Suzanne Steinbruckner
Suzanne Steinbruckner works as a bookseller at Readings Carlton.
Reviews
Losing Face by George Haddad
Nineteen-year-old Joey is drifting along unsure where his life is headed. Right now, it involves shifts at the local supermarket, hanging with his best mate Kyri, and blowing his wages on booze, drug…
Home and Other Hiding Places by Jack Ellis
Eight-year-old Fin’s life is uprooted in Jack Ellis’ touching novel, Home and Other Hiding Places. Fin’s entire point of reference is his mum, with whom he lives at a secluded country property in Old…
Higher Ground by Anke Stellin
I have not been able to stop thinking about Anke Stelling’s brilliant novel Higher Ground. In trying to nail down just what made me want to pick it up again and again, I’d say the primary reason is t…
Hold Your Fire by Chloe Wilson
Chloe Wilson’s brilliant debut collection of short stories, Hold Your Fire, is an absolute delight to read. Contained within you’ll find a mix of witty and deadpan flash fiction and short stories of …
The Beach Caves by Trevor Shearston
Annette Cooley and Sue Klima met in their first prehistory tutorial. Quickly realising they were as ambitious as each other, they chose friendship over competition. Now it’s 1970 and the pair are in …
Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha
Apple and Knife is an engrossing collection of short stories by Intan Paramaditha, translated into English from Indonesian for the first time by Stephen J. Epstein. I found myself so absorbed in the …
Prime Suspect 1973
It’s very satisfying to go back in time and watch the origin story of a character you’ve come to know well from a long-running series. In Prime Suspect 1973, that’s exactly what happens, as newcomer …
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius is a retelling of Australia’s colonial settlement, but not in any way you’ve read it before. Told from both native and settler perspectives, and weaving past and fan…
Closing Down by Sally Abbott
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Sally Abbott’s debut Closing Down since I finished reading it. Abbott has crafted a grim vision of a not-too-distant future world, where climate change and …
The Case Against Fragrance by Kate Grenville
The Case Against Fragrance will make you reassess the scents you encounter in your day-to-day life. A departure from her usual fare, the idea for this book came about while Kate Grenville was touring…
Treading Air by Ariella Van Luyn
I really fell for Lizzy O’Dea in Ariella Van Luyn’s historical fiction, Treading Air. We meet Lizzie in Brisbane’s lock hospital in 1945. She’s just been given a lighter sentence and learned from the…
Wildlight by Robyn Mundy
Robyn Mundy’s novel Wildlight had me wishing to visit Maatsuyker Island (Maat) off the southern coast of Tasmania, despite its cold, wild, wet and windy nature. Sixteen-year-old Stephenie West is abo…
Mobile Library by David Whitehouse
Twelve-year-old Bobby Nusku has been having a hard time. He’s a prime target for the school bullies, friends are hard to come by and he and his dad just haven’t been getting along since the accident …
Everything You Need To Know About the Referendum To Recognise Indigenous Australians by Megan Davis and George Williams
There are strong arguments on both sides of the debate for changing the Australian Constitution to recognise Indigenous Australians and this text looks at the legal and constitutional ramifications o…
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 Univer…
Confessions of a People-Smuggler by Dawood Amiri
I felt humbled to read Dawood Amiri’s Confessions of a People-Smuggler. He puts a human face to the people who end up in the messy middle to bottom end of the people-smuggling chain. It was less like…
Nest by Inga Simpson
Inga Simpson is one to surprise. Her first novel, Mr Wigg – while not something I would instinctively select – quickly won me over with its heartwarming tale. Her second work of fiction, Nest, again …
The Free by Willy Vlautin
At times in Willy Vlautin’s fourth novel, The Free, I found myself wondering if I was reading or had in fact drifted while watching a documentary. The stories in this realist fiction so well match Am…
Plague and Cholera by Patrick Deville
I like my novels to drop me straight into events and Patrick Deville’s Plague and Cholera does just that. The reader joins Dr Alexandre Yersin in Paris, May 1940, as he is fleeing France during World…
A Lifetime on Clouds by Gerald Murnane
Gerald Murnane had me hooked from page one of what is his second novel, A Lifetime on Clouds. Murnane’s wonderful imagination (and perhaps parallels with his own Catholic schoolboy upbringing) is exh…
