisted memoir Diving into Glass, which explores her father’s experiences with polio, her own multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis and the realities of living with a disability.
Reviewed by Rod McLary In her latest book, Maryrose Cuskelly takes a critical look at how a comfortable self-regarding middle-class community responds to the intrusion into their domain by a group of rough sleepers. In The Campers, the author explores the impact of homelessness and the presence of rough sleepers on a community and, however
Reviewed by Rod McLary F Scott Fitzgerald – in his 1924 short story The Rich Boy – wrote ‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me’. Robert Lukins’ new book is essentially about one very rich family – the Gulch family – and they are one very different
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Rachael Johns, author of The Bad Bridesmaid, is an Australian writer of contemporary relationship stories around women’s issues, a genre she has coined ‘life-lit’. Johns drew inspiration for her new book from The Parent Trap in writing what she called a “reverse Parent Trap for grown-ups”. In this story, which is
Reviewed by Colleen McLennan Maggie Alderson is a British author with extensive editing experience in both England and Australia. She is author of ten novels and four collections of her columns from Good Weekend magazine. Her children’s book Evangeline, the Wish Keeper’s Helper was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. In her latest book,
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Lėonie Kelsall’s latest book is part of her series set in South Australia in her fictitious town of Settlers Bridge, so when reading this story, it is no surprise when the reader comes across characters they may have encountered in her previous books. The Homestead in the Eucalypts was the origin
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Susan Duncan’s latest novel is called Finding Joy in Oyster Bay. The first chapter spoke of nothing like “joy” as it is about a young woman who chooses to abandon her child. However, she knows that the baby will be cared for by others. As I continued to read on, I
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve A significant factor that changed our pandemic-gripped lives was, for many lonely or perhaps childless people, the owning of a pet. The most popular was the dog because it, like its owner, needed to go out for daily exercise. Therefore, the leading ‘character’ in My Name is Gucci, a large spotted
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This hard-covered novel with dust jacket, River Song, is Di Morrissey’s thirtieth book to be published. Over the years she has been providing interesting human stories for her readers taking them to different parts of Australia. She is well regarded in the literary world for her Australian-based stories and has been
Reviewed by Rod McLary A common theme of Robbie Arnott’s two earlier novels – The Rain Heron and Limberlost – is the interrelation between humans and nature, their connectedness. This theme continues in Dusk where nature or the natural environment dominates the foreground of the novel to the extent that the humans seem to be