AustLit

'Disher’s story of a burnt-out cop investigating his mother’s disappearance asks complex questions of its male characters.' (Introduction) 

'After 16 years, Morris Gleitzman brings his best-selling series to a close, saying an emotional goodbye to his hero, Felix. The books have now stretched well beyond their beginnings, where Gleitzman introduced young readers to the horrors of the Holocaust through the eyes of his young protagonists, Felix, a Jewish boy, and Zelda, the Polish girl with Nazi parents whose life he saved. Since then, we’ve seen Felix as an old man in Now, and on the cusp of his adolescence again in After, Maybe and Soon.' (Introduction)

'A complex tide of emotions and ideas flows through Wilson’s generous and trusting contribution to individual and collective trans narratives'

'It’s often said that one of the defining features of young adult fiction is hope. Despite its dark subject matter, Leanne Hall’s latest novel, The Gaps, glimmers with hope and fury.' (Introduction)

'In some ways, Barry Jonsberg has always been ahead of his time. While his early work navigated class and friendship in the rough-and-tumble world of the schoolyard, his Pandora Jones trilogy, published in 2014-2015, was one of the first Australian attempts to replicate the massively popular Hunger Games books and stories like it. My Life as an Alphabet, turned into the film H is for Happiness, was about awkward protagonist Candice Phee, who is perhaps on the autism spectrum, although this is never confirmed in the book. Jonsberg was more overt in his efforts to introduce a transgender character in A Song Only I Can Hear, a middle-grade novel praised in Books+Publishing for its “powerful treatment” of gender identity issues.' (Introduction)

'Dalton again tackles good and evil from the perspective of a heartbreaking, hopeful child – but the other characters get a little lost in the magic.' 

'Three generations of a gold-mining family search for meaning in a carefully rendered ninth novel from last year’s Prime Minister’s literary award-winner.'

'The Patrick White literary award-winner’s latest book is poetic, sharply tuned and compelling – and ideal for the meandering uncertainties of 2020' 

'The body becomes an island in Peggy Frew’s third novel, one submerged beneath the weight of grief and unhappiness.'  (Introduction)

'Meg Mundell’s The Trespassers is a clever, complex and ambitious novel that could be about colonisation or seeking refuge; perhaps both.'(Introduction)

'Helena Fox’s YA debut How it Feels to Float (Pan, May) is a ‘perfect, surreal exploration of mental illness and grief’, writes reviewer Bec Kavanagh. She spoke to the author.'