I didn’t have any great expectations when I started reading A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles, Random House, $19.99). But I soon realised it was a rare gift – a book with an original plot and a wonderful main character. I’ve read a lot of novels, so an original plot...
Despite just about everyone I know recommending this debut novel from Melbourne journalist Jane Harper, I’ve resisted reading it until now because the subject matter sounded so, ahem, dry. Somehow, out of all these recommendations, I’d managed to pick up that the book...
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...
“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...
What price should you put on integrity? Is allowing a potentially bestselling novel to be published, knowing that it’s not your best work, ‘selling out’? These are just two of the questions troubling critically acclaimed author Helen Owen as she prevaricates about...
