The Gathering (2007) – Anne ENRIGHT
The recent debate over the Booker Prize’s perceived shift away from the literary and towards the ‘readable’ overlooks a variety of important facts. The first, of course, is that one […]
Tag Archives: historical novel
Mateship With Birds (2012) – Carrie TIFFANY
The inaugural Stella Prize was announced last week. Conveniently, because Mateship With Birds was longlisted for both the Stella and the Miles Franklin, I thought I should probably read it […]
The Commandant (1975) – Jessica ANDERSON
Expectations are a funny thing. If a book is marked as a ‘classic’—particularly as a forgotten classic that needs re-evaluating—a reader can be forgiven for expecting something quite special. This […]
The Burial (2012) – Courtney COLLINS
What better way to celebrate Australia Day than by reviewing the promising debut novel from a young Australian writer? The Burial has been sitting on the shelves at work, sadly […]
The Memory of Love (2010) – Aminatta FORNA
Now that I’ve joined a pretty informal book club, I get to read things I’ve been meaning to for ages but haven’t gotten around to it. The Memory of Love […]
Black Flower (2003) – KIM Young-ha
It’s safe to say that, by far, this was the novel I was most looking forward to reading when the Man Asian Literary Prize longlist was announced. A fan of […]
The Bathing Women (2000) – TIE Ning
Continuing with the Chinese women longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, I find myself faced with a book described by Ōe Kenzaburō as “one of the best ten literary […]
Sour Sweet (1982) – Timothy MO
When Timothy Mo’s new book, Pure, came out last year, I was intrigued by its premise. Doing some more research on him, I discovered that he had actually been shortlisted […]
Ru (2009) – Kim THÚY
This novel caught my eye a while ago for a variety of reasons. A Vietnamese-Canadian writer, Kim Thúy originally wrote this novel in French in 2009, though it was translated […]
Questions of Travel (2012) – Michelle DE KRETSER
I haven’t read any of de Kretser’s other work, which includes the Booker longlisted The Lost Dog, from 2007. But when here new book arrived at our store a few […]
