Hessom Razavi – an ophthalmologist and poet – explains the workings and wonder of the eye, and the range of emotions he experiences treating diseases caused by modern life or without a cure.
Khin Myint’s memoir explores family trauma and chronic illness, through the lens of his sister’s illness, childhood bullying and a brutal breakup that sparked a court case.
As a child protection worker, psychologist Ariane Beeston had taken babies away from their mothers. Then she had a baby, experiencing bouts of mental illness. Her memoir of this time is compelling.
In Splinters, Leslie Jamison confronts the expectations placed on women, especially mothers – including the dangers of making art, and being more successful at it than the man in their life.
An 8000-km hitchhiking trip is at the heart of Anna Broinowski’s Datsun Angel. Dominic Gordon, in contrast, kicks his young self around Melbourne’s alleys like a half-squashed can of energy drink.
Rushdie feared until he dealt with the attempt on his life, he ‘wouldn’t be able to write anything else’. The book is a clearly cathartic story of courage and resilience, but it’s curiously one-eyed.
Adele Dumont’s affecting memoir, The Pulling, draws the reader into the secrecy, shame and impulses behind trichotilllomania, or compulsive hair-pulling.
At 27, Robyn Davidson trekked through the Australian outback with four camels and a dog. In her long-awaited memoir we come closer to knowing why she made this journey.
Stephanie Land’s sequel to her mega-successful debut memoir Maid works as hard as she does – but while its details of low-income single-parent life as a student are valuable, it suffers by comparison.