Workers disinfect Istanbul’s Suleymaniye Mosque in 2020.
Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
Nights of Plague is set on a fictional island in the early 20th century. Is it an allegory of empire’s fall; a contemplation on corruption and East-West tension or a reflection on pandemic life?
Tolga Akmen/EPA
In this tender, thought-provoking novel, an award-winning writer explores the ambivalence that often attends female friendship.
Tilly Devine, State Reformatory, NSW, 1925.
Public domain/Wikimedia commons
A panoramic tale and an in-depth character study, Iris immerses its readers in a world of impoverishment and struggle.
Elizabeth Strout.
Photo: Leonard Cendamo
Elizabeth Strout’s novel Oh William! has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her follow up book takes us inside the head of a small, loving, anxious, slightly neurotic person during lockdown.
Burnt bushland, the Blue Mountains, December 2019.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Shaun Prescott’s second novel is a gothic tale of skin-crawling, psychological dysfunction.
‘Trallib (Oil Container),’ by Norman Daly, 1970. Daily made this object with an orange juicer.
Photo by Marilyn Rivchin
Norman Daly’s 1972 exhibition, ‘The Civilization of Llhuros,’ presented fiction as fact – and reminded viewers of just how easily they could be duped.
Social distancing in a New York park, 2020.
John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx Credit: AP
Four different authors – Sarah Moss, Roddy Doyle, Anne Tyler and Gary Shteyngart – tell four different stories of life in a time of COVID.
The Triumph of Death - Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1592).
Public domain
The Gothic horrorshow of Ottessa Moshfegh’s latest novel has sharply divided critical opinion.
Image by Victoria_Borodinova from Pixabay
This Book Week, don’t stress about the costume and don’t worry about what the other mums or dads are sewing or buying. Costumes are fun but what matters is to let your kid read what they enjoy.
Streetscenes, Melbourne, 1950.
Mark Strizic/State Library of Victoria
Jay Carmichael’s novel explores how Australian same-sex attracted men lived during the repressive period after the end of the second world war. But does it impose present concerns on the past?
An anonymous 15th century painting of Isabella and Richard II.
Wikimedia Commons
When Stephanie Trigg was a young reader, The Gentle Falcon, set in 1396, introduced her to the beauty and danger of the medieval world.
An early poster for Monkey Grip, starring Noni Hazelhurst and Colin Friels.
MIFF
Ken Cameron’s film of Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip is dark, yearning, weird – and incredibly sexy – writes Ronnie Scott.
Jennifer Down.
Photo: Monique Ferguson
Bodies of Light is brutally precise in its portrayal of the enduring consequences of a traumatic childhood.
Kevin Laminto/Unsplash
Shades of classic literature are discernible in The Diplomat, a novel that delves into the disreputable worlds of art and drug addiction.
Gwen Harwood (1920-1995).
A.T. Bolton/Wikimedia commons
Two new books examine the life and legacy of an inspiring poet whose work resisted patriarchal constraints.
Persuasion. Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot in Persuasion.
Cr. Nick Wall/Netflix © 2022
Persuasion is a distinctly romantic modern comedy in tone – but how much does historical accuracy matter?
Image by rawpixel.com
Pure Colour confirms Sheila Heti as one of the most inventive, searching, scintillating and mind-bending writers working today.
Shutterstock
At Certain Points We Touch tells the story of a doomed relationship in a way that explores the parallels between writing and coming out.
shutterstock.
The old-fashioned Hollywood femme fatale leaps off the leopard skin rug to hijack the narrative in this lurid, avant-garde novel.
The growth of benefits derived from reading for pleasure starts young.
(Shutterstock)
Verbal abilities provide benefits in school and in one’s career. Fostering a love for stories and fiction in children should be a high priority.