Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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WBN advance reviews >

Ash Barty: Champion (Ash Barty, HarperCollins) 

Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Ash Barty hardly needs an introduction. She has captivated the world with her tennis skills, infectious personality and unwavering fair-mindedness since her first Women’s Tennis Association tour in 2011. Barty...

Backwaters (Emma Ling Sidnam, Text) 

Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam is the 2022 winner of the distinguished Michael Gifkins Text Prize for an Unpublished Novel by a New Zealand writer. Drawing on themes of identity,...

Back Up (Liam Mannix, NewSouth) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Back Up, written by Walkley and Eureka award-winning science journalist Liam Mannix, exposes the appalling practices pervasive in the enormous industries set up to deal with back pain. Covering a...

Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl (Fiona Britton, A&U) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Fiona Britton’s debut crime novel, Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, offers readers a glimpse into 1930s Sydney—from a peek behind the curtain of the upscale brothel, Maison des Fleurs,...

We’re Moving Away (Nina Nill, Bright Light) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Nina Nill is an Australia-based artist and illustrator who has amassed a large Instagram following for her digital art. We’re Moving Away is her first picture book, a gentle, warm-hearted tale...

Australian Backyard Birds (Myke Mollard, Woodslane) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Myke Mollard invites readers to experience the birdscape of Australia as he showcases over 150 birds, their habits and lifestyles in Australian Backyard Birds. The book is organised by state,...

Ghost Book (Remy Lai, A&U Children’s) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
July Chen sees ghosts, but because her dad doesn’t believe in them, she pretends otherwise. Except during Hungry Ghost Month, when dangerous ghosts run amok. When she saves a ghost...

The Things That Matter Most (Gabbie Stroud, A&U) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Gabbie Stroud’s first adult novel The Things That Matter Most packs a powerful emotional punch. Stroud is no stranger to the book industry, having previously penned memoir Teacher, nonfiction collection...

Prehistoric Joy (Andrew Sneddon, UQP) 

Tuesday, 27 June 2023
In Prehistoric Joy, archaeologist Andrew Sneddon applies his knowledge of prehistorical cultures to his past, specifically the years when his mother was in a relationship with a violent conman. After...

The Cop Who Fell to Earth (Craig Semple, Echo) 

Tuesday, 20 June 2023
The title of Craig Semple’s memoir, The Cop Who Fell to Earth, suggests flight and ambition, but it could also be reframed as an earthbound slog through a dark maze...

Mole Creek (James Dunbar, Echo) 

Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Mole Creek is James Dunbar’s first foray into writing a serious crime and espionage novel. In it, he delivers intriguing dual storylines set 50 years apart. Pete McAuslan, a former...

Letters for Lunch! (Maree Coote, Melbournestyle) 

Tuesday, 20 June 2023
File this one under ‘typography/lunchbox inspo/poetry/humour/veggies’—oh, sorry, you don’t have that section on your bookshelves? Well, make one, so you can put Maree Coote’s Letters for Lunch! there. This quirky,...

The Fortune Maker (Catherine Norton, HarperCollins) 

Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Catherine Norton’s first book, Crossing, was awarded the 2015 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for children’s literature and was a CBCA Notable book in the same year. The Fortune Maker is...

Jawsome (R J Timmis, Albert St Books) 

Tuesday, 20 June 2023
The best graphic novels need to be action-packed with an engaging interplay of text and illustrations. Ideally, they should also be funny. Rebecca Timmis’s Jawsome ticks all these boxes and...

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...