A simple act of kindness puts an expat Australian’s fragile Parisian life and security at risk.

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The winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced today: Fiction A Piece of Red Cloth by Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maym…

The Man Who Loved Dolls is John Alan Scott’s seventh novel, and it’s my kind of book. At one level, it’s a cautionary tale about hubris, with two characters jousting for dominance…

I’m late with this news.  I could have sworn I signed up for updates from the HNSA, but obviously the gremlins have been at work.  Anyway, the 2026 ARA Historical Novel Prize longlist has bee…

South Australian Stephen Orr is the author of many outstanding novels so it’s hard to be objective, but I think that he has surpassed himself with his latest novel The Night Parrots.  His mag…

The 2026 Readings New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist has been announced. I’ve read some of the nominees and I predict that the judges are going to have a hard time choosing a winner. What…

I had seen the film adapted in the year 2000 from Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905), so I knew the story arc and its tragic ending but I still found reading the novel immensely enjoya…

First published in 1958, The Bell was Iris Murdoch’s fourth book, a sophisticated, richly textured novel that explores complicated feelings between complex individuals, encompassing faith, guilt, r…

Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to complete #20BooksOfWinter this year.  I’ve read and reviewed 29 books, but only 18 of those are from the UVWXYZ pile, and what is worse is …

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting up for the first time with Amanda Curtin, a WA author I discovered years ago when I read her debut novel The Sinkings (2008).  She’s not a prolific aut…

The 2026 NT Book Awards shortlists have just been announced.  They are short shortlists, but while the Northern Territory is massive in land area, it is the smallest state or territory in Australia…

M G Vassanji is a Canadian author of Indian heritage, who was born in Kenya and raised in Tanganyika, now Tanzania.  The title of this book, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall,  is clear about whe…

A former lawyer,  Melbourne author Suzy Zail is best known for her award-winning YA and children’s novels, but she also writes for adults.   Her latest novel A New Kind of Beautiful — about a…

I’m too late for #ParisInJuly hosted by Emma at Words and Peace  but I have no hesitation in recommending that readers bookmark Amanda Curtin’s new novel Six Days for next year.  It&#82…

John Williams’s Augustus — a novel about the legendary Roman emperor — is an interesting novel because so much of it has resonance with autocratic leaders of our own time: How do you oppose a…

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award longlist was announced today. What I like about this award is that it acknowledges that all forms of writing — poetry, fiction, history, biography, non-…

Following on from my review of The Songs of the Kings (2002) by Barry Unsworth, I thought I’d share my reviews of historical fiction and other retellings of ancient myth, with settings in the…

Ah… Mary Wesley… what a nostalgic treat this novel turned out to be. Mary Wesley (1912-2002) found herself in financial straits after the death of her third husband, so, aged 71, took t…

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month, but that’s the day for #6Degrees, so here we are, running late.  Jana has been busy with …