Madeleine Gray

Lili Anolik is a journalist who enjoys writerly gossip, and so, dear reader, am I. Didion & Babitz is Anolik’s dual biography of Los Angeles counterculture chroniclers Joan Didion and Eve Babitz and, whatever else it may be, it is indubitably …

If you understand something well, you can explain it simply. Melanie Cheng understands ordinary people – their love, their quiet desperation, their hope – and the restrained, elegant prose of The Burrow is testament to this. The novel is …

A Scottish businessman at the beginning of the 20th century. A magical, moving pub in 1990s Melbourne. Ships. Ghosts. A lot of talk about wood – not a metaphor, just wood. Hubris and other human fallibilities. I wanted to love Jock Serong’s Cherrywood …

Nanae Aoyama’s second novel, Hitori biyori, was originally published in Japan in 2007 and won one of that country’s most prestigious literary awards, the Akutagawa Prize. Seventeen years after its original publication, it has been translated …

Reading Abbey Lay’s debut novel, I was beset by a case of déjà vu. The narrative follows protagonist Millie, a smart but insecure teenager who develops an obsession with her thespian classmate Olive. Their relationship is saturated in unease – there …

Marija Peričić’s first novel, The Lost Pages – a historical reimagining of Max Brod’s relationship with Franz Kafka – won The Australian/Vogel’s Award for Young Writers in 2017. Her second book, Exquisite Corpse, is also …

I haven’t always liked fungus but, lately, it’s been growing on me. I’ve just finished reading Alison Pouliot’s Underground Lovers, and while the book does not focus on magic mushrooms and psychedelic spores, I nevertheless feel like …

“The day after I tried to kill my mother, I tossed some clothes, a pair of hiking boots, a baseball cap and a few toiletries into my backpack, and left at dawn.” So begins Nigel Featherstone’s My Heart Is a Little Wild Thing. It is swiftly …

Margaret Atwood is one of the most famous narrative craftswomen alive. Her stories have been lauded as prophetic. The Handmaid’s Tale eerily pre-empted the structural misogyny of the Trump regime. Payback, Atwood’s book on debt, …

Sylvia Plath’s grave sits atop a very steep hill in the English village of Heptonstall. Plath’s gravestone records her name as “Sylvia Plath Hughes”. The “Hughes” lettering appears noticeably duller, as if scratched away by inkless pens or …

“There’s an idea that a successful narrative is one that gives you no choice in the matter; but mostly I imagine it’s a question of both sides conspiring to keep the suspension aloft.” So writes Rachel Cusk in my favourite of her essays, the titular …

Netflix’s hit series The Queen’s Gambit reveals what genius is considered to be – and who is allowed to have it.