Australian fiction
Goodwood by Holly Throsby
Goodwood is a quintessential NSW country town – sandwiched between a river and a mountain, known for its timber and its fishing – the sort of town where not much happens, everyone knows everyone else’s business, and nobody much bothers…
The Better Son by Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson’s debut novel Pescador’s Wake was highly praised, and her original, descriptive language made her an Australian writer to watch. While Pescador’s Wake was set on the rough seas of the far Southern Ocean, Johnson has chosen another intimidating…
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
I pounced on The Museum of Modern Love as soon as I heard about its subject matter: the performance artist Marina Abramovic. Written by Australian author Heather Rose, this blend of fact and fiction centres on those two and a…
The Love of a Bad Man by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
The women in Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s assured short-fiction collection The Love of a Bad Man are the kind that get under your skin and stay there. This collection offers readers an unusual and affecting reading experience, coupling true crime with…
We. Are. Family. by Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell’s first novel is an exploration of Australian masculinity and the suffocating limitations we place on our boys and men. The first page is a family tree, but not a sprawling tangle that reaches back and across oceans, rather…
The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam
This is what we already know about Amsterdam’s writing: he spins recognised worlds upside down. He has the ability to see into the future and then to discuss, reasonably, what would happen if this was our actual reality. We experienced…
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s tender wisdom has endured for over a century in The Secret Garden, a heartfelt tale that follows the life-changing friendships of three children. Beginning dramatically with the sudden death of ten-year old Mary Lennox’s parents, Mary…
Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall
It is hard to believe that Skylarking is Kate Mildenhall’s debut novel, as her ability to create both character and atmosphere is impressive. Skylarking is set on a remote Australian cape in the 1880s, and narrated by Kate Gilbert, daughter…
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Australian writer Liane Moriarty’s success is phenomenal, with six international best-selling novels, translation into 39 languages and an HBO series starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon currently in production. It is, however, sometimes easy to dismiss the popular and if…
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Despite my excessive passion for Jay Kristoff’s Illuminae (which he wrote with Amie Kaufman) I was a little worried about reading Nevernight. Fantasy is one of the few genres I tend to steer clear of, even though I LOVE…
Browse our reviews by category
