Tag Archives: fiction
Classics
‘They have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing’: Catch-22
In our new ‘Classics’ series, we ask writers to read – or reread – literary classics. In this first instalment, Claire Corbett discovers the military horrors of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. For a new reader, a novel’s status as a classic can obscure its true achievements because its … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
Reviews
Bittersweet tale of loss and hope: Vendela Vida’s The Lovers
In spite of its title, The Lovers is not a romance story in any conventional sense. Instead, it functions as a kind of anti-romance, exploring themes of grief, perception, self-awareness, and ultimately hope and the possibility for redemption. Yvonne has been widowed for two years. Her life … Read more
Books, Interviews
History in the service of fiction: Anna Funder’s All That I Am
The first thing I did after finishing Anna Funder’s debut novel All That I Am was to order a copy of Ernst Toller’s autobiography I Was a German. Toller features as a ‘character’ in Funder’s much anticipated book. We meet him holed up in a New York … Read more
Comment
The death of the long sentence
When did the long sentence die? There is no anniversary on which to mourn its gentle passing. Clearly, it was still alive and well in the first half of the twentieth century – some of my favourite proponents of the long sentence published their unwieldy masterpieces in … Read more
Reviews
Review: Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion
‘What twenty-seven-year-old Johan Harstad has written is quite plainly a work of genius,’ claims a recommendation on the cover of Buzz Aldrin: What Happened To You in All the Confusion? The cynic in me was immediately suspicious of such effusive praise. But the Norwegian author’s novel has … Read more
Podcast
‘Uncomfortable places’: Michelle Aung Thin’s The Monsoon Bride
It’s 1930. Winsome McLintock is a convent girl about to marry a man she barely knows, and she will follow him to Rangoon, the then capital of Burma. Rangoon is a rich and exciting city, but it’s also full of tension – the wealthy British residents live … Read more
Guest Posts
The Meanjin Literary Smackdown
The Meanjin Tournament of Books is a literary stoush that seeks to name the Great Australian Novel. With sixteen book titles, the round robin-style competition has four judges pitting book against book until the winning title emerges. It’s the Australian Grand Slam of book competitions, if you will. … Read more
On Writing
On writing: Rosie Scott
Rosie Scott is an internationally published, award-winning novelist. Her latest novel, Faith Singer, was included in an international list of ’50 Essential Reads by living writers’ compiled by the Guardian, Orange Prize Committee and the Hay Literary Festival. Rosie is also course director of Getting Started, a … Read more
