AustLit

'The people and places he’s loved are central to the writings of Steve Hawke. His first novel grew out of the Kimberley where he lived and worked, and his new work draws on the suffering of his mother, Hazel, with Alzheimer’s By Victoria Laurie'(Introduction)

'A is for action. This is a matter of balance. Some writers, such as PD James, have very little; some, like Mickey Spillane, have too much. If the low-action model is adopted, the characterisation, dialogue and descriptions had better be good. They were in James’s early novels but when she padded them out with descriptions of furniture and architecture (‘‘mullioned windows’’ adorn many country houses), things slowed to a halt. Spillane’s violence was overkill, literally.' (Introduction)

'‘‘It seems I was always trying to escape into a realm of gold where there was a more perfect me.’’ Storytime unfolds, before the reader’s delighted eyes; Jane Sullivan’s extended meditative exploration of her search for the realm of gold in the books she read as a child.' (Introduction)

'When Elisabeth and Johannes catch a glimpse of each other through a window at the start of Lenny Bartulin’s Fortune, it’s as if they already know one another. As the novel progresses we follow the separate journeys of these two characters, along with a cast of others, wondering if their paths will cross again.' (Introduction)