Laura Matthew's Reviews > Merciless Gods

Searing, uncomfortable, achingly beautiful. I'm reminded how important it is to read contemporary Australian fiction. There's so much here that resonates, and I loved sinking into parts of the Aussie-flavoured identity we tend to hide or wilfully ignore. Like The Slap, there's a powerful interplay of race, class, sexuality, generational divide etc woven with keen insight and depth. The observations are brutal, judgement-free, and deeply compassionate. Tsiolkas is a class act.