Balance of Power

It is hard to believe that Trump's second presidency is only six months old given the scale of change he has wrought upon the world. In pursuing his 'America First' ideology, Trump has upended the global order and turned his back on old alliances. Through punishing tariffs, drastic immigration crackdowns, and the withdrawal of American overseas aid, Trump has signalled a dramatic repositioning of America's place in the world. 

Hugh White's Quarterly Essay (QE98), Hard New World: Our Post American Future (2025) is a timely exploration of this new world order and the ways in which Australia needs to navigate the changing landscape. 

The Trump world is multipolar in which Russia's ambitions in Eastern Europe and China's objectives in Asia are matched by Trump's aspirations in North America. America's containment strategy has given way. No wonder he wants Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal to form part of his American hegemony. 

White writes:

'That scene in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy perfectly exemplified Trump's vision of America in the world. He rejects the whole idea of America as the global leader, upholding and enforcing international order and promoting American values for the good of the world as a whole. To Trump, America's sole purpose in them world is too to protect America's direct interests in its own security and prosperity". (p11)

Trump's international relations are transactional, all about doing deals and trade offs. People gasped when he proposed a Riveria-style reimagination of Gaza, but this is how a real estate baron sees the world - through hotels, golf courses and casinos. He admires 'strong man' leaders - Putin, Netanyahu, Xi Jinping - and has increasingly distanced himself from the institutions and conventions that keep peace in our world. 

White's exploration of the balance of power in Asia was perhaps the most interesting as he considers where Australia fits in the new world order. He questions the AUKUS arrangement and Australia's dependence on America, arguing that eight subs (if delivered) will not deter Chinese expansion in south east Asia. With Australia trying to solidify relationships with South Pacific island nations through sports and other investments, this may not be enough to secure peace in our backyard. White reckons that Taiwan will be the flashpoint in which China tests the world's resolve - will America back Taiwan? Will Australia join America? Let's hope this fragile peace is not tested.

Over the past few days, as I read this essay, Israel and Iran have gone to war and America bombed nuclear sites. It feels as though the world is on a precipice, and I am increasingly doubtful that the leaders and institutions that prevented nuclear war will prevail. All the more reason to read this essay and gain a better understanding of what is at stake. 

Hugh White is emeritus professor of strategic studies at ANU and author of Australia's Defence White Paper 2000. White has written three previous Quarterly Essays focussed on international relations:

• Power Shift: Australia's Future between Washington and Beijing (QE39) - August 2010
• Without America: Australia in the New Asia (QE68) - November 2017
• Sleepwalk to War: Australia's Unthinking Alliance with America (QE86) - June 2025

Miles Franklin Award Shortlist

 The Miles Franklin Award Longlist was announced this week. The following six titles are up for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize:

• 
  Brian Castro - Chinese Postman 
• Michelle de Krester - Theory and Practice
• Winnie Dunn - Dirt Poor Islanders
• Julie Janson - Compasion
• Siang Lu - Ghost Cities
• Fiona McFarlane - Highway 13

I was travelling when the Longlist was announced in May so I did not write about it. The Longlist included some brilliant titles that did not make the cut: The Burrow (Melanie Cheng); Politica (Yumna Kassab); The Degenerates (Raedon Richardson); Juice (Tim Winton). I hoped that The Burrow would have made the shortlist as it is a brilliant novel, and had expected previous winner Winton to be on the list.  

If I had to pick a winner, I would put my money on the Michelle de Krester for Theory and Practice as she is on a roll, having just won the Stella Prize. But the title I am most interested in is Highway 13 - a collection of short stories about the impact of a serial killer. All will be revealed when the winner is announced in July. 

The Missing

Dervla McTiernan's crime series continues with the third novel in the DS Cormac Reilly series, The Good Turn (2020). Picking up shortly after the events of the last novel, The Scholar (2019), Reilly continues to work at a Galway police station under the watchful eye of Superintendent Brian Murphy. Reilly suspects Murphy is corrupt and just needs to figure out how to prove it. 

The story gets off to a quick start when a young girl is kidnapped. Reilly's colleague Garda Peter Fisher has to make rapid decisions in a quest to find her. The station is under resourced with everyone else assigned to a potential drug bust and Fisher is on his own. When things go wrong, Fisher is reassigned to a tiny station in his childhood hometown. Reilly is suspended, freeing him up to investigate possible corruption. 

To make matters worse, Reilly's home life is unstable. His partner Emma has moved to Europe to take up a position in a lab and their long-distance relationship is under strain. Reilly knows he has to decide between Emma and the Garda, as Emma's career is now in Europe. 

McTiernan has added interesting layers to her characters. I enjoyed learning more about Fisher and his past in this novel, particularly his relationships with his estranged father and his beloved grandmother. Reilly too is evolving, trying to figure out what he wants from his life. 

The Good Turn is a page-turner with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing. In this third outing, McTiernan has perfected her storytelling. She paces out reveals and I was interested to see the ways in which she brought various story threads together. The Good Turn can be read as a standalone novel, but it is far more interesting to read this series in order. 

The Reilly series continues in The Unquiet Grave (2025) which I hope to read soon. My reviews of other novels in the Cormac Reilly series are available on this blog:

• The Ruin (2018) - Cormac Reilly #1
• The Scholar (2019) - Cormac Reilly #2

Revisiting Murder on the Canadian

I have just returned from a holiday in Canada. One of the highlights of my trip was to spend four days on The Canadian travelling from Vancouver to Toronto. The Via Rail train took us through the Rocky Mountains, across the Prairies and over the Canadian Shield, showcasing the natural beauty of Canada's trees, rivers, fields and canyons. When I arrived in Toronto many of my friends jokingly asked whether there had been a murder on the train! 

As children in the 1980s we had read Eric Wilson's novel Murder on the Canadian (1976), the first in his Tom and Liz Austen mystery series, and my friends' question reminded me of the story. While in Toronto I picked up a copy of the book and refreshed my memory of this tale from long ago which I initially read when I was 9 or 10 years of age. Would the story still hold up forty years later?

Young Tom Austen is obsessed with the Hardy Boys and longs to be a detective. He boards the Canadian in Winnipeg bound for Vancouver to spend time with his grandparents. He is a solo traveller, but soon finds his frenemy Dietmar Oban is sharing his berth. The two boys are in search of adventure and their imaginations run away with them as they explore the train. 

A scream brings Tom running down the corridor to the scene of a crime. A woman is dead and Tom reckons he can find the killer. Using the deduction skills he has learned from Sherlock Holmes and the Hardy Boys he looks for clues. As he begins to piece together what occurred he finds himself face-to-face with the killer!

The Canadian - Dome Car

Murder on the Canadian is aimed at young adults. Not unlike an Agatha Christie novel, Wilson has used the confined space of the moving train to his advantage in the plotting of this novel. Having been on The Canadian, I enjoyed Wilson's descriptions of the dome car and the dining car, which remain as they were half a century ago. Wilson has also filled the train with interesting passengers for Tom to encounter as he attempts to rule out suspects.

Revisiting this novel as an adult was a nostalgic experience. As a child Tom's adventures were thrilling, and he was a delightful protagonist with his quick wit and ability to get out of tricky situations. There is something very pure about Tom's naiveté. At only 122 pages, it is a quick and easy read.

This is the first of twenty books in the series, which includes Vancouver Nightmare (1978), Terror in Winnipeg (1979), The Lost Treasure of Casa Loma (1980), and Cold Midnight in Old Quebec (1989). I recall reading a couple of these in my childhood, before I moved on to the Choose Your Own Adventure series. 

Ultimately, I would recommend this for young readers and found that it is still an exciting story all these years later.  For older readers, I would highly recommend travelling on The Canadian - it is an unforgettable journey!

Women's Prize Winners 2025

The Winners of the 2025 Women's Prize have been announced! 

The Non-Fiction prize was awarded to Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart, while the Fiction prize was presented to Yael van der Wouden for The Safe Keep. Each author receives £30,000 The Women's Prize also announced a one-off Outstanding Contribution Award would be presented to Bernadine Evaristo in recognition of her body of work and her advocacy for women.

Women's Prize for Fiction

The Safe Keep is set fifteen years after the end of World War II, the Netherlands is quiet and has been reconstructed. In a rural Dutch province, Isabel lives a peaceful life in her late mother's country home. When her brother Louis and his girlfriend Eva show up for an extended stay, Isabel's life is disrupted in ways she could not have imagined. With great skill, the author navigates the post-war reckoning and the legacy of loss and dispossession. Dutch author Yael van der Wouden is a lecturer in literature and creative writing, and this is her first novel. The Safe Keep was also shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. I loved this novel, and as I wrote in my review (available on this blog) the story is engrossing ad the characters stay with you long after you finish reading. 

Kit de Waal, Chair of Judges, said of the winner:

‘The Safe Keep is that rare thing: a masterful blend of history, suspense and historical authenticity. Every word is perfectly placed, page after page revealing an aspect of war and the Holocaust that has been, until now, mostly unexplored in fiction. It is also a love story with beautifully rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism. This astonishing debut is a classic in the making, a story to be loved and appreciated for generations to come. Books like this don’t come along every day.’

I am delighted that Yael van der Wouden has been recognised for this novel.  As I wrote in my assessment of the shortlist, I had hoped that Miranda July would win for All Fours, but if it couldn't be July, I am so pleased that van der Wouden has been recognised.

Women's Prize for Non-Fiction

Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke writes about nine-year-old Keira who was in a devastating car accident. Keira's brain and organs began to shut down, but her heart continued to beat. Her family agreed to donate her heart and it was gifted to nine-year old Max. Max had been in hospital for a year with a virus which affected his heart. Clarke tells this story of grief and a lifesaving gift, and the impact on two families. Rachel Clarke is the author of three bestselling non-fiction books including Breathtaking (which was adapted into a tv series) and Dear Life about her work in an NHS hospice (which was nominated for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize). 

Kavita Puri, Chair of Judges, said of the winner:

‘The Story of a Heart left a deep and long-lasting impression on us. Clarke’s writing is authoritative, beautiful and compassionate. The research is meticulous, and the story-telling is expertly crafted. She holds this precious story with great care and tells it with dignity, interweaving the history of transplant surgery seamlessly. This is a book where humanity shines through on every page, from the selfless act of the parents who gift their daughter’s heart in the depths of despair, to the dedication of the NHS workers. It is unforgettable, and will be read for many years to come.’.

I have not read this book but it sounds like an incredibly moving story.

Outstanding Contribution Award

To celebrate 30 years of the Women's Prize for Fiction, a special award was created for an author "in recognition of her body of work, her significant contribution to literature, and her strong advocacy for women.” To be eligible, authors must have been previously longlisted, shortlisted or winners of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in the past thirty years and they must have published a minimum of five books. The award was presented to Bernadine Evaristo in recognition of her work.

Kate Mosse, Women's Prizes Founder Director, said:

We felt that Bernardine Evaristo’s beautiful, ambitious and inventive body of work (which includes plays, poetry, essays, monologues and memoir as well as award-winning fiction), her dazzling skill and imagination, and her courage to take risks and offer readers a pathway into diverse and multifarious worlds over a forty-year career, made her the ideal recipient of the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. Significantly, Evaristo has consistently used her own magnificent achievements and exceptional talent as a springboard to create opportunities for others, to promote unheard and under-heard women’s voices and to ensure that every female writer feels she has a conduit for her talent. Congratulations to Bernardine and a huge thank you to my fellow judges for such a joyous and celebratory process.

When I wrote about this award I had anticipated it might go to Margaret Atwood or Barbara Kingsolver might win. While I had not selected Evaristo, I am so pleased that she won and I concur with Kate Mosse's sentiments above. I had the great fortune of seeing Evaristo speak and meeting her at the 2023 Sydney Writers' Festival and she is tremendous. 

Want more?

The Women's Prizes were presented at a celebration in London on 12 June 2025. Here is a video of the presentation.