ABR - Australian Book Review
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Australian Book Review (ABR) has had two versions. The first was edited by Max Harris and Rosemary Wighton and was published in Adelaide from 1961-74. It was published monthly to 1971, then quarterly. The second, published by the National Book Council with the assistance of various sponsors, began in 1978. It was edited by John McLaren until 1986, followed by Kerryn Goldsworthy and then by Louise Adler. The editor from 1989 - 2001 was Rosemary Sorensen, and since 2001 it has been edited by Peter Rose. In 2005 ABR formed a partnership with Flinders University.
Copyright to all textual material owned by Australian Book Review Inc. Flinders Dspace has made every effort to contact the copyright owners of other material, and will remove items upon request.
Collections in this community
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No 241 - May 2002
Canberra's Dry Heart -
No 242 - June / July 2002
Cats and Alchemy -
No 243 - August 2002
Stead in Love -
No 244 - September 2002
Us & Them: One Year After September 11 -
No 245 - October 2002
Freedom Ride: The Politics of Black Australia -
No 246 - November 2002
Bernard Smith's New Memoir: Peter Craven -
No 247 - December 2002 / January 2003
Peter Rose: The Born-Again Barry Humphries -
No 248 - February 2003
Lies & Whispers -
No 249 - March 2003
Art Profiles -
No 250 - April 2003
250 Not Out: Kerryn Goldsworthy on ABR's Milestone -
No 251 - May, 2003
In the Wars: The Trials of Middle Australia -
No 252 - June / July 2003
Dennis Altman: The Future of an Illusion - Superstition and Idolatry -
No 253 - August 2003
Sir William Deane: The Challenge of Justice and Truth -
No 254 - September, 2003
Clive James: The Meaning of Recognition -
No 255 - October, 2003
Regarding War -
No 256 - November, 2003
Inga Clendinnen: The Crack in The Teacup -
No 257 - December, 2003 / January, 2004
Summer Reading -
No 259 - March, 2004
Off The Wall: The Art Issue -
No 260 - April, 2004
Making the Angels Pay -
No 261 - May, 2004
The Burdens of War
Recent Submissions
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Looking At Both Sides. "The Cruise of the Janet Nichol Among the South Sea Islands: A Diary By Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson" by Roslyn Jolly (ed), "Robert Louis Stevenson: His Best Pacific Writings" by Roger Robinson (ed) and "Albert Wendt and Pacific Literature: Circling the Void" by Paul Sharrad [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-04)Whether it's fate or mere coincidence, the life stories of the two most celebrated writers of the Pacific — Robert Louis Stevenson and Albert Wendt — dovetail together on the small tropical island of Upolu in Western Samoa. -
Endless Crescendo. "Thicker Than Water" by Lindy Cameron, "The Castlemaine Murders" by Kerry Greenwood and "The Cutting: A Nullin Mystery" by Lee Tulloch. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-09)Organisations such as Sisters in Crime Australia claim as part of their charter the need to correct the imbalance in the treatment of women in the field. This is odd, given that Australian female writers and female sleuths ... -
A Comet of Wonder Fallen to Earth: The Diaries of Miles Franklin.
(Australian Book Review, 2003-10)Franklin published fifteen books in her lifetime becoming a respected literary figure in Australia in her last twenty years. But none of the books would be quite the success that "My Brilliant Career" was, at least in her ... -
Beyond the Pale. “Black Sheep: Journey to Borroloola” by Nicholas Jose. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)At the book's heart is the concern for connections, to country and to people, a concern that haunts many Australians, particularly those who have been insulated from the legacies of the frontier. As those legacies make ... -
On the Freedom Road. "Freedom Ride: A Freedom Rider Remembers" by Ann Curthoys. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Ann Curthoys’s Freedom Ride is a meticulously researched piece of Australian history, and so much more. It could sit comfortably on the required reading lists of subjects ranging from History, to Government, to Media. ... -
An Obsessional Storyteller. “Xavier Herbert: Letters” by Frances de Groen and Laurie Hergenham. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)The cover of this substantial volume tells you what's coming: it features a photograph of Xavier Herbert, sixtyish and fit-looking, standing behind the converted 4WD that constitutes his bush camp and dressed in nothing ... -
Colonial Romps. "Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife" by Marele Day and "Carrion Colony" by Richard King. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)This is a review of two books about early Australian Colonies. -
Preaching to the Converted? "How Simone de Beavoir Died in Australia: Stories and Essays" by Sylvia Lawson. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Sylvia Lawson’s How Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia warrants a second reading to be properly appreciated. The seven pieces in this collection are intricately connected, so that the messages are cumulatively conveyed. ... -
Deep River. "Rivers" by Peter Porter, Sean O'Brien and John Kinsella and "The State of the Rivers and Streams" by Warrick Wynne. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Rivers are important to us in all sorts of ways: usefully symbolic for poets, often loved in childhood while ‘messing about in boats’, sucked dry by cotton farmers, worried over by environmentalists, boosted by local ... -
Modest Everyman. "Nugget Coombs:A Reforming Life" by Tim Rowse. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)In Rowse's view, Nugget Coombs, with his breadth of concerns, his finely tuned ecological, cultural and economic antennae, and his technical competence, is the fit, in fact a better, prophet for any viable new Australian ... -
Trafficking in the Unsaid. “The Owner of My Face: New and Selected Poems” by Rodney Hall and “Collected Poems” by Les Murray [Review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Poetry is a likening, even when no metaphor is being deployed, no simile adduced. It knows that it is a miming, and, as often as not, is trying to find out what is being mimed. Murray and Hall are alike in their having ... -
The Tongue of Slander. "The Life of Matthew Flinders" by Miriam Estensen and "The Navigators: The Great Race between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin for the North–South Passage through Australia" by Klaus Toft. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Miriam Estensen’s "Life of Matthew Flinders" is a full-blown biography of Flinders. Klaus Toft’s The Navigators does not aspire to the same level of scholarship. -
Inwardness and Outwardness. “My Lover’s Back: 79 Love Poems” by M.T.C Cronin and “Bestiary” by Coral Hull. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Cronin’s love poetry, and the love it describes, both define themselves by their distance from what we might loosely call the public world: the world of soaps, films, television and the crowd. Cronin’s poems are small, and ... -
The Singo Tango. “Singo: Mates, Wives, Triumphs, Disasters” by Gerald Stone. [Review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-12)While not without flaws, “Singo” is an engaging and generally well-researched study of a life not yet complete. Bridget Griffen-Foley suspects the advertising guru would be quietly relieved that his biographer is a journalist; ... -
Bakowski's Strategic Dartboard. "Days That We Couldn't Rehearse" by Peter Bakowski
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Peter Bakowski’s Days That We Couldn’t Rehearse is in many ways the most consistent and satisfying of his five collections to date. He has cultivated strengths and eliminated weaknesses found in earlier volumes. Yet it is ... -
Playing the Game. "The Greek Liar" by Nikos Athanasou and "Attempts to Draw Jesus" by Stephen Orr. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)NOBEL PRIZEWINNER Albert Camus played soccer for Algeria. First-time novelist Nikos Athanasou has been likened to Camus — for his writing, not his ball skills — but, on the basis of his début, this comparison is hard to ... -
Activist in White Gloves. "Faith: Faith Bandler, Gentle Activist" by Marilyn Lake. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Lake advances continuities between Bandler's lifelong commitment to coalition politics, non-racialism and contemporary campaigns for reconciliation. This is surely the ground of ongoing discussions between biographer and ... -
Heads above Water. "Above the Water" by Margaret Bearman and "Borrowed Eyes: A Novel" by Saskia Beudel. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Jenny Digby reviews two remarkably accomplished works, "Borrowed Eyes" and "Above the Water". Both novels are from experienced authors and are remarkably accomplished works. Although they tell very different stories in ... -
Elusive Beauties. "Journey to the Stone Country" by Alex Miller. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)Miller offers a love story coloured and almost subsumed by family and ancestral memory, one located in a landscape that, insofar as it has appeared in Australian fiction. Miller accepts the challenge to write of Aboriginal ... -
National News. [essay]
(Australian Book Review, 2002-10)In November, the National Library will publish Many Voices: Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation, which is the culmination of four years of project work in an area of crucial importance in Australia’s ...