(translated from Italian by Katherine Gregor) About the Book: A story of three generations of women, their courage and search for independence in the face of superstition and prejudice, in the spirit of Natalia Ginzburg and Elena Ferrante. In this striking debut, based on a true story, Valeria Usala bears witness to an age-old story … Continue reading Book Review: A Woman in Sardinia by Valeria Usala
Literary Fiction
Book Review: My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown #AYearofNZLit
About the Book: While Stella Miles Franklin took on the world, her beloved sister Linda led a short, domestic life as a wife, mother and sister. In a remarkable, genre-bending debut novel Amy Brown thrillingly reimagines those two lives – and her own – to explore and explode the contradictions embedded in brilliant careers and … Continue reading Book Review: My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown #AYearofNZLit
Book Review: Body Friend by Katherine Brabon
About the Book: A woman leaves the hospital after an operation and starts swimming in a pool in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. There she meets Frida, who is uncannily like her in her experience of illness. Soon after, she meets another woman in a local park, Sylvia, who sees her pain and encourages her to rest. The … Continue reading Book Review: Body Friend by Katherine Brabon
Book Review: Juja by Nino Haratischvili (trans. Ruth Martin)
About the Book: Published for the first time in English, the sweeping debut novel set in bohemian Paris, by the author of international bestseller The Eighth Life. In 1953, a teenage girl, Jeanne Saré, jumps in front of a train at the Gare du Nord station. She leaves behind writings that to some are unreadable, but … Continue reading Book Review: Juja by Nino Haratischvili (trans. Ruth Martin)
Book Review: The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall
About the Book: An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault.Longlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2024Sydney Morning Herald Best Reads of the Year for 2023 One of the lucky few with a … Continue reading Book Review: The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall
Book Review: The Conversion by Amanda Lohrey
About the Book: The conversion was Nick’s idea. Nick: so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to design the perfect environment, convinced it could heal a wounded soul. The conversion was Nick’s idea, but it’s Zoe who’s here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out … Continue reading Book Review: The Conversion by Amanda Lohrey
Book Review: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
About the Book: The Booker Prize 2023 Winner The explosive literary sensation: a mother faces a terrible choice as Ireland slides into totalitarianism. On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are … Continue reading Book Review: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Book Review: Bird Life by Anna Smaill
About the Book: The second novel by Booker Prize longlisted author Anna Smaill. A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently. In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the … Continue reading Book Review: Bird Life by Anna Smaill
Book Review: Mary or, The Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
Translated by Laura Watkinson About the Book: 1816. Mary, eighteen years old, is staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with her lover Percy Shelley. She is tormented by his infidelities; haunted by the loss of her baby daughter. Then one evening with friends, as storms rage outside and laudanum stirs their imaginations, Lord Byron … Continue reading Book Review: Mary or, The Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
The 20/40 Prize 2023: Reviewing the Winners
20/40—a new independent publishing prize for fiction and non-fiction Independent, non-profit publisher Finlay Lloyd has established a new competition to encourage and support writing of the highest quality. In an environment where writers find it increasingly difficult to find an audience, Finlay Lloyd is branching out to offer a publishing opportunity for fiction and non-fiction … Continue reading The 20/40 Prize 2023: Reviewing the Winners
Theresa Smith Writes 