Australian fiction
The Scope of Permissibility by Zeynab Gamieldien
In her debut novel, Zeynab Gamieldien’s characters navigate exams, friendships, families and religion within the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) at their Sydney university. Sara is an honest (albeit blunt) friend who is tired of explaining her religion and South African…
On a Bright Hillside in Paradise by Annette Higgs
In her Penguin Literary Prize- winning debut novel, Annette Higgs does not shy away from the shameful colonial history of atrocities perpetrated against the First Nations peoples of lutruwita (Tasmania/Van Diemen’s Land). However, the tightly circumscribed focus of her novel…
The Art of Breaking Ice by Rachael Mead
Nel Law is many things: an ageing menopausal woman, a lonely homemaker, an artist – but what she always finds herself reduced to is the wife of famed polar explorer Phil Law, whose role as the director of Australia’s Antarctic…
Why We Are Here by Briohny Doyle
From the author of the Miles Franklin Award-longlisted Echolalia comes a brilliant new novel about grief, life during lockdown, and the overwhelming love of a dog.
Why We Are Here follows the story of BB as she moves to Balboa…
Southern Aurora by Mark Brandi
Jimmy likes to take his little brother Sam down to the railway cutting to watch the trains. If the time is right, they’ll see the silver cars of the Southern Aurora flash by; they’ll both get a thrill.
Sam goes…
Exquisite Corpse by Marija Peričić
When poverty-stricken cigar-factory worker Lina Dahlstrom is diagnosed with tuberculosis, the charming American doctor Carl Dance seems to go above and beyond in his efforts to cure her. Dazzled by his cutting edge treatments and commitment to her cure, her…
Blackwater by Jacqueline Ross
Less than two years after meeting and falling in love with a mysterious and much-older man, a young bride is brought home to his huge and isolated manor…
Set in the wilds of Tasmania, Jacqueline Ross’s Blackwater has obvious shades…
The Terrible Event by David Cohen
The title story of David Cohen’s new collection chronicles the administrative preparation for the launch of a memorial – to what we are not informed, but the inference is a catastrophic incident involving the deaths of many. The launch would…
Feast by Emily O’Grady
With her second book, Feast, Emily O’Grady has delivered a story of mystery: of the kind of people we become in order to keep our secrets hidden, and of what happens when the truth is finally unearthed.
Alison is…
I Look Forward to Hearing from You by Nick Bhasin
Set in early 2000s when Britney and Justin were still together (yes, Nick Bhasin goes there), Hector, a Puerto Rican–Indian American moves to Hollywood to pursue his destiny. His dream is to be a screenwriter who gets his TV script…
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