Lisa Hill
@anzlitlovers.bsky.social
'Ambassador' for Australian Literature (but reading from everywhere else as well). Not tolerant of tweets about sport.
Elizabeth Harrower's third novel, and (I think) her best: The Catherine Wheel anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/20/t...
The Catherine Wheel (1960), by Elizabeth Harrower
A Catherine Wheel, so named for the 4th century saint who refused to renounce her religious belief, was a form of torture used for execution used as recently as the 19th century, but it’s als…
anzlitlovers.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Elizabeth Harrower's third novel, and (I think) her best: The Catherine Wheel anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/20/t...
Vale Jon Bauer, author of the acclaimed Rocks in the Belly, who has died in the UK aged only 51. anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/18/v...
Vale Jon Bauer (1974-2025)
I was saddened to hear via the Scribe Newsletter that author Jon Bauer has died in the UK aged only 51. Jon came to our attention when his debut novel Rocks in the Belly was long-listed for the 201…
anzlitlovers.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Vale Jon Bauer, author of the acclaimed Rocks in the Belly, who has died in the UK aged only 51. anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/18/v...
One of my favourite novels, musing on Memory, Imagination and creativity
andreagoldsmith.com.au/2025/11/17/e...
andreagoldsmith.com.au/2025/11/17/e...
ESSENTIALLY HUMAN.
Memory, Imagination and creativity. When I was eight years old, I had three ambitions. The first was to be a ballerina – more a matter of wishful thinking than creative passion, given I wanted to b…
andreagoldsmith.com.au
November 17, 2025 at 4:55 AM
One of my favourite novels, musing on Memory, Imagination and creativity
andreagoldsmith.com.au/2025/11/17/e...
andreagoldsmith.com.au/2025/11/17/e...
2025 Readings Prize winners
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/17/2...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/17/2...
2025 Readings Prize winners
The winners of the Readings Prize have been announced: The New Australian Fiction Prize The winner was I Want Everything, by Dominic Amerena, said by judge Chris Gordon to be ‘Scathing and hilariou…
anzlitlovers.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
2025 Readings Prize winners
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/17/2...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/17/2...
Oh bother. I made the mistake of signing up to new posts from a Substack account and now I'm being bombarded by emails about other accounts that I'm not interested in at all, and have even been signed up for some of them. Any idea on how to stop the spam other than instant deletion from my inbox?
November 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Oh bother. I made the mistake of signing up to new posts from a Substack account and now I'm being bombarded by emails about other accounts that I'm not interested in at all, and have even been signed up for some of them. Any idea on how to stop the spam other than instant deletion from my inbox?
#NovNov Cameron Hindrum's novella The Blue Cathedral is a compelling fictionalisation of the battle for Franklin River in 1983.
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/14/t...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/14/t...
The Blue Cathedral (2023), by Cameron Hindrum
First published in 2011 and reissued in 2023, The Blue Cathedral is the first book I’ve come across that fictionalises the battle for the Franklin River in 1983. For international readers an…
anzlitlovers.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:24 PM
#NovNov Cameron Hindrum's novella The Blue Cathedral is a compelling fictionalisation of the battle for Franklin River in 1983.
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/14/t...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/14/t...
*chuckle* Edna O'Brien's The High Road anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
makes an interesting contrast with C S Lewis's The Discarded Image anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
makes an interesting contrast with C S Lewis's The Discarded Image anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
anzlitlovers.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:40 PM
*chuckle* Edna O'Brien's The High Road anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
makes an interesting contrast with C S Lewis's The Discarded Image anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
makes an interesting contrast with C S Lewis's The Discarded Image anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/13/t...
#NovNov #GermanLitMonth @stujallen.bsky.social Readers need patience for a Bernhardian narrative, but fortunately mine lasted until (none the wiser about who dunnit, I got to the end.
Klausen (2002), by Andreas Maier, 2010 translation by Kenneth J Northcott anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/11/k...
Klausen (2002), by Andreas Maier, 2010 translation by Kenneth J Northcott anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/11/k...
Klausen (2002), by Andreas Maier, 2010 translation by Kenneth J Northcott
An act of violence seems to have occurred in Klausen — a small German town near the border with Italy — but nobody is exactly sure what happened. It might have been a bomb on the autobahn or in a …
anzlitlovers.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
#NovNov #GermanLitMonth @stujallen.bsky.social Readers need patience for a Bernhardian narrative, but fortunately mine lasted until (none the wiser about who dunnit, I got to the end.
Klausen (2002), by Andreas Maier, 2010 translation by Kenneth J Northcott anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/11/k...
Klausen (2002), by Andreas Maier, 2010 translation by Kenneth J Northcott anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/11/k...
An intriguing work of experimental fiction in the speculative fiction space: not my usual reading fare but I'm glad I ventured out of my comfort zone! anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/10/e...
Else (2025), by Rose Michael
Rose Michael is the author of two speculative fiction novels: The Asking Game (2007) and The Art of Navigation (2017). Else is her third novel, and this is the book description: Leisl and her daug…
anzlitlovers.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 AM
An intriguing work of experimental fiction in the speculative fiction space: not my usual reading fare but I'm glad I ventured out of my comfort zone! anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/10/e...
I'm not just reading The Divine Comedy, it's the catalyst for other reading too: anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/08/t...
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1308-1321), 1971 translation by Mark Musa, 2003 Penguin Edition, #4 Inferno, Cantos 9-17
This post about my reading of Dante’s Inferno in The Divine Comedy, particularly in Cantos XI and XIII, raises the issue of suicide as it was judged during the Middle Ages. If anything in thi…
anzlitlovers.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:39 PM
I'm not just reading The Divine Comedy, it's the catalyst for other reading too: anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/08/t...
#NovNov Man of Letters (Dog Rock 3, 2012) is Bk 3 in David Foster’s comic novel series set in a declining small town called Dog Rock in NSW, but it doesn’t seem to matter that I haven’t read the first two in the series. anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/07/m...
Man of Letters (Dog Rock 3, 2012), by David Foster
This was a terrific choice for #NovNov! Man of Letters is Book 3 in David Foster’s comic novel series set in a declining small town called Dog Rock in NSW, but it doesn’t seem to matter…
anzlitlovers.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:24 AM
#NovNov Man of Letters (Dog Rock 3, 2012) is Bk 3 in David Foster’s comic novel series set in a declining small town called Dog Rock in NSW, but it doesn’t seem to matter that I haven’t read the first two in the series. anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/07/m...
An intriguing collection of linked short stories by Australian author Merav Fima imagining a literary salon in Jerusalem:
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/06/l...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/06/l...
Late Blossoms (2025) by Mirav Fima
Jerusalem has been in the Australian media lately because our Foreign Minister didn’t know (or pretended not to know for political reasons?) that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and has be…
anzlitlovers.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:56 AM
An intriguing collection of linked short stories by Australian author Merav Fima imagining a literary salon in Jerusalem:
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/06/l...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/06/l...
Hazel Rowley Fellowship applications close on 16 November 2025, for more info see writersvictoria.org.au/hazel-rowley...
Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
The Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, valued at $20,000, supports Australian writers working on biography projects. The annual Fellowship commemorates the work of Hazel Rowley(1951–2011).
writersvictoria.org.au
November 6, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Hazel Rowley Fellowship applications close on 16 November 2025, for more info see writersvictoria.org.au/hazel-rowley...
#BuddyRead – ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
Posts about #BuddyRead written by Lisa Hill
anzlitlovers.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:37 AM
My #6Degrees: anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/01/s... and yesterday's review that I forgot to post here: The Long Prospect by the late Elizabeth Harrower anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/31/t...
Six Degrees of Separation, from We Have Always Lived in the Castle…
This month’s #6Degrees, hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best, begins with the starter book We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (of The Lottery fame). I have …
anzlitlovers.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:34 AM
My #6Degrees: anzlitlovers.com/2025/11/01/s... and yesterday's review that I forgot to post here: The Long Prospect by the late Elizabeth Harrower anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/31/t...
Reposted by Lisa Hill
"The country was like a person tossing in a frightened sleep, half conscious yet half unconscious of the nightmare into which, on awaking, it was to be so abruptly plunged."
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/c...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/c...
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
"The country was like a person tossing in a frightened sleep, half conscious yet half unconscious of the nightmare into which, on awaking, it was to be so abruptly plunged."
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/c...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/c...
Winner of the Finlay Lloyd 20/40 Publishing Prize for Fiction, Anna shows how versatile an author Angus Gaunt is: anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/24/a...
Anna (2025), by Angus Gaunt
Winner of the Finlay Lloyd 20/40 Publishing Prize for Fiction, Anna shows how versatile an author Angus Gaunt is: it’s completely different to his previous satirical novella Black Rabbit (202…
anzlitlovers.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Winner of the Finlay Lloyd 20/40 Publishing Prize for Fiction, Anna shows how versatile an author Angus Gaunt is: anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/24/a...
#1925Club Here's my review of Along The Road, Notes and Essays of a Tourist by Aldous Huxley... it includes the essay that Anthony Clarke had read before the war and thus halted the shelling of Sansepolcro for fear of damaging Piero della Francesca's Resurrection!
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/23/a...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/23/a...
Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist (1925), by Aldous Huxley
Serendipity, that’s what it was that led me from here and here to this delicious collection of essays by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), which entirely by happenstance coincides with the #1925Club…
anzlitlovers.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:47 AM
#1925Club Here's my review of Along The Road, Notes and Essays of a Tourist by Aldous Huxley... it includes the essay that Anthony Clarke had read before the war and thus halted the shelling of Sansepolcro for fear of damaging Piero della Francesca's Resurrection!
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/23/a...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/23/a...
The amazing story of how Piero della Francesca's Resurrection was saved from destruction in WW2, from the inimitable pen of H V Morton:
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/20/s...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/20/s...
Sensational Snippets: A Traveller in Italy (1964) by H V Morton
As you might know if you followed my conversation with Jonathan on a recent post, I was sharing my experience of the way memory of the written word can emerge at just the right time when it’s…
anzlitlovers.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:36 PM
The amazing story of how Piero della Francesca's Resurrection was saved from destruction in WW2, from the inimitable pen of H V Morton:
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/20/s...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/20/s...
I wrote about a poem that really spoke to me during a recent stay in hospital...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/19/t...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/19/t...
‘Transfiguration and Death’ (1978) by Evan Jones, from The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse (1981) edited by Harry Heseltine
Like most people, I suppose, I’m not at my best when I’m not well, but what helped me to tolerate my recent experience sharing a hospital ward with a dementia patient was remembering a …
anzlitlovers.com
October 18, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I wrote about a poem that really spoke to me during a recent stay in hospital...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/19/t...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/19/t...
Testimony about the effects of The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, from the perspective of a confused little boy: Mao's Town by Xie Hong
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/18/m...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/18/m...
Mao’s Town (2018 #1 Mao’s Children Trilogy) by Xie Hong
I’m always keen to read novels by Chinese authors living in China rather than those filtered by expat experience in the US or UK. So (back in 2020 when I was on Twitter rather than BlueSky) …
anzlitlovers.com
October 18, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Testimony about the effects of The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, from the perspective of a confused little boy: Mao's Town by Xie Hong
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/18/m...
anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/18/m...
A terrific author talk about the representation of older women in fiction: many thanks to Rachel Matthews, Trish Bolton and Jacquie Byron and all the staff at Kingston Library: anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/16/a...
Author Talk: Rachel Matthews; Jacquie Byron and Trish Bolton at Kingston Library
I made it! Thanks to the goodness of my chauffeurs, I’ve just been to a lively and thought-provoking author talk at Kingston Library, and finally got to meet one of my favourite authors, Rach…
anzlitlovers.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:14 AM
A terrific author talk about the representation of older women in fiction: many thanks to Rachel Matthews, Trish Bolton and Jacquie Byron and all the staff at Kingston Library: anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/16/a...
Thomas Hardy's The Trumpet-Major (1880) is completely different to his other novels (the famous ones). anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/15/t...
The Trumpet-Major (1880), by Thomas Hardy
Well! I did not expect to end up in hospital this week!! I have been suffering a severe flare up of a very unsexy malady for a fortnight but it was this Monday when the GP told me off for being a …
anzlitlovers.com
October 15, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Thomas Hardy's The Trumpet-Major (1880) is completely different to his other novels (the famous ones). anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/15/t...
The Asian review of Books strikes my TBR again: The Morgue Keeper by Ruyan Meng (Chinese-American author)
October 7, 2025 at 11:31 AM
The Asian review of Books strikes my TBR again: The Morgue Keeper by Ruyan Meng (Chinese-American author)