Cirrus@Austlit

'Tim Minchin may have created a monster. He bought his teenage son, Caspar, a drum kit for his birthday, and now the youngster’s creative endeavours are interrupting our Zoom call.'

'The mist-shrouded, dramatic cliff faces of the New South Wales Blue Mountains are the perfect backdrop for Hayley Scrivenor’s moody second novel, Girl Falling. A psychological thriller centred on best friends Finn and Daphne, it opens with Finn’s question, “Why would my best friend want to destroy my life?”, launching the story’s trajectory of lust, betrayal and grief.'

'In Patrick Holland’s new literary thriller, an unnamed narrator drifts through the glittering non-places of Asian modernity – chain hotels, airports, megacities – brokering million-dollar trade deals and engaging reluctantly in light espionage. At night, he checks into hotel rooms in interchangeable cities, and pursues “chance liaisons” with exotic, unknowable women, before courting oblivion with whisky and opium.' (Introduction)

'The greatest dilemma for the novelist writing about art is one of seriousness. How seriously are we to take a fictional artist? How can we assess the value of a body of work that is entirely imagined? The character’s self-belief notwithstanding, what are we to make of claims of the work’s brilliance? Are their efforts worthwhile, their ideas executed well? The author’s task is not to tip the scales, to allow for the possibility of that ineffable thing, great art – if that’s not too woo-woo a concept.' (Introduction)