Australian fiction
The Whole Bright Year by Debra Oswald
Debra Oswald has been writing since she was a teenager and is perhaps best known for her scriptwriting for both stage and screen (she is the creator and main writer of the TV series Offspring). In 2015, Oswald released…
Dyschronia by Jennifer Mills
In recent years, a number of Australian authors have turned their attention to the interrelated effects of climate change, the disintegration of rural communities, the growing power of corporations and the omnipresence of social media. Lois Murphy’s Soon and Briohny…
Domestic Interior by Fiona Wright
When I was at uni, one of my favourite tutors gave me an excellent, simple piece of advice on writing poetry. She said the title of the poem should be treated as its first line, and ideally set the tone…
Mrs. M by Luke Slattery
Over the course of a long, sleepless night, Elizabeth Macquarie composes an epitaph for her husband, Governor Lachlan Macquarie. From widowhood on the Isle of Mull, she revisits their part in the tumultuous life of colonial Australia.
In Mrs. M…
Atlantic Black by A.S. Patrić
When I finished reading Alec Patrić’s latest book, I was surprised to find myself in the same room as I was when I started reading. Surely something must have changed. I had been swept away on a journey and yet…
Border Districts by Gerald Murnane
If you’ve ever read Gerald Murnane before, you’ll have some idea of what to expect with Border Districts, his thirteenth book and, apparently, his final work of fiction. It’s esoteric, thought-provoking and difficult to describe – for the purposes…
Stories and True Stories by Helen Garner
I know I’m not the only Melbourne writer whose motto, at my laptop, is WWHGD (what would Helen Garner do?). From Monkey Grip – Readings’ first Australian bestseller – to last year’s collected non-fiction, Everywhere I Look, Garner has…
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey
One of my favourite books is Peter Carey’s Illywhacker, with its outrageous narrator Herbert Badgery and the sprawling basalt plains of Bacchus Marsh. It was a riot of fun that hid a message about this country of ours, for…
The Passage of Love by Alex Miller
I don’t suppose Alex Miller is religious – nor am I, for that matter – however, I did think of Corinthians 13:8 when reading Miller’s new book, The Passage of Love. It goes something like this, depending on the…
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Jane Harper’s The Dry was the book of 2016. An Australian debut that grabbed everyone’s attention, it won awards, hit the top of bestseller lists, and captured a Hollywood movie deal in the process. Following up such enormous success isn’t…