Australian Book Review

December 2017, no. 397

December 2017, no. 397

Welcome to the December issue! Highlights include:

Marguerite Johnson on Picnic at Hanging Rock, fifty years on
Shaun Crowe reviews two books on Pauline Hanson and One Nation
ABR’s 2017 Books of the Year
Peter Rose on the results of the marriage equality survey
Kevin Foster on Peter Greste’s new memoir
Richard Walsh on a new book of interviews with Bob Hawke
Beejay Silcox on Gerald Murnane’s new novel

Read the facsimile edition

ONLINE ONLY

Full Contents

Politics

Max Holleran reviews 'Democracy in Chains: The deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan' for America by Nancy MacLean

by Max Holleran

Art

John Rickard reviews 'Collecting for the Nation: The Australiana Fund' edited by Jennifer Sanders

by John Rickard

Books of the Year

2017 Books of the Year

by Australian Book Review

Essay Collection

'Picnic at Hanging Rock fifty years on' by Marguerite Johnson

by Marguerite Johnson

Fiction

Beejay Silcox reviews 'Border Districts' by Gerald Murnane

by Beejay Silcox

Science and Technology

Danielle Clode reviews 'Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker' by A.N. Wilson

by Danielle Clode

Sport

Ryan Cropp reviews 'The Death and Life of Australian Soccer' by Joe Gorman

Literary Studies

Andrew Fuhrmann reviews 'A Long Saturday: Conversations' by George Steiner and Laure Adler

by Andrew Fuhrmann

Poetry

Peter Kenneally reviews 'These Things Are Real' by Alan Wearne

by Peter Kenneally

Poetry

Gregory Day reviews 'The Best Australian Poems 2017' edited by Sarah Holland-Batt

Australian History

Michael Winkler reviews 'Australian Gypsies: Their secret history' by Mandy Sayer

by Michael Winkler

Society

Dan Dixon reviews 'Moral Panic 101: Equality, acceptance and the Safe Schools scandal (Quarterly Essay 67)' by Benjamin Law

History

Amanda Nettelbeck reviews 'The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the settlers and the protectors' by Bain Attwood

by Amanda Nettelbeck

History

Gemma Betros reviews 'Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The story of a friendship, a novel, and a terrible year' by Peter Brooks

by Gemma Betros

Fiction

Barry Reynolds reviews 'Bad to Worse' by Robert Edeson

by Barry Reynolds

Fiction

Fiona Wright reviews 'Drawing Sybylla' by Odette Kelada

by Fiona Wright

Fiction

Catherine Noske reviews 'Terra Nullius' by Claire G. Coleman

by Catherine Noske

Fiction

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Dancing Home' by Paul Collis

by Jay Daniel Thompson

Fiction

Gillian Dooley reviews 'The Pacific Room' by Michael Fitzgerald

by Gillian Dooley

Fiction

Anna MacDonald reviews 'Half Wild' by Pip Smith

by Anna MacDonald

Fiction

Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews 'Atlantic Black' by A.S. Patrić

by Kerryn Goldsworthy

Fiction

Felicity Plunkett reviews 'Demi-Gods' by Eliza Robertson

by Felicity Plunkett

Poem

'Swan' by Zoë Brigley Thompson

by Zoë Brigley Thompson

Poem

'Ithaca Road' by Philip Mead

Memoir

James McNamara reviews 'How Not To Be A Boy' by Robert Webb and 'This Is Going To Hurt: Secret diaries of a junior doctor' by Adam Kay

by James McNamara

Memoir

Ceridwen Spark reviews 'The Book of Thistles' by Noëlle Janaczewska

by Ceridwen Spark

Memoir

Susan Wyndham reviews 'Can You Hear the Sea? My Grandmother’s Story' by Brenda Niall

by Susan Wyndham

Memoir

Kevin Foster reviews 'The First Casualty' by Peter Greste

by Kevin Foster

Asian Studies

David Fettling reviews 'Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s decline: From Obama to Trump and beyond' by Gideon Rachman

by David Fettling

China

David Brophy reviews 'The Souls of China: The return of religion after Mao' by Ian Johnson

by David Brophy

Politics

Richard Walsh reviews 'Wednesdays with Bob' by Bob Hawke and Derek Rielly

by Richard Walsh

Politics

Frank Bongiorno reviews 'The Dismissal Dossier: Everything you were never meant to know about November 1975' by Jenny Hocking

by Frank Bongiorno

Politics

Shaun Crowe reviews 'Please Explain: The rise, fall and rise again of Pauline Hanson' by Anna Broinowksi and 'Rogue Nation: Dispatches from Australia’s populist uprisings and outsider politics' by Royce Kurmelovs

Environment

Kathrin Bartha reviews 'Facing Gaia: Eight lectures on the new climatic regime' by Bruno Latour, translated by Catherine Porter

by Kathrin Bartha

Letters

Letters to the Editor - December 2017

by Australian Book Review

Advances

News from the Editor's Desk - December 2017

by Australian Book Review

Sport

'When sport and politics collide' by Kieran Pender

by Kieran Pender

Commentary

'Victory for Equality' by Peter Rose