December 2016, no. 387

December 2016, no. 387

Welcome to our much-anticipated December issue!

• Books of the Year - More than forty senior critics, writers, broadcasters, and booksellers have nominated their favourite books of the year
• Publisher’s Picks - a dozen major publishers/editors nominate 2016 books from other publishing houses
• Paul Genoni on George Johnston and Charmian Clift’s time on Hydra
• Peter Craven on Tim Winton’s ‘rich and brilliant’ essay collection The Boy Behind the Curtain
• Fiona Gruber on Scientology
• Philosopher Peter Singer is our Open Page guest

ONLINE ONLY
 

Full Contents

Open Page

Open page with Peter Singer

Children's Fiction

Margaret Robson Kett reviews 'The Bone Sparrow' by Zana Fraillon

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Sport

Bernard Whimpress reviews 'Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the shot that changed cricket' by Gideon Haigh

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Poetry

Robert Phiddian reviews 'An Essay on Man' by Alexander Pope, edited by Tom Jones

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Poetry

Nathanael Pree reviews 'Comfort Food' by Ellen van Neerven, 'Year of the Wasp' by Joel Deane, and 'Invisible Mending' by Mike Ladd

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Biography

Shannon Burns reviews 'The Life of D.H. Lawrence' by Andrew Harrison

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Television

Michael Shmith reviews 'The Day the Music Died: A life lived behind the lens' by Tony Garnett

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Philosophy

Tim Smartt reviews 'The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the new science of child development tells us about the relationship between parents and children' by Alison Gopnik

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Science and Technology

Ian Gibbins reviews 'The Best Australian Science Writing 2016' edited by Jo Chandler NewSouth

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Science and Technology

Nick Haslam reviews 'Ivan Pavlov: A Russian life in science' by Daniel P. Todes

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Language

Bruce Moore reviews 'The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary' by Peter Gilliver

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Religion

Fiona Gruber reivews 'Fair Game: The incredible untold story of Scientology in Australia' by Steve Cannane

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Music

David Larkin reviews 'Franz Liszt: Musician, celebrity, superstar' by Oliver Hilmes, translated by Stewart Spencer

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Film

Sarah McDonald reviews 'Latin American Cinema: A Comparative History' by Paul A. Schroeder Rodríguez

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Essay Collection

Andrew Fuhrmann reviews 'Quicksilver' by Nicolas Rothwell

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Fiction

Ann-Marie Priest reviews 'The Joyce Girl' by Annabel Abbs

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Fiction

Gabriel García Ochoa reviews 'The Winterlings' by Cristina Sánchez-Andrade and translated by Samuel Rutter

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Fiction

Agnes Nieuwenhuizen reviews 'Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil' by Melina Marchetta

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Fiction

Chris Flynn reviews 'Inexperience and other stories' by Anthony Macris

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Fiction

Kevin Rabalais reviews 'Moonglow' by Michael Chabon

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Fiction

Fiona Hile reviews 'Letter to Pessoa & Other Short Fictions' by Michelle Cahill

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Poem

'The Sizzler at the York Agricultural Show, 2016' by John Kinsella

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Poem

'Deep Knowledge' by Caitlin Maling

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History

Rachel Robertson reviews 'A Tear in the Soul' by Amanda Webster

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History

Danielle Clode reviews 'Crusoe’s Island: A rich and curious history of pirates, castaways and madness' by Andrew Lambert

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History

Christopher Allen reviews 'The Holy Roman Empire: A thousand years of Europe’s history' by Peter H. Wilson

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Memoir

Dilan Gunawardana reviews 'Songs of a War Boy' by Deng Thiak Adut and Ben McKelvey

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Biography

Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews 'The Fiction of Thea Astley' by Susan Sheridan

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Books of the Year

2016 Publisher Picks

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Commentary

Hydra as intimate theatre by Paul Genoni

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Fiction

Jane Sullivan reviews 'The Dark Flood Rises' by Margaret Drabble

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Fiction

James McNamara reviews 'The Sellout' by Paul Beatty

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Books of the Year

Books of the Year 2016

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History

Colin Wight reviews 'ISIS: A history' by Fawaz A. Gerges

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Memoir

Michael McGirr reviews 'Press Escape' by Shaun Carney

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Essay Collection

Peter Craven reviews 'The Boy Behind the Curtain' by Tim Winton

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Australian History

Brian Matthews reviews 'The Story of Australia’s People: The rise and rise of a New Australia' by Geoffrey Blainey

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Letters

Letters to the Editor - December 2016

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Advances

News from the Editor's Desk - December 2016

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