Published...Or Not

Rebellion and dissent were bubbling just below the surface in the early Australian colony which Meg Keneally explores in her latest historical fiction, 'The Wreck'. 'Poly', by Paul Dalgarno, is a funny and moving story of a man who wants it all in the normality of a not-so-normal modern family.

Kathleen Jennings takes us behind the fairytale face of a country town to something a little more darkly mythic as her central character searches for her lost father and brothers in ‘Flyaway’.'The Morbids' by Ewa Ramsey is an uplifting book about anxiety, the depth of friendship and how different people and a variety of strategies can help in hurtful siturations.

A mother is too full of shame and a daughter is too full of anger. When the past secrets meet the secrets of the present, will there be any forgiveness in 'Where We Begin' by Christie Nieman. Melissa Davey undertakes a forensic examination of all the court proceedings in ‘The Case of George Pell’.

 Peter O’Brien takes us back in  time in ‘Bush School’ highlighting the primitive living and learning conditions of a single-teacher classroom in rural New South Wales in 1960.Using big words may show scholarship but for a young girl in Early Melbourne they lead her into a propinquity in 'Billings Better Bookstore and Brasserie' by Fin J. Ross

Pip Williams has written a most engaging story of why a word may have been lost and how a woman engages in society in the early 1900's in 'The Dictionary of Lost Words'.

'The Dickens Boy' by Thomas Keneally looks at not just the life of Edward (Plorn) Dickens, the son of the great author sent to Australia when he was sixteen, but at the social landscape of a continent transforming itself in a new age.  'Sisters in Crime' is an open community of crime writers and readers. Carmel Shute explains how they are connected and what events are coming up in their on-line pr...

Crime fiction with more twists and surprises than the bush tracks through the atmospheric landscape of rugged Tasmania.  Is it just bad choices or something worse that casuses the death of teenage females in 'The Bluff 'by Kyle Perry. Victoria Hannan has used the Beach Boy’s song, 'Kokomo', as the title of her novel where the protagonist, Mina, discovers the hidden secret that has kept her mother...

Robbie Arnott in creating the myth of ‘The Rain Heron’ speaks eloquently about some of the attitudes and concerns we face today as a society. Bold, brave and darkly funny, Rita Therese writes about her life as an escort in 'Come, a memoir'

A traumatic past and an unexpected inheritance bring heart, humour and hope in 'The Farm at Peppertree Crossing' by Leonie Kelsall. Working as an undercover cop can be lonely and dangerous work. Keith Banks recounts his time in the corrupt Queensland years of the 70’s infiltrating the drug trade in ‘Drugs, Guns and Lies’

Jena Lin had a public life as a celebrated violinist and a private life as a raging sex addict. The how and why is fearlessly told in Jessie Tu's 'A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing'. Anxiety can be like a fog undermining relationships and making communication difficult. Such is the case in Luke Horton’s novel, 'The Fogging'.   

Was Elizabeth Macarthur the demure woman history may have her to be? Kate Grenville has turned biographical fiction inside out in 'A Room Made of Leaves'. Patrick Mullins explores the absurdity of Australia’s past censorship laws in his account of the case against Philip Roth’s novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, in his work, ‘The Trials of Portnoy’. 

Dystopian novels can be a little unsettling given the current global climate but Patrick Allington provides an insight into what we will consume in the future and how we will sate our appetites in his novel, Rise and Shine. Where there is life there is death, but how do different communities and individuals handle grief? Dani Powell has set 'Return to Dust' in and around Alice Springs.

  When things happen in a family as they do in 'The Spilt' by Imbi Neeme, blame can be apportioned unfairly, this leads to moments of regret for things said to hurt, or things not said at all.   What would have happened had Captain Cook been shipwrecked on the shores of a new continent instead of bumping into a reef? Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick explore this interesting notion in their novel,...

Coffee and kids connect three parents until they are forced out of their respective comfort zones. They learn more about each oher and themselves than they thought possible in 'The Drop-off' by Fiona Harris and Mike McCleish.  There is also a web series - what a laugh! Are men shallow or is it the society in which we live? Dan Kaufman explores how journalist and educator, David, handles middle age...

Is Isobel a better detective than she is a pscycholigist? She needs to solve the mystery of a baby's murder and prevent another possible tragedy in Anne Buist's ' The Long Shadow'.‘Prey’, by L A Larkin, takes us into the murderous world of poaching where political intrigue and corporate influence abound. Once again, Olivia Wolfe must solve a series of gruesome murders. 

Who can truly know their parents? Darleen Bungey writes about her celebrity father with a truthful eye and loving heart in 'Daddy Cool'.Hilde Hinton’s, ‘The Loudness of Unsaid Things’ highlights the evolving struggle children face when confronted with mental instability.

Our perceptions of early Australia are challenged in K M Kruimink's novel, A Treacherous Country', as we follow the naïve Gabriel Fox on his almostimpossible quest to find a woman sent to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land. Balance & Other B.S. is Felicity Harley’s lively and entertaining debut book, published by Allen & Unwin.

Chris Flynn’s “Mammoth’ novel takes us on an historical journey that encompasses the rise of America on the global stage, the foundations of French scientific thought, the uprisings in Ireland and Lewis and Clark crossing America – and all told from the perspective of an ancient mammoth dinosaur. Radio Girl by David Dufty, published by Allen & Unwin, is an overdue biography of one of the most rema...

If you could talk to the animals would you listen to what they really wanted to say? Laura Jean McKay has set 'The Animals In That Country' in a time of a pandemic where the infected can do just that. Peter Grose relates the true story of piracy, mutiny and an epic voyage by ten convicts escaping the penal colony on Sarah Island in, ‘Ten Rogues’.

From the depths of Wonthagi coal mines to innercity Melbourne, this is a story about a young woman looking for personal happiness during WW1 but caught up in community sentiment and religious judgement in Christine Bell's 'No Small Shame'.Suzanne Leal confronts us with an ethical question in ‘The Deceptions’ that could well be answered at the altar but hers is a story that dates back to the holoca...

Gay Lynch and Angela Sungaila are some of the authors in 'Thrill Me', an anthology of suspenseful stories. What is is like to be an English teacher in China? Asheg Brom has written about his time doing just that in 'Chicken Same Duck Talk'.

Suzanne Daniel won the Indie Award for a Debut Novel with her humorous and caring story of a young girl being brought up by two very different grandmothers in 'Allegra in Three Parts'.

Kirsty Manning's 'The Lost Jewels' is a story about mining, trade, design, families, love, loyalty and of course well researched history.

David reads a letter written by F. Scott Fitzgerald about self isolating in France during the Spanish Flu pandemic. The fantastic intercontinetal flight of the Grey Plover is the focus of Andrew Darby's work, Flight Lines. Fiona Lowe has given us another very readable account of what life and circumstances can throw up, especially for four women who realise that they may not be in 'Just an Ordinar...

Margaret Bearman's book tells of a father, a famous artist, and how his choice of a subject profoundly effects his family. His daughter is the narrator of this book, 'We Were Never Friends'.Sophie Hardcastle's evocation of acquiesence and consent in 'Below Deck' challenges the reader to navigate notions of sexual identity in the contemporary world.