Four emerging Australian writers have been named The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists for 2017. Congratulations to Jennifer Down, Julie Koh, Josephine Rowe and Rajith Savanadasa!

Here are our reviews of their most recent works.

Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down

‘Jennifer Down’s Our Magic Hour is a brilliant Australian debut. Intimate, raw and occasionally heartbreaking, this is a book that demands to be devoured quickly, but stayed with me long after I finished the final page.

The story develops out of a triangular relationship between three childhood friends now in their mid-twenties – Audrey, Katy and Adam – and grows in scope to include Audrey’s relationships with her boyfriend, Nick, and her family. Tragedy strikes within the first handful of pages; the novel traces the ripple effect of grief after such a climactic opening. Our Magic Hour holds a mirror up to real life; plot, in a traditional sense, takes a back seat, allowing Down to explore the complexity of these relationships with empathy and nuance, never shying away from her characters’ ugliness or shortcomings.

The power of Our Magic Hour largely stems from Down’s skill in exploring the myriad ways that grief, trauma and mental illness manifest themselves in spaces and gestures between people. No person or incident in the novel reads as particularly out of the ordinary; the events that occur, both the devastating and the everyday, will strike a familiar chord with many readers, and the characters jump straight off the page and onto the 86 tram down Ruckers Hill, or the bus to Coogee from Central station. Place is integral to plot here. Melbourne and Sydney read almost as characters in their own right, strengthening the recognisable, Australian voice of the novel.

I loved this book. Down is an exceptional writer who displays real control over language while still daring to experiment throughout with dialogue, tense and form. I’m sure that this novel will launch her career as a major new literary talent. Our Magic Hour is beautiful, gut-wrenching fiction and I cannot recommend it highly enough.’

– Stella Charls

Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh

‘Comprising 12 darkly funny and allegorical stories spanning spec-fic, black comedy and mock journalism, Sydney writer Julie Koh’s Portable Curiosities is full of biting reimaginings of Australian culture and history that throw into sharp focus the uncomfortable realities of contemporary life.

In the collection opener, ‘Sight’, a piece of magical realism reminiscent of Kelly Link, a young girl learns to use her magical third eye to see ghosts in places they don’t belong. ‘Satirist Rising’ imagines an Idiocracy-style dystopian future where life imitates art in an utterly absurd and sinister way. ‘Cream Reaper’ is a blistering dissection of foodie culture, as a young journalist gets roped in by a media-savvy celebrity chef with a scheme to shake up the world of gourmet ice cream, while ‘Two’ is an oddball but moving tale of a son’s inability to measure up to his perfectionist father.

Standout pieces include ‘The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man’, which uses film characters leaping off-screen to highlight the systemic and pervasive racism in Australian culture, and ‘The Fantastic Breasts’, a hyperbolic ode to the titular body parts that is laugh-out-loud funny even as it pulses with rage, shifting into something darker as it approaches its brilliant final lines.

The collection ends on a slightly more reflective note with ‘The Fat Girl In History’, an experimental piece of creative nonfiction that sees Koh skewering literary culture and the cult of body image while also interrogating her own writing influences and personal insecurities.

The stories in Portable Curiosities take place in a landscape that blends the absurd with the mundane – androids lurk in offices off recognisable Sydney streets, and a miniature revolution takes place in a cat cafe in Strathfield – yet Koh’s use of language, like referring to Australia as ‘the island’ throughout, also highlights the strangeness of the Australian situation. Similar in theme to Nic Low’s Arms Race or Sonja Dechian’s An Astronaut’s Life, Portable Curiosities is a stellar addition to a new wave of Australian satire.’

– Alan Vaarwerk

A loving, faithful animal by Josephine Rowe

‘One of the many threads that run quietly through the background of Josephine Rowe’s first novel is the idea of holidays – Easter, New Year, times of year that are meant to bring families together, the individual rituals of each household a source of comfort. But for the family at the centre of A loving, faithful animal, there is nothing warm or comforting about the mechanics of family life.

Broken by the Vietnam War, Ru’s father Jack has become an unpredictable, hulking presence, violent and moody, prone to leaving for long spells without notice. After an incident on New Year’s Eve 1990, Jack leaves again, this time seemingly for good. This event acts as the fulcrum of the novel, echoing outwards across years and perspectives – Jack wracked with frustration, guilt and lingering trauma, his wife Evelyn hardened against his violence and bitter about the life she might have had. Ru’s older sister, Lani, clashes with her mother and rails against the confines of small town life, teenage nihilism masking her guilt and estrangement. Meanwhile, those left behind – the eager-to-please Ru and her quiet, inscrutable uncle Les – find their allegiances torn as they try to keep their own heads above water.

Until now, Rowe has specialised in microfictions, and her mastery of that form has carried over into her longer work – every sentence is considered and deliberate, every detail feels important. The book is a slow, contemplative read, one that suits immersion, rather than reading in short bursts. There’s a hint of the Australian Gothic in the book’s portrayal of small town despair, and Rowe’s portrayal of her characters is tender but uncompromising – each is deeply flawed but heart-rendingly sympathetic. A loving, faithful animal is quietly, catastrophically beautiful, a powerful new work by one of Australia’s most gifted writers.’

– Alan Vaarwerk

Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa

‘Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Rajith Savanadasa’s debut novel Ruins is a sweeping family saga that looks at class, wealth, gender, intergenerational conflict, cultural conflict, politics and more. It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a family, with each chapter narrated by one of the five central characters in the household.

Mano and Lakshmi are the patriarch and matriarch, and their marriage has grown strained. Mano is under increasing pressure at his workplace, and he’s tired of trying to keep everyone in his family happy. Mano’s wife Lakshmi is affected by the Sri Lankan civil war and the fate of a missing Tamil boy, and feels isolated and misunderstood by her family. Their two children – Anoushka and Niranjan – are both grappling with traditions and cultural beliefs that they find restrictive, and struggling to figure out who they are and who they want to be. The book’s fifth voice belongs to Latha, the family’s long-suffering servant, who is torn between loyalty to the family she works for and the family she left behind in her hometown.

This is a book bursting with plot and drama. It’s a genuine page-turner, filled with deeply flawed, interesting characters who I kept thinking about (and worrying about) long after reading the final page. Ruins stands out from other Australian debuts for its ambitious structure, its vibrant setting, and the depth and complexity of the Sri Lankan family at the centre of the story. Highly recommended.’

– Nina Kenwood