Review: Dietland by Sarai Walker
Dietland, Sarai Walker’s first novel, is a filling read. Its premise – the journey of a young woman towards accepting her fat body and rejecting patriarchal beauty norms – should promise an...
Category: Books
Review: Sofie Laguna’s The Eye of the Sheep
Australian author Sofie Laguna’s second novel for adults, The Eye of the Sheep, won the Miles Franklin Award on 23 June. It was a well-deserved win of Australia’s richest literary prize by a book...
Review: Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon
A couple of years ago, when it first came out, Andrew Solomon’s 10-years-in-the-making magnum opus, Far from the Tree, was the book du jour in Australian book-reading parenting circles. I missed it...
Review: “Only the Animals” by Ceridwen Dovey
Australia’s newest literary prize, the Stella Award (for writing by women) was bestowed on debut novelist Emily Bitto less than a month ago, for her novel about two children growing up as part of a...
Review: Ian McEwan’s The Children Act
When picking my holiday reading this year, one book that was front and centre on my list was Ian McEwan’s latest, The Children Act. I was intrigued by the premise, had seen some positive reviews...
Review: Hasidism Incarnate by Shaul Magid
What’s the difference between Christianity and Judaism? When one considers the shared cultural heritage of the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call “the Old Testament”), it seems in the end an...
Review: Ali Smith’s How to Be Both
Ali Smith’s latest novel was being tipped for the Man Booker longlist 12 months before it came out on some book blogs, and within days of its release, the zeitgeist had it that this was definitely...
Man Booker Prize Shortlist 2014
And so, the day has arrived, when 13 becomes 6. The Man Booker shortlist was announced last week, with the following titles making the cut: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris (Viking) The...
From the Booker Longlist: Richard Powers’ Orfeo
“Someone hums a muted tune, a lullaby from another planet. Then the line goes dead.” Insofar as this year’s Booker longlist has a theme or themes (other than “Life! What does it all MEAN!”...
The Man Booker Prize Longlist 2014
This year’s Man Booker Prize, in its first outing since the controversial rule change, was widely tipped to be The Coming of the Americans writ large. Previously open only to novels by Commonwealth...