Category Archives: Book Review
Towards justice, dialogue and reconciliation
Melbourne PEN presents: Towards justice, dialogue and reconciliation An open conversation with Fethiye Çetin Sunday, September 12, 6.30—8.30 pm Auditorium, The Wheeler Centre 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne Fethiye Çetin discovered that her Turkish Muslim grandmother was born an Armenian Christian and was a child survivor of the Armenian genocide in 1915. She had been [...]
Contemporary Literature in the African Diaspora – Review
Olga Barrios and Bernard W. Bell, eds. Contemporary Literature in the African Diaspora. Salamanca, Spain: Universidad de Salamanca, 1997. 170 pp. This collection of essays by eighteen literary scholars is the outcome of symposium on the African Diaspora that was held in 1996 at the University of Salamanca, Spain. According to Olga Barrios, who co-edited [...]
Erma Vassiliou: The colour of a poet’s ink
by Dina Gerolymou The crimes against humanity and their impact on a nation’s memory is the theme of Erma Vassiliou’s new book When memory has a right. The book was launched in Melbourne, Australia as part of the commemorations of the Pontian Genocide. Dr Erma Vassiliou is a Cypriot-Australian linguist and writer. Her latest [...]
The Mechanism of Catastrophe: The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, and the Destruction of the Greek Community in Istanbul
By Speros Vryonis, Jr. The new, paperback edition of Speros Vryonis’s internationally acclaimed work contains a legal commentary on the pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, by Alfred de Zayas, professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and former secretary of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. An excerpt is available here. [...]
How the War on Terror is Bankrupting the World
Loretta Napoleoni, Seven Stories Press 2010 Economist and best-selling author Loretta Napoleoni traces the link between the finances of the war on terror and the global economic crisis, finding connections from Dubai to London to Las Vegas that politicians and the media have at best ignored.
Angry protesters pelt Blair at book signing
Angry protesters threw objects at Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair as he arrived at the first public signing session to promote his memoirs in the Irish capital Dublin. – Shoes, eggs and water bottles were reportedly hurled at Tony Blair. (REUTERS : David Moir) – Over 200 noisy protesters, many chanting slogans attacking Blair [...]
Sarrazin vs the Saracens
by The Economist | BERLIN IT WAS an unusual book launch. Journalists jammed themselves into a suite of overcrowded rooms at the headquarters of Berlin’s press corps. Security was tighter than for appearances by the chancellor. When the author at last showed up he was greeted with the flashbulb fireworks you expect on the [...]
Blair ‘desperately sorry’ for war dead
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said he was “desperately sorry” over the deaths in the Iraq war, in extracts released from his memoirs. Mr Blair said he was “sorry for the lives cut short”, but maintained it was right to remove dictator Saddam Hussein from power, in extracts from A Journey, his account of [...]
On Privilege
by Julian Burnside - Julian Burnside’s grandparents lived in a world of handsome cars, elegant tennis parties and coiffed women. As a five year old, he saw privilege before he heard the word or learned its meaning. In this powerful broadside that takes in politicians and infamous legal cases, Julian Burnside asks what is privilege and [...]
From boat to bellylaughs: Anh Do and The Happiest Refugee
He is a well-known comedian and came very close to winning Dancing with the Stars but his story has many more twists and turns, as his book The Happiest Refugee reveals. In fact, the complexity of Anh Do’s family history is something he only recently discovered himself. It’s a story that includes his father’s role [...]
German banker Thilo Sarrazin defends ‘racism’
A German central banker with outspoken views on Turks, Jews and the decline of his country has defended himself amid calls for his dismissal by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Thilo Sarrazin told the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag that “all Jews share the same gene” and that Muslim immigrants across Europe were not willing or capable [...]
Nikos Kavvadías Translated by Simon Darragh
Nikos Kavvadías Wireless Operator Translated by Simon Darragh • Poetry • Paperback • Short Story Description:
Laughing through adversity
Rosemary Neill From: The Australian He’s one of our top comedians but Anh Do’s early life as an impoverished refugee was no joke IT was the gig from Hell. Harder than entertaining a gang of bikies with neck-to-toe tatts and a collective sneer; harder than telling jokes to unsmiling Jesuits who looked as if they’d [...]
From Nothing To Zero: Letters From Refugees
by Julian Burnside (Ed) - From Nothing to Zero presents edited extracts from letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia’s detention centres. These letters provide a rare glimpse into the world of refugees who have fled war and persecution in their own countries. Several of the contributing detainees have been held for more than three [...]
Peter Carey, Christos Tsiolkas in running for Man Booker Prize for Fiction
AUSTRALIAN authors Peter Carey and Christos Tsiolkas have been nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The long-list for prize, one of the most prestigious awards in English-language literature, was announced in London, with 13 novels in contention. Carey is in the running for his third Man Booker Prize for his latest novel [...]
