Our latest reviews
Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging by Cher Tan
Peripathetic is a collection of nine essays by Singapore-born Australian writer Cher Tan. The essays span a diverse range of topics, from the online punk and zine scenes in Singapore and the rise of open access file sharing platform ‘Pirate…
Red River Road by Anna Downes
Katy’s sister Phoebe has vanished into thin air on a solo trip around Australia. Determined to find her when no one else can, Katy sets off in a van just like Phoebe’s, all on her own, just like Phoebe, following…
One of Us Is Missing by B.M. Carroll
This story is all a little too possible for my liking. The day I finished it, I woke at 3am in a cold sweat. This is the story that has since made me feel anxious on hearing Coldplay’s ‘Viva La…
The North Wind (The Four Winds, Book 1) by Alexandria Warwick
Wren of Edgewood lives in a world perpetually in winter. An orphan hardened by the inherent powerlessness of her situation and the struggles of being the sole provider for herself and her sister, she has always sought to protect her…
Antiquity by Hanna Johansson & Kira Josefsson (trans.)
Our narrator – lonely, introspective, of uncertain reliability – is on the Greek island of Ermoupolis, drawn there by her adoration for and desire to please an older woman, Helena. However, Helena’s younger daughter, Olga, provides at first a source…
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Izzy Keaveney is in an unhappy marriage; her friend Colette Crowley ruefully observes, ‘So what if your husband’s a bit of a bully, they all are in their own way.’ It’s 1994 in a small coastal town in County Donegal…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín’s new novel, Long Island, reunites readers with Eilis Lacey, the heroine from his wildly successful novel Brooklyn, published in 2009. It is a favourite of mine and many Readings customers, too. I was excited not only…
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Commander Graham Gore, inquisitive and stubborn explorer of the arctic, was supposed to die in 1847. Instead, a mysterious government ministry selects him, alongside a small handful of other individuals from different times throughout history, to be brought forward into…
Table for Two by Amor Towles
The television adaptation of Amor Towles charming bestseller, A Gentleman in Moscow, has just started streaming. I’m not sure how it will translate, for Towles’ writing exhibits a style and panache that sits so comfortably on the page. These…
Why Do Horses Run? by Cameron Stewart
Cameron Stewart asks many things in this novel, most pensively: what does it take to walk away from one life to another? He asks us to consider how grief and loss can separate people but also bring others together. While…
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