John Purcell - Author
  • Home
  • Bio
    • Social
    • Contact
    • Media >
      • Print
      • Television
      • Radio
      • Events
  • Media
  • Books
    • The Lessons
    • The Girl on the Page
    • Other Novels >
      • The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings >
        • Reviews
      • The Secret Lives of Emma: Distractions
      • The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked
  • Author Interviews
    • Podcasts
    • Video Interviews >
      • More...
  • Book Reviews
    • Contemporary Writing >
      • The Last Woman in the World
      • The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton
      • The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
      • The Everlasting Sunday by Robert Lukins
      • The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman
      • Only by Caroline Baum
      • Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
      • The Nothing by Hanif Kureishi
      • Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
      • My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
      • The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop
      • Mr Wigg by Inga Simpson
    • Classics and Modern Classics >
      • The Young Desire It by Kenneth Mackenzie
      • The Magus by John Fowles
      • North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
      • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
      • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  • Blog
Reach John on social

The Other Side of the World

Picture
REVIEW: The Other Side of the World is a very, very good book.
Let that statement stand there a bit and I will start from the beginning.

It may seem strange to say but I started reading The Other Side of the World on the day it was handed to me because it felt like a good book even before I had read a page. The first few passages confirmed the feeling – I was reading a writer at the top of their game, a writer who could teach me something, a writer who could shake me around emotionally, a writer who could drag me into their story against my will if they so wanted.

I always dance around the subject matter in my reviews. A writer takes thousands of words to say what their book is about. It can’t be satisfactorily reduced. I could say that Stephanie Bishop’s The Other Side of the World is about a couple who immigrate to Australia from England in the 1960s. I could also say it is about motherhood. Or about identity. Or equality. But these don’t quite do.

I can say The Other Side of the World is tense, evocative, emotionally exact, surprising and that it will get people talking. Especially the ending, which we really have to talk about when you’re done.

This is the pick for your book club or reading group. Here is your chance to be ahead of the crowd.

Take my word for it. The Other Side of the World is a very, very good book.
buy

Bio

Bio
Social
Contact

Media

Print
Television
Radio
Events

Novels

The Lessons
The Girl on the Page
The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy

Author Interviews

PODCASTS
Booktopia TV


Book Reviews

Contemporary Writing
Classics and Modern Classics

Blog

Blog
© 2018 John Purcell. All Rights Reserved. 
Proudly powered by Weebly