Category: Australian Author

A girl who refuses to be caged

14/10/2024

Published by Hachette, April 2024

BIRD
By Courtney Collins

The lyrical second novel from the author of The Burial criss-crosses through time moves across time and continents with a touch of magic realism following the parallel lives of a girl who refuses to be caged.

Published in Newtown Review of Books

Is it ever okay to give up on a child?

6/7/2024

Published by Text Publishing 2024 | Fiction

EDENHOPE
By Louise Le Nay

Edenhope is the story of an ordinary woman who stares down dreadful odds – with no money, no home, no job and no plan – on a valiant quest to keep her two grandchildren safe.

Published in The Australian.

Patrick White’s debut: An original Aussie bush noir tale

5/1/2024

HAPPY VALLEY
By Patrick White

A small town at the foot of the Snowy Mountains provides the sombre setting for Patrick White’s 1939 debut, Happy Valley, in which the ordinary lives of the local townsfolk – most of whom are anything but happy – intersect in unexpected and quite dramatic ways.

First published 1939, reprinted by Text Classics 2012 | Fiction Australian Author

The story of Australia’s first Japanese “war bride”

28/12/2023

AT THE FOOT OF THE CHERRY TREE
By Alli Parker

After surviving the Hiroshima bomb, Nobuko Sakuramoto, known as Cherry Parker, again defied the odds becoming the first Japanese “war bride” permitted into Australia, after four years of lobbying by her husband Gordon Parker. This is their real-life love story reimagined by author (and Cherry and Gordon's granddaughter) Alli Parker.

Published by Harper Collins 2023 | Historical fiction, Australian Author

A young homeless artist uncovers past secrets

2/12/2023

LOLA IN THE MIRROR
By Trent Dalton

The sentimental story of a young artist living rough with her mum in a scrapyard in Brisbane's West End, which opens a window to the violence, addiction and self-harm, balanced with hope and love, prevalent in the lives of the homeless.

Published by Harper Collins, October 2023 | Fiction, Australian author

Retrieving a lost life from the historical black box

13/11/2023

WIFEDOM: MRS ORWELL'S INVISIBLE LIFE
By Anna Funder

The result of author Anna Funder’s plunge into the historical “black box” of George Orwell's wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy is a biography quite unlike any I’ve ever read.

Published by Penguin, July 2023 | Fiction, Memoir, Australian Author

Power of words shine in brilliantly imagined slice of history

24/7/2023

Published by Affirm Press, March 2023 | Historical Fiction

THE BOOKBINDER OF JERICHO
By Pip Williams

A perfect companion to Pip Williams’ wildly successful debut, The Bookbinder of Jericho explores the power in words by weaving a brilliantly imagined story around a slice of very real history, with a cast of women who rise in the face of the brutal upheaval of World War One.

Darwin shines in this Aussie allegorical quest

22/7/2022

ALL OUR SHIMMERING SKIES
By Trent Dalton

As young gravedigger Molly Hook’s odyssey unfolds, bleakness gives way to an almost mystical narrative, ripe with the comical, sensory, over-the-top feels for which Trent Dalton has become known.

Published by Fourth Estate, December 2020 | Fiction

Wolves steal the story in this Scottish Highland eco-thriller

29/5/2022

ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES
By Charlotte McConaghy

Domestic abuse, buried trauma, a rare neurological condition, ecological catastrophe, death, love and the mystery of wolves – all of these strands are interlaced in Australian author Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves.

Published by Penguin Random House, August 2021 | Fiction, Australian author

A merry, multi layered mystery

13/4/2022

THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY
By Sulari Gentill

From the moment the action kicks off in The Woman in the Library, through its myriad twists as the murderous crime is solved, there's a buoyancy to Australian author Sulari Gentill’s prose that keeps the mood light, fun and fast-paced.

First published in Newtown Review of Books 

Published by Ultimo Press, June 2022 | Fiction, Thriller, Australian author

Big issues wrapped in the energetic veil of campus life

28/3/2022

LOVE & VIRTUE
By Diana Reid

Diana Reid injects youthful vitality into some big contemporary issues – sexual consent and the role of privilege in power – in this fresh Australian campus novel.

First published in The Newtown Review of Books.

Published by Ultimo Press | October 2021 | Fiction, Australian author

A stunning tale that will hook all word lovers

26/1/2022

THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS
By Pip Williams

In a wonderfully original debut, Pip Williams weaves a moving and brilliantly imagined fictional story around the very real case of a word quite literally lost as the Oxford English Dictionary was compiled.

Published by Affirm Press 2020 | Historical Fiction, Australian author

Women front and centre of this dystopian thriller

24/12/2021

THE HUSH
By Sara Foster

An unsettlingly plausible near-future UK provides the backdrop for Sara Foster’s dystopian thriller, The Hush.

This review was first published in Newtown Review of Books.

Published by HarperCollins, November 2021 | Fiction, Australian, Women

Searing insider's account of Black Summer

23/11/2021

CURROWAN
by Bronwyn Adcock

This debut provides a searing insider’s account of the bushfire that terrorised the NSW South Coast during Black Summer, and offers a warning: fires on this tragic scale will happen again.

This review was first published in The Newtown Review of Books.

Published by Black Ink Books, October 2021 | Non-fiction, Australian, Women

Teen love story that doesn't shy from today's big issues

14/11/2021

HOW TO REPAINT A LIFE
By Steven Herrick

Rumbling just beneath a light, easy, hope-filled story of two teens finding their own path is an exploration of big contemporary issues, like domestic violence and sexual consent.

Published by UQP, September 2021 | Young Adult, Australian, Fiction

Aussie noir runs strong in new crime thriller

2/11/2021

THE WAY IT IS NOW
By Garry Disher

Veteran crime novelist Garry Disher has kept the Aussie noir bar high in his latest nicely-paced, well-crafted thriller.

Published by Text Publishing, November 2021 | Fiction, Crime, Australian

A lyrical love story entwined in an epic pilgrimage

24/10/2021

DEVOTION
by Hannah Kent

True to form, Hannah Kent’s intense, lyrical prose is utterly immersive in her new novel, Devotion, a love story entwined within a fascinating historical context.

Published by Pan Macmillan-Picador, October 2021 | Fiction, Australian, Women, Historical

The untold story of a colonial enigma

12/9/2021

A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES
by Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville has captured the imagined voice of enigmatic pastoralist Elizabeth Macarthur in a way that makes you rethink everything you may have learnt about colonial Sydney, in her new novel A Room Made of Leaves.

Published by Text Publishing, August 2021 | Historical Fiction, Australian, Women

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