Books

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht, Orion, $29.99. There are two tigers in this book. One is a semi-mythical creature that lives in the jungles surrounding the old Balkan village of Galina, an object of superstition, fear and dangerous gossip. It features in many of the stories told to a young doctor, Natalia, by her […]

When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman, Hachette, $29.99. I was a bit nervous about a book featuring a talking rabbit, especially when young Elly, the narrator, names her pet “God”. Whimsical charm can curdle awfully easily. Yet Winman is one clever (debut) author. In two parts over 40 years — from the revolutions […]

The Wreckage by Michael Robotham, Sphere, $32.99. He’s mastered the psychological thriller. Now, with his seventh novel, set amid the wreckage of the recent global financial meltdown, Robotham stretches the canvas to take in money, power and international conspiracy. In Baghdad, prize-winning journalist Luca Terracini is risking his life to chase a story about the […]

Me And Mr Bookerby Cory Taylor, Text, $32.95. Martha is a bored 16-year old desperate to escape the tedium of small-town Australian life. Mr Booker is the perfect and oh-so-obvious solution. He turns up in a slick white suit trailing smart lines, cigarette smoke and low-rent glamour — married, of course — and the book […]

Last Man In Tower by Aravind Adiga, Allen & Unwin, $32.99. If you’re looking for cheap thrills in snatched moments, this is not the book for you. Last Man In Tower powerfully rewards the time and attention of the patient reader. Adiga won the Booker prize for his darkly comic novel The White Tiger and […]

The Daughters Of Rome by Kate Quinn, Headline Review, $32.99. As members of one of ancient Rome’s most privileged families, the four Cornelii women have ringside seats to all the brutality, danger and passion of the bloodthirsty sports of the Coliseum. Yet, with Rome in turmoil, Marcella, Cornelia, Lollia and Diana are going to need […]

The End Of The Wasp Season by Denise Mina, Orion, $24.99. Evil Lars Anderson hangs himself from a tree on his criminally acquired country estate and his dark shadow hangs over his family and those unfortunate enough to meet them. Hundreds of miles away in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is viciously […]

Summer And The City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell, HarperCollins, $24.99. A 17-year-old Carrie Bradshaw leaves her small hometown to take on Manhattan, where she is determined to make it as a writer before the summer is over. In this sequel to The Carrie Diaries, we finally learn how Carrie meets Samantha and […]

No Regrets Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke, Bloomsbury, $32.99. “There has never been anyone like her; there never will be … ” wrote long-time platonic friend Jean Cocteau of Edith Piaf, “… her Bonaparte-like forehead, her eyes like those of a blind person trying to see … a voice that rises up from deep within, […]

The Girl In The Polka Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge, Hachette, $29.99. This is the novel British author Beryl Bainbridge was writing in the last decade of her life and right up to the moment she died in July last year. At her bedside was Brendan King, who had edited many of her 17 novels […]