{"id":318,"date":"2024-09-10T02:40:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T02:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2024-09-10T02:40:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T02:40:30","slug":"12-best-australian-books-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"12 Best Australian Books to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian authors have produced some incredible books over more than a hundred years, including well-known classics that are household names, all the way through to contemporary masterpieces. Enjoy 12 Best Australian Books to Read.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">12 Best Australian Books to Read<\/h2>\n<div class=\"simpletoc wp-block-simpletoc-toc\">\n<h2><button class=\"simpletoc-collapsible\">Table of Contents<span class=\"simpletoc-icon\"><\/span><\/button><\/h2>\n<div class=\"simpletoc-content\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#12-best-australian-books-to-read\">12 Best Australian Books to Read<\/a>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#boy-swallows-universe-by-trent-dalton\">Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north-by-richard-flanagan\">The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#we-come-with-this-placenbspby-debra-dank\">We Come With This Place\u00a0by Debra Dank<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#the-book-thief-by-marcus-zuzak\">The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#this-house-of-grief-by-helen-garner\">This House of Grief by Helen Garner<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-by-peter-carey\">True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#restless-dolly-maunder-by-kate-grenville\">Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#the-shepherds-hut-by-tim-winton\">The Shepherd\u2019s Hut by Tim Winton<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#the-thorn-birds-by-colleen-mcculloughnbsp\">The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#schindlers-list-by-thomas-keneally\">Schindler\u2019s List by Thomas Keneally<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#a-town-like-alice-by-nevil-shute\">A Town Like Alice by  Nevil Shute<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-australian-books-to-read#horse-by-geraldine-brooks\">Horse by Geraldine Brooks<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zTVgGT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zTVgGT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Australia, 1983<\/p>\n<p>Life is pretty tough right now for twelve-year-old Eli \u2013 what with his mute brother, a convicted murderer for a babysitter, a drug-dealing stepfather, an incarcerated mother and a long-lost father \u2013 surely it can\u2019t get any worse?<\/p>\n<p>Think again. He\u2019s about to fall in love, break into prison and cross paths with one of the most notorious criminals Brisbane has ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>A coming-of-age story like no other, Boy Swallows Universe is the most exhilarating novel you\u2019ll read all year.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4fnp3bk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4fnp3bk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle\u2019s young wife two years earlier<\/p>\n<p>Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. This is a story about the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">We Come With This Place by Debra Dank<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3WbjXWF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3WbjXWF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>We Come with This Place is a remarkable book, as rich, varied and surprising as the vast landscape in which it is set. Debra Dank has created an extraordinary mosaic of vivid episodes that move about in time and place to tell an unforgettable story of country and people.<\/p>\n<p>Debra Dank has written a deeply personal, a profound tribute to family and the Gudanji Country in Australia, to which Debra Dank belongs, but it is much more than that. Here is Australia as it has been for countless generations, land and people in effortless balance, and Australia as it became, but also Australia as it could and should be.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Wv9S6V\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Wv9S6V\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier \u2013 and will become busier still.<\/p>\n<p>By her brother\u2019s graveside, nine year old Liesel\u2019s life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger\u2019s Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery.<\/p>\n<p>So begins Liesel\u2019s love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor\u2019s wife\u2019s library . . . wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel\u2019s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">This House of Grief by Helen Garner<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zTZA95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zTZA95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Father\u2019s Day, 2005. Just after nightfall, a discarded husband drove his three young sons back to their mother, his ex-wife.<\/p>\n<p>On that dark country road, barely five minutes from the children\u2019s home, the old white car swerved off the highway and plunged into a dam. The father freed himself and swam to the bank, but the car sank to the bottom, and all the children drowned.<\/p>\n<p>The court case that followed became Helen Garner\u2019s obsession, one that would take over her life until its final verdict. The resulting book is a true-crime classic and literary masterpiece, which examines just what we are capable of and how fiercely we hide it from ourselves.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3WbXQQ2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3WbXQQ2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>\u2018I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silence\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n<p>To the authorities in pursuit of him, outlaw Ned Kelly is a horse thief, bank robber and police-killer. But to his fellow ordinary Australians, Kelly is their own Robin Hood. In a dazzling act of ventriloquism, <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/booker-prize-quiz\">Peter Carey<\/a> brings the famous bushranger wildly and passionately to life.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4bYf09r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4bYf09r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society\u2019s long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do not deter her from searching for love and independence.<\/p>\n<p><em>Restless Dolly Maunder<\/em>\u00a0is a subversive, triumphant tale of a pioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who is able \u2013 despite the cost \u2013 to make a life she could call her own.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Shepherd\u2019s Hut by Tim Winton<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Y806uf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Y806uf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>For years Jaxie Clackton has dreaded going home. His beloved mum is dead, and he wishes his dad was too, until one terrible moment leaves his life stripped to nothing. No one ever told Jaxie Clackton to be careful what he wishes for.<\/p>\n<p>And so Jaxie runs. There\u2019s just one person in the world who understands him, but to reach her he\u2019ll have to cross the vast saltlands of Western Australia. It is a place that harbours criminals and threatens to kill those who haven\u2019t reckoned with its hot, waterless vastness. This is a journey only a dreamer \u2013 or a fugitive \u2013 would attempt.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough <\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3yanqgf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3yanqgf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>The Thorn Birds is the towering saga of three generations of a remarkable family in the rugged Australian Outback. The triumphs and tragedies, the dramas and disappointments, the passions and the pain of the Cleary family and those who came into their lives became an instant bestseller when it was first published in 1977. The basis of one of the most acclaimed television miniseries of all time, the novel remains an internationally beloved favorite.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Schindler\u2019s List by Thomas Keneally<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3SzzJsy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3SzzJsy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Disturbing, harrowing and yet also deeply inspiring in its depiction of humanity and moral action, Schindler\u2019s List holds a special place in the twentieth-century literary canon. The winner of 1982\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/booker-prize-quiz\">Booker Prize<\/a> endures as a compassionate and thoughtful account of heroism in the face of a barbaric regime and its horrifying \u2018final solution.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">A Town Like Alice by  Nevil Shute<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zSiYU1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zSiYU1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins.<\/p>\n<p>When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle \u2013 an experience that leads to the deaths of many.<\/p>\n<p>While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.<\/p>\n<p>After the war, Jean tracks Joe down in Australia and together they begin to dream of surmounting the past and transforming his one-horse outback town into a thriving community like Alice Springs\u2026<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Horse by Geraldine Brooks<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4d9t1Cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4d9t1Cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.<\/p>\n<p>On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack.<\/p>\n<p>Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse \u2013 one studying the stallion\u2019s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed our selection of the 12 Best Australian Books to Read, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/best-british-books-of-the-20th-century\">20 Best British Books of the 20th Century<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australian authors have produced some incredible books over more than a hundred years, including well-known classics that are household names, all the way through to contemporary masterpieces. Enjoy 12 Best Australian Books to Read. This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. 12 Best Australian Books [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}