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December 2020, no. 427

December 2020, no. 427

Welcome to our last issue for 2020. What a turbulent year it’s been – but also a rousing one for ABR, as the Editor reports in Advances. Highlights of the issue include our perennial favourite, Books of the Year: 33 ABR critics nominate some of their favourite books. The list forms a testament to the resilience of great writing even during a pandemic. Meanwhile, Morag Fraser, reviewing two new edited volumes, imagines what Australia might look like after Covid-19. Nicholas Jose reviews the second volume of Helen Garner’s inimitable diaries, and Frank Bongiorno reviews the new collection of writings from Don Watson. Anna MacDonald finds much to admire in Josephine Rowe’s short tribute to the late Beverley Farmer, and Brenda Niall relishes the task of revisiting the short stories of one of Australia’s greatest writers, Shirley Hazzard. Paul Giles – our Critic of the Month – writes about William Faulkner. 

 

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Full Contents

United States

The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick

Politics

Statelessness: A modern history by Mira L. Siegelberg

Anthropology

More Than Mere Words edited by Paul Monaghan and Michael Walsh & Ethnographer and Contrarian edited by Julie D. Finlayson and Frances Morphy

History

Napoleon and de Gaulle: Heroes and history by Patrice Gueniffey, translated by Steven Rendall

Poem

Simaetha

Poetry

The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry edited by Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington

Poetry

Reaching Light: Selected poems by Robert Adamson

Poetry

Beautiful Objects: Selected poems by Martin Johnston

Fiction

The Mother Fault by Kate Mildenhall

Fiction

Jack by Marilynne Robinson

Fiction

The Silence: A novel by Don DeLillo

Fiction

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

Fiction

The Fifth Season by Philip Salom

Fiction

The Wreck by Meg Keneally

Critic of the Month

Paul Giles is Critic of the Month

Literary Studies

The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War by Michael Gorra

Books of the Year

Books of the Year 2020

by Sarah Holland-Batt et al.
Biography

Tom Stoppard: A life by Hermione Lee

Philosophy

The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel & Philanthropy by Paul Vallely

Essay Collection

Watsonia: A writing life by Don Watson

Society

What Happens Next? edited by Emma Dawson and Janet McCalman & Upturn by Tanya Plibersek

Literary Studies

On Beverley Farmer: Writers on Writers by Josephine Rowe

ABR News

by Australian Book Review
Letters

Letters to the Editor

by Lindy Warrell, Liana Joy Christensen, Clare Rhoden, Luke Stegemann, Johanna Leggatt, Clint Caward, Declan Fry, Randall Doyle