Australian fiction
Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson
Miles Allinson’s Fever of Animals was just a pile of loose A4 pages when I first read it, as a judge for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award – which Fever of Animals ultimately won. It fundamentally impressed and…
The Landing by Susan Johnson
Susan Johnson is a funny woman. Anyone who has read her previous work will already value her ability to see the absurdity of everyday monotonous routines. The Landing is full of such observations, although it would not be considered a…
Arms Race by Nic Low
The stories in Nic Low’s Arms Race all take place in worlds that are, in one way or another, at a tipping point. The New Zealand-born writer, now living in Australia, spans geography, time and genre in this collection of…
Last Day in the Dynamite Factory by Annah Faulkner
This uniquely titled novel is full of family mysteries, and the unburdening of long-held secrets. The main character, forty-eight year old Christopher Bright, appears to have the sort of life many want. He has been married for close to twenty-five…
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
I have spent a number of family camping trips in the Coorong, a distinctive landscape south-east of Adelaide, that spans more than 130 kilometres of the South Australian coastline. No wonder I was attracted to the title of Lucy Treloar’s…
A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones
I’ve always felt that Gail Jones is yet to receive the recognition she deserves. This is her sixth novel and it is, I believe, a masterpiece. It is a beautifully constructed novel that builds slowly to its horrific and violent…
Long Bay by Eleanor Limprecht
Long Bay immediately summons the spectre of imprisonment. Long Bay Gaol is to Sydney as Pentridge is to Melbourne and the shadow of the gaol hangs over the recreation of Rebecca Sinclair’s life. Beginning with a letter stating, ‘an inmate…
An Astronaut’s Life by Sonja Dechian
The settings in An Astronaut’s Life, Sonja Dechian’s debut collection of short stories, are planted both within the familiar and outlandish. The opener ‘After Francis Crick’ works not only as a story, but also as a primer for what’s…
Six Bedrooms by Tegan Bennett Daylight
The stories in Tegan Bennett Daylight’s Six Bedrooms, her fourth book, are mostly focused on the highs and lows of teendom, and the awkwardness from this that never really leaves us. The setups are on a small scale –…
Peripheral Vision by Paddy O'Reilly
A book of short stories is usually named after one of the stories, one that seems to sum up the overall feeling of the collection. This story then becomes the ‘title story’. When I realised that Paddy O’Reilly hadn’t done…
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