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Absolutely Revolting

July 2025, no. 477

This July, ABR looks at major global shifts underway. Sheila Fitzpatrick reports from Europe on the changing face of World War II commemorations and James Curran examines the ledger in Australia’s relationship with the United States. We announce the ABR Science Fellow and feature reviews of books about Antarctica, carbon, rivers, and genetics. Geoff Raby, Shan Windscript, and Nick Hordern review revelatory new titles on Russia, China, and Ukraine, and our fiction reviewers consider novels by Gail Jones, Isabel Allende, Jane Caro, and more. ABR publishes ‘Consolation of Clouds’ by Robin Boord, which was placed third in the 2025 Calibre Essay Prize, Felicity Plunkett reviews Antigone Kefala’s poetry and fiction, and Kirli Saunders is Poet of the Month.

July’s cover artwork is by Marc Martin.

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Poet of the Month with Kirli Saunders
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Kirli Saunders (OAM) is a proud Gunai Woman and multi-award-winning writer, artist, singer-songwriter, and consultant. Kirli creates to connect, to make change. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts in 2022. Kirli is the author of eight books, including Bindi (2020), Returning (2023), Afloat (2024), and Eclipse (2025). Her theatre show Yandha Djanbay will tour in 2026.
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Kirli SaundersKirli Saunders (OAM) is a proud Gunai Woman and multi-award-winning writer, artist, singer-songwriter, and consultant. Kirli creates to connect, to make change. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts in 2022. Kirli is the author of eight books, including Bindi (2020), Returning (2023), Afloat (2024), and Eclipse (2025). Her theatre show Yandha Djanbay will tour in 2026.

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Paul Long reviews ‘John and Paul: A love story in songs’ by Ian Leslie
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Article Title: Paul was the walrus
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The cover of the paperback version of Ian Leslie’s John and Paul comes with an extraordinary claim from British journalist Cailtin Moran celebrating ‘the first new Beatles story in decades’ (my emphasis). Really? Don’t we know everything about the band already? Do we need another book? Sure we do, after all, the Beatles are a monumental and serious subject for investigation. For instance, as Leslie recalls, the double A-sided single ‘Penny Lane’/ ‘Strawberry Fields’ was nominated by one critic as the greatest work of art of the last century. For some, this is an extraordinary claim, but then that is part of the joy of thinking about and being affected by the Beatles.
Book 1 Title: John and Paul
Book 1 Subtitle: A love story in songs
Book Author: Ian Leslie
Book 1 Biblio: Faber, $55 pb, 432 pp
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Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9780571376124/john-and-paul--ian-leslie--2025--9780571376124#rac:jokjjzr6ly9m
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The cover of the paperback version of Ian Leslie’s John and Paul comes with an extraordinary claim from British journalist Cailtin Moran celebrating ‘the first new Beatles story in decades’ (my emphasis). Really? Don’t we know everything about the band already? Do we need another book? Sure we do, after all, the Beatles are a monumental and serious subject for investigation. For instance, as Leslie recalls, the double A-sided single ‘Penny Lane’/ ‘Strawberry Fields’ was nominated by one critic as the greatest work of art of the last century. For some, this is an extraordinary claim, but then that is part of the joy of thinking about and being affected by the Beatles.

Read more: Paul Long reviews ‘John and Paul: A love story in songs’ by Ian Leslie

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Rosa Holman reviews ‘Careless People: A story of where I used to work’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams
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Article Title: Found wanting
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Imagine having a performance review conducted by your employer while you were in a coma and on maternity leave and being told on your return to work that your responsiveness was found wanting. This anecdote is related straight-faced by Sarah Wynn-Williams in her whistleblowing account of the multinational technology giant Facebook. Based on the author’s seven-year tenure as Facebook’s Director of Global Public Policy, which ended in 2017, Careless People provides new insights into Facebook’s treatment of employees and users alike. As Wynn-Williams recalls: ‘A quick google search confirm[ed] my suspicions that you are not supposed to be given a performance review on your maternity leave. In fact, I understand that pushing someone to work during their maternity leave is against the law.’ A chilling picture is constructed of the human cost of the company’s lawless commitment to power, profit, and a galactic technocracy, the Metaverse.
Book 1 Title: Careless People
Book 1 Subtitle: A story of where I used to work
Book Author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan, $36.99 pb, 400 pp
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Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781035065936/untitled-memoir--anon--2025--9781035065936#rac:jokjjzr6ly9m
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Imagine having a performance review conducted by your employer while you were in a coma and on maternity leave and being told on your return to work that your responsiveness was found wanting. This anecdote is related straight-faced by Sarah Wynn-Williams in her whistleblowing account of the multinational technology giant Facebook. Based on the author’s seven-year tenure as Facebook’s Director of Global Public Policy, which ended in 2017, Careless People provides new insights into Facebook’s treatment of employees and users alike. As Wynn-Williams recalls: ‘A quick google search confirm[ed] my suspicions that you are not supposed to be given a performance review on your maternity leave. In fact, I understand that pushing someone to work during their maternity leave is against the law.’ A chilling picture is constructed of the human cost of the company’s lawless commitment to power, profit, and a galactic technocracy, the Metaverse.

Read more: Rosa Holman reviews ‘Careless People: A story of where I used to work’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams

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Michael McKernan reviews ‘Gull Force: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941-45’ by Joan Beaumont
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Article Title: Gull Force revisited
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This is a sombre, sad, and at times angry book. It is also a wise book. The sister of one of those Australian prisoners of war in World War II who died at Ambon wrote: ‘Everyone who was touched by Ambon has a crying heart which will never leave them.’ Of an initial force, since known as Gull Force, of 1,131 men, 779 were killed in action or died as prisoners. There were many crying hearts in Australia.
Book 1 Title: Gull Force
Book 1 Subtitle: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941-45
Book Author: Joan Beaumont
Book 1 Biblio: Second Edition, NewSouth, $39.99 pb, 431 pp
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This is a sombre, sad, and at times angry book. It is also a wise book. The sister of one of those Australian prisoners of war in World War II who died at Ambon wrote: ‘Everyone who was touched by Ambon has a crying heart which will never leave them.’ Of an initial force, since known as Gull Force, of 1,131 men, 779 were killed in action or died as prisoners. There were many crying hearts in Australia.

Read more: Michael McKernan reviews ‘Gull Force: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941-45’ by Joan Beaumont

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Nicholas Brown reviews ‘Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and institutions from the Black Death to Covid’ by Sheilagh Ogilvie
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Article Title: A whirlpool of conjecture
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The enduring legacies of Covid-19 have been linked to a post- or new-normal era defined by everything from chronic debt to the rise of Big Data and the lingering unease any of us might feel in a crowd. Those transformations are placed in fresh perspective by Sheilagh Ogilvie’s reminder that humanity has experienced a severe pandemic roughly every five generations since the Black Death scythed across Europe for nearly a decade from 1346. ‘History seethes with epidemics,’ Ogilivie writes. Her interest is in how societies have responded across that long time span. What resources have been mobilised to ‘control contagion’? What changed with, and can be learnt from, those cycles in humanity’s extreme if episodic vulnerability to microbes?
Book 1 Title: Controlling Contagion
Book 1 Subtitle: Epidemics and institutions from the Black Death to Covid
Book Author: Sheilagh Ogilvie
Book 1 Biblio: Princeton University Press, $69.99 hb, 526 pp
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Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9780691255569/controlling-contagion--sheilagh-ogilvie--2025--9780691255569#rac:jokjjzr6ly9m
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The enduring legacies of Covid-19 have been linked to a post- or new-normal era defined by everything from chronic debt to the rise of Big Data and the lingering unease any of us might feel in a crowd. Those transformations are placed in fresh perspective by Sheilagh Ogilvie’s reminder that humanity has experienced a severe pandemic roughly every five generations since the Black Death scythed across Europe for nearly a decade from 1346. ‘History seethes with epidemics,’ Ogilivie writes. Her interest is in how societies have responded across that long time span. What resources have been mobilised to ‘control contagion’? What changed with, and can be learnt from, those cycles in humanity’s extreme if episodic vulnerability to microbes?

Read more: Nicholas Brown reviews ‘Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and institutions from the Black Death to...

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