Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

Review by Wendy Tucker

by Anna Funder

Two new arrivals have filled our TV screens, newspapers and social media during the last month. And both use the word patriarchy a lot! Both have feminist messages. One is the Barbie movie. The other is Anna Funder’s Wifedom, which has had more publicity, both pre- and post-publication, than any other recent book. Funder has been interviewed widely on 7.30, The Drum, Conversations, the SMH and at numerous Writers Festivals.

Wifedom has been reviewed in most major newspapers, both here and overseas. So, what is all … Read more »

Mrs Death Misses Death

by Salena Godden

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

Salena Godden is an English poet, author, activist, broadcaster, memoirist and essayist. Born in the UK, Godden is of Jamaican-Irish heritage. She is known for the graphic power of her poetry and is considered one of the foremost performance poets in the UK.

This is her debut novel. I had heard a lot about this prize-winning prose/poetry novel and because of the enthusiastic reviews regarding the beauty and … Read more »

Rivers of London

reviewed by Wendy Tucker

by Ben Aaronovitch

How to describe this novel, the first in a series of nine?

It’s a crime novel, a police procedural novel, a fantasy/magical realism novel,

a love letter to London and a commentary on race. And it’s rollicking good fun and totally addictive. I am a fan of good crime writing but not usually of fantasy.

Rivers of London is a … Read more »

Old God’s Time

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Sebastian Barry

Old gods’ time is ‘an expression indicating a period beyond memory’ and also applies to a memory from so long ago that it belongs in the time of the old gods, such as those of the Greeks. It is the perfect title for this novel that is all about the struggle with memory, what is real, what is imagined and what is too traumatic, too damaging to be allowed to surface.
… Read more »

Limberlost 

by Robbie Arnott 

Text Publishing 

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

This is the third novel from the Tasmanian Wunderkind, Robbie Arnott. Some readers may have been disappointed as Limberlost seems to be a departure from the previous highly imaginative, magic realism novel Flames, where people burst into flame. Also, a departure from the prize-winning The Rain Heron where a bird made of rain may save a dystopian world. I loved both these amazing novels – although they are far from … Read more »

Finding The Heart of the Nation

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

Thomas Mayor
Hardie Grant
This is a wonderfully engaging and inspiring book. Thomas Mayor travelled for over eighteen months with precious document, Uluru Statement from the Heart, tucked safely under his arm.
Mayor starts by sharing his own journey to Uluru. As a Torres Strait Islander, he grew up in Darwin on Larrakia land where he learnt to hunt traditional foods with his father and was taught dance by the Torres Strait … Read more »