The Beloved (2012) – Annah FAULKNER
I don’t think I need to write here about the state of the Queensland literary scene after the axing of the QPLA, so I won’t. What I will say is […]
Tag Archives: historical novel
The Garden of Evening Mists (2012) – Tan Twan ENG
I read Tan’s first novel, The Gift of Rain, when it was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007, and loved it. The evocation of Malaysia after the Second World […]
Narcopolis (2012) – Jeet THAYIL
I should start by giving full credit to Mark from Eleutherophobia for pointing me in the direction of Narcopolis. Jeet Thayil is a well-respected Indian poet, whose own history with drug […]
Wulf (2011) – Hamish CLAYTON
I picked this up earlier in the year while I was in New Zealand in a rather excellent independent bookshop called Unity Books. I was looking for some new New […]
Spring Snow (1968) – Yukio MISHIMA
Though I can name a whole pile of contemporary Japanese authors, my experience of the modern classics remains woefully underdone. I’m trying to work my way through a lot of […]
The Roving Party (2011) – Rohan WILSON
When Rohan Wilson won the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award last year for The Roving Party, it heralded a change in the way the award functioned. No longer would we have to […]
Eleven Seasons (2012) – Paul D CARTER
I love that the Vogel winner is now published the day after the winner is announced. There was, I think, a tendency for the news to be announced and then […]
The Buddha in the Attic (2011) – Julie OTSUKA
The first chapter of The Buddha in the Attic was printed in Granta 114 (a seriously excellent collection, by the way), and the second in Granta 115. At the time, […]
The Tiger’s Wife (2011) – Téa OBRECHT
I need to start this review with a confession: I didn’t want to like The Tiger’s Wife. We have sold a huge number of copies of this book since it […]
The Light Between Oceans (2012) – M.L. STEDMAN
When a humble Australian debut author’s manuscript becomes the centre of a bidding war between nine international houses, you know there’s probably something special about the novel. Tom and Isabel […]
