Around this time of December, I have, for some years, shared favourite Aussie reads of the year from various sources. Those sources have varied a little from time to time. This year’s are listed below.
This is not a scientific survey. For a start, the choosers’ backgrounds vary. Depending on the source, they may include critics, reviewers, commentators, subject specialists, publishers and/or booksellers. Then, there’s the fact that what they are asked to do varies. For example, some pickers are “allowed” to name several books while others are limited to “one” best (or favourite). And of course, they choose from different sets of books, depending on what they have read, and they use different criteria. In other words, this exercise is more serendipitous than authoritative. But, it still has value.
As always, I’m only including the choosers’ Aussie choices, but I include links to the original article/post so you can read them yourselves, should you so wish.
Here are the sources I used:
- ABC RN Bookshelf (radio broadcaster): Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans and a panel of bookish guests, Jason Steger (arts journalist and former book editor); Jon Page (bookseller); Robert Goodman (reviewer and literary judge specialising in genre fiction). I only shared their on air picks, not their extras.
- Australian Book Review (literary journal): selected from many forms by ABR’s reviewers
- Australian Financial Review (newspaper, traditional and online): shared “the top picks … to add to your holiday reading pile.”
- The Conversation (online news source): experts from across the spectrum of The Conversation’s writing so a diverse list.
- The Guardian (online news source): promotes its list as “Guardian Australia critics and staff pick out the best books of the year”.
- Readings (independent bookseller): staff “vote” for their favourite books of the year, then Readings shares the Top Ten in various categories.
To keep it manageable, I am focusing here on fiction (including short stories) and poetry, with a separate post on nonfiction, to follow.
Novels
- Randa Abdel-Fattah, Discipline (Zora Simic, ABR; Clare Wright, ABR)
- Shokoofeh Azar, The Gowkaran tree in the middle of our kitchen (Edwina Preston, The Conversation)
- Dominic Amerena, I want everything (Julian Novitz, ABC; Jon Page, ABC; Andrew Pippos, AFR; Jack Callil, The Guardian) (Kate’s review)
- Marc Brandi, Eden (Robert Goodman, ABC)
- Paul Daley, The leap (Julie Janson, ABR; Bridie Jabour, The Guardian)
- Olivia De Zilva, Plastic budgie (Jo Case, The Conversation)
- Laura Elvery, Nightingale (Readings)
- Beverley Farmer, The seal woman (1992, rereleased 2025) (Eve Vincent, The Conversation)
- Jon Fosse, Septology (Marjon Mossammaparast, ABR)
- Andrea Goldsmith, The buried life (Readings) (my review)
- Madeleine Gray, Chosen family (Kate Evans, ABC) (Brona’s review)
- Fiona Hardy, Unbury the dead (Jon Page, ABC; Readings)
- James Islington, The strength of the few (Tim Byrne, The Guardian)
- Brandon Jack, Pissants (Readings) (Kate’s review)
- Toni Jordan, Tenderfoot (Readings)
- Vijay Khurana, The passenger seat (Beejay Silcox, The Guardian) (Lisa’s review)
- Sofie Laguna, The underworld (Sian Cain, The Guardian) (on my TBR, see my conversation post)
- Charlotte McConaghy, Wild dark shore (Julia Feder, AFR) (Brona’s review)
- Jasmin McGaughey, Moonlight and dust (Allanah Hunt, The Conversation) (See my CWF post)
- Lay Maloney, Weaving us together (Melanie Saward, The Conversation)
- Patrick Marlborough, Nock Loose (Jared Richards, The Guardian)
- Angie Faye Martin, Melaleuca (Sandra Phillips, The Conversation)
- Jennifer Mills, Salvage (Robert Goodman, ABC; Alice Grundy, The Conversation)
- Judi Morison, Secrets (Paul Daley, The Guardian)
- Rachel Morton, The sun was electric light (Readings; Seren Heyman-Griffiths, The Guardian)
- Omar Musa, Fierceland (Kate Evans, ABC; Readings; Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, The Guardian)
- Andrew Pippos, The transformations (Jo Case, The Conversation; Cassie McCullagh, ABC; Readings; Zora Simic, ABR)
- Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson, Yilkari: A Desert Suite (Stephen Romei, ABR; John Woinarski, AFR) (on my TBR)
- Josephine Rowe, Little world (Felicity Plunkett, ABR; Readings; Geordie Williamson, ABR; Fiona Wright, The Conversation) (Lisa’s review)
- Craig Silvey, Runt and the diabolical dognapping (Jason Steger x 2, ABC and ABR)
- Jessica Stanley, Consider yourself kissed (Lauren Sams, AFR)
- Sinéad Stubbins, Stinkbug (Michael Sun, The Guardian)
- Lenore Thaker, The pearl of Tagai town (Julie Janson, ABR)
- Madeleine Watts, Elegy, Southwest (Steph Harmon, The Guardian)
- Sean Wilson, You must remember this (Jason Steger x 2, ABC and ABR) (Kate’s review)
Short stories
- Tony Birch, Pictures of you: Collected stories (Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, ABR; Julie Janson, ABR; Readings; Geordie Williamson, ABR; BK, The Guardian)
- Lucy Nelson, Wait here (Marjon Mossammaparast, ABR; Bec Kavanagh, The Guardian)
- Zoe Terakes, Eros (Dee Jefferson, The Guardian)
Poetry
- Evelyn Araluen, The rot (Tony Hughes-d’Aeth x 2, ABR and The Conversation; John Kinsella, ABR; Alison Croggon, The Guardian) (on my TBR, see my CWF posts 1 and 2)
- Eileen Chong, We speak of flowers (Seren Heyman-Griffiths, The Guardian) (Jonathan’s review)
- Antigone Kefala, Poetry (Marjon Mossammaparast, ABR)
- Luke Patterson, A savage turn (Felicity Plunkett, ABR; John Kinsella, ABR)
- Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed, The nightmare sequence (Jen Webb, The Conversation)
- Sara M. Saleh and Zainab Syed with Manal Younus (ed.), Ritual: A collection of Muslim Australian poetry (Esther Anatolis, ABR; Julie Janson, ABR)
Finally …
It’s encouraging to see the increasing diversity in these lists, including (but not only) several First Nations writers, compared with the lists I made just three or four years ago. It’s also interesting to see what books feature most. Popularity doesn’t equal quality, but it does indicate something about what has attracted attention during the year. One book (Tony Birch’s short story collection) was mentioned five times, and three others four times:
- Tony Birch, Pictures of you (short stories)
- Dominic Amerena, I want everything
- Andrew Pippos, The transformations
- Josephine Rowe, Little world
Of last year’s most mentioned books, several received significant notice at awards time – some winning them – including Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & practice and Fiona McFarlane’s Highway Thirteen.
This year, I read three novels from last year’s (2024) lists, Brian Castro’s Chinese postman, Melanie Cheng’s The burrow, Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & practice.
So, what has caught my eye from this year’s list, besides the one I have read – Andrea Goldsmith’s The buried life – and those on my TBR? Well, many, but in particular Tony Birch’s short story collection. And, I have read Josephine Rowe and Shokoofeh Azar before, so I am keen to read their new books.
If you haven’t seen it you might also like to check out Kate’s list of the top 48 books (from around the world) that appeared on the 54 lists she surveyed.
Thoughts – on this or lists from your neck of the wood?
Whispering Gums 
I get emotional over inanimate objects sometimes, so the title Plastic Budgie really struck me. What does it look like? Why does someone have it?
Fiona Hardy’s Unbury the Dead sounds interesting. I have only read one Australian book that had a crime element, but it was so well done that I’ve preemptively decided Australia must be really good at the genre and benefits from place. Plus, this one says that the characters have a morally ambiguous job, which made me realize that some of the books I’ve read lately are a little too tidy in that department. The only title I’ve read recently that had a lot of ambiguity was part of a series that I’m reviewing bit by bit in one big post when I’m finished.
“one Australian book that had a crime element, but it was so well done” !! You’re OBLIGED to identify it !! (please … [grin])
Ope, let me look…. Okay, the book was The Silence by Susan Allott, but now I see that Allott is British. She spent decades in Australia but is not native to the country.
Thanks, GTL !
I’d kind of hoped you were going to reference something by Jane Harper.
Sighh …
😉
If I read a Jane Harper, which book should I start with?
O Excellent Person ! – start with “The Dry”.
Thanks MR … that would have been my guess but it’s better to have the advice of an aficionado!
Interesting Melanie … I’ve never heard of her!
Great Melanie. I love that Plastic budgie title too. I should probably know which Australian book you’ve read with a crime element that you liked but can you tell us for MR? Of course we are good at the genre!!! Seriously though I think many Aussie crime novels do make good use of place.
I can’t remember who said it, but at one point, someone pointed out that Australia is so vast that it is almost easy to get away with crime there. Whether the criminal disappears or a body does, there is just so much unforgiving space.
Haha Melanie … I think I’ve heard that before but I wonder how many cold cases there really are …
These WG posts are life’s blood to you, you researching fool … 🙂
Not quite as much fun as the Trove ones but they are fun, MR, as you’ve noticed.
My new bookshop asks all the staff to nominate their fav book for the year…back in late Oct, so it can miss the books we read in the lead up to Christmas. I picked the first two books in Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, I would now add book three to it 🙂
Arborescence by Rhett Davis would also be a contender. I have Shokoofeh Azar’s book on my TBR and suspect it will become list-worthy like her first book. Ditto for Tony Birch.
My colleagues loved the Pippos book, the Morton and Vijay Khurana. Patrick Marlborough’s was one of unexpected best sellers at our local writer’s festival (there’s one every festival).
Thanks for the shout-outs and all your Australian musings this year 🙂
Thanks for sharing your and your bookseller colleagues’ favourites Brona.
Happy to do the shoutouts… and thanks to you
too for yours. It’s part of the community isn’t it, though you can’t catch all the potential links can you?
Hi Sue, so many lists and so many books to read. I would highly recommend Pictures of You by Rony Birch, and The Passenger Seat by Vijah Khurana.
Thanks Meg … I certainly have Birch on my radar, and I am tempted by Khurana so thanks very much for that recommendation.
I could have stopped reading at the first book (Discipline) because that’s the only one on the list I have, and I only bought it yesterday.
Thanks to Melanie (and you) I looked up Plastic Budgie. It looks a bit like Pink Mountain on Locust Island (2018) by Jamie Marina Lau, one of so many writers who start off with great promise and then we hear no more.
So, what made you buy Discipline Bill?
I certainly feel it’s becoming impossible to keep up with Australian writing these days which is, I think, a good thing! There are so many here that I haven’t heard of, and there are books on my TBR from this year that aren’t mentioned in these lists, like Carmel Bird (whose novel admittedly was published late in the year), but others too.
Discipline: reviews earlier in the year (in fact, I suspect I bought it a couple of months ago and gave it to a daughter).
On my shelves it’s sitting on top of Hossein Asgari’s Desolation which I bought because I liked his first, Only Sound Remains.
Oh well done … I struggle these days to keep up with snd remember reviews. I set up systems and then forget to use them!
There are some wonderful books here. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Pam. Glad you agree about the list.
Oh, I just heard a podcast interview with Randa Abdel-Fattah talking about Discipline and it sounds like such a good book! It has just been published here so no libraries have it available for lending yet, but when they do, I hope to get to read it sooner rather than later.
Oh wow Stefanie … an American podcast?
Yes, Between the Covers from Tin House Press: https://tinhouse.com/podcast/randa-abdel-fattah-discipline/
Also, have you heard about the new Jane Austen podcast? Jane Austen’s Paper Trail https://theconversation.com/introducing-jane-austens-paper-trail-a-new-podcast-from-the-conversation-266533 I have listened to the first episode about gossip and whether Austen herself was a gossip. It was pretty good.
Oh no, I missed that one Stefanie. Looks like it was posted when we were in Japan. I’ll aim to listen to that on our return to Canberra from Melbourne.
(And I wish you and James a beautiful cosy Christmas)
That’s why I bought it too! (In concert with Bill having mentioned it. It’s always a Thing when a book/author comes at me from more than one direction.)
I love that you have that Thing Marcie!
I am currently reading ‘Pictures of You’. Every story is having an impact.
Oh that’s great to hear Jennifer. Thanks.
What a great service you’ve done us with this, Sue. Thanks for the link – Eileen’s book is the only one in this vast list that I’ve read
I didn’t check them all on your blog, needless to say Jonathan but I remembered that you’d read Chong before so checked that and one of the other poets!
Thank you! Merry Christmas to you and Mr. Gums!