Tag Archives: fiction
Books, Reviews
Hook, line and sinker: Emily Maguire’s Fishing for Tigers
It’s hard not to be hooked by the opening lines of Emily Maguire’s Fishing for Tigers: ‘I had picked Hanoi because the airfare was cheap and I knew almost nothing about the place. The need to be swallowed up by strangeness was the closest thing to desire … Read more
Interviews
‘The deep opening and the revelation of the human heart’: an interview with Diane Williams
A.S. Patric: Jonathan Franzen has described you as a hero of the avant-garde. How do you feel about a very popular writer who has had colossal mainstream success making this statement about you and your work? Diane Williams: I am honored to have such a stirring, elegant … Read more
Books, Reviews
Not such a bitter aftertaste: Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth
Long before Mulder and Scully turned the phrase ‘trust no one’ into an iconic piece of pop culture, Agent George Smiley, world-weary MI6 intelligence officer and star of several spy novels by John le Carré, was meting out this sombre advice to his peers. But what happens … Read more
Comment
Fictional friends: ‘losing yourself’ in characters
If I’m being honest, a recent study concluding that ‘losing yourself’ in a fictional character can directly affect your behaviour is not news to me. Researchers at Ohio State University have defined the phenomenon as ‘experience-taking’. I have been experience-taking for years. As a lifelong bookworm, television … Read more
Interviews
‘Some incredible story told’: an interview with Gillian Mears
In the preamble to Foal’s Bread, there’s an exhortation: ‘Man, woman, boy or girl, when you arrive at the jacaranda tree, take a lick of your horse’s salty neck.’ Is this something you did when riding a horse? What of your own experiences on a horse did … Read more
Books, Reviews
A child’s song of war and home: Majok Tulba’s Beneath the Darkening Sky
What is it that is so precious about childhood? In Victorian England, the prevailing view was that children were little more than half-formed, incompetent adults. In more modern times, we often hear that children are the future – but even this attitude locates children’s importance in … Read more
Editors' Picks
Editors’ picks for July: An Uncommon Reader, Edward St Aubyn and Heat
In this new column, Editors’ Picks, the Kill Your Darlings editors share recent reading favourites. What are your picks? An Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett – Rebecca Starford, Editor I’ve just finished An Uncommon Reader. It’s a delightful novella from playwright and actor Alan Bennett, most famous … Read more
KYDYAC
What does YA mean to you? A discussion about definition
Image: Horia Varlan We’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking and talking about what constitutes Young Adult (YA) fiction lately. It’s quite a topical, contentious subject amongst writers, readers, publishers and sellers. So, in the lead up to the KYD YA Championship, without being purposefully reductive … Read more
Books, Reviews
Stumbling into adulthood: Paul D. Carter’s Eleven Seasons
I have a confession: I know nothing about football. So it’s a good thing this year’s Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award winner for an unpublished manuscript is about more than just that. Paul D. Carter’s Eleven Seasons is a grunge-era bildungsroman, an homage to working-class Melbourne and one young … Read more
