Edward St Aubyn’s satire Lost for Words skewers literary prizes and the foibles of those who enter and judge them. It’s a stylish and enjoyable romp that reeled me in. Funny and caustic in equal measure, there’s a touch of pantomime and moustachioed suspense as the announcement of the winner draws nigh. Who will claim
Australian author Gerald Murnane’s work has been compared favourably with Proust’s and his latest novel explores the trust that grows up between writer and reader in a certain kind of fiction. Here are six good reasons to read A Million Windows … even if you suspect it might do your head in! Redolence of Proust
If you like your fictional feasts seasoned with umami, Silence Once Begun should tempt your tastebuds. Sweet, bitter, sour and salty are standard flavours in western fare. Umami is savoury and hails from the east. It’s hard to get the right balance of flavours in fiction as in food … but in Silence Once Begun
My author profile of Mark O’Flynn and his fabulous short story collection White Light is published on the international short story forum THRESHOLDS this week. In Mark’s story ‘Red Shoes’, the shoes encapsulate much about Dorothy Hewett’s character. She’d been a Communist, feminist, atheist and sexual libertarian. The shoes are a striking symbol of how
This debut novel casts tender eyes over the life of one woman of the Irish diaspora. Tess is only a young girl when her mother dies from tuberculosis and it sets the emotional tone for much of her life. The ache travels within her to America and into love … and it spans six decades.
Orphaned buttons corralled in a tin and a fragile woman’s poems hidden in a car glove box … in this Q&A Vivienne Plumb reveals how such details helped shape the title story of her new collection, to be launched in Sydney on August 16. The Glove Box & Other Stories will be launched at the
On A Bigger Brighter World’s Facebook page this week we’ve seen cool bookstores and amazing libraries, the Man Booker longlist, the WA Premier’s shortlist and some Pen Literary Award winners. There were one hundred novels to consider and nine to recommend. There was literary Lego and literary tattoos (twice) and items about Murnane and Bolano.
There are good reasons this evocative novel about love, obsession and restrained sexual identity — set mainly in an internment camp in rural Victoria during World War II — was shortlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Award … so check it out! What are we talking about? My Beautiful Enemy is the second novel by Australian author Cory Taylor.
Lost & Found is the debut novel of the year in Australia (so far) and it’s a pearl. Brooke Davis, its 34-year-old West Australian author, is a little breathless with all the fuss — and who wouldn’t be? A week before the book’s launch in Australia, it had been sold into 25 countries to be
Dear Writer, I’m so excited that Virginia O’Day popped by this week to answer some of your curlier questions about writing fiction! Virginia is the wise narrator of Dear Writer Revisited by Australian author Carmel Bird and the book is a brilliant guide for all wordsmiths — fledgling or experienced. If you want inspiration, practical
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