About the Book: Evelyn is teaching English in Sarajevo, a beautiful city still recovering almost two decades after the long and brutal siege in the 1990s. Life in the city is tenuous yet welcoming. Dedicated to her work preparing high-schoolers for a scholarship that could change the course of their lives, Evelyn feels more herself … Continue reading Book Review: Time and Tide in Sarajevo by Bronwyn Birdsall
Contemporary Fiction
Book Review: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
About the Book: There were a dozen witnesses to Denny Tran’s brutal murder in a busy Sydney restaurant. So how come no one saw anything? ‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny … Continue reading Book Review: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
Book Review: The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
About the Book: It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents: daydreaming, playing Tetris, and listening to the sounds from the street above. The heat rises; the days slip by. The plan is … Continue reading Book Review: The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
Book Review: Faithless by Alice Nelson
About the Book: Set between India and England, Faithless is the story of Cressida, a writer and translator, and her consuming love for Max, an enigmatic older writer – and married man. Cressida’s passion for Max engulfs her from the first giddy rush of sensation when she meets him in the mountains of southern India. It is … Continue reading Book Review: Faithless by Alice Nelson
Book Review: Salt and Skin by Eliza Henry-Jones
About the Book: Grief-stricken and on the verge of a breakdown, Luda Managan and her two teenaged children try to make a home for themselves on a collection of harsh and haunted Scottish islands. Luda, a photographer, is mesmerised by the extraordinary magic of the islands and soon finds herself condemned by the local community after … Continue reading Book Review: Salt and Skin by Eliza Henry-Jones
Book Review: Young Women by Jessica Moor
About the Book: A vivid, bold and compelling new novel of female friendship and what it means to be a young woman after MeToo, from one of the most exciting young novelists writing today. Everyone's got that history, I guess. Everyone's got a story. When Emily meets the enigmatic and dazzling actress Tamsin, her life … Continue reading Book Review: Young Women by Jessica Moor
Book Review: I’m Sorry You Feel that Way by Rebecca Wait
About the Book: Immensely readable and gorgeously comic, this is Rebecca's finest novel yet. For Alice and Hanna, saint and sinner, growing up is a trial. There is their mother, who takes a divide and conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, who takes an absent one. There is their older brother Michael, whose disapproval … Continue reading Book Review: I’m Sorry You Feel that Way by Rebecca Wait
Book Review: Someone Else’s Child by Kylie Orr
About the Book: A gripping contemporary novel from a magnificent new talent that tackles the almost unbreakable loyalty of female friendships, the generosity of community and the lengths we will go to save a child. Ren will do anything for her best friend, Anna. The news that Anna's daughter Charlotte has terminal brain cancer sends … Continue reading Book Review: Someone Else’s Child by Kylie Orr
Book Review: The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
Set in rural England, 1989, The Perfect Golden Circle tells the story of two men who set out over the course of a summer to form elaborate crop circle patterns in the wheat fields under the cover of darkness. As their circles become increasingly intricate, their work gathers an international cult like following, pushing them … Continue reading Book Review: The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
Book Review: Bone Memories by Sally Piper
About the Book: Even though sixteen years have passed, Billie will never recover from the murder of her daughter, Jess, and clings to her memory — and the site of her death — like a life raft. Daniel, who was a toddler when his mother was killed, can recall little of what happened but knows … Continue reading Book Review: Bone Memories by Sally Piper
Theresa Smith Writes 