Australian fiction
Shirl by Wayne Marshall
It’s evident from the first page of Wayne Marshall’s debut collection of short stories, Shirl, that writing is inescapable for the author. As deep and fundamental as this creative drive may be – and deep it must be as…
Riptides by Kirsten Alexander
There are three immediate elements you can expect from local author Kirsten Alexander. You can expect the story to be multi-layered. You can expect there to be twists and turns in the plot. And you can be sure that at…
A Couple of Things Before the End by Sean O'Beirne
All hail Sean O’Beirne, and his brilliant debut collection of short stories, A Couple of Things Before the End, a timely excoriation of the nostalgic myths of Australianness. With a master satirist’s hand, O’Beirne exposes the failings of our…
Cherry Beach by Laura McPhee-Browne
Laura McPhee-Browne’s Cherry Beach is an assured debut with a distinct voice. I read it in two nights: cringing and sometimes gasping in recognition. Although set mainly in Toronto, the story also flashes back to a version of Australian adolescence…
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
Evie Wyld returns with another novel in which narratives converge over historical time, as they did in her Miles Franklin Literary Award-winning All the Birds, Singing. In The Bass Rock, Wyld constructs three stories linked by family ties…
Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
Damascus is one of the standout novels of the year, delivered to us by the incomparable and singular writer who is Christos Tsiolkas, an author who reinvents himself with every single one of his books, but who always delivers the…
Act of Grace by Anna Krien
Anna Krien will be known to readers as the author of two works of narrative nonfiction, Into the Woods and Night Games – both important explorations into Australian life and culture. In her ambitious debut novel, Act of Grace…
Bruny by Heather Rose
In 2017, Heather Rose won the Stella Prize for The Museum of Modern Love; a meditation on art and life in New York City. Her new book Bruny, set in Rose’s home state of Tasmania, couldn’t be more…
There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett
With its pared back, elegant writing, Favel Parrett’s When The Night Comes is one of my favourite Australian novels. Her new book There Was Still Love examines loss, exile and compromise with the same restrained simplicity.
There Was Still Love…
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
Charlotte Wood is an accomplished Australian writer. She won the 2016 Stella Prize for her feminist dystopian novel The Natural Way of Things, which received many other awards as well.
The Weekend follows three women in their seventies: Jude…
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