Spectrum
A touching gesture to the power of empathy
Runaways, a dual narrative memoir, is a good starting point for newcomers to the complexities of feminism and race but offers little to those already deeply immersed.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen
Latest
‘I could no longer even understand the person I was before’: The trip that changed a novelist’s life
Seven years ago, Claire G. Coleman says, her life was irrevocably changed.
- by Claire G. Coleman
Our culture of screaming at each other is making us dumber, crueller and more depressed
Bestselling author Johann Hari says changing your mind isn’t a humiliation - it’s a gift.
- by Johann Hari
‘Before I knew it, I realised ‘Oh f---, I’m an alcoholic’: Flume was flying high, but lost control
From the outside, Harley Streten looked like he had the world in the palm of his hand, but inside he was falling apart.
- by Barry Divola
Opinion
Literature
Banning books? I’m all the better for the blood and gore of my education
My high school syllabus was a bloodbath of sex and death in which students were slowly marinated for six long years.
- by Richard Glover
★★★★
Review
Claire Danes and Tom Hiddelston’s new Gothic ghost story will bewitch you
Based on an award-winning novel, The Essex Serpent is a Victorian-era tale of demons, madness and passion set on the region’s spooky marshes.
- by Kylie Northover
An intimate and insightful memoir alive with questions
Sian Prior interrogates her intense pull toward motherhood in Childless.
- by Natasha Mitchell
Is there a secret to writing a bestselling book?
No two authors are quite alike and new books by Lee Kofman and The Rosie Project’s Graeme Simsion reveal how different writing advice can be.
- by Jane Sullivan
Top books to read: Gangsters at war in one of the best crime sagas
Don Winslow’s timeless organised crime novel City on Fire leads our reviews of new fiction and non-fiction releases.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
Bringing down the bourgeoisie - with witchcraft
Jane Rawson again melds speculative and historical fiction in her latest book, with fascism meeting witchcraft.
- by Kerryn Goldsworthy
An affecting meditation on mortality
Poet Sarah Holland-Batt’s third book is, in the wake of her father’s death, a deeply felt collection.
- by Geoff Page