A trip down under - eight Australian novels to beat the British winter blues
As autumn arrives in full swing across the UK, which mostly means soggy leaves and frizzy hair, I am longing for next summer already. Although flying to the opposite side of the world is certainly outside of my reality in the upcoming months, indulging in some Australian fiction might just help warm me up (that and longingly watching the instagram stories of my Aussie pals lying on various beaches).
Here are eight recently released Australian authors or books set in Australia for you to enjoy:
Love and Virtue / Diana Reid
Diana Reid’s debut combines both sunny Sydney beaches and a back-to-school energy that makes it the perfect read for this time of year. Following a student-professor relationship and a pick-me girl’s attempt at making #metoo happen in the hallowed halls of what feels like an Australian version of Oxbridge.
Reid interrogates the politics of university campuses: misogyny, patriarchy and racism aplenty. Although distinctly Australian in setting as well as its discussion of the country’s class systems, it has a Rooney-esque set up, which may either be a turn on, or turn off, for you.
28 Questions / Indyana Schneider
28 Questions is another collegiate story, but less falling for the lecturers and more for fellow roommates. Although this story does spend some time in rainy Oxford, Schneider’s queer romance debut moves across contienents and years as we watch two Austrailain students fall in and out of love. Written in an inventive interview format, Scneider’s prose is floral but compelling, a modern take on an age-old tale.
The Eulogy / Jackie Bailey
A heart stopping literary thriller, Bailey’s story is influenced by her own life experience. It is a ride I can bet you haven’t been on before. A sprawling set of family secrets are revealed to readers by Kathy, a woman running from some serious charges to her name. A lethal quantity of sleeping pills, and phone ringing off the hook, Kathy thinks she has a plan.
She’s been tasked with writing the eulogy of her beloved sister, Annie and in the process we learn of their parents' own past lives: living under the Japanese occupation of Singapore during WW2, and what it was like fighting in the Vietnam war. This is a story you will be reading until the sun comes up.
Too Much Lip / Melissa Lucashenko
Too Much Lip is both a story you’ve read before, and something entirely new. Lucashenko’s novel is a story of a woman returning home, reconfiguring her life to accommodate ailing parents and attempting to place herself back in home she has spent most of her adult life trying to forget. But in this case, the story is seated within a context of First Nations’ land, and historical reclamation of ancestral rights.
Dealing with incarceration, grassroots environmental action and modern day colonial legacies, Lucasheko’s story is a masterclass in character study with a pacey plot to match.
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams)/ Anita Heiss
The first Australian novel title to be published in Wiradyuri language, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray is a historical foray into the 1800’s. Using Indigenous language throughout, Heiss begins with the great flood of 1852 as the catalyst to explore the trauma inflicted on Australia's First Nations people.
Heiss paints a tender love story despite the surrounding violence, and the synchronous relationship the Wiradyuri people had with their natural environment. Although set hundreds of years ago, the commentary on environmentalism, colonial legacy and mistreatment remain ever more relevant today.
New Animal / Ella Baxter
A story of grief, family business and BDSM? Yes really. Baxter’s debut arrived in the UK at the start of this year to great fanfare. On the surface, it may appear as another listless twenty-something woman trying to figure shit out, but the devil is in the detail in New Animal, and the idiosyncrasies Baxter uses makes for an intriguing read.
New Animal follows Amelia, a makeup artist at her family’s funeral parlour. Although surrounded by death daily, she struggles to find her footing when tragedy hits far closer to home, and we watch her journey across the country to reunite with her father, and experiment with unconventional ways to process her grief.
All That’s Left Unsaid / Tracey Lien
Set in 1990’s Sydney, Lien’s coming of age novel follows an Australian family living in Cabramatta, an area where violence, substance abuse problems and poverty collide with deadly results. Reckoning with Australia's treatment of refugees, colonialism, PTSD and the complex grief of losing someone young, All That’s Left Unsaid uses a central mystery to make cutting social commentary on the state of the country.
Enclave / Claire G. Coleman
Enclave is one we have to wait for, released in the UK in January 2023, which honestly isn’t so far away (terrifying, I know). Coleman’s third novel returns to her favoured theme: a toxic mix of colonisation, racism and misogyny.
A more intersectional dystopia than the famed Atwood and Orwell, Enclave imagines a near future where residents of the community, Safe Town, are under surveillance, kept inside the walls with all they need for their own good. Blending literary thriller with in depth allegory, Enclave treads new ground in dystopian fiction that reflects horrors of the past and present.
