Attempts to silence writers rarely erase them. More often, they expose insecurity, deepen division, and turn targets into symbols of resistance.
Category: Books and Reviews
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I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I resigned as director of Adelaide writers’ week
Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation.
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Best of 2025 – Between two wounds: Gaza confronts Trump’s plan to end the war
On a cold morning in central Gaza City, Nevin Al-Barbari, 35, sat in what remained of her family home, watching her two-year-old daughter, Reem, explore the rooms she had only recently come to know. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Journos as heroes and villains – ‘The Hack’ reviewed – Part 1
In films and on the small screen, journalists are portrayed as heroes or villains. In The Hack they are both. Does this reflect the diminished, benighted standing journalists hold in society today or is it a step forward in showing the complexities of the work? (more…)
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Niki Savva’s Earthquake is a damning account of the election that shook Australia
In ‘Earthquake: The Election that Shook Australia’, Niki Savva dissects a federal election result that all but erased the Liberal Party from metropolitan Australia and exposed a deep crisis of purpose, leadership and relevance. (more…)
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Book Review: Merlinda Bobis explores four generations of colonialism and violence in the Phillipines
Merlinda Bobis’ In the Name of the Trees weaves four generations of Bikol women into a powerful exploration of colonial violence, language, land and survival.
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Book Review: Selling Israel: propaganda, history and contested narratives
Harriet Malinowitz’s Selling Israel examines how Zionist ideology has been promoted through propaganda, history and selective memory, and why separating Judaism from Zionism matters in confronting antisemitism.
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Book review: Things that concentrate the mind, by Peter Baume
Drawing on a lifetime of public service and reflection, Peter Baume addresses decision-making, medicine, death, liberalism, climate change and social justice with clarity, compassion and intellectual rigour.
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Ita Buttrose reflects on her life in media – well, some of it
Ita Buttrose’s memoir celebrates resilience, leadership and public service, but avoids reckoning with controversies that shaped her later career, writes Denis Muller.
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Massacres, memory and the Memorial: facing our most deadly war
The evidence is overwhelming – Australia’s Frontier Wars were real, deadly, and long, and a landmark new book lays it out in full. So when will the Australian War Memorial fully face the truth?
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Henry Reynolds’ bold, new book takes a top-end view of Australian history
First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people. (more…)
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Book review: Turbulence – Australian foreign policy in the Trump era
For anyone concerned about where Australia’s foreign policy including AUKUS, is taking us, Clinton Fernandes’ book is essential reading.
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If we don’t control the AI industry, it could end up controlling us, warn two chilling new books
For 16 hours last July, Elon Musk’s company lost control of its multi-million-dollar chatbot, Grok. “Maximally truth seeking” Grok was praising Hitler, denying the Holocaust and posting sexually explicit content. (more…)
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‘Oh, the fog lying like a blanket over this sad town’: The Mushroom Tapes sees the humanity in an inhumane story
The Mushroom Tapes opens with a blunt refusal to accept a murder trial as spectator sport: (more…)
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It’s hard to be an involved dad
Father’s Day was recently celebrated, bringing families together to thank their male progenitors for the support and (sometimes) caring love they give to their offspring. (more…)
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Randa Abdel-Fattah’s latest book outlines the battles others face
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is an author with great experience having written nearly 20 books over two decades. Most are for young readers, beginning with Does My Head Look Big In This? (more…)
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Living with schizophrenia
The title of this book is emblematic. It gets to the heart of the problem of schizophrenia, indeed within the authors’ preface. (more…)
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Bruce Beresford’s The Travellers blends opera and the outback in a heartfelt story about homecoming
Famed Australian director Bruce Beresford loves opera. If you weren’t aware of this before watching his new film, The Travellers, you most likely will be by the time the credits roll. (more…)
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Journos as heroes and villains – ‘The Hack’ reviewed – Part 2
The Hack is rare among films and television programs for showing journalists doing journalism to other journalists. (more…)
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Between two wounds: Gaza confronts Trump’s plan to end the war
On a cold morning in central Gaza City, Nevin Al-Barbari, 35, sat in what remained of her family home, watching her two-year-old daughter, Reem, explore the rooms she had only recently come to know. (more…)
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Journos as heroes and villains – ‘The Hack’ reviewed – Part 1
In films and on the small screen, journalists are portrayed as heroes or villains. In The Hack they are both. Does this reflect the diminished, benighted standing journalists hold in society today or is it a step forward in showing the complexities of the work? (more…)
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Ian McEwan’s new novel explores resentment and vengeance in a fractured world
Ian McEwan’s new novel, his 18th in a long career of writing books that play with startling premises, bold ideas and big dilemmas, begins as a work of futurist fiction set in 2119. (more…)
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7 October 2023: shocking yes, surprising no
A new book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Road to October 7 – a brief history of Palestinian Islamism, by Erik Skare, shows how the seeds of the Gaza war were sown over decades. (more…)
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Prime Minister’s Literary Awards winners 2025: investigating power, privilege and inequality
Michelle de Kretser has won the fiction prize in the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. It’s her second major prize this year for her ambitious, experimental novel Theory and Practice, which won the 2025 Stella Prize (and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin). (more…)
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Magical alchemy: Arundhati Roy’s compelling memoir illuminates a ‘restless, unruly’ life
“She was my shelter and my storm.” With these words in the opening pages of her memoir, Arundhati Roy unfurls a narrative of extraordinary filial bonds that renders trite those therapeutic memoirs of family dysfunction scattered across the publishing world. (more…)
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‘Go for it!’: Kevin O’Brien’s Long Tan
Brigadier O’Brien’s Long Tan is the most important account of our iconic battle in 40 years. The book spins 23 short chapters around a short exclamatory order. (more…)
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The West’s long struggle against genocide prevention: Obliteration and complicity
Dr. Steinbock’s highly topical new book The Obliteration Doctrine is about the genocide in Gaza, the West’s complicity and long struggle against genocide prevention. In this Q&A with Dr. Steinbock, we will focus on just a few themes of the his highly topical new book. (more…)
