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South of Darkness (John Marsden, Macmillan)
Released November 2014
South of Darkness is John Marsden’s first novel for an adult audience, set in London in the late 1700s. Barnaby Fletch has no memory of his parents. For as long... Read more
Bad Romeo (Leisa Rayven, Macmillan)
Released January 2015
Bad Romeo doesn’t quite shake off its Twilight fan-fiction origins, but author Leisa Rayven manages a funny, sexy narrative voice that lifts this book above its peers. Cassie Taylor is... Read more
The Last Pulse (Anson Cameron, Vintage)
Released December 2014
The Last Pulse is a funny and touching tale of a South Australian farmer-turned-hero (or so he thinks). When Merv Rossiter steals a boat from the Riverland and heads up... Read more
To Love a Sunburnt Country (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
Released December 2014
Jackie French has created another magnificent story in To Love a Sunburnt Country, which follows an Australian woman during World War II. The narrative imagines the future of the Banjo... Read more
The Floating Garden (Emma Ashmere, Spinifex Press)
Released January 2015
SetSet in Sydney in the 1920s, The Floating Garden beautifully and evocatively portrays both the difficulties and the sense of promise in the post-war era. Through the eyes of Ellis... Read more
Emergence (John Birmingham, Pan Macmillan)
Released January 2015
John Birmingham is back in his favourite ‘splosions and gore’ mode with Emergence, the first book in a trilogy that features Dave Hooper. Dave starts out as a pretty ordinary... Read more
The Secrets of Midwives (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan)
Released February 2015
Three generations of midwives, each with distinct philosophies and personalities, are at the heart of this novel. Floss, the eldest, has kept a dark secret for decades, which begins to... Read more
Whale in the Bath (Kylie Westaway, illus by Tom Jellett, A&U)
Released October 2014
Bruno is a boy with a problem. His mother has told him it’s bath time and insists he must have a bath before going to bed. Bruno then discovers a... Read more
Race to the End of the World: The Mapmaker Chronicles (A L Tait, Hachette)
Released October 2014
In a world believed to be flat, King Orel is determined to learn what lies beyond the horizon. Is it true that a ship will fall off the edge and... Read more
Withering-by-Sea: A Stella Montgomery Intrigue (Judith Rossell, ABC Books)
Released November 2014
Set in a glum Victorian seaside town, Judith Rossell has written an engaging and evocative mystery-adventure story. Eleven-year-old Stella Montgomery lives a dreary life with her three horrible aunts in... Read more
Speed of Light (Joy Cowley, Gecko Press)
Released October 2014
Jeff’s family life is less than ideal. His brother is in a Thai prison, his sister has a secret she won’t reveal, his mother is unhappy and his father is... Read more
Once Upon a Timeless Tale: The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Margrete Lamond, illus by Gaye Chapman, Little Hare)
Released October 2014
Fairytales have been around forever. Many of us will have grown up with stories by Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. However, the availability of fairytales has... Read more
Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing (Susan Hawthorne, Spinifex Press)
Released October 2014
In 2002 I attended the launch of Susan Hawthorne’s Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity and later used it as an economics text. In that book Hawthorne put the case... Read more
Peacemongers (Barry Hill, UQP)
Released November 2014
This is an immense book in length, content and quality, and a journey well worth taking. Barry Hill has combined a travel narrative with a meditation on history and peace.... Read more
Kerry Stokes (Andrew Rule, HarperCollins)
Released November 2014
The cards have always been stacked against Kerry Stokes. Born John Patrick Alford, his mother gave him up for adoption. His name was scratched out by a judge’s pen on... Read more
Nightingale (Fiona McIntosh, Michael Joseph)
Released November 2014
This novel shares many features with the recent ABC TV series ‘Anzac Girls’; both narratives feature tales of nurses working in Egypt and on the hospital ships off Gallipoli during... Read more
Australia on Horseback: The Story of the Horse and the Making of a Nation (Cameron Forbes, Pan Macmillan)
Released November 2014
Cameron Forbes is an award-winning journalist and the author of Hellfire, about Australian POWs in Asia in World War II, and The Korean War, about Australia’s involvement in that conflict.... Read more
Something Quite Peculiar (Steve Kilbey, Hardie Grant)
Released November 2014
This memoir from one of Australia’s most gifted songwriters is a lively, anecdotal account of 40-plus years of musicianship. As the frontman of The Church—one of this country’s great rock... Read more
Nona & Me (Clare Atkins, Black Inc.)
Released October 2014
Nona & Me is one of those wonderful books that takes you deeply into a rarely seen world and brings it vibrantly to life. Set in a remote part of... Read more
Amnesia (Peter Carey, Hamish Hamilton)
Released October 2014
After recent novels set in England and Germany (The Chemistry of Tears) and the US (Parrot and Olivier in America), Peter Carey returns to Australia for the first time since... Read more
