Gleaner February/March 2026

February-March

From David’s desk

Welcome to our first Gleaner of 2026, and many months of reading, we hope. Looking back, as we look forward, we’re pleased to offer some snaps from our 50th birthday party late last year. It was lovely to have on hand such an array of friends of long standing, writers, staff, customers and well-wishers. We’ll do it again, in 2075.

Elsewhere in this issue, we’ve a heads-up about books to look forward to from our staff members, eager as ever for the next great read. I’ve a few I’ve chanced upon already. Australian former diplomat Ian Kemish has written a gripping political thriller, Two Islands (February) set largely in the Hebrides, around Nico, a young man running for his life, after the post-Yugoslavia Balkan war. Sensitively and brilliantly done. I also just finished expat M.L. Stedman’s long-awaited second novel (the much-loved Light Between Oceans was published in 2012). Again, she has drawn on her Western Australia background to give us a big, big, sweeping story set across several 20th-century generations in outback WA. This is a powerful and redemptive tale set against isolation and a tragic event that changes lives.

I’m certainly looking forward to another “long-time-between books” new releases: in 2008 Steve Toltz swept all before him with A Fraction of the Whole. In April he will bring his fabulous storytelling skills and morbid wit to A Rising of the Light. And whatever your commitments, you MUST read Debra Adelaide’s When I Am Sixty-Four, publishing in April. A profound, beautiful, moving reflection and meditation on friendship, creativity, and the human condition. Don’t miss it.

David Gaunt

Celebrating 50 years of Gleebooks

and loyal supporters

‘Utterly captivating ... global intrigue with heart.’

DALTON

‘A scorching novel about small-town grief, queer yearning and the rituals that keep us connected.’

BENJAMIN LAW

A Far-flung Life

M.L. Stedman

Western Australia, 1958. For generations, the MacBrides have lived on a remote sheep station. One ordinary day, on a lonely road, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds, the lives of his entire family are shattered. Then, a twist of fate causes one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. A Far-flung Life explores the lives of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.

$35, Penguin. Out March

In Bloom

Liz Allan

It’s the mid-90s, and in the small, shitty coastal town of Vincent, four girls form a band: The Bastards. Friends since they were children, they consider themselves “forgettable girls” –distracted, disillusioned, and desperate to escape the fates of their mothers. Winning the Battle of the Bands is their ticket out. But when lead singer Lily Lucid quits, and accuses their music teacher of sexual assault, the three remaining girls are left with nothing. They’ll do anything to keep their dream alive – but how far out of control can they spin before there’s no turning back?

$35, Sceptre. Out now

Soft Serve

George Kemp

Stuck in a regional McDonald’s, as bushfires close in, three twentysomethings and their dead friend’s mum all face a reckoning. Fern longs for Ethan, Ethan longs for Jacob, and Jacob struggles to long for anything. Meanwhile, Pat just wants her grief to ease up. Soft Serve proves that small-town lives are huge, and that anyone can get stuck in limbo between their past and their hoped-for future. This is a charming and poignant novel full of wit and heart.

$30, UQP. Out February

The Minstrels

Eva Hornung

Gem and Will grow up on a farm above the chasm and pool known as the Minstrels, a site where both are broken, each by the other. One will disappear. One will, eventually, be transformed. Through her encounters with people and through art, land and language, Gem is remade while the world outside changes and time runs out. Wild, mythic and potent, The Minstrels is an apocalyptic redemption fable that weaves the history and probable fate of the world into the life of one woman.

$35, Text. Out March

The Duke’s Secret

Sue Williams

A young maid and a British army officer trapped in an unhappy marriage fall in love just as he’s departing for war. Years later, he returns triumphant as the Duke of Wellington, having defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. He now must reunite with his wife and their two sons – and with the maid Mary Ann and their illegitimate daughter. Two hundred years on, in Australia, a woman is told her family are descendants of a maid who worked for the Iron Duke. She sets out to find out whether the story is true – what she discovers shocks everyone. $35, Allen & Unwin. Out February

A Concise Compendium of Wonder

Ceridwen Dovey et al

In the middle of a great famine, two siblings are cast out into a forest that holds both danger and beauty. Perpetual winter descends upon a giant’s garden after rowdy children are shut out by a massive wall. In the year 3099, humans find themselves stranded on the Moon and turn to their one remaining tree for wisdom. At the centre of each of these stories is a question about humanity’s relationship with nature. But there is also a tiny seed of hope. Based on stories by the Brothers Grimm, Oscar Wilde and Hans Christian Andersen, this is an epic collection from award-winning authors Ceridwen Dovey, Ursula Dubosarsky and Jennifer Mills. $33, Pink Shorts. Out February

Life Drawing

Emily Lighezzolo

Maisie and Charlie meet at a life drawing session as undergraduates – she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement and family. Maisie’s story is every woman’s, and Emily Lighezzolo’s bold debut interrogates the collision of art and gaze, desire and consent, muse and meaning.

$35, UQP. Out March

In a Common Hour

Sita Walker

Parks State High is a melting pot of misfits. There is Oliver Fish, the teen philosopher hiding a secret relationship; Dev Patel, hopelessly in love with the brilliant Maryam Fadel; and a staffroom thick with gossip, camaraderie and burnt-out teachers. At the centre of it all is wellloved teacher Paul Bush. But when a disgruntled student makes a devastating move – one lunchtime is all it takes for Bushie’s life to change forever.

$35, Ultimo. Out now

On Not Climbing Mountains

Claire Thomas

A woman begins a solitary train journey in Geneva, seeking escape yet soon drawn into Switzerland’s rich tapestry of stories. She finds artful tributes to James Baldwin and traces of literary figures like Mary Shelley and Fleur Jaeggy, along with historical echoes of Charlie Chaplin, Patricia Highsmith, the Gotthard Tunnel workers, Everest climbers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, and figures like Lenin and the Dadaists in Zurich. This beautifully crafted story is an exhilarating exploration of grief, memory, art’s impact, and the fragility of nature.

$33, Hachette. Out February

Something New

Alex Sarkis

After a series of tragic events, Nicole leaves Sydney and her tight-knit immigrant family to build a new life for herself in London. Two years later though, when her visa is almost up, she heads back to her hometown, where everything is the same – but things are different. She reconnects with family, friends and more – and finds herself longing for what she once had. Torn between continents and loyalties, Nicole has to decide what she truly wants for herself – a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

$35, Ultimo. Out February

The Gambler

J.P. Pomare

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he’s offered a case he can’t refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It’s easy money, he’s told. A sure thing. But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life? A highly charged crime-thriller launching an electrifying new series featuring PI Vince Reid.

$35, Hachette. Out February

Bugger

Michael Mohammed Ahmad Alooshi understands first-hand the hurt words can bring. As a teenager, he’s learned that knowing how to wound someone gives him power. But words can only give him so much. Over one day and one night, Hamoodi will come to understand how vulnerable he is. He will discover that family is complicated and trust is a cruel weapon. Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s new novel reveals an uncompromising representation of abuse and explores the impact one day can have on a lifetime.

$35, Hachette. Out now

The Sisterhood Rules

Kathy Lette

The sisterhood bond between twin sisters Isabel and Verity is shattered when Verity has an affair with Izzy’s husband. Devastated by her sister’s betrayal, Izzy casts Verity into social Siberia. But when their mother goes missing, the sisters are forced to team up to find her. Then the sisters’ problems get bigger: their mother has a new younger lover and where there’s a will – he’d clearly like to be in it. Can they stop their mother from making a mistake and find a way to bury the pain of the past?

$35, Aria. Out February

What Is Left for Us

Sophie Stern

Rebecca is working as a lawyer at an insurance firm in London, but she’s unfulfilled in her job, and her boyfriend, the one she didn’t even care about, has just dumped her. On the surface, her estranged sister Hannah has it all. A perfect house, a high-flying husband, an adorable daughter. But the facade is crumbling. Forced to reunite with Rebecca when they inherit their grandmother’s house in Bondi, Hannah is reminded of the life she has given up. What Is Left for Us is a suspenseful tale of fierce and complicated family dynamics.

$35, Penguin. Out March

A NOVEL OF BURIED SECRETS, UNIMAGINABLE RESILIENCE AND HOW THE LOVE OF FAMILY CAN PULL YOU THROUGH TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE FROM LOUISE MILLIGAN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PHEASANTS NEST

‘So much more than a crime novel. I loved it.’ CHRIS HAMMER, author of Legacy

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE

‘A rollercoaster ride through some of Sydney’s brightest and darkest stories.’

2026: the year in stories

Gleebooks staff choose the books they can’t wait to read in 2026

Summer

Be transported to a darker place with Brigid Lowe’s Bloody Branch (Harville/Secker), centred on three powerful heroines and inspired by Celtic lore. Richard Siken tells a queer comingof-age story in 77 poems in I Do Know Some Things (Cooper Canyon Press). Butter author Asako Yuzuki returns with Hooked (4th Estate), a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession. Light and Thread (Hamish Hamilton) is a collection of luminous essays from Han Kang, winner of the Nobel prize for literature. George Saunders confronts the biggest issues of our time with his trademark humour and warmth in Vigil (Bloomsbury). The poems in Beverley Farmer’s For the Seasons: Haikus (Giramondo), inspired by the seasons spent in Victoria, were written 25 years ago but have never been published in full.

Also out in summer: Adam Phillips The Life You Want (Hamish Hamilton); Claire Louise Bennett’s Big Kiss, Bye-Bye (Fitzcarraldo); Daniyal Mueenuddin’s This Is Where the Serpent Lives (Bloomsbury).

Autumn

Lauren Groff’s Brawler (Hutchinson Heinemann) is a fierce new short story collection focused on the battle between the dark and light in all of us. When I’m Sixty-Four (UQP) by Debra Adelaide is a beautiful autofiction novel based on a friendship between writers. Those who have read instalments 1-3 of Solvej Balle’s timetwisting series can continue the journey with On the Calculation of Volume Book IV (Faber Fiction). Fresh from her court win against the ABC, journalist Antoinette Lattouf celebrates the stories of Women Who Win (Penguin).

Douglas Stuart’s John of John (Picador) is a heartbreaking story of a young man’s return home. Tasmanian author Amanda Lohrey has followed up her acclaimed novel The Conversion with Capture (Text) a story of truth, doubt and alien abduction. Fiona Wright asks: How far would you go to get your dream house? in her scathing novel Kill Your Boomers (Ultimo). Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say (Viking) tells the story of a chance incident in a man’s life and free will in a capsizing world.

Martin McKenzie-Murray weaves together stories of a paramedic, a police officer and firefighter and examines what drives them in Sirens: Inside the shadow world of first responders (Black Inc, nonfiction). Be gripped and amused by John Lanchester’s satirical psychological thriller Look What You Made Me Do (Faber Fiction). The Log Books: Voices of queer Britain & the helpline that listened (Faber Non fiction) by Tash Walker and Adam Smith is an intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades, discovered in a stash of forgotten, handwritten notes. Namwali Serpell’s On Morrison is an essential guide to the life and work of legendary author Toni Morrison (Chatto & Windus). Also out in autumn: Jon Fosse’s Vaim (Fitzcarraldo); Sally O’Reilly’s Hagtale (Scribe); Joanna Kavenna’s Seven (Black Inc); Steve Toltz’s A Rising of the Lights (Penguin); Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House (Picador); Birgitta Trotzig’s Queen (Faber Fiction); Patrick Raddon Keefe’s London Falling (Picador); Kate Holden’s The Ruin of Magic (Black Inc); Angela O’Keeffe’s

Phantom Days (UQP); Maria Semple’s Go Gentle (W&N); Jeremy Cooper’s Discord (Fitzcarraldo).

Winter

Ann Patchett is following up her hugely successful and beloved Tom Lake with Whistler (Bloomsbury), a moving story about how family, memory and love endures. A Sudden Flicker (Simon & Schuster, nonfiction) by David Thomson is a masterful onevolume look at the whole sweep of movie history. New Zealand author Meg Mason’s Sophie, Standing There (4th Estate) is a bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places. Daniel Mason’s Country People (John Murray) is a joyous and absurd exploration of marriage and parenthood and the power of stories. John Cornwall’s true crime account Earth to Earth (riverun) tells the story of the lives and violent deaths of a Devon farming family.

Spring

Katherine Rundell is back with The Neverfear (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), the much anticipated third book in her Impossible Creatures fantasy series. The Times calls Emmanuel Carrère’s Kolkhoze (Fern Press) “poignant ... and abounding in wonderful anecdotes”. Siang Lu has followed up her Miles Franklin award-winning Ghost Cities with Useless Tse (Scribner). First Nations writers examine the nature of love in Blak Love (UQP), edited by Daniel Browning and Cheryl Leavy. Fresh from her collaboration with Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein on The Mushroom Tapes, Chloe Hooper has written a cold war thriller in Lady Spy (Scribner). Currabubula (Black Inc) is Kate Grenville’s (pictured) latest tale centred on Australia’s colonial past.

Keep an eye out for upcoming issues of The Gleaner

great titles throughout the year or ask one of our expert booksellers – they’re always ready with a recommendation.

*Publication dates are subject to last minute changes.

Picture: Kate Grenville

Half His Age

Jennette McCurdy

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Hurting. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all? Mr Korgy, her creative writing teacher. Mr Korgy, with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Could they be kindred spirits? Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is an incisive study of a yearning 17-year-old who disregards all obstacles in her effort to be seen, to be desired and to be loved. $33, 4th Estate. Out now

Look What You Made Me Do

John Lanchester

Have you seen Cheating? Do you think it’s as good as everyone says? Better than Succession, White Lotus, Dallas, the Old Testament, Tolstoy? What do you make of the younger girlfriend? Do you think you’re supposed to hate the wife? And are you supposed to like the husband? Imagine the most intimate parts of your marriage stolen and turned into the subject of the year’s hottest TV sensation. How would you take it? Turn the other cheek? Or play the revenge game? Look What You Made Me Do is a satirical psychological thriller from the author of Capital $35, Faber. Out March

Stowaways

André Aciman

Julian is half watching the evening news, his partner filling the dishwasher when an email arrives with the subject line: “From Paul Axel”. An email about a dead man from Chloe – a woman Julian has never met. Paul has left a message he’d like her to relay. Emails are exchanged. Morning coffee at the Bryant Park Grill is agreed. Chloe, fulfilling Paul’s final request, wonders how she will tell Julian of a life – and a love – he has no idea existed. This is a contemporary twist on Brief Encounter and a tender meditation on what might have been from the author of Call Me By Your Name

$27, Faber. Out March

Vaim

Jon Fosse

Jatgeir has come from Vaim to the big city, Bjørgvin, on his wooden boat, Eline, named after the long-lost love of his teenage years. One night, while sleeping on his boat, he hears a familiar voice: it is Eline, who wants to come home to Vaim with him. She leaves a note for her husband Frank, packs her bags and runs away while he is out fishing. Jon Fosse’s first novel since he received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature is the story of little boats and big boats, love and death, passive men and an incredibly determined woman.

$27, Fitzcarraldo. Out February

Hooked

Asako Yuzuki

Eriko’s life appears perfect, but beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness. She becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shoko. Shoko’s posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife’s manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Eriko’s obsession with Shoko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. Hooked is a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession.

$35, 4th Estate. Out March

Theo of Golden

Allen Levi

His name is Theo and he’s arrived there by chance – or has he? He visits the local coffeehouse, where 92 pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits by a local artist of the people of Golden. He begins buying them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners”. With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered. Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

$33, Fontana. Out February

Pedro the Vast

Simón López Trujillo

Pedro, a eucalyptus farm worker, starts coughing, then several of his coworkers die of a strange fungal disease, which has jumped to humans for the first time. Pedro survives and becomes an object of fascination for a foreign mycologist, as well as a local priest, who believes his mysterious mutterings are the words of a prophet. Meanwhile Pedro’s kids are left to fend for themselves: the young Cata, who makes creepy art projects, and Patricio, who wasn’t ready to be thrust into the role of father. Their competing efforts to reckon with Pedro’s condition eventually meet in a horrifying climax.

$28, Scribe. Out February

Body Double

Hanna Johansson

A young transcriber’s predictable life of typing strangers’ stories is upended when she hears a message meant only for her on a ghostwriter’s tapes. Simultaneously, two women, Laura and Naomi, swap coats, sparking an intense connection. Laura moves in with Naomi and begins meticulously mirroring, then taking over, her life. The transcriber, meanwhile, makes a disturbing discovery: she is fading away.

$30, Scribe. Out March

Vigil

George Saunders

Powerful oil tycoon K.J. Boone has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it – isn’t it?

As death approaches, a cast of worldly and otherworldly visitors arrive. Crowds of people and animals alive and dead materialise, birds swarm the dying man’s room, and associates from decades past show up. In this electric novel brimming with explosive imagination, George Saunders confronts the biggest issues of our time with his trademark humour and warmth.

$33, Bloomsbury. Out February

Women, Seated

Zhang Yeuran

In Women, Seated, we enter the world of an elite Chinese family: a life of luxury, limitless power, and around-theclock service, which includes their trusted nanny Yu Ling. Yu has served the family for years and knows their secrets. But she has secrets of her own and in the pressurecooker political environment of China, the fates of even the most powerful families can reverse overnight. After the father is arrested and the mother goes on the run, Yu is left behind to make a series of lifechanging choices. How far will she go to claim what she considers her due?

$30, Sceptre. Out February Lázár

Nelio Bierdermann

For generations, the corrupt Lázár family have ruled their Hungarian lands from an ancient castle bordering a dark, madness-inducing forest. As the Hapsburg Monarchy crumbles, Lajos von Lázár inherits, striving to restore past glories. Yet, war and occupation ravage their reign. His children – a boy who speaks to shadows and a rebellious girl – must find a way to oppose oppression and forge a path to freedom. Lázár is a sweeping epic, spanning from the early 20th century to the 1956 Hungarian National Uprising. $35, MacLeHose Press. Out March

Departure(s)

Julian Barnes

Departure(s) is a work of fiction – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. It is the story of a man called Stephen and a woman called Jean, who fall in love when they are young and again when they are old. It is the story of an elderly Jack Russell called Jimmy, enviably oblivious to his own mortality. It is also the story of how the body fails us, whether through age, illness, accident or intent. And it is the story of how experiences fade into anecdotes, and then into memory. Ultimately, it’s about how we find happiness in this life, and when it is time to say goodbye.

$35, Jonathan Cape. Out now

Hot Chocolate on Thursday

Michiko Aoyama

Taking a walk along the river, cooking the best tamagoyaki, ordering hot chocolate, forgetting to remove our nail polish ... The small, everyday acts that we do can lead to unexpected encounters and reverberate far beyond our own lives to make a real difference in the world. Hot Chocolate on Thursday is a tapestry of slice-of-life moments that open and close with a woman ordering her regular hot chocolate at the mysterious Marble Cafe. From the author of What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

$35, Doubleday. Out February

Python’s Kiss

Louise Erdrich

Written over the past two decades, Louise Erdrich’s magnificent story collection features ordinary people – bird lovers, artists, grade-school teachers, and romantics. A girl who decides to spend her life with a stone; a man who is confronted with a folk-singing thief; and a woman who enters a corporately owned afterlife to seek revenge on her father. Accompanied by artwork by Aza Erdrich Abe – an intimate creative collaboration between mother and daughter – these stories offer an opportunity to celebrate the wisdom and brilliant, wide-ranging imagination of one of America’s most important writers. $35, Corsair. Out March

A Beautiful Loan

Mary Costello

In Dublin in 1985, 19-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Anna is introverted and naive, and Peter’s experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure captivate her. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal. Then Anna meets a kind-hearted Algerian man: life with him offers stability and renewed hope. Unfolding over 25 years, this is a profound novel about the loss of innocence, the price of love, and the cost of seeking salvation in others.

$35, Text. Out March

Yñiga

Glenn Diaz

Yñiga Calinauan’s quiet existence in Manila is upended when a biographer starts asking questions about her activist father who disappeared years earlier. Soon after, a former army general is arrested across the road from her home, and her neighborhood is burnt to the ground. With nowhere to go, Yñiga returns to the small fishing town of her childhood. Set against a backdrop of political upheaval, Yñiga is both a compulsive thriller and a literary treasure. It’s a novel about the routine violence of state terror –and the possibility of everyday resistance.

$33, Pink Shorts. Out February

INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE

A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang

Lee Onhwa

When 27-year-old Yeon-hwa loses her grandmother, the enigmatic proprietor of the Hwawoldang, she decides to respect her wishes by keeping the store going for at least a month. On her very first day at work, she is interrupted by one of her grandmother’s regular visitors, who hints that Hwawoldang is no ordinary pastry shop, and its customers are not entirely alive.

Yeon-hwa is taken into their memories – but will this bring her the closure she craves, and help her continue her grandmother’s legacy of aiding those left in the land of the living?

$35, Michael Joseph. Out February

A Better Life

Lionel Shriver

Divorced mother-of-three Gloria Bonaventura, living with her 26-year-old son Nico in Brooklyn, joins the city’s “Big Apple, Big Heart” program, taking in migrant boarder Martine. Gloria is delighted by the sweet, helpful Martine, but unemployed Gen Z Nico, forced to move from his basement flat back into his childhood room, is sceptical and resentful of the “migrant crisis” and his mother’s altruism. Martine endears herself to Gloria and Nico’s sisters. However, as Martine’s shady associates appear, Nico’s hostility grows – and he turns out to be anything but a reliable narrator.

$35, Borough Press. Out February

Kin

Tayari Jones

Vernice and Annie, motherless childhood friends and neighbours in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, are fated for starkly different lives. Vernice leaves for Atlanta at 18, discovering a world of Black affluence, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, fixated on finding the mother who abandoned her, embarks on a journey of peril, adversity, love, and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life. Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, and unforgettable work about mothers and daughters, friendship, sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South. $35, Penguin. Out February

A Private Man

Stephanie Sy-Quia

Rome, 1953. David is young, handsome, charismatic, and sworn to celibacy. He is freshly ordained, and about to return to England to begin life as a priest. In London, Margaret is entangled in an impossible love affair. Increasingly drawn to the church, she sets out to join the new revolutions of sex and faith. Decades later, Margaret is being cared for by her grandson who has just discovered the strange truth of his family history. So begins a story of forbidden love and ardent faith, as the consequences of this unlikely union play out across generations.

$35, Picador. Out February

Nonesuch

Francis Spufford

London 1939. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of city finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC’s nascent television unit. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit – into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand. And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.

$35, Faber. Out March

Glyph

Ali Smith

It all starts when Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Then it all starts again 30 years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. What to do? She phones her sister. A funny, warm and cleareyed take on where we are now, Glyph is about imagination and how, in a broken, brutal and divided time, we rekindle care, solidarity, resistance and openness. $40, Hamish Hamilton. Out March

The Soul Catchers

Naoko Higashi

What if you could come back after death to watch over your loved one, installing yourself in a treasured mug, for example, or perhaps your mother’s hearing aid, a diary, or even a climbing frame, to feel the clambering limbs of a beloved younger sister? Eleven recently deceased protagonists find themselves floating in the afterlife where a nameless ghost offers them a joyous reunion with their loved ones. But not as you would expect.

$35, Doubleday. Out March

The Pelican Child

Joy Williams

Joy Williams returns with a taut collection that responds to our modern dilemmas with her signature dry wit and deftness of touch. In sinister and shifting landscapes, we meet souls lost and found: from the twin heiresses of a dirty industrial fortune, who must commit a violent act in recompense for their family’s deeds, to a newly grown man who still revolves in a dreamscape of his childhood boarding-school innocence, to the “pelican child”, who lives with the bony, ill-tempered Baba Yaga in a little hut on chicken legs.

$27, Tuskar Rock. Out March

Hagtale

Sally O’Reilly

In 11th-century Scotland, feral wolf-child Wulva is brought up by witches and then sent to live at a Scottish castle, where she falls under the spell of cruel, ambitious Lord Macbeth. Three hundred years later, gentle Brother Rowan goes on a strange and perilous journey to a remote and ancient monastery to write a history of the Scottish king-line. Misfits in their own time, seekers after truth, Wulva and Rowan are mysteriously connected despite the centuries that separate them. Hagtale explores the power of stories lost and found, their transformative potential, and who gets to be the owner of the tale.

$30, Scribe. Out March

Art on Fire

Yun Ko-eun

Artist An Yiji is offered a residency at the illustrious Robert Foundation in California. The residency has launched many famous artists’ careers in spite of its patron: a small dog named Robert, known for both his talent as a photographer, but also his arrogance. Moreover, on the last day of the residency, one of Yiji’s paintings must be incinerated. When she reaches California, she navigates awkward dinners with Robert and despairs at the prospect of her work being set on fire. This is a darkly comic and compelling satire of the art world from the author of The Disaster Tourist $30, Scribe. Out now

A Complete Fiction

R.L. Maizes

P.J. Larkin is desperate for her latest novel to find a publisher. Her agent has sent it to George Dunn, editor at Peapod Press, but he rejected it. George has just sold his own novel for a million dollars. But wait – did he steal P.J.’s novel? P.J. impulsively posts about George’s book on social media. Within hours, George is embroiled in a scandal, his job and book deal in jeopardy. Amid the publicity, P.J.’s novel is snapped up by another publisher. A Complete Fiction is a hilarious novel about cancel culture, and who owns the stories that writers tell.

$35, Text. Out now

The Winter Warriors

Olivier Norek

Heroes emerge in this propulsive and deeply moving narrative based on the true story of the Finnish infantry division: the star sniper Simo Hayha, nicknamed the “White Death”; the young men from farms and villages who meet again on the battlefield; and nurses who must treat old childhood friends. The soldiers go to battle with old guns, and yet not only do they resist the Soviet soldiers, but they force the superpower to offer terms for peace. Drawing on the real-life figures and battles of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War, The Winter Warriors is an epic historical thriller from one of Europe’s most acclaimed crime writers. $35, Scribe. Out February

Shop Talk

A Bookseller at Large

Let me tell you about a book a very wonderful book a book about a writer who lived in paris the lucky woman and she wrote books very strange books about words and other words and tender buttons and she knew lots of artists and writers and she lived in paris did i say that with her lovely beloved Alice. Apologies to Gertude Stein!

Francesca Wade’s Gertrude Stein: An afterlife deserves all the accolades it has received. The first part is a straightforward biography with insightful analyses of Stein’s work, but then examines her “afterlife” – how she became such a huge celebrity and the role Alice B. Toklas played. Stein’s radical interventions into the English language were hard to read and even harder to get published for many years – a review of The Making of Americans in the Boston Globe “compared her duped readers to a lover realising the person they have brought home is drunk”, writes Wade. (We’ve all been there!)

Quite to her chagrin, Stein didn’t have any real success until the publication of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. It was followed by the phenomenal 4 Saints in 3 Acts, her opera written with Virgil Thomson, which became the talk of the town in New York, and resulted in her being, Wade says, “firmly embedded in American popular culture – she had made modernism mainstream”. This is only Wade’s second book (her first is Square Haunting) and I look forward to what comes next as she will surely join the ranks of the great biographers such as Francis Steegmuller, Hilary Spurling and Victoria Glendinning.

Likewise, Drusilla Modjeska is one of Australia’s great chroniclers of women writers and artists, beginning with the seminal Exiles at Home: Australian women writers 1925-1945, a book I treasure to this day. Modjeska’s style and wisdom have only improved with time and in this very handsome book about women artists, A Woman’s Eye, Her Art she delves beautifully into the lives and art of painters Paula Modersohn-Becker and Dora Maar, the surrealist Claude Cahun and photographer Lee Miller. These lives often overlap with the cast of the Stein biography and reading them together is a joy,

All of which dovetailed with my visit to the AGNSW to see Dangerously Modern: Australian women artists in Europe 1890-1940. Breathtakingly gorgeous and as art critic Joanna Mendelssohn pointed out, beautifully curated and hung. Admiring a stunning small nude sculpture, I was flabbergasted to see it was by a woman who came from the tiny town of Gawler in South Australia. Who knew? My friend and I balked at the $35 entry fee ($32 for pensioners!) but in the end agreed it was worth every cent.

It’s probably around early March when you’re reading this and normally Adelaide Writers’ Week would be wrapping up with all the subsequent stories about how great it was and how hot it was and how thrilling it was to meet and hear all those writers and how many books were sold. But not this year. In the Women’s Memorial Gardens this year there were only (in the words of Stein) “pigeons on the grass alas”.

Morgan Smith

THE 2025 ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE

Shellybanks

Louise Milligan

On the sands of Shellybanks, where tides can quickly turn treacherous, journalist Kate Delaney once nearly drowned. Years later, reeling from a violent crime that has upended her life in Melbourne, she returns to Dublin to comfort her beloved aunt Dolores who has her own buried trauma. As a teenager, Dolores was drawn into a cult that stole her youth and her freedom. With Kate’s help, she is determined to confront the powerful network that made her suffer years of silence and shame. Shellybanks is a haunting tale of secrecy and survival.

$35, Allen & Unwin. Out March

The First Law of the Bush

Geoff Parkes

His awful death made national news. But one year on, Bill’s widow Carol has received no explanation about what happened. Was it suicide? An accident? Murder? Carol hires lawyer Ryan Bradley but the case seems hopeless from the start. Bill’s employer is denying responsibility, Carol’s friends are shunning her, and witnesses can shed no light on what happened. But in small towns, nothing is quite what it seems. And for one Nashville resident, the wrong question will come at a deadly price.

$35, Penguin. Out now

Staged

John M. Green

A Sydney Opera House production of The Rocky Horror Show ends in tragedy when a stage prop kills Hollywood star Dane Cooder. The death is ruled an accident, but Dick Sonntag, disgraced journalist with online gossip site WTF, disagrees. The case is reopened after he launches a smash-hit podcast about the celebrity death. At the same time, a small boy is kidnapped and held for ransom. Detective Harry Stiles is brought in to lead both cases. As the investigations unfold, Sonntag and Stiles uncover affairs, dark secrets and blackmail against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour.

$35, Pantera. Out now

The First Time I Saw Him

Laura Dave

A text from an unknown number. It’s from Owen, Hannah’s husband, who left her and his daughter Bailey without warning five years ago. Hannah saw him the previous evening and although they didn’t talk or even acknowledge each other, she knows she and Bailey are in danger. Hannah drives north up the Californian coast, worried about who could be hunting them. Finally they come to an airport where they board a plane to Paris where she hopes she and Bailey will be safe; and where her and Owen’s enemies are plotting their revenge.

$35, Century. Out now

A Bad, Bad Place

Frances Crawford

Janie doesn’t want to take her dog, Sid Vicious, for a walk. Not after what happened at the abandoned railway. Because it’s Sid’s fault that she found the body. She can’t remember exactly what she saw but the police think she’s hiding something. Janie and her nana start to investigate everyone in their neighbourhood, hoping that the key to solving the mystery is hidden somewhere in the Possilpark estate. But when Janie starts to remember all the things she managed to forget, she realises why she kept quiet in the first place.

$35, Bantam. Out February

Haze

Sam Elliott

The dying coastal town of Broughlet is being torn apart by bushfires, and the locals suspect arson. The sinister People’s Cleansing Light cult is suspected of setting the blazes. Amid the choking black smog, Constable Dahlia Turner discovers a horrifying crime: her best friends have been murdered and their son abducted. Finding him will mean confronting the violent past she’s spent years trying to outrun. But as danger closes in around her, can Dahlia uncover the truth before it burns away forever?

$35, Macmillan. Out February

Two Islands

Ian Kemish

Niko is running for his life, fleeing to an isolated Scottish Isle pursued by those who want him silenced for what he has seen in the Balkan War. His neighbour is a recluse known to the villagers as “Slow Fergus”. As the two men circle each other, Australian war crimes investigator Anita Costello races against sinister forces to locate her key witness. Written with compassion and insight, Two Islands explores how the ripples of distant conflicts can wash up on the most remote shores.

$35, UQP. Out now

The Casino

Iain Ryan

Detective Lana Cohen thought she had found a slice of peace on the sun-drenched Gold Coast, but her respite is shattered when a severed hand is found on a local beach.

As the investigation unfolds, Lana is thrust into an uneasy partnership with an off-the-rails Internal Investigations cop “Miami” Vince Walters, and a mysterious Melbourne private investigator. It soon becomes clear the new casino is bustling with shady types, the glitzy shopping centres are rife with shoplifting and the gaudy nightlife is still full of corruption and drugs.

$35, Ultimo. Out now

CRIME

The Other Child

Susi Fox

Four years on from the devastating loss of their first child, Lauren and Alex De Vale are finally the proud parents of new baby, Charlotte. But as Lauren returns to work, she is riddled with anxiety. She knows that one little mistake can lead to tragedy. What if something terrible happens to Charlotte while she’s not there? Fear, grief and guilt make for a potent mix. And all it takes is one neighbour’s offhand comment to spark Lauren’s worst fears –and deep-seated suspicions.

$35, Penguin. Out now

Escape!

Stephen Fishbach

Kent Duvall, a faded reality show winner, gets another shot at fame on a new jungle survival show with seven other contestants. The goals seem simple: survive the wild, build a raft, win treasure. But Beck Bermann, a reality producer who suffered her own public shaming, sees them as characters in her redemption arc. As the schemes and strategies spiral, breakout camps sabotage each other and rival producers struggle to control the storyline. Soon the question becomes less about who will win than who will make it out in one piece.

$35, Text. Out now

Holy Island

L.J. Ross

Forced to take leave from his duties as a homicide detective, Detective Chief Inspector Ryan seeks sanctuary on Holy Island. But just a few days before Christmas, he gets caught up in the murder of a young woman who is found dead in the ruins of the nearby Priory. When former local girl Dr Anna Taylor arrives on the island as a police consultant, she and Ryan struggle to work together to hunt a deadly killer, while pagan ritual and island politics muddy the waters of their investigation.

$35, Century. Out now

SCI-FI

Like, Follow, Die

Ashley Kalagian Blunt

When homicide detective Kyle Nazarian unexpectedly knocks on Corinne Gray’s door on a rainy morning, she knows why. He wants to talk about her son, Ben. An average teen in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Ben is dating his first girlfriend and trying to find an after-school job. But as his luck sours, he’s increasingly drawn into shadowy corners of the internet. Kyle, meanwhile, is grappling with his own crisis both at home and at work. Torn between his duties and a growing sympathy for Corinne, Kyle must decide how far he’s willing to go in his pursuit of justice.

$35, Ultimo. Out February

The Obake Code

Makana Yamamoto

Malia, aka the Obake, the greatest hacker of all time, was set for life after the Atlas heist. But being set for life turns out to be pretty boring. And when her new hobby of rigging fights lands her in trouble with one of the gangs on Kepler Space Station, she’s offered a deal: take down the corrupt politician interfering with the gang’s business and her life will be spared. It should be child’s play – but this time the person she’s working for is just as bad as her target, and there are darker things lurking in the shadows.

$35, Gollancz. Out February

Bird Deity

John Morrissey

For 10 years David has plundered the ruins of an alien civilisation about which he knows nothing. Now he’s ready to go home, a wealthy man. Except that everything seems to be slipping out of his control. As David begins to question the choices he has made, he is visited by a researcher, who wants him to guide her on one last expedition to the rainswept wasteland of the plateau. John Morrissey’s Bird Deity is a cosmic horror story about power, theft, love, loss and destiny.

$35, Text. Out February

Operation Bounce House

Matt Dinniman

All colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch and keep his family’s aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking. But when his planet’s transfer gate finally opens and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, New Sonora, there’s a complication. The colossal Apex Corporation is hired to commence an “eviction action” and they charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines, remotely pilot them and make it a game. Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against these machines. But with the help of an old book from his grandfather, Oliver is determined to defend the only home he’s ever known.

$35, Michael Joseph. Out February

FANTASY

Seasons of Glass and Iron

Amal El-Mohtar

Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of awardwinning work from Amal El-Mohtar. With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

$40, Arcadia. Out March

The Names of a Hare

Bernice Barry

Cornwall, 1628. A young girl guards a dangerous secret: she can leave her body and fly. Steeped in herbal lore and forbidden spells, the girl becomes a woman, while across the land whispers of witchcraft turn deadly. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins sets out to hunt her down, their meeting will change the course of history. In a world that fears what it cannot explain, a story shared is the most potent magic of all. $35, Fremantle. Out March

HORROR

Strange Buildings

A lonely hut in the woods. A murder house. A hidden chamber. A mysterious shrine. A home in flames. A nightmarish prison … Each of the buildings in this book tells a chilling story. Each one is part of a puzzle. Look closely and you’ll see that everything is connected. All leading to a revelation so horrifying you won’t want to believe it. Millions of readers have become addicted to solving Uketsu’s dark mysteries. Strange Buildings is the strangest, and darkest, of them all. $33, Pushkin Vertigo. Out March

The Legend of Lady Byeoksa

Esther Park

Ghost-stalker Lady Seomun Bin, cursed with the ability to see spirits, performs exorcisms disguised as a man to protect others. While investigating suspected treason at a party, she meets Hyun Eunho, a loyal servant to the King. Despite Bin’s efforts to avoid him, Eunho becomes inexplicably attracted to her. Simultaneously, the boundary between worlds thins, allowing evil forces to gain influence over the court. Bin and Eunho must overcome these dark forces together. Will their connection break Bin’s curse? A tale of star-crossed lovers, political intrigue and mysticism inspired by Korean mythology and set in the Joseon dynasty.

Wildfire, $35. Out March

Vow of Eternal Night

Lily Crozier

Clara Wagner has always known that monsters are real, and that the worst of them is Prince Raleigh of Rostenburg. Abducted and forced into a betrothal with him, Clara would do anything to escape her fate. And so she is given an ultimatum: lift Raleigh’s vampiric curse before the end of the year or become his bride for eternity. Vow of Eternal Night is a gothic, slow-burn romantasy about the lengths people will go to for love, and the many faces monsters can wear.

$35, Penguin. Out March

Aubrey Wants to Die

Pip Knight

Aubrey, a young, beautiful, and obsessive vampire, desperately wants to be human – or to die, but she is immortal and alone, abandoned by her sire. Meeting Jonathan changes everything, giving her hope for a bearable eternal life. When he breaks up with her, she’ll do anything to get him back. But Oscar, her sire and bonafide creep, reappears with other plans. She’s thrown into a glamorous, hedonistic world of excess, forcing her to question everything she knows about life and herself.

$35, HarperCollins. Out February

The Red Winter

Cameron Sullivan

In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the Beast of Gévaudan has returned. Twenty years ago, it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down. With the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – Sebastian must return to Gévaudan for a final reckoning. Cameron Sullivan lifts the veil on the hidden world behind our own and reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc and the first flickers of the French Revolution.

$35, Tor. Out February

The Elsewhere Express

Samantha Sotto Yambao

One night, on her subway ride home, Raya’s thoughts wander too far. She wakes on a magical train that offers its passengers a sense of purpose, peace and belonging. On board, Raya meets a charming artist named Q and together they race through the train’s carriages, passing passengers picnicking on lilypads. But a mysterious stowaway has boarded with them, and with it a dark, malignant magic. As Raya uncovers the mysterious stowaway’s true identity, she draws nearer to the ultimate question: what is her life’s true purpose?

$35, Bantam. Out now

From the Blackheathens

We have cranked into 2026 and wonder if it is possible to exchange it for another start on the year (or a Gleebooks gift voucher). No matter, we have decided to embrace the energy of the Year of the Fire Horse, high stepping into the things that make us fizz with excitement, add effervescence and give us enough horsepower to take on the year ahead.

Bron has gone full summer holiday reading mode, starting as she means to go on. Reaching for light yet soul-satisfying books, she has placed her sun-kissed hands on Heart the Lover by Lily King. This is literary romance ticking all the right boxes and having all the feels. A campus love story, a long-lost-love love story, a love story complete with bad timing and poor communication. There’s a love triangle (or two) and the characters adore talking about books. Bron was enthralled with King’s writing and storytelling ability, although she wishes someone had warned about the need for a box of tissues to sob into.

Changing gear, Bron jumped into The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa which is a murder mystery with a twist – a time loop. Sixteen-yearold Hisataro experiences irregular but persistent time loops or Traps, as he calls them. He never knows when the next time loop will happen, but when it does there is a predictable pattern. The Trap always lasts for nine days, resetting at midnight each time. He can change the course of events over the first eight loops, but the final loop becomes the definitive day that finally moves on to the next day.

On the 2 January a new time loop starts but something out of his control happens to radically change the course of the original day – his grandfather is murdered. This is one dysfunctional family story and Hisataro only has seven more days to work out what happened. A perfect holiday read!

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy was an empowering read for Victoria. This memoir is an emotional account of a complex mother/daughter relationship. Arundhati Roy is a gutsy woman, a trailblazer all her life. It seems her mother was also a gutsy woman, but due to her own circumstances, was very harsh on her daughter, which shaped Arundhati into the amazing force she has become as a writer and fierce political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes. Her courage and fearlessness is truly inspirational.

Victoria’s other uplift was The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, a contemporary saga about two young people caught between the cultures of America and India who find themselves adrift and disconnected. This epic entwines traditional values with modern views adding a little speculative fiction into the mix.

Tiff has gone full Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen. Set on the terrifyingly wild and beautiful northernmost island of the United Kingdom, “where the world turns faster”. We meet its two human caretakers, The Father and lighthouse keeper – widowed, fierce and cracked open – and his miraculous and extraordinarily talented son, Ouse. The supportive spectre of Robert Louis Stevenson provides a sounding board for Ouse’s innermost thoughts and feelings, offering all manner of sage life advice

The Father is incapable of. Their tenuous equilibrium is toppled when a short-term lodger, Firth – a troubled writer bent on selfdestruction – arrives and the battle for Ouse’s love begins. Muckle

Roy. Picture: Mayank Austen Soofi

Flugga is a gorgeous and sumptuous tonic for the soul, perfectly realised and crackling with life.

George Saunders’ Vigil has broken Jody’s brain, her heart and everything she thought she knew about storytelling. An oil tycoon lies dying and Jill “Doll” Blaine is charged with comforting him into the afterlife. What unfolds over the final evening is a wild ride that only Saunders could conjure up. This is mind-blowing storytelling staring down the gravest issues of our time – corporate greed, capitalism, environmental perils of progress – but it also makes you laugh out loud and your imagination snap, crackle and pop.

Marg looked for an antidote to the Christmas rush and picked up Summer at Mount Asama by Masashi Matsui. Set in the early 80s in Tokyo and the mountain village of Aoguri, Torū Sakanishi, a recent architecture graduate, is given his dream job as a junior designer for the prestigious Murai Office of Architectural Design. Each summer, to escape the oppressive heat, the elderly Murai “sensei” moves his office and staff to his summer house, built facing the active Mount Asama. Torū is given the opportunity to work closely with Murai and his team of senior designers on a design from the new National Library of Modern Literature. Life lived over this summer, as tradition gives way to the future and inevitable change, sets a clear direction for Torū’s life. Quiet, tender, a beautifully written story that considers love, art and life.

The Blackheathens will be getting their read on to conquer the year ahead while ponying up for the National Hobby Horse Championships. Wish us luck and please drop by with any book suggestions that make your heart soar and your spirits lift.

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Children

PICTURE BOOKS

How to Get Home

Deborah Frenkel, illus. Karen Blair

School is done for the day, so let’s use the signs to guide us home!

Remember to GIVE WAY to bugs, STOP at the crossing and keep a look out for the MISSING budgie as you find your way to HOME SWEET HOME.

$23, Affirm. Out now

My Nonna Loves

Adelle Frittitta, illus. Claudia Frittitta

Perfect for grandparents to read aloud to their grandchildren, this heartwarming picture book is an ideal keepsake for grandmothers everywhere. With lovingly drawn illustrations and gently humorous text, the book highlights how grandmothers relish every waking moment, cook with their souls, and cherish their family above all else. A story of joy, love and togetherness, My Nonna Loves will be treasured by everyone in the family!

$25, Little Hare. Out February

The Lost Robot

Joe Todd-Stanton

A heart-warming picture book about a lost, broken robot searching for their place in life, their family and their forever home by awardwinning author and illustrator Joe Todd-Stanton.

$25, Flying Eye Books. Out March

The Drover’s Son

Leah Purcell, illus. Dub Leffler

Based on the Henry Lawson short story, this piece of literature has been part of Leah Purcell’s life since she was five years old. Her adaptation of The Drover’s Wife started off as a play, was turned into a film, then a novel, and this picture book brings the powerful campfire chats between Yadaka and Danny to a younger audience. It’s a story of healing, care and connection that also shares challenging truths about the history of this country and life on the land in the late 19th century.

$30, Puffin. Out March

If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone

Gideon Sterer, illus. Emily Hughes

If you make a call from a banana phone, who will answer? What will you talk about? Will you share secrets or ask questions? No one knows what will happen, really. This very silly story is full of the joy and wisdom that comes from making new friends from unexpected places. Go ahead, pick up a banana and make a call. You’ll be glad you did.

$25, HarperCollins. Out February

Muttonfish Magic

Ruth Simms, Lucy Robertson, illus. Jasmine Seymour

Aunty Ruth remembers a day out with her late mother and brothers at the cove near their home at La Perouse. Mummy gets the kids together to learn traditional fishing and abalone hunting and cooking ways. After a day on the rocks watching mummy work her magic, they return home with a feed for their family. A delightful and family-oriented story showing the little-known life and practices of people living at the first urban Aboriginal community at La Perouse.

$28, Magabala. Out February

Wanted: The Cutest Baby in the World

Davina Bell

Late one evening, a detective knocks on the door of two exhausted parents. She’s on the hunt for the world’s most devious master criminal: the Cutest Baby in the World. Should you find yourself in this rogue’s clutches, your entire world will be turned upside-down! But the most villainous bit? You wouldn’t have it any other way.

$25, Thames & Hudson. Out February

Frank and Bert: The One Where Bert Is Scared of Frogs

Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

Join Frank and Bert on their latest adventure, where the friends discover that when you’re brave, the scary things often aren’t so bad after all.

$25, Nosy Crow. Out now

Going Home

Simon Howe

A father and child head out for the day – just what they feel like doing. They see beetles wandering past, snails sliding by, and bees and balloons flying above. Where are they all going? Going home, perhaps, says Dad. A beautiful and quietly meaningful tale of life, loss and love.

$26, Walker. Out February

BABY / BOARD BOOKS

The Colour Monster Pop-Up Book

Anna Llenas

One day, the Colour Monster wakes up feeling confused. His emotions are all mixed up – he feels angry, happy, calm, sad and scared all at once! But with the help of a kind little girl, Nuna, they use different colours to explore and talk about emotions.

$35, Templar. Out February

Story Path

Kate Baker, illus. Madalena Matoso

This innovative twist on the classic quest tale allows young readers to choose their own characters, settings and plots. With a simple, easy-to-follow structure and bold, quirky imagery by award-winning illustrator Madalena Matoso, this is an imaginative storytelling experience for children of all ages.

$23, Big Picture. Out February

Luna Grace: Girl from Outer Space

Julie Sykes, illus. Emily Jones

Luna Grace and her family arrive on Earth at midnight. Luna is from Starbright, a colourful planet in another galaxy, and they have come to Earth to study its wonderful wildlife. The mission is simple: Luna and her family need to fit in with their new neighbours down on Earth. But fitting in is hard to do when your hair changes colour depending how you feel, you can move things with your mind and you have a mischievous moon cat called Twizzle!

$17, Piccadilly. Out April

The Boy and the Dog Tree

Fiona Wood

Instead of the whole family moving to a new city, Mitch and his sister are staying with their gran while their parents are on the other side of the world. As Mitch struggles to fit in at school, he knows the one thing that would make his life better: a dog. Then Mitch discovers an old oak tree that seems to ... growl. And one night, a strange, majestic dog-like creature emerges from the trunk. He has been bound in the tree by “history, mystery, magic and chance” and he is here to help Mitch find his way.

$18, UQP. Out March

Zac Power: Mission Files Volume #1

H.I. Larry

Armed with the latest high-tech gadgets and his wits, Zac Power can take on anything the world throws at him. Whether he’s foiling Dr Drastic’s latest evil scheme or taking out the trash, Zac can do it all with time to spare. Join the 12-year-old secret agent in two of his most dangerous missions yet!

$15, Hardie Grant. Out February

Bitza Book 1

Andrew Daddo, illus. Stephen Michael King

A bit Labrador and a bit Poodle. A bit Kelpy and Staffy and maybe even Hound. Lots of different dog bits make up the lot of me. I’m also a bit lost. A good dog always looks after its ball, which is why I followed Jasper and the ball thief home from the park. She was looking for a dog, I was looking for a home. It’s perfect … unless Dad gets his way.

$15, Penguin. Out February

KIDS’ EVENTS @ GLEEBOOKS

SATURDAY MORNING STORY TIME

For our younger book lovers Rachel hosts a free storytime every Saturday morning at 10.30am. All ages are welcome – we’ve never grown out of picture books, and nor should you! We sometimes have some very special guests at these free storytime sessions.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS

Our Saturday afternoons are free and all ages are welcome to join in the mischief, but please RSVP so we can look after you properly!

For more information contact Rachel at rachel@gleebooks. com.au and be sure to follow our @gleebooks_kids Instagram page where Rachel will update you with any last minute schedule changes.

Romeo v Juliet

R.A. Spratt

Selby does not want to be in the school play. She is much happier behind the scenes painting sets – anything to avoid standing on stage in front of an audience, performing for disinterested classmates and overenthusiastic parents. So Selby did not plan on landing the lead role of Juliet … and she certainly never planned to land in Verona and meet Juliet in person. Romeo and Juliet crash-land into a modern-day town in this story of chaos and wisdom.

$17, Puffin. Out February

The Sunbird

Sara Haddad

It’s 1948 and Nabila Yasmeen lives a happy life in her village in Palestine. She plays in the hills with her friend Khalil and climbs high in the olive trees to pick the sweetest fruit. But when bombs start falling, Nabila and her family are forced to leave. Where will they go? With beautiful illustrations by Palestinian artist Baraa Awoor, The Sunbird is the poignant story of a little girl who just wants to go home.

$15, UQP. Out February

ACTIVITY

All Together Now

Hannah Dove, illus. Gemma Koomen All Together Now helps families make time for each other and create happy family memories. Perfect for unplugged activities that help families connect, this book includes 50 fun, creative, sometimes silly, often wholesome activities readers can do at home or in the backyard with the people they love most – their families (including pets and chosen families)! Each project or idea encourages families to be in the present, enjoy quality time together and practice new skills.

$23, Ivy. Out February

Better the Devil

Erik J. Brown

Desperate to escape a family who will never accept him, a queer runaway in police custody borrows the identity of a boy who vanished years ago: Nate Beaumont. But when Nate’s family come to take him home, he’s trapped in a web of lies. Then he meets Miles – the cute, clever and true-crime obsessed boy next door – who knows more than it seems. As their investigation turns dangerous, their feelings turn real. Get ready for queer mayhem in this gritty psychological thriller filled with stolen identity, true crime and first love $20, Hodder. Out now

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Lamington Left Behind

Andrea Innocent

Ever since a great flood wiped out her home, Lamington has lived alone in the Australian wilderness – until the day she stumbles upon a ragtag family of animals hiding underground. They need her help to find a precious library of seeds and if they can’t find them, the forest will die. Lamington hopes this journey will lead her to her mother. This is an enchanting, magicrealist Australian graphic novel about a girl surviving alone in the wilderness who discovers she can talk to animals. $20, Figment. Out February

The Pi-Rats Vol. 1

Alexis Vivallo, illus. Fernando Muñoz

When the Pi-Rats crash their teapot ship on a mysterious island, they must band together to explore – and survive – the creatures that live there. Beyond that though, they must try to save the other rats from a wizard and his yow ling beast. Then, the Pi-Rats fight! Venturing into the sewers for treasure, our intrepid heroes have separated and joined new crews … But is this goodbye for now or goodbye for ever? And can they all escape the stinking sewers? $22, Papercutz. Out March

Poster Boys

Scott Woodard

Edward Heffernan wants one thing: to get away from Nolan Li. If he cuts ties with the embarrassing Nolan, his reputation at Highview Grammar can only go up. But when Nolan gets a note from the coolest kid in Year 9, Edward sees a chance to be popular. James Crombie is everything that Edward and Nolan are not, but the trio have one thing in common: they’re all sick of the rules of their snobby 100-year-old high school. And they’re ready to do something about it.

$20, Lothian. Out February

Good Young Men

Gary Lonesborough

In the idyllic coastal town of Carraway’s Point, four Aboriginal boys grew up together on Chopin Drive, carefree and close. But they drifted apart in high school, and everything changed forever the night Brandon was killed by a white cop. Now racial tension is brewing, and each boy must wrestle with grief and their own complicated lives.

$23, Allen & Unwin. Out March

Forever & Ever

Allanah Hunt

Talia is 16, pregnant and angry. She’s looking after her unwell mother. Her dad’s gone. At school she is shunned. And Johnny – the one person she thought she could count on – just walked away. Johnny is Barkindji, smart and confused. He’s struggling with the weight of his parents’ expectations. He wants to please them, but is the future they’ve planned for him the one he wants? He makes a decision he knows he’ll regret – leaving Talia behind. But sometimes love – no matter how impossible – never lets go.

$23, Text. Out March

Life and Breath: Stories

Ursula Dubosarsky

Discoveries from the past, hopes for the future and the decisions we make on a knife edge that clarify our own sense of self. These elements inform Ursula Dubosarsky’s multi-award-winning novels and are in sharp, bright evidence in these 11 beautifully crafted short stories, by turns poignant, funny, reflective and joyful.

$20, Eagle. Out March

NONFICTION

The Story of Art without Men

Katy Hessel, illus. Ping Zhu

Journey through history, from the Renaissance to the Second World War, and across the globe, from Cornwall to Manhattan, Nigeria, Japan and more, to discover the stories of women who changed the world with their incredible art. You’ll learn about the extraordinary lives of freedom fighters, game changers and adventurers - and be astounded by the art they made, with its striking landscapes, hidden messages and calls for women’s rights.

$45, Puffin. Out March

A Cat Called Trim

Corinne Fenton, illus. Craig Smith

Matthew Flinders was a navigator and cartographer who was involved in several voyages of discovery between 1791 and 1803, including the circumnavigation of Australia, and another voyage that proved Tasmania was an island. Trim was a cheeky black cat, born on ship, who was rescued by Flinders after falling overboard. Trim travelled with Flinders and kept the ship free of mice, maintained order among the other cats and even survived a shipwreck. This charming picture book brings Trim’s story to life.

$27, Allen & Unwin. Out now

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR

A Hymn to Life

Gisèle Pelicot

“Shame must change sides,” said Gisèle Pelicot as she waived her right to anonymity during the trial of her husband and 50 men charged with raping and abusing her while she slept. A Hymn to Life is an unforgettable testament and a promise. Its message is one of defiance and renewal – that victims have no reason to feel ashamed; that even after unimaginable betrayal we can go on; that the colour can come back to life. Ultimately, Pelicot emerges with a renewed passion and reverence for living, and for love.

$37, Jonathan Cape. Out February

Two Women Living Together

Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo

At some point between living alone and becoming single, Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana found each other, and decided to live together in a nice apartment where their four cats would finally have the freedom to run around. At a time when housing costs have skyrocketed while birth rates plummet, these two independent Korean women in their late 40s share their views on society and its expectations of them. Quietly radical, full of warmth and wit, Two Women Living Together celebrates carving out your own path, cats, female friendship, and a different kind of family.

$37, Doubleday. Out now

How to Dress for Old Age

David Carlin and Peta Murray

This book is a work of love and reckoning, as Frank and Joan’s adult children take up the labour of care for absent fathers and stoic mothers, while contemplating their own prospects for a “third age”. The book’s dual voices– queer and straight, female and male – chart the complex dynamics of father/daughter and mother/son as they face the diminishments of elderhood and ageism. Weaving memory and reflection, it asks what it takes to live a meaningful life to the finish line.

$33, Upswell. Out February

Scared Angry Laughing

Margaret Merrilees

Margaret Merrilees has had to fight for her own rights. Having stared down homophobic doctors, trampled fences at Pine Gap and stripped off for climate change, she’s well-versed in deliberate disobedience. And it turns out, good girls make good arrestees. In Scared Angry Laughing, Merrilees shares a lifetime of attempts to heal the world. A joyously unruly collection of essays about civil dissent, saving the planet and losing your hearing, this memoir is a book for imperfect protesters and eternal optimists, young and old.

$33, Pink Shorts. Out February

Berlin Childhood around 1900

Walter Benjamin

Completed in exile in Paris, as the Second World War was dawning, Walter Benjamin looks back at the city of his birth at the beginning of the century. The book is both a sensory memoir of childhood as well as a tour of the iconic spaces of the city. These are “expeditions into the depths of memory”, moving through vignettes of domestic settings and classrooms, city squares, parks and streets. The memories of childhood merge with a city that is about to disappear into darkness.

$33, Verso. Out February

Strangers

Belle Burden

On a chilly day in March 2020, Belle Burden’s husband of 20 years suddenly announced that he was leaving her. His decision shocked Belle to her core. She had thought he was a man who had settled into the life he had always wanted: a successful career, summers spent at their home on Martha’s Vineyard, lots of tennis. As Belle rebuilds her life, she discovers an unexpected strength. Strangers is a mustread memoir of self-discovery, detailing her transformation from the shy “Belle the Good” into a powerful, determined woman who uses her voice to expose and challenge long-standing patriarchal structures that demand women be discreet and compliant. $37, Ebury. Out now

My Cursed Vagina

Lally Katz

In My Cursed Vagina Lally shares the many forms this hex takes as she searches for love, compulsively recording her life in real time as she goes. These are hilarious and heartbreaking tales of disastrous dates, hopeful sex, straighttalking friendships, a surprise marriage, the adventure of motherhood and the strange gifts of illness, by a woman who embraces everything life has to offer.

$35, Allen & Unwin. Out February

Trials of Hope

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes

This profound and groundbreaking memoir celebrates the beauty of Ethiopian culture while mourning its erosion – first under colonial forces, and later through internal conflict. Framing his work via the Ethiopian belief in the four elemental stages of human experience – water, fire, soil and wind – Yirga’s story celebrates and honours the voices that fight to preserve his culture. Trials of Hope tells the story of a shepherd boy turned humanrights academic set against the backdrop of the author’s beloved Ethiopia, and the family and friends he has left behind. $36, Fremantle. Out February

Nonfiction

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR

Fourteen Ways of Looking

Erin Vincent

When Erin Vincent was 14 both of her parents were killed in a road accident in Western Sydney. Almost 40 years later the number 14 began haunting Erin, appearing everywhere – in the books she was reading, in films, TV shows, in the news … Fourteen. 14. This felt like a sign, so Erin embarked on a quest to seek out instances of 14 throughout history. To her surprise, much of what she found related to her life at 14, so she began writing it all down. The result, Fourteen Ways of Looking, is written in fragments that look at the year Erin’s parents died. It is also the story of a writer reflecting on her life and her grief and commenting on the writing process as it progresses. $33, Upswell. Out March

The Path of Light

Anthony Seldon

In this inspiring and reflective memoir, Anthony Seldon chronicles his walk along the 1,000km route from where World War I ended to Auschwitz, discovering the towns and people who resisted in the face of unbearable destruction, and ruminating on the Second World War’s legacy. $45, Atlantic. Out February

Pearls

Tracy Crisp

Tracy returns to her childhood home in Port Pirie after her father’s death, searching for her mother’s lost pearls which vanished after her mother died in a car accident. Grief-stricken, Tracy moves her young family abroad and back, witnessing her sons’ growth, her grandfather’s memory loss, and friends’ “second acts” via a stitch and bitch group chat. Based on award-winning coming-of-middle-age “memoir monologues”, Pearls is a lyrical, moving, sharply funny, and profoundly relatable tapestry of human experience.

$33, Pink Shorts. Out February

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!

Liza Minelli

Liza was the daughter of legendary director Vincente Minnelli and the incomparable Judy Garland – and yet her beloved Mama’s brilliance was matched by searing personal battles, making her mother an inspiration and, at times, a source of fear. Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! covers her meteoric rise to stardom, the whirlwind of high-profile marriages and scandalous affairs, and the heartbreak of multiple miscarriages. Liza relives the liberated nights at Studio 54 and the friendships that shaped her – including Frank Sinatra, Mary J. Blige and Princess Diana. This is a defiant celebration of self-belief, survival and humanity.

$55, Hodder & Stoughton. Out March

I’m Not Mad (Anymore)

Bron Lewis

Bron Lewis, one of Australia’s most beloved comedians (regularly on Have You Been Paying Attention? and Thank God You’re Here), is no stranger to madness. From her mother’s menopausal rage involving a smashed casserole dish, to publicly singing Tina Arena’s Chains to drown out her babies’ cries, Bron has faced her share of dark nights. If you’ve experienced dramatic hot flushes, soiled yourself in Kmart, or struggled through new motherhood, this book is for you. Follow Bron’s spiral and recovery to avoid the same fate.

$37, Affirm. Out February

A Sicilian Man

Caroline Moorehead

In 1986, the largest Mafia trial in Italy’s history took place in Sicily. The maxi-processo saw 471 men and four women take the stand, accused of kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and many thousands of murders. Sitting in the gallery was Leonardo Sciascia, who had written the first Mafia novel, The Day of the Owl, in 1961, and was widely seen by Italians as a true moral figure in a country where corruption was rife. In A Sicilian Man, Caroline Moorehead charts Sciascia’s life against the rise of the Mafia, and lays out the devastating struggle that ensued for Italy’s soul.

$37, Chatto & Windus. Out February

Mary Booth

Bruce Scates and Raelene Francis

Mary Booth was a woman of startling contradictions – one of Australia’s first female doctors, a pioneering feminist and nationalist, she was also a staunch political conservative and a devoted empire loyalist and nationalist. She championed infant welfare, war commemoration, environmental reform, and the place of women in public life. Drawing on newly uncovered personal correspondence, Mary Booth uncovers the pivotal, and often overlooked, role of women in forging Australia’s national story and the enduring myth of Anzac. This is the compelling story of a forgotten feminist and the nation she helped build.

$50, Miegunyah. Out March

A Time of Living Graciously

Brigid Lowry

Brigid Lowry’s insights into ageing gracefully and gratefully are a warm embrace for the soul. From navigating the quirks of creaking joints to pondering life’s mysteries, Brigid reminds us to approach life with kindness and humour. Whether you’re facing the occasional stumble or pondering the mysteries of existence, let this collection be your companion. More than just a book, A Time of Living Graciously is a celebration of life’s rich tapestry, woven with threads of loving kindness and wisdom.

$33, Fremantle. Out February

AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

Luna Park

Helen Pitt

For decades, the young and the young at heart have loved the Luna Park face and its promise of laughs and thrills – and a whiff of danger. But its history is filled with con men and criminals, crooked cops, failed politicians and movie moguls. From the engineering feats of its construction in the dark days of the Depression to the tragic deaths of six boys and a father in the 1979 Ghost Train fire, and despite financial disasters, legal battles and closures, Luna Park survives. This is the dazzling, roller-coaster story of the iconic amusement park on Sydney harbour.

$35, Allen & Unwin. Out March

Duty to Warn

Charlotte Grieve

Investigative journalist Charlotte Grieve had a very personal reason to be interested in celebrated orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis. Charlotte’s father, facing life in a wheelchair, had a chance meeting with Dr Al Muderis, who proposed osseointegration surgery. But, Charlotte soon uncovered grave concerns about the surgeon’s practice, alleging he failed to inform patients of the risks. The subsequent defamation trial saw 35 patients and numerous health professionals testify. Duty to Warn is a compelling insider account of a young journalist battling a powerful figure to reveal the truth.

$35, Hachette. Out now

ABORIGINAL HISTORY

HISTORY

The Hiroshima Boy

Akiko Mikamo

The Hiroshima Boy tells the story of Shinji and his father’s journey through Hiroshima as they come face to face with the utter destruction of the city and meet neighbours, friends and strangers

enduring unimaginable agony. For the next four days, they roam, searching for food, water and refuge in excruciating pain. Eventually, they reach a village outside Hiroshima City, where Shinji is transferred to a hospital. But to do so he must leave his father, not knowing whether he will ever see him again. The Hiroshima Boy is an extraordinary first-person account of survival, suffering, courage and hope.

$33, Monoray. Out February

Rasputin

Antony Beevor

The legend of Rasputin has bewitched historians. How could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? He was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. He had no official position, no forces at his command. Nevertheless, he contributed more to the fall of the Romanov dynasty than any other individual. More than a century later, we still fail to comprehend fully the collapse of the greatest autocracy on Earth. Was there any truth to the wild tales that brought down the empire? Or was his true legacy an unsettling lesson on the potency of myth?

$55, W&N. Out March

Where’s All the Community?

Julie Andrews

Drawing on extensive interviews with community members, her research in anthropology and her own family’s story, Andrews traces the bonds that have shaped and sustained Aboriginal Melbourne. She explores the importance of kinship, geographic mobility and ties to other First Nations communities. She considers health, education and housing, including the crucial role played by Aboriginal-led organisations. And she describes the ongoing campaigns for social justice, land rights and self-determination. From inner-city Fitzroy and Collingwood to regional missions and interstate connections, this is an evocative introduction to the past, present and future of Aboriginal Melbourne

$37, La Trobe University Press. Out March

Death of Trotsky

Josh Ireland

In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky’s study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramon Mercader, an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind?

Joseph Stalin. While Trotsky had raged in exile, Stalin’s agents closed in. Tracing a path from the cafes of Paris to the battlefields of Spain, from Stalin’s Kremlin to a bloodied study in Mexico, The Death of Trotsky unfolds like a spy thriller – a story of obsession and betrayal, of dreams destroyed and loyalties twisted.

$35, John Murray. Out February

The Next World War

Peter Apps

The Next World War takes readers behind the scenes of the most dangerous era of international tensions since the end of the Cold War, as countries and military forces prepare for potential large-scale combat on a scale unseen since 1945. From the corridors of power in Washington, Whitehall, Moscow and Beijing to the new frontlines of conflict in Ukraine, Taiwan, cyberspace and even the far side of the moon, Peter Apps unflinchingly explores the fault lines where global peace is already starting to unravel.

$35, Wildfire. Out now

Fateful Hours

Volker Ullrich

Fateful Hours tells one of the greatest dramas in world history: the failure of Germany’s first democracy, culminating in the horrific rise of the Third Reich. But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, Volker Ullrich charts the many failed alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy’s collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was open – just as in the present, it is up to us whether democracy lives or dies.

$55, Pushkin. Out February

Quarterly Essay 101: On Australia and Asia

Michael Wesley

Australia has never fully grasped the importance of southeast Asia. Our gaze has vaulted over it towards northeast Asia’s industrial giants, and now towards a rising India. Yet this is where the future world order will be decided –the place where China’s bid for regional power will succeed or fail. What do we need to know about southeast Asia? What has our foreign policy elite’s subservience to the United States stopped us from seeing and doing? What do our neighbours have to tell us, if only we could hear? This is an essay about values, imagination and a new way of seeing ourselves.

$30, Quarterly Essay. Out March

ESSAYS

Light and Thread

Han Kang

In this multi-faceted book, her first since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs and diaries. She writes of the wonder of following the thread we call language into the depths of other hearts, and her profound sense of an electric current which joins writer and reader.

$30, Hamish Hamilton. Out March

Granta 173: India

Edited by Thomas Meaney

This issue of Granta is devoted to India, featuring exceptional contemporary fiction and poetry in translation, as well as essays and in-depth interviews with leading writers and historians, alongside work from emerging and established photographers. Contributors are drawn from across the country, with a focus on vernacular authors as opposed to the elite enclaves of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. $33, Granta. Out February

Where It All Went Wrong

Amy Remeikis

John Howard is often revered as one of the great Australian prime ministers (1996-2007). Why then – just 20 years after his government ended – are we in such a mess? Far from being “great economic managers”, the Howard government bought Boomer votes with franking credits and negative gearing, sacrificing the generations now inheriting the nation. They sold out their children and grandchildren for mining billionaires, investment properties and annual cruises. On the 30th anniversary of John Howard coming to power, this is the story of how the “great economic manager” sold away our future.

$30, Scribner. Out February

Who Won?

Jonathan Pearlman

As Donald Trump’s tariffs reshape the international marketplace, Who Won? looks at the era of weaponised trade and how Australia can adapt and resist. Essays include “Weapons of Choice: Australia and the new economic order” by Shiro Armstrong; “Clever country: How Australian diplomacy can rescue global trade” by Melissa Conley Taylor; and “Reality check: Australia is stuck in China’s orbit” by David Uren.

$30, Australian Foreign Affairs. Out February

One Aladdin Two Lamps

Jeanette Winterson

With her execution looming, a woman is fighting for her life. Every night she tells a story. Every morning, she lives one more day. One Aladdin Two Lamps cracks open the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights to reveal new questions and answers we are still thinking about today. Weaving together fiction, magic and memoir, this remarkable book is a tribute to the age-old tradition of storytelling and a radical step into the future.

$40, Jonathan Cape. Out now

Things That Disappear

Jenny Erpenbeck

In this fascinating collection, Jenny Erpenbeck meditates on the disappearance and impermanence of things. Whether recalling the demolition of familiar places, the loss of a friendship, or a change in social attitudes, Erpenbeck’s sharp intelligence, eye for telling detail, and her nuanced perspective on her country’s history and her own writing life imbue these short pieces with lasting power. From the 2024 winner of the International Booker Prize,this is a collection of short essays on the places, people, rituals and objects that slip into the realm of memory.

$27, Granta. Out February

ECONOMICS

Poor Economics

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

This eye-opening book overturns the myths about what it is like to live on very little. Banerjee and Duflo look at some of the most paradoxical aspects of life below the poverty line – why the poor need to borrow in order to save, why incentives that seem effective to us may not be for them, and why, despite being more risk-taking than high financiers, they start businesses but rarely grow them. This fully revised edition is updated with two new chapters that bring further insights from the last decade of research.

$27, Penguin. Out February

The Great Global Transformation

Branko Milanovic

Drawing on original research, leading economist Branko Milanovic reveals the seismic shifts that are shaping our world. He details how the rising economic power of Asia is creating a new global “middle class” in the greatest reshuffle of incomes since the Industrial Revolution. He explores our fears: why are we becoming increasingly unhappy, when the world is becoming richer and more equal? And he shows us the fight ahead, as plutocracy returns, global war threatens, and a new system silently shapes our nations, driving malcontent to breaking point.

$60, Allen Lane. Out February

ASIAN STUDIES

Red Dawn Over China

Frank Dikotter

Red Dawn Over China challenges the myth of the Chinese Communists’ popular rise, revealing their 1949 victory was heavily dependent on Soviet backing. Established by Moscow in 1921, the Communist party ravaged the countryside and reduced the villagers to a state of servitude. By 1936, they were a fringe group; survival came only after the Japanese occupation. Post-1945, crucial Soviet aid in Manchuria allowed them to prevail through a ruthless war of attrition. Frank Dikötter’s riveting history traces the journey from 13 delegates in 1921 to the raising of the red flag over the Forbidden City in 1949, an event that reshaped a quarter of humanity and the modern world.

$35, Bloomsbury. Out February

TECHNOLOGY

How to Make AI Useful

Magnus Lindkvist

There are a lot of people talking about extreme scenarios and cool future applications and dropping names and acronyms to make the rest of us feel that we don’t belong in the AI community. How to Make AI Useful is not a practical manual, a concept that would surely be outdated when the book is published. It’s an overview of AI as a concept. It will enable you to formulate your own more prescient questions than the AI extremists offer. In other words, how can I make AI useful in my own life and work? 33, LID. Out February

Strong Ground

Brené Brown

Over the past six years, Brené Brown, along with a global community of coaches and facilitators, has taken more than 150,000 leaders in 45 countries through her Dare to Lead couragebuilding work. In Strong Ground, Brown shares the lessons from these experiences along with wisdom from other thinkers. This is a vital playbook for everyone from senior leaders developing and executing complex strategies to Gen Z-ers navigating turbulent work environments. It is also an unflinching assessment of what happens when we continue to perpetuate the falsehood that performance and wholeheartedness are mutually exclusive.

$50, Vermilion. Out now

Good and Evil

Edited by Andrew Irwin

This selection of essays, each written by a different world expert, explores the ideas of 12 strikingly different philosophers. From Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” to Nietzsche’s embrace of suffering, from John Stuart Mill’s ethics of happiness to the ruthless realism of Machiavelli, there is an approach for readers of all persuasions. This is the book for anyone trying to understand how humans can sometimes behave so badly, and how we can all be better.

$25, HarperCollins. Out March

Devil’s Contract

Ed

Simon

From ancient times to the modern world, the idea of the Faustian bargain – the exchange of one’s soul in return for untold riches and power – has exerted a magnetic pull upon our collective imaginations. Ed Simon takes us on a historical tour of the Faustian bargain, from the Bible to blues, and illustrates how the impulse to sacrifice our principles in exchange for power is present in all kinds of social ills, from colonialism to nuclear warfare, from social media to climate change to AI, and beyond. In doing so, Simon conveys just how much the Faustian bargain shows us about power and evil – and ourselves.

$37, Melville House. Out now

Everybody Loves Our Dollars

Oliver Bullough

Without the existence of money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the effort. Despite decades spent trying to stamp it out, money laundering is more ubiquitous than ever, with organised criminals coming up with ever more innovative ways to clean their cash. Drawing on court records and first-hand accounts from convicted money launderers, prosecutors and serious fraud officers, Oliver Bullough exposes this shadow financial system and joins the dots of a sophisticated international operation that connects illegal logging in Papua New Guinea with terrorism in the Middle East and capital flight from China.

$35, W&N. Out now

The Brain Book

Rita Carter

This book answers fundamental and compelling questions about the brain, such as what it means to be conscious and what happens in the brain when we’re asleep. Written by award-winning author Rita Carter, this is an accessible reference book to a fascinating part of the human body. Thanks to improvements in scanning technology, our understanding of the brain is changing fast. Now in its fourth edition, The Brain Book draws on the latest information to provide a fascinating guide to one of science’s most exciting frontiers.

$55, Dorling Kindersley. Out February

Replaceable You

Mary Roach

Our bodies regenerate at a remarkable rate: our skin replaces itself every month, our blood every four. You can remove 90% of a liver and it will still grow back to its original size. Others –the brain, the heart, the eyes – are more complicated. These stay with us for life. So what do we do when they break down? For centuries, medicine has searched for answers by sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs. In Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings.

$40, Oneworld. Out March

Pull

Dr Brennan Spiegel

Why do people with depression literally feel like they’re being dragged to the ground? Why do you get that butterfly feeling in your stomach when going down a roller coaster? Why do you get it when you are “falling” in love? What can we learn from astronauts with heartburn and swollen faces to inform our lives back on Earth? Pull is rooted in hard science, buttressed by compelling storytelling, and punctuated with actionable strategies to boost your own gravity resilience.

$37, Scribe. Out February

The Future Loves You

Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston

From ventilators to brain implants, modern medicine has been blurring what it means to die. In a lucid synthesis of current neuroscientific thinking, Zeleznikow-Johnston explains that death is no longer the loss of heartbeat or breath, but of personal identity; that the core of our identities is our minds, and that our minds are encoded in the structure of our brains. He explores how recently invented brain preservation techniques now offer us all the chance of preserving our minds to enable our future revival.

$27, Penguin. Out February

A World Appears

Michael Pollan

Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness from several radically different perspectives – scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical and psychedelic – to see what each has to teach us about this fundamental fact of our lives. He introduces us to plant neurobiologists studying nature’s surprisingly complex intelligence; neuroscientists and psychoanalysts attempting to engineer feeling into AI; and novelists recreating our slippery stream of consciousness.

$40, Allen Lane. Out March

The Shortest History of Innovation

Andrew Leigh

Innovation shapes almost every corner of our lives, yet we rarely pause to notice it. Someone had to invent nails and wheelbarrows; alphabets and books; glass windows and windscreen wipers; tin cans and synthetic dyes. From tools and technologies to fresh approaches in art and architecture, innovation surrounds us. Leigh shows that three forces drive innovation: tinkering, teams and trade. He examines hotbeds of creativity, the forces that suppress them, and the surprising ways ideas travel across borders and disciplines. The result is a lively, compact look at the engines powering progress.

$28, Black Inc. Out February

What We Owe the Water

Kumi Naidoo

This essay imagines a future where Australia stands as a courageous ally using its resources and power to build a better future rather than staying as a climate pariah, and where the Pacific becomes the lighthouse guiding the way. Drawing on decades of activism Naidoo explores the injustices that define this crisis. With stories from Australian flood survivors, Indigenous leaders protecting sacred lands, and Pacific Islanders fighting for the survival of their homes, Naidoo describes a grim reality: the water that once sustained us is now loudly sounding the alarm.

$20, Australia Institute Press. Out February

Is a River Alive?

Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane’s brilliant, perspective-shifting new book answers a resounding yes to the question of its title. At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings who should be recognised as such in both imagination and law. The book flows from rivers threatened by goldmining in Ecuador, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.

$27, Penguin. Out March

Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today

Naomi Alderman

The internet has flooded us with more knowledge, opinions, ideas, opportunities, as well as verbal attacks and misinformation, than ever before. It lets us learn more quickly and also spreads falsehood more quickly; it brings us together and divides us in new ways. This is humanity’s third information crisis. The first, the invention of writing 5,000 years ago, and the second, the invention of the printing press 600 years ago, drastically reshaped our lives. By looking at those previous information crises, Alderman asks what we can learn from the past to better understand our present and prepare for our future.

$40, Fig Tree. Out February

New Beginnings

Stefan Klein

Herlands

Megha Mohan

Imagine a world in which women have all the power. A world in which they work together to shape their societies and their futures. In reality, women’s communities have always existed, and continue to thrive. In this groundbreaking book, Megha Mohan goes in search of their roots, discovering a vibrant global history, brought together here for the first time. She also takes us into today’s women-led spaces, where women live on their own terms, showing us how we can rethink society for new ways of living, working and collaborating.

$37, Harvill/Secker. Out March

LITERARY CRITICISM

POETRY GENDER STUDIES

The Slicks

Maggie Nelson

Maggie Nelson positions culture-dominating pop superstar Taylor Swift and feminist cult icon Sylvia Plath as twin hosts of the female urge toward wanting hard, working hard, and pouring forth – and as twinned targets of patriarchy’s ancient urge to disparage, trivialise and demonise such prolific, intimate output. The Slicks is a heady and unexpected melding of popular culture and literary criticism – an inspired treatise and unexpected celebration of two iconic female poets by one of the most revered and influential critics of her generation.

$25, Fern. Out now

They Bloom Because of You

Jessica Urlichs

A mother is born the moment her children are, growing and blooming alongside them. They Bloom Because of You is a testament to the profound significance of mothering, and the extraordinary beauty of watching our children unfurl into who they are meant to be. Jess’s poems have touched millions, offering comfort like a trusted friend through shimmering highs and the darkest, sleepless nights. In this deeply personal new collection, her poetry resonates with fresh tenderness as she reflects on the joys and challenges of raising her growing family.

$33, Penguin. Out March

Stefan Klein delves into the most pressing problems facing our world – from the climate crisis to the rapid development of artificial intelligence –and investigates why individuals and societies often resist necessary changes, despite knowing the risks of inaction. Blending scientific insights with vivid storytelling, Klein unpacks the psychological and social forces that keep us stuck. With his trademark clarity and optimism, Klein inspires belief that necessary change is not only possible but accessible for a sustainable future.

$33, Scribe Publications. Out now

Frighteners

Peter Laws

The Frighteners follows the quest of Peter Laws, a Baptist minister with a penchant for the macabre, to understand why so many people love things that are spooky, morbid and downright repellent. Staring into the darkness of a Transylvanian night, he asks: What is it that makes millions of people seek to be disgusted and freaked out? And can an interest in horror culture actually give us safe ways to confront our mortality? Grab your crucifixes, pack the silver bullets, and join the Sinister Minister on his romp into our morbid curiosities.

$28, Icon. Out March

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats

Ursula K. Le Guin

“The presence of a cat keeps me in touch with the mystery, the unreasonableness, the beauty, the stubborn wildness of the nonhuman world.” In her life as in her art, Ursula K. Le Guin was fascinated by the feline. This irresistible book about cats gathers poems, meditations, and drawings dedicated to the complicated creature that captured her imagination. It includes 26 cat poems, many illustrated by Le Guin herself, Cat Tai Chi, as depicted in a charming series of drawings, and her Supermouse comic.

$30, The Library of America. Out now

Run For Your Life

Konrad Marshall

Understanding the mindset of someone who voluntarily runs regularly is what journalist and sports writer, Konrad Marshall, has explored in Run for Your Life, both by taking up running himself and talking to and running with some of Australia’s most interesting runners, from Gout Gout to Grace Tame to Olympians and doctors. Konrad gathers the lessons learned as he runs with others on sporting fields, in marathons, on beaches and country trails, and discovers what tested their resolve, the relationships that developed, and why running is so important to their lives.

$37, Hardie Grant. Out now

Pregnancy and Birth

Laura Godfrey-Isaacs

Midwife and awardwinning author Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, alongside illustrator Lilly Williams, celebrates the beauty and science of pregnancy and birth. This accessible and approachable book is the perfect guide for expectant parents, as well as anybody interested in knowing more about how we are brought into the world. Covering everything from contractions and foetal positioning to feeding and postnatal care, Pregnancy and Birth: A Graphic Guide emphasises the importance of physical and mental health of mothers and babies while offering a clear and concise insight into the many issues that surround this exciting, but sometimes overwhelming, stage of life.

$43, Icon. Out February

The Hunger Code

Dr Jason Fung

With the rise of ultraprocessed foods and new drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, understanding the forces behind why we eat is more important than ever. In The Hunger Code, Dr Jason Fung reveals the powerful forces that drive us to eat, and also introduces the concept of the body’s “fat thermostat” – a biological set point that regulates how much fat your body tries to maintain. Guided by hormones and metabolism, this internal system influences hunger and energy use, explaining why lasting weight loss requires more than just willpower.

$33, Scribe. Out March

Leading from the Dreaming

Dr Paul Callaghan

First Nations peoples have known for tens of thousands of years that we are all born to learn and continue learning until we take our last breath, from everyone and everything around us – from teachers, lecturers, books, courses, Elders, children, babies, strangers, friends, life and nature. In Leading From the Dreaming, Dr Paul Callaghan draws on his business experience and cultural knowledge to help you set yourself up for leadership excellence in your personal and professional lives.

$37, Pantera. Out February

Art Cure

Daisy Fancourt

Many of us consider making and consuming art to be a hobby, or even a luxury. But what if arts engagement –from classical music to salsa, poetry to pop concerts, galleries to graffiti – was in fact one of our most powerful tools for unlocking health and happiness? Fancourt draws on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, psychology, immunology, physiology, behavioural science and epidemiology, as well as inspiring true stories of people who have experienced radical changes in their health, to empower readers to improve their own health through the arts.

$37, Cornerstone. Out now

Reparenting the Inner Child

Nicole LePera

Childhood is brief, yet its impact is lifelong. Some parts of us were met with love while other parts were met with silence, criticism, or disapproval. To survive, we learned to adapt, learning to over-perform, to hide, or stay small. While we can’t change what happened, we can change how it lives within us and impacts our lives today. Reparenting the Inner Child offers a clear, compassionate path to self-integration, combining practical exercises, somatic tools, and guided reflections to help us create the safety, love, and boundaries we’ve always needed.

$37, Orion Spring. Out March

Tales of the Dark Feminine

V. Castro

Dark goddess energy is powerful and transformative, embodying the sensual, the hunter, the warrior, the mother, and even the grotesque and horrific. These 26 tales of powerful female goddesses and spirits will entrance those daring enough to explore the shadows of the human psyche, offering lessons from our ancient origins and help us understand ourselves in today’s world. Embrace your own inner darkness alongside these fierce deities and spirits, including the fierce Indian goddess Kali, the mighty Yoruba orisha Yemaya, the ravenous Egyptian goddess Sekhmet and the occult Greek goddess Hecate.

$50, ROH. Out now

PSYCHOLOGY

Poisonous People

Leanne ten Brinke

This book is about the poisonous people who walk among us. The romantic partner who twists every conversation, the office bully who keeps being promoted, or the reckless relative who never takes responsibility for their actions. Psychologist Leanne ten Brinke has studied dark personalities for decades, examining their behaviour in settings as varied as prisons, schools and financial boardrooms, even in the United States Senate. This insightful, humane, optimistic and empowering book gives you powerful, evidence-based tools to neutralise their poison and improve your life.

$37, Simon & Schuster. Out March

The Only Cure

Mark Solms

Neuroscience now confirms much of what Sigmund Freud conjectured over a century ago: our deepest struggles stem, not from chemical imbalances, but from buried memories and unconscious conflicts that no pill can touch. Using enthralling case studies and cuttingedge brain science, neuroscientist Mark Solms makes the case that psychoanalysis should resume its position as our master theory of the mind. Yet modern research also reveals where Freud got important things wrong. The Only Cure offers a revolutionary hope: a real science of healing, rooted in the radical idea that our suffering arises from truths we haven’t yet faced. $35, W&N. Out February

COOKING

Lourinhã

Matt McConnell and Jo Gamvros

In Lourinhã: Iberian and Mediterranean Dishes to Share, Matt McConnell and Jo Gamvros share their love of Europe’s bar dining culture through 90 incredible, vibrant recipes, from tapas to mezethes. They explore the amazing flavours of Italy, Sicily, Portugal and Greece through recipes that inspired them to embrace and redefine bar dining culture in Melbourne. From clifftop restaurants in Naples, to familyrun bars in back alleys of Seville, seafood specialists on the Portuguese coast and the bustling markets of Athens, Matt and Jo leave no snack uneaten, no market unexplored, no hidden bar undiscovered, and no recipe unwritten.

$50, Hardie Grant. Out now

Seven Kitchens

Torie True

Seven Kitchens: A Journey Through India’s Culinary Heritage is a culinary journey into the rich stories and vibrant dishes of seven communities, featuring food traditions fused with the local to create what we know (and love) as Indian cuisine today. Inside you’ll find more than 100 accessible recipes (with more than half vegetarian) spanning Goan Portuguese, Mughal, Anglo-Indian, Indo-Chinese, Parsi, Syrian Christian and Tibetan-Nepalese. Blending meticulous historical research with insights from her travels, Torie makes these diverse recipes accessible for every home cook.

$65, Meze. Out March

Japandi Outdoor Living

Laila Rietbergen

Japandi Outdoor Living shows the unique way in which inside and outside blend seamlessly in this serene style. The book shows the influence of both the traditional Japanese and the minimalistic Scandinavian garden, and highlights the recurring elements in Japandi outdoor design. The author discusses elements such as garden layout, choice of materials, and colour palette, and shows stunning projects photos to match. This book will teach you how to give your outdoor space a Japandi touch however modest or grand it may be and how to transform it into the perfect place to unwind.

$99, Lannoo. Out March

Sáng

Kenny Son

Step inside the kitchen of Sáng, the beloved family-run Korean restaurant in Sydney’s Surry Hills, and discover 100 recipes that celebrate the bold, diverse and comforting flavours of Korea. From crisp Korean fried chicken (best served with beer) to bubbling kimchi-jjigae, handmade banchan and sweet, chewy desserts, this is homestyle Korean food at its best –generous, deeply personal, and full of soul.

$50, Hardie Grant. Out February

Vegan Asian Street Food

Yang Liu and Katharina Pinczolits

Whether you’re a dedicated vegan or simply a lover of flavourful street food, this book provides a treasure trove of delightful recipes. Featuring everything from shallot pancakes and satay skewers to fresh summer rolls and hearty rice dishes, Yang and Kathi guide you in creating these beloved street foods from scratch or transforming traditional favourites using vegan ingredients. Embrace the simplicity, versatility, and bold flavours of vegan Asian street food and embark on a culinary journey that celebrates innovation and cultural exchange.

$45, Hardie Grant. Out now

TRAVEL

Tokyo Story

Michelle Mackintosh and Steve Wide Japan’s capital is a buzzing metropolis that may seem immense, but look closely and you’ll find it’s made up of smaller neighbourhoods, each with their own unique feel. Each themed chapter of this guide tells the tale of Tokyo’s rich history, culture and flavour to give you the full travel experience. You’ll find future fashions, the best ramen you’ve ever had, ultracool listening bars, crazy moments of pop culture and fantastic things that are free.

$40, Hardie Grant. Out now

Nonfiction

The Rolling Year

Hannah French

Through the rich imagery of each concerto and its accompanying poetry, Dr Hannah French uncovers the details of Vivaldi’s personal and creative life. In conversation with fellow musicians and experts in health, nature, food, wine, and science, she helps bring a new perspective to the music through our shared experiences of the joys and fears of the ever-evolving seasons.

$45, Faber. Out February

Spirits of the Hoey

Liz Giuffre & Gregory Ferris

The Hopetoun Hotel, affectionately known as the Hoey, was built in the 1830s and was a performance venue frequented by many Australian music legends before they became legends – Hoodoo Gurus, Paul Kelly, the Jezebels, Michael Hutchence, Jenny Morris, Mental as Anything, and many more. This stunning visual compilation records the stories of a now-closed live performance venue that lives on in the hearts and minds of many Sydneysiders, and Australians around the country. Fully illustrated and filled with never-before-seen images and accounts, Spirits of the Hoey is a nostalgic journey into a unique and intimate space of music, art, and community.

$50, Melbourne Books. Out March

Punk: The Last Word

Chris Sullivan and Stephen Colegrave

Punk: The Last Word is a powerful reimagining of punk – not just as a sound or style, but as a radical, DIY philosophy rooted in defiance, truth, and individuality. The authors bring together more than 150 original interviews with punk’s most iconic figures, including Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Siouxsie Sioux and Vivienne Westwood. From musicians and designers to promoters and provocateurs, they paint a vivid portrait of the movement’s chaotic rise and lasting impact on both sides of the Atlantic.

$70, Omnibus. Out February

Lou Reed: The king of New York

Will Hermes

In Lou Reed: the King of New York, the critic Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatising his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fellow artists from David Bowie to Andy Warhol. Hermes explores Reed’s craft as a singer and songwriter with the Velvet Underground as well as the gift for self-sabotage he took from his mentor Delmore Schwartz. This is a portrait of a committed artist who pursued beauty and noise with equal fervour and a man who left a lasting emotional imprint the world over.

$27, Penguin. Out now

This Year

John Darnielle

From his early days recording on a boom box, through the evolution of the Mountain Goats from a solo project to a full band, to his continued influence on indie music, This Year pairs the definitive texts of 365 John Darnielle songs with first-person commentaries on his life and music. It reveals how the songs came to be and the people who inspired them – his family and friends; his wife, Lalitree Darnielle; his longtime collaborator, Peter Hughes; and even his literary heroes. This Year, spanning decades, becomes the definitive literary record of one of the greatest songwriters and musical creative forces of all time.

$70, Scribe. Out March

The Power of Music

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Cellist Sheku KannehMason understands the transformative power of music. From winning the BBC Young Musician Award to performing at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, from Bach’s solo suites to Bob Marley’s reggae, his passion shines through in every single performance.

In The Power of Music, Sheku explores the experiences that led him here, from a childhood of football practice and family music sessions, to his work today in the world’s finest concert halls and in less privileged communities. As his star continues to rise, he shows us the darker side of an industry ruled by exclusivity and stubborn adherence to tradition.

$37, Viking. Out now

The Home Style Handbook

Lucy Gough

We all want to live in a home that reflects our personalities and experiences. But if we are not a professional decorator or stylist where do we start? In this inspirational and helpful handbook, interiors stylist and tutor Lucy Gough will teach you how to understand your true style as you decorate your living space. Your dream home needn’t be a spacious, architecturally designed building, it could be small or rented. And with this book you’ll discover what you love so you can surround yourself with the colours, furniture, furnishings and finishing touches that inspire you.

$55, Mitchell Beazley. Out March

Contrast, Space, Harmony

Tamsin Johnson

From laid-back, beachy urban residences to sun-drenched coastal retreats, Tamsin Johnson’s new book offers an intimate look at both how she crafts environments that are as livable as they are beautiful and how she works with antiques to add texture and narrative to rooms. Featuring never-before-seen projects, expert design insights, and breathtaking photography, this book is an essential resource for design lovers seeking inspiration on how to bring depth, character, and a sense of narrative to their own home.

$145, Rizzoli. Out February

VISUAL ART

Supernatural

Alix Paré

Supernatural: A Compendium of Esoteric and Occult Art invites readers to experience the otherworldly imagination of celebrated and lesserknown artists who sought to capture the liminal spaces between reality and fantasy. Featuring 300 exquisite paintings and engravings that reveal the mysterious beauty of 19thcentury Dark Romanticism, Symbolism and Pre-Raphaelitism, this lavish volume highlights the era’s fascination with the spiritual, the macabre, and the sublime. It pairs breathtaking artwork with insightful commentary that illuminates the themes, symbols and esoteric traditions woven into these haunting works.

$140, Prestel. Out February

Modern Japanese Printmakers

Malene Wagner

This captivating volume explores the vibrant world of post-World War II Japanese printmaking, a movement that blended meticulous craftsmanship with groundbreaking innovation. Showcasing more than 100 stunning full-page reproductions, the book reveals the wide-ranging styles that defined this era of artistic reinvention. Among the works featured are those by Saitō Kiyoshi, who blended traditional techniques with the modern; Munakata Shikō, who created bold monochromatic works; and the colorful psychedelic works of Ay-O. $99, Prestel. Out March

PHOTOGRAPHY

Wurnan

Willinggin Aboriginal Corporation

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, a group of Ngarinyin people have been engaging with archival material and travelling back to Country to remember and record traditional harvesting and craft-making practices. The landscape offers distinctive materials that inform the traditional crafts that are made, such as string from the bark of a boab tree, or spindles made from the cypress pine. Combining evocative photography with first-hand quotes and stories from Wilinggin people, this book immerses readers in longstanding cultural traditions that are being given a new life in a modern context.

$44, Magabala. Out February

Pamela Griffith

Lou Klepac

Etching is a passion for artist Pamela Griffth and for five decades she has produced more than 400 editions. Long fascinated by the natural world, she established an intimate knowledge of Australian fauna, flora and landscape by travelling across Australia in a caravan or camping in a tent. These experiences became an important component of her subject matter. She has had more than 150 solo exhibitions, and her portrait commissions include subjects such as Sir William Deane, Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. This is a lavishly illustrated book showcasing Griffith’s unique style and techniques.

$80, The Beagle Press. Out February

Helmut Newton: One off

German-Australian photographer Helmut Newton is one of the world’s most renowned and recognisable fashion photographers. Inspired by Expressionist cinema, film noir, and surrealism, Newton’s radical images continue to fascinate viewers today. In 1999, along with collaborator Gert Elfering, Newton compiled a one-off photographic album comprising eight unique Polaroids, 16 chromogenic prints, and 79 gelatin silver prints, each mounted on board and accompanied by Newton’s own pencil annotation. This album is unique and One off reproduces it in full, faithful to the album’s original size, as a facsimile. $100, Phaidon. Out March

ARCHITECTURE

Small Eco Houses

Cristina Paredes Benitez and Alex Sanchez Vidiella

Small Eco Houses surveys one of the biggest trends in contemporary architecture – stylish, ecologically minded homes that make use of every practical inch of space. It offers a fresh look at small homes that combine practicality, high design, and stylish living spaces with ecologically sensitivity. This book will be an inspiration to anyone looking to live greener and to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing good design or stylish living.

$45, Rizzoli. Out April

Tarantino Town

Johan Chiaramonte

This wildly creative book transforms the renowned filmmaker’s iconic works into a fully immersive experience. Packed with vibrant visuals, playful essays, and enough Easter eggs to thrill even the most passionate fans, Tarantino Town is more than a book – it’s an invitation to step into the ultimate cinematic playground. Dive into the meticulous costumes, unforgettable personalities, and cult-classic scenes that define this legendary storyteller’s universe. $90, Prestel. Out February

The Greengrass Papers

Tom Shone

Director Paul Greengrass uses documentary techniques to imbue his thrillers and docudramas with the heat and crackle of chaotic, fast-moving, real-life events. His adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s spy thriller, The Bourne Supremacy, gave the shooting of action films an entirely new cinematic syntax –urgent, visceral, immersive, immediate – that everyone rushed to replicate, including the Bond and Mission Impossible franchises. Greengrass shares the story of the revolution he brought to Hollywood, showcased here alongside never-beforeseen behind-the-scenes photographs. $65, Faber. Out February

Reid All About It

Earth to Earth: The lives and violent deaths of a Devon farming family

John Cornwell

$35, Harper Collins. Out July

On 23 September 1975, the bodies of three unmarried siblings – Frances, Robbie and Alan Luxton – were found on their remote farm of West Chapple at Winkleigh in North Devon, England.

All had fatal shotgun wounds. Frances had a broken leg. Robbie had stab wounds to his neck. Each of the four doors to the farmhouse had been locked from the inside. The triple deaths of “the tragic trio” – as the press dubbed them – brought to an end a 600-year family farming dynasty. “Suicide pact” was the swiftly delivered official verdict.

This classic of true crime reportage into the lives of these unhappy siblings was first published more than four decades ago. I read it in one sitting back then.

The event has inspired documentaries and a television play. It is now being reissued on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. In this new edition, Cornwall revisits the evidence and suggests alternate, violent, criminal scenarios. Photographs from the original edition are included. The most moving to me – then as now – shows four-year-old Alan Luxton playing with a toy rifle in the front yard of the farm, where he was to die 50 years later.

Entitled:

The rise and fall of the House of York

Andrew Lownie

$35, Harper Collins. Out now

We now come to Mr Andrew MountbattenWindsor and Mrs Sarah Margaret Ferguson (formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York).

“A spoilt prince unable to connect and a duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her ‘royal’ status brought.”

The portrait of King Charles III’s younger brother is less than flattering: short-tempered, cruel, vain, arrogant, sex obsessed. From favourite child, to Falklands War hero to royal grifter. One knowingly protected for decades by both family and a fawning, servile establishment.

Lownie tells the whole, wretched story.

Based on court papers, freedom of information disclosures, interviews with ex-staffers and correspondence, this account took four years to complete. Worth the wait.

Not since biographies by Andrew Morton in the 1990s and works by Anthony Summers – detailing the Profumo Affair – in the 1980s, have I enjoyed such a readable book giving the Royal Family “Firm” – and these two appalling individuals – such a welldeserved belting.

Stephen Reid

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Samantha Harvey

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Yael van der Wouden

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Charlotte McConaughy

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Siang Lu

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Sara Haddad

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Arundhati Roy

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Plestia Alaqad

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Kate Grenville

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Peter Beinart

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Helen Garner

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Mel Robbins

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Nikki Savva

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Nick Kaldas

10. We Are the Stars

Gina Chick

1. Mega Rich Guinea Pigs

Kate and Jol Temple

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Tom Jellett

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Gus Gordon

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Eva Amores and Matt Cosgrove

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Lisa Nicol and Karen Blair

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Lucie Stevens

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Annabel Crabb

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Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart

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Tim Winton and Cindy Lane

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