Australian writer Suzanne Leal discusses her highly accomplished new novel, The Deceptions, the story of an illicit relationship between a young Jewish woman and a gendarme in Czechoslovakia during World War Two and its ramifications decades later.

I was the chair of the fiction and poetry panel for the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Read on to see my comments on the poetry shortlist and the fiction shortlist.

Suzanne Leal’s The Deceptions (A&U) won the People’s Choice Prize, worth $1000, with more than half of all public votes. Leal’s novel, inspired by a true story, moves from wartime Europe to modern day Australia and traces the legacy of long-buried family secrets.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Leah Kaminsky will be my guest at Thursday Book Club on 3 September 2020. Leah will be talking to us about her work as a writer and a doctor and how she manages to juggle these two roles - especially in the middle of a pandemic.