My, so angry. This deeply unpleasant read is populated with characters manifesting varying degrees of rage and resentment towards one another, but it’s also kind of awesome. So close to the bone. Like cyanide, it needs to be taken in small doses.
Australian Novels
The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
This is the only book of Peter Carey’s I’ve ever actually liked. He’s one of those writers you know you’re supposed to admire but I just don’t quite get most of his books. But this one is a winner. Written phonetically and often hilariously from the perspective of Ned Kelly, it’s as much about police […]
Truth by Peter Temple
Wow, the dialogue in this one is so fast, furious and full of slang and shortcuts, you feel like you’re watching The West Wing, but with filthy mouthed Australian cops. Temple demands a lot of his readers but never leaves us behind. Truth, along with it companion piece The Broken Shore, set a high standard in […]
Between A Wolf and A Dog by Geogia Blain
The story behind this 2017 novel is so sad it can only be true. Blain started writing this novel about a woman called Ester who has a brain tumour. She then found out one of her friends had a brain tumour, and she worried about the book’s impact on her friend. Then Blain found out […]
The Geography Of Friendship by Sally Piper
Oooh, this is a good one. Piper’s beautiful writing elevates this novel above so many thrillers. Her description of the Australian bush and the three women tramping through it are utterly free from cliche, and quite mesmerising. By the end we feel we know all the women well, especially Samantha. The three women, friends from […]
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
This book will forevor be associated with the excellent Netflix series made after it, and that can only be a good thing. The original book, set in Australia, takes you inside the lives of three woman dealing with young children and the emotional guagmire that comes hand in hand with them, plus domestic violence, infidelity, […]
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
I was unable to get through Richard Flanagan’s award winning Gould’s Book of Fish, but Narrow Road is much more accessible and all the better for it. In fact it’s a beautiful and profoundly moving war story which I assume stays very close to the facts, and everyone should read it. Enough said.