Page 4 of our reviews
All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg
Jami Attenberg can do bleak humour. She can skewer and summarise characters with one scathing sentence. She is the lord of mockery, the lady of irony, but, more than anything else, she is the queen w…
The Loudness of Unsaid Things by Hilde Hinton
Reading The Loudness of Unsaid Things, I was reminded of two other debut novels that I have also reviewed: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. With both those book…
Sheerwater by Leah Swann
Leah Swann’s debut novel is literary fiction with the tempo of a crime novel. Told over three dramatic days, even astute readers will be stunned by the conclusion.
Ava, the mother of two young boys…
Design Lives Here by Penny Craswell
The beauty of this book is that it does many things in a (seemingly) effortless, elegant fashion. For every house or apartment featured, the sum of its parts creates the whole: architecture, interior…
The Adversary by Ronnie Scott
With his debut novel The Adversary, Ronnie Scott has gifted readers the most relatable coming-of-age narrative I’ve encountered in some time. With a hot and empty Melbourne summer ahead our unnamed p…
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
After fourteen attempts at starting this review for The Mirror & the Light, I had to stop and ask myself, ‘Why is this so difficult?’. I think the answer is that, for many, this final book in the Wol…
The Origin of Me by Bernard Gallate
Previously known for his work in children’s literature, Bernard Gallate brings a lightness and sense of play to his debut adult novel, The Origin of Me.
Things aren’t going too well for fifteen-ye…
Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth
Jenny McLaine, writer and Instagram addict, should have it together. She’s thirty-five, she owns her own house, and she’s a successful feminist columnist. Only, her famous photographer boyfriend has …
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
When Kim Jiyoung starts exhibiting bizarre behaviours, her husband takes her to a psychiatrist. What follows is a succinct account of Jiyoung’s life, from birth to elementary school, from the office …
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Have you ever been through periods when most books you pick up fail to ignite that magical spark? I’ve just emerged from one and Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line has been my saviour. Set in an imagina…
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