Answers to eternal questions about man’s inhumanity to man remain elusive, but the simple truths burn.

Stolen, which premiered to great controversy at the 2009 Sydney International Film Festival, claims that Fetim Salam is a slave. The recently released Robbed of Truth challenges and dismisses this assertion in a persuasive and convincing way. At the heart of both films is the question: who speaks for Fetim Salam?

Our new edition – featuring the exquisite illustrations of Shaun Tan, an open letter from Alexis Wright, and essays from Wendy Bacon and Bob Gosford – is out and we’ll be publishing articles from it online over the next few weeks. If you make haste with your subscribing, however, you’ll be certain of securing a […]

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the battle for supremacy in the 21st century Robert D Kaplan Black Inc. Robert D Kaplan, the author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the battle for supremacy in the 21st century, is a man on a mission. Since the 1990s, when President Clinton was seen clutching a copy of […]

Politics and Religion in the New Century Philip Quadrio and Carrol Besseling (eds) Sydney University Press Any critical engagement with the politics of religious discourse that begins by acknowledging Al Swearangen and Joe Strummer has to be worth more than a second look. At least I’ve made the assumption that is the Joe Strummer and […]

In ‘The rhythm of engagement’ in Overland 201 (which can be yours to own), former Overland editor Katherine Wilson probes the world of craft labour: Forty-three-year-old Gilda Civitico and I are sipping tea and talking about craft in the open-plan rear extension of the modest brick home she shares with her partner, electrical engineer Andrew […]

Unmaking War, Remaking Men Kathleen Barry Spinifex Press Five years ago, walking through the Dandenong ranges outside Melbourne with my lover at the time, I had one of those fights that seem to tear the hills down around your ears. It was meant to be a beautiful afternoon, allocated ‘couple time’, but I have very […]

Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson (eds) UNSW Press Labelling something to be ‘in crisis’ can be a fraught activity; when the motivation is to create a rethinking of the issue at hand, it often leads to bandaid solutions to quickly fix the crisis. In this collection of […]

Here on Earth Tim Flannery Text Flannery’s new book Here On Earth reads like a cross between Bill Bryson and Jared Diamond, which is reassuring given it has the title of a Leelee Sobieski film. It also sort of makes sense; both of these authors have read and commented on the book, and Diamond is […]

Into the woods Anna Krien Black Inc. Anna Krien’s book begins with violence, travels through corruption and pain, and ends with a vague, vain sort of hope. With a structure like that, you might expect that it’s about a catastrophic event, some natural or human-created event that has crushed communities and people, and is now […]

Symbols of Australia Melissa Harper and Richard White (eds.) UNSW Press Symbols of Australia is a fascinating read, with a total of thirty writers dissecting and analysing the symbols of Australia, from the Opera House to the Coat of Arms, to the Pavlova Cooee and all in-between, everything’s up for grabs. Symbols of Australia is […]

Kurt Vonnegut famously said that fiction is so much hot air, and that fiction writers’ opposition to the Vietnam War proved this. ‘We dropped on our complacent society’, he said at a PEN meeting in the early 70s, ‘the literary equivalent of a hydrogen bomb. I will now report to you the power of such […]