If you read a lot of murder mysteries, you’ll know there are certain characters, plot twists and narrative tricks that get reused time and time again. The dim sidekick who needs everything explained to them. The unaccountable coincidence that casts fresh light on the...
It’s easy to see why Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light (Text Publishing, A$32.99) was chosen as the 2022 Miles Franklin Award winner. The novel is a creative exploration of how childhood neglect and abuse can have profound ramifications in a person’s later, adult life....
When poet Eliza Acton is told by her publisher that “poetry is not the business of a lady” and is asked instead to write a cookbook, she is appalled at the idea. But when her mother is forced to sell most of the family’s belongings and open a boarding house, she...
Laugh-out-loud funny. Brutal. Beautiful. And – most impressively perhaps – truthful. An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life (Allen & Unwin, 2022) is the first collection of short stories by Australian wunderkind Paul Dalla Rosa. By turns shocking – Dalla Rosa doesn’t...
Suchen Christine Lim is one of Singapore’s best-known novelists. In her new work, Dearest Intimate (Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2022), she explores her family’s roots in southern China while continuing the excavation of what it means to be Singaporean that...
Killernova (Penguin Books Australia) is a collection of poetry, mini essays and art that follows Australian poet Omar Musa’s journey to his homeland of Borneo and explores the myths, traditions and artistic practices of his ancestors. Borneo was once home to the most...
