Cirrus@Austlit

'Heartbreak and tragedy mark Khin Myint’s searing memoir. Underpinning grief and a sense of dislocation is a lifetime of marginalisation as a mixed-race Australian.' 

'Their mother was sick. Their mother was dying.

'Laila wanted her to come home.

'She wasn't sure which of the two truths was more frightening.

'Ayat hasn't seen or spoken to her sister, Laila, and mother, Khadija, for six years. She has been estranged from her family since she baulked against the arranged marriage of her sister and settled into a relationship deemed haram by Indian Muslim tradition.

'Living in Melbourne, with Harry, Ayat's a different person now, living a different life. She is not the woman her mother and sister once knew - so how can she go home? But how can she not?

'Once a Stranger weaves through the past and present to show the bonds and disconnects between sisters, and between a mother and daughter, as the three women grapple with the idea of where they feel most at home.' (Publication summary) 

'In a road trip prompted by an Australian man’s imagination of America, Emily Bitto explores the literary trope of the masculine hero’s quest – through her novel Wild Abandon.'

Source: Book It In.

'Australiana is a novel set in a nameless town in rural Australia, where Yumna Kassab explores interconnected experiences of inequality. In doing so, she also makes us pause and reflect on how Australia is represented through literature.'

Source: Book It In.

'Hannah Kent’s novel, Devotion, is a queer love story that is set in a pious, nineteenth century religious community. In resisting the narrative of shame that has dominated the retelling of this time in history, Kent is challenging the way authors represent the past.'

Source: Book It In.

'Drawing on a printmaking technique he learned from punk-rock climate activists in Borneo, Malaysian Australian author and poet Omar Musa wrestles with race, family and isolation in Killernova, his new book of poetry and art. He talks to Zoya Patel and also performs poems from his new book.'

Source: Book It In.

'Set in both modern-day western Sydney and the Sri Lankan civil war, Shankari Chandran’s latest novel is sprawling but unbalanced'

'In conversation with Zoya Patel, Alice Pung talks about the writing life and having a separate job – while also navigating the publishing industry as a woman and person of colour.'

'Rawah Arja was determined to write a YA novel for – and about – teenage boys in Western Sydney. She tells Zoya Patel about how she created a story about religion, rivalries, romance, racism and redemption in The F Team'

'In a road trip prompted by an Australian man’s imagination of America, Emily Bitto explores the literary trope of the masculine hero’s quest – through her novel Wild Abandon'

'Reid’s debut is a multilayered page-turner on power, unrequited love and campus rape culture, wrapped in a coming-of-age narrative' 

'Author’s third novel is an uneasy, haunting tale of fear and isolation, told through the eyes of a child and let down only by its uneven pace.'

'The Melbourne writer’s debut novel challenges the conventions of the crime genre, weaving feminism, philosophy and mortality throughout.'

'In this riveting take on the Australian dream, Gordon Grimes and his ageing surf crew cling to the past, as gentrification – and personal crises – encroach.'