Jane Rawson’s From the Wreck was shortlisted for the 2017 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, won the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and is now longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2018. From the Wreck Synopsis: From…
The prose within Montpelier Parade is itself a thing of beauty – and for that alone I would recommend this novel. But it is Geary’s characters’ capacity to be buoyed by glints in darkness and this story’s moving denouement that elevate it to the truly memorable.
A S Patric’s Black Rock White City is a story about the damages of war, the limits of choice, and the hope of love. Read my full review of this mesmerising novel. Black Rock White City Synopsis During a hot…
Jenny T Colgan’s Resistance Is Futile is a wonderful romantic comedy come save-the-world adventure with a rebellious, geeky tone. Read on for our full review of this under-appreciated gem. Resistance Is Futile Synopsis She’s smart. She’s funny. But she’s only human…. As a…
In The Morning I’ll Be Gone is the third novel in Adrian McKinty’s award-winning Detective Sean Duffy Series which I highly recommend in audiobook. In The Morning I’ll Be Gone Synopsis It’s the early 1980s in Belfast. Sean Duffy, a conflicted…
Christine Piper’s After Darkness won The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award 2014 and then long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award 2015. After Darkness Synopsis: It is early 1942 and Australia is in the midst of war. While working at a Japanese hospital in…
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency still contains Douglas Adam’s trademark offbeat and fantastical elements but its driving force is a much more mature and intelligent brand of humour. Read our full review. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Book Synopsis: Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in…
Claire Kilroy is a prodigious, award-winning young talent in Irish fiction, whose fresh, authoritative voice has garnered enthusiastic praise. In The Devil I Know, she delivers a delicious novel, a cautionary tale of financial excess set during the Irish property bubble. Read my…
Simon Winder’s Danubia was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Danubia, A Personal History of Habsburg Europe Synopsis: For centuries much of Europe was in the hands of the very peculiar Habsburg family. An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores,…
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is Anthony Marra’s internationally bestselling debut novel. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Synopsis: New York Times Notable Book of the Year In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as…
Levels of Life Synopsis: ‘You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed…’ Julian Barnes’s new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together,…
Corporeality Synopsis: In Corporeality, Hollis Seamon’s latest fiction collection, we meet the cat lady, the professor dealing with a plagiarist while coping with personal hardships, sibling rivalry of the unnaturally cursed kind, the dog that goes beyond everyday dog sense and scent to…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Synopsis: One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be…
Epic in scope, Elliot Perlman’s The Street Sweeper is a remarkable feat of storytelling. The Street Sweeper Synopsis: How breathtakingly close we are to lives that at first seem so far away. From the civil rights struggle in the United States…
Review Summary: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter is a modern masterpiece that deserves to become a classic — his prose and characterisation exquisite and Edoardo Ballerini’s narration of the audiobook captivating. Beautiful Ruins Synopsis The story begins in 1962. On a…
Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son is one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking novels I have read. Read on for my full review. The Orphan Master’s Son Synopsis Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen”…
