Review of Annah Faulkner’s The Last Day in the Dynamite Factory

I reviewed Annah Faulkner’s novel, the exquisitely titled The Last Day in the Dynamite Factory, for the Sydney Morning Herald, which you can read here. The novel was impressively well narrated and plotted. The premise was also an interesting one, the way that family silences and the tacit lies we are told as children can shape us as adults. It’s the type of theme that’s likely to hold significance, to varying degrees, for everyone. It was an interesting book to review too because, whilst I find it a flawless book technically, in terms of craft and how it was narrated, as a matter of taste I would prefer a book more restrained in its style. Nonetheless, Faulkner’s command of her characters was masterful and enviable.