Robbie Egan
Robbie Egan is a former operations manager for Readings
Review — 24 Sep 2017
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan’s wonderful new novel Manhattan Beach begins in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, where smooth union bagman Eddie Kerrigan is struggling to keep his family above water. Eddie moves…
Review — 25 Sep 2016
Dr Knox by Peter Spiegelman
Adam Knox is a man of contradictions. Altruistic by day, he runs a clinic for the poor, the drug addicted, the prostitutes and homeless of downtown Los Angeles. Mercenary by…
Review — 22 Aug 2016
We. Are. Family. by Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell’s first novel is an exploration of Australian masculinity and the suffocating limitations we place on our boys and men. The first page is a family tree, but not…
Review — 25 Apr 2016
Zero K by Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo has enthralled readers over the years with his distinctive brand of hyper-realism. His characters speak in DeLillo-speak, challenging ideas in a unique tone that is at once ponderously…
Review — 29 Mar 2016
From the Outer edited by Nicole Hayes and Alicia Sometimes
I approach writing about football with a degree of trepidation. The game is rich in vernacular and this often seems to result in an exercise in extreme verisimilitude that underwhelms…
Review — 27 Apr 2015
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
I’ve been waiting for a Jim Shepard novel since Project X, his searing portrait of misfit boys and their ultimately violent reaction to their isolation. The Book of Aron…
Review — 27 Jul 2015
Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety by Poe Ballantine
Poe Ballantine is building fine body of work, in particular his tragicomic nonfiction in which he explores and chronicles his own and America’s frailties, absurdities and shortcomings. Guidelines for Mountain…
Review — 23 Sep 2015
Ghost River by Tony Birch
Ren is a bit of loner in his early teens. Not lonely, but a boy who makes the time go past without the help of others. Ren’s outlook for summer…
Review — 22 Jul 2014
Game Day by Miriam Sved
Miriam Sved’s debut novel strips back the corporate persona of an AFL club by weaving together a series of individual perspectives of our indigenous game. Players, scouts, coaches, groupies: none…
Review — 27 Aug 2013
Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere by Poe Ballantine
Poe Ballantine’s new memoir is a fascinating book on many levels. At its bare bones it is a story about failure – personal and professional – and the myriad ways…