The very best book of 2018: Normal People by Sally Rooney

All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number one, the very best: Kim Hill reviews Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People. The buzz around young Irish writer Sally Rooney made it very difficult to review Normal People. Even to read it. Would it be as good as everyone insists it … Read more

Book of the Week: Kim Hill on a cult that makes Gloriavale look sane

Broadcaster Kim Hill reviews the year’s most sensational memoir of family dysfunction, violence, apocalyptic visions, and survival. Memoirs are by their nature spoilers. We know already that the author survived trials and hardship because here’s the book. And so many now: since the modern “misery-memoir” genre (happiness writes white, after all) was boosted in part … Read more