I’m an author because I was a reader who loved to be transported to a world and land outside my own. My favorite books are the ones that introduce me to a place and time I’ve never been, an immersive read that brings me somewhere new. I believe in the power of story and the magic of its transport. Come along with me and discover a few books that do this very thing.
This gorgeous and page-turning novel is mostly set in Australia, a place I’ve never been in real life, but Kate’s novel transported me there through imagery and language. I feel like I could walk straight into that setting and feel as if I’d been there before.
The story is about a young journalist named Jess who is in search of a story. Jess is summoned back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother is ill in the hospital. What Jess discovers there about a baffling murder in the small town of Tambilla will upend her life.
'Captivating . . . a sweeping yet intimate tale of motherhood and belonging, loss and longing' - Mail on Sunday
'It is a treat; it is a big deep dive, twisty turny yarn. It is fantastic' - Graham Norton, broadcaster and bestselling author of Home Stretch
From the bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter, Kate Morton, comes a breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, told with her trademark intricacy and beauty.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand…
There are precious few books on Bhutan, which adds to its allure in my eyes. I loved reading about the author’s
childhood in a village near India, where he didn’t see a car until he was eight.
Om Dhungel’s smarts took him further from home,
including to nearby Bangladesh. He rose to become a senior member of the government's telecoms service — when phones were so scarce that phone
numbers were only four digits long and even the king of Bhutan needed help
making a call sometimes!
But in the 1980s, Bhutan began an
ethnic-cleansing campaign against citizens of Nepali ancestry. Om fled to
Australia and contributed enormously to helping thousands
of other Bhutanese refugees. I love reading books about good people—and
Om is certainly one of them: a true gentleman and sensitive soul.
I lost my possessions, my salary, my status, my career, my country. And in that fall, I gained everything.
Bhutan is known as the land of Gross National Happiness, a Buddhist Shangri-La hidden in the Himalayas. But in the late 1980s, Bhutan waged a brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign against its citizens of Nepali ancestry. Forced to flee Bhutan, Om Dhungel spent six years as a refugee in Nepal before he arrived in Australia. Today Om is a respected community leader in western Sydney, consulted frequently by government and settlement organisations on refugee policy.
Written with Walkley Award-winning journalist James Button, Bhutan…
I began as a picture book illustrator and gradually started writing my own stories, but I still love illustrating other people’s stories. From their manuscripts, I learn to look at the world in new and unexpected ways. As a visual artist, I learned from a young age to pay attention and really look at the world around me. When I have days full of errands and chores and forget to look and be present, the day becomes gray and boring. All of these books in words and pictures offer nature and the act of paying attention and celebrating as transformation and connection.
This picture book with no words and minimal color follows the path of a distracted father and attentive child through a city. Every time I open this book I am reminded to keep my eyes open and pay attention; gather beauty where you find it and share it with others. The illustrator is a master of stories within stories and by the end, I promise, you will want to step outside and pick flowers, even from cracks in the sidewalk.
Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year
In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.
“Written” by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewalk Flowers is an ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures.
I like to write characters and situations that readers relate to and find reassurance from. Laughter comes from shared experiences of frustration and mistakes, it reassures us that we are normal and not alone, giving us a big hug when feeling overwhelmed or down. I love the healing power of comedy and use it in all my work. Reading how other authors use comedy improves my writing and expands my viewpoint. I also perform comedy with a mixture of storytelling, standup, and belly dancing, I learn from the audience's reaction and feedback, which not only feeds into my novels but makes me feel like a million dollars.
An Australian novel about happiness with the sort of dialogue and food that took me back to my childhood, it is a deliciously reassuring story.
Like many, I can spend too much time on the internet or watching TV, which often leaves me feeling dissatisfied. Ladies in Black is the sort of read that reminds me that happiness is in the ordinary and is as fleeting as the clouds that pass over the sun.
Now a major motion picture starring Rachael Taylor, Angourie Rice and Jullia Ormond.
At the very end of the Ladies’ Frocks Departments, past Cocktail Frocks, there was something very special, something quite, quite wonderful; but it wasn’t for everybody: that was the point. Because there, at the very end, there was a lovely arch, on which was written in curly letters Model Gowns.
Written by a superb novelist of contemporary manners, Ladies in Black is a fairytale which illuminates the extraordinariness of ordinary lives. The women in black are run off their feet, what with the Christmas rush and the…
I have always loved reading and its ability to take you far away to a distant time and place and lift you up. As a kid, I never left the house without a book, and the ones that made me laugh were my go-to's. I believe the ability to make people laugh is a truly special talent, especially while making the text relatable, so the reader’s always asking, wow, what would I do in that situation? My readers often tell me that my writing sounds just like me, which is wonderful because there’s no need to pretend. You will always know what you’ll get with me!
I found it a true delight to read such a clever, gentle tale full of humour and life observations.
Mrs. Winterbottom and her husband have both retired, but while she’s keen to set off around the globe, he’s happy in the garden.
I really loved the way Nell shows us Mrs. Winterbottom’s irritation with her husband, at the same time as making it clear they love each other. It’s relatable and realistic, and every line’s a gentle gag.
It's never too late for the adventure of a lifetime . . .
Heather Winterbottom has worked side by side with her husband as GPs in their idyllic rural practice for over forty years. But as the time comes to hang up their stethoscopes, the Winterbottoms discover that they have rather different visions of retirement . . .
Heather dreams of exploring the Greek Islands, of escaping the shackles of her routine life and embracing an exciting new adventure. Alan dreams of growing his own vegetables.
When things come to a head at a family lunch, Heather announces that she…
I loved this book for its pacy story, fantastic characters, and gripping plot. The story is intense, and Holly Craig is a fantastic writer. Every single page is gripping and drives the story forward.
A woman becomes obsessed with the woman next door and befriends her. When her new friend is murdered, her husband insists that they flee. What happens next is a story of survival.
"An exhilarating and accomplished action-packed thriller."-B. A. Paris
Her best friend is dead.
Emma and Ariella, neighbours in one of Sydney's most exclusive suburbs, appear to have it all-perfect homes, perfect husbands, perfect lives. But they both know dark secrets lurk beneath the surface and shallow waters can't hide Ariella's. Now she has been found murdered.
Her daughter filmed the killing.
Not knowing what she's filmed, Emma's daughter Kiki innocently uploads footage of Ariella's brutal death. Emma fears the worst-the killer will know what she and Kiki have seen. Their safe suburban lives no longer exist.
I grew up a closeted gay in a very straight world. I enjoy reading both true and fictional stories about how others grew up and came out. I decided to write about coming-out and coming-of-age because this mixture of topics just didn’t exist when I was a teen. The books that I have listed here are ones that I feel capture both the realism of what is, what we wished had been, and the hope of what could be—a world where "coming out" wouldn’t be necessary.
I loved the mixture of third and first person that this story is told in. The main character Dillon is both fun, sad, and imminently well-drawn. His harrowing dash from Perth to Sydney, his relationships with Amy, Pastor Pete, wonderful Dixie, and Stephen, and his sheer will to be his authentic self, had me both scared and happy for him.
I loved the mixture of coming-out and coming-of-age with some thriller elements thrown in, not something that I see a lot of in coming-of-age novels.
A teenager's quest for freedom leads him on the streets and into the path of a local serial killer.
15-year-old Dillon is on the run.
Until recently he enjoyed friends, family, and the safe confines of a religious cult. But when a confession ignites the wrath of his church Dillon escapes ... and he's about to discover a vast world beyond the private walls of his former life.
Once in Sydney he faces a bustling city full of dreams and nightmares. Desperate to survive, Dillon is lured to the red-light district where strangers pay for pretty boys.
I’m an Australian crime writer and I love reading crime with a real sense of place and/or time. Growing up in Australia, most of the time I read international authors, so finding fabulous books by local authors was a thrill every time, and that excitement has never left me. This list crosses the genre from cosy to hard-boiled crime, which hopefully means something for everyone. If nothing here grabs you, there’s a lot more fantastic Australian crime fiction to discover (did you know Australian author Charlotte Jay won the first ever Edgar Award in 1954?) and I can passion-talk about it anytime!
Corris and his protagonist, the hard-scrabble private detective Cliff Hardy, are quintessentially Australian. The Dying Trade introduces Cliff (smoker, drinker, ex-boxer) and sets the standard for all the books that follow in this series. It’s dry and laconic, with a wonderful sense of place (a very gritty 1980s Sydney). There’s a definite nod to the greats— Chandler and Hammett in this series; you know Cliff Hardy probably shouldn’t take this job, it’s odds-on he’ll cop a beating along the way, possible he’ll find love and lose it again. I enjoy the author’s economy with words and the moral complexity of his characters. If you like hard-boiled crime, this series is worth a look!
*Note: Sydney is much nicer than it may seem when you walk in Corris’s shoes!
Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator.
The Dying Trade not only introduces a sleuth who has become an enduring Australian literary legend—the antihero of thirty-seven thrillers—but it is also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself.
This
author is new to me, and the entire time I was devouring this book, I kept
thinking, I love the way this woman writes!
I’m not going to lie; the subject
matter in this story is heavy—there is childhood trauma on multiple fronts—but
somehow, the way the story unfolds leaves you feeling happy and hopeful instead
of the normal gut-wrenching dread you might find with another author.
These
characters are unique and interesting, and their journeys are interwoven in a
seamless and sensitive manner so that you can’t help but cheer them on until
they get their happily-ever-after, which, of course, they do.
To the rest of the world, he was the little boy who went missing on the Fourth of July. To me, he was everything. My heart hasn't been the same since he disappeared, but I've learned to build my life around that missing piece. Twenty-two years later, the last thing I expect is for that missing piece to come back. His name is Oliver Lynch, and this is his story. This is our story.
My interest in gaslighting began when I watched the movie, Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman. Until then, I hadn’t understood how someone who appears charming and caring can use someone’s love to control, manipulate and undermine them, to such an extent that the victim doubts their own perception of reality. I started to read accounts of victims of gaslighting. I then realized that someone I knew was going through this. Fiction is a powerful means of creating awareness of issues and injustices, and I hope my new series character, Sally Fairburn, will inspire women to seize back their lives.
The premise of the crime-thriller is fascinating: an all-female therapy group meets to share their pain at the abuse and murder of their sisters by their partners/husbands.
The justice system failed to prosecute the killers and the women pursue their own form of justice. They hatch a plan to kill the men who murdered their sisters. The author masterfully establishes how the female victims of abuse find themselves trapped and isolated by their abuser and why they find it so hard to leave them, even when their life is in danger.
Will the sisters who want revenge get away with it?
Men get away with murder all the time. Now it's our turn ... A twisty, intriguing crime novel for fans of The Mother and The Family Doctor.
Naomi started grief counselling prepared to run for cover as soon as her therapist, Mia, pulled out a crystal or tried to align her chakras.
When Mia suggests that she join a support group, Naomi is sceptical: how could she begin to describe what it felt like to lose her sister, Jo? How could she possibly share her loss and rage to a room full of people? How could she express her helplessness…
