Gideon Haigh
What the authors of these three wildly different books share is a gift for creating through language a kind of intimacy of presence, as though they were in the room with you. Emily Wilson’s much-awaited translation of The Iliad (W.W. Norton & Company) is a gorgeous, hefty hardback with substantial authorial commentary that manages to be both scholarly and engaging. The poem is translated into effortless-looking blank verse that reads like music. The Running Grave (Sphere) by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), the seventh novel in the Cormoran Strike crime series and one of the best so far, features Rowling’s gift for the creation of memorable characters and a cracking plot about a toxic religious cult. Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional (Allen & Unwin, reviewed in this issue of ABR) lingers in the reader’s mind, with the haunting grammar of its title, the restrained artistry of its structure, and the elusive way that it explores modes of memory, grief, and regret.
... (read more)The Vincibles by Gideon Haigh & Over and Out edited by John Gascoigne
Daniel Andrews: The revealing biography of Australia’s most powerful premier by Sumeyya Ilanbey
The Big Ship: Warwick Armstrong and the making of modern cricket by Gideon Haigh
The Vetting of Wisdom: Joan Montgomery and the fight for PLC by Kim Rubenstein
The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the great Australian dissent by Gideon Haigh
To celebrate the best books of 2018, Australian Book Review invited nearly forty contributors to nominate their favourite titles. Contributors include Michelle de Kretser
... (read more)