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The White Girl (Tony Birch, UQP)
Released June 2019
Tony Birch’s latest novel tells the story of Odette Brown and her granddaughter Sissy, who live on the fringe of Deane, a fictional town situated between the mountains and the... Read more
The Nancys (R W R McDonald, A&U)
Released June 2019
In the poky New Zealand town of Riverstone—home of bad interior design, dull news cycles and not much else—11-year-old Tippy Chan’s mother is about to go on holiday. Tippy’s flamboyant... Read more
The Electric Hotel (Dominic Smith, A&U)
Released June 2019
Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel is a sensory delight, retelling the life story of a former film director—known as ‘the Frenchman behind the viewfinder’—with the rich vocabulary of cinema. Claude... Read more
Allegra in Three Parts (Suzanne Daniel, Macmillan)
Released June 2019
In this impressive debut novel, 11-year-old Allegra finds herself torn between the three adults in her life: her two grandmothers and her father. They live on adjoining blocks and adore... Read more
Fish Song (Caitlin Maling, Fremantle Press)
Released June 2019
Fish Song is Caitlin Maling’s third full-length collection after her 2015 debut Conversations I've Never Had (shortlisted for the Dame Mary Gilmore Award and in the WA Premier's Book Awards)... Read more
Hitch (Kathryn Hind, Hamish Hamilton)
Released June 2019
Kathryn Hind was the recipient of the inaugural Penguin Australia Literary Prize in 2018 for Hitch, a contemporary novel set in Australia. The protagonist, Amelia, is a naive young woman... Read more
My Culture and Me (Gregg Dreise, Puffin)
Released May 2019
This beautiful picture book presents the voice of an Indigenous child relating the importance of knowing and living your culture. Beginning with an expression of love for Country and family,... Read more
Arthur and the Tiger (Sophie Beer, Puffin)
Released May 2019
Sophie Beer has a knack for creating books that simultaneously feel contemporary and vintage, which is sure to make them modern classics. In Arthur and the Tiger, Arthur is the son of... Read more
Sophia and the Corner Park Clubhouse (Davina Bell, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Released May 2019
Davina Bell is one of Australia’s most highly regarded authors for young people, and the first book in her new series for middle-grade readers cements her reputation as one of... Read more
Devil’s Ballast (Meg Caddy, Text)
Released May 2019
After escaping her violently abusive husband, Anne Bonny disguises herself as a boy and joins her lover, pirate captain Calico Jack Rackham, on his ship the Ranger. Anne fits in... Read more
How it Feels to Float (Helena Fox, Pan)
Released May 2019
How do you find the will to live when you can’t even feel the ground anymore? Elizabeth Martin Grey—Biz—doesn’t know. All she knows is that she’s got one foot in... Read more
Shauna’s Great Expectations (Kathleen Loughnan, A&U)
Released May 2019
Seventeen-year-old Shauna is the recipient of an Indigenous scholarship to an elite Sydney girls’ school. The expectations placed on her could be no higher than those she places on herself,... Read more
My Real Friend (David Hunt, illus by Lucinda Masciullo, ABC Books)
Released April 2019
David Hunt returns with his second offering for children following 2016’s The Nose Pixies. Taking the story of an imaginary friend and telling it from the other side, we hear... Read more
Alex and the Alpacas Save the World (Kathryn Lefroy, Fremantle Press)
Released May 2019
Alex and the Alpacas Save the World is Kathryn Lefroy’s first novel. Part fantasy, part adventure, it reinvigorates the familiar good-versus-evil narrative with an original (if somewhat offbeat) setting and... Read more
After She Left (Penelope Hanley, Ventura)
Released May 2019
After She Left is an exploration of feminism in relation to the arts, domestic life and the cultural ramifications of non-traditional motherhood. It spans six decades and the lives of... Read more
A Lovely and Terrible Thing (Chris Womersley, Picador)
Released May 2019
A Lovely and Terrible Thing is novelist Chris Womersley’s debut short story collection, and his first book since 2017’s City of Crows. Of the 20 stories in the collection, 17... Read more
Hazelwood (Tom Doig, Viking)
Released June 2020
During a heatwave in February 2014, brown coal ignites within Hazelwood Power Station’s open-pit mine, causing a fire that burns for 45 days and sends toxic plumes of smoke over... Read more
Race, Islam and Power: Ethnic and Religious Violence in Post-Suharto Indonesia (Andreas Harsono, Monash University Publishing)
Released May 2019
After the collapse of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, journalist Andreas Harsono spent almost three years travelling across Indonesia. Race, Islam and Power, which chronicles this journey, is a... Read more
Daughter of Bad Times (Rohan Wilson, A&U)
Released May 2019
Vogel Award-winning novelist Rohan Wilson is back with another gripping page-turner, this time in the form of a dystopian tale set 50 years in the future. Sea levels have risen,... Read more
Room for a Stranger (Melanie Cheng, Text)
Released May 2019
After an attempted home invasion leaves her feeling unsafe, elderly Meg signs on with a homeshare agency: Andy, an international student from Hong Kong who’s come to Melbourne to study... Read more
