International fiction
Which Curtis Sittenfeld book should you read first?
Perhaps you are a person who is thinking: ‘I am interested to read this extremely good author, but also I am time-poor and do not know where to begin’. This guide* is for you…
*This piece was originally published in 2019 and has been updated with contributions from our booksellers to reflect Sittenfeld's latest work (Rodham & Romantic Comedy) and to ensure our advice remains up-to-date!
Prep (2005)
When shy fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora arrives at the exclusive boarding…
Must-read Japanese crime and mystery novels
Translated from Japanese, below is a collection of both acclaimed works of mystery – more specifically, hongaku – as well as other recent, and celebrated, contemporary works of Japanese crime fiction. These translated works are all uniquely compelling and will keep you awake and guessing until their final pages.
Lady Joker (Volume 1) by Kaoru Takamura (translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida)
Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have…
An extract from Curtis Sittenfeld's much anticipated novel, Romantic Comedy
Beloved and bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld is back! Her latest novel, Romantic Comedy, centres a sketch writer who has all but given up on love – until she falls, hard, but not for the person she expects.
Read an advanced extract from the novel's prologue below.
Prologue
February 2018
You should not, I’ve read many times, reach for your phone first thing in the morning—the news, social media, and emails all disrupt the natural stages of waking and create…
The Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist 2023
The shortlist for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced!
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. The prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama. This year, Australian writer Robbie Arnott has been shortlisted.
The six shortlisted titles are:
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume
Debut fiction to read this month
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Nestled in the foothills of the Elk mountains and surrounded by sprawling forests, wandering bears and porcupine, the Gunnison river rushes by the tiny town of Iola. For seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash, the day promises to be as ordinary as the porridge and fried eggs she serves her family for breakfast. But just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a chance encounter in…
A spotlight on translated fiction
Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado (translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor)
You’ve never met anyone like her … Antonia Scott is special. Very special. She is not a policewoman or a lawyer. She has never wielded a weapon or carried a badge, and yet, she has solved dozens of crimes. But it’s been awhile since Antonia left her attic in Madrid. The things she has lost are much more important to her than the things awaiting her outside.
She also…
The 2023 International Booker Prize longlist
The International Booker Prize has revealed the ‘Booker Dozen’ of 13 novels in contention for the 2023 prize, which celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world.
The prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality works of imagination from all over the world, and to give greater recognition to the role of translators.The…
Beginners guide to Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid has taken the world by storm with her incredible novels that read more like true stories than works of fiction. The way she writes makes you feel as if you're eavesdropping on conversations at an exclusive party, rather than reading it off the page.
So now you're thinking, okay Lucie, this sounds amazing but what TJR book should I pick up first? Well I've written this guide to help you decide, but I promise you won't be…
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Engaging in extensive discussions about the weather and changing seasons is part of being a Melbournian, so I am not at all self-conscious to raise this sometimes-prosaic topic, and mention that March signals for me the beginning of our gradual transition into my favourite part of the year, when the nights start to cool, the days shorten a little, and the light changes to warmer hues. It’s also the time for fungi to start growing in earnest in the damp…
The Women's Prize for Fiction longlist 2023
The longlist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced! The Women’s Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.
Below are the sixteen longlisted books.
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh
…
We recommend reading these Irish novels
This collection was inspired by our colleagues who commented that recently many of their favourite reads were courtesy of Irish women. Explore our full collection of Irish authors we love or browse some of the more recent and beloved releases below.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
'Set during the Italian Renaissance and based on true events, The Marriage Portrait tells the story of Lucrezia De Medici's doomed marriage to Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara. Given in marriage to…
Top picks for book clubs this month
Crime fiction
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Without a doubt Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor is one of the most exciting releases so far this year. This epic family saga meets crime thriller is the perfect marriage of substance and seduction. Politics, power and pleasure are the lynch pins fastening Kapoor’s characters together as she deftly navigates their intertwined yet drastically different lives in contemporary India.
‘Kapoor has delivered an expansive, cinematic literary thriller … At the outset…
Debut fiction to read this month
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
When 28 year old Maggie finds herself suddenly, shockingly, divorced after just 608 days of marriage she embarks upon a journey of self-discovery that mostly consists of eating hamburgers at 4am, taking up a variety of new hobbies, and trying to embrace life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™ in the age of dating apps. Acerbically funny with razor sharp dialogue, this painfully relatable book about modern love is the debut novel from comedian, essayist…
Readings recommends: campus novels
There is something strangely enduring about the campus novel. These coming-of-age tales are alluring combinations of mystery, possibility and, of course, an abundant serving of self-doubt. With their protagonists adjusting to their new sense of agency as young adults, these works effortlessly explore issues of power and privilege, race, class, consent, sexuality, and gender.
They are novels of micro-aggressions, first loves, furtive glances and obsessing over perception; as Diana Reid's Love & Virtue adeptly puts it, 'Are you a good…
The 100 bestselling books of 2022
We’ve run the reports and done the math. Here are our 100 bestselling books from the past year.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (trans.)
Bulldozed by Niki Savva
Exiles by Jane Harper
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960-1990 by Chris Macheras
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Love & Virtue by…
Best international fiction of 2022
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best international fiction books of the year, as voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan’s highly anticipated follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad once again eschews genre and conventional narrative devices. Featuring a patchwork of different characters’ perspectives, many of whom will be familiar to…
Must read international debut fiction from 2022
Following on from our list of Australian debut highlights of the year, here are some of the debut novels by international authors that delighted, surprised and stayed with us in the past 12 months.
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Irish writer Louise Kennedy’s debut novel is a firm favourite with Readings staff. Set in a small town near Belfast at the start of the Troubles in the 1970s, it follows a young teacher who – against her better judgement – is…
2022 Translated fiction highlights
We've been spoiled for choice with translated fiction in 2022, so choosing our favourites was a near impossible task, but we managed it. Our favourite works of translated fiction for the year (limiting ourselves to just twenty) include books from Japan, Catalonia, India and more.
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Geetanjali Shree became the first Hindi writer to win the International Booker Prize with Tomb of Sand, a lively, garrulous epic centred…
The 2022 winners of the National Book Awards
The winners for this year's National Book Awards have been announced! Since 1950, The National Book Awards have been celebrating the best writing in America.
The 2022 winner of the National Book Award for Fiction is Tess Gunty for The Rabbit Hutch.
The 2022 winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction is Imani Perry for South to America.
The 2022 winner of the National Book Award for Poetry is John Keene for Punks.
The 2022 winner…
2022 fantasy and sci-fi highlights
2022 may be heralded as a Golden Age of Sci-Fi and Fantasy television, but it’s the books of the year that have truly excited the genre with innovation and imagination. From fiercely imagined First Nations speculative futures to the sexual politics of mythic retellings to radical historical fantasy, here are some of our favourites from 2022.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Seated among the gleaming spires of 19th-century Oxford is the mighty Babel College where translators and silversmiths conjure magic through…
Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams win the Goldsmiths Prize 2022
Congratulations to Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams who have won this year’s Goldsmiths Prize for their novel, Diego Garcia.
A tragicomedy interrogating the powers of literature alongside the crimes of the British government, Diego Garcia is a collaborative fiction that opens up possibilities for the novel and seeks other ways of living together.
Tim Parenll, Chair of the Judges, says: 'By turns, funny, moving, and angry, Diego Garcia is as compelling to read as it is intricately wrought. For…
Shehan Karunatilaka wins the Booker Prize for Fiction 2022
Congratulations to Shehan Karunatilaka who has been named the winner of this year’s Booker Prize for Fiction for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet queen, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira lake and he has no idea who killed him.
At a time where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers…
Recommended reading: short story collections
We love short stories and their unique ability to distill so much insight and entertainment with artful brevity and fervour. This month we’re highlighting six collections that have recently hit our shelves.
Between Two Worlds selected by Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani
Offering a snapshot of contemporary Australia, this diverse collection of stories explores sense of place, family, loss, culture, sexual awakening and the abiding connections to people and place that make us who we are. Told with utterly…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian and Turkish.
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents.
The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along…
What we're reading: Batuman & Ponthus
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Baz Ozturk is reading Either/Or by Elif Batuman
I’m currently immersed in Selin’s world at Harvard, in this follow-up to The Idiot.
I am one of those readers who loves nerdy books about books, and Either/Or is definitely one of them. In fact Selin is one of the most bookish characters I’ve…
The 2022 Booker Prize shortlist
The shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize has been announced! The Booker Prize has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. It is awarded annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
Below are the six shortlisted titles:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Glory tells the story of a country seemingly trapped in a cycle as old as time. And yet, as it unveils the myriad…
Interview with Selby Wynn Schwartz
We were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with of one of this year’s Booker Prize longlisted authors, Selby Wynn Schwartz. Read on for a wonderful conversation between bookseller Aurelia Orr and Schwartz about writing, mythology and her nominated work, After Sappho.
Can you tell us a bit about your novel and perhaps even about the eponymous, Sappho?
Very little is known about Sappho, a lyric poet who lived on the island of Lesbos around 630 B.C., and…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
New in translated fiction for August are three excellent novels translated from Japanese.
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
An engaged couple falls out over the husband’s dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating.
Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story…
Our top picks of the month for book clubs
For book clubs who are fans of Black Mirror …
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments.
When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi…
Debut fiction to read this month
Hydra by Adriane Howell
Anja is a young, ambitious antiquarian. When her career goes awry, Anja finds herself adrift. Cast out from the world of antiques, she stumbles upon a beachside cottage that the neighbouring naval base is offering for a 100-year lease. The property is derelict, isolated, and surrounded by scrub. Despite of, or because of, its wildness and solitude, Anja uses the last of the inheritance from her mother to lease the property. Yet a presence –…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Italian, Swedish, French and Hindi.
The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti (translated from Italian by Stash Luczkiw)
The Lovers is a love story set in a tiny village high in the Italian Alps. Its protagonists, Fausto and Silvia, meet in winter, their relationship becoming a refuge in all senses, and the seasons, as well as the mountains, an integral part of their story together. It has a classic, enduring appeal, a cinematic feel, a…
Debut fiction to read this month
The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
A queer, Maori-inspired debut fantasy about a police officer who is murdered, brought back to life with a mysterious new power, and tasked with protecting her city from an insidious evil threatening to destroy it.
Basin by Scott McCulloch
A nomad swallows poison and drowns himself. Resuscitated by a paramilitary bandit named Aslan, Figure is nursed back into a world of violence, sexuality and dementia. Together, Figure and Aslan traverse a coastline erupting…
Our top picks of the month for book clubs
For book clubs who love dining out…
Raised by Wolves by Jess Ho
Growing up Cantonese in the racist outer suburbs was hard enough for Jess Ho, but add in a dysfunctional family who only ever made peace over food (and then only until the bill arrived), and it was clear that a normal life was never on the menu. She emerged from her childhood with two important traits: a major psychological complex, and a kick-arse palate. Both would help…
Petite novels for distractible minds
For those who are struggling to hold the threads of longer narratives right now, we recommend these six short novels for their brevity and staying-power. You’ll be thinking about each of these stories long after their final page.
At 112 pages:
Assembly by Natasha Brown
A blistering and unignorable literary debut about Blackness and whiteness in modern Britain.
Over the course of twenty-four hours, the whip-smart young narrator of Assembly receives a cancer diagnosis, decides not to tell her posh…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Finnish, and Arabic.
The Old Woman and the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo (translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim)
Hornclaw is a sixty-five-year-old female contract killer who is considering retirement. A fighter who has experienced loss and grief early on in life, she lives in a state of self-imposed isolation, with just her dog, Deadweight, for company. While on an assassination job for the ‘disease control’ company she works for, Hornclaw…
Five LGBTQIA+ horror must-reads
Five fantastic LGBTQIA+ horror recommendations. That’s really all you need to know before you let these inventive, thought-provoking narratives consume you.
They by Kay Dick
Lost for over forty years, They (1977) is a rediscovered dystopian masterpiece.
They are coming closer. They begin with a dead dog, shadowy footsteps, confiscated books. Then, the National Gallery is purged; motorway checkpoints demarcate Areas, violent mobs stalk the countryside, destroying cultural artefacts - and those who resist. The surviving writers, artists and thinkers…
Ruth Ozeki wins the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022
Ruth Ozeki has won the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction for The Book of Form and Emptiness.
After his father dies, Benny Oh finds he can hear objects talking: teapots, marbles and sharpened pencils, babbling in anger or distress. His mother, struggling to support their household alone, starts collecting things to give her comfort. Overwhelmed by the clamour of all the stuff, Benny seeks refuge in the beautiful silence of the public library. There, a book reaches out to…
The Readings Guide to the Women’s Prize 2022 Shortlist
With the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction announced later this week, you still have time to pick up books from the excellent shortlist. Wondering which one to dive into next? (Or first – we won’t judge!) Just follow our handy reading guide – a lightning quick round-up of our booksellers’ thoughts on the six shortlisted titles.
The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini Myriad
Author (and stand-up comedian) Lisa Allen-Agostini’s novel hums with the rhythms of life…
What we're reading: Enríquez & Taddeo
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Emma Clarke is reading The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez made me feel as if I had snuck into a screening of a horror movie. I could leave at any moment if I wanted to (I hadn’t even paid for a…
Geetanjali Shree wins the International Booker Prize 2022
Geetanjali Shree has been selected the winner of this year’s Booker International Prize for her novel, Tomb of Sand. Indian author Shree and English-language translator Daisy Rockwell will share equally in the £50,000 prize.
The International Booker Prize celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world. The prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It aims to encourage more publishing and reading…
Debut fiction to read this month
Sunbathing by Isobel Beech
After weeks of grieving, a woman books a plane ticket, bound for an old villa in the mountains of Abruzzo. Invited to stay with her friends Giulia and Fab - in the weeks before they marry in a village orchard - she lives for a summer in the house’s Birthing Room, where generations of women once had their babies. More often, though, she lives in her head: in the past, trying to make sense…
Patricia Lockwood wins the 2022 Dylan Thomas Prize
Patricia Lockwood has been announced as this year’s winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for her novel, No One Is Talking About This.
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. The Prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama.
In No One Is Talking About This, a woman known…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Dutch, Italian, Bulgarian and Catalan.
Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison)
A writer takes residence in the illustrious but decaying Grand Hotel Europa, to think about where things went wrong with Clio, with whom he fell in love in Genoa and moved to Venice. He reconstructs a compelling story of love in times of mass tourism, about their trips to Malta, Palmaria, Portovenere and the Cinque…
The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist 2022
The shortlist for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced!
The Women’s Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.
Below are the six shortlisted books for the 2022 prize.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The life of Marian Graves has always…
Favourite first lines in literature
There’s something intangible yet immutable about a great opening line. Below are some of our favourite opening lines from contemporary novels, though – of course – a few classics have snuck in too.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
‘The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.’
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Danish. The works themselves are diverse in content – from thrilling crime, to science fiction, to historical epic, and some incisive social commentary to boot!
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada (translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani)
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as the land of sushi. Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
A Solitary Walk on the Moon by Hilde Hinton
Our chart topping book this week is the second novel from Booker-prize winning author…
Debut fiction to read this month
These outstanding debuts are written by some of the most exciting emerging voices in fiction. Explore a selection of April highlights below or browse our ongoing collection for debut fiction in 2022 here.
No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak
Penny can’t help but compare herself to her friends. Annie is about to be a senior associate at her law firm, Bec has just got engaged, Leo is dating everyone this side of the Yarra, and Penny is just ……
The 2022 International Booker Prize shortlist
The shortlist for this year’s International Booker Prize has been announced!
The International Booker Prize celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world. The prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality works of imagination from all over the world, and to give greater recognition to the role of translators.The contribution of both author…
The Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist 2022
The shortlist for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced.
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. The Prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama.
Namita Gokhale, Chair of Judges, said of the shortlist: ‘The longlist for the 2022 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize was one of the strongest…
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