Australian fiction
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan
Families are funny things; they can be the source of great strength, but also great cruelties, humiliations, and sadness. In a soulless Hobart hospital, Francie’s three adult children gather round her bed. The prognosis for Francie is not good; she…
Honeybee by Craig Silvey
Originally, Craig Silvey wanted to be a palaeontologist, but by the time he was nineteen years old he had published his first novel, Rhubarb, to great acclaim. Then, of course, he wrote Jasper Jones and now, eleven years later…
It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian
Claire Christian was one of the finalists for our 2018 Readings Young Adult Book Prize for her impressive debut, Beautiful Mess. Now, this talented young writer is back with an entertaining novel for adults that has just as much…
Our Shadows by Gail Jones
Nell and Frances Kelly are raised by their grandparents after their mother dies in labour and their father abandons them in a fit of grief. The sisters grow up with a special bond cemented by a shared language, a love…
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
Song of the Crocodile was the winner of the 2018 blak&write! writing fellowship, which serves to find and develop outstanding unpublished manuscripts by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writers. Song of the Crocodile is Nardi Simpson’s first book, and 2020…
Broken Rules and Other Stories by Barry Lee Thompson
The short-story collection from a single author is something I have grown to appreciate, especially in the last ten years or so. Australian writers have definitely made their mark in this area, ranging from those works with a strong sense…
The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte
It’s 1941, in the depths of the Russian winter, and the beginning of the end of the German advance on Russia. A German medical unit stumbles through the gates of Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy’s country estate, twelve kilometres from the front…
State Highway One by Sam Coley
Sam Coley won the 2017 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for his very deserving debut novel State Highway One. The story is centred on Alex, a young Aucklander who returns home from abroad after the sudden death of his…
Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery
Laura Elvery has merged art and science with a clever twist in her collection of short stories, Ordinary Matter. She has won multiple awards for her stories, and her previous collection, Trick of the Light, was widely praised…
The Morbids by Ewa Ramsey
About a month or so ago, our head book buyer Alison Huber flagged this book with me, saying that it was something I might like. Oh yeah, I thought at the time, this sounds interesting, I’ll give it a…
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