There is such a feast of Australian and international debut fiction this month that we can't fit it all into this blog! Instead we've selected a few that might have flown under the radar.
What Did I Miss?
Holly Brunnbauer
Makayla has many regrets: a Chiko Roll impulse buy, not visiting the Big Pineapple and marrying her high-school dud.
Now, newly divorced, determined to hold on to her independence and facing the Big Three-O, Makayla makes a list of all the things she missed out on while her friends were single and running amok in their twenties.
But when her one-night stand turns up again, and a revenge plot on her ex spirals out of control, she has to decide if some things are worth missing. And if Makayla can't sort herself out before her birthday, she might face the biggest regret of her life.
What Kept You?
Raaza Jamshed
As a child in Pakistan, Jahan was raised on her grandmother's stories, influenced by the demons of folklore, and the memory of violence and forced displacement caused by the British partition of India – tales that taught her to be wary of the world. But her grandmother's life, filled with quiet defiance, hints at another truth. Jahan rebels against the constraints she lives under as a young woman growing up in Lahore, and migrates to Australia, where she meets her husband, whose family is Arabic.
As she reckons with the unruliness of her body after a miscarriage, and the bushfires which threaten their home and their horses on the rural outskirts of Sydney, she is forced to confront the violence that haunts her, against women, animals, and in nature.
All We Need
Magdalena McGuire
Three women. A baby rescued from the sea. Lives forever changed.
When Sapphie, a passionate environmentalist, goes on a camping trip in the bush, she miraculously rescues a baby from the sea. The baby belongs to Candace, a charity worker struggling with new motherhood. The act of rescue throws these strangers together and inspires an intense friendship. Candace’s best friend Alexia, a legal academic, has her reservations about the unconventional new woman in their lives. When Alexia investigates Sapphie’s background, she discovers … nothing. As far as the internet is concerned, Sapphie doesn’t exist. This compels Alexia to ask: What is Sapphie hiding?
As the novel dives into the turbulent waters of love, duty and control, the women must navigate the powerful currents of their fears and desires to discover who they really are.
The Far Side of the Moon and Other Stories
Jana Wendt
A razor-sharp debut story collection from one of the most notable figures in Australian media.
In 'Bits and Pieces', an artist talks about his long life – 'Let me tell you, my friend, journalists ask some very stupid questions.' In 'Fame and Nothingness', a once celebrated journalist calls into a talkback program about meeting Nelson Mandela. In 'The Stamp of History', Ada and Albert live through the dark days of Europe. In the opening story, Ludmilla is about to discover an entirely new side to her husband.
Wendt's stories are polished and exuberant, rich with distinctive voices and precise details. Her characters grapple with fortune and misfortune, with memories of lives in interesting times. Couples are betrayed and redeemed. There are heart-stopping monologues and witty exchanges between friends and rivals. Tragedies alternate with enduring love.
When Sleeping Women Wake
Emma Pei Yin
1941. The wealthy Tang family has settled in Hong Kong after fleeing Shanghai. As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a glamorous but lonely existence – mothering the son of her husband's concubine, overseeing her daughter Qiang's education, and directing their household of servants, including her long-time confidante, Biyu.
When the Japanese invade the island, the three women's paths wildly diverge. Mingzhu's affinity for languages spares her physical labour but she's coerced into serving an enemy captain. Qiang and Biyu suffer brutal factory work and food rations until an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters separates them. As war rages around them, each woman holds onto the hope that the others are alive. Can they fight for their freedom and still find their way back to each other?
Great Black Hope
Rob Franklin
An arrest for cocaine possession in the Hamptons on the last day of a sweltering summer leaves Smith, a young Black Queer graduate, in a state of turmoil. He finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him but his race does not. Just weeks before, his beloved roommate Elle died and he is still reeling. How well did he know his closest friend and what really happened to her the night she disappeared? Will his search for the truth cost him his freedom and his future?
Fleeing to his hometown of Atlanta and the generations of his family who are doctors and college presidents and lawyers, Smith is haunted by the weight of expectation. When Carolyn, the closest friend he has left, goes off the rails he must return to New York only to lose himself in his old life, drawn back into the city’s underworld.
Back in the Day
Oliver Lovrenski, translated by Nichola Smalley
Ivor and Marco have been getting high since they were thirteen, started dealing at fourteen, by fifteen they were carrying knives. At sixteen years old, they hurtle from one trip to the next, one fight to the next, always watching their backs. Ivor dreams of getting out – finishing school, becoming a lawyer, marrying the girl he loves from the corner shop – but the path he's on only leads one way.
In flashes of firecracker prose, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos, Oliver Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world.
Shape of an Apostrophe
Uttama Kirit Patel
Lina never wanted children, but now there are two lines on the test. Where does she go from here?
Lina Solanki is pregnant and newly orphaned, living with her in-laws in their opulent Dubai villa. While her husband fails to make concrete plans to find their own place and tensions in their marriage grow, Lina's mother-in-law interferes with every aspect of the pregnancy. When proof of a horrifying family secret arrives from Mumbai, Lina realises that she has a choice when it comes to her baby, her marriage and her place in the world – but is it a choice she wants to make?
📚 Find more fantastic debut fiction by emerging authors here.
