Nonfiction

Monument by Bonny Cassidy

Reviewed by Joe Murray

Have you ever felt lost in your family history? Have you ever trawled deep into your complicated and often fraught past, finding stories that bewilder and fascinate in equal parts? In many ways, Bonny Cassidy’s Monument is that experience in…

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Slow Down by Kohei Saito & Brian Bergstrom (trans.)

Reviewed by Aurelia Orr

A manifesto for the 21st century, Slow Down is a compelling and thought-provoking read within which Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito offers a Marxist ecological critique on capitalism and degrowth economics. He examines how infinite expansion of our economy is irrefutably…

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Monument by Bonny Cassidy

Reviewed by Joe Murray

Have you ever felt lost in your family history? Have you ever trawled deep into your complicated and often fraught past, finding stories that bewilder and fascinate in equal parts? In many ways, Bonny Cassidy’s Monument is that experience in…

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Faking It by Toby Walsh

Reviewed by Julia Jackson

I could’ve parsed some keywords through Chat GPT to write this review, like a student with an imminent deadline, but I didn’t, because it’s not how I roll. Toby Walsh’s latest release is timely. Moreover, as a veteran bookseller with…

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A Briliant Life by Rachelle Unreich

Reviewed by Rosalind McClintock

A Brilliant Life is the story of Mira Unreich, a holocaust survivor, mother and, by all accounts, incredible person. During her last year, Rachelle, her youngest daughter and also a journalist, interviewed Mira about her life. A life that is…

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Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

Reviewed by Joe Murray

Sometimes, a work of nonfiction feels like a magic trick. While novels can weave poignant, transcendent stories from little more than an author’s imagination, it is something entirely different, something almost miraculous, when that same transcendence is wrought from the…

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Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis

Reviewed by Nishtha Banavalikar

Capitalism is dead. What killed it? Ironically, capital itself. Yanis Varoufakis, economist and former finance minister of Greece, has been notorious for introducing widely controversial – though ultimately, quite accurate – theories that challenge his fellow economists and Marxists. Denouncing…

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The Things We Live With: Essays on Uncertainty by Gemma Nisbet

Reviewed by Stephanie King

The Things We Live With by Gemma Nisbet is a pensive exploration of memory and family staged through her encounters with everyday objects. Nisbet is a regular contributor to the West Australian, and her work has been published in various…

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Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr

Reviewed by Joe Murray

What does it mean to reckon with Australia’s bloody history? For David Marr, that history came especially close to home when he discovered a white officer of the brutally violent Native Police lurking in his ancestry. Killing for Country is…

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Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking by Tyson Yunkaporta

Reviewed by Joe Murray

If you’re anything like me, you might struggle to get a grasp on Indigenous knowledge systems, and find it hard to fully understand how spiritual practice can coexist with scientific rationality. Thankfully, Tyson Yunkaporta isn’t looking to convince you of…

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