Culture
Books
Why are so many characters in kids’ books white and middle-class?
There’s a moment of reckoning due for children’s literature, writers say: enough with the stereotypes that ignore diversity.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
Latest
Buckle up for a heart-stopping thriller
The action begins in the first few pages of this gripping novel about an airline pilot faced with an impossible choice
- by Susan Turnbull
Who is the real monster in Briohny Doyle’s second novel, Echolalia?
Echolalia looks at the reasons a mother commits an unthinkable act.
- by Declan Fry
Non-fiction reviews: Brat and other titles
Actor Andrew McCarthy’s memoir Brat is well written and entertaining.
- by Steven Carroll
Fiction reviews: Still Life and other titles
Sarah Winman’s Still Life is an act of homage to British novelist E.M. Forster.
- by Kerryn Goldsworthy
‘Extremely visceral’ novel about modern love is timely but lacks subtlety
Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s new novel is at times like Holden Caulfield meets Jean-Claude Van Damme at the local mosque.
- by Clinton Caward
Turning Pages: the darker side of the Durrells
The television series about the British family’s adventures in Corfu doesn’t reveal the whole truth of the troubled dynasty.
- by Jane Sullivan
Recasting monsters as women: lunch with Maria Lewis
The 32-year-old has written seven novels and has her eye on writing across film, television and comics.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
A celebration of trees through stories and science
Two new books continue our recent fascination with trees.
- by James Bradley
Opinion
WordPlay
It haunts me still. I had helped our family’s real estate man to fib
When my brother-in-law wanted another word for opulent, I offered palatial. Am I now implicated in his trade’s jiggery-pokery?
- by David Astle
Vale Janet Malcolm, the writer whose unflinching gaze missed nothing
“Every unflattering gesture and nervous tic will be recorded eventually with devastating precision,” wrote critic Robert Boynton.
- by Katharine Q. Seelye