Books

Win our Book of the Month Be one of the first 25 people to sign up to the Simon & Schuster newsletter and correctly answer the competition question to win a free copy of The Dovekeepers! Alice Hoffman is one of the most popular and memorable writers of her generation, the author of such iconic […]

The Thread by Victoria Hislop, Headline, $29.99. There’s a lot of history in The Thread, but Victoria Hislop’s lightness of touch and warm lyrical style make it a lesson you genuinely relish. This is the author’s third novel set in Greece and here, in the multicultural city of Thessaloniki, she delves much deeper into the […]

Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland, Text Publishing, $32.95. This is an important book, the first to tackle the horror of Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, when the small settlements around Kinglake in Victoria were hit by the worst bushfires in the nation’s recorded history. We all remember the story but here are the details, writ large […]

The Life by Malcolm Knox, Allen & Unwin, $32.99. The Life is what a famous world champion surfer can expect to enjoy, a magic combination of international trips, adoring fans and the right to raid the hotel mini-bar. The Life is what poor, parentless Dennis Keith from Coolangatta, Qld, works for, and achieves, and is […]

Lucky Bunnyby Jill Dawson, Sceptre, 29.99. Queenie Dove was what many would call a wicked girl. Childhood thief, liar and truant. Her father is carted off to jail, her mother to a mental hospital, so Queenie relies on wit to survive the Depression and the Blitz, while her body blossoms (and she discovers wired brassieres) […]

The Monsoon Bride by Michelle Aung Thin, Text Publishing, $29.95. This is a first novel, shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards unpublished manuscript fellowship last year — so why, I kept wondering, does the story seem vaguely familiar? Then I twigged: it’s (Graham) Greene-land. Meeting place of colonial upheaval, moral ambiguity and tropical sex, […]

The Traitor’s Emblem by Juan Gomez-Jurado, Orion, $32.99. They call Gomez-Jurado the Spanish Ken Follett and it’s not difficult to see why. With characters such as a despicable Nazi, a beautiful Jewish girl and a young patriot haunted by a decades-long mystery, The Traitor’s Emblem is vintage Follett. It’s 1919, and in a mansion in […]

The Ridge by Michael Koryta, Arena, $24.99. Just like Deputy Sheriff Kevin Kimble and local journalist Roy Damus, you’ll ever so slowly be convinced that there’s something not quite human about the dramas unfolding at Blade Ridge. There are the unexplained car wrecks, drownings and suicides. And they’re made even stranger by the number of […]

Portrait of A Spy by Daniel Silva, Harper Collins, $32.99. Gabriel Allon could have been acknowledged as the world’s greatest art restorer if that occupation hadn’t merely been a cover for his true talent. This sensitive and loyal man, a lover of Renaissance art, is Israel’s top assassin. The only thing he can’t seem to […]

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, Virgin, $45. The richest woman in the world, queen of an enlightened empire, and the lover of two great Roman leaders, Cleopatra made such an impact in her lifetime that she has never been forgotten. From Plutarch to Shakespeare, through to Elizabeth Taylor, there’s always room for another Cleopatra, […]