Meet the finalists for The Australian Fiction Prize
The first ever fiction prize sponsored by The Australian and HarperCollins Australia has attracted a talented field. Each and every one of these writers deserve their place on the shortlist.
Books
What happened when I — a 58-year-old woman — shaved my head
Men, I perceived early on, don’t like short hair on women. And, since we live and work in an overwhelming patriarchy, to have short hair has been, if often on a subtle level, to defy men. I’ve carried this understanding with me – but decided to let go.
The Day of the Jackal hits right on target
Eddie Redmayne is particularly well chosen as the Jackal in this slick, astutely engineered adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s thriller.
An author of substance: Taylor Bradford, 91, dies
British-American novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote 40 novels and notched up 91 million book sales worldwide, has died at 91.
How BTB was her own woman of substance
Yorkshire-born Barbara Taylor Bradford, author of some 40 international bestselling novels, has died, aged 91.
Ending the ‘whitewash’ of Australia’s convict history
There’s something jarring about this 20-page list of black convicts. It’s not the origin of the convicts, nor is it their sentences. It’s the names that jump out at me.
A book like nothing Helen Garner has done before
The Season is about an old woman, Nanna Garner, who is devoted to her youngest grandson, Amby, and his devotion to Australian rules football. It’s likely to madden you at first, but bear with it. You’ll end up enchanted.
One-star-review ‘hackers’ swamp Booker winner
Readers can’t rate the winner of the 2024 Booker Prize because of concerns raised about a flood of geopolitical one-star reviews.
Why Jordan Peterson’s latest book is unreadable
The conservative polemicist’s new book is a bizarre study of the Bible featuring Jiminy Cricket, Harry Potter and Tinkerbell the porn fairy. Surely even his most devoted fans are struggling to keep up at this point.
Pete Evans, RFK release cookbook for kids
Controversial chef Pete Evans has teamed up with fellow vaccine sceptic and Trump confidante Robert F Kennedy Jr on a new project.
‘My soul would be troubled’: Flanagan’s $100k book-prize protest
WATCH | Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan says he can’t immediately accept a $100,000 winner’s cheque from Baillie Gifford because the company invests in fossil fuels.
Bookworm babies ‘do better in kindy’
Children who were regularly read books from birth were more likely to know letters and words and to speak using complex sentences by the age of three, study finds.
Think you’ve got a book in you? Keep it in there
When I was asked by a state writers’ centre to give a talk, I declined, saying the only thing I could honestly tell prospective writers is: don’t bother. These are my reasons.
This may be the best book I’ve read this year
This story is so unusually brilliant, so unique in structure, so ludicrous, hilarious and ominous at once, that it’s hard to believe it’s a work of 21st-century Australian storytelling.
Is Lucy Letby a baby killer … or a victim of injustice?
There is a growing movement, ranging from credible experts to wild conspiracy theorists, who insist Lucy Letby did not have a fair trial.
Samantha Harvey’s Orbital wins 2024 Booker Prize
Samantha Harvey has won the prestigious honour for her book which follows six astronauts from Japan, Russia, the United States, Britain and Italy aboard the International Space Station and touches on mourning, desire and climate change.
Jamie Oliver’s recipe for cultural disaster
I haven’t read Jamie Oliver’s controversial new kids book in its entirety, but that’s OK. It seems like he hasn’t either. The celebrity chef is now in the ignominious position of having to apologise for his ghostwriter.
‘Stereotyping’: Jamie Oliver pulls book after Indigenous criticism
The TV chef has withdrawn his latest children’s book from shops and apologised after First Nations groups slammed the novel for being ‘damaging and disrespectful’.
Dorothy Parker’s sharp tongue and a restless spirit
When Dorothy Parker took her razor wit to California and the movie industry, she brought her troubles, and ideals, along.
Max Dupain: unafraid of death, but unprepared for ageing
Acclaimed photographer Max Dupain captured the beauty of the Australian form. But he loathed growing old.
My world had never been touched by anti-Semitism — now my friends aren’t talking to me
Hamas invaded Israel days after the release of singer and Jewish woman Deborah Conway’s autobiography. Instead of attending writers festivals and literary conversations, she was cancelled.
The tragic story behind the couple who took the birds of Australia to the world
Birds of Australia and Mammals of Australia remain among the most important books ever published on Australian wildlife, almost two centuries after they first appeared. But the remarkable Elizabeth Gould did not get to see them in their entirety.
‘Libraries made us authors of our fate’
The lives of author Thomas Keneally and former judge Michael Kirby have followed vastly different paths but both men share a burning, lifetime passion – public libraries.
Tangled family story provides a strange rollercoaster ride
Lech Blaine’s first book, Car Crash: A Memoir, was about a tragedy that claimed the lives of three of his friends. His latest is a family saga.
Inside Donald Trump’s great American swindle
Last month Donald Trump declared his intention to create a government efficiency commission – to be run by his good friend Elon Musk – targeting welfare fraud. But if this account is even half right, the anti-fraud commission should start its righteous work a little closer to home.
Heresy! A play by any other gender
Writer Jodi Picoult aims to ‘convince you all’ that Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and more of the Bard’s other best-known works were in fact written by a female poet.
Authors slam boycott of Israeli publishing
The literary world is divided over a petition organised by Palestine Festival of Literature demanding that Israeli publishers, agencies and publications be ignored.
‘He drugged me for years’: Farnham reveals predatory industry, life after cancer in memoir
In the early years of his music career, John Farnham’s life was dominated by a manipulative, egomaniacal manager whose control over the young star was so absolute that he was secretly plying him with drugs: amphetamines to keep him working all night, followed by sleeping pills in his morning coffee to knock him out cold.
What if the first moon landing had ended in disaster?
This alternate history of the first moon landing aims for the impossible – and it’s done with style.
The gift of eternal love: brave author’s moving triumph over death
Mark Raphael Baker died of cancer last year. His family has ushered his stirring memoir toward publication.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/page/6