Australian Book Review

January–February 2018, no. 398

January–February 2018, no. 398

Welcome to the January–February issue! Highlights include:

2017 Publisher Picks
Michael Winkler reviews Alexis Wright's book on 'Tracker' Tilmouth
Peter Goldsworthy on a new biography of Czesław Miłosz
Barbara Keys on Odd Arne Westad's new history of the Cold War
Kevin Foster on Chris Masters' new book on the ADF
Memoirs by Claire Tomalin, Mike Willesee, and Tina Brown
Chris Masters is our Open Page guest

Read the facsimile edition

ONLINE ONLY

Full Contents

Open Page

Open Page with Chris Masters

Art

Christopher Menz reviews 'Featherston' by Geoff Isaac

by Christopher Menz

Opera

Michael Halliwell reviews 'The Politics of Opera: A History from Monteverdi to Mozart' by Mitchell Cohen

by Michael Halliwell

Society

Alex Tighe reviews 'Tinkering: Australians reinvent DIY culture' by Katherine Wilson

Film

Desley Deacon reviews 'The Best Film I Never Made: And other stories about a life in the arts' by Bruce Beresford

by Desley Deacon

Anthologies

Dan Dixon review 'The Best of The Lifted Brow: Volume Two' edited by Alexander Bennetts

Cricket

Bernard Whimpress reviews 'Feeling is the Thing that Happens in 1000th of a Second: A season of cricket photographer Patrick Eagar' by Christian Ryan and 'Lillee & Thommo: The deadly pair’s reign of terror' by Ian Brayshaw

by Bernard Whimpress

Biology

Rachael Mead reviews 'The Secret Life of Whales: A marine biologist’s revelations' by Micheline Jenner

by Rachael Mead

Law

John Eldridge reviews 'The Campaign against the Courts: A history of the judicial activism debate' by Tanya Josev

by John Eldridge

Education

Paul Giles reviews 'No End of a Lesson: Australia’s unified national system of higher education' by Stuart Macintyre, André Brett, and Gwilym Croucher

Media

Blanche Clark reviews 'Dissent: The student press in 1960s Australia' by Sally Percival Wood

by Blanche Clark

Fiction

Rachael Mead reviews 'Seabirds Crying in the Harbour Dark' by Catherine Cole

by Rachael Mead

Fiction

Anna MacDonald reviews 'Her' by Garry Disher

by Anna MacDonald

Australian History

Lucas Thompson reviews 'Mirror Sydney' by Vanessa Berry

by Lucas Thompson

Poem

Herr Doktor Tulp’s Interrogation (1942)

by John A. Scott

Poetry

Toby Fitch reviews 'Brink' by Jill Jones and 'Passage' by Kate Middleton

Biography

Peter Goldsworthy reviews 'Miłosz: A biography' by Andrzej Franaszek, edited and translated by Aleksandra Parker and Michael Parker

by Peter Goldsworthy

Fiction

Lisa Bennett reviews 'The Art of Navigation' by Rose Michael

by Lisa Bennett

Biography

Brian McFarlane reviews 'Anthony Powell: Dancing to the music of time' by Hilary Spurling

by Brian McFarlane

Literary Studies

2017 Publisher Picks

by Madonna Duffy et al

Fiction

Lilit Thwaites reviews 'All My Goodbyes' by Mariana Dimópulos, translated by Alice Whitmore

by Lilit Thwaites

Anthology

Rachel Robertson reviews 'The Best Australian Stories 2017' edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke

by Rachel Robertson

Fiction

Lisa Gorton reviews 'Dunbar' by Edward St Aubyn

Fiction

Brenda Niall reviews 'Mrs Osmond' by John Banville

by Brenda Niall

Memoir

Danielle Clode reviews 'Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest expeditions' by David Attenborough

by Danielle Clode

Memoir

Susan Wyndham reviews 'The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983–1992' by Tina Brown

by Susan Wyndham

Memoir

Mimi Biggadike reviews 'Coming to my Senses: The making of a counterculture cook' by Alice Waters

by Mimi Biggadike

Memoir

Richard Walsh reviews 'Memoirs' by Mike Willesee

by Richard Walsh

Memoir

Brenda Niall reviews 'A Life of My Own' by Claire Tomalin

by Brenda Niall

Literary Studies

David McCooey reviews 'David Malouf and the Poetic: His earlier writings' by Yvonne Smith

by David McCooey

Politics

Kevin Foster reviews 'No Front Line: Australia’s special forces at war in Afghanistan' by Chris Masters

by Kevin Foster

Politics

Frank Bongiorno reviews 'The Pivot of Power: Australian prime ministers and political leadership 1949–2016' by Paul Strangio, Paul ‘t Hart, and James Walter

by Frank Bongiorno

History

Barbara Keys reviews 'The Cold War: A world history' by Odd Arne Westad

by Barbara Keys

Biography

Michael Winkler reviews 'Tracker: Stories of Tracker Tilmouth' by Alexis Wright

by Michael Winkler

Letters

Letters to the Editor - January-February 2018

by Australian Book Review

Advances

News from the Editor's Desk - January-February 2018

by Australian Book Review

Medicine

Robert Reynolds reviews 'How to Survive a Plague: The story of how activists and scientists tamed AIDS' by David France

by Robert Reynolds

United States

Andrew Broertjes reviews 'Richard Nixon: The life' by John A. Farrell

by Andrew Broertjes

Australian History

John Arnold reviews 'La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor' by John Barnes

Literary Studies

Bruce Moore reviews 'That’s the Way It Crumbles: The American conquest of English' by Matthew Engel

Literary Studies

Nicholas Jose reviews 'A New Literary History of Modern China' edited by David Der-Wei Wang

by Nicholas Jose

Philosophy

Janna Thompson reviews 'Does Anything Really Matter?: Essays on Parfit on objectivity' edited by Peter Singer

by Janna Thompson

Australian History

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Beautiful Balts: From displaced persons to new Australians' by Jayne Persian

by Francesca Sasnaitis