CARMEL BIRD Field of Poppies: extract
We’re thrilled to continue this series of extracts from recent Australian books with an extract from award-winning author Carmel Bird’s latest novel Field of Poppies. What lies beneath the poppy field? There are rich and varied layers to Field of Poppies, which ranges...
LEAH SWANN Sheerwater: extract
This week’s extract is from Leah Swann’s novel Sheerwater, a gripping story of missing children. When it opens, Ava is on the Great Ocean Road, driving to a new life in the little town of Sheerwater with her two young sons, Max and Teddy, her car jammed with their...
LAURA JEAN MCKAY The Animals in That Country: extract
How could Laura Jean McKay know that her novel about a pandemic would be published during an actual pandemic? Unlike Covid, however, the pandemic in her debut novel gives sufferers bright pink eyes and an ability to understand the language of animals. Jean Bennett is...
JULIE JANSON Benevolence: extract
This week we’re delighted to bring you an extract from Julie Janson’s new novel Benevolence. In this vivid and very moving novel, Indigenous author Julie Janson takes us back to the early days of Sydney and reveals them to us through the eyes of a young...
KARINA KILMORE Where the Truth Lies. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Shortlisted for the Unpublished Manuscript Award in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Karina Kilmore’s debut has got a lot of Australian crime fiction fans talking. She was slipping away. The further she fell, the closer the clouds seemed to come....
CATHY PERKINS The Shelf Life of Zora Cross: extract
This week’s extract is from Cathy Perkins’s biography of Australian poet Zora Cross. Largely unknown today, she was a sensation when, still in her 20s, she published the bestselling Songs of Love and Life in 1917. Frankly erotic by the standards of...
MIRANDI RIWOE Stone Sky, Gold Mountain: extract
Mirandi Riwoe’s second novel (her first, The Fish Girl, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize) is set on the Palmer River goldfields of far north Queensland, and the neighbouring settlement of Maytown. Gold was discovered on the remote Palmer River in 1873, and the...
KIRSTY MANNING The Lost Jewels. Reviewed by Ann Skea
This new novel from the author of The Jade Lily traverses three continents and features the fabulous jewels of the famous Cheapside Hoard. The Lost Jewels was inspired by a true story. On 18 June 1912, a workman clearing rubble from a cellar in London’s...
BEM LE HUNTE Elephants with Headlights. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Bem Le Hunte’s third novel explores what happens when Australian mores meet Indian traditions, and old ways collide with new. Siddharth is a successful Delhi businessman. The sort of person who, as Guruji sees, is keen to make it clear that: … he didn’t lead a life of...
KIRSTEN KRAUTH Almost A Mirror: extract
Welcome to the first of our new series of Friday extracts – a little something for the end of the week. If you like the idea, please let us know! We’re delighted to launch with an extract from Kirsten Krauth’s new novel Almost A Mirror. This is a...
LAUREN CHATER Gulliver’s Wife. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
In her first novel, The Lace Weaver, Lauren Chater took readers to Estonia; in her second she imagines the life of the woman left behind in London when Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver went off on his travels. There’s an old saying: behind every great man there’s...
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