Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Little Plum (Laura McPhee-Browne, Text)

Released January 2023

Little Plum is the second novel by the award-winning author of Cherry Beach, Laura McPhee-Browne. The story unfolds around 29-year-old Coral, who decides to follow through with a pregnancy from... Read more

Koko and the Coconut (Turia Pitt & Celestine Vaite, illus by Emilie Tavaearii, Puffin)

Released February 2023

Koko and the Coconut is the first picture book by author and humanitarian Turia Pitt, written in collaboration with her mum Celestine Vaite. While the story is simple—a crab sheds... Read more

You Talk, We Die (Judy Ryan, Scribe)

Released February 2023

Safe injecting rooms have been a polarising issue in Victoria for decades. Years of debate, government inquiries, coroner’s reports, media conjecture and scare campaigns have plagued any productive conversation. But... Read more

Brain is (Not) Always Right (Scott Stuart, Scholastic)

Released February 2023

Scott Stuart may have come to creating books for children in an unconventional way, but the social media storm surrounding his support for his child to be everything they could... Read more

Cloud Land (Penny van Oosterzee, A&U)

Released February 2023

In the gripping and extensively researched Cloud Land, Penny van Oosterzee imagines what a small region of Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands has witnessed over both geological time and since white settlement.... Read more

The Exclusion Zone (Shastra Deo, UQP)

Released February 2023

‘You are searching for something,’ begins The Exclusion Zone. It's a provocation that forms the manifesto for the enthralling and ingenious second poetry collection from Shastra Deo following her ALS... Read more

How to Kill a Client (Joanna Jenkins, A&U)

the book cover of How to Kill a Client

Released February 2023

Gavin Jones is the slimiest, most unpleasant client at big law firm Howard Greene—and that’s with some stiff competition. When this misogynistic, manipulative man dies suddenly it’s not so much... Read more

The Cockatoo Wars (Helen Milroy, Magabala)

Released February 2023

The Cockatoo Wars is the latest picture book in Helen Milroy’s vibrant Tales from the Bush Mob series. Featuring a cast of Australian animals including Dingo, Willy Wagtail, Platypus and Wombat, and drawing... Read more

Timeless (Kelly Canby, Fremantle Press)

Released February 2023

A topical theme in these social media-obsessed days, Timeless tells the tale of Emit, a young boy whose parents are always too preoccupied to pay attention to him. Tired of... Read more

Who Cares? Life on welfare in Australia (Eve Vincent, MUP)

Released February 2023

What is it like to live on welfare in Australia today? In Who Cares? researcher Eve Vincent endeavours to answer this question, with a special focus on the experiences of... Read more

Compulsion (Kate Scott, Hamish Hamilton)

Released January 2023

Lucy is a music journalist with a penchant for 80s party dresses, long, languorous walks, and throwing decadent dinner parties for her friends. Robin is the dark-eyed, softly spoken man... Read more

A Man and His Pride (Luke Rutledge, Michael Joseph)

Released February 2023

In Luke Rutledge’s A Man and His Pride, 26-year-old Sean Preston navigates the realities of being in his 20s—work, relationships, sexuality, mental health—against the backdrop of Australia’s 2017 same-sex marriage... Read more

Headland (John Byrnes, A&U)

Released January 2023

It’s a well-worn storyline for Australian crime fiction: a detective arrives in a small town only to discover that danger lurks beneath quaint country manners; the detective is usually running... Read more

The Last Love Note (Emma Grey, Michael Joseph)

Released January 2023

Recently widowed, Kate Whittaker is trying her hardest to navigate the grief of losing her husband, Cam, while also being a single mother to their young son. That’s not to... Read more

The Matchmaker (Saman Shad, Viking)

Released February 2023

Playing cupid for the Sydney Pakistani community is Saima Khan in The Matchmaker. Pairing lovers is second nature for Saima until the handsome, young white-collar Kal (Khalid) Ali unwittingly saunters... Read more

Why Does it Still Hurt? (Paul Biegler, Scribe)

Released January 2023

The way we understand pain evolves, and it is misunderstood even within the medical community. Part physical, part psychological, it is notoriously difficult to study. In Why Does it Still... Read more

Seven Sisters (Katherine Kovacic, HarperCollins)

Released January 2023

Katherine Kovacic’s latest novel is an intense, page-turning psychological thriller that explores the depravity of domestic violence, the failings of the justice system and the lengths families will go in... Read more

Sydney: A biography (Louis Nowra, NewSouth)

Released December 2022

Melbourne-born Louis Nowra moved to Sydney as an adult and has never lost his passion for his adopted home. Whether he’s describing the city’s mercurial weather, its elegant convict-designed colonial... Read more

An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb (Louise Wolhuter, Ultimo)

Released December 2022

‘Twisty mystery’ is the delightfully accurate descriptor on the AI sheet for this character-based drama. Yet before its mysterious elements begin unspooling, the characters and setting are firmly established, endearing... Read more

The Teal Revolution (Margot Saville, Hardie Grant)

Released December 2022

Australia's 2022 federal election brought a major upset: six independent female candidates—colloquially known as ‘the teals’ for the signature colour they adopted (a blend of green and Liberal blue)—catapulted into... Read more