Ramona Koval

In the opening pages of Jewels and Ashes a man of eighty stands on a chair, his arms outstretched, describing the tree he remembers from his childhood. How beautiful and tall and wide it was, as it stood in the forest called Zwierziniec, on the outskirts of Bialystok, Poland. How strong his family was, how it branched and grew and prospered, in those years before 1939! Arnold Zable is the transpl ... (read more)

Ramona Koval interviews Robert Manne about The Culture of Forgetting   Ramona Koval asked Robert Manne what his version of the strange story of Helen Demidenko might be. Robert Manne: Well there was once, I think, a very strange young Australian woman of English parents, who, for reasons that we don’t understand decided to identify with Ukrainian war criminals. She decided that the Jews ... (read more)

Ramona Koval interviews Kim Scott, co-winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Benang. Ramona Koval: Did this book come out of your own anger and resistance? Kim Scott: Yes, and some confusion perhaps and then I got into the archives, trying to work out my own family history, since there wasn’t an oral history at that stage that could help me out that way. When I started reading the ... (read more)

Ramona Koval interviews Thea Astley, co-winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Drylands. Ramona Koval: In a reversal of a trend in Australian fiction, which has novels set in wonderful little country towns with odd and amusing zany characters, you’ve set your new novel or collection of linked stories in Drylands, the town that everyone is dying to leave. Were you consciously aware of ... (read more)