Jason Steger

Would-be novelists used to be told that they should write about what they knew. That’s why, over the years, countless volumes have appeared that were at the very least semi-autobiographical. These days, not everyone agrees with that advice. Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro called it the stupidest he had ever heard: ‘It encourages people to write a dull autobiography. It’s the reverse of firing ... (read more)

Michael Visontay’s Noble Fragments is about second chances, serendipitous connections, and simple good fortune. At its heart is a young man fleeing bankruptcy in Hungary who reinvents himself as a rare-book dealer in the United States and his impact on the Visontay family, which had survived the horrors of the Holocaust to become a classic example of Central European migration to Australia after ... (read more)