Reaching Tin River

Thea Astley. Penguin Books, $8.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-14-014897-8

Aborted careers, a failed marriage and parental neglect drive emotionally needy outsider Belle to obsess over a long-dead settler named Gaden Lockyer as she approaches breakdown. According to PW, ``Few writers can equal Astley in conveying the physical, social and moral landscape of Australia, or in scattering dazzling imagery on every page.'' (June)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Sanjena Sathian

Sathian (Gold Diggers) wraps a whip-smart satire of Millennial womanhood around an arresting story of mistaken identity. Narrator Sanjana Satyananda leaves her husband, actor Continue reading »

Patrick Modiano

Nobel winner Modiano (In the Café of Lost Youth) dazzles with this pithy and introspective mystery sparked by faded memories. It opens with the narrator remembering a favor he Continue reading »

Mikolaj Grynberg

Grynberg expands on a short story from his collection, I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To, for this deeply humane portrait of a Polish Jewish family in Continue reading »

Emma Donoghue

A French anarchist targets a passenger train in the taut latest from Donoghue (Learned by Heart), which is inspired by a true story. On Oct. 22, 1895, Mado Pelletier boards the Continue reading »