Looking for something juicy to discuss in your book club? Try one of these new releases, chosen by our booksellers to appeal to a wide range of readers and provide plenty to talk about.
Australian fiction
The Transformations
Andrew Pippos
In the fading glow of Australia's print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it's an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and a painful past, George is one of nature's loners.
But a late-night encounter with an unorthodox and self-assured reporter, Cassandra Gwan, begins to unravel both of their carefully managed worlds. As the decline of the newspaper enters a desperate stage, George and Cassandra struggle to balance their turbulent relationship with their responsibilities to family, and the compromises each has built their life upon.
Read our staff review here.
International fiction
The Wax Child
Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet – it watches and listens.
It looks on as Christenze is haunted by rumour, it hears what the people whisper. It sees how, in the candlelight, she gazes with love at her friends, and hears the things they say in the shadows. It knows pine forest, misty fjord and the crackle of the burning pyre. It observes the violence in men's eyes and the cruelty of their laws. In time, it begins to understand that once a suspicion of witchcraft has taken hold, it can prove impossible to shake …
Read our staff review here.
Crime fiction
The Man Who Died Seven Times
Yasuhiko Nishizawa translated by Jesse Kirkwood
Hisataro, a young member of the wealthy Fuchigami family, has a mysterious ability. Every now and then, against his will, he falls into a time-loop in which he is obliged to re-live the same day nine times. Little does he know how useful this ability will be, until one day, his grandfather mysteriously dies …
As he returns to the day of the murder time and again, Hisataro begins to unravel its secrets. With a sizeable inheritance up for grabs, motives abound, and everyone is a suspect. Can Hisataro solve the mystery of his grandfather's death, and prevent it, before his time-loop ends?
Read our staff review here.
Nonfiction: Australian Studies
Not Quite White in the Head
Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko is one of our most admired and awarded novelists. She is renowned for writing about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead.
This timely collection of essays and journalism – published together for the first time – spans two turbulent decades. With her trademark wit and wisdom, Lucashenko reflects on being caught in a siege, on the marginalised lives of prisoners and the urban poor, on Blak identity, Australian literature and on meeting her writing idol. Her non-fiction, like her novels, is deeply engaged with politics, activism, culture and social (in)justice.
Read our staff review here.
Sci-fi, fantasy & speculative fiction
Here and Beyond
Hal LaCroix
After the collapse of life on Earth as it once was known, 600 people are selected for passage on Shipworld, a spacecraft charting a 360-year voyage to a new planet. Their mission will see generation after generation born, living and dying on board until one day their descendants finally step foot on the 'Super Earth' that might offer the last chance for humankind's survival.
But life aboard Shipworld is far from a waiting game. The spacecraft promises a world of its own, a harmonious system free of class distinctions and wealth accumulation. Yet with each new generation comes daunting challenges to the future of their civilisation, from creeping doubts about the nature of reality to an outbreak of disease that could eradicate their population, from rebels who threaten the unity of the mission to a traumatic encounter with a mysterious space phenomenon.
Debut fiction
Vulture
Phoebe Greenwood
An ambitious young journalist, Sara is sent to cover a war from the Beach Hotel in Gaza. The four-star hotel is a global media hub, promising safety and generator-powered internet, with hotel staff catering tirelessly to the needs of the world's media, even as their own homes and families are under threat.
Sara is determined to launch her career as a star correspondent. So, when her fixer Nasser refuses to set up the dangerous story she thinks will win her a front page, she turns instead to Fadi, the youngest member of a powerful militant family. Driven by the demons of her entitled yet damaging childhood, Sara will stop at nothing to prove herself in this war, even if it means bringing disaster upon those around her.
Read our staff review here.
LGBTQIA+
Eros
Zoe Terakes
Eros is a stunning collection of short stories, grounded in truth and coloured with dazzling imagination and alluring unpredictable mystery. Revealing how queerness, nature and myth have been intertwined for eternity, these are stories of gods and goddesses: of Zeus, of Aphrodite, of Hermaphroditus, of Icarus before he flew into the sun. Stories of queer life, lust, revenge, wrath, passion and sex. Of yearning, love, loss. Some stories span across a life, and others, an evening. Perspectives will shift. Houses will burn. Lovers will learn their fate.
Read our staff review here.
Romance fiction
Love, Al Dente
Jenna Lo Bianco
Alessio's a pedantic, uptight former chef of a renowned Australian restaurant who has vowed to never set foot in a commercial kitchen again.
Francesca's a passionate free-spirited Italian cook who lives and breathes pasta, and happens to be in desperate need of a knight in shining chef whites.
A centuries-old pasta battle. A little white lie. And a whole lot of chemistry. Will they be able to handle the heat in the kitchen? Or will it be a recipe for disaster?
Young adult fiction
What Have They Done to Liza McLean?
Amy Doak
Meg McLean is a scholarship student at the ultra-elite Douglas College. Meg's younger sister, Liza, is along for the ride, and everything Liza has done since they arrived at the school seems to be putting their chances of success at risk. Until one day, when Liza's behaviour is so at odds with her usual temperament that Meg knows something is very, very wrong.
Benedict Hargreaves (the Fourth) is Douglas College's wealthiest student and perhaps the only one who isn't influenced by the school and its strict code of conduct. Is he brave enough to help Meg uncover what has happened to her sister? Or is he part of the elusive 'they' who seem to be controlling everything – and everyone?
And, when more than one murder takes place, can Meg really trust anyone?
Read our staff review here.
