Australian fiction
Highway 13 By Fiona McFarlane
I grew up in Canberra, only a few hours drive from Belanglo State Forest and Berrima. I might be too young to remember the backpacker murders as they were reported, or the conviction of Ivan Milat, but I’ve encountered the…
Woo Woo by Ella Baxter
Melbourne writer and artist Ella Baxter’s New Animal (published in March 2021) remains for me one of the standout debuts of recent years. A dark, beautiful satire and a new way of thinking about the body in grief, this book…
The Honeyeater by Jessie Tu
Jessie Tu’s debut, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, was a runaway success during the difficult year for debut books that was 2020. It was shortlisted that year for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and right…
Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho
In 2023 I was one of three booksellers who helped judge the Penguin Literary Prize, along with Penguin publisher Meredith Curnow and senior editor Kathryn Knight. This $20,000 prize has been running since 2018 and is awarded to an unpublished…
If You Go by Alice Robinson
If You Go is a powerfully evocative new novel from Alice Robinson, winner of the 2019 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction for her novel The Glad Shout.
Esther awakens to find a breathing tube deep down her throat…
The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer
The End and Everything Before It, Finegan Kruckemeyer’s debut novel, explores the intricate interplay between love, loss and the power of stories.
The novel unfolds with Emma witnessing her mother’s kayak disappearing among the Arctic icebergs, setting a haunting…
A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle
I finished reading A Language of Limbs in one sitting, barely moving between the couch and the kettle. It left an aftertaste of resilient joy and deep grief – which are some of my favourite feelings to linger in –…
Big Time by Jordan Prosser
In the dystopian, autocratic country of East Australia, the government controls all internet and media, borders have been closed, and a drug called ‘F’ proliferates – a drug that allegedly allows users to see into the future. Outside East Australia…
Imperial Harvest by Bruce Pascoe
Bruce Pascoe’s Imperial Harvest begins with cruelty. The one-eyed, one-armed horseman Yen Se loses his wife and child to an inferno born from the Great Khan’s bloodthirsty ambition; Yen Se is to be the horse trainer for the Khan’s invasion…
Heartsease by Kate Kruimink
Once upon a time, there were no two sisters whose lives were more closely entwined than Charlotte and Ellen. But everything changed when their mother died when they were teenagers. Years later, the sisters would hardly recognise each other. Charlotte…
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