Literature
Paul Theroux’s stylish reimagination of Orwell’s Burmese days
The great travel writer and novelist is in top form with the latest book about George Orwell.
- by Adrian McKinty
Latest
How Truman Capote became the talk of the town...again
The author was always a one-off: the story of his life as extraordinary as anything he wrote himself.
- by David Free
Pip Williams watches from the wings as her book takes flight
The writer’s bestselling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words has had a charmed life. Now it’s been adapted for the stage.
- by Jason Steger
Brilliant scholar of Soviet literature quietly made her own history
Melbourne-born Katerina Clark was a path-breaking scholar in Soviet-era literature and film, author, professor at Yale University, and the only daughter of Manning and Dymphna Clark.
- by Andrew Clark
Opinion
Education
WA’s reading problem is hiding in plain sight
South Australia mandated changes to how reading is taught in schools and student achievement soared. WA students deserve no less.
- by Dr Jennifer Buckingham
What you need to know about declining reading ability in WA classrooms (and how to fix it)
Year 3 students across the state are behind their eastern states counterparts when comparing NAPLAN results.
- by Holly Thompson
Why we just can’t forget Marcel Proust
Brian Nelson’s translation of the first section of Marcel Proust’s vast novel aims to balance clarity and elaboration.
- by Yuri Cerqueira dos Anjos
From the bathtub to the poet’s garden: honouring our authors
Writers in this year’s Australia Day honours include Pamela Allen and Kate Llewellyn.
- by Jane Sullivan
The storytelling in Margaret Atwood’s group novel is an escapist’s dream
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction publications, including Atwood’s experimental response to the dark days of pandemic lockdown.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp
‘Absolute act of vandalism’: Fears book removal plan puts library on borrowed time
There are concerns for the future of Melbourne’s City Library amid plans to revamp the space by removing around 50,000 books from the first floor and replacing them with meeting rooms.Â
- by Cara Waters
How a young man created a novel out of yearning to go home to Georgia
The writer left Georgia as a child and returned as a man. He turned that experience into his first novel
- by Jason Steger