These “bests” kept my reading fires burning in an uncharacteristically cool month. They gave me hours of intrigue but I’ll cut to the chase here by commenting only on the best of the best. There’s one codicil: You should really read the books and choose your own favourites! Best story — Louis Nowra’s “The Index
Trust no-one! This is a key message of The Betrayal — an intriguing novel about a couple born shortly after the Russian Revolution and who came to adulthood during the Great Terror of the 1930s. Anna and Andrei lived through the Siege of Leningrad and had high hopes afterwards that everything would settle and be
This novel’s an intriguing ride for those who want an intergenerational Australian family story set in a rural setting. It’s jaunty as a show pony and dappled with striking characters — some larrikins, some lovable — all adding flavour to this pre-WWII tale of show-jumping and falls from form and grace. At its heart Foal’s
If you’re not interested in negotiating the twin griefs of burying a daughter and growing old then forget it. Blue Nights charts them both in a scarifying and cool-eyed way. As soon as a child is born (or adopted, as was Didion’s daughter Quintana Roo) guilt about failure enters the picture. When the daughter, whom
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