In his preview of The Powerbroker: Mark Leibler, An Australian Jewish Life, Sam Lipski describes Michael Gawenda’s biography of Arnold Bloch Leibler’s senior partner as “compellingly readable”.
“Most readers will know the basic facts: Mark Leibler is an Australian and world Jewry leader, a pre-eminent tax lawyer, and a powerful voice for Aboriginal Australians. But the person is in the details; as son, brother, husband, father, grandfather. As law partner, colleague, and mentor. As viewed subjectively by Leibler himself in sometimes uncomfortable interviews; as seen by others in close-up and from afar.”
Lipski describes how prize-winning journalist, Gawenda, has revealed various previously untold stories about the Australian Jewish community’s relationships with successive governments and about the “who’s who on the Rich List”.
Lipski’s column concludes with a quote from the first chapter of The Powerbroker, in which Michael Gawenda describes his latest book: “This is a biography of one man. It is also the story of one community in a multicultural nation. It is a story about Australia.”
