Tag Archives: book reviews

The Year of the Farmer  by Rosalie Ham. Here is a brilliant, satirical evocation of Australian rural life. Mitch Bishop’s farm is going to hell in a handbasket, owing mainly to drought. Water is more precious than gold, and is … Continue reading →

  Seeing George by Cassandra Austin.  As a young woman, Violet met a man named George – except that he didn’t look like a man. He looked exactly like a dragon. And nobody but her saw him as a dragon. … Continue reading →

    A Month of Sundays by Liz Byrski. Those of us who read fiction know that a thoughtful novel can illuminate our own lives in gratifying ways. In this recent novel by Byrski, four women from different backgrounds gather … Continue reading →

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt. It’s bracing to read a novel that deals with the lives of women respectfully, intelligently, and with compassion and sly humour. Nothing cosy or PC about her observations, either. Several narrative strands run … Continue reading →

  A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey. In 1954 The Australian Redex Car Trials were conducted, over a dangerous and difficult route nick-named ‘the crystal highway’ (broken glass). In this, Peter Carey’s latest novel, diminutive car dealer Titch … Continue reading →

  Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: a retelling by Peter Ackroyd When biographer/historian Peter Ackroyd turns his hand to something, you listen. In this volume he translates Chaucer’s fourteenth century work into something we can more easily understand. The General … Continue reading →

The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton – A new novel by Tim Winton is always an event. And what do we have here, this time? Two characters only, centre-stage: one, Jaxie Clackton, a damaged, hopped-up teenager running from his ruin of … Continue reading →