AustLit

'From the designer clothes to the covetable houses to the A-list cast, Big Little Lies is a quality potboiler. But beyond the gloss, the series explores deeper social issues in a refreshingly nuanced way.'

'In her memoir For a Girl, Mary-Rose MacColl quotes the American poet Louise Bogan. “No woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her art, a portion of its lost heart.” It’s apt, because throughout her harrowing story, MacColl is conscious of the “why’” of this book. Why is she telling complete strangers these most intimate and awful things? “I am by nature a private person,” she says, and later, “I am struggling here for I want most of all to be truthful.” She is hesitant to write about some things, she admits. “How can I hope to make someone else understand?”' (Introduction)

'Somersault director Cate Shortland’s latest film Berlin Syndrome, a disturbing kidnap thriller, is her second examination of Germany’s postwar psyche. For her next work she returns to the Snowy Mountains for a postcolonial true crime series.'