Pond (Riverhead Books 2015) is the debut novel of Irish author Claire-Louise Bennett. This compact book is really a collection of short stories, each with the same female narrator at its heart. We never learn her name, and the details of her life are sketched with the carelessness of charcoal smears on paper, but also with the careful meticulous attention to detail of a fine pen and ink drawing. read more…

Shadow Sisters (UQP 2018) is the new memoir by author Shelley Davidow, who mesmerised readers with her previous haunting non-fiction life account, Whisperings in the Blood (UQP 2016). I knew before I began this book that it was about Shelley’s life growing up as a white South African, and that it featured the tale of her sister, Rosie, who became a cherished part of her family despite her different skin colour. But what I didn’t know – or didn’t expect – was the twists and turns this tale would take, the emotive and disturbing themes it traverses, and the unlikely sympathies it evokes for a rainbow nation of discordant characters. read more…