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Stone Sky Gold Mountain (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP)
Released April 2020
In goldrush-era Australia the landscape is harsh, the law basically non-existent and discrimination bluntly and unashamedly informs every facet of life. Siblings Ying and Lai Yue are trying to scrape... Read more
Sheerwater (Leah Swann, HarperCollins)
Released April 2020
Sheerwater begins when a plane falls out of the sky. The accident—a light aircraft crash-landing in a field off the Great Ocean Road—is witnessed by Ava, a young woman on... Read more
Below Deck (Sophie Hardcastle, A&U)
Released March 2020
In Below Deck, 21-year-old Oli gives up a high-flying internship to work on the ocean after meeting an enigmatic older couple and sailing with them to the Coral Sea. Four... Read more
Come (Rita Therese, A&U)
Released April 2020
Twenty-five-year-old sex worker Rita Therese’s debut memoir is dark, funny and extremely candid—but her unsanitised tales of the sex industry are not for the faint-hearted. Come invites the reader into... Read more
The Salt Madonna (Catherine Noske, Picador)
Released March 2020
Set on a remote fictional island off the coast of Western Australia, Catherine Noske’s debut novel grapples with questions of familial obligation, complicity, remorse and the fallibility of memory. Noske... Read more
Small Mercies (Richard Anderson, Scribe)
Released April 2020
Dimple and Ruthie Travers are farmers in a tough time. Drought has seen them reduce their cattle herd and hold off sowing crops. Money is tight, rain is always forecast... Read more
Torched (Kimberley Starr, Pantera)
Released May 2020
In Torched, the town of Brunton, Victoria is devastated by a bushfire with the force and malevolence of Black Saturday, and in turn Phoebe Wharton’s life is destroyed by the... Read more
Almost a Mirror (Kirsten Krauth, Transit Lounge)
Released April 2020
Kirsten Krauth’s Almost a Mirror is about the relationship between music and memory, and the unexpected directions that family and romantic life can take. Mona is in her late 30s... Read more
Fourteen (Shannon Molloy, S&S)
Released April 2020
Fourteen is the factual account of one year in the life of a gay high-schooler in the small central Queensland town of Yeppoon. Journalist Shannon Molloy uses clear, concise language... Read more
The Brisbane Line (J P Powell, Xoum)
Released April 2020
J P Powell’s debut novel—named for an alleged WWII-era government plan to abandon Northern Australia in the event of a Japanese invasion—is an exploration of tension and corruption amid the... Read more
After the Count: The death of Davey Browne (Stephanie Convery, Viking)
Released March 2020
When young and fit professional boxer Davey Browne died in the ring, pummelled to death in front of his family and friends, it was the result of a perfect storm... Read more
Beautiful Eggs (Alice Lindstrom, Scribble)
Released March 2020
In this board book, Melbourne-based artist and illustrator Alice Lindstrom uses her stunning cut-paper style of illustration to introduce the tradition of egg decoration across a number of cultures around... Read more
Desire Lines (Felicity Volk, Hachette)
Released March 2020
Desire Lines is a heartrending love story between a man struggling to overcome the struggles of a deeply traumatic childhood and a woman who, frankly, deserves better. At a market... Read more
All Bodies are Good Bodies (Charlotte Barkla, Little Hare)
Released January 2019
All Bodies Are Good Bodies is a rhyming picture book that champions bodies of all shapes and sizes. Charlotte Barkla’s words are written to be read out loud as one... Read more
The Long Distance Playlist (Tara Eglington, HarperCollins)
Released January 2020
Tara Eglington’s The Long Distance Playlist is a touching depiction of a long-distance friendship and blossoming romance. Taylor is an ex-snowboarding prodigy slowly coming to terms with his recent amputation,... Read more
Beetle and Boo (Caitlin Murray, Puffin)
Released February 2020
Beetle is not scared of anything. Monsters? Ghosts? Bad dreams? Wild storms and cracking thunder and lightning? Nope. Uh-uh. Not ever. Caitlin Murray’s Beetle and Boo is a story of... Read more
The Girl with the Gold Bikini (Lisa Walker, Wakefield)
Released February 2020
Lisa Walker’s second YA novel gives us a fun new spin on Nancy Drew and ‘girl detectives’. It will absolutely appeal to readers who love the mystery genre, with a... Read more
A New Kind of Everything (Richard Yaxley, Scholastic)
Released February 2020
A New Kind of Everything picks up the story of the Gallagher family after the loss of patriarch Barney, his spectre still looming large over his wife Allison and their... Read more
Euphoria Kids (Alison Evans, Echo)
Released February 2020
Euphoria Kids is a tender, contemporary fairytale about magic, friendship and gender identity. A departure from the horror elements of Alison Evans’ previous novels, this book focuses on the wonder... Read more
Coming Home to Country (Bronwyn Bancroft, Little Hare)
Released February 2020
This picture book is bathed in a ‘palette of leaf green, red rust, yellow ochre, deep blue and crimson’ as the unnamed narrator returns home, back to Country. Bronwyn Bancroft’s... Read more
