Australian fiction
The Lovers by Yumna Kassab
What happens after we fall in love with someone? When the excitement has softened into comfort? When that giddiness melds into familiarity and the butterflies have flown away? How does one describe the feeling of loving someone and continuing to…
Willowman by Inga Simpson
Every now and then you watch or read something that takes you completely by surprise. Maybe it was Friday Night Lights, and suddenly you found yourself caring about American football. Or maybe it was the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive…
A Brief Affair by Alex Miller
Alex Miller’s website has a section about writing. There he states: ‘The serious novel is an act of imaginative truth and requires the writer to confront unclear aspects of the self; to delve, in other words, into the unconscious and…
Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
Diana Reid’s 2021 novel Love and Virtue was an outstanding debut that saw Reid named one of Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists of the Year. At first, her new novel, Seeing Other People, looks to be a light-hearted…
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
Robbie Arnott is a tremendously talented and unique voice in Australian literature, and his third novel, Limberlost, exceeded all my expectations. It is a gorgeously written coming- of-age novel, set in a Tasmanian river valley. Ned’s two brothers are…
Moon Sugar by Angela Meyer
Recently separated and living in Melbourne, personal trainer Mila meets ‘sugar baby’ Josh when she becomes one of his clients through the ‘SugarMeetMe’ website. Time passes and the two develop an emotional intimacy alongside their physical one. Then Josh goes…
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
In The Sun Walks Down, Fiona McFarlane doesn’t just describe the landscape of 1880s rural, colonial Australia, she slices it open and dissects it. The effect is visceral. Denny, a six-year-old boy, is missing in the harsh South Australian…
Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor
I love a good character-driven novel, those books that bring a reader right up close to a single actor and fix that person in the reader’s mind forevermore. Iris Webber, the subject of Fiona Kelly McGregor’s Iris, just joined…
The Settlement by Jock Serong
Jock Serong’s two previous historical novels, Preservation and The Burning Island, were hailed as gripping literary thrillers. This book, however, trades the roving journeying in those earlier works for something different. Though it’s equally compelling to read, and also…
Marshmallow by Victoria Hannan
Victoria Hannan is a beautiful writer. Her prose is clean and the world she creates is incredibly clear. Hannan is skilled at dropping you into the middle of a situation and very quickly orientating you with the details: the people…
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