Our latest reviews
Navigatio by Patrick Holland
At one point in Navigatio our heroic monk, Brendan of Clonfert, takes a slim volume from the shelf of an old soldier’s home and says, ‘That book was about a monk who set sail for a place that was beyond…
Gon' Boogaloo by CW Stoneking
It’s been six long years since we were last afforded a glimpse into the weird and wonderful world of Australian bluesman, supreme yarn-spinner and tall tale teller C.W. Stoneking. I’ve been shipwrecked twice and broken a series of long standing…
La Belle Excentrique by Patricia Petibon
Much like the character Gil’s experience in Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris, listening to La Belle Excentrique is like stumbling into a music hall in 1920s France, complete with the idiosyncratic accordion accompaniment. Soprano Patricia Petibon’s latest CD…
Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn
In 1998, Walter Kirn is waiting to become a father and up for a noble distraction: driving a paralysed Gordon setter named Shelby from his home state of Montana to New York City. There, Shelby would meet the man who…
The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood
One would think it difficult to distil a legacy such as Gwen Harwood’s, but here Black Inc. have published an elegant and concise volume of her poetry curated by her son, author and poet John Harwood.
The collection is mapped…
I Refuse by Per Petterson
I’ve been curious about Per Petterson, who almost shares my surname, since I noticed his novels on the shelf when I first started work at Readings. Six years later, and having just read his latest novel, I Refuse, I…
Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser
Michelle de Kretser’s Springtime begins casually after our protagonist, Frances, and her partner, Charlie, move from Melbourne to Sydney. Frances, having taken up a research fellowship at the University of Sydney to study objects in eighteenth-century French paintings, splits her…
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Peter, a man of faith, is sent on a mission to share the Bible and its teachings with an alien race of beings. Beatrice, his wife, must stay behind in a world that is rapidly unravelling. This is, in part…
Merciless Gods by Christos Tsiolkas
There is no doubt Christos Tsiolkas is a master of the written word. He tickles and seduces us with the innocence and excitement of a new lover leading you to places we wouldn’t often dare to go, before plunging you…
Amnesia by Peter Carey
Despite its more serious subtext, Amnesia is a very funny book and is Peter Carey at the height of his powers. I read it a second time because I wanted to savour it again for its structure and its writing…
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