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The Wild Unknown (Emily Gale, Text)
Released May 2026
In The Wild Unknown by Emily Gale (Outlaw Girls), the year is 2045, and Eddie’s world is completely run by technology. From household devices to classroom support systems and the... Read more
A Single Witness (Christine Balint, Spinifex)
Released May 2026
Christine Balint's gripping historical fiction, A Single Witness, is based on the true story of Anna Maria Bonon, a girl from a poor 1750s Italian rural village who works in a... Read more
The Clueless Guide to Solving a Mystery (Clueless #1) (Samera Kamaleddine, illus Hykie Breeze, HarperCollins)
Released May 2026
In The Clueless Guide to Solving a Mystery, the first instalment in the Clueless series, Samera Kamaleddine (The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart) introduces readers to Claudia. She is temporarily... Read more
The Secrets of Strangers (Jess Kitching, S&S)
Released May 2026
Despite brimming with suspects, lies and a cast of clichéd small-town characters, The Secrets of Strangers by Jess Kitching (The Life Experiment) is anything but a stereotypical “cosy crime” novel.... Read more
The Attention Recovery Plan: How to Win the Battle for Focus in a World Built to Break It (David Gillespie, Macmillan)
Released May 2026
David Gillespie (Sweet Poison, Toxic at Work) has built a reputation for distilling complex research into clear, useful guidance. His latest book, The Attention Recovery Guide: Winning the Battle for Focus in... Read more
You’re Welcome!: A Baking Celebration with a Southeast Asian Twist (Raymond Tan & Audrey Payne, Murdoch)
Released May 2026
Raymond Tan and Audrey Payne’s You’re Welcome!: A Baking Celebration with a Southeast Asian Twist is a joyful, generous cookbook – one to pore over, plan from and build celebrations... Read more
My Wonderful Disgrace (Angourie Rice & Kate Rice, Walker)
Released May 2026
My Wonderful Disgrace by Angourie Rice and Kate Rice (Stuck Up & Stupid) is a darkly comic tale of misjudgements set around the most anticipated night of the year for... Read more
Every Wild Soul (Katherine Johnson, HarperCollins)
Released May 2026
Eco-literature has been booming in recent years, thanks largely to writers including James Bradley, Richard Flanagan, Tim Winton, Charlotte Wood and Donna Cameron. Winner of the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize,... Read more
No Hiding from the Woman in the Moon (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala)
Released May 2026
Bruce Pascoe’s No Hiding from the Woman in the Moon is a quiet, contemplative collection that looks upward to the Moon while remaining firmly grounded in Country. The poems move... Read more
Periodic Bitch (Emma Hardy, A&U)
Released May 2026
In Periodic Bitch, Emma Hardy delivers a memoir that is both intellectually rigorous and literary in style, interrogating the cultural construction of the “female monster” alongside her lived experience of premenstrual... Read more
The Fast Lane (Pip Harry, illus Katrin Dreiling, Larrikin)
Released May 2026
The Fast Lane by Pip Harry (August & Jones, Because of You) is a lively and funny story about Daisy, a fast-swimming and competitive pig who struggles to share the... Read more
Tearing Myself Together (Anna Whateley, A&U Children’s)
Released May 2026
Anna Whateley’s raw, authentic representations of neurodivergent young women in Tearing Myself Together offer the kind of windows and mirrors that are still too rare in Australian young adult fiction.... Read more
The Enigmatic Echidna: Secrets of the World’s Most Curious Creature (Danielle Clode, Black Inc.)
Released May 2026
In The Enigmatic Echidna: Secrets of the World’s Most Curious Creature, biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode (Koala: A Life in Trees) draws readers into the fascinating world of one... Read more
Capture (Amanda Lohrey, Text)
Released May 2026
In Amanda Lohrey’s Capture, ageing psychiatrist James Mather is commissioned to research psychological explanations for alien capture experiences. His interviews with “experiencers” – whose stories he quickly finds to be... Read more
The Greatest Goal in the Galaxy (Uranus FC #1) (Mick Elliott, Scholastic)
Released May 2026
The Greatest Goal in the Galaxy is a fun start to a new series, with author and illustrator Mick Elliott (The Turners, Squidge Dibley) blending football, aliens and ever-popular gross-out... Read more
Silvia (Maya Caruso, Echo)
Released May 2026
Midlife awakening lies at the heart of Maya Caruso’s impressive debut novel, Silvia. This character-driven novel follows 42-year-old Silvia, a divorced daughter of a widowed Italian matriarch, Silvia Senior, whose... Read more
A Little Unwell (Kerry Jewell, Hachette)
Released May 2026
Kerry Jewell’s debut novel, A Little Unwell, is a candid medical drama that draws back the privacy curtain on the life of a young resident doctor working rotations at an... Read more
Once Upon Tomorrow (Karen Comer, Lothian)
Released May 2026
Once Upon Tomorrow is a complex young adult verse novel by CBCA-winning author Karen Comer (Grace Notes). The novel weaves together 3 alternating perspectives: Miri, an ambitious Year 12 student... Read more
The Ruiners (Ellena Savage, Summit)
Released May 2026
Ellena Savage’s debut novel, The Ruiners, introduces a narrator suspended between self-awareness and self-sabotage: a 29-year-old waitress, working at casino-adjacent lobster shack Claws, whose life feels both theatrically doomed and... Read more
The Prime Minister Problem (Brenton Cullen, Riveted)
Released May 2026
Brenton Cullen’s debut middle-grade novel, The Prime Minister Problem, is a tender story about loneliness and community, an ode to the power one person can have to spark change, and... Read more
