These two new romances starring bold, culturally connected heroines from Redfern and Western Sydney break the genre mould – but remain faithful to what readers love about romance.
Selby Wynn Schwartz’s inventive, poetic reimagining of lives like those of Virginia Woolf and Sarah Bernhardt – against a backdrop of Sappho – has just been longlisted for the Booker Prize.
In his 1972 novel The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin powerfully dramatised women’s suburban alienation and men’s resistance to feminist change. Michelle Arrow traces its enduring influence.
Tariq Ali’s scathing new book assessing Winston Churchill’s life and legacy paints him as a racist opportunist but overstates Churchill’s enduring influence on politics today.
The five shortlisted novels share various threads concern – childhood stories, themes of migration and male violence – but are infused with a sense of play and measured optimism.
Can you be a woman with agency, be a feminist and have faith? After her marriage breaks down, former Pentecostal preacher Louise Omer travels the world in search of answers.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied left Australia in 2017 after being hounded by right wing media and politicians. Has Australia changed since? In her new book of essays she believes a better way is possible.
What is the appeal of cults? How do they work? And what is the damage they do? A new book, by the creator of the podcast Let’s Talk About Sects, answers these questions and more.
A powerful new memoir of prison life in the 1960s and 70s – uncovered while researching lesbians in Sydney – is a searing indictment of Australian society and its institutions.
Buys, the award-winning novel by Willem Anker, uses lines without credit from the Irish writer - not the first such literary controversy it has raised.
Tim Rowse concludes that Paul Daley’s new novel, inspired by true events in Arnhem Land, is fluent and skilfully paced – but doesn’t risk complicating the critical narrative of our colonial history.