Tye Cattanach
Tye Cattanach works as a bookseller at Readings Carlton and Readings Kids.
Reviews
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams
Imagine your wayward, largely absent father showing up one fine day offering to take you and your younger brother for ice cream. Along the way, you stop at various unknown houses to collect three com…
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman
‘Unicorns don’t belong in fairy tales, they belong in nightmares.’
They also need to be hatched. They can then only be tamed by the human who hatches them. Skandar has waited his whole life to take…
A Solitary Walk on the Moon by Hilde Hinton
A Solitary Walk on the Moon is one of those rare and lovely books that instantly transports you into its pages, where what seems a deceptively simple premise for a story unfurls into a rich and compl…
The Sorrow Stone by Kári Gíslason
The Sorrow Stone by Kári Gíslason is without doubt the book I was most looking forward to reading this year. I have been an avid fan of his work since I read his extraordinary memoir The Promise of I…
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
‘“What you have to understand,” she says “is that things can thrive in unimaginable conditions. All they need is the right sort of skin.”’
I first encountered Julia Armfield’s enormous aptitude for …
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft
Seventeen-year-old Maggie Welty has lived her entire life on the outskirts of Wickdon, a town that has never fully welcomed or accepted her. Her mother Evelyn Welty (an alchemist) left town months ea…
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Black Cake is an expansive, engrossing, multi-layered story, encompassing multiple generations of a broken family. Estranged siblings Benny and Byron are reluctantly brought back together in their de…
The Keepers by Al Campbell
Al Campbell is a mother and full-time carer of two sons with autism. She is also a phenomenal writer. The Keepers is her first novel, and I can honestly say, I have never read anything like it. Raw, …
Oppositions by Mary Gaitskill
In The Observer’s review of Mary Gaitskill’s new book, Oppositions, Abhrajyoti Chakraborty writes: ‘Gaitskill is gloriously trenchant, but never gimmicky, in these unsparing essays’. There it was, th…
How to End a Story: Diaries, 1995–1998 by Helen Garner
One can only imagine the enormous bravery it must take to publish a diary. Sharing your most private thoughts with the world is not for the faint of heart. But, faint of heart is not a term I would e…
The Fell by Sarah Moss
It is my belief that Sarah Moss is the undisputed queen of taking everyday stories that seem ordinary at first glance, and stuffing them full of delicious, near unbearable tension. The Fell does not …
The Luminous Solution: Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life by Charlotte Wood
In the preface of The Luminous Solution, Charlotte Wood muses upon the bookshelf positioned directly behind her writing chair. Wood is unsentimental about keeping the vast majority of books she reads…
Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto
It is a tale as old as travel fiction itself: young, immature man-child is heartbroken and unwilling to examine his deeply troubling feelings or reflect on his contribution to the heartbreaking situa…
The Airways by Jennifer Mills
Jennifer Mills is well known for experimenting with various writing styles, challenging the perceived boundaries and constructs of the novel. In a 2018 review for the Australian Book Review, James Br…
The Others by Mark Brandi
‘Sometimes, you have to do the most terrible things. Sometimes, you just have to.’ With this single line the tone is firmly established for The Others, Mark Brandi’s highly anticipated new novel. Nar…
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
There are some classic children’s books that will invariably result in wistful exclamations of, ‘oh yes, I love that book!’ in bookish conversations with others. Harry and the Purple Crayon is always…
Pietà by Michael Fitzgerald
Michael Fitzgerald’s second novel, Pietà, introduces us to Lucy, a young art history student on a mission: she’s tasked by her recently deceased mother (a former nun in the 1970s) to deliver a myster…
As Beautiful As Any Other: A Memoir of My Body by Kaya Wilson
I confess to feeling completely at a loss for how to review Kaya Wilson’s breathtaking memoir As Beautiful As Any Other. How on earth will I be able to do it justice? I must begin somewhere and so I …
The Care Factor by Ailsa Wild
2020 was an unprecedented year in many ways, exposing much of what is deeply flawed about our current societal structures. COVID-19 has taught us much about where the gaps are in our social fabric, w…
Blue Flower by Sonya Hartnett & Gabriel Evans
A new book from Sonya Hartnett is always something to anticipate. Blue Flower is her first picture book since 2014 and this magical offering introduces readers to a sweet little character – and their…
O by Steven Carroll
Almost 70 years ago, a slim little book was published by a small French publishing house, sans publicity or fanfare, its author a previously unheard-of woman by the name of Pauline Réage. The Story o…
Stars Like Us by Frances Chapman
Every two years, the team at Hardie Grant Egmont opens the inbox for their prestigious Ampersand Prize and encourages the submission of manuscripts of YA and middle grade fiction by unpublished write…
