News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
‘Zazie in the Metro’ by Raymond Queneau (translated by Barbara Wright) – Reading Matters
Fiction - paperback; Penguin Modern Classics; 192 pages; 2023. Translated from the French by Barbara Wright. First published in France as Zazie dans le metro in 1959, this novel by Raymond Queneau is regarded as a classic of French modern literature. Critics and reviewers laud its playful use of language, its comic absurdity and its…
‘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…