A Booker winner,a comedy and Hitler’s obsession with Einstein

Our reviewers cast their eyes over new fiction and non-fiction releases.

  • Cameron Woodhead andSteven Carroll

Latest

Turns out,not everyone on my tram is out to infuriate me. Who knew?

Public transport is enemy territory,but sometimes the unexpected happens.

  • Brodie Lancaster
Leonardo diCaprio playing Jay Gatsby.

A century on,this Great American Novel still captivates readers

F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is said to contain some of the most perfect sentences ever written about America.

  • Jane Sullivan
Kinney and his Wimpy Kid protagonist.

Homework,bullies and pets:Jeff Kinney on why kids love his books

The American author’s Diary of A Wimpy Kid series is the fourth bestselling book series of all time - and not just in kids’ books.

  • John Bailey
Katie Kitamura’s novel demonstrates that stories themselves are equal parts light and shadow.

This hotly anticipated novel explores the dark embers of the psyche

In the third instalment of her fictional triptych,Katie Kitmaura wields her words with scalpel-like precision to explore the demands women are “expert at negotiating”.

  • Jessie Tu
Tom Hanks’ daughter E A Hanks.

Tom Hanks’ daughter reveals a childhood marred by abuse at the hands of her mother

E.A. Hanks’s memoir re-creates a road trip she once took with her late mother to seek answers to what was an “incomprehensible” childhood.

  • Nathan Smith
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Vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19.

Does the US suffer from an abundance of good intentions?

A central focus for US progressives should be raising wellbeing by creating more for everyone,argue Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their new book.

  • Andrew Leigh
Theremin player Carolina Eyck.

Even this modern maestro won’t touch the world’s weirdest instrument

The theremin’s “woo-ooo” sound has haunted music and cinema lovers for years. Carolina Eyck is the world’s best player,but she’s still making sense of it.

  • Michael Dwyer
Actress Chenoa Deemal,left,and writer Andrea James revisit a local myth in The Black Woman of Gippsland.

A missing woman,an ancient mystery. Finally,a new story emerges

Andrea James was haunted by “The White Woman of Gippsland”. Her contemporary stage thriller shifts the perspective.

  • John Bailey
One of the dance scenes - performed by professional ballet dancers - in Etoile.

This new ballet series from Gilmore Girls creators is en pointe

Emmy Award-winning husband-and-wife creative team Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s new series is a little like Emily in Paris ... but with more dancing.

  • Kylie Northover