Our latest reviews

Mark Strizic: Melbourne: Marvellous to Modern: Emma Matthews

Reviewed by Margaret Snowdon, Art & Design Specialist at Readings Carlton

This magnificent collection of photographs arose from the creativity of a young photographer and his adoption of his new home town, Melbourne. His pictures were taken at a time when the Victorian elegance of the city once known as ‘Marvellous…

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The Thirty-Six: Siegmund Siegreich

Reviewed by Simon Auld, freelance reviewer

‘Not another Holocaust memoir,’ I groaned under my breath when I received my review copy. And there is really nothing new in Sigi Siegrich’s story of the horrors of war-time Poland – the deprivations of daily life, the humiliations (and…

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Ice Cold: Andrea Maria Schenkel

Reviewed by Kate O'Mara, Readings Carlton

In Third Reich-controlled Munich, a man is executed for a series of brutal rapes and murders. His story is told in letters, police reports and eyewitness testimonies, woven with the sad tale of a naïve young woman who arrives in…

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The Price Of Love: Peter Robinson

Reviewed by Kate O'Mara, Readings Carlton

Robinson has been writing his hugely popular Inspector Banks novels for more than two decades. When we first met him in 1987 he had recently transferred to Eastvale with his young family. The sordid events leading up to his departure…

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The Water's Edge: Karin Fossum

Reviewed by Kate O'Mara, Readings Carlton

The body of a young boy is discovered by an unhappy couple on a weekend walk. As Sejer and Skarre investigate the events leading up to the murder, a small town goes into shock, and another boy vanishes, the couple’s…

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Censoring: An Iranian Love Story: Shahriar Mandanipour

Reviewed by Michelle Calligaro, Readings Carlton

‘Death to Freedom, Death to Captivity’.

In this darkly satirical tale, a beautiful young Iranian woman carries a placard bearing these contradictory words to a student protest, putting fear and distrust into the minds of agitators on all sides. What…

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The Portrait: Willem Jan Otten

Reviewed by Michael Awasoga-Samuel, Readings Carlton

The Portrait is the latest novel by the esteemed Dutch writer Willem Jan Otten. First published in Holland in 2005, it is one of only a handful of the author’s works translated into English.

An artist is given a commission…

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Noah's Compass: Anne Tyler

Reviewed by Olivia Mayer, Freelance Reviewer

When Liam is forced to leave his teaching job, he decides to economise. He moves to a smaller, cheaper flat and on his first night, he makes his bed up nice and tight and falls into an exhausted sleep. But…

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The Hollow Tree: Jacob G. Rosenberg

Reviewed by Dimitri Gonis, freelance reviewer

In The Hollow Tree, Jacob Rosenberg masterfully brings us the trauma of a persecuted soul. The interminable emptiness that comes with losing everything and anyone you’ve ever loved. The devoid and hopeless psychological landscape of a displaced person. Jan…

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If The Dead Rise Not: Philip Kerr

Reviewed by Mark Rubbo, Managing Director of Readings

Philip Kerr’s Berlin Noir trilogy, published in the early nineties, introduced Bernie Gunther, a former detective in the Berlin criminal police (KRIPO). He and the Nazis didn’t see eye to eye: ‘Don’t get me wrong. I just love Nazis ……

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