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Dark Rise (C S Pacat, A&U)
Released October 2021
Will is on the run from the men who killed his mother. When a terrifying artefact is unleashed on the Thames docks, Will finds himself thrust into a hidden world... Read more
Scary Monsters (Michelle de Kretser, A&U)
Released October 2021
Montpellier, France, 1981. Twenty-two-year-old Lili is teaching English at a local high school and navigating a new experience of displacement in her adopted European home—after emigrating to Australia with her... Read more
The Stoning (Peter Papathanasiou, Transit Lounge)
Released October 2021
At dawn one Sunday, homicide detective George Manolis is woken with a call: a schoolteacher has been murdered in the outback town of Cobb, and the local police need his... Read more
Out Here: An anthology of Takatāpui & LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa (ed by Chris Tse & Emma Barnes, Auckland University Press)
Released October 2021
The whakataukī (Māori proverb) ‘ka mua, ka muri’ means ‘to walk backwards into the future’; we look to the past to inform our future. Out Here: An anthology of Takatāpui & LGBTQIA+ writers from... Read more
The Accidental Penguin Hotel (Andrew Kelly, illus by Dean A Jones, Wild Dog)
Released October 2021
The fairy penguins, or little penguins, that nest on the breakwater in St Kilda, Victoria haven’t always been there—precisely because the breakwater itself was only built in the 1950s. The... Read more
Into the Rip (Damien Cave, Scribner)
Released October 2021
Damien Cave’s Into the Rip considers how we calculate and cope with risk in Australia. As the first bureau chief of the New York Times Australian outpost, Cave leverages his journalistic point... Read more
The Curlew’s Eye (Karen Manton, A&U)
Released September 2021
A poisoned dam, a crumbling abandoned homestead, encounters with a mysterious girl and the pull of a haunting landscape are all woven together in this literary Australian Gothic debut from Karen Manton.... Read more
self/less (AViVA, Macmillan)
Released October 2021
self/less is the debut novel by self-described multidisciplinary artist AViVA, whose music has a strong online following. Seventeen-year-old Teddy has lived a privileged childhood in the totalitarian city of Metropolis,... Read more
Dragon Skin (Karen Foxlee, A&U)
Released October 2021
Dragon Skin is the much-anticipated new novel by Karen Foxlee, author of cherished modern classics including the internationally successful Lenny’s Book of Everything. Foxlee is skilled at writing brave yet vulnerable young... Read more
Love & Virtue (Diana Reid, Ultimo)
Released October 2021
Two young women. An elite residential college. Michaela and Eve are fundamentally different: Michaela is a reserved scholarship student, while Eve, an outgoing envelope-pusher, is brash, bold and beautiful. Despite... Read more
In Moonland (Miles Allinson, Scribe)
Released September 2021
Miles Allinson’s accomplished second novel—the follow-up to his moving and deeply personal 2015 debut Fever of Animals—is an ambitious and gripping story of parenthood, utopias and environmental collapse, told across several interconnected narratives. The narrator of... Read more
New Australian Fiction 2021 (ed by Rebecca Starford, Kill Your Darlings)
Released September 2021
Kill Your Darlings’ third annual short fiction anthology, New Australian Fiction 2021, brims with stories—by diverse authors both emerging and established—that traverse a wide array of topics. These stories probe... Read more
Believe in Me (Lucy Neave, UQP)
Released September 2021
Bet is a Sydney-based veterinarian raised in Adelaide by her single mother, Sarah. When Bet starts questioning her gender, identity and place in the world, she begins to put together the... Read more
Treasure in the Lake (Jason Pamment, A&U)
Released September 2021
Friendship, hidden cities and all-round adventure lie at the heart of Jason Pamment’s immersive graphic novel Treasure in the Lake. Sam and Iris have been best friends since they were little, but as the two... Read more
Let’s Eat Weeds! (Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb, illus by Evie Barrow, Scribble)
Released September 2021
I can’t think of anything more anxiety-provoking than helping children decide which weeds are safe to eat. But Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland tackle the task with humour, zeal and... Read more
Maxine (Bob Graham, Walker Books)
Released September 2021
A ‘companion book’ for Bob Graham’s beloved Max (which was 20 years old in 2020!), Maxine does stand alone but is not as rich if you haven’t first read Max, as it... Read more
My Friend Fox (Heidi Everett, Ultimo Press)
Released September 2021
This memoir from mental health recovery advocate Heidi Everett is a thoroughly real and stunningly evocative retelling of her life as a person with diagnosed mental illness. Everett tells the... Read more
Anything But Fine (Tobias Madden, Penguin)
Released September 2021
Anything But Fine is the young adult debut of Tobias Madden, who works in publishing and is part of the #LoveOzYA community. Like his main character, Luca, Madden grew up... Read more
The Magpie Wing (Max Easton, Giramondo)
Released September 2021
Max Easton’s The Magpie Wing is a moving portrait of a city and region undergoing enormous change, told through the perspectives of three unique, sympathetic and vulnerable characters. The book... Read more
Private Prosecution (Lisa Ellery, Fremantle Press)
Released September 2021
Lawyer-turned-writer Lisa Ellery uses her knowledge and experience in the legal sector to round out detailed judicial proceedings in her debut thriller, building a believable foundation for the tense drama... Read more
