Spectrum
The most unbearable sound in the world? It’s silence
Forget peace and quiet. Give me peace and loud.
- by Robert Moran
Latest
I had a miscarriage, but I couldn’t find the words to tell my mother
My mother’s dominant and exclusive language is Mandarin, a language for which I possess the vocabulary of a 10-year-old native speaker.
- by Jessie Tu
Eight great new reads to soak up in the sunshine
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recently published fiction and non-fiction.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
The Wild Robot is being hailed as the next E.T. For Lupita Nyong’o, it was relief to have cameras off
The award-winning actor has played dramatically diverse roles through her career. But this one - in a rich, textural animation winning critical acclaim - she found the space to work in a whole new way.
- by Michael Idato
The greatest year in Australian music? No question, it was 2008
It was the year local music pivoted away from pub anthems and alt-rock. So why have 2008’s best breakouts been forgotten?
- by Tom W. Clarke
It’s hard to convince Google you’re not dead - just ask Tom Faber
The freelancer was shocked to find that the search engine had conflated him with a dead physicist.
- by David Astle
I don’t see myself as hard-working: Romesh Ranganathan
The British comedian might be one of the busiest stand-ups in the business, but he doesn’t consider his job “work”.
- by Lenny Ann Low
This spy novel is really not bad, but why was it written?
There’s a feeling of deja vu in William Boyd’s new espionage novel set in Africa during the Cold War.
- by Malcolm Knox
Calamity grounded these US folk icons, but now they’re heading our way
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were feeling doubly cursed, but a new album is taking them back on the road.
- by Michael Dwyer
Hijacked train drama almost goes off the rails, but fury keeps it on track
Nightsleeper is a decent enough thriller, but what really makes this BBC six-part series interesting is its anger at the state of Britain.
- by Karl Quinn
Opinion
Richard Glover
Can I spring-clean my brain? I don’t need to know Australian explorers
It would be a Marie Kondo clean-up for my head.
- by Richard Glover