This is what I thought of as I nodded along to Discipline , the sharp and compelling new novel by multi-award-winning author, former lawyer, academic and commentator Randa Abdel-Fattah. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet , the title character speaks of theatre’s purpose to hold a mirror up to nature, reflecting the world back to its audience. Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah was one of the first authors to withdraw from the Bendigo Writers Festival. Abdel-Fattah takes both the academy and the mainstream press to task, reminding them of their responsibility to truth and to justice. “Universities are spaces of intellectual challenge and the contest of ideas”, the book reminds us, even as we witness the gatekeeping that tells us otherwise.