Australian Fiction

[EveryKneeShallBow]

Recently read Jane Harper books The Dry and The Lost Man and loved them. Also enjoyed several tv dramas set there. Does anyone have any recommendations for similar novels, please.

I don’t know Jane Harper’s work, but contemporary Australian novels I’ve read and liked recently are Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional and Fiona McFarlane’s The Sun Walks Down.

Tim winton is great! Love cloud street, the shepherds hut and just finished breath

The only Oz fiction I have read is the Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough (?). Greatly enjoyed it, was made made into a TV series. Quite old now though.

Peter Temple's The Broken Shore is a hard one to put down.

Thanks all, I’ll look these up. X

Chris Hammer also writes Australia based mysteries….

Another vote for Stone Yard Devotional. And Charlotte Wood’s previous book The Weekend is good too.

I keep meaning to investigate her previous novels. Are there any others of hers you’d recommend?

Have you tried any of Liane Moriarty's books? She is probably the most widely known Australian novelist and does very readable domestic dramas. She also has sisters Jaclyn and Nicola who are also writers.

Patricia Wolf writes Australian set crime with a similar vibe to Jane Harper.

Trent Dalton - Boy Swallows Universe (also made into netflix series).

The Mint Lawn by Gillian Mears. Not crime, but perfectly captures Australian country town atmosphere of the 80s, the soporific heat of a quiet summer afternoon, the casual misogyny and homophobia.

Richard Flanagan

For something very different, Ruth Park - I loved her novels as a teenager and still read them now, a mix of humour, magic realism and good story telling.

Come in Spinner - great snapshot of wartime Sydney. It was made into a mini series in the nineties but the book is better. Caused a bit of a stir when it was first published because it shone a light on the seedy side of 40s Sydney.

Tim Winton's Cloud Street was a R4 Classic Serial a couple of years ago. Don't know if it's still available elsewhere.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mt0m

I enjoyed a couple of James Bradley novels. One was The Deep Field, can't remember the other.

If you want classics, Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career and My Career Goes Bung are good.

I went to the Snowy Mountains just because of having read Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books as a child.

I’ve loved some of Kate Grenville’s novels - The Idea of Perfection is a great read.

Kate Morton writes historical time slips - her earlier novels are set in Britain (though she is Australian) but her latest, Homecoming, is set in Australia.

Thank you all. Lots to get my teeth into here. X

I'd forgotten -- I loved that.

Also, Helen Garner's Monkey Grip.

The Neighbours by Emma Babbington.

Ff

Chris Hammer, Scrublands, Silver and Trust. First two have been made into tv series but I enjoyed the books.

Kate Ganville is a great Australian writer, start with The Secret River.

Another classic - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey.

Gary Disher, excellent police novels. Helen Garner is a magnificent writer- her non fiction is hard to put down. Melissa Lukashenko is a brilliant contemporary Aboriginal writer.