Spectrum
She’d finished her novel and was about to have a baby. Then Hollywood came calling
Book? Check. Baby? Check. Blockbuster? Check.
- Melanie Kembrey
Latest
Is the world really a lonely place, or should some of us just try harder?
Showing up, being nice and not resenting other people’s friendships might just make you feel less isolated.
- Brodie Lancaster
Looking for a new book? Here are 10 new titles to try
Our reviewers cast their eyes over new fiction and non-fiction releases.
- Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
Ethan Coen’s new crime caper pays homage to campy B-movies
In the second film of their lesbian trilogy, the acclaimed director and wife Tricia Cooke embrace the trashy.
- Stephanie Bunbury
What literary satires reveal about the state of the publishing industry
Two recent novels featuring literary fraudsters comment on how fearfully difficult it is to scratch a living as a writer waiting for the big break.
- Jane Sullivan
Drifters, vagrants and loners: a lyrical journey through Australia’s interior
The world through which an unnamed narrator journeys, accompanied by various companions, is one you can hear and smell.
- Declan Fry
This yarn about the links between wool and war might surprise you
Australia’s large-scale sheep pastoralism and the northern hemisphere’s industrialisation of woollen textiles allowed the huge armies of the 20th century to exist, a new history argues.
- Ken Haley
These personal portraits of extinct species may well make you cry
Feelings of grief are unavoidable when reading about the species that have disappeared due to human encroachment.
- Simon Caterson
Bret McKenzie’s new songs aren’t comedy, but ‘it’s in my DNA to be funny’
As half of Flight Of The Conchords and songwriter for The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants and more, Bret McKenzie has always been the funny guy. But now he’s getting serious … sort of.
- Barry Divola
‘Still stings’: Why Carey Mulligan is tapping into childhood heartbreak over Take That split
The Oscar-nominated star was only 10 when the boy band split – but the emotional memory has served her well for her new film The Ballad of Wallis Island.
- Michael Dwyer