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 hoping Highway … 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 »
by Jessie Tu
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Jessie Tu is a book critic at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and a journalist for Woman’s Agenda. Her debut novel, A lonely girl is a dangerous thing won the Australian Book Industry Awards for 2020 Literary Fiction Book of the Year.
The honeyeater is her eagerly awaited second novel. The protagonist of her first novel was an adult but emotionally stunted former music … Read more »
Deb Worgan:
Prima facie by Susie Miller, an important and powerful read.
About Grace by Anthony Doerr, an odd but intriguing story, beautifully written, about exile and returning.
The conversion by Amanda Lohrey, a novel about a change of heart paralleled with the repurposing of a church.
Flick Ruby:
The valley, Chris Hammer’s latest tightly woven outback murder mystery, includes greenie protesters, good cops, bad cops, and greedy shysters, set in an imaginary town near us.
Doppelganger: a … Read more »
by Wendy Tucker
Is this one of the best Writers Festivals in Australia? I think so. An amazing selection of disparate authors, easy to access venues, not too crowded and a whale frolicking at the lunch hour, stretch-the-legs walk.
The big names are in the bigger hall and these sessions are livestreamed to wider audiences in libraries so bookworms who are further away from Tathra can enjoy some of the festival. I’m not sure who decides which … Read more »