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The Red Wheelbarrow (Briony Stewart, UQP)
Released June 2012
The Red Wheelbarrow is a picture book with a difference; there are no words and there are two different stories depending on which side of the book you pick up.... Read more
The Sex Lives of Australians: A History (Frank Bongiorno, Black Inc.)
Released July 2012
Frank Bongiorno’s The Sex Lives of Australians: A History is an important and fascinating account of Australia’s past through the lens of sex. With the kind of minute detail and... Read more
The Forrests (Emily Perkins, Bloomsbury)
Released May 2012
Dorothy Forrest is seven years old when the Forrests move from New York, with dwindling money, to New Zealand. At the opening of the novel, Frank, the father, is capturing... Read more
The Lost Woman (Sydney Smith, Text)
Released June 2012
Reviewing a memoir with this much disturbing content is challenging, but I highly recommend this book for the strength and courage of the author’s voice, and the beauty of her... Read more
The Kingdom and the Quarry: China, Australia, Fear and Greed (David Uren, Black Inc.)
Released June 2012
Australia’s relationship with China is at the forefront of public discourse yet it is portrayed in wildly different ways. On the one hand China is the foundation of our prosperity... Read more
Unzipped (Nicki Reed, Text)
Released July 2012
Peta refers to life before the couch and after the couch. Before the couch she is happily, if not blandly, married to workaholic lawyer Mark, half-heartedly toying with the idea... Read more
Winter Be My Shield (Jo Spurrier, HarperVoyager)
Released June 2012
In the first book in her ‘Children of the Black Sun’ series, Jo Spurrier manages to avoid the traps that many debut fantasy novelists fall into. Her characters are credible,... Read more
Shadows: The Rephaim Book 1 (Paula Weston, Text)
Released July 2012
In Shadows, Gaby is recovering in Pandanus Beach from a car accident that left her severely injured and killed her twin brother Jude. At a local bar she meets Rafa,... Read more
The Daughters of Mars (Tom Keneally, Vintage)
Released June 2012
A sprawling saga, The Daughters of Mars is based on journals kept by Australian nursing sisters who laboured in claustrophobic hospital ships, casualty clearing stations and hospitals in Europe during... Read more
The Meaning of Grace (Deborah Forster, Vintage)
Released May 2012
Deborah Forster’s last novel was the Miles Franklin Award-shortlisted The Book of Emmett. It’s immediately evident that Forster is a writer of considerable talent; her characters are original and instantly... Read more
The Richmond Conspiracy (Andrew Grimes, Text)
Released July 2012
It’s January 1933 and in a warehouse in Melbourne, two policemen start their investigation into the murder of businessman and war veteran Victor Radcliffe. Radcliffe was respected rather than liked... Read more
Rotten Gods (Greg Barron, HarperCollins)
Released July 2012
In the not-too-distant future, the world is on the brink, with unchecked pollution, environmental catastrophes, collapsing food supplies, debt-ridden Western governments and unprecedented inequality. Enter the latest proponents of militant... Read more
The Remnants (John Hughes, UWA Publishing)
Released June 2012
What a challenging novel this is. Readers familiar with the author, via his prize-winning collection of autobiographical essays, The Idea of Home (2005), will know that he never chooses the... Read more
Nightfall (Will Elliott, HarperCollins)
Released July 2012
Aden wakes up in a blood-filled bathtub in a strange place. He knows he has killed himself, but remembers only fragments of his life. As he explores his surroundings he... Read more
The Rest is Weight (Jennifer Mills, UQP)
Released July 2012
Australian novelist and poet Jennifer Mills’ first collection of short stories offers an evocative and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition in its rich emotional complexity. Although The Rest is... Read more
My Hundred Lovers (Susan Johnson, A&U)
Released June 2012
You may know of Susan Johnson for her brave memoir of motherhood, A Better Woman, or her novel about writer Charmian Clift, The Broken Book, among other titles. Her seventh... Read more
The Colour of Trouble (Gerry Bobsien, Walker Books)
Released July 2012
Fifteen-year-old Maddy has synaesthesia, which means her senses are cross-wired and she sees sounds and tastes colour. As an artist, it gives her a unique take on the world, but... Read more
In the Beech Forest (Gary Crew, illus by Den Scheer, Ford St)
Released May 2012
A boy wanders into a forest of ‘ancient, primal’ beech trees. He is both a child with a toy sword, and an adventurer from one of his computer games. As... Read more
The Betrayal (Y A Erskine, Bantam)
Released May 2012
The Betrayal—Y A Erskine’s second crime novel following The Brotherband—will reel you in and deliver a series of shocks you never saw coming. Like its predecessor, it bravely ventures into... Read more
The Architecture of Song (Gary Crew, Fourth Estate)
Released May 2012
The Architecture of Song is the second foray into adult fiction for Gary Crew, a well-known and prolific author of YA, and indeed many of the freakish characters in this... Read more
