The top 5
Benjamin Myers deeply thematic and resonant novel follows two very different men who come together to ‘strive towards beauty’ by creating crop circles in English fields in the late 1980s.
A city reinvents itself as do its inhabitants in Rhett Davis’s award winning debut – a surreal and unvarnished look at modern Australia.
John Darnielle takes on and exposes the true crime genre in a thematically rich series of nested tales to explore the question of why we tell stories.
Audrey Magee’s lyrical novel moves way past allegory as it explores the legacy of colonialism on a small island off the coast of Ireland in the 1970s.
Lavie Tidhar delivers a fascinating warts and all history of modern Israel from the view of its underbelly and in the style of James Ellroy.
Honourable Mentions
Anthony Marra tells a multi-layered and character filled story of the people associated with a small movie studio during the Second World War.
Jock Serong finished his Furneau Islands trilogy of historical novels with the story of the Aboriginal communities moved to those Islands from their Tasmanian country in the mid 19th Century.
Ray Nayler’s debut deals with a terrestrial first contact but is also a reflection of issues of sentience and intelligence.
Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel is a heartfelt and engaging family drama and satire full of likeably unlikeable characters that explores and comments on a range of aspects of modern life.
Danya Kukafya’s second novel explores the ripple effects of violence as it focuses on the three women around the life of a serial killer facing the death penalty.
Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
Other reviews you might enjoy:
Robert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website Pile By the Bed.
