Garnet
by Jennifer Severn
Vine Leaves Press
Reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Garnet is a new novel by local author Jennifer Severn. It follows her successful memoir, Long Road to Dry River which was shortlisted for the Finch Prize for memoir. An earlier manuscript of Garnet was shortlisted for the Viva la Novella prize and, now that it has been published, Garnet is a finalist for the Wishing Shelf Book Award … Read more »
Departure(s)
by Julian Barnes,
Jonathan Cape 2026
Reviewed by Sandra Renew
Julian Barnes’s latest book adds to his list of more than 20 well-regarded novels and non-fiction, including The Sense of an Ending which won the 2011 Booker Prize. He was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime contribution to literature in 2011 and the Légion d’honneur in 2017.
In Departure(s) Barnes employs an interesting narrative structure. There is detail of the changing relationships … Read more »
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 … 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 »