Reviews – Gretchen Shirm

Essay on Bernhard Schlink’s The Woman on the Stairs

I’ve always admired Bernhard Schlink’s fiction, particularly his short stories published in his 2000 collection Flights of Love. I think it’s the preoccupation with guilt and culpability that interests me so much. Although Schlink is more concerned with the peculiar German experience, they are emotions that plague us all to a certain extent. Here‘s me onContinue reading “Essay on Bernhard Schlink’s The Woman on the Stairs”

Michael Sala’s The Restorer

Here is a link to my review of Michael Sala’s magnificent novel The Restorer, published in The Australian.

Review of Claire-Louise Bennett’s Pond

I reviewed Claire-Louise Bennett’s unusual and excellent novella Pond for the Fairfax Papers. The review can be read here.

Review of Tara June Winch’s After the Carnage

Here‘s my review of After the Carnage, the new collection of stories by the uniquely talented Tara June Winch for the Fairfax papers.

Review of Zoe Morrison’s Music & Freedom

I reviewed Zoe Morrison’s novel Music and Freedom for the Weekend Australian here, which I found to be a very compelling debut. I loved the way Morrison showed how a patriarchal society can tacitly condone violence against women and also the way art and love can ultimately triumph.

Review of Anna Spargo-Ryan’s The Paper House

I reviewed Anna Spargo-Ryan’s The Paper House for The Age, which you can read here. I was really impressed by the way Spargo-Ryan used elements of magic realism to examine grief and mental illness in this poetic and captivating debut.

Review of Julia Leigh’s Avalanche

I’ve long admired Julia Leigh’s novels (as well as her film Sleeping Beauty), so it was a great pleasure to be able to review her memoir Avalanche for the Sydney Morning Herald here. It’s a stunning, intensely personal account of her experience with IVF and the writing is very different to her novels, which IContinue reading “Review of Julia Leigh’s Avalanche”

Review of Jennifer Down’s Our Magic Hour in ABR

This extraordinary first novel by Jennifer Down knocked my socks off. I reviewed it for the Australian Book Review here. Helen Garner eat your heart out!

Review of Elizabeth Strout’s ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’

I reviewed Elizabeth Strout’s superb short novel My Name is Lucy Barton for the Sydney Morning Herald, here. Olive Kitteridge is one of my all time favourite books and what I love about Strout is that she is such a devastatingly honest writer; every time I read her I remember why I write.

Review of Colum McCann’s Thirteen Ways of Looking

I reviewed Colum McCann’s Thirteen Ways of Looking for the Sydney Morning Herald, here. I was intrigued by the premise for the book, which has as its centrepiece a novella in which the main character is fatally assaulted in an apparently random attack. McCann himself was attacked on the streets of New York around theContinue reading “Review of Colum McCann’s Thirteen Ways of Looking”