Culture
Books
Eleven years ago, she won NSW’s most prestigious book prize. She just did it again
Ali Cobby Eckermann always wanted to be a writer. Now she’s received the highest accolade in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for the second time.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
Latest
Three writers named 2024 Best Young Australian Novelists
Now in its 28th year, the prize is given to an Australian writer of fiction aged 35 or under.
- by Melanie Kembrey
A frantic call from a sinking ship: this novel opens with a coroner’s report
Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran has an agenda in her new book Safe Haven, as our desire not to see has only been strengthened.
- by Helen Elliott
‘That was hard to believe’: Crime writer Michael Connelly’s top 3 career highlights
The former LA Times crime writer turned bestselling author has written 38 novels, some of which are now movies and TV series. He’s in Australia this month.
- by Helen Pitt
Who stole Picasso’s Weeping Woman? This novel could have the answer
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction releases, including historical fiction, a ripping yarn about the Labor Party and MasterChef inaugural winner Julie Goodwin’s memoir.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
Salman Rushdie’s memoir is the work of a supreme storyteller
The novelist’s account of the brutal attack on him and how he survived is moving, ghastly and full of self-scrutiny.
- by Peter Craven
Alice Munro, Nobel winner, revered short story master dies, 92
Often ranked with Anton Chekhov, John Cheever and a handful of others, Munro achieved stature rare for an art form traditionally placed beneath the novel.
- by Hillel Italie
‘Red light and speed camera ahead’: The ambiguity of Google Maps
Are there two cameras, one for speeding and one for lights? Or just one camera? Voiced messages lack the punctuation to eliminate the doubt.
- by David Astle
On the road with the Blues Brothers and a mission from God
Journalist Daniel de Visé tells the story of the classic comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
- by Nathan Smith
Fiction is a sort of warning call, and we’re ignoring history
American writer Celeste Ng’s first two novels were realist domestic fiction, but her third was a more political creation.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen
What are the secret ingredients of the ‘romantasy’ genre? Sex and spice
The latest literature genre is a blend of romance and fantasy, and it’s proving to be a bestselling phenomenon.
- by Jane Sullivan