Joe Rubbo

Joe Rubbo is the managing director of Readings

Review — 1 Mar 2021

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

In Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro returns to dystopian terrain, much like his earlier, and most well-known novel, Never Let Me Go. As in Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro…

Read more ›

Review — 21 Oct 2019

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

I’ll start out by saying that The Topeka School is one of my favourite novels of the year. I was already a fan, having loved his previous two novels, Leaving

Read more ›

Blog post — 28 Oct 2020

Elizabeth Tan wins the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2020

It is a great pleasure to announce Elizabeth Tan’s Smart Ovens for Lonely People as the 2020 winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. This is a truly…

Read more ›

Blog post — 23 Aug 2020

The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction shortlist 2020

Congratulations to the six emerging Australian authors who feature on this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction shortlist: Lauren Aimee Curtis, Joey Bui, Yumna Kassab, Laura Jean McKay, Elizabeth…

Read more ›

Review — 25 Jun 2019

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead’s first novel since his Pulitzer prize-winning The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys is historical fiction. Whitehead based the setting on the Dozier School for Boys and drew…

Read more ›

Review — 23 Sep 2019

Act of Grace by Anna Krien

Anna Krien will be known to readers as the author of two works of narrative nonfiction, Into the Woods and Night Games – both important explorations into Australian life and…

Read more ›

Blog post — 28 Mar 2018

Meet the bookseller with Joe Rubbo

Joe Rubbo has worked on and off at Readings over the past 13 years, and is the son of our managing director, Mark Rubbo. The former manager at Readings Doncaster…

Read more ›

Review — 25 Feb 2018

Don't Skip Out On Me by Willy Vlautin

Willy Vlautin is one of those dependable writers who has staked out his territory and is sticking to it. He writes about characters on the American fringe. People who are…

Read more ›

Review — 25 Jun 2014

Stoner: A Novel by John Williams

Stoner’s recent appearance on bestseller lists the world over has to be one of the stranger stories in publishing. First published in 1965, the work was a modest critical and…

Read more ›

Blog post — 3 Apr 2014

What I Loved: Jesus' Son

A few years ago I was listening my way through the New Yorker fiction podcasts – a new discovery to me at the time – when I came across Denis…

Read more ›