The Booktopia Book Guru asks Peter Swanson author of The Kind Worth Killing & The Girl with a Clock Heart for a Heart Ten Terrifying Questions ____________ 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in Carlisle, a farming town in Massachusetts, although it’s not much of a farming town anymore. It was a g... Read more

A few years ago TIME magazine asked 125 of the world’s most celebrated writers to name their Top 10 novels of all time. No doubt after the resignations of many, many unpaid interns, they combined all these lists to make the ultimate Top 10 list. We thought we’d share it with you. We’d like a few more women on there but hey, isn’t that always the way. Do you agree with th... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Frané Lessac author of A is for Australia Ten Terrifying Questions ____________ 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in New Jersey and grew up in a small town outside of New York City. From my bedroom window, I could see the famous skyscraper skyline. As a child I spent weekends ... Read more

Debra Oswald is the co-creator and head writer of the TV series Offspring which recently finished its fifth season. She chats to Caroline Baum about her transition to adult fiction with her darkly funny new novel Useful. Grab a copy of Debra Oswald’s Useful here Useful by Debra Oswald Once a charming underachiever, he’s now such a loser that he can’t even commit suicide proper... Read more

One of the things I have discovered from my years of reading true crime – and now writing it – is that some people do get away with murder. Really bad things happen and the person or people responsible may never face court or punishment. This is despite the tireless efforts of police and lawyers. I have spent the past three years doing lots of research for my books Murder in Suburbia and the la... Read more

James Bradley’s past novels Wrack, The Deep Field and The Resurrectionist have won or been shortlisted for a number of major literary awards. He chats with Caroline Baum about his new novel Clade. Grab a copy of James Bradley’s Clade here  Clade by James Bradley Compelling, challenging and resilient, over ten beautifully contained chapters, Clade canvasses three generations from the... Read more

In 1976, Manning Clark famously asked “are we a nation of bastards ?” He was writing about Whitlam’s dismissal. But Clark’s real targets were the “heart dimmers”, the reactionary conservatives who he believed had brought down a man of vision. Similar elements continue to deny that European settlement here led to war with the Aborigines. Generally, historians have tip-toed around this aspect of ... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Peter Twohig author of The Torch Six Sharp Questions ___________ 1. Congratulations, you have a new book. What is it about and what does it mean to you? The Torch is about a boy who is inspired to help another boy, who is a firebug, to avoid capture, in an attempt to assuage the helplessness he felt, and the grief he feels following the death of his twin just over a... Read more

Early in 2013, I wrote a Booktopia review of The Rosie Project, the home-grown literary phenomenon that has gone on to be published in thirty-eight languages and sell over a million copies worldwide. I had originally approached Graeme Simsion’s debut novel with trepidation, being the mother of a boy on the autism spectrum and thus a little thin-skinned on the subject. Could Simsion create a por... Read more

David Duchovny wrote a book. Yes, that David Duchovny. Sure, he’s known for being an actor, but did you know he has a Masters in English Literature from Yale? Booktopia’s Ben Hunter takes a closer look at his debut novel Holy Cow. When the X Files were on in the 90s, few of us thought that the man behind Agent Fox Mulder would publish a book twenty years later written entirely from ... Read more