Prize-winners, familiar names, debuts: Australian fiction at Frankfurt

Among the titles Australian publishers are pitching at Frankfurt this year are two that have been recognised by local awards even before publication. Roseghetto by Kirsty Jagger (UQP, 2023), ‘an unforgettable and moving coming-of-age story’ that is also an account of breaking the cycle of violence and poverty, was the inaugural winner of the Kathryn Heyman Mentorship Award for a writer from a background of social and economic disadvantage. Meanwhile, Terms of Inheritance by Michelle Upton (HarperCollins), a ‘funny, moving, brilliantly observed story’ about a multi-millionaire mother who sets her daughters a challenge she believes will push them to become better versions of themselves in order to inherit her vast fortune, was a runner-up for the 2021 Banjo Prize for commercial fiction.

Debuts and familiar names

Books by debut authors that publishers will be pitching at Frankfurt include We Only Want What’s Best by Carolyn Swindell (Affirm, 2023) ‘an original and gripping novel about class, dance and the over-sexualisation of young girls, all set in the pressure-cooker environment of a long-haul flight to LA’, from the debut writer and comedian; The Last Days of Joy (Anne Tiernan, Hachette, 2023) ‘a heartbreakingly gorgeous debut that will make you laugh and cry’ for fans of Liane Moriarty, Marian Keyes, and Meg Mason; and Tiny Uncertain Miracles by Michelle Johnston (HarperCollins), in which ‘awkward, hapless Marick’, still struggling with the loss of his wife, his child and his faith, meets Hugo, a hospital scientist working in a forgotten lab who is convinced that the bacteria he uses for protein production have begun to produce gold.

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by debut author Kerryn Mayne (Bantam, 2023) ‘blends suspense and uplit fiction’ in an ‘irresistible novel’. Meanwhile, in Children of Tomorrow (J R R Burgmann, Upswell/Black Inc., 2023) Arne Bakke witnesses the historic devastation of the 2016 summer’s bushfires across the ancient wilderness of Tasmania, while elsewhere Londoner Evie Weatherall witnesses extreme climate events in her travels. When their paths collide in Melbourne, Australia, they and their group of close friends ‘are set on course to witness and struggle together against the coming century, an age of great individual and planetary loss’.

From debuts to familiar names, Prettier if She Smiled More (Toni Jordan, Hachette, 2023) is ‘a hilarious midlife crisis novel about family by the beloved author’. ‘This novel will make you laugh and cry with empathy,’ says the publisher. ‘It asks the ultimate question: who are we without our family, and can we ever escape their influence on who we are destined to become?’ In Southern Aurora (Hachette, 2023) Mark Brandi returns with a story of two brothers—Jimmy, a kid growing up fast on the poorest street in town, and his older brother about to get out of jail—’their troubled family, and the repercussions when tragedy threatens them all’. Finally, Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost (Text), the much-anticipated third novel by award-winning author, is a story of ‘family and land, loss and hope, fate and the unknown, and love and kindness’ that has already been licensed in Italy, Norway and UK & Commonwealth (ex ANZ & Canada), and for audio in ANZ and UK & Commonwealth (ex ANZ & Canada).

Crime and mystery

Australian publishers continue to meet readers’ appetite for crime and mystery set on (or just off) the southern continent. Blackwater by Jacqueline Ross (Affirm Press) is ‘a crackling, compelling page-turner that takes readers deep into the heart of Australia’s dark convict history, from an exciting new voice in modern gothic noir’; The Newcomer (Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Scribe) takes place on ‘a sleepy Pacific island’, where Judy Novak waits and worries about 29-year-old problem child Paulina. When Paulina’s body is discovered, Judy’s worst fears seem confirmed. Only, Paulina didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

In Taken (Dinuka McKenzie, HarperCollins, 2023) Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is back from maternity leave and struggling on multiple fronts—the pressures of a second child, financial strain from her husband losing his job, and a corruption scandal that may involve her father. When an infant goes missing, Kate finds herself fronting a high-profile and emotionally fraught case. HarperCollins is also pitching the first in McKenzie’s Kate Miles series, The Torrent, which won the 2021 Banjo Prize for commercial fiction.

Written by one of the screenwriters for popular Australian TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, A Routine Infidelity (Elizabeth Coleman, Pantera, 2023) is the first book in a cosy crime series featuring ‘endearing protagonist’ Edwina (Ted) Bristol PI and her sidekick, miniature schnauzer Miss Marple. Framed (John M Green, Pantera) is ‘a thrilling art heist novel’ based on the notorious 1990 Isabella Gardner Stewart museum robbery. Meanwhile, Garry Disher’s Day’s End (Text, November 2022) is the next in the critically acclaimed author’s crime series featuring ‘beloved local copper Hirsch’. Text has already licensed UK & Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ & Canada) to Serpent’s Tail, as well as licensing audio rights for ANZ and UK & Commonwealth (excluding ANZ & Canada).

Historical fiction 

There is also a range of historical fiction spanning various eras on offer. Mr Smith to You by Kerry Anne Taylor  is a historical novel about Bill Smith, an Australian jockey who was discovered after his death to have been born a girl but lived life as a man; and The Art of Breaking Ice by Rachael Mead is set in the 1960s and centres on the first Australian woman to set foot on Antarctica.

Also set on the icy continent is Thaw (Dennis Glover, Black Inc., 2023), which takes in the five explorers defeated in the race to the South Pole in 1912 as they battle un-survivable low temperatures and the present day, as the world’s ice sheets begin to melt and surrender their secrets and three climatologists retrace the doomed explorers’ path to find the true cause of their deaths. 

Sunbirds (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP) ‘intricately depicts the tangled web of complicated identities and competing loyalties often created by war and imperialism, and the heartbreaking decisions that some are forced to face’ in a story set in the Dutch East Indies in 1941—it’s described by the publisher as a ‘sumptuous historical novel’.

Love Death Chariot of Fire by Winton Higgins (Brandl & Schlesinger) tells the Spitfire’s origin story. Reg Mitchell is a modest, decent man with a gift for designing fast aeroplanes when two horrors seek him out: terminal illness, and Nazi Germany’s predicted invasion of his country. His response will change the course of world history.

Set during WWI is The Nurses War by Victoria Purman (HQ), in which Sister Cora Barker leaves her home in Australia for England, determined to use her skills for king and country, arriving at Harefield House where she helps transform it into a hospital that is also a little piece of home for recuperating Australian soldiers. Also from Purman and HQ, A Woman’s Work (2023)  is a ‘compassionate look at the extraordinary lives of ordinary women—our mothers and grandmothers—in a beautifully realised post-war Australia’.

Salonika Burning (Gail Jones, Text), is a ‘formidable work of historical fiction that illuminates not only the devastation of war but also the social upheaval of the times’, showcasing Jones at the height of her powers. Mr Carver’s Whale by Lyn Hughes (HarperCollins) is about the Carvalho brothers, destined to spend their lives hunting whales until ‘the arrival of an unexpected gift changes both their lives forever’.

Contemporary and literary fiction 

In contemporary fiction, After the Rain (Aisling Smith, Hachette) is ‘an unforgettable story of the disintegration of a marriage and the fracturing of a family through the eyes of three women— telling the story of their father and husband’, from the winner of the 2020 Richell Prize. The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland (HarperCollins) is the story of ‘two best friends, one summer night, and twenty years of silence … what happened at the lighthouse?’ The Fancies by Kim Lock (HQ, 2023), set in Port Kingerton, ‘the insular cray-fishing town at the butt-end of South Australia, where everyone knows everyone’, is ‘a story about stories—those we tell, those we believe and those we make into a reality—whether they are true, murky or not true at all’.

In Keeping Up Appearances by Tricia Stringer (HarperCollins) tensions simmer in a small country town where ‘three women are going to need more than CWA sausage rolls and can-do community spirit to put things right’; The Last Love Note by Emma Grey (PRH) is ‘the sparkling romantic comedy that will break your heart into a thousand shards and piece it back together again’; Faithless by Alice Nelson (PRH) is ‘a sweeping story full of love, literature and how it feels to be the other woman’.

In Naked Ambition (Robert Gott, Scribe, 2023) up-and-coming junior minister Gregory Buchanan has had a portrait painted of himself by the acclaimed artist Sophie White—a painting she intends to enter in Australia’s popular portrait prize, the Archibald. ‘Until then, Gregory has hung it in pride of place on his dining-room wall. It’s a life-sized standing portrait, practically photographic in nature. And it’s a nude.’

Literature fans will want to read the latest winner of Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (Text)—German, Russian and Spanish rights have already been licensed, as have audio rights for North America and ANZ. New from another Miles Franklin winner is Edenglassie (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP, 2023), an ‘epic novel’ that tells two extraordinary stories set 170 years apart in present day Brisbane and Edenglassie as it was previously known—Magandjin to its traditional owners. 

Also in literary fiction is Losing Face (George Haddad, UQP) ‘a stunning, thought-provoking novel about facing up to your family and your future, dealing with timely issues around sexual consent and inherited trauma’ set in Western Sydney. ‘This gripping and hard-hitting novel reveals the richness and complexity of contemporary Australian life and tests the idea that facing consequences will make us better people.’

Tom Lee’s Object Coach (Upswell/Black Inc.) follows narrator Tom, a stranger in an intellectual community whose members experience the world by wondering how things are made and how they might be made different; meanwhile, Joyce Kornblatt’s novel Mother Tongue (Brandl & Schlesinger) is ‘powerful fiction that reads like a true story’ as it begins with a shocking discovery and follows a crime and its unfolding aftermath.

From award-winning author Inga Simpson comes a love letter to the art and beauty of cricket. Willowman (Hachette) is a story about a batmaker and a gifted young cricketer set during a prominent period of the sport’s evolution—‘Simpson writes exquisitely about a national sport you will never view the same way again,’ says Hachette.

Deep in the Forest (Pantera, 2023) is a beautifully written gripping literary suspense thriller with a surprising twist by award-winning journalist Erina Reddan. When she discovers a dead baby in the forest, Charli Thenthenan must fight to prove her innocence in a town that no longer trusts her, and discover for herself what lies behind the walls of The Sanctuary, a secretive and conservative religious community.

Set in 1950s conservative Australia, Marlo (Jay Carmichael, Scribe) centres around Christopher, a young gay man, who moves to ‘the City’ to escape the repressive atmosphere of his tiny hometown. Once there, however, he finds that it is just as censorial and punitive, in its own way. 

Independent publisher Pilyara Press, formed by a group of professional writers, has on offer literary fiction titles Wildflower by Monique Mulligan, a novel which shines a light on the generational trauma of domestic violence; and Transit of Angels by Desney King, which is an ‘intimate’ portrayal of grief following a sudden, accidental death.

Spinifex Press will be spotlighting Carol Lefevre’s 2021 Christina Stead Prize–shortlisted novella Murmurations, as well as Lefevre’s latest novel The Tower, which follows widower Dorelia MacCraith who swaps her family home for a house with a tower and there, raised above the run of daily life, sets out to rewrite the stories of old women poorly treated by literature. Also from Spinifex, The Kindness of Birds by Merlinda Bobis pays homage to kindness and kinship among women and the planet through birds, across cultures and species; Symphony for the Man by Sarah Brill is a poignant and gritty tale of homelessness and shelter, of the realities of loneliness and hunger, and of the hopes and dreams of those who often go unnoticed on our streets; and Cheryl Adam’s Africa’s Eden, the final book in the Eden trilogy, follows unmarried mother Maureen, who rekindles an old romance and moves to 1960s South Africa under Apartheid, where cultures clash and violence and injustice rises.

Aotearoa New Zealand 

Several novels from award-winning Aotearoa New Zealand debut authors will be showcased at Frankfurt by Australian publishers too. Golden Days by Caroline Barron (Affirm, 2023), whose memoir won the nonfiction category at the 2020 New Zealand Heritage Literary Award, is a gripping drama about friendship, grief and nostalgia, set in the 1990s Auckland club scene.

Tom Baragwanath’s Paper Cage (Text)—winner of the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize—is a thrilling debut unravelling a series of mysterious child abductions in a small town. Text has already licensed North American, UK & Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ & Canada). 

And from the author of Baby, Annaleese Jochem’s Loving Him (Scribe, 2023) is a slow-burning psychological novel about a young wife dangerously obsessed with her husband’s criminal nephew.  

Poetry 

The Jaguar (Sarah Holland-Batt, UQP) is the third collection of poetry by one of Australia’s finest poets. Marked with her distinctive ‘lyric intensity and linguistic mastery’, Holland-Batt’s collection confronts what it means to be mortal in an astonishing and deeply humane portrait of a father’s Parkinson’s disease, and a daughter forged by grief. ‘The Jaguar is a devastating and mesmerising collection by a poet at the height of her powers,’ says the publisher.

Also from UQP is Omar Sakr’s Non-Essential Work (2023), an exciting follow-up to his acclaimed collection The Lost Arabs. In Non-Essential Work, Sakr asks questions of timeliness and timelessness, delving deep into his loves and losses to create a riveting literary experience.

Illustrated 

In Oliver Kitten’s Diary: The journals of a mischievous cat’s first year by Gareth St John Thomas (Exisle), Oliver Kitten was born in a firetruck and ends up living with a three-generation multigenerational human family in a four-bedroom house. He keeps a diary of his own escapades and the things he hears and sees his family get up to. At once cute and funny, Oliver is a little naughty and sometimes downright wicked in his precocious observations of the things the humans in his house get up to.

New York City Glow by Rachel Coad (Upswell/Black Inc., 2023) is a graphic novel centred around the 1977 New York City blackout. Ray the snake is a sad, lonely, middle-aged insurance salesman from Midway, Kentucky, looking for a better life. Strawberry is a glow octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis) with an inability to control her glow, constantly landing in trouble. The unlikely pair embark on a road trip to New York City, where they rub shoulders with rock royalty and things get electric—in more ways than one.

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