Writing in English, living in Australia for more than 20 years, Maria Tumarkin is a writer of Russian origin. She was born in Ukraine. Her parents left the then-Soviet Union shortly before that country fell apart, and emigrated to Australia. Tumarkin hold a PhD in Contemporary History, Cultural Studies, Trauma Studies from the University of Melbourne. She describes herself as a freelance writer, teacher, researcher, translator. She has written three books, and is working on her next.

Tumarkin 's books are all closely connected with her own life experience. Courage has a somewhat broader scope. There is the faint suggestion that the author demonstrated courage by emigrating to Australia, while, as she was only 15 at the time, it should be acknowledged that perhaps her parents had the courage to do so. Apart from this slight criticism, Courage is a book which has no equal in contemporary publishing. It is almost as if other writers and philosophers shun big topics like this, or consider them done by classic authors. Tumarkin writes that the Australian philosopher Raimond Gaita was her mentor and has influenced her.

In Courage, Maria Tumarkin explores what courage means in the modern time. She explains and illustrates the concept by describing people in contemporary history who have demonstrated courage.

Very readable, and Maria Tumarkin seems to be an author from whom we may expect many more interesting books. ( )