Australian books

I waited tables for 13 years. Each unhappy customer is different and I learned from all of them

The waitress-customer dynamic is delicate. Naima Brown learned to parse entitlement without emotion – and seek revenge later, in fiction

Naima Brown

26, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

I stripped myself of clothes and shame. Then – on stage – I started to dance | Kris Kneen

After 55 years of self-hatred, Kris Kneen took up burlesque. If their body makes people uncomfortable, that’s exactly the point

Kris Kneen

22, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

Debut author Debra Dank breaks records at NSW premier’s literary awards

The Gudanji/Wakaja writer won four prizes and took home $85,000 for We Come with This Place – a book she never intended to publish

Steve Dow

22, May, 2023 @9:45 AM

The moment I knew: I dreamed up a character to cure my writer’s block. He saved my marriage too

When Nina Wan found herself drifting apart from her husband, art came to imitate life – reminding her of what was real

Nina Wan

20, May, 2023 @8:00 PM

Anam by André Dao review – decades-spanning family epic examines the difficulties of memory

Novel, at first glance, is the tale of the author’s grandfather. But it doubles as a meditation on remembering the past – its challenges and its anguish

Joseph Cummins

18, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

Mem Fox book Guess What? banned in Florida county under Ron DeSantis bill

Agent for bestselling Australian children’s author says she has ‘nothing to say’ about the ban and Duval county ‘is not important’

Kelly Burke

15, May, 2023 @2:39 AM

Search History by Amy Taylor review – sharp and pacy cautionary tale for the extremely online

We’ve all wanted to know a little more about a partner’s ex. But as the protagonist of this compulsive debut discovers, you click at your own risk

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

11, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

‘I remember the exact words’: Markus Zusak on The Messenger – and the review he’ll never forget

In the lead-up to an ABC adaptation of his novel, Zusak talks about life after The Book Thief and why he thinks the show is better than his book

Sian Cain

11, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

‘Candid’, ‘gripping’, ‘compulsory reading’: the best Australian books out in May

Each month, Guardian Australia editors and critics pick out the upcoming titles they’ve already devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on

Steph Harmon, Sian Cain, Bec Kavanagh, Susan Chenery, Lucy Clark, Joseph Cummins and Celina Ribeiro

09, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

I walked the 650km Australian Alps walking track at 19, alone. Nothing was as I expected | Ya Reeves

Ya Reeves lost toenails, survived anaphylactic shock and at one point was ‘found’ by police, but there was also true joy in the journey – and in leaning into the unknown

Ya Reeves

08, May, 2023 @3:00 PM

‘It took almost three years and a police charge before I recognised I was being stalked’

Stalking can be an all-encompassing trauma, but our lack of understanding about it undermines victim-survivors

Nicole Madigan

06, May, 2023 @8:00 PM

‘You’re not the nice guy I thought you were’: the Australian crime novelist and the French bank thief

Marele Day has spent a lifetime writing crime fiction, but it took decades to tell the epic story of a real-life criminal she had come to call a friend

Susan Chenery