What We’re Reading

Ange reviews Loaded: Having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Slap, Barracuda, Merciless Gods, and Damascus, I thought it was about time I read Tsiolkas’ debut. I can see now that his writing has always been as unapologetically fierce as it is melancholy and reflective. Nineteen years old, Greek, and increasingly disillusioned with white Australia, Ari’s inner monologue takes a swipe at you through the page as he tries to drown his despair in drugs and casual sex. It is rare to read from the perspective of a queer character who so wholeheartedly embraces toxic masculinity, leaving him in a near constant state of rage and lust. Despite his pessimistic and often hateful observations, my heart bled for Ari, struggling to find purpose in a world that makes him feel both unlovable and unable to love.

Andy reviews The New Life: This is an astonishingly assured debut - set in 1890s London, it is the story of two Victorian marriages forged outside of all societal expectations. Crewe’s sticky, buttoned-up London in late summer is a blazingly consummate evocation of time and place, studded with some truly erotic hand grenades thrown in for good measure. A kind-of fin de siecle Alan Hollinghurst is not too wide-of-themark.

Jack reviews The Passengers: Are you listening to this book? Open it, hold it close and you will hear voices from the lives of others - people from round your way or down the shops, perhaps. All of them fellow passengers with a secret, a memory that may resemble your own.

Shocking, funny and absolutely fucking heartbreaking. More, please.

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