Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatre maker Andrea James has been thinking a lot about her parents lately. They died at just 54 years old when the actor and playwright was in her 30s; she is now 52. Being reminded of her family — and of mortality — seems inevitable, given the subject matter of her latest project, … Continue reading
Omar Sakr remembers looking up and seeing a small plane trace “Vote No” in big, smoky letters that left a trail like clouds in the sky. It was 2016, as the same-sex marriage debate raged in Australia. In Son of Sin, Sakr’s debut novel, the young Arab Australian protagonist – a believer, a sinner, and … Continue reading
Jane Caro’s new book begins with a woman shopping for a gun. In The Mother, Caro’s first novel for adults, we meet 50-something-year-old Miriam Duffy, a successful real estate business owner and grandmother of two. Miriam, recently widowed, is not someone you’d expect to find contemplating a glass cabinet full of lethal weapons. At first, … Continue reading
When Min Jin Lee published her multi-generational saga Pachinko in 2017, it took the literary world by storm. It landed on 75 best-of lists, was a finalist for the National Book Award — and made it into the ‘must read’ recommendations of former US president Barack Obama. The sprawling saga of sacrifice, oppression and resilience … Continue reading
WHEN WE MEET MAALI ALMEIDA—an intrepid photojournalist and the protagonist of Shehan Karunatilaka’s Chats with the Dead, published earlier this year—he is recently dead. The novel is set in 1989, a time Karunatilaka chose because it was what he calls a “perfect storm of terrors.” The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan army, Indian … Continue reading
…Pinto uses these moments to bring into sharp focus some of the factors that influenced Minnette’s trajectory. In 1948, she made history as the first Asian woman to become an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and, in 1949, became the first Sri Lankan woman architect to start her own practice. While Minnette’s buildings would break new ground both … Continue reading
It seems inevitable now that Richard Flanagan would come to know Siegfried Heidl better than John Friedrich. Heidl is a work of fiction, but he is Flanagan’s creation; Friedrich on the other hand, when all is said and done, was a man Flanagan spent just three weeks with, some 30 years ago. Yet, Friedrich has … Continue reading
Chhimi Tenduf-La was anxious about dengue even before the current epidemic in Sri Lanka reached its height this June. With 80,000 cases so far, and hospital wards overflowing, he felt his heart sink when his paediatrician reported they were turning away children simply for a lack of beds. Tenduf-La’s concern is overwhelmingly for his kids. … Continue reading
Have you heard the story about Gabriel García Márquez’s 80th birthday party? Gabo was famous by this time, his years as a poverty stricken journalist having given way to his career as Colombia’s most famous novelist. At 55, he had become the first of his countrymen to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. At 80, … Continue reading
Let it keep, the moment when Katherine Boo found herself lying on the floor with a punctured lung and three broken ribs in a spreading pool of Diet Dr. Pepper. Rewind, see her tripping over the unabridged dictionary, her body breaking as it met the floor. Keep rewinding, back over a decade to the beginnings … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 