Samos Island was bliss. I swam in the Aegean, danced Zumba in the town square and drank Ouzo. I also read some great books! So today’s post contains reviews of Tenth of December, Shooting the Fox and The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. The first two are for short story enthusiasts and the third
All the Birds, Singing gathers pace as it steams towards its well-executed denouement. Hints are dropped like scat through the first half of the novel about why Jake Whyte is such a cagey, jittery character and carries such horrific scars on her back. The last half takes us more fully into the early experiences that
Ben Fountain’s debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, has been described by author and Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes as the Catch 22 of the Iraq War — and it won America’s National Critics Circle award for fiction in March this year. This prestigious award is judged — as the prize name suggests — solely
Josephine Rowe is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Her most recent short story collection, Tarcutta Wake (University of Queensland Press, 2012), was longlisted for the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She talked with ABBW about killer opening lines and closing lines … and what all the best writing does in between. You seem to
It is 1941, at the end of the Blitz in London during World War II, and the poet, T.S. Eliot, is fire-watching with a young woman called Iris. They are on the roof of the publishing house Faber and Faber in Bloomsbury when Jim, an Australian from Essendon, flies into their view a Wellington with a
Today’s post contains my taster reviews of Boy Lost: A Family Memoir, The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, Alone in the Classroom and The Blue Book … all worth a look. Boy Lost: A Family Memoir As she boarded a train to escape her violent marriage, Kristina Olsson’s mother, Yvonne, had her
So you’ve read every review and interview on A Bigger Brighter World, you’ve gone on to read some of the recommendations and wonder what else is out there in literary blogworld … but you shudder in trepidation at the blogjam that awaits. There are a great many book blogs out there. Here are some, mostly
In those rare moments I’m not reading or writing stories, poems, reviews and interviews, I attempt to entertain my followers and fans with all manner of bookish propaganda over on Facebook. Recent posts include links to news and videos about Hannah Kent on ABC TV’s Australian Story, National Bookshop Day, a record breaking book domino
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser, winner of the 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award, has won the 2013 Australian Literary Society Gold Medal. The ALS Gold Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year. The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne
Culture and the Arts Minister John Day has announced the shortlist for this year’s Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. The awards recognise and support excellence in writing across Australia in 2012. Mr Day said more than 500 entries were received from fiction and non-fiction writers. “From Sue Smith’s script for the televised biopic Mabo to
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