Excitable Boy by Dominic Gordon review – punchy tales of masculinity, sex and violence
These stylish autobiographical essays take the reader into backstreets rarely traversed in Australian literature – sex clubs, street fights and emergency rooms
The Pyramid of Needs by Ernest Price review – a wickedly funny take on wellness
This excellent debut novel follows a weary son who clashes over his gender transition with his elderly mother, a supplement devotee hellbent on becoming an influencer
The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall review – a genre-defying epic
Spanning 1933 to 2181, this ambitious novel explores the future of humanity through the lives of a few women, zeroing in on capitalism, AI and violence
West Girls by Laura Elizabeth Woollett review – sexism, schoolgirls and supermodels
These cleverly interconnected stories explore the power and price of beauty, following an ethnically ambiguous girl who pretends to be part-Asian to become a model
The Pole and Other Stories by JM Coetzee review – if this is his final book, it is a great one
The Nobel laureate’s new collection of stories is concerned with death, desire and old age, glinting with flashes of humour and grand, existential strangeness
The Scope of Permissibility by Zeynab Gamieldien review – a Muslim take on the Australian campus novel
Gamieldien’s debut adds refreshing complexity to the familiar narratives of politics, power and taboo love, in a novel that occasionally fails to feel real