Books+Publishing

05/06/2026

Meg Caddy joins Books+Publishing to remind the world:

A Flash in the Dust (Meg Caddy, UQP)

05/06/2026

Without a Trace (Susannah Glenn, Pantera)

Susannah Glenn’s second novel, Without a Trace, follows Charlotte Clarke, a once confident pilot and the daughter of a scenic flight company owner. While Charlotte is grieving the loss of her father and grandmother in separate flying accidents, the seaplane her boyfriend, Connor, was piloting disappears without explanation. Convinced she is being watched, she retreats to her childhood coastal hometown, but her paranoia escalates when she sees someone she believes is Connor. Charlotte sets out to overcome her acquired phobia of flying with the help of those around her, but as secrets unravel, she learns just how dangerous the truth can be. The novel opens with a strong sense of tension, immediately gripping the reader and sustaining the momentum throughout. The climax delivers on the high stakes established early, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read that is hard to put down. Glenn (Between Husbands and Wives) writes with confidence, evident in both her strong characterisation and her vivid depiction of coastal NSW, where the setting plays an integral role in shaping the novel’s atmosphere. Told through multiple perspectives – primarily Charlotte; her best friend, Lyla; and talent agent Moira – the shifting viewpoints offer insight into the dysfunctions, power imbalances, co-dependencies and miscommunications at play. Glenn is clearly destined to become one of Australia’s formidable thriller writers. Fans of authors such as Hayley Scrivenor and Petronella McGovern will thoroughly enjoy Without a Trace.

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05/06/2026

Touch Grass (Mary Colussi, Penguin)

Mary Colussi’s debut novel, Touch Grass, is the sharp and inventive winner of the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize. This work of speculative fiction takes readers into the not-too-distant future, where strawberries are a nostalgic memory, parents can sell their child’s life rights for profit, and your past can be erased for the right price. Protagonist Charlie is a deletion specialist at Fresh Start, a company that makes things disappear from the internet. She’s also one of several people experiencing a strange new phenomenon where her consciousness is spontaneously ejected from her body. Charlie has little to tie her to the physical world in the way of family, friends, purpose or desire, and occasionally being ejected into the ether to become one with a cactus isn’t a terrible use of her time. But when Big Brother gets involved, the story (or lack thereof) of Charlie’s life begins to reveal itself. Touch Grass is a clever and incisive story that holds a mirror up to our era of social media and distorted reality. Through clever storytelling and keen societal observation, Colussi explores the enormous themes of unreliable memory, ego and sense of self, social media and unregulated technologies, and future consequences of current actions. Touch Grass is an immersive and surprising novel for fans of Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, Sayaka Murata’s Vanishing World and Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police.

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05/06/2026

The Secret Garden Club (Wendy Lynn Newton, Macmillan)

Whimsical, witty and genuinely heartwarming, Wendy Lynn Newton’s The Secret Garden Club is a striking debut. When 52-year-old lapsed artist Hilary finds her husband of 30 years, newly retired engineer George, dead in his beloved garden, her life is turned upside down. In shock, she hacks his immaculate garden to pieces, left with “only her own heart and too much space”. Within days, she uncovers unexpected secrets about George, including his connection to The Secret Garden Club – a group of keen gardeners (and even kinder humans) who arrive on her doorstep determined to bring gardens back to life and lift people’s spirits. And what was going on with club member Rose? Did Hilary really know her husband after all? Newton’s dry, direct and assured tone quickly draws the reader in, making Hilary’s prickly fragility compelling as she adjusts to life as a widow. Philosophical excerpts from George’s gardening journal, his early-morning celestial visitations, and Hilary’s flashbacks to their life together add genuine emotional depth. The novel’s bold exploration of grief and midlife awakening is moving without ever becoming sentimental, thanks to pitch-perfect plotting and dialogue. The very random dynamics between Hilary and the ever-patient Helpline consultant are a standout. You may need a tissue while reading The Secret Garden Club, and you’ll likely miss these characters long after the book ends. For fans of Kate Solly, Joanna Nell and Richard Osman (whose Thursday Murder Club members would get on famously with the Secret Garden Clubbers).

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05/06/2026

The Sisters of Serendib (Ayesha Inoon, HQ Fiction)

The Sisters of Serendib, the sophomore novel from Ayesha Inoon (Untethered), opens in 1990 with a flurry of events as Tamil Muslims board boats to escape the escalating violence of the Sri Lankan civil war. Among them is a mother and her three young daughters – Janu, Samar and baby Maryam. When their mother dies at sea, the sisters are separated, eventually ending up in Australia, where they are raised in different families and cities. Only the oldest, Janu, retains memories of their journey and shared past. The novel moves quickly through their childhoods and into their individually unravelling adolescent lives. The reader is reintroduced to each woman as a young adult in 2008, as the plot is spurred on by Janu’s endeavour to reunite with her sisters. The story is tinged with magical realism; each sister is endowed with a subtle ability to influence those around her, a device that strengthens their bonds while exploring what it means to be family and the limits of forgiveness. Intimate and character-driven, The Sisters of Serendib casts a compassionate eye over the desperate measures people take to save a life, and the protective shield of familial love. Inoon writes in soft, undulating prose that is at once harrowing and gentle, pulling the reader along the tides of these characters’ lives. Written with deep compassion, this novel will be loved by readers of Amal Awad and Australian historical fiction.

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05/06/2026

Possible Springs (Samantha Ross, Penguin)

In Possible Springs, Samantha Ross blends magical realism with rural noir in Australia across the late 1980s and 1990s. The novel follows Jimny Adams, who, after an accident at age 11, discovers she can read minds through music. Already a misfit, Jimny must keep her ability hidden from her small-town community and her mother, who is desperate to see her conform. As she moves into early adulthood, a spate of terrible crimes unsettles the town, forcing Jimny to choose between fitting in and standing out. Ross’s premise – music as a catalyst for psychic ability – is strikingly original, reinforced by chapters named after songs from the era. The novel sits within a relatively small field of Australian magical realism, further distinguished by its integration of crime elements. Comparisons can be drawn to Trent Dalton’s Lola in the Mirror, while Ross’s tone carries touches of the sharp wit and nostalgia of Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette’s Puberty Blues. Shifts in point of view, including perspectives from other townspeople and a Sydney-based journalist and love interest, add texture to the narrative. While the characters feel grounded and believable, the exposition at times interrupts the flow, and occasional gratuitous coarse language may feel unnecessary to some readers, momentarily pulling them out of the story. Possible Springs is a unique and entertaining debut, with an unpredictable twist as the central crime is resolved.

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05/06/2026

The Palace of Lost Virtue (Anthea Hodgson, Penguin)

In The Palace of Lost Virtue, Anthea Hodgson follows her bestselling novel The War Nurses with a stirring work of historical fiction. Spanning 1898 to 1926, this new novel offers a vivid portrait of life on the Western Australian goldfields, against the backdrop of a true-crime murder mystery. Marigold Harrington, a Melbourne girl raised in the Christian faith and the Temperance movement, arrives in Kalgoorlie in search of her missing father. Virtually penniless, she is unprepared for the harsh realities of a gold-rush town where women rely on marriage for respectability. Through her meeting with Pansy Arlington, the madam of the Palace of Pleasure brothel, Marigold is exposed to a world shaped by violence, illness and the casual cruelty of men hardened by life on the diggings. Marigold’s association with Pansy sustains her as she experiences love, heartbreak and the cost of respectability. Hodgson illustrates the era’s hypocrisy and double standards, which made women’s lives difficult and dangerous. Marigold’s story is framed by 2 defining moments: her arrival on the goldfields in 1898 and the notorious 1926 trial of the men accused of killing Inspector Walsh and Sergeant Pitman – a case that came to symbolise the long-running conflict between gold-stealing gangs and police. Interweaving fact and fiction, Hodgson uses this crime to build momentum and provide a very satisfying twist. Fans of Pip Williams should enjoy this atmospheric novel.

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05/06/2026

Over to You (Georgie Tunny, A&U)

In her emotionally turbulent debut, Over to You, Georgie Tunny captures the highs and lows of working in television news. The novel follows 3 friends – Carter, Naya and Greta – who are rising stars in the industry. Carter has just landed her dream role as co-host of a breakfast television show, while social media expert Naya is thrust into the spotlight after reporting on a high-profile story. Meanwhile, former-athlete-turned-journalist Greta struggles with her competitive nature as she carves out a place for herself in sports reporting. As they navigate family and relationship pressures, each woman is forced to confront how far she is willing to go to succeed. Over to You is brimming with emotion and humour, highlighting the challenges women face in toxic, high-stakes workplaces. At times, however, the novel’s ambition works against it. The multiple intersecting plotlines can feel overstuffed, with heightened emotional moments not always given space to fully land. Still, there is plenty to savour, from the complexity of the central characters to the novel’s frank and inclusive exploration of identity and relationships. Over to You will appeal to readers of workplace dramas and stories of women’s friendship and ambition, as well as those interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the news industry, informed by Tunny’s own experiences as a journalist and television presenter.

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05/06/2026

Night Swimming (Sharon Kernot, Text)

Sharon Kernot’s first foray into adult fiction, Night Swimming, is both a suspenseful verse novel and a ghost story in which the narrator of the book haunts herself. Night Swimming is an exploration of the long-term effects and reverberations of trauma and centres on the hypnagogic movements of January Clare Colson, a 40-something woman still reeling from the mysterious death of her best friend, Julie, almost 30 years ago. When she encounters the man she believes to be responsible for Julie’s death, Colson hatches a plan to bring his crime to light, attempting along the way to absolve the sense of personal guilt, shame and shock she has carried ever since. Night Swimming begins strongly, with taut stanzas that retain a poet’s lightness of touch. Kernot’s choice of form feels fresh against the formulaic tendencies of the thriller genre. The novel does not shy away from the brutal realities of long-term grief and sexual abuse trauma, with Colson’s enduring sense of responsibility for her friend’s death positioning her as a compelling study in survivor’s guilt. Unfortunately, Night Swimming’s plot begins to unravel in its final third. Its chief antagonist, initially nightmarish and compelling, becomes increasingly cartoonish, which undercuts an otherwise tightly paced denouement. Overall, Kernot (Birdy) succeeds at drawing the reader into the mind of someone whose trauma tragically echoes and endures. Stylistically similar to Dorothy Porter’s erotic thriller The Monkey’s Mask, Night Swimming will also interest readers of Gillian Flynn for its tight pacing, while also remaining in an intriguing league of its own.

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05/06/2026

LIT (Anna Woods, Echo)

Auckland-based writer Anna Woods’ debut novel, LIT, is a psychological thriller set in the same city, centring on 3 emotionally and professionally entangled architects: Virginia Ishak (Gin), Clarissa Taylor (Clary) and Billy Lovelace. Our entry point is Gin, a morally ambiguous, working-class outsider determined to rise in a world shaped by privilege, as she aligns herself with her trust-fund, nepo-baby business partners, Clary and Billy. Complicating matters are the tangled dynamics among the trio: Gin is now in a relationship with Clary, who was previously involved with Billy before he mysteriously vanished one night without explanation. When he reappears after several years, he disrupts their peaceful idyll, and the building blocks of Gin’s carefully orchestrated new life come crashing down. Compounding Gin’s woes is the presence of an investigative journalist, who raises the possibility that LIT Architects is mired in disrepute for reasons Gin herself may have spearheaded. Structured as a retrospective account, LIT is told with the benefit of hindsight, creating a sustained sense of remorse and foreboding. Woods employs an unreliable, first-person narrator to draw the reader deep into Gin’s psyche, where gaps in knowledge and misinterpretations shape the unfolding narrative. Class operates as a central throughline, with Woods drawing effective parallels between the edifice of architecture and the scaffolding that upholds Gin’s identity and ambitions. Twisty and unpredictable, LIT will appeal to readers of Anna Downes, J P Pomare and Jacqueline Bublitz.

A Books+Publishing unlocked review: New-release fiction

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