Our latest blog posts

Read an extract from Music and Freedom by Zoë Morrison

by Zoë Morrison

We’re delighted that Music and Freedom by Zoë Morrison is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

Oxford, England, October 3rd, 2005

I knew what the sound was when I heard it, but I didn’t believe it. It could have been anything, I told myself, a bell tolling in the…

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Read an extract from Wood Green by Sean Rabin

by Sean Rabin

We’re delighted that Wood Green by Sean Rabin is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

Michael gripped his shins and bent his head towards his knees. The panic in his chest refused to be rationalised or contained, and infiltrated the extremities of his body with every shudder and lurch…

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Meet the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction shortlist 2016

We’ve announced the shortlist for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2016. Here, we introduce the six shortlisted authors.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

Julie Koh

Julie Koh was born in Sydney to Chinese-Malaysian parents. She studied politics and law at the University of Sydney, then quit a career in corporate law to pursue writing. Portable Curiosities is her debut story collection.

You can read an extract from Portable Curiosities

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Read an extract from The High Places by Fiona McFarlane

by Fiona McFarlane

We’re delighted that The High Places by Fiona McFarlane is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from ‘Exotic Animal Medicine’, one of the stories in the collection.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

The wife was driving on the night they hit Mr Ronald.

‘My first drive since getting married,’ she said.

‘First this, first that,’ said her…

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Read an extract from Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa

by Rajith Savanadasa

We’re delighted that Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

It was dark by the time we got to Battaramulla. The lane was full of vehicles. We parked among the brand-new Benzs, BMWs and Pajeros all lined up with drivers waiting. Mano started fussing over…

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Read an extract from Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh

by Julie Koh

We’re delighted that Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is one of the stories from the collection: ‘The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man’.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

It was only when a one-dimensional yellow man stepped out of a cinema screen and into a plush red theatre on George Street that audience members noticed him from…

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Read an extract from Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

by Lucy Treloar

We’re delighted that Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

The journey to that place was like moving knowingly, dutifully, towards death. I have seen beasts as resigned. People say it is not so, that they are ignorant to the end, but this is…

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Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week

The 78-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Welcome to Country by Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton

Don’t Call Me Bear by Aaron Blabey

Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen

Run, Pip, Run by J.C. Jones

The Boundless Sublime by Lili Wilkinson

The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams and Tony…

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Blockbuster events in September

September is a blockbuster month for events! Here are some of the exciting guests we’re hosting over the coming month.

Hetty McKinnon

Hetty McKinnon’s Community was our bestselling cookbook of last year, and we’re delighted to be hosting an event celebrating her newest cookbook: Neighbourhood. McKinnon will be chatting with food activist Rohan Anderson about the inspiration she finds in her own neighbourhood.

When: Tuesday 6 September, 6.30pm.
Where: Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton.
Bookings: Free…

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Our top ten bestsellers of the week

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

The Island Will Sink by Briohny Doyle

The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

The Dry by Jane Harper

The Girls by Emma Cline

Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler

Planet Jackson by Brad Norington

Our bestselling books of last week include some…

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