Was very happy to see this review of The Secret Son (alongside Leah Kaminsky’s first novel The Waiting Room) in the paper over the weekend. An author dreams of reviews, and they don’t always happen, small or big, positive or negative. They don’t always happen quickly, and they don’t always happen at all. With 400 new titles published in this country each week, it’s such a lottery to even be in the mix, with more books pushing out of the system week after week. To receive such a substantial and positive review – with not a negative word in it for either of us or our books – is super gratifying and champagne-worthy.
Just had coffee with my friend Naomi and she commented on the article and said that Pierce can ‘go either way’ – that he can be critical and exacting in his reviews. So this made me doubly thrilled.
The whole thing is good, but the final paragraph has to be the best of the lot:
Ackland and Kaminsky have given us first novels that reshape familiar historical material with originality and dash; sustain their strange tales with assurance; move confidently between countries and eras, intimate and national histories; offer two more indications of the present and future health of Australian fiction.
SERAGLIO 
What a great review! And how nice to read someone saying Australian fiction is heading in the right direction.
Agree!
I would certainly agree with that last paragraph in the case of “The Secret Son”! (haven’t read “The Waiting Room.”) I think assurance, confidence and originality shone through the whole novel. Congrats on the review
Thanks so much, Julianne.