Book Reviews
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, trans. by Deepa Bhasthi
Winner of the International Booker Prize in 2025, these twelve stories detail the lives of women, their families and Muslim communities in southern India.
The Sun Was Electric Light by Rachel Morton
Disillusioned by her life in New York, Ruth slips away to a lakeside town in Guatemala to seek the elusive promise of happiness and belonging.
If Movement Was a Language by Svetlana Sterlin
Sterlin’s poetry draws on her passion for swimming to consider displacement, dispossession and home.
It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
Is this Elaine’s best book of the year? With zombies, post-apocalyptic themes and philosophical musings, it draws us into a world where the ordinary collides with the extraordinary.
Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah
This masterful 2005 novel by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah explores the personal and political legacies of colonisation through three interconnected stories.
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran
This Miles Franklin-winning novel explores trauma, migration, racism and imperialism in Australia and Sri Lanka.
the body country by Susie Anderson
Award-winning poet Susie Anderson’s collection of poems is a deeply evocative experience capturing marginalisation, connection and love.