Jungfrau is the story of three independent young women who have been friends since university, living in Sydney in the mid-1930s. Eve is an obstetrician who has recently returned to her Catholic faith, Marc a social worker with progressive philosophies who lives life to the full and Thea, a teacher, sensitive and lacking the clear-eyed … Continue reading Book Review – Jungfrau by Dympna Cusack
Book reviews
Book Review – New Boy : Othello Retold by Tracy Chevalier
This retelling of Othello (part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series of contemporary retellings) is set in a suburban Washington elementary school in the 1970s. When Osei, the son of a Ghanaian diplomat, arrives in the all white school, he immediately finds a friend in the popular and pretty Dee, but his arrival upsets the balance … Continue reading Book Review – New Boy : Othello Retold by Tracy Chevalier
Book Review – A Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work by Bernadette Brennan
Helen Garner is one of Australia's best loved writers. Her first novel Monkey Grip was published in 1977 and since then she has published further novels, short stories, full length non-fiction works, screenplays, as well as numerous essays, articles and newspaper columns. A Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work (2017) by Bernadette Brennan is … Continue reading Book Review – A Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work by Bernadette Brennan
Book Review – The Golden Age by Joan London
The Golden Age is a Perth convalescent hospital for children recovering from poliomyelitis. Under the care of dedicated nurses and physiotherapists, the children are taught to use their limbs again and to gain the independence necessary for their return to the outside world. In this nurturing environment, cut off from their familiar lives with family … Continue reading Book Review – The Golden Age by Joan London
Book Review – Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore begins and ends with short chapters set in the present. The story proper commences in 1789 with a man burying a woman’s body in an isolated glade in the fading darkness before sunrise. Three years on Lizzie Fawkes begins her story - she is newly married to widower, John Diner … Continue reading Book Review – Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
Book Review – The Muse by Jessie Burton
This dual narrative novel begins in London in 1967 with Odelle Bastien, a young woman from Trinidad who works in a shoe shop while nursing the dream of being a writer. When Odelle finds a new job as a typist at the Skelton Institute, an upmarket art gallery, she is encouraged in her ambitions by … Continue reading Book Review – The Muse by Jessie Burton
Book Review – Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge
This delightful novel covers a year in the life of the Leigh family, from the arrival on May Day 1565 of Faithful Crocker, a 14 year old orphaned vagabond, carrying his meagre possessions, a copy of Virgil and of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and a burning desire to become a scholar, to the visit of … Continue reading Book Review – Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge
Book Review – The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
The Swan Thieves is an intriguing story of art and obsession. Its starting point is the attack on a 19th century painting hanging in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The attacker, Robert Oliver, is a brilliant painter suffering from a psychosis. He is hospitalized under the care of psychiatrist Andrew Marlow who is … Continue reading Book Review – The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Book Review – The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneux
The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneux is definitely one for the genealogists. It opens with the discovery of a marriage certificate in an antiques centre by Peter Sefton, an amateur genealogist. Thinking that there is something vaguely inappropriate for such a personal memento to be on display, he buys it in the hope of perhaps … Continue reading Book Review – The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneux
One Minute Book Review – Mothering Sunday – A Romance by Graham Swift
Traditionally Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, a day when domestic servants were given the day off to visit their families. Jane Fairchild, the Niven family’s maid, is a foundling so has no mother to visit. This Mothering Sunday, the 30th of March 1924, is a light filled day that feels like summer … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Mothering Sunday – A Romance by Graham Swift
Catherine Meyrick 