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The Bearcat (Georgia Rose Phillips, Picador) 

Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Based on true events, The Bearcat is an ambitious, mesmeric and deeply affecting debut novel that imagines the inner life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a rare female cult leader who founded...

He Would Never (Holly Wainwright, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Holly Wainwright’s fifth novel, He Would Never, is pacy, compelling and character-driven, and will hook readers from the startling first sentence. The story follows five families on their annual summer...

Books in the media this weekend, 15–16 March 

the cover of an onslaught of light Friday, 14 March 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend.  National The Saturday Paper The Buried Life (Andrea Goldsmith, Transit Lounge) First Name Second Name...

The Girl and the Ghost (Jacqueline Harvey, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Jacqueline Harvey, author of the best-selling Alice-Miranda and Kensy and Max books, returns with The Girl and the Ghost, the first instalment in a new fantasy-mystery middle-grade series. When 12-year-old...

Little World (Josephine Rowe, Black Inc.) 

Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Josephine Rowe’s Little World is a compact, lyrical read that feels both mythic and frighteningly current. When the perfectly preserved body of a child is brought to Western Australia, it...

The Surface Trials (HM Waugh, A&U Children’s) 

Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Starquest Academy is an elite school for exceptional students from around the galaxy. Notoriously difficult to enter, Starquest requires prospects to undergo a three-day televised challenge on an unknown planet....

Wandering Wild (Lynette Noni, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Wandering Wild, the latest novel from Lynette Noni (The Prison Healer), is the perfect cosy romance read. The dual-perspective narrative follows Zander, a Hollywood ‘bad boy’ desperate to rebuild his...

Books in the media this weekend, 8–9 March 

the cover of Chameleon Friday, 7 March 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend.  National The Saturday Paper Joan Lindsay (Brenda Niall, Text) The Theatre of Everything (Yumna Kassab, Ultimo) We...

Publishers’ top picks: Australian fiction

Tuesday, 4 March 2025
A new publisher, a new literary agency and the Australian fiction on offer at LBF. Members of newest Australian literary agency on the block, a4 Literary – for which former...

Publishers’ picks: Australian nonfiction

Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Food and family, AI, and escaping a cult: The Australian nonfiction publishers have high hopes for at LBF Sandra Buol, rights and international sales manager at Australian independent Allen &...

Winners who keep winning: Australian awards news

Cover of Praiseworthy Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Repeat winners, internationally recognised authors and the latest winners of Australian manuscript prizes  As reported in the previous edition of Think Australian, Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo) has already won the...

Australian bestsellers in 2024

Cover of Recipe Tin Eats with ABIA award logos Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Top 10 Australian adult fiction bestsellers Here One Moment (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan), 157K Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate), 80K Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)*, 64K...

Orpheus Nine (Chris Flynn, Hachette) 

Tuesday, 4 March 2025
When a boys’ soccer game in the regional town of Gattan is interrupted by a grotesque supernatural event that ushers in a new world order, residents of the town –...

Mother Tongue (Naima Brown, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Naima Brown’s cleverly titled second novel Mother Tongue is a gripping, exquisitely layered story that deals with extremes and challenges conventional morality. The protagonist, Brynn, upends the assumption that mothers...