Love Objects (Allen and Unwin 2021) by author Emily Maguire, is graced with a stunning cover by designer Sandy Cull and artwork by Cecelia Paredes: a gorgeous profusion of flowers with a woman hidden in plain sight in the riot of blooms. You would be right to begin judging this book by its cover. Maguire has ostensibly written an accessible and highly readable story about a hoarder but as the novel progresses, it becomes obvious that it is about so much more.

Writing and reading friends have been asking me for ages whether I’d read The Overstory (Vintage Penguin Random House 2018) by Richard Powers, the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and my answer was always that it was on my list but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Now, after finally reading this novel, I understand what all the fuss is about. I, too, will now be one of those people who go around exhorting people to pick up this book. It is, quite simply, a remarkable achievement, both in terms of its literary value and also because of the ideas and philosophies it explores.