Australian Fiction New Releases

Fled | Meg Keneally | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin | Sylvia’s Pick Based on a true story, this absorbing tale of a tough, intelligent and determined convict woman is told with direct grace and understated power. Jenny Trelawney, sentenced to seven years in Australia for highway robbery, does everything she can to better her life and that of her children, but the harsh reality of a colony struggling to survive pushes her to plan a daring sea-bound escape. This novel kept me completely transfixed from beginning to end – the historical detail, the language and the strength of the central character are all utterly compelling. Wonderful.

Life Before | Carmel Reilly | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin | John’s Pick

There’s so much strength in Aussie

thrillers at the moment and Carmel

Reilly’s compelling debut thriller, with its

traumatic family secrets and estranged

siblings, is like a literary fusion of Jane

Harper and Lianne Moriarty. This is one of

those books you read and ask yourself,

what would I do? The narrative really

steps up a notch towards the end, with

twists and turns galore. If you are looking

for a page-turner this long weekend,

look no further than

A Lovely and Terrible Thing | Chris Womersley | $29.99 | Pan Macmillan

| Lucy’s Pick

Tantalisingly weaving the mundane

and the epic, Womersley creates a

swirling and watery world surrounding

the shipwreck of the H.M.S. Elizabeth. A

culmination of 20 aqueous stories that

are both poetic and compelling, with

the remains of mice or possums that

have tumbled in and the oil that slicks the

canals of the capital floating throughout

the pages. A completely unsettling read

but in the absolute best possible way!