Honest and heartfelt, Safe Space is unapologetically angry and sincerely hopeful. Alyssa explores the challenges she has faced as an Asian-Australian and those that made her the advocate she is today. She also offers practical advice, both to those who are victims of racism and wish to add their voice to the discourse or deepen their connection to their cultural identities, and to allies who want learn more about how they can meaningfully show their support.
Audrey Mendes is a clever lawyer but has never made partner. Her weeks are filled with long hours in the office, visits to her ageing parents, trivia nights at the local and evenings at home with her pet rabbit, Joni. When Audrey tries to buy wine at the pub she is ignored and walks out without paying. One thing leads to another, and soon she starts rebelling in small and creative ways against a world in which she is unseen – until a painful reminder from her childhood pushes her into a reckoning.
January 1997: In the small town of Jericho, New South Wales, Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible above Jericho.
In Ask Jules, Jules Robinson puts it all out on the page. She shares her personal experiences, expert tips, and empowering lessons on style, family, motherhood, self-love, wellbeing, manifesting and practising gratitude. Jules’s mission is to give you the tools you need to go after the life you’ve always dreamed of, and to feel good about yourself while you’re doing it – exactly as you are, right now.
In Ask Jules, Jules Robinson puts it all out on the page. She shares her personal experiences, expert tips, and empowering lessons on style, family, motherhood, self-love, wellbeing, manifesting and practising gratitude. Jules’s mission is to give you the tools you need to go after the life you’ve always dreamed of, and to feel good about yourself while you’re doing it – exactly as you are, right now.
1911, on a winter’s night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a road that Hawkins should have been patrolling, had he not been busy bedding the local schoolteacher. Detectives arrive from Sydney and the disgraced Hawkins, a traumatised veteran of the Boer War, comes under fierce scrutiny.
Everyone dies famous in a country town, but glamorous Vanessa Walton was a shining star. A celebrity since she was a child, Vanessa is back on the front page for all the wrong reasons; after a terrible storm she has been found dead at the bottom of her stairs. At first her death seems to be a simple accident, but anonymous letters are discovered that suggest otherwise – and when 16-year-old Jasmine Langridge claims it is murder, she suddenly disappears. As the police begin to investigate, secrets are exposed and friendships unravel.
A near-future Australia. The death penalty is back. But if the victim’s family wants the perpetrator to die, they have to do it themselves. Twenty-four hours alone in a room with the condemned. No cameras. No microphones. Just whatever punishment they decide befits the crime.
When Tilda Finch is diagnosed with invisibility, she’s not overly surprised – she’s felt invisible for years. She has a good life and a successful business selling inspirational quotes on merchandise. But she’s never really recovered from her divorce. Or, if she’s honest, her childhood. Tilda’s past has taken a toll and she’s lost sight of herself. Now, with the possibility of completely disappearing, she must face the trauma of her past and rewrite the way she perceives the world, and herself.
An unexpected death finds Lizzie, Alice and Margot at various crossroads in their lives, torn between looking back and moving on. Lizzie is reeling from her discovery of a decades-old secret that changes everything she thought she knew about her friends, her family and her marriage. Alice has always been the good-time girl, as charismatic presenting the weather on television as she is working as a life model.
Jack Harris, the disgraced son of Australia’s most powerful business tycoon, has just been exiled to Byron Bay as a junior journalist at his father’s smallest regional newspaper, The Beacon. His arrival coincides with the disappearance of the newspaper’s editor, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, while out on his morning surf. When Patrick’s body is discovered in the ocean, with a severed leg, it appears certain that he’s fallen victim to a shark attack. But when rumours emerge that Patrick was about to publish an explosive article – its subject unknown – Jack begins to suspect his death is not what it seems.
After the war, Sugihara is dismissed and disappears into obscurity. Three decades later, in Australia, Rachel Margol is shocked when her engagement reveals a long-held family secret: she is Jewish. As she grapples with this deception and the dysfunction it has caused, unspoken tragedies from the past begin to come to light. When an opportunity arrives to visit Chiune Sugihara, the man who risked his life to save the Margols during World War II, Rachel becomes determined to meet him. But will a journey to Japan, and the secrets it uncovers, heal the family or fracture them for good?
Loyal country girl Libby Popovic lives a golden life with her confident financier husband Ludo and their two children, Harrison and Ava. When Ludo is jailed for financial fraud, and her friends and family lose tens of thousands of dollars as a result, Libby feels agonizingly complicit for hosting the final investor pitch in their home. Matters go from atrocious to worse when her possessions and home are repossessed, Libby is sacked and a priceless family heirloom is wrecked. While camping out at the rural goat farm where she was raised, she’s forced to re-evaluate her life choices.
Germany, 1929. When Max, a Jewish architect, and Bettina, a beautiful and celebrated German avant-garde artist, meet at a party their attraction is instant. In love with each other and the art they create, their talent transports them to the dazzling lights of Berlin. But Germany is on the brink of terrible change, and their bright beginning is soon dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism.
It’s 1997 in Melbourne, Australia, and Mark Ward is struggling to make sense of the world following the sudden death of his mother. His father, Dylan, had abandoned him and his mother when Mark was still a child, and Mark has always believed he died in a car accident shortly afterwards. For most of his life, he has carried an unjustifiable sense of guilt about his father’s absence, overlaid with memories of him as a cruel and unloving man.
In the small seaside town of Queenscliff, two boys from opposite sides of the world forge a friendship over a summer of sun, adventure and brotherhood. Until a catastrophic event shatters their idyllic childhoods. Two lives are lost. A lie is told.
Eighteen-year-old Aaron is charismatic, resourceful and addicted to heroin. His mum has kicked him out of home in a last-ditch move to help him get straight, and he wanders the streets of South Melbourne, living on his wits and sleeping rough – all the while chasing drugs, dreams and love.
Gabriel is a global tennis superstar and heart-throb. As he eyes his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, the pressure is getting to him. After an intense practice session, Gabriel finds refuge in a bar, where he meets Noah. Oblivious to sports, Noah doesn’t recognise Gabriel, but there is an instant connection. The more time they spend together in the blazing heat of a Melbourne summer, the more their feelings and attraction grow.
In 1977, twenty-seven-year-old Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea. A life of almost constant travelling followed. From the deserts of Australia, to Sydney’s underworld; from Sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in Tibet, to ‘marrying’ an Indian prince, Davidson’s quest was motivated by an unquenchable curiosity about other ways of seeing and understanding the world.
There’s nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring; and when you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi Picabea or Kate Evans who have come from Australia to Sylvie Morel’s Paris Cooking School. Both are at a crossroads, and learning to cook the French way in Paris, far away from all their troubles, seems like the perfect escape.
Hera Stephen is clawing through her mid-twenties, working as an underpaid comment moderator in an overly air-conditioned newsroom by day and kicking around Sydney with her two best friends by night. Instead of money or stability, she has so far accrued one ex-girlfriend, several hundred hangovers and a dog-eared novel collection.
Tessa is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister from a working-class background now at the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. The law is a game and she is its most talented player. One sickening night, though, Tessa finds herself in a position countless women – one in three – have been in before her. And she’s faced with a gut-wrenching, life-changing decision. Will she take the stand to testify about her rape, with the full awareness that the system has not been built to protect her?
High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.
When Yael Silver’s world comes crashing down, she looks to the past for answers and finds solace in surprising places. An unconventional new friendship, a seaside safe space and an unsettling amount of dairy help her to heal, as she wrestles with her demons and some truly terrible erotic literature.
Adella is facing the dawn of a new year and the end of her twenties – and she’s in a psychiatric unit recovering from a mental breakdown. A decade earlier, her life held such promise; she had every option in her hand. How did it come to this?
When a tragic bushfire puts two kids in hospital, Indigenous teenager Andrew knows the police will come after him first. But Andrew almost wants to be caught, because at least it might make his dad come and rescue him from suburban Brisbane and his neglectful mother.
Growing up in small-town Tasmania, Andrew struggled at home, at school, at everything. The only thing that distracted or excited him was starting little fires. Flames boosted his morale and purified his thoughts, and they were the only thing in his life he could control. Until one day things got out of hand, and Andrew was forced to leave everything behind.
On the morning of 10 December 2015, Owen Wright entered the water at Pipeline, Hawaii, determined to become a world champion. But after being pounded by a set of monstrous waves, he ended up fighting for life and facing extensive brain trauma. In this inspirational memoir, Wright chronicles the events leading up to that fateful day, as well as the months and years that followed as he battled to regain basic functioning, and eventually the capacity to compete again at the apex of surfing.
Sydney, 1930: In a well-heeled corner of Paddington, just a short distance from the razor gangs of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross, sits La Maison des Fleurs, an upscale brothel run by the indomitable Madame. The star of La Maison is Violet Kelly – beautiful, clever and determined to make something of herself in a world that has already taken so much.
Alison is an actress who no longer acts, Patrick a musician past his prime. The eccentric couple live an isolated, debauched existence in an old manor house in Scotland, a few miles outside their village. That is, until Patrick’s teenage daughter, Neve, flees Australia to spend a year abroad with her doting, if unreliable, father, and the stepmother she barely knows.
El O’Reilly is exceptionally good at making mistakes. But when Mace proposes to someone else, El’s world finally breaks. Will she go back to the safe love she’s always known, will Mace realise that she’s the one, or will El forge her own path into the unknown?
White lies – When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. Dark humour – But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. Deadly consequences… What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.
Producer Mara Bolt is the queen of reality TV. Ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, Mara will do anything for ratings. When she meets Kristy Shaw, Mara is certain she’s found the star of her newest series, The Shot. Kristy is languishing in her small hometown and a dead-end job, pining for her first love, Max Irving. The Shot offers her a Total Body Transformation – extreme plastic surgery to render her unrecognisable – as a way to recapture Max’s affections under a new identity. But there’s a catch: if she doesn’t secure his heart in thirty days, she must have her surgeries reversed, and go back to her previous life.
Layla Byrnes is exhausted. She’s juggling a demanding job as an anaesthetist, a disintegrating marriage, her young kids, and a needy lover. And most particularly she’s managing her histrionically unstable mother, who repeatedly threatens to kill herself. But this year, it’s different. When her mother rings just before Christmas, she doesn’t follow the usual script. Instead, she tells Layla that there’s something she needs to tell her about her much-loved father.
After fleeing to Melbourne in the wake of a breakup, all Ana has to show for herself is an unfulfilling job at an overly enthusiastic tech start-up and one particularly questionable dating app experience. Then she meets Evan. Charming, kind and financially responsible, Evan is a complete aberration from her usual type, and Ana feels like she has finally awoken from a long dating nightmare.
When Primrose makes an unplanned detour into a dilapidated suburban golf course called Whistles, she has no idea that the past will come rushing back at her, bringing every detail of her life into stark focus. At 36, her marriage is teetering from illness and infidelity. A visit from her commanding brother-in-law looms ominously on the horizon. And by a twist of fate, Peter, the boy she loved twenty years ago, is now living across the street.
The first drops start to fall when Quinn spies the body. With no reception and nothing but an empty road for miles, does she stop to help or keep driving to safety? Back at the iconic country pub where Quinn works, Andrea is sandbagging the place in preparation for heavy rains. Alone with her sleeping son in the back room, she reluctantly lets a biker in to wait out the storm.
Ryan and Elsie Delaney don’t accept the official line that their young daughter drowned on Santa Monica beach. Her body has never been found and their pleas for a proper investigation are rejected. So now the desperate pair are raining hellfire on the police. Taking three hostages at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, they give law enforcement an ultimatum: if Tilly isn’t located in the next 24 hours, they will destroy evidence in several major cases.
Maxine ‘Max’ Mayberry, an ad executive with writing ambitions, is holed up in a friend’s apartment after discovering her long-term boyfriend in bed with another woman. If that wasn’t bad enough, Max has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Enter Johnny: a cheeky yet charming Tinder pen pal and the perfect distraction. Together, Max and Johnny flirt and cook their way through The Laurent Family Cookbook (a recipe book from Max’s ex-boyfriend’s pretentious French family) without ever meeting in person.
Four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the internationally bestselling author of The German Girl.
Jenny is unloved, unemployable and emotionally unfiltered. Her long-suffering friends seem sick of her and whilst her social media portrays her life as a bed of roses, it is more of a dying succulent.
When investigative journalist Chrissie O’Brian lands a senior job at The Argus, she is desperate to escape the nightmares of her past.
A face-off on the waterfront between the unions and big business is just the kind of story to get her career back on track.
We Were Never Friends is a compelling and powerful novel about friendship, the pursuit of a creative life and the legacies we leave behind.
Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, and a love that may prove as dangerous as it is powerful.
Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known.
Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape.
Sometimes you have to lose everything to find yourself … A stunning novel of love, betrayal and family secrets for all fans of Fiona McIntosh and Natasha Lester.
After a shocking discovery, Grace Woods leaves her vast Australian sheep station and travels to tumultuous post-war Paris in order to find her true identity.
The unforgettable story of a mother and son fleeing a drug-cartel to cross the US-Mexico border.
Grieving for a family she has lost or lost touch with, she’s haunted by the echoes of her footsteps in her empty home; the sound of the radio in the dark; the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock.
Maggie Cotton’s life is a hot mess.
In one day, she’s dumped by her boyfriend, disinherited by her mum, and kicked out of the three-year degree she’d stretched to a decade
When Emira is apprehended at a supermarket for ‘kidnapping’ the white child she’s actually babysitting, it sets off an explosive chain of events.
McKinty’s novel is a terrifying, suspenseful pageturner about the lengths that people will go to in order to protect their children.
Glen’s debut is a brilliant novel about belonging.
Whisper Network is a timely, gripping novel about women in the workplace.
Ashley’s glorious debut novel places Elizabeth Gould, a woman overshadowed by history, firmly in the spotlight.
Bilski’s debut is a spectacular story of friendship and adventure.
Tabitha Bird’s stunning debut is a life-affirming novel about learning to forgive yourself.
James Delargy’s captivating novel, 55, is a gripping thriller with a killer hook.
Christy Lefteri’s powerful debut novel is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit.
The Sparkle Pages is a heartfelt tale about one woman’s mission to reignite the passion in her marriage and find herself.
The Parisian is historical fiction with a remarkable contemporary voice.
The Flatshare is a delightful debut novel about two people who strike up an unlikely living arrangement.
Lexie Elliott’s debut novel The French Girl is an intriguing, tangled mystery.
Susan Hurley’s debut novel Eight Lives is a sophisticated thriller inspired by a real-life drug trial.
Felicity McLean’s debut is a mysterious coming-of-age novel about the disappearance of the Van Apfel sisters in the summer of 1992.
Star-crossed is a dazzling debut novel about tinkering with destiny for love.
The Time Is Now, Monica Sparrow is a delightful story of second chances and new beginnings.
The Silent Patient is a remarkable debut novel about a woman’s brutal act, and the psychotherapist obsessed with investigating her crime.
The Secretary is an enthralling read about an unassuming assistant who gathers knowledge about her peers.
Set during World War II, The Woman from Saint Germain is a stunning historical fiction novel about two strangers who must become allies to survive.
Cass Hamer’s After the Party is a hilarious and heart-warming story about an unexpected gift left at a fifth birthday party, and a journey to find a missing mother.
Set in Brooklyn in the late noughties, The Lost Night is an exciting thriller about a party girl’s mysterious death, and her friend’s efforts to unearth the truth.
Jennifer Spence’s The Lost Girls is a stunningly haunting read about the ramifications of one’s choices.
Orchard’s debut novel, Into the Fire, beautifully examines female friendships.
A brilliant debut novel from journalist Brandy Scott.
Check out our staff review and our Q&A with author Stuart Turton as we delve deeper into The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Based on a true story, At The Wolf’s Table is a chilling debut novel about the experiences of one of Hitler’s food tasters.
Check out our favourite Fresh Talent titles from 2018!
A gripping debut that explores issues in America’s rust belt.
Lenny’s Book of Everything is Karen Foxlee’s stunning, life-affirming debut novel.
Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists is a decade-spanning tale that blurs the line between reality and illusion, and free will and destiny.
The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, is a heartwarming debut from author Joanna Nell.
Alice Nelson’s breakthrough novel is a superb story about families and their complexities.
John Purcell’s The Girl on the Page is a gripping debut injected with book industry intel.
Cuskelly’s Wedderburn is compelling true crime tale set in Central Victoria.
The newest novel from barrister turned author John Tesarsch is an enthralling tale of deception.
Pip Drysdale’s The Sunday Girl is a brilliant debut novel about a woman’s revenge.
We chat with BM Carroll about her stellar new novel, The Missing Pieces of Sophie McCarthy.
Kayte Nunn’s The Botanist’s Daughter is a stunning debut novel that traverses time and place.
From Sydney songwriter and musician, Holly Throsby, comes a compelling tale of a small community divided by secrets.
We chat with Zoje Stage about her debut novel, Baby Teeth.
Rebecca reviews the gripping debut novel from Australian author, Chris Hammer.
Archaeologist turned university lecturer, Meaghan Wilson Anastasios puts her expertise to use in her first solo novel.
The Rules of Seeing is an enjoyable, original debut about perceiving the world differently.
Injected with both melancholy and Australian humour, journalist Trent Dalton’s debut novel is a tale of brotherhood, unlikely friendships and a Christmas Day jail-break.
Aoife Clifford’s Second Sight is an enthralling read about small town mysteries.
Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, The Nowhere Child is a frenetic tale of trauma and memory.
Bri Lee’s courageous debut novel highlights the challenges associated with Australia’s legal system.
A charming debut novel that places a glamorous, Australian heroine in the epicentre of liberal, vibrant, 1920s Paris.
Can a book fanatic broaden her literary horizons in the name of love? Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus’ new offering perfectly illustrates the challenges of modern-day dating.
A riveting domestic thriller about a family’s nightmare coming to life.
The stunning debut adult novel from author and freelance education journalist, Sarah J Harris.
A gorgeous debut novel that is in turns heartbreaking and hopeful.
The triumphant debut from singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Sally Seltmann.
A magnificent historical fiction novel that highlights the value of love and friendship during wartime.
Set against a beautiful Australian backdrop, The Lost Flowers of Alice is a brilliant debut novel that tugs at the heartstrings.
A haunting, psychological thriller that brings readers into a nightmarish and paranoiac situation, questioning their own understanding of the truth.
An outstanding, clever and unputdownable debut, Gail Honeyman skillfully draws readers into the world of Eleanor Oliphant.
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden can identify her killer.
But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different person…
Do you ever really know your neighbours?
The safest suburbs often hold the deepest secrets.
From the high seas to the deep seabed, from the latticed verandahs of Buccaneer Bay to the gambling dens in Asia Place, The Pearler’s Wife is a stunning debut, inspired by a small yet pivotal moment in Australian history.
Cormac Reilly is about to reopen the case that took him twenty years to forget … The most addictive crime fiction debut of 2018.
Your sister needs you. But her child needs you more… A moving page-turner with a heart-pounding dilemma: Your sister or her baby. Who do you choose?
Karen Hamilton’s ‘The Perfect Girlfriend’ is a frightening depiction of unbridled obsession, for fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl.