Local writer, Jen Severn, has a new book out in March – a novel called Garnet about a small country town peopled with eccentric, lovable, difficult, ordinary and extraordinary characters – and a few evil developers for good measure. This short novel (an early manuscript was shortlisted in the Viva La Novella Prize in 2022) packs the emotional punch of a much larger book. It is quiet but intricate – … Read more »
Theory and Practice
Michelle de Kretser
Text Publishing
Review by Wendy Tucker
This is Michelle de Kretser’s seventh novel and her second one to win the Stella Prize (for writing by women and non-binary authors). In this novel, de Kretser is again experimenting with form as she did in Scary Monsters where one story paralleled the other. I feel that this is primarily a novel with a splash of … Read more »
Ghost Cities
Siang Lu
University of Queensland Press
Reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Lu’s Ghost Cities just won the Miles Franklin award, certainly the most lucrative and probably the most prestigious literary prize in Australia. This was a bold, risky and brave choice because there is nothing safe about this novel. It is savage in its satire, hilarious in its observance of absurdity and, yet, surprisingly moving. It is also impossible to slot it … Read more »
Highway 13
by Fiona McFarlane
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
This is the fourth book of fiction from the amazing Fiona McFarlane and her second book of short stories. Her first novel, The Night Guest, was short-listed for the Miles Franklin award in 2013 and now Highway 13 is shortlisted for this award in 2025. By the time this review is published, the winner will have been announced but, at time of writing, I’m still … Read more »
Signs of Damage
by Diana Reid
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Diana Reid is one of Australia’s youngest and most admired authors. Her first novel, Love and Virtue, was published when she was just 24. This prize-winning novel of love and heartbreak was compared to Sally Rodney’s Normal People. Reid quickly followed with a second success, Seeing Other People, a forensic examination of family and power. Each of Reid’s novels takes an issue or trope that she re-examines … Read more »
by Alice Slater
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
There are fashions in books and lately many new novels seem to have the words Bookshop or Bookseller in the title. There are novels set in bookshops in cities, in towns, in villages, in developed and developing countries, during wars … Read more »