Michael Meehan’s An Ungrateful Instrument is a vivid, lively novel drawing on the history of French music.
- Honorary Fellow of the School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne
Straight from our experts, here are five books to help you understand what’s happening right now in Ukraine and Russia, from a must-read history of Ukraine to a literary classic with insights into the Russian soul.
Published anonymously in 1811, the first of Jane Austen’s novels throws light on life under COVID-19. It is the perfect lockdown read.
Persecuted by Stalin, writers Lydia Chukovskaya and Anna Akhmatova endured threats, cold and starvation. And in an epic feat, Lydia memorised the poems of her friend that were too dangerous to commit to paper.
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is often acclaimed as the best novel ever written. The enthralling narrative explores love and family through intertwining plot lines, with Anna and her desire at the centre.
The literary magazine Meanjin was founded to ensure the nation did not ‘drop its mental life’ during World War Two. Given the decision to starve it of funding, will future Miles Franklin winners be generated by blogs?
Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The legacy of Catherine the Great is currently on show at the National Gallery of Victoria. But who, exactly was Catherine II, the Empress of Russia?
Judith Armstrong spoke with Gessen when she was in Melbourne as a guest of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival last week. You can listen to the extended interview here. In her biography of Vladimir Putin…
Russian-American writer and LGBT activist, Masha Gessen has covered every major development in Russian politics and culture of the past two decades. She is the author of Words Will Break Cement: The Passion…
A city glistening with the light of holy icons, fragrant with incense, ringing with praise and holy, heavenly songs. These lines referring to the “mother of Russian cities” and the “joy of the world” may…
Sochi – currently hosting the Winter Olympics – looks like the beach resort it is, situated on the blue waters of the east coast of the Black Sea, and enjoying a sub-tropical climate. There is what looks…
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