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The Brothers (S D Hinton, HarperCollins)
Released August 2022
S D Hinton’s debut novel The Brothers is a masterclass in menacing tension. Set on the Victorian south coast, it starts with an isolated house and a series of threatening,... Read more
Mr Carver’s Whale (Lyn Hughes, Fourth Estate)
Released August 2022
On the volcanic island of Pico in the Azores, a young and crippled Antonio Mateus João Carvalho Cabral is delivered a sea chest of books. Among the many books he... Read more
Ella and the Useless Day (Meg McKinlay, illus by Karen Blair, Walker)
Released August 2022
Turning trash into treasure and cleaning into fun! The joys of sorting through useless household hoarding combined with the value of re-using, recycling and upcycling make this picture book a... Read more
Life Lessons for Little Ones: You are Enough (Jess Sanders, illus by Ocean Hughes, Affirm)
Released August 2022
You are Enough is the first title in a new series, 'Life Lessons for Little Ones', that pairs the award-winning author of Love Your Body and Be Your Own Man,... Read more
The Deadly Daylight (Ash Harrier, Pantera)
Released August 2022
In Ash Harrier’s debut middle-grade novel, The Deadly Daylight, 12-year-old Alice England helps her father dress corpses in the family funeral home. She finds that certain personal objects are ‘resonant’:... Read more
Our Dreaming (Kirli Saunders, illus by Dub Leffler, Scholastic)
Released August 2022
This isn’t the first time that Gunai writer, poet and activist Kirli Saunders and Bigambul illustrator Dub Leffler have created something incredible together. It’s no surprise after the success of... Read more
The Brink (Holden Sheppard, Text)
Released August 2022
In The Brink, schoolies week goes horribly wrong when a group of school leavers find themselves isolated on a remote island along the Western Australian coast. Everyone is trying to... Read more
The Hidden Girl (Louise Bassett, Walker)
Released August 2022
In Louise Bassett’s debut novel The Hidden Girl Melati Nelson has precariously performed the 'good girl' act for a year at her new school, trying to overcome the misdoings of... Read more
Nimblefoot (Robert Drewe, Hamish Hamilton)
Released August 2022
In Nimblefoot, Robert Drewe imagines the second act in the life of Australian historical figure Johnny Day, an international star in the 19th-century sport of pedestrianism at age 10 and... Read more
The Book of Wondrous Possibilities (Deborah Abela, Puffin)
Released August 2022
The Book of Wondrous Possibilities starts with a bang and doesn’t let up. Arlo lives a quiet life with his uncle and pet mouse Herbert above their bookshop, until the... Read more
A Little Spark (Barry Jonsberg, A&U)
Released August 2022
A Little Spark is the latest middle-grade novel from author Barry Jonsberg. Known for his novels My Life as an Alphabet and A Song Only I Can Hear, Jonsberg again... Read more
Forty Nights (Pirooz Jafari, Ultimo)
Released July 2022
Forty Nights is the literary debut of photographer turned lawyer and writer Pirooz Jafari. The novel weaves together three separate timelines, moving between 1360s Sweden, 1980s Iran and present-day Australia—with... Read more
Blue Hour (Sarah Schmidt, Hachette)
Released July 2022
Sarah Schmidt’s second novel, following her award-winning debut See What I Have Done, is an intensely absorbing emotional journey through motherhood and trauma set against the turbulent 20th century. In... Read more
The Angry Women’s Choir (Meg Bignell, Michael Joseph)
Released July 2022
When going through tough times in life you often turn to any solace you can find, sometimes discovering it in the unlikeliest of places. For Freycinet Barnes that solace just... Read more
Holy Woman (Louise Omer, Scribe)
Released July 2022
For Louise Omer, leaving a problematic marriage became leaving a faith. For her, the two went hand-in-hand, one a symbol of the other: the wife is subject to the husband,... Read more
The Chronic Pain Couple (Karra Eloff, Exisle)
Released July 2022
Karra Eloff met her forever partner while she was struck with chronic pain. Since that time Eloff, a health professional, founded the Chronic Pain Couple, an organisation that delivers practical... Read more
The Registrar (Neela Janakiramanan, A&U)
Released July 2022
Emma Swann has worked her whole life to get here—and it’s even worse than she imagined. The young doctor has recently been accepted onto the highly competitive orthopaedic surgery program... Read more
Of Marsupials and Men (Alistair Paton, Black Inc.)
Released July 2022
If members of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria had had their way, monkeys and boa constrictors would have been let loose in the foliage of 19th-century Melbourne. That idea was... Read more
Enclave (Claire G Coleman, Hachette)
Released July 2022
Born of social media algorithms and convenience culture, with a biting critique of modern tribalism, Enclave, Claire G Coleman’s third novel, is Brave New World with every conceit flipped for... Read more
Tarni’s Chance (Paul Collins, illus by Jules Ober, Ford St)
Released July 2022
In Tarni’s Chance, the world of Paul Collins and Jules Ober’s young protagonist is grey with sadness as her parents argue, and her inner mood is reflected in the monochromatic... Read more
