Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Happy Never After (Jill Stark, Scribe) 

Thursday, 31 May 2018
Picking up where her debut bestseller High Sobriety left off, journalist and author Jill Stark’s Happy Never After charts the period from her breakdown in October 2014 to her ensuing...

Always Another Country (Sisonke Msimang, Text) 

Thursday, 31 May 2018
A coming-of-age memoir brimming with no-holds-barred honesty, Always Another Country is a story about love, survival, politics and home. Sisonke Msimang charts various stages of her life, observing her surroundings...

Too Much Lip (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP) 

Thursday, 31 May 2018
The title of Melissa Lucashenko’s latest book—both an accusation and a lament—speaks of hunger, greed, desperation, destruction and redemption. Central to the novel are themes of rage, incarceration, and generational...

A Superior Spectre (Angela Meyer, Peter Bishop) 

Thursday, 31 May 2018
Angela Meyer’s A Superior Spectre is an eerie, gothic work that is both a richly detailed historical novel and a chilling prediction of the near future. The book follows Jeff,...

Scrublands (Chris Hammer, A&U)

Thursday, 31 May 2018
In a dying Riverina town that’s suffering a merciless drought, ‘good people fight to retain honour and dignity against unfair odds’. Shockingly, one Sunday morning, the town’s priest opens fire...

Prize Fighter (Future D Fidel, Hachette) 

Thursday, 31 May 2018
Isa Alaki is 10 years old, a budding engineer with a loving family in the Congolese city of Bukavu, when a rebel militia descends on his city, slaughtering his family and...

Noni takes three in Australian YA April charts

Thursday, 17 May 2018
The first book in Lynette Noni's 'Medoran Chronicles', Akarnae, has taken out top spot in the Australian YA bestsellers chart for April, with the second and third books in the...

Introducing Ford Street Publishing

Thursday, 17 May 2018
Paul Collins is the publisher at Ford Street Publishing, an industry stalwart and the author of ‘around 140’ books himself. Ford Street Publishing is a micro-press that releases all manner...

Random House acquires Elliot Perlman’s first kids’ book

Thursday, 17 May 2018
Random House Children’s Books has acquired the first children’s book by award-winning novelist Elliot Perlman (pictured). The Adventures of Catvinkle centres on the unlikely friendship between pampered house cat Catvinkle and Ula...

Australian ‘Own Voices’ snapped up

Wednesday, 16 May 2018
‘The last few years has seen an increased focus in the US and UK on diversity in children’s publishing, with the emphasis more and more being placed on Own Voices,’...

‘Nevermoor’ continues award-winning run

Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend (Lothian) continues its award-winning streak, earning the author three awards at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) announced earlier this month. Nevermoor won the awards for...

Introducing Wild Dingo Press

Thursday, 10 May 2018
Wild Dingo Press launched its list with a commissioned biography by a refugee from Afghanistan, which went on to become an Australian bestseller. Last year the press took a chance...

Australia’s ‘Next Chapter’ in diverse publishing

Wednesday, 9 May 2018
What stops publishers publishing more diversely? The reported ‘trends’ at Bologna included a continuing focus on diverse voices in children’s literature, but what about in adult titles? A new initiative...

Girltopia (Hilary Rogers, Scholastic) 

Friday, 4 May 2018
Twelve-year-old Clara wakes up one day to a city where all the men and boys are afflicted by a mystery illness that leaves them unconscious and unresponsive but thankfully still...

Mercy Point (Anna Snoekstra, HarperCollins) 

Friday, 4 May 2018
Five teenagers living in a small town become anonymous online friends, without realising they hate each other in real life. The common thread they share is that they all believe...

Hive (A J Betts, Pan) 

Friday, 4 May 2018
Hayley is a beekeeper, content with her place in her small, rigid, underwater world ruled over by a shadowy council. But while her friend Celia dreams of marrying a ‘netter...

Cicada (Shaun Tan, Lothian)

Friday, 4 May 2018
Shaun Tan has done it again. Cicada is excellent. Although more distinctly a narrative picture book than some of his others, Cicada’s darkness breeds a rich subtext that will serve...

The Geography of Friendship (Sally Piper, UQP) 

Friday, 27 April 2018
The romantic notion that female friendships are made of irrevocable bonds that can sustain all manner of hardships and joy is at the centre of Sally Piper’s The Geography of...

The Peacock Summer (Hannah Richell, Hachette) 

Friday, 27 April 2018
Hannah Richell’s third novel, The Peacock Summer, is a vivid tale stretching across 50 years. It tells the story of Lillian and her granddaughter Maggie, set against the intimidating backdrop...