Books
Richard Flanagan explores a different kind of darkness in ‘First Person’
Beneath the surface comedy of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Watt’ lies a metaphysical quest to know the unknowable
JM Coetzee’s ‘Late Essays: 2006–2017’ shows his deep respect and sympathy for fellow writers
Judith Brett’s ‘The Enigmatic Mr Deakin’ is a skilful portrait of Australia’s second prime minister
Arundhati Roy’s ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ was worth the 20-year wait
Jessa Crispin’s ‘Why I Am Not a Feminist’ demands a dismantling of mainstream feminism … and the system itself
James Boyce’s ‘Losing Streak’ investigates how one family came to rule the state’s poker-machine industry
Mark McKenna’s ‘From the Edge’ tells four fascinating stories of Aboriginal and settler interaction through the history of place
Emily Witt’s ‘Future Sex’ and Sheila Rowbotham’s ‘Rebel Crossings’ approach the concept of free love from different perspectives
The third volume in ASIO’s official history confirms infiltration by Soviet intelligence
JM Coetzee’s ‘The Schooldays of Jesus’ is defined by its strangeness
Celebrated short-story practitioner Joy Williams turns to micro fiction in ‘Ninety-Nine Stories of God’
Ben Lerner’s ‘The Hatred of Poetry’ brings together questions of art and politics
Philippe Sands’ ‘East West Street’ mixes memoir, biography and thriller to explain the origins of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘genocide’