Sample Fiction from Publishers That We're Excited About

Force of Nature

Once you start reading this you won't be able to stop...The new book from the author of The Dry, Jane Harper. Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side. "Harper's mast...

See What I Have Done

Sarah Schmidt Fiction

A unique look inside the mind of Lizzie Borden, famously accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. Based on a true story, this atmospheric novel is edge-of-your seat gripping and Sarah Schmidt’s writing is stunning.

Two Kinds Of Truth

Michael Connelly Crime Fiction

Harry Bosch searches for the truth as an old case from his LAPD days comes back to haunt him in this gripping thriller from mega-bestseller Michael Connelly. The 20th Bosch novel.

The Choke

Sofie Laguna Fiction

A mesmerising, harrowing and ultimately uplifting novel from the 2015 Miles Franklin winner. 'I never had words to ask anybody the questions, so I never had the answers.' Abandoned by her mother and only occasionally visited by her secretive fat...

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

Matthew Reilly Thrillers

This is the beginning of Matthew Reilly's thrilling new book in the Jack West Jr series. JACK WEST THOUGHT HE HAD SEEN IT ALL ... BUT NOTHING CAN PREPARE HIM FOR THIS. With the fate of the Earth at stake, he will have to traverse diabolical maze...

The Dark Lake

Sarah Bailey Thrillers

'But sometimes, late at night, I let myself think about what happened. Really think. I remember the throbbing heat. I remember the madness in my head and the fear that pulsed in my chest. And I remember Rosalind, of course. Always Rosalind.' A hot...

The Twentieth Man

Tony Jones Thrillers

Terrorism, politics and betrayals collide in this unputdownable, fast-paced thriller. Tony Jones, one of Australia's most admired journalists, has written a brilliantly compelling thriller, taking us from the savage mountains of Yugoslavia to Can...

The Birdman's Wife

Melissa Ashley Fiction

A woman overshadowed by history steps back into the light . . . In 'The Birdman’s Wife', the naïve young girl who falls in love with a demanding and ambitious genius comes into her own as a woman, an artist and a bold adventurer who defies convent...

The Last Hours

Minette Walters Fiction

For most, the Black Death is the end. For a brave few, it heralds a new beginning. Compelling and suspenseful, The Last Hours is a riveting tale of human ingenuity and endurance against the worst pandemic known to history.

TIES

Domenico Starnone Fiction

Discover the beginning of Italian writer Domenico Starnone's powerful book, that won The Bridge Prize for Best Novel. You'll start with the introductory essay from the translator and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri. We love her description of ...

The Secret She Keeps

Michael Robotham Thrillers

Everyone has an idea of what their perfect life is. For Agatha, it's Meghan Shaughnessy's. These two women from vastly different backgrounds have one thing in common - a dangerous secret that could destroy everything they hold dear. Published by H...

Daughter Of Mine

Fiona Lowe Fiction

When your world falls apart the only person you can depend on is your sister. The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family? This is a...

The Life To Come

Michelle de Kretser Literary Fiction

The dazzling new novel from Michelle de Kretser, recently shortlisted for The Stella Prize. 'I so much admire Michelle de Kretser's formidable technique ... she can create a sweeping narrative which encompasses years, and yet still retain the shar...

Wimmera

Mark Brandi Crime Fiction

Winner of the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger award. 'Very little fiction is as emotionally true as this. Wimmera is a dark and disturbing story from a substantial new talent.' - Saturday Paper. Published by Hachette Australia.

The Best Of Adam Sharp

Graeme Simsion Fiction

A novel about love, music and coming to terms with the past, from the author of the international bestseller The Rosie Project. Published by Text Publishing.

October is the Coldest Month

Christoffer Carlsson Crime Fiction

Love Nordic noir? Sample this edgy and compelling thriller that won the Swedish Crime Writer Academy’s 2016 Best Crime Novel of the Year for Young Readers. Published in Australia by Scribe.

TOTAL CHAOS

Jean-Claude Izzo & translator Howard Curtis Crime Fiction

This is extraordinary writing - not like anything else you've read - and it takes you right into the heart of the mean streets of Marseille. It's an explosive yet breathtakingly beautiful story from book one of the Marseilles Trilogy. Published in...

The Mummy Bloggers

Holly Wainwright Fiction

Sometimes life behind the screen is not as rosy as it seems... The Mummy Bloggers is the feisty, fast-paced and funny debut novel from Mamamia's Head of Entertainment Holly Wainwright. 'The freshest, funniest new voice in fiction since Liane Moria...

The Revolution of the Moon

Andrea Camilleri Literary Fiction

From one of Italy's greatest living writers comes remarkable account of an exceptional woman who rises to power in 17th century Sicily and brings about sweeping changes that threaten the iron-fisted patriarchy, before being cast out in a coup afte...

Closing Down

Sally Abbott Fiction

The inaugural winner of The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, published by Hachette Australia. 'a disturbingly good read' - Marie Claire

Two Steps Forward

Graeme Simsion & Anne Buist Fiction

Zoe and Martin have ended up in picturesque Cluny, in central France. Struggling to come to terms with their recent past and looking to make a new start, they both set out alone to walk two thousand kilometres from Cluny to Santiago, in the footst...

The Gulf - Chapter 1

Anna Spargo-Ryan Literary Fiction

Skye’s sixteen, and her mum’s got yet another new boyfriend. Trouble is, Jason’s bad news. Really bad. Now Mum’s quit her job and they’re all moving north to Port Flinders, population nobody.

The Paper House: First Chapter

Anna Spargo-Ryan Literary Fiction

Heartbreaking, fearless, and ablaze with a coruscating beauty all its own, The Paper House tells the story of a woman sinking into the depths of grief, and the desperate efforts of her loved ones to bring her up for air. A sharp-eyed, bittersweet ...

Terra Nullius

Claire G. Coleman Fiction

Shortlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize. 'There was no space in his life for something as abstract – as useless – as joy. Only a sense of urgency remained. Jacky was running.' In the near future Australia is about to experience colonisation once mor...

Prefer Non-Fiction? Here’s a Smorgasbord to Sample

A Handbook For My Lover

Rosalyn D'Mello

Guised as an instructive manual, 'A Handbook For My Lover' chronicles six years in the life of an unconventional affair between a young writer and her lover, a photographer 30 years her senior. This beautifully written book documents the young wom...

The Green Bell

Paula Keogh Autobiographies

Longlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize. It’s 1972 in Canberra. Michael Dransfield is being treated for a drug addiction; Paula Keogh is delusional and grief-stricken. They meet in a psychiatric unit of the Canberra Hospital and instantly fall in lov...

Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness

Brigid Delaney Autobiographies

We love this book and Brigid's fearless and funny adventuring through the mega wellness industry. She hunts out what works and what's just expensive hype...fasting, hot yoga, colonics, silent meditation retreats, health farms - what is the secret ...

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Margareta Magnusson Self-Help

A charming approach to putting your life in order so your loved ones won’t have to. There’s a word for it in Swedish: Döstädning, literally, ‘death cleaning’. ‘Magnusson has something worthwhile and amusing to say to adults of all ages … This is ...

Life of Brine: A Surfer's Journey

Phil Jarratt Autobiographies

'This, then, is no apologia for the wasted, waxy years. It’s just one surfer’s story, one life of brine.' This is a taste from the start of surfing legend Phil Jarratt’s memoir. We’ve loved reading his stories collected over a lifetime of surfing ...

Your Brain Knows More Than You Think

Tablo Chapters Health, Mind & Body

‘A fascinating read and a groundbreaking work on the human condition. Birbaumer shares his insatiable curiosity and gives us a tour of the human brain, the many cases he’s worked on, and the therapies he’s pioneered — some of which are truly radic...

No Way! Okay, Fine.

Brodie Lancaster Autobiographies

A memoir about pop culture, pop music, feminism and feelings. ‘Brodie is whip smart; merging pop-culture references with vulnerable, personal experiences to create a collection that reads like a hilarious catch-up call with an old friend.’ - Broad...

Walking Towards Ourselves: Indian Women Tell Their Stories

Catriona Mitchell (Ed) Autobiographies

'Walking Towards Ourselves' is a collection of candid and intimate essays, from some of Indian's most talented female writers, exploring what it means to be a woman in India today. This is the foreword and introduction to give you a taste of the b...

Good Muslim Boy

Osamah Sami Autobiographies

'Good Muslim Boy' published by Hardie Grant Books, tells the story of Osamah Sami’s journey from Iran during the Iraq war to the suburbs of Australia and his quest to fit into his new life whilst trying to stay a good Muslim boy. In turns comic an...

How To Dress A Dummy

Cassie Lane Autobiographies

How to Dress a Dummy casts an unwavering eye at the myriad ways in which women are taught that they’re not enough. Smart, frank and very, very funny... ‘Cassie Lane is a bold new voice. This darkly comic take on life in the fashion industry will l...

The Long Goodbye

P.J. PARKER Autobiographies

"On 13th October my father killed my mother". And so begins this extraordinarily moving and powerful memoir of an Australian family. Spanning three generations of a rural Queensland farming family, 'The Long Goodbye' is an unforgettable story of l...

The President's Desk: An Alt-History of the United States

Shaun Micallef Biographies

In this highly entertaining romp through American history, Shaun Micallef takes us inside the Oval Office to observe each President at work at the desk. Capturing their widely varying personalities and traits we see the evolution of the most power...

The Best New YA and Teen from Publishers

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Tablo Chapters Young Adult

Already a sensation around the world, this is the tale of a cursed girl who escapes death and finds herself in a magical world - but is then tested beyond her wildest imagination. 'Readers will feel as though Harry Potter is meeting Alice in Wonde...

The Undercurrent

Paula Weston Young Adult

Eighteen-year-old Julianne De Marchi is different. As in: she has an electrical undercurrent beneath her skin that stings and surges like a live wire. She can use it—to spark a fire, maybe even end a life—but she doesn’t understand what it is. And...

Beautiful Mess

Claire Christian Young Adult

'Beautiful Mess' is funny and sad and a bit screwed up and romantic and absolutely real. In other words, a lot like life. The winner of the 2016 Text Prize.

Take Three Girls

Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, Fiona Wood Young Adult

ADY - not the confident A-Lister she appears to be. KATE - brainy boarder taking risks to pursue the music she loves. CLEM - disenchanted swim-star losing her heart to the wrong boy. All are targeted by PSST, a toxic website that deals in gossip ...

The Impossible Story Of Olive In Love

Tonya Alexandra Young Adult

'Seventeen and never been kissed. For me it’s not just a cliché—it’s a terminal condition.' Plagued by a gypsy curse that she’ll be invisible to all but her true love, seventeen-year-old Olive is understandably bitter. Her mother is dead; her fath...

October is the Coldest Month

Christoffer Carlsson Crime Fiction

Love Nordic noir? Sample this edgy and compelling thriller that won the Swedish Crime Writer Academy’s 2016 Best Crime Novel of the Year for Young Readers. Published in Australia by Scribe.

Have Sword, Will Travel

Garth Nix & Sean Williams Children's Fiction

From New York Times bestselling authors Garth Nix and Sean Williams, comes this hilarious, action-packed adventure featuring a very unlikely knight, an admirably stubborn girl, and a sword with attitude. Published by Allen & Unwin.

From Allen & Unwin

The Life To Come

Michelle de Kretser Literary Fiction

The Dark Lake

Sarah Bailey Thrillers

The Twentieth Man

Tony Jones Thrillers

The Last Hours

Minette Walters Fiction

The Choke

Sofie Laguna Fiction

Two Kinds Of Truth

Michael Connelly Crime Fiction

Harry Bosch searches for the truth as an old case from his LAPD days comes back to haunt him in this gripping thriller from mega-bestseller Michael Connelly. The 20th Bosch novel.

The Mummy Bloggers

Holly Wainwright Fiction

Short Stories Published by Spineless Wonders

my abbr.d life

Michael Giacometti Fiction

‘Bringing together 20 very different stories, My Life and Other Fictions is a bold debut from Michael Giacometti and a unique exercise in experimentation with form and voice.’ ELIZABETH FLUX, Books+ Publishing An Aboriginal girl craves her abuse...

my abbr.d life- the story of the story

Michael Giacometti Literary Fiction

This essay tells the fraught history of the microfiction, my abbr.d life. The following essay was originally published by Spineless Wonders in Cracking The Spine: ten short Australian stories and how they were written.

brb be right back

Maree Dawes Adult

Partner away and home alone but for the sleeping children, our protagonist joins online chat. As a newbie, she battles with the language and protocols of cyberspace and wonders if anyone will ever speak to her online. Then online life becomes mor...

The Memory Bones

Amanda O'Callaghan Literary Fiction

This short story was a finalist in the Carmel Bird Short Story Award, selected by Amanda Lohrey (2012). An elderly lady, afflicted with dementia, reveals the answer to a decades-long murder mystery.

ADNARCHY

Mark Vender Literary Fiction

At home Kevin is a reluctant carer for his brother; on the street he's a suburban soldier, armed with an Artline

The Lake Story

Ron Elliott Short Stories

A moving story told with gritty realism and vivid imagery, reconstructed through storytelling, emails and unreliable memory.

Panthers and the Museum of Fire

Jen Craig Fiction

Panthers and the Museum of Fire is a novella about walking, memory and writing. The narrator walks from Glebe to a central Sydney café to return a manuscript by a recently-dead writer. While she walks, the reader enters the narrator’s entire world...

How to Read an Australian Short Story

Ryan O'Neill Short Stories

Read about my short story comprised of lines from 150 short Australian stories plus stories and essays from nine other Australian writers. Intro by Amanda Lohrey. ‘Cracking the spine is not just a deftly curated overview of the contemporary Austra...

Permission To Lie

Julie Chevalier Short Stories

A collection of short stories set in places as diverse as a nudist colony, the corporate world and prison. Beneath her wry humour and snappy style, Chevalier brings insight and compassion to her depiction of contemporary Australian life and to gro...

The Waterfowl Are Drunk!

Kate Liston-Mills Short Stories

Kate Liston-Mills' The Waterfowl Are Drunk! is a series of short stories set in the author's hometown, Pambula, on New South Wales' far south coast. A fox stalks a nest of hatching swans, loving parents deal with their child's Down syndrome diag...

We're all travellers here

Marjorie Lewis-Jones Fiction

‘We’re All Travellers Here’ won the Carmel Bird Award. Award judge Michael McGirr said my prize-winning tale: is ‘the story of an older mother and her adult son on tour. The son is buried alive in his own sophistication and self-concern. The moth...

I Put A Spell On You

Sam George-Allen Politics

In I Put A Spell on You, Sam George-Allen explores how certain practices of women today mirror the work of their spell-casting ancestors. This collection sheds light on who witches actually were, before patriarchal societies painted these women as...

The Dead Aviatrix

Carmel Bird Contemporary Women

This is the title story from my new collection, The Dead Aviatrix: Eight short stories. It was inspired by something that happened to me as the writer of a novel some years ago. It was an awful and troubling thing, and I wondered for a long time a...

My Hearts Are Your Hearts

Carmel Bird Short Stories

What are the hares getting up to among the sunflowers? Who is paying $6000 for a raincoat? The priest is good, kind, adored, believed – but can the schoolgirl trust him? Who kills his wife and dumps the body in the pool? What if you find your deat...

The Dead Aviatrix: the story behind the stories

Carmel Bird Short Stories

The Dead Aviatrix is an ebook published by Spineless Wonders in November 2017. It is the first book of short stories in the Spineless Wonders new Capsule Collection series. The eight stories in The Dead Aviatrix are not obviously connected with e...

Bulldozer

Ariella Van Luyn Fiction

Step into the dysfunctional life of Eunice…   Oblivious to her unhappy marriage, still living in her mother’s house and unable to stop biting her nails, Eunice feels as if she has no control over her own life. When her new husband needs to make a...

DANNY BOY

Marian Matta Fiction

Danny is a young man struggling to find his place in the world and to express his own inner truth.

Dear Writer ... Revisited

Carmel Bird Fiction

People who are beginning to write fiction, particularly people living in remote places, often send their manuscripts to an assessor, and the letters in the original edition of Dear Writer were inspired by correspondence I had with writers when I w...

From Paradise to Wonderland

Carmel Bird Short Stories

The story appears in my collection 'My Hearts Are Your Hearts' (Spineless Wonders Publishing). It is accompanied in the collection by the essay which I have added here.

Hard Knots

Libbie Chellew Fiction

Short story. Jules is pregnant and constipated. And freezing. Her husband is indifferent to her constipation, Google doesn’t seem to be able to help her, and something about her childhood is making her uneasy. It must be performance anxiety – but...

The Last Wilkie's and Other Stories

Jon Steiner Fiction

Short fiction by Jon Steiner. Sample story: Jungle Train. Roisin finds that traveling across Malaysia with her partner's parents is not what she expected.

Lives of the Dead

Jane Skelton Short Stories

Although Lives of the Dead and other stories is a collection filled with memorable characters whose struggles are credible and utterly recognisable, it is the vivid and evocative imagery throughout, and the deceptively quiet and introspective moo...

Loopholes

Susan McCreery Short Stories

Read it from cover to cover, or take a dip – these 67 microfictions are all under 250 words. Humans at their most hilarious, vulnerable and offbeat.

Literary Fiction Published by Europa Editions

TIES

Domenico Starnone Fiction

TOTAL CHAOS

Jean-Claude Izzo & translator Howard Curtis Crime Fiction

MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA

Julie Lekstrom Himes Literary Fiction

“This richly imagined retelling of [Bulgakov's] lean years—which gave rise to his phantasmagoric novel The Master and Margarita—mixes fact and fiction to create a narrative that is both foreign and familiar.” - The New Yorker. Published by Europa ...

The Revolution of the Moon

Andrea Camilleri Literary Fiction

A Range of Affirm Press Titles

The Birdman's Wife

Melissa Ashley Fiction

The Hunting Dogs

Jorn Lier Horst Crime Fiction

William Wisting has spent his life hunting criminals, but now he's the one being hunted... Seventeen years ago, Wisting led the investigation into one of Norway’s most widely publicised criminal cases, when the young Cecilia Linde was killed. Now...

The Green Bell

Paula Keogh Autobiographies

The Sari of Surya Vilas

Vayu Naidu Fiction

The Sari of Surya Vilas is a poignant story of a woman finding her voice against a backdrop of family secrets, betrayals and promises, symbolic of India’s struggle for Independence. It’s a narrative every bit as vivid, complex and breathtaking as ...

How To Dress A Dummy

Cassie Lane Autobiographies

Non-Fiction Published by Hardie Grant

Good Muslim Boy

Osamah Sami Autobiographies

The Long Goodbye

P.J. PARKER Autobiographies

A Handbook For My Lover

Rosalyn D'Mello

A Girl From Oz

Lyndall Hobbs Autobiographies

From Andy Warhol to Al Pacino, Cher and Calvin Klein to Prince Charles and Dudley Moore, writer / film director Lyndall Hobbs has a story for each and every one ... and then some. In her memoir, A Girl From Oz, Lyndall bares all and lets us into...

Life of Brine: A Surfer's Journey

Phil Jarratt Autobiographies

Walking Towards Ourselves: Indian Women Tell Their Stories

Catriona Mitchell (Ed) Autobiographies

The President's Desk: An Alt-History of the United States

Shaun Micallef Biographies

Lovelands

Dr Debra Campbell Self-Help

Nothing is more important to us than love, yet nothing is more painful than love gone wrong. 'Lovelands' is psychologist Dr Debra Campbell’s map for traversing the sometimes treacherous terrain of love and cultivating the wisdom and self-awareness...

Can't Get Enough of Liane Moriarty Published in Australia by Pan Macmillan

The Last Anniversary

Liane Moriarty Fiction

"I'll tell you something, something important. Love is a decision. Not a feeling. That's what you young people don't realise. That's why you're always off divorcing each other. No offence, dear." Funny, warm and human this irresistible novel is on...

Truly Madly Guilty

Liane Moriarty Fiction

What's meant to be a relaxed backyard barbeque splits apart a group of friends who can't change what they did and didn't do that sunny afternoon. "One of the few writers I'll drop anything for. Her books are wise, honest, beautifully observed" Jo...

Big Little Lies

Liane Moriarty Fiction

If you haven't read Liane Moriarty yet stop whatever else you're doing and get reading - to start you off, here's a sample of the irresistible Big Little Lies. Yes the HBO series was indeed great, but as you'll see, you can't beat the original...P...

Three Wishes

Liane Moriarty Fiction

Three sisters, one birthday, one little problem. "fresh, very, very funny ... also intelligent and unsentimental about family dynamics" - Marian Keyes Published by Pan Macmillan Australia.

The Hypnotist's Love Story

Liane Moriarty Fiction

Life is complicated, relationships aren't black and white. People are never simply good or bad... Sample this addictive novel from the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies. "A sharp and funny romantic...

The Husband's Secret

Liane Moriarty Fiction

How well do you know your husband? Cecilia Fitzpatrick, devoted mother, successful Tupperware business owner and efficient P&C President, has found a letter from her husband. "For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick, to be opened only in the event of my ...

What Alice Forgot

Liane Moriarty Fiction

When Alice Love surfaces from a beautiful dream to find she's been injured in a gym, she knows that something is very wrong - she hates exercise. Alice's first concern is her baby, she's pregnant with her first child, and she's desperate to see he...

City of Crows

Chris Womersley Fiction

A woman's heart contains all things ... France, 1673. Desperate to save herself and her only surviving child from an outbreak of plague, the widow Charlotte Picot flees her village to seek sanctuary in Lyon. But, waylaid on the road by slavers, y...

The Paper House: First Chapter

Anna Spargo-Ryan Literary Fiction

The Gulf - Chapter 1

Anna Spargo-Ryan Literary Fiction

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

Matthew Reilly Thrillers

Take Three Girls

Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, Fiona Wood Young Adult

Reading Recommendations from Hachette

The Secret She Keeps

Michael Robotham Thrillers

Closing Down

Sally Abbott Fiction

The inaugural winner of The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, published by Hachette Australia. 'a disturbingly good read' - Marie Claire

Terra Nullius

Claire G. Coleman Fiction

No Way! Okay, Fine.

Brodie Lancaster Autobiographies

The Paris Wedding

Charlotte Nash Romantic Fiction

When is it right to follow your heart? Ten years ago, Rachael West chose not to move to Sydney with high-school sweetheart Matthew. Instead she stayed on the family wheat farm, caring for her seriously ill mother and letting go of her dreams. Now,...

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Bookclub

Sophie Green Fiction

The story of five different women united by one need: to overcome the vast distances of Australia's Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love. 'The story of these resilient women is tender and intimate. Sophie Green has created a wo...

Sample Fiction from Publishers That We're Excited About

Prefer Non-Fiction? Here’s a Smorgasbord to Sample

The Best New YA and Teen from Publishers

From Allen & Unwin

Short Stories Published by Spineless Wonders

Literary Fiction Published by Europa Editions

A Range of Affirm Press Titles

Non-Fiction Published by Hardie Grant

Can't Get Enough of Liane Moriarty Published in Australia by Pan Macmillan

More From Pan Macmillan

Reading Recommendations from Hachette