Reviews

KIM KELLY - AMAZON REVIEW - MAY

‘A city built on lies and secrets,’ is the Sydney of Julian Leatherdale’s sumptuously wrought Australian historical fiction, The Opal Dragonfly. This journey back to 1850s New South Wales is elegantly written, visually stunning and richly detailed – the work of an author who treats his subjects with utmost care and…

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY - MAY 2018

The Opal Dragonfly is an ambitious undertaking that presents all of the class bigotry and narrow-mindedness of the era. Its characters and awkward coming-of-age scenes are reminiscent of Austen. That, combined with Dickensian social realism, has resulted in Leatherdale creating a memorable, epic work that is destined…

THE BOOK MUSE - THE OPAL DRAGONFLY - MARCH 14, 2018

"It is at times touching, and other times harrowing and despairing, it encapsulates the desires to uncover secrets, and the flaws and fragility of human life and society, against a backdrop of colonialism and the assumptions of class, race and gender."  "the complexity of relationships that Leatherdale explores with…