Looking for something juicy to discuss in your book club? Try one of these new releases, chosen by our booksellers to appeal to a wide range of readers and provide plenty to talk about.
Australian fiction
Little World
Josephine Rowe
In the north-western corner of 1950s Australia, a saint arrives at the home of a retired engineer, who unwittingly becomes her custodian. A girl of indeterminate age, her body remains as it was when she died, incorruptible. And though no one knows it, she is conscious, reflecting on past and present.
Little World stretches across continents and eras – from the Canal Zone in Panama and the island of Nauru all the way to the onset of Covid in contemporary Victoria. Beautiful, rich and strange, it weaves a tale of interconnected fates as characters grapple with the unknowable, and in this way come face to face with their deepest needs.
Read our staff review here.
International fiction
The Emperor of Gladness
Ocean Vuong
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
Read our staff review here.
Crime fiction
The Empress Murders
Toby Schmitz
It's 1925 and the Empress of Australia is making her regular Atlantic crossing, New York-bound, with a full manifest of passengers.
When a dead body is uncovered onboard, it is up to Inspector Archie Daniels to find the killer. But solving one murder quickly turns into solving two, then three, and it becomes clear that Daniels must act fast to avoid an all-souls-lost-level calamity. No one, from the horrendously wealthy and entitled first-class passengers to those they consider the dregs of empire below deck, is safe. And no one can get off …
The Empress Murders is a razor-sharp, mind-bendingly clever novel that is both a witty, bloodthirsty whodunnit and an excoriating look at the excesses of the British Empire, just as the sun begins to set on it.
Read our staff review here.
Biography
Broken Brains
Jamila Rizvi & Rosie Waterland
At the age of 31 Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. When she shared her diagnosis with loved ones, good friend Rosie Waterland proposed the tumour eventually be named ‘Jam’s Jerky’ and kept on display in a jar. While this sensitive proposal was politely declined, there was a reason Jamila had turned to Rosie for support. Rosie knows what it’s like to live with a broken brain. After a childhood of abuse and neglect, she had been dealing with significant trauma symptoms for years.
Jamila and Rosie soon discovered their broken brains had more in common than they could ever have imagined. In this brave and honest book, they share their parallel experiences of being sick, alongside the advice of those who’ve been there before.
Read our staff review here.
Romance fiction
Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry
When Margaret Ives, the famously reclusive heiress, invites eternal optimist Alice Scott to the balmy Little Crescent Island, Alice knows this is it- her big break. And even more rare – a chance to impress her family with a Serious Publication.
The catch? Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud, Hayden Anderson, is sure of the same thing. The proposal? A one-month trial period to unearth the truth behind one of the most scandalous families of the 20th Century, after which she'll choose who'll tell her story. The problem? Margaret is only giving each of them tantalising pieces. Pieces they can't put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they're in the same room.
And it's becoming abundantly clear that their story – just like the tale Margaret's spinning – could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad … depending on who's telling it.
Sci-fi, fantasy & speculative fiction
Letters to Our Robot Son
Cadance Bell
An unexpected story of life, family, hope, and redemption – at the end of the world (maybe).
Arto wakes up in a desolate world devoid of humanity – he's a robot, he knows that much – but he has no memory of how he got here. With a mysterious letter and a cheeky kitten as his only companion, he embarks on a quest to understand his existence.
As Arto navigates this unfamiliar landscape, he stumbles upon a cantankerous robot who claims to be his sister.
And that's a problem, because she might be the reason there are no more people.
Read our staff review here.
Debut fiction
I Want Everything
Dominic Amerena
The legendary career of reclusive cult author Brenda Shales remains one of Australia’s last unsolved literary mysteries. Her books took the literary world by storm before she disappeared from the public eye, after a mysterious plagiarism case. But when an ambitious young writer stumbles across Brenda at a Melbourne pool, he realises the scoop of a lifetime is floating in front of him: the truth behind why she vanished without a trace. The only problem? He must pretend to be someone he’s not to trick the story out of her.
One innocent lie leads to a slew that are definitively not, as Brenda reveals the strange and troubling truth of where her books came from. Yet the more the young author unravels about Brenda’s past, the more he begins to question whether Brenda is a reliable narrator. Is Brenda spilling secrets or spinning tales? Is she, like him, little more than a talented thief? Just who is deceiving whom? To write the book which will make his name, he must balance his ethics and ambition and decide what he’s willing to sacrifice to become the next great Australian writer.
Read our staff review here.
LGBTQIA+
Before We Hit the Ground
Selali Fiamanya
Elom can’t make sense of love. It’s like a language he can’t speak, though he’s heard the words before.
He wants to feel understood – by his well-meaning yet misapprehending family, his self-assured partner Ben, and his boisterous friends – but he never knows the right thing to say.
How can you know yourself, in a world that’s constantly changing?
Set across Ghana and Scotland, this is an intimate portrait of one man’s search for belonging, a family’s attempt to love, and the choices that make a life.
Young Adult fiction
This Dream Will Devour Us
Emma Clancey
Eighteen-year-old Nora Blake is the opposite of lucky. She’s still wrangling her dead dad’s debts when a mysterious illness lands her brother in hospital. But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she wins a lottery to attend the exclusive magical Dream Gala with the charming – and very off limits – heir to the Lamour fortune, Remy Lamour. If Nora can win him over, she’ll get a coveted spot on the Lamours’ magical training program – and the money she needs to save her brother. There’s just one problem: Nora never bought a lottery ticket.
Determined to discover who wants her at the Gala – and why – Nora plunges headfirst into magical high society. Caught up in an intoxicating world of beautiful billionaires and charismatic celebrities, Nora is soon in over her head. When her search for answers uncovers a sinister conspiracy, will Nora stay silent or risk the wrath of a family powerful enough to get away with murder?
Read our staff review here.
