Published...Or Not

The past of witches and the present of beached whales, male violence and grief affect all those on a Scottish island in Eliza Henry-Jones, ‘Salt and Skin’.Paul Daley examines the question of indigenous dispossession in ‘Jesustown’ looking closely at the changing European attitudes over several generations and the need to alter the discourse.

Food and culture come together in unexpected ways in Jess Ho’s memoir, ‘Raised By Wolves’. Parisian society, pre WW2 with sumptuous parties, couture fashion, bohemian wine bars, plenty of secrets and a murder. ‘The Paris Mystery’ is the start of a new crime series by Kirsty Manning and an introduction to Charlie James, foreign correspondent for The Times.   

John Kinsella has begun a retrospective of his collected poems. Volume 1, ‘The Ascension of Sheep’ covers the period from 1980 to 2005 and details his engagement with landscape, fauna and Australian identity. Is medicine a caring profession or a cut throat culture? Neela Janakiramanan has a woman, facing many obstacles, while training to become a surgeon in ‘The Registrar’.

Christine Balint won the 2021 Viva La Novella Prize with ‘Water Music’, about the possible life choices for a female violinist in eighteenth century Venice.  J. P. Pomare provides us with a fatal car accident, a jaded private investigator and several spurned women who all have a grudge against the deceased who was one of the last people to have contact with two missing girls in ‘The Wrong Woman’....

Pirooz Jafari has written an interwoven saga spanning Australia, Iran and Sweden in ‘Forty Nights’. It explores love, loss, migration and dispossession across centuries. Jay Carmichael details the journey of a young homosexual man as he comes to terms with his identity and relationships. Set in the 1950’s, the novella, ‘Marlo’, details some of the impositions and assumptions of a society that hadn...

Set in Ireland ‘Family Matters’ has the importance of family, sisterhood and motherhood at its heart and Ellie O’Neill has written with humour about the age old desire for matchmaking .‘Denizen’ explores the psychological landscape of truth as Parker confronts his childhood in a remote NSW town when he returns to go camping with former school friends. Only when an accident occurs does the reality...

Scott McCulloch's 'Basin' is a dystopian novel a character known as Figure is revived after a suicide attempt and has to taransverse a bleak landscape and his own sense of identity. Matthew Spencer's 'Black River' is a murder mystery thriller where the potential psychyopathy of a possible serial killer is explored before he kills again. The interplay between Adam Bowman, a struggling journalist, a...

Like a hydra with nine heads, our own demons can get the better of us and such is the case in the novel ‘Hydra’ by Adriane Howell where Anja, the narrator, has to face the character flaws that have brought about her undoing. Anna Mandoki has written about a slightly futuristic Melbourne, of human connection in an increasingly fragmented world and where three very different women’s lives become ent...

How well can we remember events  from our past? Matilda agonises over things said and unsaid, looking for the truth in ‘A Place Near Eden’. The Australian/Vogel Literary award winner for 2022 by Nell Pierce.'Our Members Be Unlimited' is Sam Wallman's account of the rise and significance of unionism. As a graphic artist, the message is conveyed pictorially which has as much impact as the words maki...

Claire Coleman explores the bubbles of thinking and attitudes within society and the dangers of living within gated expectations in her latest novel, "Enclave".Their father's car accident brings adult siblings home and they question what they know about their father and what they know about each other and themselves in Matthew Ryan Davies, "Things we Bury".

What happened inside the Russian Revolution and what were its effects on Melbourne in the 1950's? Maree Roberts has given us Olga and a light hearted, well researched look in 'The Impossible History of Trotsky's Sister'.Brenda Colley takes us on a phantom train journey in 'The Signal Line'. A mystery train appears in Hobart on rail lines that no longer exist.

The history and the how of doing standup comedy along with the difficulty it has been for women, are written about by Justine Sless as she takes us around a department store and on to the stage in 'Mistress of Mirth’s Comedy tour'.

A different court case, ten years apart and both involving kidnapping, but who was the perpetrator and who was the victim in ‘Release’, Lucy Christopher’s psychological drama. Jared Thomas challenges stereotypes in his coming of age novel, ‘My Spare Heart’, whose antagonist, Phoebe, comes to terms with her indigenous heritage. 

Zadie Ma is 11 years old with the super power of having her stories come alive.  Will this help her to get a dog and be allowed to keep it? Gabrielle Wang is Australia’s Children’s Laureate and ‘Zadie Ma and the Dog who Chased the Moon’ is her latest book. Establishing an identity and fathoming the challenges of different cultures as a young girl lie at the heart of ‘The Cuckoo’s Song’ by Amra Paj...

‘Apollo and Thelma’: he was constantly seeking fame as the world’s strongest man and his sister owned a pub in remote Northern Territory. Jon Faine writes about his links to them through his own legal and media background and what it taught him about Australia’s colonial history. In ‘Bad Art Mother’, Edwina Preston profiles the life of a troubled poet and the relationship she has when her art and...

Steve Tolz explores a fictional afterlife constrained by similar concerns to that which we would find on earth in his comic and confronting novel, ‘Here Goes Nothing’. ‘The View Was Exhausting’ is an inside look at how the rich and famous may live and perhaps an insightful look at the control the publicity plays in their lives, co-written by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta.      

 Hidden within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community lies dark secrets that have a profound influence on the lives of those whose world is determined by the religious beliefs that give them a sense of belonging in Ashley Goldberg’s novel, ‘Abomination’. Scott Pearce has written about two very different families in The Rider on the Bridge, a boy finds his in a share house of drug addicts in Fazed Yel...

Tosh Greenslade applies his satirical eye in 'The Scomo Diaries' revealing that elections are more a marketing campaign than true politics. Cathy Koning writes about her experience with cancer in ‘Life Blood’ and also talks about how she became a self publisher of this and other books.

Grade 6 is a year of growth and change, with puberty happening to climate awareness.  Fiona Wood has also included blending families and humour in ‘How To Spell Catastrophe’.In Hilde Hinton’s, ‘A Solitary Walk on the Moon’, we find behind ordinary people and events, lies the majesty and the pathos of life. Evelyn creates a family of misfits who each have a weakness but will that family hold togeth...

In ‘The Mother’ Jane Caro has written a story about the difficult and sensitive area of coercive control, how a relationship can become toxic and what a mother will do to protect the family she loves..Toni Jordan highlights the humour and pathos of a man struggling to cope with his altered circumstances after going bankrupt and the challenges of facing a contemporary world of digital influencers a...

‘Sheilas: Badass women of Australian History’ is researched and written by Eliza Reilly, with just as much determination and innovation as the woman had in their defying the rules and norms of their times. Carmel Shute relates the history of ‘Sisters-in-Crime’ and what is happening to celebrate its 30th year.

‘Facts and Other Lies’ gives background information about why fake news spreads and how politicians, especially right wing conservatives have exploited it so successfully. Ed Coper uses extensive research but writes cleverly with specific examples and humour and even explains how individuals can defuse disinformation. Josh Kemp distorts perceptions with a drug addled protagonist and a ten year old...

In ‘When We Fall’ a mother has moved back to the small town she grew up in. Her daughter, Alex, wants to know who her father is, but finds that she is involved in a murder mystery instead, and there is a possibility that she could be murdered too! Sean Rabin takes us into the not too distant future where radical environmentalism is required to save the planet in, ‘The Good Captain’

Twenty years after a younger, impulsive sister returns from a summer overseas, she dies. She has left her reliable older sister instructions of where to scatter her ashes with letters to read of explanation.  There are hidden secrets and undisclosed truths that connect very different families in Jane Cockram’s ‘The Way From Here’. The dislocation the characters feel in Rhett Davis’ novel, ‘Hoverin...

The Dalhunty family have only their prestigious name after generations of pastoral wealth. Their downturn is also reflected in the demise of the riverboat trade on the Darling. ‘The Last Station’ is written with detailed depictions or rural life, action and humour by Nicole Alexander. We inherit property but we can also inherit the past. Robert Lukins grapples with these notions in ‘Loveland’ as M...