Australian fiction
Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
It’s a long time since Elliot Perlman’s last novel The Street Sweeper and it’s so good to see him back. Perlman’s work looks at social issues through the prism of a mighty fine story. He’s looked at the social impact…
Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar
There is a lyrical sense that is not to be hurried in Lucy Treloar’s writing. She writes you slowly into the world of her novels and you need to spend some time and pay attention. In her first novel, Salt…
Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui
There is nothing quite like reading a wonderful collection of short stories – I believe that the power of fiction to mentally transport us is at its strongest in this shorter, punchier format. Joey Bui’s debut collection is polished, wide-ranging…
The Old Lie by Claire G. Coleman
Claire G. Coleman’s debut novel, Terra Nullius, made waves as it was shortlisted for the 2018Stella Prize, along with many other awards. This year she’s back with a new science-fiction novel, exploring belief in one’s country, war, and Indigenous…
Here Until August: Stories by Josephine Rowe
In Here Until August, a young man rows across an azure lake above a sunken town, carrying the ashes of his mother in a biscuit tin; an insular couple weathers an icy Canadian winter,listening to the comings and goings…
The Breeding Season by Amanda Niehaus
Debut novelist Amanda Niehaus is both a scientist and a writer, and she brings these passions to The Breeding Season. Elise and Dan, a couple in their thirties, experience a late-term pregnancy loss and are plunged into despair. Both…
The Trespassers by Meg Mundell
The Trespassers shifts between the points of view of three migrants travelling from overcrowded, disease-ridden countries to a better future – Billie, a Scottish healthcare worker; Cleary, a young Irish boy who lost his hearing to a serious illness; and…
The Pillars by Peter Polites
This is Peter Polites’ second novel; his first, Down the Hume, was shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s Literary Award in 2018. We know, therefore, that he is an author who can tell an Australian story. Polites’ power as a…
The Returns by Philip Salom
Bookselling day in and day out is not what he expected. It is more like dreaming of love andwaking on the wrong side of the road.
The Returns centres on Trevor, a quiet, elderly bookseller with a failed marriage, and…
From Here On, Monsters by Elizabeth Bryer
The craft of accurately translating another’s work, of getting inside the head of the creator and being as faithful to the original piece as possible, is where this book by debut author Elizabeth Bryer starts. And Bryer knows what she’s…
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