Ali Lowe Archives

Book review: The Second Wife by Ali Lowe

June 5, 20262 min read

The Second Wife by Ali Lowe is the third book I’ve read by the English-born Aussie author and features warring siblings of the grown kind and a punitive and ill-tempered father… albeit one who’s a billionaire and celebrating his 70th birthday. It unfolds from several points of view that of birthday boy Irving’s wife, (Gen), Irving’s daughter in law (Celia) and Molly the cruise concierge for the elite 9th deck revellers. Their stories are interspersed by transcripts of a podcast, made following the fateful cruise which ends in a death… or two.

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Book review: The Running Club by Ali Lowe

March 16, 20233 min read

I was worried The Running Club by Ali Lowe would be a bit like books about motherhood – featuring cliquey groups to whom I can not relate. I know people ‘inside’ of those groups don’t see the fact that they can be exclusive, but those ‘outside’ certainly do. Casual discussions about times and pacers and the like are similar to those about school drop-offs, P & C committees or playdates, for those of us on the ‘outside’.

However, though the club itself is how these meet – like The Trivia Night in Lowe’s first novel – merely a vehicle or way in which to bind a group of disparate people together in a way that isn’t natural so ultimately explodes before hopefully recovering and re-forming (in more ways than one!).

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Book review: The Trivia Night by Ali Lowe

February 25, 20223 min read

I usually try to avoid books featuring warring parents (both the intra and extra-familial kind). As a non-parent myself, novels featuring yummy mummies or daddies or parents trying to outdo each other; those where the parenting skills of others are judged; and even discussions about the way children are parented make my eyes glaze over.

It doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy these books but it means I’m less likely to engage with the characters, though I realise they’re excellent bookclub fodder for groups of school mums and the like. They are – of course – of more interest if they feature something dire… like a disappearance or a murder, which The Trivia Night by Ali Lowe does.

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