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The Shadow Year (Hannah Richell, Hachette)
Released May 2013
General fiction readers should enjoy this second novel from Hannah Richell, author of Secrets of the Tides. Alternating chapters piece together the stories of two very different characters: one easily... Read more
Father Bob: The Larrikin Priest (Sue Williams, Michael Joseph)
Released May 2013
The 2005 SBS TV program Speaking in Tongues, co-hosted by John Safran, first introduced Father Bob to a wider audience, but the popular priest has been ruffling feathers long before... Read more
Sweet Damage (Rebecca James, A&U)
Released April 2013
Sweet Damage is the hotly anticipated new book from Rebecca James, whose debut YA thriller Beautiful Malice generated much hype around her reported million dollar advance and extensive foreign rights... Read more
Steal My Sunshine (Emily Gale, Random House)
Released May 2013
Australian-based, British-born YA author Emily Gale’s latest novel, Steal My Sunshine, explores long-buried secrets and loyalties in the shadow of a dark episode in Australia’s recent history: the forced adoption... Read more
Song of the Slums (Richard Harland, A&U, $17.99 pb, ISBN 9781743310052, May)
Released May 2013
Astor’s passion is for music, but she’ll take an arranged marriage if it gets her out of her stepfather’s house. Instead she finds herself tricked into working as a governess,... Read more
The Pirate Company: On the Trail of the Golden Toucan (Susan Cason, Scholastic)
Released May 2013
Young Tom Applecross has recently lost his father Josiah, the famous explorer and discoverer of the Lost City. With Josiah missing and presumed dead after failing to return from a... Read more
Finding Serendipity (Angelica Banks, A&U)
Released May 2013
Tuesday’s mother is Serendipity Smith, the most famous author in the world. Serendipity is supposed to finish her latest novel today, but when Tuesday knocks on her door, the manuscript... Read more
How to Catch a Monster (Christina Bollenbach, Scholastic)
Released May 2013
Illustrator Christina Bollenbach has turned her hand to writing with How to Catch a Monster. Sweatband-wearing Lukas is visited by a large toothed monster every night. One day he decides... Read more
Bird & Bear (Ann James, The Five Mile Press)
Released May 2013
Bird & Bear is a beautifully illustrated picture book that explores the unfolding wonder of a young teddy bear as he ventures out into the world. We meet Bear on... Read more
The Perplexing Pineapple: The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta) Book 1 (Ursula Dubosarsky, puzzles and illus by Terry Denton, A&U)
Released May 2013
Individually, Terry Denton and Ursula Dubosarsky are so beloved by children and adults that they’ll no doubt attract a fanbase for this new series before it even hits the shelves.... Read more
The Childhood of Jesus (J M Coetzee, Text)
Released March 2013
Simón and David have stepped off a boat in a new country. After six weeks in a camp learning Spanish, they present themselves at Novilla’s relocation centre. ‘Good day,’ says... Read more
Kitchen Table Memoirs (Nick Richardson, ABC Books)
Released April 2013
I have a love/hate relationship with anthologies; just as you settle into one story, the author and style changes—and not always for the better. On the other hand, anthologies also... Read more
Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John (Helen Trinca, Text)
Released April 2013
Helen Trinca draws on interviews with family and friends of Madeleine St John to compose this first biography of the Australian author, who wrote four novels, including The Women in... Read more
The Swan Song of Doctor Malloy (Robert Power, Transit Lounge)
Released May 2013
It is the mid-80s and Australian scientist Anthony Malloy is working in London on a revolutionary invention—a tamper-proof, one-use syringe. It has the potential to make huge inroads in slowing... Read more
A Flower beneath the Cracks: A Memoir (Helen Sage, Affirm Press)
Released April 2013
One evening, Helen Sage’s 22-year-old daughter Jayne is involved in a near-fatal car accident. The family’s lives are immediately transformed as the full extent of Jayne’s brain injuries is revealed.... Read more
Mr Snack and the Lady Water (Brendan Shanahan, MUP)
Released April 2013
Brendan Shanahan’s collection of travel stories begins with his trip on a leaky barge up China’s Yangtze River towards the Three Gorges, a picturesque area that has mostly disappeared under... Read more
Burial Rites (Hannah Kent, Picador)
Released May 2013
Burial Rites is an impressively assured debut from Adelaide writer Hannah Kent, who made headlines last year when her manuscript triggered a major bidding war. It’s based on the true... Read more
Once Upon a Slime: 45 Fun Ways to Get Writing … Fast! (Andy Griffiths, illus by Terry Denton, Pan Macmillan)
Released April 2013
It’s not surprising to learn that a young Andy Griffiths was inspired by Der Struwwelpeter, discovering in those comically horrific German cautionary tales that reading can be exciting, surprising—and fun.... Read more
Madame Bovary’s Haberdashery (Maurilia Meehan, Transit Lounge)
Released April 2013
Odette and Cicely are best friends. Odette is a ceramic artist and serial monogamist; Cicely likes to knit and once published an erotic novel inspired by Madame Bovary. At the... Read more
Bone Ash Sky (Katerina Cosgrove, Hardie Grant)
Released May 2013
Katerina Cosgrove co-founded Sappho Books and Gertrude & Alice bookstore/café in Sydney. Her first novel The Glass Heart was published to acclaim in 2001. Bone Ash Sky, her second, is... Read more
