House of Rougeaux opens with the brutal rape and murder of a young mother right outside the door of the hut where her small children huddle in fear. Abeje and her older brother Adunbi – with barely 10 years of age between them – are left to fend for themselves as slaves on a Caribbean […]
literary fiction
Book review: Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi
You know that Pixar movie where the girl has all the people in her head? Mad, sad and happy or something. And it’s really funny but poignant? Well, Freshwater is sort of like that. Except it’s for adults and some of the people in the girl’s head are rather malicious. Also, they’re actually gods, born and […]
Book review: Sign, by Colin Dray
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 […]
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 […]