THE TRUTH ABOUT: 3 | History Defined

Best Australian books of the 21st century: as chosen by 50 experts

Like so many avid readers around the world, I was fascinated by the recent New York Times list of the Best Books of the 21st century, as voted by 503 authors, critics and book lovers.

The Conversation · Aug 21, 2024

‘It shouldn’t be a bucket list place’: these people went to Antarctica. They hope you don’t

As Antarctic tourism grows, so does the environmental impact. Now scientists and artists who work on the continent hope to encourage us to admire from afar

The Guardian - AU · Aug 8, 2024

On my radar: Mark O’Connell’s cultural highlights

The prize-winning nonfiction writer on a generational comic talent, the incredible Helen Garner novel you should read and a deeply relaxing bed of nails

The Guardian - UK · Jun 22, 2024

Property woes and punk sensibilities define Paradise Estate, Max Easton's witty new novel

Max Easton’s novel Paradise Estate offers a variation on the share-house drama epitomised by Monkey Grip (1977), Helen Garner’s chronicle of communal living in Melbourne.

The Conversation · Oct 19, 2023

Books 3 has revealed thousands of pirated Australian books. In the age of AI, is copyright law still fit for purpose?

Thousands of Australian books have been found on a pirated dataset of ebooks, known as Books3, used to train generative AI. Richard Flanagan, Helen Garner, Tim Winton and Tim Flannery are among the leading local authors affected – along, of course, with writers from around the world.

The Conversation · Sep 29, 2023

Where I Slept by Libby Angel review – Melbourne’s 1990s bohemia comes to gritty life

A descendant of Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip, this biographical second novel is set among the share houses and squats of a young artistic life

The Guardian - AU · Jun 8, 2023

Shirley by Ronnie Scott review – finally, a male author who brilliantly writes women

The author’s second novel is impressively constructed, following a young woman who was raised by a group of men beholden to her celebrity mother

The Guardian - AU · Feb 16, 2023

'The unlooked-for and idiosyncratic was her stock-in-trade': last words from the unclassifiable Janet Malcolm

Janet Malcolm, who died in 2021 at the age of 86, left her readers this “memoir”, Still Pictures, an apt and fascinating coda to a celebrated and provocative life’s work.

The Conversation · Feb 15, 2023

Helen Garner on happiness: ‘It’s taken me 80 years to figure out it’s not a tranquil, sunlit realm’

In a series of short essays, writers consider what happiness means to them now, after the reckoning of the past few years

The Guardian - AU · Feb 4, 2023

The best new books released in October as selected by avid readers and critics

A spin on the colonial ‘missing child tale’, a collection of essays dissecting horror and a Miles Franklin nominee’s small masterpiece are among our critics' top picks for the month.

ABC News · Oct 28, 2022