Kris Kneen’s Rite of Spring is a pulsing story that moves energetically across its terrain, delivering a sense of alien understanding.
- Distinguished Professor Emerita of Creative Practice, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra
This is Lee Lai’s second book to be shortlisted for the Stella Prize, and her first win.
The six books on this year’s Stella shortlist range widely, including graphic novels, poetry, novels and memoir. But they have one thing in common: excellence.
Beautiful and witty, Edwina Preston’s novel Sororicidal reveals an unnervingly precise understanding of the dark side of childhood.
Debra Adelaide’s new book, When I Am Sixty-Four, is a complex, devastating and often funny love letter to her friend, the late Gabrielle Carey.
We found out the favourite 2025 books of 35 expert readers – and the Books & Ideas team shares our own picks, too.
Literary journalists Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein take us inside their conversations on the mushroom trial, writing and notorious women.
Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate their least favourite mothers.
Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate the most troublesome fathers.
Max Porter’s stories of people on the margins are told in fragments, flickering images, surprising swirls of language and wit.
‘If an abyss is where I shall be for the rest of my life’, writes Yiyun Li, ‘the abyss is my habitat.’ Her book is a major contribution to literature on mourning.
Han Kang’s characters have looked squarely at histories of state-sanctioned murder and carry the wounds of those histories.
We’ve invited writers, from fields as diverse as wildlife ecology, politics and literature, to nominate their best books of 2024. And this year, the Books & Ideas team share their own picks, too.
Threaded through the narrative is a powerfully posed question: what are our responsibilities as members of a community?
We were dismayed to see no Australians on the New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century – so, with the help of 50 experts, we created our own, all-Australian list. You can have your say, too!
In the third volume of this superb trilogy exploring the lives of women taken captive in the Trojan War, a new narrator takes us on a journey back to Agamemnon’s palace.
Safe Haven is an excoriating account of a shameful period of Australian history, told in a life-affirming voice that imagines a more humane future.
Plan your summer reading or catch up on what you missed with The Conversation’s selection of the best books of the year.
A new book follows four women philosophers through ten of the worst years in the 20th century, spanning 1933, the year Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, to the thick of the second world war.
Milan Kundera, penulis ternama asal Ceko, telah meninggal dunia pada usia 94 tahun. Karyanya mempertanyakan totalitarianisme dan mengeksplorasi berbagai ide.
Milan Kundera, célebre escritor checo, ha muerto a los 94 años. Su obra cuestionaba el totalitarismo y exploraba ideas, aderezadas con un humor desolador.
Milan Kundera, the celebrated Czech author best known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died, aged 94. His work interrogated totalitarianism and explored ideas – leavened with bleak humour.
Pip Williams’ follow-up to her internationally bestselling debut novel explores World War I, women’s rights and sisterhood – but what makes it special is its unwavering attention to the making of books.
Kath O'Connor’s debut novel, Inheritance, follows two women – an IVF hopeful and her grandmother – who carry the BRCA1 gene and contract ovarian cancer. It’s very close to being memoir.
Robbie Arnott’s third novel, Limberlost, is an exquisitely written tale of human and ecological destruction, with a thread of hope.
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