Masterly Tales

June–July 2002, no. 242

The Fig Tree by Arnold Zable

$27.50 pb, 222 pp

Masterly Tales

June–July 2002, no. 242

How does Arnold Zable do it? After two finely wrought, deceptively simple books on Holocaust themes, he has brought out another, linking tales of the Greek island of Ithaca with the stories of his parents, Polish Jews, and their contemporaries who settled in Melbourne just before or just after the Annihilation, as Zable prefers to call the Holocaust.

Susan Varga

By this contributor

Susan Varga’s first book, Heddy and Me, won the Christina Stead Award for non-fiction. Her first novel, Happy Families, won both the Braille and Talking Book of the Year awards. The travel memoir, Broometime was co-authored with her partner Anne Coombs. Her novel Headlong was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferies Award. Rupture, her first book of poetry, was commended for the Elder Award and was nominated in the ABR's Best Books of the Year in 2016. Her most recent book is Hard Joy (Upswell, 2022).