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A blog about books and writing, through rainbow-tinted glasses

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Tag: Contemporary

Review: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

A tale of despair, illness and poverty that captures the swooping highs and devastating lows of life.

Contemporary, gay, Glasgow, Man Booker prize, Novel, queer, Scotland

The best books I’ve read 2020

The books that have had the biggest impact on me this year.

Argentina, Australian, Classics, Contemporary, End of year review, Environment, Fiction, Indigenous writers, Nonfiction, Novel

Review: A Couple Of Things Before The End by Sean O’Beirne

These stories are about traditional Aussie men, all at sea in their emotions.

Australian, Climate change, Contemporary, Short stories, Spec-fic, Speculative

Review: The Adventures Of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre)

Lesbians! Cowboys! Argentina!

Argentina, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical, Indigenous Americans, LGBTIQ, Man Booker International, Novel, queer

Review: The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michele Hutchison)

This is a novel that does what it says: a truly discomforting tale of death and grief set in a grim twilight world.

Contemporary, Fiction, Man Booker International, Netherlands, Novel

Review: Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe

Stone Sky Gold Mountain offers a rearranging of Australian history, reminding us other settlers were also here in the early days.

Australian, China, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical

Review: Cherry Beach by Laura McPhee-Browne

Cherry Beach is a painful portrait of millennial queer life, and agonising desire.

Canada, Contemporary, Fiction, lesbian, Melbourne, Millennial, queer

Review: Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

Cleanness is a book of lofty ideas, grounded in the flesh.

Bulgaria, Contemporary, Fiction, LGBTIQ, Novel, queer

Review: Summer by Ali Smith

Ali Smith’s Seasonal quartet is over. What a journey, and what a time for it to end.

Ali Smith, Brexit, British, Climate change, Contemporary, Donald Trump, Fiction, Novel, UK

Review: The Animals In That Country by Laura Jean McKay

The Animals In That Country is premised on the idea that if we could suddenly understand what are animals are saying, it would drive us insane.

Animals, Australian, Contemporary, Fiction, Novel, Spec-fic, Speculative

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