Dion Kagan

Sep 30, 2024 | themonthly.com.au | Dion Kagan |Tim Winton |Cate Kennedy |Daniel James

The English novelist’s latest dark masterpiece begins with the talented, queer, working-class protagonist invited to his sponsors’ country estate Dave Win, the half-Burmese, working-class protagonist of this delicate new novel by Alan Hollinghurst, starts out in the 1960s as one of very few non-white students at Bampton, a boys’ boarding school in south-east England.

Jul 13, 2023 | meanjin.com.au | Dion Kagan

Reviewed: Why We Are Here, Briohny Doyle, Penguin Random HouseIn Briohny Doyle’s fourth book, a writer called BB has lost both her partner and father in close succession, and, in the aftermath of their deaths, experiences the first wave of pandemic lockdowns.

May 9, 2023 | meanjin.com.au | Dion Kagan

Reviewed: Resistance, Jacinta Halloran, TextNina is a family therapist with an ‘unerring ability to listen’. She applies this skill with her clients, although this fourth novel by Jacinta Halloran strongly implies that the burden of the professional listener is to metabolise the thoughts of others even outside of work, including talkative Uber drivers and strangers in doctors’ waiting rooms. Nina’s colleagues regale her with family anecdotes and half-baked psychosocial theories in the lunchroom.