Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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WBN advance reviews >

The Great Undoing (Sharlene Allsopp, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Imagine a completely digital future, with people connected via nanotechnology, attaining ultimate convenience at the price of absolute surveillance—good for people who like where they are, bad for those who...

The Beehive (Megan Daley, illus Max Hamilton, Walker) 

Tuesday, 28 November 2023
The Beehive is a new informational picture book by teacher-librarian and author Megan Daley and CBCA-shortlisted illustrator Max Hamilton. The two have combined their talents to create a charming and...

Love, Just In (Natalie Murray, A&U) 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Following a panic attack while reporting on live TV, Josie is eager to prove that she can still make it as a full-time Sydney newsreader. However, after her dead-air debacle,...

The Health Habit (Amantha Imber, Penguin Life) 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023
There are books about health and books about habits, but rarely are the two combined as they are in The Health Habit: Shape up, sleep better, feel amazing, a practical...

The Invocations (Krystal Sutherland, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Emer Byrne, Zara Jones and Jude Wolf are young women who have led completely different lives until one thread of commonality brings them together—magic. Zara believes in magic because she’s...

Whenever You’re Ready (Trish Bolton, A&U) 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Trish Bolton’s debut is a reckoning with grief. An exploration of ‘those feelings [that are] impossible to separate, a great tidal wave of loss and remorse, of love and longing’....

Darkness Runs Deep (Claire McNeel, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Gerandaroo, 1993: population 723, winner of 24 football premierships since 1899. A place where AFL is a non-negotiable part of life and where everyone is a friend—until an act of...

Monument (Bonny Cassidy, Giramondo) 

Monument Tuesday, 21 November 2023
In an author’s note, Bonny Cassidy explains that Monument, her genre-bending literary memoir, structured around the branches of her White Australian family, began as a private project, but in clarifying her...

The Roadmap of Loss (Liam Murphy, Echo) 

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Liam Murphy’s debut novel, The Roadmap of Loss, has all the hallmarks of sad girl (or, in this case, sad boy) literature: a self-destructive 20-something narrator and a vitriolic rage...

Life Skills for a Broken World (Ahona Guha, Scribe) 

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Like having a therapist in your pocket, Life Skills for a Broken World is a guide to positive mental health, leading readers through potential pitfalls and prevention strategies. Ahona Guha,...

A Dance with Murder (Elizabeth Coleman, Pantera) 

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
A Dance with Murder is the second outing for private investigator Edwina ‘Ted’ Bristol and her sidekick, Miss Marple, an intelligent and perceptive miniature schnauzer, following A Routine Infidelity (February,...

The Strip (Iain Ryan, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 7 November 2023
Iain Ryan plunges readers into the gritty, seedy underbelly of the 1980s Gold Coast in his latest noir crime novel, The Strip. Brimming with corruption and seduction, illicit meetings held...

The Long Lede Anthology (Judith Neilson Institute, Vintage) 

Tuesday, 7 November 2023
The Long Lede Initiative, a partnership between the Judith Neilson Institute, Penguin Random House, and Copyright Agency, pairs experienced Australian journalists with emerging writers to mentor them in crafting impactful...

Politica (Yumna Kassab, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Politica is set in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. It explores the impact of war on those directly involved—as well as those indirectly impacted, but whose lives war forever changes....

The Fires Next Time (ed by Peter Christoff, MUP) 

Tuesday, 31 October 2023
The world watched in horror from July 2019 to February 2020 as bushfires raged across Australia. The Black Summer fires directly killed 33 people, while hundreds more died from fire-...

The Italian Marriage (Jenna Lo Bianco, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 31 October 2023
In Jenna Lo Bianco’s debut romance novel, The Italian Marriage, Sarah and Matthew marry over Zoom so that Matthew can fulfil the requirements of a 15th-century inheritance clause. In return,...

Never Ever Forever (Karina May, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 24 October 2023
A charming contemporary Australian romance novel, Never Ever Forever by Karina May is a heartfelt tale of love, second chances and self-discovery. The story revolves around Rosie Royce, an endearing protagonist...

The Broken Wave (Matthew Ryan Davies, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 24 October 2023
In 1992, 12-year-old Andrew moves from the US to the coastal town of Queenscliff, Australia, with his mother and stepdad. That summer, he meets Tom, an easygoing Aussie boy who...

Frank Moorhouse: Strange paths (Matthew Lamb, Knopf) 

Tuesday, 17 October 2023
Frank Moorhouse worked relentlessly to refine both his writing and his understanding of himself. The first volume of Matthew Lamb’s biography of Moorhouse—who passed away last year at 83—is a valuable...