Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore i(9648889 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 The Rabbits, Sophie Overett Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 3-9 July 2021;

— Review of The Rabbits Sophie Overett , 2021 single work novel

'Delia Rabbit does not paint anymore. Yet when her son Charlie goes missing – dredging up memories of Delia’s sister, Bo, who also disappeared when they were teenagers – she picks up her brush once again, as if she can magic him back through art.'  (Introduction)

1 Victoria Hannan, Kokomo Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 August 2020;

— Review of Kokomo Victoria Hannan , 2020 single work novel

'Kokomo, Victoria Hannan’s much-anticipated debut novel, opens with an ode to a penis.' (Introduction)

1 Jo Lennan, In the Time of Foxes Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 9-15 May 2020;

— Review of In the Time of Foxes Jo Lennan , 2020 selected work short story

'“In London, where Nina lived, it was the time of foxes.” So begins Australian author Jo Lennan’s book of short stories. But if In the Time of Foxes starts like a fairytale, it reads more like a treatise on the grittiness – the small disappointments, the big injustices, as well as the joys – of everyday life.'  (Introduction)

1 Cate Blanchett on Australia's 'dislocated' Politics : 'You're Living in a System That's Gone Mad' Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 20 February 2020;

'Blanchett’s star-powered TV series Stateless explores the repercussions of immigration detention. ‘None of us are interested in preaching to the converted,’ she says.'

1 Laura McPhee-Browne : Cherry Beach Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 15-21 February 2020;

— Review of Cherry Beach Laura McPhee-Browne , 2020 single work novel

'The blurb for Cherry Beach, Melbourne-based author Laura McPhee-Browne’s debut novel, reads like the most tired kind of chick lit. It promises melodrama – in the form of lifelong friendships torn asunder, unrequited love and men gone bad, all set to the tune of “dark undercurrents” – albeit with a queer twist.' (Introduction)

1 Elliot Perlman : Maybe the Horse Will Talk Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 2-8 November 2019;

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s new novel, Maybe the Horse Will Talk, centres on a fable that the protagonist, one Stephen Maserov, tells his sons. In the story a tyrannical king decides he no longer finds his jester funny. Realising his life is at risk, the jester offers the king a compromise. Give me a year and your best horse, he says, and I will show you something extraordinary. I will teach the horse to talk.' (Introduction)

1 Brett Whiteley Partied With Bob Dylan. Now His Life Is an Opera. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 26 July 2019;

'Before Brett Whiteley died from a heroin overdose at 53 — alone, in a dingy motel room on the New South Wales coast — he lived like a rock star. He was Australia’s hedonist hero, a painter of grand and voluptuous canvases who hung out with Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Dire Straits.' (Introduction)

1 Stephen Orr : This Excellent Machine Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 15-21 June 2019;

'About a third of the way through This Excellent Machine, its teenage protagonist, Clem, finds himself in a cafe on the wrong side of town. This is a place where the footpaths are black, because “they’d waited too long to hose down the vomit”. Where anonymous doors lead to underground tattoo parlours and where hand-scrawled signs advertise “massage by the ½ hour”.' (Introduction)

1 [Review] Nam Le On David Malouf Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 11-17 May 2019;

'“School, as everyone knows, is where books go to get sterilised,” writes Nam Le in his essay On David Malouf, part of Black Inc’s “Writers on Writers” series. But if a classroom can sound the death knell for a love of literature, Le does the opposite in this intellectually rigorous monograph. Less literary critique than a personal exploration of race, politics and art, it sees Le using Malouf as a springboard for his own meanderings and thoughts. These range from Le’s days as a student, cast out for his love of words, to his apprehensiveness at being used as a spokesperson for refugee issues: a default for many due to the fact that he and his parents arrived in Australia by boat.' (Introduction)

1 Carrie Tiffany Exploded View Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 23 March 2019;

'Road trips, as epitomised by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, can be a way to unfetter and unbind. Not in Carrie Tiffany’s Exploded View, though, where a car is described as little more than a “moving coffin”.' (Introduction)

1 'The Madnesses of Motherhood' : Unravelling the Psychology of Postnatal Depression Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore (interviewer), 2019 single work interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 6 March 2019;

'Nicola Redhouse’s memoir traverses neuroscience and psychoanalysis in a quest to understand her own mind.'

1 Sonia Orchard : Into the Fire Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 9-15 February 2019;

'Into the Fire may sound like a thriller or a lurid true-crime story. But while Sonia Orchard’s novel features a death and a mystery, it is, at heart, more of a tale of the ups and downs of female friendship than a whodunit.' (Introduction)

1 Markus Zusak on How Bridge of Clay Left Him 'Beaten up and Bruised' Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore (interviewer), 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 December 2018;

'If The Book Thief is the Australian author’s most famous book, this is his magnum opus.'

Source: Blurb.

1 Rick Morton Found Writing His Memoir Painful Enough. Then He Had to Read It Aloud Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 December 2018;

'With One Hundred Years of Dirt a runaway success, the author talks about class in Australia and why his book hit a nerve.'

1 Is the Way Australia Funds the Arts a Recipe for Mediocrity? Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 2 September 2018;

'In a rehearsal room here earlier this year, actors were doing a walk-through of the stage adaptation of “The 91-Story Treehouse,” a best-selling children’s book. In the magical world the play creates, two well-meaning, if haphazard, protagonists live in a multistory treehouse where they try to write a story, but keep getting distracted by villains.'  (Introduction)

1 Surfer, Environmentalist, Novelist. Australia's Living Legend Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 13 June 2018;

'In “The Shepherd’s Hut,” Tim Winton finds poetry and beauty in the
country’s interior saltlands and in a young teenager hardened by life.'

1 Dark Emu the Dance Show : A Chance to 'Look at Australia with Fresh Eyes' Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 13 June 2018;

'Bruce Pascoe and Stephen Page tell how a joking remark led to Bangarra’s latest production.' 

1 The Remarkable Story of Terrorism and Trauma That Inspired a New Opera Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 March 2018;

'Young girls who presented to hospital literally choking from the horror of September 11 have been given voice in a startling Australian production.' 

1 Andy Griffiths, the Down-Under Kids’ Author Known for His Butt Jokes, Now Builds and Builds on His Hit ‘Treehouse’ Series Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 6 March 2018;

'Before Andy Griffiths, the best-selling children’s book author, turned 30 and started writing full-time, he was a teacher who often found even the simplest of tasks a struggle in self-control.' (Introduction)

1 My Name Is Jimi Review – Jimi Bani Welcomes Us to His Tribe in Rare Gift of a Show Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 11 January 2018;

'Soon to be ninth chief of his Torres Strait islander tribe, Bani brings his family on stage to keep his culture – and our laughs – alive.' 

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