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Grave Empire: Book One of The Great Silence (Richard Swan, Orbit)
Released February 2025
In Grave Empire, Richard Swan returns to the world of his Empire of the Wolf fantasy trilogy in a way that’s thrilling and wholly unexpected. Set two hundred years after... Read more
The Body Next Door (Zane Lovitt, Text)
Released March 2025
Nestled in Melbourne’s western suburbs, Carnation Way is a quiet street of identical-looking houses with one distinction: number 37 was the scene of a murder 13 years ago. In the... Read more
Unhallowed Halls (Lili Wilkinson, A&U)
Released February 2025
Lili Wilkinson’s latest young adult novel, Unhallowed Halls, is a dark academia fantasy about finding your inner strength and accepting who you are. After a tragic incident that ended her... Read more
Your Soul Purpose: Manifest a Life You Love (Aubrey Daquinag, Hardie Grant Books)
Released February 2025
Aubrey Daquinag’s Your Soul Purpose: Manifest a Life You Love offers an accessible entry point for readers looking to shift their thinking about life. The book introduces key concepts to... Read more
Gutsy Girls (Josie McSkimming, UQP)
Released February 2025
When Dorothy Porter died in 2008, Australia lost one of its greatest contemporary poets. The author of nine poetry collections and five verse novels, Porter had a lusty, raw and... Read more
Llamas in the Library (James Hinchon, illus Ian Worrall-Dutton, Five Mile)
Released February 2025
James Hinchon’s Llamas in the Library is a rollicking adventure about a group of children who must team up to herd a marauding group of llamas that infiltrates their school... Read more
Brightest Wild (Tania Crampton-Larking, Lothian)
Released February 2025
Brightest Wild, by Mirning woman Tania Crampton-Larking, was a winning manuscript in the 2019 black&write! Fellowships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. It tells the story of 12-year-old Alex,... Read more
Brave in Every Which Way (Maddy Mara, illus Lauren Degraaf, Affirm)
Released February 2025
Brave in Every Which Way by Maddy Mara (aka Hilary Rogers and Meredith Badger, who also produced Itty Bitty Kitty and The Greatest Mistakes That Went Right under this same... Read more
The Grapevine (Kate Kemp, Hachette)
Released February 2025
As summertime scorches Canberra and the 1970s draw to a close, a severed foot is discovered on the mountain behind Warrah Place. When it’s identified as belonging to Antonio Marietti,... Read more
Diary of a Marine Biologist (Anita Thomas, illus Sarah Wilkins & Anita Thomas, Walker)
Released February 2025
Did you know that oysters are often called the kidneys of the ocean because they filter a bathtub’s worth of water every two days? Or that marine biologists play a... Read more
We Speak of Flowers (Eileen Chong, UQP)
Released February 2025
How can we occupy spaces after death? Where do we place our grief when we lose someone close to us? Eileen Chong (A Thousand Crimson Blooms) explores these tender questions... Read more
The Library of Bears (Cat Rabbit, Berbay)
Released February 2025
The Library of Bears, the fourth book by textile artist and designer Cat Rabbit (How to Make Friends: A Bear’s Guide), reassures children that while trying new things can be... Read more
Ten Ways to Find Love … and How to Keep It (Lisa Portolan, Echo)
Released February 2025
Lisa Portolan’s Ten Ways to Find Love … and How to Keep It explores the idea that pursuing love in the digital age is not just about finding love but... Read more
Wonders Under the Moon (Tai Snaith, T&H)
Released February 2025
When the sun goes down, weird and wonderful night-time creatures come out to play. Tai Snaith’s new reference picture book, Wonders Under the Moon: A Collection of Night-Time Creatures, features... Read more
All the Colours of the Rainbow (Rae White, illus Sha’an d’Anthes, Lothian)
Released February 2025
In All the Colours of the Rainbow, Jem sometimes wants to wear their yellow dress with blue sandals and sometimes blue jeans with orange sneakers. The story invites readers into... Read more
When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole (Geoff Parkes, Penguin)
Released February 2025
Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, Geoff Parkes’ debut crime novel, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, is a twisting thriller that explores the shadows that lurk behind the... Read more
Those Opulent Days (Jacquie Pham, Ultimo)
Released February 2025
At first glance, Jacquie Pham’s debut novel, Those Opulent Days, might appear to be a classic whodunit murder mystery, except the true ‘villain’ is far from the usual suspect. Set... Read more
Women of a Certain Courage (ed by Bron Bateman, Fremantle)
Released February 2025
In this compelling anthology, 18 women from diverse backgrounds challenge traditional notions of what it means to be courageous. Edited by Bron Bateman (Of Memory and Furniture), Women of a... Read more
A Piece of Red Cloth (Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga & Djawundil Maymuru, A&U)
Released February 2025
The best fiction allows the reader to enter times, cultures and places otherwise inaccessible. Children’s fiction writer Leonie Norrington was commissioned by her adoptive mother, Yolŋu woman Clare Bush, to... Read more
Somebody Down There Likes Me (Robert Lukins, A&U)
Released February 2025
Somebody Down There Likes Me begins with a limousine pulling up to a defunct gas station near a United States ghost town, setting an apt tone for a novel that... Read more
