Fiction

The Betrayal (Y A Erskine, Bantam, May)
Reviewed by Anna Forward:
The Betrayal—Y A Erskine’s second crime novel following The Brotherband—will reel you in and deliver a series of shocks you never saw coming. Like its predecessor, it bravely ventures into the corridors of power, but unlike its predecessor it records what happens when an offence is committed by one of the force’s own boys in blue ... read more

The Mountain (Drusilla Modjeska, Vintage, May)
Reviewed by Andrew Wilkins:
The mountain, the dominant image of Drusilla Modjeska’s ambitious new novel, is an imaginary peak in Australia’s nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea. A young, recently wed Dutch photographer, Rika, and her English ethnologist husband Leonard arrive in PNG at the end of the 1960s, when the Melanesian country is still under Australian colonial rule ... read more

Running Dogs (Ruby Murray, Scribe, May)
Reviewed by Portia Lindsay:
Diana is an Australian aid worker, writing reports for a disaster relief organisation bereft of the kind of disaster that grabs attention. She reconnects with her illusive friend Petra in Jakarta and a story of power, corruption and loss unfolds, as Diana becomes embroiled in the lives of siblings Petra, Paul and Isaak ... read more

The Wedding Season (Su Dharmapala, S&S, May)
Reviewed by Jessica Broadbent:
In The Wedding Season, a Sri Lanka-born, Australia-raised woman tries to find true love while avoiding her mother’s matchmaking. Shani has a good job as an accountant, lives in her own place, has a great group of friends and is at the perfect time to meet her future husband—according to her horoscope ... read more

The Architecture of Song (Gary Crew, Fourth Estate, May)

Promise (Tony Cavanaugh, Hachette, May)

Secrets of the Tides (Hannah Richell, Little, Brown, May)

We All Fall Down (Peter Barry, Transit Lounge, May)

The Weight of a Human Heart (Ryan O’Neill, Black Inc., May)



Nonfiction

A History of Books (Gerald Murnane, Giramondo, May)
Reviewed by Blair Mahoney:
A History of Books is in many ways a continuation of the musings of Gerald Murnane’s 2009 book Barley Patch. It’s a safe prediction that A History of Books will be unlike any other book published in Australia this year ... read more

Love and Hunger (Charlotte Wood, A&U, May)
Reviewed by Tim White:
Is this a memoir, a collection of erudite essays punctuated by good recipes or a literary cookbook? Whatever section you decide to shelve this in, this is a book to love and which makes one very hungry ... read more

The Office: A Hardworking History (Gideon Haigh, Miegunyah Press, May)
Reviewed by Ian Hallett:
We have had histories of salt, porcelain and even double-entry bookkeeping—so why not the office? It is an integral part of many people’s lives and yet we know so little about it. With the publication of this excellent book, that need no longer be the case ... read more

Behind the Shock Machine (Gina Perry, Scribe, May)

Lives (Peter Robb, Black Inc., May)