New ‘Books+Publishing’ reviews out now
Books+Publishing’s final Reviews newsletter for 2017 contains 14 reviews of books publishing in January, February and March 2018, as well as previews of Australian publishers’ most anticipated 2018 releases.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s depiction of the ‘utter chaos and ultra-violence’ of life in Punchbowl Boys High in The Lebs (Hachette, March) is one of two titles to receive 4.5 stars. Reviewer Martin Shaw found the novel ‘wonderfully vivid and compelling’, observing that ‘the particular joy of the book is its language: the argot and attitudes of these boys feels utterly authentic’.
Tracey Sorensen’s The Lucky Galah (Picador, March) also received 4.5 stars from reviewer Lorien Kaye. Narrated by a galah called Lucky, Sorensen’s novel about Australian social history ‘is done with a deft touch so that the characters come to life as vividly as the ideas’, writes Kaye. She also had the opportunity to ask Sorensen the all-important question ‘why a galah?’ in her Q&A here.
Also reviewed are:
Fiction:
Before I Let You Go (Kelly Rimmer, Hachette, March), The Cage (Lloyd Jones, Text, February), Cake at Midnight (Jessie L Star, S&S, January), Dyschronia (Jennifer Mills, Picador, February), The Earth Does Not Get Fat (Julia Prendergast, UWA Publishing, March), The Everlasting Sunday (Robert Lukins, UQP, March), Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband (Barbara Toner, Bantam, February), Hangman (Jack Heath, A&U, January), The Naturalist’s Daughter (Tea Cooper, HQ, January), Spinifex and Sunflowers (Avan Judd Stallard, Fremantle Press, February) and The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris, Echo, February).
Nonfiction:
A Free Flame: Australian Women Writers and Vocation in the Twentieth Century (Ann-Marie Priest, UWA Publishing, February).
This month’s newsletter also contains Books+Publishing’s annual preview of publishers’ highlights for the coming year. Read Andrea Hanke’s round-up of fiction highlights here and nonfiction here.
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Category: Recently published by B+P
