Here are 100 books that Boy Swallows Universe fans have personally recommended if you like
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Iām an author, poet, and editor who works in natural history and social history publishing by day, explaining the unique flora and fauna, culture, and spirit of this ancient continent. By night, I moonlight as a fiction author, writing whatever takes my fancy. Seeing Australia and understanding Australia arenāt always the same thing in a country with unforgiving stony desert at its heart, more venomous creepy-crawlies than you can āpoke a stick atā (but please donāt!), the oldest living culture in the world, and a complex history. So, here are my recommendations for novels that travel deep into the Australian spirit.
Winton is one of Australiaās most celebrated authors for his effortless prose. In Breath, he vividly captures the moment restless ennui of life in a small town meets the Australian desire to push boundaries, building background tension that eventually crashes Aussie surf culture down like a dumper and leaves everything broken. While the award-winning Cloudstreet is often considered Wintonās āGreat Australian Novelā, the historic setting and vernacular felt somewhat contrived to me. I consider Breath Wintonās true masterpiece, which stays with you long after you finish the final page.
'Exhilarating' Sunday Times 'Rapturous' Sunday Telegraph 'A remarkable tale of grace and danger' Financial Times
When paramedic Bruce Pike is called out to deal with another teenage adventure gone wrong, he knows better than anyone what happened and how. Thirty years before, that dead boy could have been him. Bruce remembers what it was like to be a risk-taking kid, to feel that thrill and that fear . . .
Breath by Tim Winton is the story of Bruce and his best friend Loonie, and the surfing obsession that changed both of their lives. It is about the exhilaration ofā¦
I arrived in Sydney in the 90s knowing as much as one brief peruse the Berlitz Guide could provide me. For the next 25 years I immersed myself in its beautiful harbour and beaches whilst writing four novels, all set in my hometown of London. But when I sat down to write my fifth novel, The Unforgiving City, set in 1890s Sydney, I drew a complete blank. What was my adopted cityās history? Did it even have one? If so, where was it? By the time Iād finished the novel Iād unearthed a whole other, hidden, Sydney. I will never view my new home town the same way again.
This is an Australian classic. Published in 1948, Park wrote this, her first novel, when she moved to the crowded, chaotic impoverished inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. Fascinated and deeply stirred by what she saw, her novel centres on the close-knit Darcy family whose love for one another and enduring joy for life is in stark contrast to the harsh and occasionally brutal world around them. Parkās love for her characters and for her city shines through and provides a magical yet thoughtful window on a Sydney in the years immediately following the war. I worked in Surry Hills for many years and I set much of my last novel on its streets and laneways so to walk those same streets in Ruth Parkās footsteps was such a treat.
An Australian classic, this is the story of the Darcy family who live in the Depression era tenements of Surry Hills, Sydney.
Hugh and Margaret Darcy are raising their family in Sydney amid the brothels, grog shops, and run-down boarding houses of Surry Hills, where money is scarce and life is not easy.
Filled with beautifully drawn characters that will make you laugh as much as cry, this Australian classic will take you straight back to the colourful slums of Sydney with convincing depth, careful detail, and great heart.
My mother, father, and I were each born in different countries, and into different languages. In my childhood, we were a hybridized wonderāone part jetsam, one part flotsamāand a country unto ourselves. Our house was filled with all kinds of books, our dinnertimes with lively conversation (and occasional shouting), our plates with food cooked according to the recipes of family ghosts. I can honestly say that no other family was like ours, especially not in the American suburbs of the 1980s. As a writer, I have always been fascinated by the tug-and-pull of intergenerational trauma, and by the dislocation of immigration and exile.
When Augustās grandfatherāthe bedrock of a multi-generational Wiradjuri familyādies, she must return to Australia, and to the town of Prosperous. There, she comes face-to-face with the things that have driven her out, a process that began long before her birth. The bookās three narrators chart the casualties of colonialism: the loss of indigenous culture, the stamping out of language, the land that is taken and forever altered. But the book is so much more than a catalogue of losses, and Winchās song is ultimately one of identityāand historyāreclaimed.
"A beautifully written novel that puts language at the heart of remembering the past and understanding the present."-Kate Morton
"A groundbreaking novel for black and white Australia."-Richard Flanagan, Man Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
A young Australian woman searches for her grandfather's dictionary, the key to halting a mining company from destroying her family's home and ancestral land in this exquisitely written, heartbreaking, yet hopeful novel of culture, language, tradition, suffering, and empowerment in the tradition of Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, and Amy Harmon.
Knowing that he will soon die, Albert "Poppy" Gondiwindiā¦
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: āAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā¦
Iām an author, poet, and editor who works in natural history and social history publishing by day, explaining the unique flora and fauna, culture, and spirit of this ancient continent. By night, I moonlight as a fiction author, writing whatever takes my fancy. Seeing Australia and understanding Australia arenāt always the same thing in a country with unforgiving stony desert at its heart, more venomous creepy-crawlies than you can āpoke a stick atā (but please donāt!), the oldest living culture in the world, and a complex history. So, here are my recommendations for novels that travel deep into the Australian spirit.
First published in 1894, this is definitely a nostalgic choice; however, thereās a good reason why it became the first Australian novel to be continuously in print for 100 years in 1994. Esther Turnerās classic novel is Australiaās answer to Little Women, and if you donāt fall in love with the seven boisterous Woolcot children and end up in tears over the tragic events at Yarrahappini, Iām afraid youāre even harder-hearted than Captain Woolcot himself!
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
As someone who grew up in Australia without any gay literary characters to relate to, Iām incredibly passionate about queer stories set in our beautiful country. We now have a wealth of brilliant books by LGBTQ+ authors, and I hope that by sharing my recommendations, our stories find even more of the readers theyāre meant to find. Iāve focused on books featuring gay male protagonists, as thatās how I identify, and theyāre the type of queer stories I relate to the most. Some of the books are fiction, others are memoir, some are written for teens and others are for adults, but all of them share an incredible level of authenticity.
This book is beautiful from start to finish. The setting is so vivid (that Brisbane humidity and the purple jacarandas, I mean, I am right there!) and the writing is lyrical and gorgeous. The main characters are relatable and adorable and you find yourself cheering for them from the very first page. The story is full of awkward teen experiences, fun banter, tons of swoony scenes, and some truly touching moments.
This smart and charming queer YA rom-com about falling for your best friend will win the hearts of fans of Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli.
Henry Hamlet doesnāt know what he wants after school ends. Itās his last semester of high school, and all heās sure of is his uncanny ability to make situations awkward. Luckily, he can always hide behind his enigmatic best friend, Len. Theyāve been friends since forever, but Len is mysterious and Henry is clumsy, and Len is a heartthrob and Henry is a neurotic mess. Somehow itās always worked.
A genuine Aussie bookish girl, Iāve been an editor in the Australian publishing industry for 25 years, and Iāve been writing Australian novels for 15 of them. When Iām not reading or writing, Iām reviewing Australian books ā canāt get enough of them! Iāve dedicated my heart and mind to exploring and seeking to understand the contradictions and quirks of the country I am privileged to call home, from its bright, boundless skies to the deepest sorrows of bigotry and injustice. Acknowledging the brilliance of those women writers whoāve come before me and shining a light ahead for all those to come is the most wonderful privilege of all.
Toni Jordan writes stories that defy genre pigeonholing, so sheās a woman after my own heart. The Fragments is a mystery about a missing manuscript and itās also a complex piecing together of womenās personal histories. In the 1980s, in sleepy, sunny Brisbane, bookseller Caddie attends an exhibition of charred fragments from a famously lost novel of 1930s New York literary sensation, Inga Karlson ā and meets an enigmatic stranger there who sparks Caddieās obsession to uncover the truth of Ingaās life and death. A highly entertaining romp follows, full of mischievous twists, but, best of all, this novel holds another dare for me: that womenās lives and writing can and should sparkle with unpredictability.
Inga Karlson died in a fire in New York in the 1930s, leaving behind three things: a phenomenally successful first novel, the scorched fragments of a second bookāand a literary mystery that has captivated generations of readers.
Nearly fifty years later, Brisbane bookseller Caddie Walker is waiting in line to see a Karlson exhibition, featuring the famous fragments. A charismatic older woman quotes a phrase from the Karlson fragments that Caddie knows does not exist. Caddie is jolted from her sleepy life in 1980s Brisbane, and driven to uncover the truth about this fascinating literary mystery.
Neuroscience PhD student Frankie Conner has finally gotten her life togetherāsheās determined to discover the cause of her depression and find a cure for herself and everyone like her. But the first day of her program, she meets a group of talking animals who have an urgent message they refuseā¦
I am an art school dropout and recovering rock critic who, since 1981, has published a dozen books on Australian music and popular culture, plus worked extensively in television and as a freelance journalist. I'm too old to be called an enfant terrible, but with the way I still seem to be able to court controversy, I must remain some sort of loose cannon! Sydneyās Sun-Herald has called me "our best chronicler of Australian grass-roots culture," and thatās a tag Iām flattered by but which does get at what Iāve always been interested in. I consider myself a historian who finds resonances where most donāt even bother to look, in our own backyard, yesterday, and the fact that so much of my backlist including Inner City Sound, Highway to Hell, Buried Country, Golden Miles, History is Made at Night, and Stranded are still in print, I take as vindication Iām on the right trackā¦
Cultural history is now a book business-standard. That wasnāt always the case. For me myself, I had to read Otto Freidrichās City of Nets (1987) and Jon Savageās Englandās Dreaming (1992) before I could properly formulate my 1996 book Stranded. Stalwart rock journalist Andrew Staffordās debut book from 2004, Pig City, is a cultural history of the Brisbane music scene āfrom the Saints to Savage Gardenā, which makes it a regional history too. What makes it gripping, next Staffordās deft handling of the material, is the story itself, which is not just that of an erstwhile backwater finally coming of age, but up against and overcoming the oppressive jackboots of Queensland state premier, āhillbilly dictatorā Joh Bjelke-Peterson. Happily, that era is now long past, and BrisVegas is today a great music town; but wouldnāt have become so without the long struggle so vividly portrayed here.
From cult heroes the Saints and the Go-Betweens to national icons Powderfinger and international stars Savage Garden, Brisbane has produced more than its share of great bands. But behind the music lay a ghost city of malice and corruption. Pressed under the thumb of the Bjelke-Petersen government and its toughest enforcersāthe policeāBrisbaneās musicians, radio announcers, and political activists braved ignorance, harassment, and often violence to be heard. This updated, 10th anniversary edition features a scathing new introduction by the author, assessing the changing shape of Brisbane, its music, and troubling developments since the return of the state of Queensland toā¦
Literary agents often say they are looking for books about āquirkyā female protagonists. Iām more entertained by female characters who feel real to me. When I write, I make myself uncomfortable a lot of the time, trying to express the many ways people both disguise and reveal the truth. I blame my devotion to my parents for this because when I left home in Massachusetts for college in the foreign land of Indiana, studied for a year in China, then studied in Italy, then worked in Taiwan, then moved to Japan, and later to Singapore, I wrote them copious descriptive, emotional letters. My parents are gone now, but in a way, Iām still doing that.
I donāt often read books more than once, but this one I have, and I know I will read it again. The woman whose life is revealed this time is 70-year-old Nora Porteous. She has returned to her native Brisbane, Australia after having escaped it by marriage to Sydney, and having escaped that marriage to London. She now reflects wryly on how she developed throughout those years of hardship and joy as she also experiences the changes in the neighbourhood she ran from decades before. As we move through both her memories of the past and her experience of the present, the details that help us to understand her are extraordinary: āThe man is unlocking the door. I have had to talk and smile too much in his car, and as I wait I consciously rest my face.ā
One of Australiaās most celebrated novels: one womanās journey from Australia to London
Nora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age seventy. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London; she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life.
At home, the neighborhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighborhood in theā¦
I have lived on a small island in Japan for over 25 years. I moved into my aging and empty Japanese abode before akiyaāempty housesābecame a phenomenon, and I described my experiences in a regular column for The Japan Times from 1997 to 2020. I love Japanās countryside and wish more tourists would visit places outside Japanās major cities. The living is simple, the Japanese people are charming and Japan itself is one of the most unique places in the world. These books are written by people who have taken the leap and chosen the tranquil existence of the pastoral Japanese countryside.
I wish I had read this memoir long before I moved to Japan. Otowa married her U.S. college sweetheart and found herself transported to a small town near Kyoto, where she plopped down into the traditional hamlet her husbandās ancestors founded. In the town of Otowa, she becomes the matron of the heritage home of 350 years.
She writes beautifully about traditional Japanese life, folk traditions, and seasonal rituals, all of which bound her to her home, which she considers a living, breathing entity. A beautiful tribute to a house.
"This portrait of Japanese country life reminds us that at its core, a happy and healthy life is based on the bonds of food, family, tradition, community, and the richness of nature." -John Einarsen, Founding Editor and Art Director of Kyoto Journal
What would it be like to move to Japan, leaving everyone you know behind, to become part of a traditional Japanese household? At Home in Japan tells an extraordinary true story of a foreign woman who goes through a fantastic transformation, as she makes a move from a suburban lifestyle in California to a new life, living inā¦
Secrets, misunderstandings, and a plethora of family conflicts abound in this historical novel set along the Brazos River in antebellum Washington County, East Texas.
It is a compelling story of two neighboring plantation families and a few of the enslaved people who serve them. These two plantations are a microcosmā¦
We live in a bizarre era of Elon Musk stans who seem certain that if you work hard youāll be rewarded not only with āfuck youā money, but āfuck everyoneā money. I think any writer worth their salt should at some point tackle the issues of their age in their writing. In our era racism, sexism, climate change, and a range of other social justice issues are all exacerbated through the improper distribution of wealth. You could give a man a fish, and he might eat for a day. Or you could eviscerate the rich, share their wealth, and throw the whole world a parade!
McGahan is one of my all-time favourites for numerous reasons. When I was a baby writer just getting started, I was so excited to have McGahan writing about my home city of Brisbane, showing all its scars and burn marks. He has an incredible knack for writing across genres, something that I think more writers should aspire to. In this case he turns his hand to an elegant take on the supernatural thriller. The supernatural elements here are uniquely and beautifully presented. There are no vampires or magic, just nature in a primal and anthropomorphic capacity. Many books are described as āman vs nature,ā but that relationship has never been more savagely explored than in this book. It also has the most bittersweet authorās note Iāve ever read. Gets me every time.
In the freezing Antarctic waters south of Tasmania, a mountain was discovered in 1642 by the seafaring explorer Gerrit Jansz. Not just any mountain but one that Jansz estimated was an unbelievable height of twenty-five thousand metres.
In 2016, at the foot of this unearthly mountain, a controversial and ambitious 'dream home', the Observatory, is painstakingly constructed by an eccentric billionaire - the only man to have ever reached the summit.
Rita Gausse, estranged daughter of the architect who designed the Observatory is surprised, upon her father's death, to be invited to the isolated mansion to meet the famously reclusiveā¦