Our top 10 bestsellers of the week

  1. From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith Brett
  2. Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
  3. No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Omid Tofighian
  4. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
  5. Ottolenghi SIMPLE by Yotam Ottolenghi
  6. Normal People by Sally Rooney
  7. Quarterly Essay 73: Australia Fair - Listening to the Nation by Rebecca Huntley
  8. The Blackburns: Private Lives, Public Ambitions by Carolyn Rasmussen
  9. The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
  10. Unlike the Heart A Memoir of Brain and Mind by Nicola Redhouse

Judith Brett’s lively history of Australia’s electoral system and how we came to be one of a handful of countries to have compulsory voting is our bestselling book of last week. Brett’s From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage shines new light on how our politics and democracy have been shaped by our voting system, and our reviewer Julia describes it as a ‘fantastic read for an election year’. Another timely political read in last week’s top 10 is Rebecca Huntley’s Quarterly Essay, Australia Fair: Listening to the Nation, in which leading social researcher Huntley asks the question, ‘what do Australians want most from their next government? And will our representatives listen to a call for change?’

Other bestselling books from last week include gripping works of non-fiction by Bruce Pascoe and Behrouz Boochani, Nicole Redhouse’s extraordinary memoir about mental health, Unlike the Heart by, and Carolyn Rasmussen’s The Blackburns: Private Lives, Public Ambitions. Our bestselling fiction includes a new smaller format edition of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, and books by Dervla McTiernan and Sally Rooney.