Australian fiction

Little Gods by Jenny Ackland

Reviewed by Elke Power

Olive Lovelock is curious, independent, and beguiling. She is growing up between her parents’ home in a small town in the Mallee and her cousins’ farm, a (long) bike ride away. For Olive, Grade 6 is becoming less enjoyable by…

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The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman

Reviewed by Chris Gordon

There is a saying in Hungary: You know you’re a Hungarian when you can’t say anything positive about politics. I live with a Hungarian and this statement is totally accurate. However what it doesn’t say, and what you need to…

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The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Reviewed by Amanda Rayner

The challenge with reviewing The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland is to convey in only a few hundred words the stunning achievement of this debut author. Ringland has written a heartbreaking yet hopeful work about trauma, healing…

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The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton

Reviewed by Mark Rubbo

Jaxie’s dad ‘wasn’t always a c#%t. Like he was probably decent once and you were happy and so was your mum.’ But he is now, or was; he’s dead now and Jaxie Clackton, 16 and desperate, is on the run…

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In the Garden of the Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey

Reviewed by Alison Huber

Ceridwen Dovey won the inaugural Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction in 2014 with her book of short stories, Only the Animals, an audacious and original work of imagination. Dovey’s new novel confirms she is one of the most…

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The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

Reviewed by Bronte Coates

If you’re on the hunt for a crime story that’s going to consume every other thought in your head, wring you out like a wet towel, and then deposit you back in the real world with your nerves fried to…

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The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen

Reviewed by Ellen Cregan

Lucky is a galah living in the remote town of Port Badminton, on the north-west coast of Australia, and she is a born storyteller. With the help of a defunct satellite dish, which can sporadically communicate the thoughts of the…

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The Passengers by Eleanor Limprecht

Reviewed by Chris Gordon

The joy of reading The Passengers is that this novel represents the lives of women and also illustrates the vastness and separateness of Australia from the rest of the world. Eleanor Limprecht’s work can be relied upon to follow certain…

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The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Reviewed by Chris Somerville

The new novel from Michael Mohammed Ahmad is a bold and wired read; tension is coiled tightly within every paragraph. The way the prose comes at you, you’d swear it was cornering you.

Divided into three sections, we follow Bani…

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What the Light Reveals by Mick McCoy

Reviewed by Tristen Brudy

Mick McCoy’s latest novel opens in 1954 as Conrad Murphy travels from Melbourne to Sydney to appear before the Royal Commission on Espionage. An active and unabashed member of the Communist Party, Conrad is ultimately cleared of espionage charges but…

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