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Nightingale (Laura Elvery, UQP)

Released May 2025

Grounded in history and buoyed by Laura Elvery’s elegant, moving prose, Nightingale is a fictional reimagining of the near-mythic figure of Florence Nightingale, told in three parts. The first and... Read more

Viet Kieu: Recipes remembered from Vietnam (Thi Le, Murdoch)

Released May 2025

‘Viet Kieu’ is a Vietnamese term used for people of Vietnamese heritage who were raised and are living in the diaspora. In Viet Kieu: Recipes remembered from Vietnam, Thi Le,... Read more

The Bearcat (Georgia Rose Phillips, Picador)

Released May 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... Read more

The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains (Sarah Clutton, A&U)

Released May 2025

Sarah Clutton’s The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains is a richly woven novel that explores family dynamics, small-town life and long-buried secrets. The story follows Penny, a widowed farmer whose... Read more

He Would Never (Holly Wainwright, Macmillan)

Released May 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... Read more

Letters to Our Robot Son (Cadance Bell, Ultimo)

Released May 2025

Letters to Our Robot Son is the fiction debut of memoirist Cadance Bell (The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody), a mercurial science fiction novel about a robot who awakens... Read more

Little World (Josephine Rowe, Black Inc.)

Released May 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... Read more

The Opposite of Lonely (Hilde Hinton, Hachette)

Released May 2025

For the past few years, Rose has felt disassociated from her own life, struggling to come to terms with the passing of her cherished father and the collapse of her... Read more

Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated (Joseph Earp, Pantera)

Released May 2025

Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated is both surprisingly tender and hilariously acerbic, with Joseph Earp’s writing effortlessly drawing the reader in. The novel follows Ellie Robertson, an artist... Read more

Orpheus Nine (Chris Flynn, Hachette)

Released April 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 –... Read more

The Sex Lives of Married Women (Saman Shad, Penguin)

Released April 2025

Meet Rani, Sophie and Meena – three Sydney women in their late 30s who are confronted with the realisation that their lives aren’t what they had hoped for. Saman Shad’s... Read more

I Ate the Whole World to Find You (Rachel Ang, Scribe)

Released April 2025

While the world is in flux, the emotional realities remain firm in Rachel Ang’s collection of graphic short stories, I Ate the Whole World to Find You. Across five tales... Read more

Mother Tongue (Naima Brown, Macmillan)

Released April 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... Read more

The Confidence Woman (Sophie Quick, A&U)

Released April 2025

Christina Swales is a single mum, a business coach – and a blackmailer. Using incriminating information gleaned from her one-on-one online coaching sessions, Christina blackmails her clients to save enough... Read more

She Shapes History (Sita Sargeant, Hardie Grant Explore)

Released April 2025

At the heart of Australia’s geography and history lies a wealth of stories about women who have helped shape the nation – yet many remain untold and underexplored. Sita Sargeant’s... Read more

Nature’s Fool (Timothy Doyle, Melbourne Books)

Released April 2025

Challenging traditional conceptions of early Australian settler history, Nature’s Fool examines the intricate relations between the Kaurna peoples and early Irish settlers. A longtime academic and conservationist, Timothy Doyle (Dyandi)... Read more

The Passenger Seat (Vijay Khurana, Ultimo)

Released April 2025

Beginning mid-jump and barely letting up the tension, Vijay Khurana’s debut novel, The Passenger Seat, is an unusual and deftly written literary thriller. It follows the uneasy friendship between two... Read more

The Distance Between Dreams (Emily Paull, Fremantle)

Released April 2025

Emily Paull’s The Distance Between Dreams is a poignant and meticulously crafted historical romance, rightfully shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Awards. The novel beautifully captures an era of conflict... Read more

When She Was Gone (Sara Foster, HarperCollins)

Released April 2025

Sara Foster’s When She Was Gone stands out in a crowded thriller market for its unique blend of suspense, character depth and emotional resonance. Set in the fictional town of... Read more

Lyrebird (Jane Caro, A&U)

Released April 2025

Walkley Award-winning journalist, social commentator and author Jane Caro (The Mother) returns to crime fiction for her second adult novel, The Lyrebird. The titular bird first appears in the prologue,... Read more