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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
Love and Hunger (Charlotte Wood, A&U)
Released May 2012
Is this a memoir, a collection of erudite essays punctuated by good recipes or a literary cookbook? Whatever section you decide to shelve this in, this is a book to... Read more
The Wedding Season (Su Dharmapala, S&S)
Released May 2012
In The Wedding Season, a Sri Lanka-born, Australia-raised woman tries to find true love while avoiding her mother’s matchmaking. Shani has a good job as an accountant, lives in her... Read more
‘Waarda’ series (ed by Sally Morgan, Fremantle Press): Emu and the Water Tree (Gladys Milroy) and Yippee! Summer Holidays (Tjalaminu Mia & Jessica Lister)
Released May 2012
This is a great new series by Indigenous authors for beginner readers. Initiated by artist and writer Sally Morgan and created in association with The School of Indigenous Studies at... Read more
Red (Libby Gleeson, A&U)
Released May 2012
Libby Gleeson’s latest book for junior readers is a sophisticated and atmospheric amnesiac mystery revolving around the question: if one day you lost everything, how far would you go to... Read more
Mystery at Riddle Gully (Jen Banyard, Fremantle Press)
Released May 2012
Pollo di Nozi, supersleuth and investigative reporter-in-training, is on a case. Aided willingly by her ever faithful, if a little sheepy, assistant Shorn Connery and somewhat unwillingly by Will Hopkins,... Read more
