June 19, 2013 When Laura was two, the twins decided to kill her. They were eight when she was born. Twenty-three monthslater, their mother died. Their father's aunt Hester, spry and recently back in Sydney after half a lifetime in London, came to look after the children until a suitable arrangement could be made. She stayed until Laura left school.

June 19, 2013 The Sydney Morning Herald's literary editor explains why she agrees with the judges of the nation's most prestigious fiction award.

June 19, 2013 A novel about repatriation and dispossession, set in Australia and Sri Lanka, has been named the winner of Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.

June 18, 2013 Prime Minister Julia Gillard may be embroiled in a political thriller that would tax the creative juices of the most imaginative writer of genre fiction, but she hasn't taken her mind off the fortunes of Australia's literary culture.

June 17, 2013 Jane Leigh received a message from a family friend a few weeks ago - her mother in Singapore had liver cancer and wanted to see Leigh and her two children. ''I'm sorry,'' Leigh told the caller, ''but she is a stranger.''

June 16, 2013 In her new novel, Kim Kelly tackles World War II through a lens of patriotism, reflection, history and romance.

June 16, 2013 Karl Ove Knausgaard's autobiographical fictions aspire to meet our gaze.

June 16, 2013 There are plenty of physical and behavioural differences between the different versions of The Great Gatsby.

June 16, 2013 Three books for women reviewed by Karen Hardy.

June 16, 2013 Author Garth Nix talks about his favourite books.