It’s a shorter column this month and the books are too good for me to waffle on with an introduction, so I will get straight to it, starting with Fiction Book of the Month, the highly anticipated new Kazuo Ishiguro novel, Klara and the Sun. Ishiguro once again quietly picks apart themes of sacrifice and authenticity in this finely wrought work that ‘illustrates [his] mastery and his ability to control and subvert the reader’s expectations in unsettling ways,’ writes our reviewer Joe Rubbo. I know I’m not alone in wanting to get a hold of this one, nor am I alone in anticipating Max Porter’s slim, experimental volume inspired by the last days of Francis Bacon’s life; and of course, Pulitzer Prize-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed, which our Managing Director Mark Rubbo found ‘often hilarious, always stimulating and often brilliant’. Our booksellers also loved new international fiction by Olivia Sudjic, Francis Spufford and Danielle Evans.

March is traditionally a strong month for local first- or second-time authors, and this year is no different. Five debut and sophomore works are reviewed in these pages, including books by Chloe Wilson, Kavita Bedford, Ella Baxter, Claire Thomas and Madeleine Ryan, whose debut, A Room Called Earth, is described by head book buyer Alison Huber as a ‘knockout’. As you already know from her regular column (which, never fear, will return next month), Alison’s recommendations are always worth listening to. During lockdown last year, several booksellers observed to me that many readers were flocking to poetry, so it’s wonderful to be able to devote some space to reviewing Evelyn Araluen’s exciting debut collection Dropbear.

If you can cast your mind back to 2017, you’ll remember how Sarah Krasnostein swept award after award for The Trauma Cleaner, so it’s hard to believe The Believer is only her second book. This one’s a fascinating look at how belief systems bolster people’s lives and shape who they are, and it’s deservedly our Nonfiction Book of the Month. Last year was the year we discovered how essential – and vulnerable – healthcare workers are. Two new books explore this high-pressure, high-stakes world: former junior doctor Yumiko Kadota’s Emotional Female, which builds on her 2018 article about burnout in the public health system; and Ailsa Wild’s The Care Factor, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at a nurse’s experience of the pandemic. Elsewhere in nonfiction, you’ll find Mark McKenna’s Return to Uluru, Luke Stegemann’s Amnesia Road, Rick Morton’s My Year of Living Vulnerably, Murray Bail’s He., and beautiful, illustrated books on Kerstin Thompson, Ken Done, and the lush Lune de Sang estate. It’s also a bountiful month for cookbooks. In fact, when Chris Gordon first sent me her monthly column, I had to fend off the impulse to buy all of them at once.

Finally, I must draw your attention to Leanne Hall’s powerfully feminist YA novel The Gaps. It’s been on my most-anticipated list for a while now, and I just know it will be embraced by teen and adult readers alike.