Emily Paull

  This review was originally published on the AU review on 23 June 2019 This Taste for Silence Amanda O'Callaghan UQP Books, 2019 The body count is high in  Amanda O’Callaghan’s  debut short story collection,  This Taste for Silence . From the very first story, death, murder and unexplained disappearances emerge as a dominant theme in this collection which has been described by  Ryan O’Neill  as ‘utterly haunting.’ Brisbane-based author O’Callaghan is an internationally acclaimed writer of short (and very short) fiction, with shortlistings in the Carmel Bird Award, the Bristol Short Story Prize and more.  This Taste for Silence  gathers together stories written over a number of years, and the list of previous publications for each of the stories at the back of the book speaks to years of hard work writing, revising and submitting work to competitions and publications all over the world. The end result is an accomplished and cohesive collection whi...

  This review originally published on the AU review on 10 October 2019 Here Until August Josephine Rowe Black Inc, 2019 Josephine Rowe ‘s newest collection of short stories,  Here Until August  is a slim but beautiful looking collection. It’s striking blue and purple cover makes you want to pick it up. And you should, because what is inside is just as fascinating as out. It begins with the story “Glisk” (winner of the 2016 ABR/Elizabeth Jolley Prize) which is about two brothers who reunite in their small town, many years after a tragic accident has forced one of them to leave. Rowe’s powerful, pared back prose and striking metaphors evoke the nuances of the relationship between these two men– the uneasiness of siblings, the complication of loving someone who has done something awful– in an unforgettable way. It is a startling, striking way to open a collection, and the unresolved nature of the ending, a hallmark of the Australian literary short story, leaves the reader fe...

  This review originally appeared on the AU review on 1 March 2020 Wild Fearless Chests Mandy Beaumont Hachette Australia, 2020 The line between short stories and poetry is thin in  Mandy Beaumont’s  debut collection,  Wild Fearless Chests , which was published earlier in the year by Hachette, off the back of a shortlisting in both the Richell Prize and the Dorothy Hewett Award run by UWA Publishing. The collection readers were promised was a catalogue of the darker side of female experience. From the book’s own back cover, the reader is warned to expect the ‘brutal and uncompromising.’ Right from the get-go, from the opening story “Drowning in Thick Air”, the book delivers on that promise. Beaumont’s collection is an unflinching look at the physical and emotional violence perpetrated by and against women, set against a background of a nameless Australian suburb. The women in the stories are often nameless too, and in most cases, their stories are told from a detache...

  This review originally appeared on the AU review on May 1 2020. Fauna Donna Mazza Allen and Unwin Books, 2020 It’s been thirteen years since WA writer,  Donna Mazza , won the prestigious City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford award for her novel,  The Albanian . But her second book,  Fauna , out earlier this year through Allen and Unwin was certainly worth the wait. Set in 2037, in an Australia which shows only subtle differences from our own, this chilling story about motherhood, love and genetics is near impossible to put down. Fauna  is the story of Stacey and her family– husband Isak, daughter Emmy and son Jake. When we meet them, they have just agreed to take part in a genetic experiment run by an efficient, secretive, and slightly sinister company known as LifeBLOOD. Stacey, who has recently lost her third child in a late stage miscarriage, has a background interest in archaeology and anthropology. But, is more motivated by her desire to have another child,...