If immersing yourself in tales of death, detectives and the depraved doesn’t sound like your ideal summer holiday, please don’t read this review. If, on the other hand, you start your day with a bowl of cereal and a side of serial killers, welcome! The New York...
The plot of Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel rests on absent foundations – literally. In alternating chapters, Unsheltered (Allen & Unwin, 2018) weaves together the stories of two strong, intelligent individuals whose homes are crumbling around them. The homes seem...
From 1965 to 1975, Australia was a land of body shirts and no social media on which to show off (or shame) them. A land where housing prices were downright reasonable. And, as Richard Glover dutifully explains, there really were no avocados – or near to none. It was...
The recent furore over advertising on the sails of the Sydney Opera House is nothing compared to the scandals, political rows and media frenzies that characterised the creation of this iconic building. Most newsworthy was the sacking of Danish architect Jørn Utzon who...
“Writers write. And one can’t be surprised if they write what they know.” So says one of the coterie of beautiful, wealthy, fragile women that literary darling Truman Capote called his ‘swans’. Swan Song (Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Cornerstone, 2018) is a...
As technology transforms everyday life in ‘smart nation’ Singapore, the city-state’s most interesting writers are considering some creative consequences. Imagine, for instance, if all the animals at the zoo were discovered to be robots (so much more manageable!). Or...
