This is definitely no literary masterpiece, but it is an important historical document. Nicola, who was born in Romania at the end of the 1940s, writes about what it was like growing up, and eventually entering the workforce, in a communist country. After tertiary studies he worked for the Romanian Intelligence Service, hoping that it …
This novel is about a man called Frederick Clegg, who takes his butterfly-collecting hobby to the next level. Lonely, uneducated, and somewhat strange, Clegg becomes fascinated by a middle-class art student, Miranda, and as though she is some rare butterfly he decides he wants to collect her. A large win on the pools gives Clegg …
This is a beautifully written book by a man who has spent more than five years on Manus Island, in Australia’s offshore processing centre – a centre that has nothing to do with processing and everything to do with punishment, humiliation, and the annihilation of the spirit. Arriving on Christmas Island, only days after the …
This novel ticks most of the boxes within the crime genre. Apart from dead bodies, there are suspects, convoluted background stories, some love interest and a detective – Cormac Reilly – around whom the story evolves. It is easy to read, with sufficient twists and turns to keep the reader interested from the beginning to …
The story is set in a dye factory in inner Sydney in the late 1950s. It is about ordinary people facing the beginning of what turned out to be a tumultuous upheaval brought about by the time-and-motion addicts – an upheaval that unfortunately propelled everyone into an age where profit is the only goal and …
This is a book that should be read by everyone: white, black, yellow. . . and it should be read at least twice. I say this because there is so much in the book, it is impossible to absorb everything with only one reading. Eddo-Lodge manages to alter perspectives a few degrees, so that even …
A murder mystery with a number of twists, The Book of Mirrors is divided into three separate parts; each part being told in the first person from the perspective of a different person. It is, I feel, this particular stylistic feature that gives the book its strength. The first part is has Richard Flynn at …
Cecilia discovers a letter that her husband had written years previously and which is to be opened only in the event of his death. However, she finds herself forced to open it, even though he is not dead, and as her life swirls completely out of control she probably wishes that she had never found …
Not necessarily an easy read (the book is packed with information), The Weather Makers is a book that should be read by everyone, irrespective what one thinks about climate change. In his book Tim Flannery systematically sets out all the reasons that have caused us to be where we are just now, and he paints …
This would have to be one of the best books I read in 2018; the writing is magnificent. Set in Western Australia, the descriptions of the bush are so realistic that you can hear the birds, smell the vegetation and feel the insects. The characterization is beautiful – both main characters in the novel are …