August 2014 no. 363

Welcome to our August issue – packed with good reading: reviews, commentary, new poetry, arts commentary. Few recent books have achieved such renown and influence as Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the Twenty-first Century’; Mark Triffitt reviews it for us. We have reviews of new fiction by Gerald Murnane and Lorrie Moore; and biographies of Don Dunstan, George Herbert and Wilhelm II. Kevin Rabalais writes about ‘My Brother Jack’ on its fiftieth birthday. Finally, among our poets this month is soon-to-be-visiting UK poet Simon Armitage.

August 2014 no. 363

Piketty-land

Mark Triffitt
Mark Triffitt reviews Thomas Piketty’s influential Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Our reviewer will take part in an ABR/University of Melbourne public forum on Piketty on 19 August. More

My Brother Jack at fifty

Kevin Rabalais

Fifty years after the publication of George Johnston’s My Brother Jack, Kevin Rabalais revisits this famous study of family, the Depression, and World War II.

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Gerald Murnane's new novel

Shannon Burns
Gerald Murnane – one of our most original voices – has published a new novel about the narrator and ‘dark-haired females’. Shannon Burns describes it in his review as ‘a triumph of creative configuration’. More
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Putin and the kleptocrats

Nicholas Hordern

Nick Hordern – long-time journalist and political staffer – reviews two books on Russia’s controversial leader, Vladimir Putin.

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Also in this issue

Joel Deane reviews 'Jacks and Jokers'

Sheila Fitzpatrick reviews Biff Ward's 'In My Mother's Hands'

Lyndon Megarrity reviews the new political biography of Don Dunstan

Susan Lever reviews 'Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy'

Danielle Clode on 'Voyaging in Strange Seas'

Jane Sullivan reviews 'The Wonders'

Melinda Harvey reviews the short story collection 'Bark'

Eleanor Hogan reviews the musical journey of 'Cadence'

Letters to the Editor

News from the Editor's Desk

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Bernard Whimpress reviews 'The Commonwealth Games'

David Day on 'Menzies at War'

Glyn Davis reviews 'Just Freedom'

Miriam Cosic reviews the biography of 'Wilhelm II'

Ian Donaldson reviews 'Music at Midnight'

Philip Mead reviews 'Antipodean America'

Andy Kissane: 'The Bluetongue as an Answer to the Anxiety of Reputation'

Katherine Gallagher: 'Photograph – Mekong Delta, 1965'

Simon Armitage: 'The Invigilator'

Alison Broinowski reviews 'The Yellow Papers'

Hedda Gabler

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Christopher Menz visits the 'Mid-Century Modern' exhibition at NGV

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Colin Golvan on 'Behind the Doors: An Art History from Yuendumu'

Amanda Laugesen on the slow death of Australian slang

Darren Swanson reviews 'A War of Words'

Michael Morley reviews two books on Hitler’s impact on film and music

Jennifer Harrison reviews 'Ecstacies and Elegies'

Peter Kenneally reviews 'Devadatta’s Poems'

Rose Lucas reviews 'Workshopping the Heart'

Sam Zifchak reviews 'Stone Postcard'

Geoff Page reviews 'Radiance'

Rose Lucas reviews 'Claustrophobia'

Carol Middleton reviews 'The Return'

Doug Wallen reviews 'Wild Things'

Cassandra Atherton reviews 'Granta 127: Japan'

Stephanie Owen Reeder reviews seven unique picture books

Open Page with Sophie Cunningham