Orbital is a slim volume that packs a punch. It richly deserves the 2024 Booker Prize. Six astronauts from five different countries (two are from Russia) and their experiences in the International Space Station are the focus of the book. Yet the beating heart of Orbital is the Earth. The astronauts live in a different […]
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Niall William’s latest novel, Time of the Child, is one of those books that transports you to another time and place in the company of characters you really care about. The opening sentence sets the scene and the hook for the story: ‘This is what happened in Faha over the Christmas of 1962, in what
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Joseph Roth’s novel, The Radetzky March, has been hailed by Michael Ondaatje as ‘one of the 20th century’s great historical novels.’ It was first published in German in 1932 and only made available to English-speaking readers in 2002 in a translation by Michael Hoffmann. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace. Each scene is replete
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Over the summer break, I read six books, three of which I really enjoyed. I couldn’t choose between them for a review so I’ve written a few words about each. I found Tell me Everything a great indulgence after the hectic days leading up to Christmas. It has a warm conversational tone and involves
As summer holidays approach in Australia, dedicated readers look forward to giving and receiving books for Christmas and to holidays filled with reading pleasure. This is also a time for the publication of lists of the best books. I’d like to share with you some of those lists, sourced from the Sydney Morning Herald and
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Joanne Fedler wrote The Whale’s Last Song, her fifteenth published book, as a children’s story before her editor urged her to rewrite it for adults. I think it works as both. Written after Fedler’s mother’s death, this uplifting gem of a book retains the structure and narrative elements of a traditional fable and includes elements
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Storm Child is the fourth book in a thriller series by Australian author, Michael Robotham. All four involve forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac, a traumatised young woman aged twenty-two in Storm Child. Both Cyrus and Evie have been psychologically damaged. As a boy, Cyrus returned from football practice to discover the bodies of
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Please note that I had my facts wrong about Australian authors and the Booker Prize. I have revised the second sentence of my previous written and recorded post (please see below). When I read that Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, I was not surprised. Wood is
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In Highway 13, Fiona McFarlane has written a series of linked short stories, all of which are captivating. The stories all refer in some way to a well-known serial killer in Australia who is named in this book as Paul Biga. He picked up hitchhikers south of Sydney and killed them. Many of the
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Sebastian Barry’s novel, Old God’s Time, was on the longlist for the Booker Prize for 2023 along with several other works by Irish writers, including the winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Last month I wrote about the magnificent novel, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray and I have just finished Colm Toibin’s latest work,
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