Bibliophile | A dream dinner party becomes reality in The Dinner List
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle Allen & Unwin Stop everything you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Think of five words that describe your current state of being. Go on … do it. Now think of five people, living or dead, that you would like to have dinner with. That’s the basis for Rebecca Serle’s […]
Perth author aims to break into mainstream with gay romance
Perth author Daniel de Lorne’s new novel is out now bringing a gay romance – between a cop and firefighter – to a mainstream audience. Daniel de Lorne is an emerging writer with a focus on LGBTQI romance. His first book, the gay romantic horror, Beckoning Blood, was published by Escape Publishing in 2014. In his other life, Daniel is a professional writer and […]
Bibliophile | Confessions of the Fox layers stories through shared history
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg Allen & Unwin Jordy Rosenberg’s debut novel is a story within a story, within a story. The first story is of 18th century English folk hero Jack Sheppard who was notorious for daring prison escapes and inspired John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. […]
Bibliophile | The Kiss Quotient ticks all the boxes
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang Allen & Unwin When Helen Hoang’s pre-school teacher suggested that her daughter might have high functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, Helen did some research. She found that there is are major differences between the condition in females as they mask their awkwardness and hide their autistic traits to become […]
Bibliophile | Ripples make the waves in Belinda Castles’ Bluebottle
Bluebottle by Belinda Castles Allen & Unwin “After midnight the heat swelled in the house on the cliff while the cool surf pounded below.” Set on Sydney’s Northern beaches, sixteen year-old Lou, fifteen year-old Jack and younger sister Phoebe live in a house overlooking the sea with their parents Charlie and Tricia. Although the novel […]
Bibliophile | Life is not like detective novels in Little Gods
Little Gods by Jenny Ackland Allen & Unwin Olive Lovelock has just turned twelve. She is an only child but her extended family, where her mother and two sisters seem to have paired up with three brothers, spend a lot of time together on the family farm in north-western Victoria. Olive is “willful, fanciful and […]
Bibliophile | Fool’s Gold takes us back to Wild Western Australia
Fool’s Gold by Fleur McDonald Allen & Unwin There are several stories that intersect in Fleur McDonald’s latest red dust mystery novel which is set in the Western Australia’s goldfields. Here, the red earth stretches for miles with lumps of quartz and ironstone promising that gold isn’t far away. The oldest story is […]
Bibliophile | The Lost Pages of literary legend Franz Kafka
The Lost Pages by Marija Peričić Allen & Unwin Franz Kafka has been referred to as the most important person in German literature but his short story The Metamorphosis was one of the few pieces of writing published in his lifetime. Dying of tuberculosis in 1924, he gave instructions to his literary executor Max Brod […]
Bibliophile | Louise Allan sings the song of two sisters in her latest novel
The Sisters’ Song by Louise Allan Allen & Unwin Although she now lives in Perth, Louise Allan grew up in Tasmania and this is where she sets her debut novel. Starting in 1926, when a meal could be made of bread and dripping and baths were a once a week occurrence, it follows the lives […]
‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ wins the 2017 Man Booker prize
The 2017 Man Booker Prize has been won by US author George Saunders for his debut novel Lincoln in the Bardo. The novel recounts a historical incident involving US President Abraham Lincoln as the starting point for a story that explores themes of death, loss and grief. When his young eleven year old son died in […]
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