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‘Translations’ by Jumaana Abdu – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Vintage Australia; 336 pages; 2024. Building a garden as a form of healing is a common theme in literary fiction, but Jumaana Abdu's novel Translations is the first I have read in which the protagonist is a Muslim doing so in rural New South Wales. Shortlisted for this year's Stella Prize, the…
‘A Language of Limbs’ by Dylin Hardcastle – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Picador Australia; 304 pages; 2024. Dylin Hardcastle is a young Australian author, artist and screenwriter who previously wrote under the name Sophie Hardcastle. In 2020, I read their novel Below Deck about a young woman who has an emotional reckoning and enjoyed its impressive prose and mix of drama, suspense and quiet…
‘Rapture’ by Emily Maguire – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Allen & Unwin; 310 pages; 2024. Emily Maguire's Rapture is the story of an "unmarriageable girl" in the 9th century who disguises herself as a man to lead the kind of life denied to her as a woman. She becomes a scholar and scribe in a Mainz monastery and later a respected…
‘The Burrow’ by Melanie Cheng – Reading Matters
Fiction - Kindle edition; Text Publishing; 192 pages; 2024. Review copy via NetGalley courtesy of the publisher. Melanie Cheng's The Burrow has been longlisted for this year's Stella Prize. This short novel, set in Melbourne during the COVID-19 pandemic, explores themes of grief and hope, using a pet rabbit as a metaphor for the fragility…
‘The Ghosts of Rome’ by Joseph O’Connor – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Harvill Secker; 384 pages; 2025. The Ghosts of Rome is the second book in Joseph O'Connor's Rome Escape Line trilogy — but it works as a standalone. The first book, My Father's House, was set in September 1943; this one is set in February 1944, six months after Nazi forces occupy Rome…
‘The Thinning’ by Inga Simpson – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Hachette Australia; 280 pages; 2024. Inga Simpson's The Thinning is a fast-paced dystopian novel set in Gamilaraay country in regional New South Wales. While it's an enjoyable read, it left me feeling like I'd just eaten a big bag of marshmallows — soft and sweet but ultimately lacking in substance. And yet…
‘Naming the Stars’ by Jennifer Johnston – Reading Matters
Fiction - Kindle edition; Tinder Press; 91 pages; 2015. The sad news that Irish writer Jennifer Johnston died last week prompted me to extract this novella from my digital TBR, where it's been sitting for almost a decade. Naming the Stars, published in 2015, was her final book. It’s quintessential Jennifer Johnston fare, focused on…
Vale Jennifer Johnston – Reading Matters
Vale Irish writer and playwright Jennifer Johnston who died earlier this week, aged 95. Long-time followers of this blog will know that I describe her as "my favourite living writer" and I'm not sure there's anyone else who can now step into those shoes. I only discovered she had died when I got a sudden…
‘The Country Girls’ by Edna O’Brien – Reading Matters
A Year With Edna O'Brien | #EdnaObrien2025 Fiction - paperback; W&N; 240 pages; 2007. It’s the last week of February, so it’s time to kick off my first contribution to A Year with Edna O'Brien, which I am co-hosting with Cathy from 746 Books. The Country Girls was O'Brien's debut novel and the one that,…
‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ by David Sedaris – Reading Matters
Non-fiction - hardcover; Little, Brown; 272 pages; 2022. Putting aside the ultra-creepy cover (I don't like clowns), David Sedaris' Happy-Go-Lucky is a right laugh. I chuckled through it and marked dozens of pages featuring great one-liners and funny quips. The book comprises 18 essays, most of them previously published in the New Yorker and other…
‘Dreams of Revenge’ by Kevin Casey – Reading Matters
Fiction - hardcover; Faber & Faber; 135 pages; 1977. Kevin Casey (1940-2022) was an Irish writer, married to Eavan Boland (1944-2020), an acclaimed poet and professor at Stanford University, with whom he had two daughters. He wasn't a prolific writer — he had just four critically acclaimed novels to his name — and there's next…
‘A Man’s Place’ by Annie Ernaux (translated by Tanya Leslie) – Reading Matters
Non-fiction - paperback; Fitzcarraldo Editions; 80 pages; 2020. Translated from the French by Tanya Leslie Annie Ernaux's A Man's Place might only be 80 pages long, but it’s such a richly detailed read that it feels much longer. The book — first published in 1983 — is an introspective and candid memoir focusing on the…
‘Juice’ by Tim Winton – Reading Matters
Fiction - hardcover; Hamish Hamilton; 528 pages; 2024. The juice on Juice is that it's juicy! But in all seriousness, Tim Winton's latest novel — his 13th (some of which are reviewed here) — is full of the good stuff. It's a bit of a departure for him because (1) it's dystopian, and (2) it's…
‘The Adversary’ by Ronnie Scott – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Penguin; 244 pages; 2020. I don’t know how I feel about Ronnie Scott’s debut novel The Adversary. It’s one of those books that is enjoyable to read, but so little of it sticks afterwards you wonder if you read it at all. But what does stick with me is the “vibe” —…
‘Grant & I: Inside and Outside the Go-Betweens’ by Robert Forster – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Penguin; 352 pages; 2017. We created the most romantic thing two heterosexual men can, a pop group. Between us it was always an exchange (page 126). Robert Forster co-founded the Australian indie band the Go-Betweens with Grant McLennan in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The Forster/McLennan songwriting partnership was one of the most…
‘Girl on a Bicycle’ by Leland Bardwell – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Liberties Press; 192 pages; 2009. What a great find this wonderful book turned out to be! I purchased it about 15 years ago in a bargain bin at Hodges Figgis in Dublin for €7.99, but it's been languishing in my TBR ever since. I plucked it off the shelf at random last…
‘Long Island’ by Colm Tóibín – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Picador; 304 pages; 2024. Long Island is the sequel to Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, which was the story of a young Irish émigré moving to the US in the 1950s, torn between two countries and two love interests. Long Island picks up Eilis Lacey’s life 20 years later. Married to Italian-American…
‘A Perfect Day to be Alone’ by Nanae Aoyama (translated by Jesse Kirkwood) – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; MacLehose Press; 125 pages; 2024. Translated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood. A Perfect Day to be Alone by Nanae Aoyama won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary award, in 2006 when the author was just 24. It was translated into English for the first time last year and has been…
‘Here’s Luck’ by Lennie Lower – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; A&R Classics; 234 pages; 2014. How could I resist buying a book with such a great photograph on its cover? Lennie Lower's Here's Luck is an Australian classic, often considered "Australia's funniest book" — which really sets an expectation, right? First published in 1930, it's set in Sydney during the early Depression…
‘Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s Strongman Politics’ by Lech Blaine (Quarterly Essay #93) – Reading Matters
Non-fiction - paperback/magazine; Quarterly Essay; 171 pages; March 2024. Peter Dutton, the leader of Australia's (right-wing) Liberal Party and current Leader of the Opposition, needs no introduction to Australian readers. For those abroad, think of him as a less flamboyant version of Donald Trump or the UK's Priti Patel — tough on immigration and national…
‘The Pornographer’ by John McGahern – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Faber and Faber; 260 pages; 2009. Most longtime followers of this blog will know that John McGahern (1934-2006) is my favourite writer. I discovered him not long after he died, promptly went out and bought all his novels (just six; he wasn't prolific) and read them all bar one. I ended up…
‘Highway 13’ by Fiona McFarlane – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Allen & Unwin; 320 pages; 2024. Fiona McFarlane's Highway 13 made my list of favourite books of 2024. It's a themed collection of short stories centred around the crimes of a serial killer, but this book is not what you might think. Contrary to what the blurb and some reviewers suggest, Highway…
‘Dusk’ by Robbie Arnott – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Picador Australia; 264 pages; 2024. Around the world, stories of mysterious "big cats" have captured imaginations, from the UK's Beast of Bodmin Moor to Australia's Blue Mountains panther. These large, panther-like creatures are often spotted in rural or remote areas, though they’re not native to the countries where they’re seen. Some locals…
‘The Deal’ by Alex Miller – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Allen & Unwin; 304 pages; 2024. At 87, award-winning Australian writer Alex Miller could easily be forgiven for stepping away from writing. Yet, he continues to create engaging stories that delve into the complexities of the human experience — The Deal is no exception. Miller's 14th novel revisits themes familiar in his…
‘Open Water’ by Caleb Azumah Nelson – Reading Matters
Fiction - hardcover; Viking; 160 pages; 2021. Do you sometimes pick up a book and get so completely swept away by the story that you lose all sense of time? That happened to me when I read Open Water, by British-Ghanian writer Caleb Azumah Nelson, a novella I had picked up by chance at my…
‘Imminence’ by Mariana Dimópulos (translated by Alice Whitmore) – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Giramondo; 176 pages; 2019. Translated from the Spanish by Alice Whitmore. Imminence, by Mariana Dimópulos, is the story of a first-time mother grappling with her lifelong emotional detachment, a challenge that intensifies when she brings her baby home. It was originally published in 2014 in Argentina as Pendiente and translated from Spanish into…