Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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WBN advance reviews >

The Caretaker (Gabriel Bergmoser, HarperCollins) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted and its series follow-up, The Inheritance, has earned the award-winning playwright and bestselling author a reputation for writing savage and compelling thrillers. His new stand-alone thriller...

But the Girl (Jessica Zhan Mei Yu, Vintage) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Set in the ‘undecided and hazy spring’ when MAS370 disappeared, Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut novel But the Girl transports us to London, where an Australian narrator of Chinese Malaysian...

Granbad (Penny Tangey, illus Peter Baldwin, UQP) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Grandad is a rebel who breaks so many rules the family call him ‘Granbad’. He gives his grandchild lollies instead of healthy food, reads stories way past bedtime and flouts...

Carnage (Mark Dapin, S&S) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Having just completed a book on criminals, author Mark Dapin wasn’t looking to write another. When he received a phone call from Jack Karlson, a man he’d never heard of,...

The Sitter (Angela O’Keeffe, UQP) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
There is a sentence halfway through Angela O’Keeffe’s second novel, The Sitter, that says: ‘A character, when they enter a story, must be willing to drop their preconceptions of what...

The Shrinking Nation (Graeme Turner, UQP) 

Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Few would disagree that the Australian cultural and political landscape has undergone a seismic shift since the Howard era. In his new book, Graeme Turner argues that the result has...

Sit, Stay, Love (Amy Hutton, S&S) 

Tuesday, 6 June 2023
As a pet rescue shelter owner, Sera often finds herself in messy situations. However, she didn’t expect her potentially messiest situation to start with a ‘drop-dead, stop-you-in-your-tracks, gorgeous’ actor standing...

Ballet Confidential (David McAllister, T&H) 

Tuesday, 6 June 2023
Ballet Confidential is not a no-holds-barred expose but rather a joyfully led and personal guide into the world of ballet. David McAllister is the former artistic director of the Australian...

The Vitals (Tracy Sorensen, Picador) 

Tuesday, 6 June 2023
The Vitals is unlike any other book you will ever read about cancer. The book straddles the line between fiction and nonfiction and is based on Tracy Sorensen’s own cancer...

Thaw (Dennis Glover, Black Inc) 

Tuesday, 6 June 2023
Among the breathtaking and perilous wilds of Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, a dozen men prepare to be the first to reach the South Pole. When tragedy strikes the men on...

Timefire (Nean McKenzie, MidnightSun) 

Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Nean McKenzie is the author of two previous middle-grade novels. Her latest, Timefire, interweaves a story about bushfires in Australia with supernatural and time-travel elements. Gilbert Black is drawn to...

Mistakes and Other Lovers (Amy Lovat, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 30 May 2023
In Amy Lovat’s Mistakes and Other Lovers, El O’Reilly finds herself involved in a circle of Christian friends and their complex, tense social dynamics as she navigates the aftermath of...

One Song (A J Betts, Pan Australia) 

Tuesday, 30 May 2023
A J Betts’s latest book One Song is a delightful and emotionally intelligent YA novel. Our protagonist Eva is in Year Twelve and is desperate to win Triple J Unearthed...

Lowbridge (Lucy Campbell, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 23 May 2023
In Lowbridge, Lucy Campbell’s debut crime thriller, the people in the sleepy small town of Lowbridge seem to have moved on with their lives after the tragic events of the...

Roseghetto (Kirsty Jagger, UQP) 

Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Kirsty Jagger’s debut novel Roseghetto is a raw coming-of-age story set in 1990s suburban Sydney. We follow the protagonist Shayla through childhood and adolescence and hold her hand through sexual...