When you hit a certain age, you can count on two things: you will be nostalgic for your youth most stories you read will feel familiar in some way. So it was a pleasant surprise to come across The Changing Room – it’s unlike any novel I’d read before and it transported me back to […]
“The Changing Room” by Belinda Cranston – book review Read More »
Ben doesn’t like being a nude model in a small country town. Then again, the local footballers don’t like their girlfriends ogling Ben. Broke and lonely, Ben falls for Marty, the ambitious and violent young woman rapidly taking over her brother’s drug and gun-running trade. Once Ben gets pulled into their dark world of bikies
Welcome to a small Aussie town where the violence is rampant and the humidity’s hell Read More »
When I started reading this gentle, slow-moving novel, I couldn’t understand how it could have won the 1984 Booker Prize. It is so … slow. And yet I’m stubborn, which can make me annoying, but it also means when I buy a book I’ll force myself to keep reading, even when I want to ditch
“Hotel du Lac” by Anita Brookner – a short book review Read More »
A short story I wrote was just longlisted for the Best Australian Yarn competition by The West Australian. You can read it for free here (although the site will ask you to register first). Readers then vote to decide who wins. Part of me is ashamed about this reality-TV aspect to the competition. The other
The funniest book I read last year was a short novella called Man Overbored by Paul Laverty – and he’s just released a new comic novella called Cider Country. As with Man Overbored, Cider Country is about a motley group of misfits – although instead of being on a sinking cruise ship, this time they’re working in an apple orchard for
