Books and reviews

The Sisters Mao

Irish author Gavin McCrae has made a career of writing novels about Communist women. In The Sisters Mao, he weaves together disparate characters, but can't illuminate why Maoism makes any sense to them, writes Barry Healy.

Australia-US defence alliance

The average Australian has been enveloped by the inevitability of the US alliance as if it were a natural result of our history and “shared” values, writes Roger Davies.

China, the USA and Capitalism's Last Crusade book cover

Author William Briggs characterises the intensifying conflict between the United States and China as a rivalry between two capitalist powers, one growing in strength, the other long dominant but now declining, writes Chris Slee.

Maree Roberts book cover

Mary Merkenich reviews Maree Roberts’ entertaining novel about Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s sister Olga Kameneva.

In a new book, Stan Cox dismisses the anti-science and racism of climate denialists, strips bare the insincerity of the Biden administration, and uncovers the lurking dangers of energy denial, writes Don Fitz.

Brigadistas during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

Alex Salmon reviews a recent book about the International Brigades that helped combat the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

escape from manus book cover

At 21, Jaivet Ealom fled persecution in Myanmar, finding himself on a small boat with 100 other men, women and children destined for Darwin, writes Janet Parker.

book covers

Ian Angus introduces six new books for your ‘must read soon’ list.

Hans Baer reviews a new book by former Greens senator Scott Ludlam.

In his new book, Yanis Varoufakis has used fiction to stimulate our imaginations into anticipating the necessary end of capitalism, writes Dave Bell.

Even before it was released and became a New York Times bestseller, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s book The Daughters of Kobani made headlines, writes Marcel Cartier.

In Less is More, Jason Hickel has written a readable book that seeks to promote hope rather than doom in the era of the Anthropocene or, more appropriately, the Capitolocene, writes Hans Baer.