Last One Out (Jane Harper, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
When 21-year-old Sam Crowley disappears in Carralon Ridge, his footprints are found scattered around three abandoned houses. Five years later, his mother, Ro, returns to town for the annual memorial...
Confetti and the Rainbow Garden (Shane Jenek, illus Dylan Finney, Pantera)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Confetti and the Rainbow Garden is a heartwarming debut picture book written by drag artist and LGBTQI+ advocate Shane Jenek, also known as Courtney Act, and illustrated by Dylan Finney....
Eggshell (Olivia De Zilva, Espresso)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Tender yet unsparing, Olivia De Zilva’s debut young adult novella, Eggshell, is a piercing meditation on adolescence, grief and belonging. Set in Adelaide’s working-class suburbs, Eggshell centres Kira, a mixed-race...
What Have They Done to Liza McLean? (Amy Doak, Penguin)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Set in an elite private school with dark secrets, What Have They Done to Liza McLean? is a fast-paced murder mystery by Amy Doak (Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer)....
Gravity Let Me Go (Trent Dalton, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Gravity Let Me Go is Trent Dalton’s fourth work of fiction, and it doesn’t disappoint, once again drawing readers deep into a raw and chaotic world that is both unsettling...
The Rot (Evelyn Araluen, UQP)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
In The Rot, Evelyn Araluen returns with a blistering follow-up to her Stella Prize–winning debut, Dropbear, proving once again her unmatched ability to splice lyrics, theory, memory and critique. This...
The Long Night (Christian White, Affirm)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Christian White’s The Long Night is a tense psychological thriller driven by a chilling kidnapping premise. Nineteen-year-old Em is abducted in a moment of vulnerability following what should have been...
The Australian Wars (ed by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray & Henry Reynolds, A&U)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
The Australian Wars is a collection of essays edited by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds that outlines the horrific frontier wars between 1788 and 1930. The...
Allen appointed Dymocks CEO; Ruby Award winners revealed; Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival program announced
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
In local news this week, Dymocks announced the appointment of David Allen as its new CEO, effective from Monday 8 September; editorial agency yinfluence announced an expansion from a solo...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Sales Fiction Arndell has sold Hungarian rights to The Do-Over and Miles Ever After by TL Swan to Maxim Hungary. Nonfiction Black Inc. has sold German rights to The Shortest...
Read the latest Publishers Weekly
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.
Between (Anna Walker, Scribble)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Between by Anna Walker, CBCA Award–winning creator of Lottie and Walter and Florette, is a beautiful and meditative picture book that invites readers to pause, observe and imagine. Told with...
A Smart Girl’s Guide to Second Chances (Steph Vizard, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Steph Vizard’s A Smart Girl’s Guide to Second Chances is a fun, perfectly executed romcom that plays cleverly with the idea of missed connections and what-ifs. When Rebecca is offered...
Silence Is My Habitat: Ecobiographical Essays (Jessica White, Upswell)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Silence Is My Habitat by Jessica White (A Curious Intimacy) is a collection of ecobiographical essays – stories that trace a life not through chronology alone, but also through a...
The Lucky Sisters (Rachael Johns, Penguin)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Rachael Johns (The Patterson Girls, The Greatest Gift) delivers one of her most heartfelt and emotionally layered novels yet in The Lucky Sisters, a story marking a confident shift beyond...
Here Come the Cousins (Maggie Hutchings, illus Sarah Zweck, T&H)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
In Here Come the Cousins, a young child eagerly awaits the arrival of their seven cousins at Pop’s seaside home. After hellos and measuring who has grown the most over...
Last Chance Joey (Meredith Resce, Rhiza Edge)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
In Meredith Resce’s debut YA novel, Last Chance Joey, 17-year-old Joey Walton – who is struggling with dyslexia, toxic social circles and a troubled home life – is sent to live in the...
Bendigo Writers Festival updates; NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults; festival programs launched
Thursday, 21 August 2025
Industry news this week featured heavily on the Bendigo Writers Festival, which ran a truncated program 15–18 August 2025 after 50 authors and the festival bookshop withdrew in protest of...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Sales Fiction Arndell has sold Dutch rights to four titles by TL Swan (The Stopover, The Takeover, The Casanova and The Do-Over) to SVM Publishing. Penguin Random House has sold...
Read the latest Publishers Weekly
Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.
Mad Mabel (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Few people suspect an elderly woman or a little girl of murder, which is what makes Mad Mabel such a deliciously enjoyable read. Sally Hepworth’s latest novel begins with a...
For No Mortal Creature (Keshe Chow, Penguin)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
For No Mortal Creature by Keshe Chow (The Girl with No Reflection) is a romantic fantasy inspired by Inception and Wuthering Heights, but the story it tells is unique and...
Left Behind (Martine Kropkowski, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Martine Kropkowski’s Left Behind is a stunning depiction of the remote, wild and isolated beauty of K’gari, paired with a taut and insidious suspense that grabs you from the opening lines....
Naynay and the Mermaid (Tasma Walton, illus Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Naynay and the Mermaid is a beautifully told and visually striking picture book by accomplished actor and author Tasma Walton, a proud Boonwurrung woman from Melbourne. Naynay is asked to keep...
Riots (Fiona Skyring, UWA Publishing)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Renowned Australian historian Fiona Skyring returns with Riots, a captivating nonfiction book that unearths a chapter of ANZAC history rarely spoken of today. Skyring takes readers back to the turbulent...
Ningaloo: Australia’s Wild Wonder (Tim Winton, illus Cindy Lane, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Ningaloo, written by award-winning author Tim Winton and illustrated by Cindy Lane, is a beautifully designed nonfiction picture book about the Ningaloo Reef off the West Coast of Australia. Called...
Elizabeth Harrower: The Woman in the Watch Tower (Susan Wyndham, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
In Elizabeth Harrower: The Woman in the Watch Tower, journalist and author Susan Wyndham offers a sympathetic and illuminating exploration of the life and work of one of post-war Australia’s...
The One Remaining (Paula McLean, Fearless Press)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Paula McLean’s The One Remaining is a quiet, affecting novel about memory, silence and the long shadow of a sister’s disappearance. When successful novelist Hilary Mason discovers a stack of...
PMLA shortlists; Byrne appointed Writing Australia director; Waitere appointed PANZ president
Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Welcome to this week's news. The Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2025 shortlisted titles were announced this week, with a record 645 titles submitted for consideration. This will be the first year...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Sales Fiction UQP has sold simplified Chinese rights to Mammoth (Chris Flynn) to Shanghai Eco-Reading; and Arabic rights to Ghost Cities (Siang Lu) to Al Amal al Kubra. Nonfiction Black...
