January–February 2021, no. 428
January–February 2021, no. 428
Welcome to our summer issue – the first of 2021. On our cover is Peter Porter, to complement the five poems shortlisted in the 2021 Porter Prize. This year’s shortlist is wonderfully diverse, with poets from Australia, Canada and the United States. Elsewhere, Jon Piccini reviews two very different readings of the Palace Letters. Timothy J. Lynch lauds Barack Obama’s memoirs as the best presidential memoirs since Ulysses S. Grant’s, but notes a certain elephant in the room – Donald Trump and the spectre of Trumpism. Louise Milligan is our Open Page guest this month, and Beejay Silcox reviews Milligan’s new book, Witness, a searing account of the brutal cost of seeking justice in this country – especially for witnesses. Tim Byrne considers the early, rambunctious years of Nick Cave. We also review new novels by Garry Disher, Ceridwen Dovey, Dennis Glover and Anna MacDonald.
Full contents
Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Society
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Tjanimaku Tjukurpa: How one young man came good by the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council
by Kim Mahood -
Fire Flood Plague: Australian writers respond to 2020 edited by Sophie Cunningham
by Adele Dumont -
Reconnected: A community builder’s handbook by Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell
by Peter Mares
Language
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Rooted: An Australian history of bad language by Amanda Laugesen
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Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon
by Luke Beesley
Science
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Metazoa: Animal minds and the birth of consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
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The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on lost time by Hugh Raffles
by Dan Dixon
Philosophy
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On Getting Off: Sex and philosophy by Damon Young
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Time of the Magicians: The invention of modern thought, 1919–1929 by Wolfram Eilenberger, translated by Shaun Whiteside
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Being Evil: A philosophical perspective by Luke Russell
by Adrian Walsh
Technology
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If Then: How one data company invented the future by Jill Lepore
by Joshua Krook
Arts
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The Louvre: The many lives of the world’s most famous museum by James Gardner
Memoir
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A Promised Land by Barack Obama
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Son of the Brush: A memoir by Tim Olsen
by Ian Britain -
Untwisted: The story of my life by Paul Jennings
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Cathy Goes to Canberra: Doing politics differently by Cathy McGowan
by Joshua Black -
Soar: A life freed by dance by David McAllister with Amanda Dunn
Biography
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Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue by Stuart Rintoul
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Boy on Fire: The young Nick Cave by Mark Mordue
by Tim Byrne -
Archie Jackson: Cricket’s tragic genius by David Frith
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The Legacy of Douglas Grant by John Ramsland
by Noah Riseman
Poetry
Fiction
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Consolation by Garry Disher
by Tony Birch -
Life After Truth by Ceridwen Dovey
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Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
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A Jealous Tide by Anna MacDonald
by Polly Simons -
Factory 19 by Dennis Glover
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The Road to Woop Woop and other stories by Eugen Bacon
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Mother Tongue by Joyce Kornblatt
by Rose Lucas -
At the Edge of the Solid World by Daniel Davis Wood
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Benjamin Chandler on new Young Adult novels by Asphyxia, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, and Charlie Archbold
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Poly by Paul Dalgarno
Literary Studies
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Only Happiness Here: In search of Elizabeth von Arnim by Gabrielle Carey
Environment
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Living with the Anthropocene: Love, loss and hope in the face of the environmental crisis edited by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner, and Jenny Newell
History
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The Last Million: Europe’s displaced persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw
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The International Brigades: Fascism, freedom and the Spanish Civil War by Giles Tremlett
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Russia Is Burning: Poems of the Great Patriotic War edited by Maria Bloshteyn
by David Wells -
When America Stopped Being Great: A history of the present by Nick Bryant
by Andrew West
Politics
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The Truth of the Palace Letters by Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston & The Palace Letters by Jenny Hocking
by Jon Piccini -
A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks exposés edited by Felicity Ruby and Peter Cronau
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Trust: America’s best chance by Pete Buttigieg
Law
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Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice by Louise Milligan
From ABR
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Letters to the Editor
by Michael Halliwell, Ben Brooker, Antoinette Halloran, Helen Balzer, Katherine Vowles, Hayley Smith, Lara Stevens, Judith Thomas, Daniel Howard -
ABR News
by Australian Book Review
Music
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Wagnerism: Art and politics in the shadow of music by Alex Ross