The Weekend is a superb study of friendship and the ties that bind us even when we are not sure if we like each other or can stand to be in each others company. It’s almost Christmas when three women, who have been friends for more than 30 years, travel to the coastal home of […]
Twelve years after he left Evelyn Bay burdened by guilt over his part in a tragedy, Keiran Elliot is back in town. He’s returned to the sleepy coastal town to help clear out his parents’ house and move his dad into a nursing home. The summer visitors have departed Evelyn Bay by the time Kieran […]
Type “Cloudstreet” into a search engine and you’ll see it described over and over again as a classic of Australian fiction. The introduction to my edition actually goes one step further — Philip Hensher calls Cloudstreet “A Great Australian Novel”that “speaks for a nation” by showing its contradictions and complexities. As a geographic outsider I’m […]
Every time I picked up my copy of My Brilliant Career, instead of delving straight into the narrative, I found myself simply staring at the cover image. That girl haunted me. At times it felt as if she was glaring at me, almost daring me to judge her behaviour and her attitudes. Other times it […]
The Sound Of One Hand Clapping is one of those novels that has leaves an indelible mark on my mind. Long after I’ll have forgotten the plot details and the names of the characters, I will remember the atmosphere of the book and the emotions I experienced when reading it. Richard Flanagan’s second novel puts […]