John of John 
by Douglas Stuart

Following the global success of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart returns with a tender, quietly devastating story set in the windswept Outer Hebrides. At its centre is a young man navigating identity, love and family obligation within a community shaped by silence and tradition. Stuart writes with extraordinary compassion, confirming his place among the most compelling literary voices working today.

Son of Nobody 
by Yann Martel

The Booker Prize-winning author of Life of Pi delivers a formally ambitious novel unfolding across two parallel stories. One reimagines the Trojan War while the other follows the scholar studying it as his own life begins to unravel. Martel balances myth, philosophy and storytelling with the imaginative curiosity that has long defined his work.

Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief 
by  Benjamin Stevenson

Benjamin Stevenson continues his delightfully self-aware Ernest Cunningham mysteries with a bank heist that spirals into a locked-room murder puzzle. Playful, clever and packed with twists, the novel gleefully toys with the conventions of crime fiction while delivering the kind of satisfying page-turner readers devour over a weekend.

My Husband’s Wife 
by Alice Feeney

Domestic normality fractures when a woman returns home to find another woman living her life. Her husband insists the stranger is his real wife. Feeney’s gripping premise unfolds into a maze of deception, fractured memory and psychological manipulation that keeps the tension simmering until the final pages.

Gravity Let Me Go 
by Trent Dalton

Few writers capture emotional intensity quite like Australia’s Trent Dalton. In this ambitious new novel, he blends love story, mystery and flashes of magical realism into a sweeping exploration of grief, memory and the fragile architecture of marriage. Dalton’s storytelling remains expansive, compassionate and deeply human.

Like, Follow, Die
by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Set against the polished façade of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, this unsettling thriller explores the darker corridors of online culture. When a mother tries to understand how her gentle teenage son committed a violent act, the novel exposes the radicalising influence of digital echo chambers and the fragile boundaries between truth and perception.

Sisters in Yellow
by Mieko Kawakami

The acclaimed Japanese author delivers a stark portrait of class, alienation and longing in contemporary Tokyo. When a young woman attempts to escape the limits of her life, the path forward becomes increasingly bleak. Kawakami’s spare, emotionally direct writing reveals the quiet violence of economic inequality.

Whidbey 
by T. Kira Madden

Memoirist T. Kira Madden turns to fiction with a haunting literary thriller set in the Pacific Northwest. Three women become bound together by the murder of a predatory man, forcing each to confront the uneasy terrain between justice, vengeance and survival.

The Land and Its People 
by David Sedaris

David Sedaris remains one of the most reliably funny writers alive. His latest collection turns his dry observational humour toward travel, family and the quiet absurdities of modern life. Few writers make everyday encounters feel quite so sharply ridiculous, yet so very recognisably human, even when they’re painfully, gloriously and utterly absurd.

Born to Flourish
by Richard Davidson & Cortland Dahl

Blending neuroscience with contemplative practice, this book explores how emotional resilience, compassion and attention can be cultivated. Drawing on decades of research into wellbeing and meditation, the book offers a thoughtful examination of what it means to flourish in an increasingly distracted world.

Homeschooled 
by Stefan Merrill Block

Stefan Merrill Block was just nine years old when his mum decided to homeschool him, a regime that largely centred around her own desire to reclaim lost time with her son, who she believed was growing up too fast. Homeschooled offers an inside look into a corner of the educational world that is often overlooked, and the suffocating nature of family trauma.

You with the Sad Eyes
by Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate writes with disarming honesty about a life spent in the spotlight and the resilience required to navigate it. From early television fame to her 2021 MS diagnosis, the memoir balances humour, vulnerability and hard-earned perspective. It is a candid portrait of reinvention, endurance and the quiet strength required to keep moving forward.