Sometimes an author will have one big hit and then … nothing. When we meet Michael Ardenne, the antihero of Ian Shadwell’s Slush Pile, it has been more than a decade since he won the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel Ephesus. Now, he is 'as dry as an old dog turd'. Instead of writing, … Continue reading Review: Slush Pile by Ian Shadwell, for The Australian
Man Booker Prize
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Luminaries Eleanor Catton Little, Brown 9780316074315 Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize I’ve woken up around 4am the past couple of nights thinking about this book. My thoughts on it aren't final but this is a space where conversations happen, and I need to talk. The Luminaries is an engaging page-turner, a mystery … Continue reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
I had the pleasure of speaking with British novelist and Man Booker Prize winner (for The Line of Beauty) Alan Hollinghurst at his hotel last month in Melbourne, over a pot of tea. Hollinghurst's latest novel The Stranger's Child opens in 1913. The poet Cecil Valance is visiting his Cambridge friend (and secret lover) George Sawle … Continue reading Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Picador, 2004 9780330483216 (paperback, ebook) I was going to refer to Nick, the protagonist of The Line of Beauty, as unambitious. But when I think about it, it’s just that his ambitions are not professional. They are romantic, aesthetic, and social. Another skill he has is taking in the pleasure of the moment, and even … Continue reading The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
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