I fully expect Sign, by Colin Dray, to be made into a quintessential Australian road trip movie in the next few years. I’m thinking Toni Collette as the well-meaning but disturbed Aunt Dettie who takes Sam and his sister Katie from their home on the east coast, on an impromptu long, hot road trip to Perth […]
literary fiction
Book review: See What I Have Done, by Sarah Schmidt
Remember Lizzie Borden, accused then acquitted of murdering her father and step-mother with an axe in 1892? See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt’s, retelling of the story, is intensely and wonderfully insane. Also beautifully written. When her father and step-mother are found brutally murdered on a summer morning in 1892, Lizzie Borden – thirty […]
Book review: Sugar Money, by Jane Harris
It’s been a few days since I finished reading Sugar Money, Jane Harris’s third novel. But I’ve still got Lucien, the 12-year-old narrator, chatting away inside my head in his mash-up of English, French and Creole. I’m still worried about whether he’ll be okay. The characters in this book really do get under your skin that […]
Book review: Birdcage Walk, by Helen Dunmore
Set in 1792 Bristol, Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore starts with the murder of a woman. It then meanders along like a delightful historical fiction novel, following the daily lives of Lizzie – newly wed to property developer, John Diner Tredevant – and her family. Her mother, a prolific put dirt poor political pamphlet writer, her […]
Review: Nest, by Inga Simpson
After the death of her mother, Jen buys a small house in the rainforest with her inheritance and retires, living off the income of the occasional art class and selling her own artwork. But first Jen must come to terms with the unresolved disappearance of her childhood friend many years ago. Especially as a similar […]
A Piece of the World, by Christina Baker Kline – Review
A Piece of the World follows the imagined life of Christina Olson, reputed muse of artist Andrew Wyeth and subject of his famous painting, Christina’s World. Baker Kline’s new novel is unrelentingly bleak, strangely compelling and hauntingly beautiful. Struck down at the age of 3 by a degenerative condition that affected her mobility and caused near-constant pain […]