OZLIT
There’s a strong Indigenous theme to outstanding fiction in 2023,including epic novels from two Miles Franklin winners. Melissa Lucashenko’sEdenglassie (UQP,October) spans five generations;Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo,April) “pushes allegory to its limits … a fable for the end of days”. Tony Birch’sWomen and Children (UQP,November) is a story of a family,“prisoners of secrecy and shame surrounding the crimes of men”.
Miles Franklin winner Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel is an epic.Renee Nowytarger
Look out for a new novel from Christos Tsiolkas (The In-Betweens,Allen&Uwin,November). And Kate Grenville’sAlways Greener (Text,July),based on her grandmother’s story,is an expanded print version of a novel first released as an audiobook.
Gregory Day’s new book is a song to the natural wonders that are not yet gone.
Other standout titles include Anna Funder’s Wifedom (Penguin Random House,July),about George Orwell’s forgotten wife,Eileen;Stephanie Bishop’sThe Anniversary (Hachette,April),“a dark and compulsive novel about writing and desire”;Chris Womersley’sOrdinary Gods and Monsters (Picador,second half of 2023),a murder mystery and a coming-of-age story;and Gregory Day’sThe Bell of the World (Transit Lounge,March),“a song to the natural wonders that are not yet gone and a luminous prehistory of contemporary climate change and its connection to colonialism”.
Drusilla Modjeska returns to fiction withWays of Being (PRH,November);Leah Kaminsky’s new title isDoll’s Eye (PRH,September);and Katherine McKinnon looks at the lead-up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki inThe Great Time (Fourth Estate,August).
Two of the most original books areThe Vitals by Tracy Sorensen (Picador,second half of 2023),a novel about the author’s near-death experience from cancer,told by her internal organs;andPrize by Kim E. Anderson (Pantera Press,April),which looks at the scandal surrounding the 1943 Archibald Prize and asks:what if artists William Dobell and Joshua Smith were lovers?
Laura Jean McKay has written a new book of short stories.Brendan Lodge
Short fiction collections include J.M. Coetzee’sThe Pole and Other Stories (Text,July);Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay (Scribe,October);andThe Terrible Event by David Cohen (Transit Lounge,June).
Literary biography and criticism includeFrank Moorhouse:A Discontinuous Life by Matthew Lamb (PRH,December);The Life of Donald Horne by Ryan Cropp (Black Inc,August);On Peter Carey by Sarah Krasnostein (Black Inc,June);In Search of Dorothea,a biography of Dorothea Mackellar by Deborah Fitzgerald (Simon&Schuster,August);andMurnane by Emmett Stinson (MUP,August).
INTERNATIONAL FICTION
Look out for new novels from Salman Rushdie (Victory City,PRH,February),a magical realist feminist tale;Zadie Smith (The Fraud,PRH,September),a portrait of London 200 years ago;Richard Ford’s last Frank Bascombe novel,Be Mine (Bloomsbury,July);a psychological thriller from Booker prizewinner Eleanor Catton(Birnam Wood,A&U,April);and Sebastian Barry (Old God’s Time,Faber,March).
Richard Ford has written his final novel about Frank Bascombe,who first appeared in The Sportswriter.
Curtis Sittenfeld’sRomantic Comedy (PRH,April),is set behind the scenes of a TV show;Lauren Groff’sThe Vaster Wilds (PRH,September),begins with a 1600s voyage across the Atlantic. A new novel from Bret Easton Ellis (The Shards,A&U,February),is about a group of Los Angeles friends as a serial killer strikes the city;and an untitled novel from Elif Shafak (PRH,September) is about a young man who goes to Mesopotamia in search of great art.
New Zealand author Pip Adam combines science fiction with social realism inAudition (Giramondo,July).Fugitive Pieces author Anne Michaels returns with a new novel,Held (Bloomsbury,November). And Margaret Atwood fans will find her in two PRH books:a short-story collection,Old Babes in the Wood (March);andFourteen Days (May),where she leads a cast of star writers collaborating on a novel about a New York tenement in lockdown.
BIG DEBUTS
Two hotly anticipated debuts are Pip Finkemeyer’sSad Girl Novel (Ultimo,October),about an aspiring novelist,her historian best friend,and trying to find your path in life;and Mikki Brammer’sThe Collected Regrets of Clover (Viking,May). Sold in 23 countries,Brammer’s novel is “a hopeful,insightful and utterly beautiful” story about death.
Another three books acquired after heated auctions are Megan Rogers’The Heart is a Star (Fourth Estate,May),about the messiness of midlife;Dianne Yarwood’sThe Wakes (Hachette,March),“an uplifting novel about love,loss,heartbreak and the enduring power of friendship”;and Michael Thompson’s How to be Remembered (A&U,March),which asks what would happen if on the same day every year,everyone around you forgets you exist.
Prizewinners breaking into print include Andre Dao’sAnam (PRH,May),winner of the Victorian Premier’s fiction award for an unpublished manuscript;Aisling Smith’s After the Rain (Hachette,May),winner of the Richell prize;Annette Higgs’On A Bright Hillside in Paradise (PRH,July),winner of the 2022 Penguin literary prize;and Molly Schmidt’sSalt River Road (Fremantle,November),winner of the City of Fremantle Hungerford prize.
STORYTELLERS AND BIG SELLERS
Pip Williams’ follow–up toThe Dictionary of Lost Words,one of the most successful Australian novels ever,isThe Bookbinder of Jericho (Affirm,April),about two women working in the bindery of Oxford University Press as World War I begins. Another eagerly awaited novel is Benjamin Stevenson’sEveryone on This Train is a Suspect (PRH,October),a follow-up toEveryone in My Family Has Killed Someone. And Trent Dalton fans will be keen to read his new novel (Fourth Estate,October).
Pip Williams’ The Bookbinder of Jericho is set in 1914 and follows two women working at Oxford University Press.Ben Searcy
Graeme Simsion’sCreative Differences (Text,January) is about two writers with very different approaches to life and work. Kate Morton’s epic novelHomecoming (A&U,April) is “a love letter to Australia”. Robert Gott moves from crime fiction to a comedy about a politician’s nude portrait in Naked Ambition (Scribe,May). There’s more comic observation from Toni Jordan (Prettier If She Smiled More,Hachette,April);Emma Young (The Disorganisation of Celia Stone,Fremantle,September);and Rachel Matthews (Never Look Desperate,Transit Lounge,September).
From overseas,Tom Hanks has a story on a subject he knows well (The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,PRH,May). Bestselling author ofThe Mountains Sing,Nguyen Phan Que Mai,has a new novel based on American and Vietnamese history,Dust Child (Bloomsbury,April). Also from Bloomsbury is Isabel Allende’s latest,The Wind Knows My Name (June). Sarah Winman follows up her big hit,Still Life,with another novel for Fourth Estate in August.
Tom Hanks has written about something he is very familiar with.
CRIME AND THRILLERS
The ever-popular small town with dark secrets plot gets a good work-out in Crows Nest,by Nikki Mottram (UQP,February);inLowbridge,by Lucy Campbell (Ultimo,July);and in debut thrillerThe Summer Party by Rebecca Heath (Bloomsbury,January).
Loraine Peck’sThe Double Bind (Text,April) follows members of a notorious Sydney crime family. Dinuka McKenzie’sTaken (HarperCollins,February) is about the mystery of a missing baby;and there’s a missing daughter in Candice Fox’s Fire With Fire (PRH,April). Sarah Smith’sSeven Steps to a Long and Fulfilling Death (Ultimo,August) is about a dead woman investigating her own murder.
There are new novels from Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins,September),Sally Hepworth (Pan Macmillan) and Lyn Yeowart (PRH,August). For cosy crime fans there’s Amanda Hampson’sThe Tea Lady (PRH,April).
Richard Osman has written the fourth in his cosy crime series.
Overseas crime includes new novels from Don Winslow (City of Dreams,HarperCollins,April);Harlan Coben (I Will Find You,PRH,February);and Richard Osman’s fourth cosy tale (PRH,September). Rebecca Kuang has a “darkly funny literary thriller”,Yellowface (HarperCollins,June). Martin Cruz Smith’s hero Arkady is back inIndependence Square (Simon&Schuster,June) but this time he has to fight Parkinson’s as well as bad guys.
Jo Nesbo has been busy,with two titles for PRH (Killing Moon,May;The Flesh Eating Telephone,October). So has the James Patterson factory,with Countdown (written with Brendan Dubois,January) and a non-fiction book written with Matt Eversmann (American Cops,February). Both for PRH.
LIFE STORIES
Two well-known novelists have turned to memoir.Reckless,by Marele Day (Ultimo,May) examines her long friendship with an international fugitive.Emboldened,by Belinda Alexandra (Affirm,April),looks at the inspiring women who saved her from the aftermath of a night when she ran from home in terror.
Helen Elliott,a regular reviewer for this masthead,looks at her younger years through letters inEleven Letters to You (Text,May). Kris Kneen examines the growing body in their third memoir,Fat Girl Dancing (Text,May).Smashing Serendipity by Binjareb Nyoongar woman Louise Hansen (Fremantle Press,February) is a story of a woman fighting violence and racism.Back to Biloela by Priya Nadesalingam with Rebekah Holt (A&U,October) tells the story of the refugee family’s ordeal on Christmas Island and final return to the country town they call home.
Jimmy Little’s daughter Frances Peters Little has written a memoir about him.
Susan Johnson remembers a year with her mother on the Greek island of Kythera (Aphrodite’s Island,A&U,May). Jeanne Ryckmans combines memoir and detective story inTrust:A Fractured Fable (Upswell,August). FormerAge journalist Martin Flanagan recalls his time at a Catholic boarding school in a memoir for PRH.Tracks author Robyn Davidson takes a journey into her past inUnfinished Woman (Bloomsbury,October). And Frances Peters Little remembers her musical father inJimmy Little:A Yorta Yorta Man (Hardie Grant,April).
Heading the celebrity memoirs is Sam Neill’sDid I Ever Tell You This? (Text,March). Hardie Grant has two August memoirs from star footballers Joel Selwood and Erin Phillips. Foodie Matt Preston’s Big Mouth (PRH,November) is billed as “a rock’n’roll memoir of death,guns and the occasional scandal”.
Simon&Schuster has two books about kings:Christopher Andersen’sThe King (February) is the first biography of Charles since he became monarch;and Jonathan Eig’s King (June) is a biography of Martin Luther King jr.
PRESSING ISSUES
Racism and sexism continue to be dominant themes. The provocative title of a book by this masthead’s Osman Faruqi isThe Racist Country (PRH,August). Ellen van Neerven looks at racism in sport inPersonal Score (UQP,May). Two Black Inc books examine Indigenous concerns:Statements from the Soul,edited by Shireen Morris and Damien Freeman (February),and the Quarterly EssayOn the Uluru Statement from the Heart, by Megan Davis (June).
Stan Grant’sThe Queen is Dead (Fourth Estate,May) is a “pull-no-punches” look at colonialism,the monarchy and its bitter legacy for Indigenous people. Indigenous history is explored in David Marr’sA Family Business (Black Inc,October);and Victor Briggs’ Seafaring (Magabala,April). And Kate Auty examines a massacre inO’Leary of the Underworld (Black Inc,February).
Ellen van Neerven is writing about racism in sport.Paul Harris
Chanel Contos’ untitled book for Macmillan offers “a radical rethinking of what yes means when it comes to sex”. Clementine Ford’s I Don’t (A&U,October) challenges accepted ideas about marriage. In Cancelled (Hardie Grant,September),Grace Tame and Michael Bradley look at cancel culture. And Lucia Osborne-Crowley examines the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and what it means for reparative justice in Maxwell (A&U,second half of 2023).
There are more books on our endangered environment. Justyn Walsh’sEating the Earth (UQP,July) is “an incisive celebration and a critique of modern capitalism”. Dave Witty meditates on nature in his bookIn Search of Lost Trees (Monash University Publishing,May). And Penny van Oosterzee looks at the tropical rainforest of northern Queensland in Cloud Land (A&U,February).
From overseas,Jeff Goodell looks at the impact of climate change to come inHeat (Black Inc,July);Maja Gopel offers an invitation to rescue our future inRethinking Our World (Scribe,May);and Peter Wohlleben follows up his bestsellerThe Hidden Life of Trees withThe Power of Trees (Black Inc,April).
POLITICS
The top political biography is likely to beTanya Plibersek:On Her Own Terms by Margaret Simons (Black Inc,March). Bruce Wolpe looks atTrump’s Australia (A&U,June). Paul Farrell charts the rise and fall of a premier inGladys:A Leader’s Undoing (Monash,March). And Peter Rees uncovers a Tim Fischer you didn’t know inI Am Tim (MUP,August).
We’ll learn more about Tanya Plibersek in Margaret Simons’ biography of the Labor figure.James Brickwood
Chris Wallace has interviewed all living 20th-century Australian prime ministers and their biographers forPolitical Lives (NewSouth Publishing,February).
Two important books from whistleblowers are on the way.The Trial:Defending East Timor (MUP,late 2023) is Bernard Collaery’s account of being prosecuted,with “Witness K”,by the federal government for allegedly breaching the Intelligence Services Act.The Nature of Honour by David McBride,also facing prosecution for exposing alleged war crimes,will be published by PRH.
POETRY
Volume Two of John Kinsella’s collected poems,Harsh Hakea,is out with UWA Publishing in February and he also has a verse novel,Cellnight (Transit Lounge,April). Veteran poet PiO has a verse account of a US poetry tour inThe Dirty T-shirt Tour (Giramondo,August).
Two memoirs in verse form are coming from S.J. Norman(Blood from a Stone,UQP,November),about the legacy of violence towards women;and Madison Godfrey (Dress Rehearsals, A&U,March),about “a decade of performing womanhood in a non-binary body”.
Upswell has several collections,including David McCooey’sThe Book of Falling and Stuart Barnes’ Like to the Lark (both in February). Likewise,Giramondo’s list features established poets such as Kate Middleton (Television) and Bonny Cassidy (Monument),both in October,and debut authors such as the 2020 winner of the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize,Amy Crutchfield (The Cyprian,September).
Others to watch out for are Omar Sakr’sNon-essential Work (UQP,April);and Kate Larsen’s Public.Open.Space (Fremantle,July),her debut after a decade working as an insta poet.
The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger..
