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Rajah Street (Myo Yim, Walker Books)
Released March 2021
In this sunny picture book, three-year-old Junya watches the world outside his window as he waits hopefully for the arrival of one of his most favourite things ever: the garbage... Read more
Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP)
Released March 2021
When I was in primary school, on the occasion that foreign travellers or tourists would come to visit, our conversation would inevitably turn to Australia's famous fauna and flora—to snakes... Read more
Hold Your Fire (Chloe Wilson, Scribner)
Released March 2021
Hold Your Fire is the incisive and darkly funny fiction debut by Melbourne poet Chloe Wilson, author of Not Fox Nor Axe and The Mermaid Problem. The 17 stories in... Read more
The Breaking (Irma Gold, MidnightSun)
Released March 2021
When Hannah meets fellow Australian traveller Deven in the lobby of a hostel in Thailand, her trip quickly gains a sense of purpose. Hannah’s drawn to the fiery, charismatic Deven... Read more
Waking Romeo (Kathryn Barker, A&U)
Released March 2021
Waking Romeo is a stunning reimagining of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet—meets Wuthering Heights, meets epic time-travelling extravaganza. The main story revolves around Juliet and a group of... Read more
The Gaps (Leanne Hall, Text)
Released March 2021
The fourth novel by 2009 Text Prize winner Leanne Hall is simultaneously harrowing and enchanting. The Gaps begins as abruptly as a slap, with a newscast declaring schoolgirl Yin Mitchell... Read more
The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel (Nicki Greenberg, Affirm)
Released March 2021
Award-winning picture book and graphic novel author and illustrator Nicki Greenberg has turned her attention to middle-grade mystery in her newest work, The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel. Perfect for... Read more
Main Abija My Grandad (Karen Rogers, A&U)
Released March 2021
Written as a tribute to the author and artist Karen Rogers’s grandfather, who was instrumental in teaching her about her ancestry and Country, this picture book is a celebration of... Read more
A Room Called Earth (Madeleine Ryan, Scribe)
Released March 2021
In the light of a full moon on a sweltering December night—Christmas Eve eve—a nameless young woman drapes herself in a silk kimono and goes to a party, alone. Singularly... Read more
Other People’s Houses (Kelli Hawkins, HarperCollins)
Released March 2021
This suburban thriller, set on Sydney’s North Shore, explores what happens when unresolved grief turns into obsession. After experiencing a horrific tragedy, Kate develops some bad habits, including an alcohol... Read more
The Missing Among Us (Erin Stewart, NewSouth)
Released March 2021
The Missing Among Us is instantly enthralling. Erin Stewart profiles a number of missing persons cases, deftly and confidently straddling the line between reportage and personal response. Balancing the interviewees'... Read more
Eating With My Mouth Open (Sam van Zweden, NewSouth)
Released February 2021
Sam van Zweden’s Eating With My Mouth Open is at once an expressive memoir and a cultural commentary on the role of food in our lives. It’s part vulnerable and... Read more
The Ghost Squad (Sophie Masson, MidnightSun)
Released February 2021
This young adult thriller starts as a post-collapse story and then takes a supernatural turn. It begins with ‘the pulse’, a solar flare that shuts down all electronics, pitching the... Read more
The Speechwriter (Martin McKenzie-Murray, Scribe)
Released February 2021
Martin McKenzie-Murray’s fiction debut is a fun but sometimes frustrating book that nevertheless delivers plenty of laughs along the way. The story is told by Toby—an aspiring speechwriter whose hyper-ambition... Read more
With a Little Kelp from Our Friends (Mathew Bate, illus by Liz Rowland, Thames & Hudson)
Released February 2021
From the evolution of this fascinating stuff to its modern usage as food, fuel and building material, in With a Little Kelp from Our Friends Mathew Bate tells you everything... Read more
Footprints on the Moon (Lorraine Marwood, UQP)
Released February 2021
It’s 1969 and Sharnie is entering year seven and finding it difficult to make friends. The world is consumed by the Space Race and the Vietnam War, and Sharnie is... Read more
The Boy From the Mish (Gary Lonesborough, A&U)
Released February 2021
Jackson is an Aboriginal teen who lives with his mum and little brother; he has a girlfriend, good mates and the local men’s group. Then his aunty from the city... Read more
The Price of Two Sparrows (Christy Collins, Affirm)
Released February 2021
Christy Collins’s The Price of Two Sparrows is an elegantly structured study of migration and community in Australia. A burgeoning Muslim community on the outskirts of Sydney has made plans... Read more
Buried Not Dead (Fiona McGregor, Giramondo)
Released February 2021
Outsider art, as critic Roger Cardinal once wrote, is ‘immune to the polarisations of culture and the copycat spirit of cultural art’. It’s fair to say that Fiona McGregor’s new... Read more
The Silent Listener (Lyn Yeowart, Viking)
Released February 2021
Lyn Yeowart’s debut crime thriller The Silent Listener is the intense, horrific, utterly devastating and totally addictive tale of the Henderson family. Spanning four decades and encompassing a missing child... Read more
