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The School (Brendan James Murray, Picador)

Released June 2021

Brendan James Murray is a full-time high school English teacher and an award-winning writer. His new nonfiction work The School chronicles a year in his classroom, in a public school... Read more

We Were Not Men (Campbell Mattinson, Fourth Estate)

Released June 2021

Campbell Mattinson’s We Were Not Men charts the story of twin brothers Jon and Eden in an episodic exploration of male kinship. Told from Jon’s perspective, the book begins with the... Read more

The Covered Wife (Lisa Emanuel, Pantera Press)

Released June 2021

When young lawyer Sarah meets the smart, handsome Daniel, the attraction is instant. Influenced by the charismatic Rabbi Menachem Lev and his wife Chani, who take the new couple under... Read more

Who Gets to be Smart (Bri Lee, A&U)

Released June 2021

Who Gets to be Smart opens with a walking tour of Oxford. Author Bri Lee is at the university to visit her friend, a freshly minted Rhodes Scholar. As the... Read more

Kunyi (Kunyi June Anne McInerney, Magabala)

Released June 2021

Kunyi, an illustrated memoir of Kunyi June Anne McInerney’s childhood, collects snapshot moments and stories of her life, told in her own words and accompanied by her paintings. The lively... Read more

100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze (Clayton Zane Comber, HarperCollins)

Released June 2021

Xander Maze’s best friend is his Nanna. When she is diagnosed with stage four cancer and asks him to write a list of 100 Remarkable Feats for him to achieve... Read more

A Pair of Pears and an Orange (Anna McGregor, Scribble)

Released June 2021

A pair of pears are good friends who like to spend their days together, playing games that are just right for the two of them. When Orange appears, Little Pear... Read more

One Hundred Days (Alice Pung, Black Inc.)

Released June 2021

Is there a right way to love? Karuna feels suffocated by her mother—and her entrapment multiplies when her dad leaves and she’s forced to move away from private school and... Read more

A Paper Inheritance (Dymphna Stella Rees, UQP)

Released June 2021

Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees were a literary partnership, contemporaneous with two more famous Australian literary couples of the 20th century, Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland, and Charmian Clift... Read more

Marlow Brown, Magician in the Making (Kesta Fleming, illus by Marjory Gardner, Celapene Press)

Released June 2021

Kesta Fleming has written stories and poems for junior readers for many years, making her publishing debut with the Marlow Brown chapter books in 2019. Magician in the Making, the second in... Read more

Echolalia (Briohny Doyle, Vintage)

Released June 2021

Echolalia, Briohny Doyle's skilful second novel, concerns a family on the verge of disintegration. Skipping elegantly between chapters set before and after a traumatic event that changes the family irrevocably,... Read more

Gunk Baby (Jamie Marina Lau, Hachette)

Released May 2021

Leen has opened up a massage and ear cleaning studio in the suburban wastelands of Par Mars. Her shop is housed in the second-best shopping mall in the district—Topic Heights.... Read more

Dear Ibis (Kate Liston-Mills, Spineless Wonders)

Released June 2021

From the author of The Waterfowl Are Drunk! comes an elegant and moving collection of short fiction set principally in New South Wales. With stories taking place against the backdrop... Read more

A Glasshouse of Stars (Shirley Marr, Puffin)

Released May 2021

Meixing and her family have recently arrived in the New Land with hopes of a better life. Everything is different for Meixing, including the large house that is now the... Read more

Frizzle and Me (Ellie Royce, illus by Andrew McLean, Ford St)

Released June 2021

Frizzle and Me jumps on board a current—and vital—trend for books celebrating diversity, and makes a respectable contribution to the cohort. The premise is that the definition of ‘family’ is... Read more

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) (Anita Heiss, S&S)

Released May 2021

Exploring themes of family, belonging, courage, equality and heartache, this important new historical novel from Anita Heiss raises awareness of First Nations perspectives on the early days of white settlement... Read more

As Beautiful As Any Other (Kaya Wilson, Picador)

Released May 2021

As Beautiful As Any Other is a joyous and thoughtful memoir–travelogue covering the terrains of both the body and the environment. Kaya Wilson's voice makes the reader feel immediately at... Read more

Why Do Tigers Have Whiskers? (ed by Sunanda Creagh, Thames & Hudson)

Released May 2021

Curated from the Curious Kids section of the academic-authored news website The Conversation, this book is compiled as a series of questions provided by kids and answered by a range... Read more

A Human for Kingsley (Gabriel Evans, Little Hare)

Released May 2021

Kingsley, a dog who has decided to own a human, sets off on a journey to find just the right one. The problem is, there are so many humans to... Read more

Monster (Ashleigh Synnott, Puncher & Wattmann)

Released May 2021

Monster is a collection of dark, finely written short stories by debut author Ashleigh Synnott. The stories are peopled with eccentric, predominantly female characters living atomised, often isolated lives. Mental... Read more