CRIME AND THRILLS
New novels are on the way from Garry Disher (Sanctuary,Text,April);Michael Robotham (Storm Child,Simon&Schuster,July);J. P. Pomare (Seventeen Years Later,Hachette,August);Sulari Gentill (The Mystery Writer,Ultimo,March);Hayley Scrivenor (Macmillan,late 2024);Dervla McTiernan (What Happened to Nina? HarperCollins,March);Nicola Moriarty (Every Last Suspect,HarperCollins,June);Michael Brissenden (Smoke,Affirm,July),and Benjamin Stevenson (Fool Me Twice,Penguin Random House,June). Later in the year,expect novels from Matthew Reilly and Liane Moriarty (Macmillan).
Sulari Gentill is back in criminal mode with The Mystery Writer.
Writers turning to crime include Steven Carroll with the first in a detective series,Death of a Foreign Gentleman (HarperCollins,April);Glenna Thomson (Gone,PRH,February);andCardinal andWitness author Louise Milligan (Pheasants Nest,Allen&Unwin,April).
Debut crime novels include The Community by Christine Gregory (Ultimo,July);All The Missing Children by Zahid Gamieldien (Ultimo,August);All You Took From Me by Lisa Kenway (Transit Lounge,August);andThe Beacon by P. A. Thomas (Echo,February). Georgia Harper’s What I Would Do For You (Vintage,March) imagines what would happen if victims’ families were allowed to kill murderers.
From overseas,Richard Osman will launch a new crime series (PRH,September) he describes as “Thursday Murder Club meets theDa Vinci Code”. And Kate Atkinson has another Jackson Brodie novel,Death at the Sign of the Rook (PRH,September).
FICTION
Three new works are coming from Australian authors who have died.The End of the Morning,an autobiographical novel from Charmian Clift (NewSouth,May),was unfinished when Clift died in 1969,but she left a fully revised typescript.We All Lived in Bondi Then (Scribe,January) is a collection of short stories written by Georgia Blain before her death in 2016. Shirley Barrett,who died in 2022,has left us her last novel, Mrs Hopkins (A&U,June) about a girls’ school on Cockatoo Island in 1871.
Shankari Chandran has a new novel out in MayJanie Barrett
Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran has a story about refugees,Safe Haven (Ultimo,May). The 2019 Readings Award winner Alice Robinson has a new speculative fiction novel,If You Go (Affirm,July).
Amy Brown has a novel about Miles Franklin’s sister Linda (My Brilliant Sister,Simon&Schuster,February);Gail Jones presents a fictionalised biography of Joseph Conrad (One Another,Text,March);Alan Attwood follows the escape artist inHoudini Unbound (Melbourne Books,May). Francesca De Tores’Saltblood (Bloomsbury,April) retells the life of the pirate Mary Read;Katrina Kell’s story is about the model who posed for the famous nude portrait (Chloe,Echo,February);and Michelle de Kretser’sTheory and Practice (Text,November) is about the moral complexities that arise when writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf.
Catherine McKinnon looks at love,war and friendship inTo Sing of War (Fourth Estate,May). Ceridwen Dovey writes about human-made objects in outer space (Only the Astronauts,PRH,June);Malcolm Knox explores Stalinist Russia (The First Friend,A&U,October),and David Dyer writes about the Apollo 11 mission (This Kingdom of Dust,Hamish Hamilton,October).
Gail Jones’ new novel is about Joseph Conrad.
There are new books from Brian Castro (Ruins and Fragments,Giramondo,late 2024);Rodney Hall (Vortex,Picador,October);Jessie Tu (Honeyeater,A&U,July);Melanie Cheng (The Burrow,Text,September),and Jock Serong (Cherrywood,HarperCollins,September). Bestselling duo Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion return inThe Glass House (Hachette,April).
From overseas,look out forLong Island,Colm Toibin’s sequel toBrooklyn (Picador,May),and a culture wars novel from Lionel Shriver,Mania (HarperCollins,April). In September,Picador will release the English translation of French star Michel Houellebecq’s novelAnnihilation.
Also coming:Andrew O’Hagan’sCaledonian Road (Faber,April);Pulitzer Prize winner Hisham Matar’s My Friends (PRH,January);Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman’sThe Gentleman from Peru (Faber,April);and Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead (Scribe,March).
The Book of Love (Bloomsbury,February),the first novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist and “Genius Grant” fellow Kelly Link,is about dead teenagers coming back to life.The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Bloomsbury,March) is the first of China’s bestselling apocalyptic space-opera trilogy,soon to be a Netflix series. And Kiley Reid,author of the bestsellingSuch a Fun Age,returns withCome and Get It (Bloomsbury,February).
Kazuo Ishiguro’s lyrics written for jazz singer Stacey Kent are being published in March.Chris Pizzello via AP
In March,Giramondo is publishing the joint winners of the 2022 Novel Prize,It Lasts Foreverand Then it’s Over by Anne de Marcken,andTell by Jonathan Buckley.
Kazuo Ishiguro is publishing the lyrics he wrote for jazz singer Stacey Kent inThe Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain (Faber,March). And bestselling novelist Amor Towles turns his hand to short stories inTable for Two (PRH,April).
BIG DEBUTS
The Star on the Grave by Linda Margolin Royal (Affirm,February) is a novel based on the true story of the “Japanese Schindler” who rescued her father and grandparents during World War II. Another wartime novel isMaya’s Dance by Helen Signy (Simon&Schuster,March) based on a true Holocaust story.
Award-winning debuts includeThe Deed by Richell Prize winner Susanna Begbie (Hachette,May),Depth of Field by Dorothy Hewett Award winner Kirsty Iltners (UWA,May),andThe Skeleton House by Fogarty Literary Award winner Katherine Allum (Fremantle,June). Amanda Creely’sNameless (UWA,March) was shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett Award,and Ruby Todd’sBright Objects (A&U,May) was shortlisted for the 2023 Victorian Premier’s unpublished manuscript award.
Richell Prize winner Susannah Begbie’s book is published in May.
Kyra Geddes’The Story Thief (Affirm,May) was inspired by Henry Lawson’s storyThe Drover’s Wife. The heroine of Belinda Cranston’sThe Changing Room (Transit Lounge,May) is inspired to travel by cartoon character Mr Benn. And Bri Lee makes her fiction debut withThe Work (A&U,April).
TRUE STORIES
Magda Szubanski’s second memoir (Text,October) is about her journey from daughter to orphan,from comedian to campaigner. Peter Goldsworthy writes about his illness inThe Cancer Finishing School (PRH,March). Dassi Erlich writes about becoming a target for a predatory teacher inIn Bad Faith (Hachette,February) and Rebel Wilson tells us about her acting life inRebel Rising (HarperCollins,April).
Biographies include Brenda Niall’s portrait ofPicnic at Hanging Rock author Joan Lindsay (Text,October),and Hermina Burns on artist Albert Tucker’s wife inBarbara Tucker:The Art of Being (MUP,February). As a follow-up to her Shirley Hazzard biography,Brigitta Olubas has co-editedShirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower:The Letters (NewSouth,May) with Susan Wyndham.
Sporting stories include swimming superstar Michael Klim’s memoir,Klim,(Hachette,September);Oscar Piastri:The Rookie by Andre van Leeuwen (PRH,March);Inside Out,a memoir from former footballer Erin Phillips,with Samantha Lane (Hardie Grant,March),and world surfing champion Pauline Menczer (Breaking the Waves,Affirm,June,with Luke Benedictus).
Magda Szubanski has written a second memoir,which will be published in October.Simon Schluter
International memoirs include Salman Rushdie’sKnife:Meditations after an Attempted Murder (PRH,April);drag queen RuPaul’sThe House of Hidden Meanings (HarperCollins,March);Hugh Hefner’s widow Crystal Hefner (Only Say Good Things,PRH,January),and television star Gillian Anderson exploring women’s sexuality inWant (Bloomsbury,September).
Gillian Anderson explores women’s sexuality.AP
And there’s a footy book with a difference:Helen Garner has spent a year embedded with an under-16s football team (Text,July).
FIRST NATIONS WRITING
Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe is back withBlack Duck:A Year at Yumburra (with Lyn Harwood,Thames&Hudson,April),a memoir of life on their farm.
New fiction includesDirrayawadha:Rise Up by Anita Heiss (Simon&Schuster,August);Compassion by Julie Janson (Magabala,March);Sharlene Allsopp’s dystopian debut novel,The Great Undoing (Ultimo,February),and Mykaela Saunders’ short stories,Always Will Be (UQP,March). Fremantle is releasing a 25-year anniversary edition of Kim Scott’sBenang.
Bruce Pascoe is back with a book about life on his farm.Rhett Wyman
UQP essay collections include Black Witness:The Power of Indigenous Media by Amy McQuire (June);Shapeshifting,edited by Ellen van Neerven and Jeanine Leane (October);Words to Sing the World Alive edited by Jasmin McGaughey andThe Poets Voice (November),in which leading writers discuss their favourite First Nations words,andWeaving with Words by Larissa Behrendt (November). Other essay collections are Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia,edited by Samantha Faulkner (Black Inc,August),andWhen Cops are Criminals,edited by Veronica Gorrie (Scribe,September).
Poetry collections include Jeanine Leane’sGawimarra (UQP,February);Jazz Money’sThe Fire Inside (UQP,August);Tossed Up By the Beak of a Cormorant by Nandi Chinna and Anne Poelina (Fremantle,July);Woven,edited by Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Magabala/Red Room Poetry,February);Not Telling by Alison Barton (Puncher&Wattmann),andRefugia by Elfie Shiosaki (Magabala,July).
There will be a 25th anniversary edition of Kim Scott’s novel Benang and he is the subject of a book by Tony Birch.Eddie Jim
In the Black Inc’s Writers on Writers series,Tony Birch examines Kim Scott (April) and Tara June Winch considers Alexis Wright (October). Ashlee Donohue’s memoirBecause I Love Him (Magabala,May) looks at the impact of domestic violence on families.Some People Want to Shoot Me by Wayne Bergmann and Madelaine Dickie (Fremantle,March) takes us behind the scenes of a native title battle.
Tara June Winch is writing about Alexis Wright.Justin McManus
Writing on Indigenous life and history includes Cassandra Pybus on the theft of Aboriginal remains in A Very Secret Trade (A&U,May),and Worimi man Joshua Gilbert onAustralia’s Agricultural Identity (PRH,October). Other books areLand Back,edited by Heidi Norman (NewSouth,July);Richard Broome’sAboriginal Victorians (A&U,February),and Clare Wright’sThe Yirrkala Bark Petition (Text,October).
For the first time,Macbeth appears in an Aboriginal language inShakespeare on the Noongar Stage:Language Revival and Hecate,by Clint and Kylie Bracknell (Upswell,May).
POETRY
The Boat author Nam Le has an “explosive” book-length poem,36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem (Scribner,March). John Kinsella has a collected poems volume,Spirals (UWA,March). Other poets with new or selected works include Judith Bishop (Circadia,UQP,May);David Brooks (The Other Side of Daylight,UQP,March);Suneeta Peres da Costa (The Prodigal,Giramondo,late 2024);and Judith Beveridge (Tintinnabulum,Giramondo,August).
Monument by Bonny Cassidy (Giramondo,February) is a poetry and prose volume. And the late poet Robert Adamson has left us a prose collection,Birds and Fish:Life on the Hawkesbury (Upswell,February).
POLITICS AND PRESSING ISSUES
Two political commentators who feature in these pages have new books with Black Inc. Peter Hartcher examines Australia’s place in the new Cold War (September),and Robert Manne has a political memoir (December). Former UK prime minister Tony Blair writesOn Government (PRH,March) and former independent MP Kerryn Phelps has a memoir,Power of Balance (Hardie Grant,April).
Andrew Fowler looks at “the submarine fiasco that sank Australia’s sovereignty” inNuked (MUP,August),while James Connor and Ben Wadham examine institutional abuse within the Australian Defence Force in Warrior Soldier Brigand (MUP,July).
Novelist James Bradley has an environmental book,Deep Water (PRH,April). Other climate change books are Clive Hamilton and George Wilkenfeld’sLiving Hot (Hardie Gant,June);Paul Hardisty’s account of trying to save the Great Barrier Reef,In Hot Water (Affirm,June),and Royce Kurmelovs’ critique of the oil and gas industries,Slick (UQP,August).
Jane Sullivan’s novelMurder in Punch Lane (Echo) will be published in July.
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