Australian fiction
Rubik by Elizabeth Tan
Rubik is a novel in stories that embraces science fiction, speculative fiction, satire and fantasy. In an ever-expanding array of viewpoints, Rubik slots into place like a Rubik’s cube as you unfold the puzzles. This makes it sound clever and…
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
The case of Lizzie Borden is one that has sustained public interest for over one hundred years. She has gone down in history as the daughter who, as the rhyme goes, ‘took an axe, and gave her father forty whacks’…
The Starlings by Vivienne Kelly
Set in 1985, The Starlings, by Vivienne Kelly, is the story of a family falling apart, as seen through the eyes of its youngest member, Nicky. It begins with Nicky’s eighth birthday, which his parents seem to have forgotten…
An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Kneen
Krissy Kneen is, to me, a literary unicorn. She’s bizarre, but remarkable. This book consumed me, and toyed with most of my emotions. Arousal and disgust met with joy and existential, almost tear-inducing sadness.
This novel is split into five…
From the Wreck by Jane Rawson
While there’s certainly no drought of Australian historical fiction, it’s probably fair to say that no-one else has tackled the genre in quite the same way as Jane Rawson. From the Wreck opens with a real historical incident – the…
The Restorer by Michael Sala
The Restorer is often surprisingly beautiful, at times lulling us into quiet coastal domesticity or the coming-of-age story of Freya, the daughter of the family the novel is centred around. With exhaustion, pugnaciousness, slipperiness, and intelligence Freya swings between finding…
The Trapeze Act by Libby Angel
The Trapeze Act, the debut novel from Australian writer Libby Angel, is an expertly layered, lyrical rumination on family and identity. Growing up in suburban Adelaide in the 1960’s, Loretta is the daughter of Leda, an eccentric Dutch trapeze…
Barking Dogs by Rebekah Clarkson
Set in Mount Barker, a once-sleepy country town now enveloped by Adelaide’s urban sprawl, Rebekah Clarkson’s Barking Dogs brings together multiple stories and perspectives to form a vivid snapshot of the town and its people, their anxieties and private tragedies…
The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonsalves
The sixteen stories in the collection The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonsalves depict modern Indian immigration to Australia. Gonsalves, who came to Australia in 1998 as an international student, is a specialist in contemporary Indian literature.
Many of her stories…
The Birdman's Wife by Melissa Ashley
The Birdman’s Wife is a novel that will appeal to bird fanciers and devotees of John Gould’s monographs. The story is told from the perspective of Gould’s wife, Elizabeth, and begins in 1828 when she is twenty-four, and meets Gould…
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