Australian fiction
Dolores by Lauren Aimee Curtis
This very short novel from Lauren Aimee Curtis follows the titular character, Dolores, as she arrives at a remote convent of nuns. She’s sixteen years old, dehydrated, pregnant, and has a lace tablecloth, taken from a restaurant, pinned to her…
Shepherd by Catherine Jinks
Back in England, fourteen-year-old Tom Clay was a talented poacher. In 1840, in the British colony of New South Wales, Tom finds himself convicted and sentenced to work as a shepherd. Surrounded by violent and dangerous men, Tom must use…
Fortune by Lenny Bartulin
An extraordinary performance by Lenny Bartulin, this thrilling historical novel jumps, skitters and clatters across the page under your eyes. A vaudevillian juggling act of entertainment, history and intrigue, the story is as much declaimed as written. The action begins…
Minotaur by Peter Goldsworthy
‘Minotaur (def) – Trapped in a labyrinth, he is a symbol of power and a tool for death and torture.’ This gritty, action-packed cop drama unfolds as we see our hero at his lowest point. Rick Zadow, angry, tattooed, separated…
A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop
‘I learned pretty quickly that people don’t like talking about my work,’ a character says midway through Alice Bishop’s debut, A Constant Hum. The character continues, ‘Unless there’s an unusually gruesome or TV-worthy happy story: the more regular gory…
The Yield by Tara June Winch
The Yield, Tara June Winch’s inspired second novel, begins and ends with an injunction: ‘Every person around should learn the word for country in the old language’ Albert Gondiwindi says. In Wiradjuri, a language once thought extinct, that word…
The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith
Dominic Smith continues his fascinating exploration of the progression of life through art. This time around it is the beginnings of filmmaking. It is 1962 and we find our protagonist, Claude Ballard, living out the remainder of his life in…
Hitch by Kathryn Hind
In her debut novel, Kathryn Hind has created a complex and vulnerable character, Amelia, who ishitchhiking around Australia following her mother’s death. Amelia is in her early twenties and has no family except her dog, Lucy, who is on the…
Crossings by Alex Landragin
In the opening pages of Alex Landragin’s debut novel, Crossings, the reader is immediately made aware that this is no ordinary tale. The first two sentences read: ‘I didn’t write this book. I stole it.’
A Parisian bookbinder comes…
This Taste for Silence by Amanda O'Callaghan
Short fiction is a versatile and, in my opinion, very useful form of writing. A good short story can immerse you in a totally new world over the course of a train trip, or help you consider things from a…
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