Australian fiction

Cool Water by Myfanwy Jones

Reviewed by Kate McIntosh

In the 1950s a dam was constructed in Far North Queensland. In the process, the town that had existed there previously was emptied and flooded, remaining beneath the water even today. There is something haunting and unsettling about this idea…

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Lead Us Not by Abbey Lay

Reviewed by Ruby Grinter

Millie is in her final year of high school at ‘Our Lady’s’, a Catholic school that Abbey Lay ensures is dripping with recognisable details of at least an element of every Australian’s education experience. The school is not our –…

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Appreciation by Liam Pieper

Reviewed by Elke Power

Oliver Darling is a young(ish) queer artist from the country, according to his bio, who has made it big not only in the Australian art scene, but also internationally. If he were remotely competent with money, he would be extremely…

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One Another by Gail Jones

Reviewed by Chris Gordon

A story within another story. A research thesis within a distraction. Layer upon layer, Gail Jones has skilfully woven multiple narratives into a tightly held novel that will undo the reader with its poignancy. This is a novel about betrayal…

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Thanks for Having Me by Emma Darragh

Reviewed by Annie Condon

Thanks for Having Me is a novel told in interlinked stories, and even though you might think, ‘I don’t like short stories,’ it’s worth considering that some of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit

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My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown

Reviewed by Ruby Grinter

Stella Miles Franklin. Literary hero, feminist trendsetter, trailblazer for Australian women to come – but what of her sister? Linda Franklin has remained largely unacknowledged in the whirlwind of Miles Franklin’s life, often relegated to the role of unassuming wife…

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Tidelines by Sarah Sasson

Reviewed by Annie Condon

Sarah Sasson’s debut novel, Tidelines, explores the relationship between a brother and sister. Elijah nicknames his sister after she is born premature and pale; he points to her and says ‘Grub’. Grub is in thrall to her brother, and…

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We All Lived in Bondi Then by Georgia Blain

Reviewed by Aurelia Orr

Shortly after she passed away at the end of 2016, Georgia Blain’s final novel, Between a Wolf and a Dog, won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. The soul and passion of her writing now comes to…

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The Conversion by Amanda Lohrey

Reviewed by Chris Gordon

‘Home is where the heart is,’ says everyone everywhere, but here in this unique novel, Amanda Lohrey asks why people are driven to make a space their own. Fans of the award-winning author will be delighted to read this quiet…

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The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas

Reviewed by Emma Davison

Two middle-aged men, Ivan and Perry, meet up one evening after finding each other on an internet dating site. Both men have been hurt in the past by complicated love, yet they can’t help feeling the spark of possibility. This…

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