Books

In a modern-day cost-of-living crisis, the classic 1817 novel's tale of inheritance and wealth still rings true.

The Booker Prize winner sat down at the Sydney Writers' Festival to ponder the threat of AI to fiction, share some recommendations and consider whether his book was really about masculinity.

Sweet teen love, gay football stars, alien abductions and a murderous PhD student bent on revenge — this month's best new releases have it all.

The month he turned 30, Mosab Abu Toha was blindfolded, beaten and detained by the Israel Defense Forces. The essay he wrote about it won a Pulitzer Prize.

In May 2025, Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, three literary true-crime writers, headed to Erin Patterson's trial. The resulting book just won an Australian Book Industry Award.

The 1963 Näku Dhäruk or Yirrkala bark petitions led to Australia's first land rights law. A new book about them just won two prizes at the NSW Literary Awards.

Lee Lai's debut graphic novel, Stone Fruit, was longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2022. Four years on, she's won the prestigious award for her latest book, Cannon.

What we're watching, reading and cooking this weekend.

Ellena Savage's debut essay collection, Blueberries, was a surprise hit. In her new novel, The Ruiners, she takes on Charles Dickens and the illegal waste trade.

The Go-Betweens frontman spent years developing the story, which follows a pair of musicians on the run from the law as they try to clear their names.

Podcaster Dee Salmin says people should steer clear of traditional dating advice and focus more on themselves.

A memoir by Geraldine Brooks and a historical novel by actor-turned-author Tasma Walton are among the eclectic works up for one of Australia's most prestigious literary awards.

What to watch, read, listen to and eat this weekend, according to our culture and food teams.

Erotic fiction author Lauren Mastrosa is spared jail after a court found her novel fetishised young children.

After Shaun Micallef finished up 11 years hosting comedy news show Mad as Hell in 2022, the comedian did something unexpected: he wrote a 'gothic romance novel'.

This month's top picks include new works from Steve Toltz and Colm Tóibín, a satire inspired by Yellowface and an investigation into the death of a London teen who masqueraded as the son of a Russian oligarch.

The new chair of Adelaide Writers' Week has sent a statement to would-be critics, quipping that Pauline Hanson would be worthy of inclusion on a literary line-up if the One Nation leader were "secretly writing Australia's next best crime novel".

Erudite and urbane, David Malouf — perhaps most famous for his portrait of mid-century Brisbane in his 1975 novel Johnno — will be fondly remembered for his immeasurable contribution to Australian letters.

Writers including Evelyn Araluen and Randa Abdel-Fattah have left University of Queensland Press after the publisher axed publication of an Indigenous kids book over its illustrator's past "anti-Semitic" comments.

Is your dream to become the next JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer? A new wave of writers is turning to self-publishing to turn fantasy into reality.