Wry humour,an underdog tale and banned novels:10 new books

Wry humour,an underdog tale and banned novels:10 new books

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

  • byCameron Woodhead andSteven Carroll

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The phrase ‘dog act’ has overstayed its welcome

The phrase ‘dog act’ has overstayed its welcome

Let’s take it for a long drive into the country and throw it unceremoniously off the back of the ute.

  • byDavid Free
The dystopian novel that might make you consider the current reality

The dystopian novel that might make you consider the current reality

Laila Lalami imagines a world in which our dreams are monitored for clues to potential crimes

  • byMadeleine Heffernan
An election and wild weather couldn’t stop our most isolated writers festival

An election and wild weather couldn’t stop our most isolated writers festival

More than 50 writers,including Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey,feminist icon turned crime writer Jane Caro and bestselling Irish novelist Marian Keyes descended on Margaret River for the annual writers festival.

  • byJane Sullivan
These diaries of Joan Didion should never have been published

These diaries of Joan Didion should never have been published

Notes to John is a crude,even aberrant,addition to Didion’s published writings.

  • byNathan Smith
A piercing,poignant tale about love,loss and writing

A piercing,poignant tale about love,loss and writing

Caro Llewellyn’s Love Unedited is a read for the tender of heart and independent of spirit.

  • byVanessa Francesca
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Forty years on,Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit still tells a radical truth

Forty years on,Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit still tells a radical truth

Jeanette Winterson is still showing us how to turn estrangement,exile and eccentricity into art.

  • byJane Sullivan
Google translate? No thanks,these writers prove their human worth

Google translate? No thanks,these writers prove their human worth

This Melbourne Writers Festival event aims to remind us that literary translation is an art,and to protect it from becoming the next victim of AI.

  • byNell Geraets
I lie and steal for a living,but what I did to my family shocked me

I lie and steal for a living,but what I did to my family shocked me

Knowing next to nothing about my ancestors didn’t stop me from turning them into literary fodder.

  • byDominic Amerena
Darkness,desire and dewy skin:Debut novel skewers beauty culture

Darkness,desire and dewy skin:Debut novel skewers beauty culture

Chloe Elisabeth Wilson’s book asks what happens when your cult beauty brand is actually a cult.

  • byLauren Ironmonger
A late-career marvel and an enriching memoir:The Age Book of the Year winners

A late-career marvel and an enriching memoir:The Age Book of the Year winners

The winners have been announced at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

  • byKylie Northover