ABR January–February 2021 LETTERS
6
Michael Halliwell, Antoinette Halloran, Ben Brooker, Helen Balzer, Katherine Vowles, Hayley Smith, Lara Stevens, Judith Thomas, Daniel Howard
POLITICS
9
Jon Piccini
11
Kieran Pender
The Truth of the Palace Letters by Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston and The Palace Letters by Jenny Hocking A Secret Australia, edited by Felicity Ruby and Peter Cronau
HISTORY
12 18 30 55
Sheila Fitzpatrick Andrew West Luke Stegemann David Wells
The Last Million by David Nasaw When America Stopped Being Great by Nick Bryant The International Brigades by Giles Tremlett Russia Is Burning, edited by Maria Bloshteyn
LAW
15
Beejay Silcox
Witness by Louise Milligan
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR
17 22 32 34 36 37 63 70
Timothy J. Lynch Michael Winkler Tim Byrne Ian Britain Barnaby Smith Joshua Black Daniel Seaton Carol Middleton
A Promised Land by Barack Obama Lowitja by Stuart Rintoul Boy on Fire by Mark Mordue Son of the Brush by Tim Olsen Untwisted by Paul Jennings Cathy Goes to Canberra by Cathy McGowan Archie Jackson by David Frith Soar by David McAllister with Amanda Dunn
SOCIETY
20 60 61
Kim Mahood Adele Dumont Peter Mares
Tjanimaku Tjukurpa by the NPY Women’s Council Fire Flood Plague, edited by Sophie Cunningham Reconnected by Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell
24
The 2021 Shortlist
Danielle Blau, Sara M. Saleh, Jazz Money, Raisa Tolchinsky, and Y.S. Lee
31
Michael Halliwell
Wagnerism by Alex Ross
40 41 42 43 44 45 45 46 47 48
Tony Birch Josephine Taylor Jane Sullivan Polly Simons Frank Bongiorno Susan Midalia Rose Lucas Naama Grey-Smith Benjamin Chandler Kate Crowcroft
Consolation by Garry Disher Life After Truth by Ceridwen Dovey Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson A Jealous Tide by Anna MacDonald Factory 19 by Dennis Glover The Road to Woop Woop and other stories by Eugen Bacon Mother Tongue by Joyce Kornblatt At the Edge of the Solid World by Daniel Davis Wood Three new Young Adult novels Poly by Paul Dalgarno
INTERVIEW
49 64
Beejay Silcox Louise Milligan
Critic of the Month Open Page
LITERARY STUDIES
50
Juliane Roemhild
Only Happiness Here by Gabrielle Carey
ENVIRONMENT
51
Rayne Allinson
Living with the Anthropocene edited by Cameron Muir et al.
POETRY
53 54
Luke Beesley Ella Jeffery
New poetry by Jill Jones, Ella Jeffery, and Ken Bolton New poetry by Kate Llewellyn, Benjamin Dodds, and Josephine Clarke
LANGUAGE
56
Kate Burridge
Rooted by Amanda Laugesen
PHILOSOPHY
57 59
Shannon Burns Janna Thompson
On Getting Off by Damon Young Time of the Magicians by Wolfram Eilenberger
SCIENCE
62
Diane Stubbings
Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith
ARTS
66 67 69 70 71
Richard Leathem Saskia Beudel Ian Dickson Michael Halliwell Christopher Menz
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life Looking Glass: Judy Watson and Yhonnie Scarce The Picture of Dorian Gray Messe De Minuit The Louvre by James Gardner
FROM THE ARCHIVE
72
Peter Porter
The Penguin Book of Gay Australian Writing, edited by Graeme Aitken
PORTER PRIZE MUSIC FICTION
A U S T R A L I A N B O O K R E V I E W J A N UA R Y– F E B R UA R Y 2 0 2 1
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