3.12 Recommending Aussie Books
This week on The Community Library, I’m recommending some Australian literature! From a YA mystery to an adult family drama, there’s something for everyone in this list. Hope you enjoy!
Listen to the episode here
Download a full transcription of the episode here
Listen to me talk about what it’s like to be in a film adaptation of a book: Working on Film Adaptations of Books
The book club pick for this month is Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Also published under the title The Things She’s Seen in the USA. I’ll be discussing this on the 27th of September, I hope you read along with us!
TL;DL? All the books I recommended in the episode
JASPER JONES by Craig Silvey
YA historical mystery, published 2009
Film adaptation: Jasper Jones (2017)
Follows quiet, book-loving thirteen-year-old Charlie Bucktin growing up in rural Western Australia in 1965. His world is turned upside down when a young girl goes missing … Because he knows what happened.
For fans of: Stand By Me (1986), The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
THE WOMEN IN BLACK by Madeleine St. John
Adult historical fiction, published 1994
Film adaptation: Ladies in Black (2018)
Follows an ensemble cast of women working at a women’s department store in 1959 Sydney. The lives of these women begin to change and intertwine when a young girl named Lisa arrives as a temporary sales assistant for the Christmas period.
For fans of: Brooklyn (2015), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
THERE WAS STILL LOVE by Favel Parrett
YA historical fiction, published 2019
Listen to me read the audiobook!
Tells the story of twin sisters in Czechoslovakia, at first separated by the Nazi invasion when one sister leaves to Australia, and then kept apart by the Cold War. Flash forward to the 1980s, and one sister is raising a grandchild in Melbourne, while the other is raising a grandchild in Prague.
For fans of: Casablanca (1942), The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik
ON THE JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta
YA contemporary, published 2006
The story of Taylor Markham: a seventeen-year-old girl who lives at the boarding school on the Jellicoe Road, after her mother abandoned her when she was just eleven. This particular summer, Taylor begins to discover secrets about her family and her past.
For fans of: Lady Bird (2017), Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
LILIAN'S STORY by Kate Grenville
Adult historical fiction, published 1985
The story of Lilian Singer: a girl born in Australia in the year of Federation, 1901. Her life as a girl, a young woman, and then an adult.
For fans of: Frances Ha (2012), Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
AMELIA WESTLAKE by Erin Gough
YA contemporary, published 2019
Our story follows two girls at the prestigious Rosemead Grammar: perfect prefect Harriet Price, and notorious bad girl Will Everheart. This unlikely pairing team up to expose the school’s many problems, but will they jeopardise their futures along the way?
For fans of: Mean Girls (2004), Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan
TERRA NULLIUS by Claire G. Coleman
Adult speculative fiction, published 2017
The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This is not Australia as we know it. this is not the Australia of our history.
For fans of: Sweet Country (2017), The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Demaline
THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN by Christina Stead
Adult family drama, published 1940
A study of family life. Our family here is the Pollits: the father Sam, his second wife Henny, his daughter from his first marriage, Louie, and the other six children. Over the years, we follow the family members’ secrets, lies, outbursts, and tantrums.
For fans of: Marriage Story (2019), Revolutionary Road (2008), One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
FOLLOW THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE by Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington)
Biography, published 1996
This is the true story of three Indigenous girls who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, where they had been taken to be assimilated into white colonialist culture. Molly, Daisy and Gracie were just three of many Indigenous children who were part of the Stolen Generations. To make their way back home, these three girls followed the rabbit- proof fence, a pest-exclusion fence that cut through Western Australia, from north to south.
GROWING UP AFRICAN IN AUSTRALIA edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Personal essay anthology, published 2019
This anthology brings together voices from the regions of Africa and the African diaspora, including the Caribbean and the Americas. Told with passion, power and poise, these are the stories of African-diaspora Australians.
Other books in the Growing Up in Australia series: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Growing Up Queer in Australia, Growing Up Disabled in Australia.
Aboriginal Lives Matter resources
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Cover artwork is by Ashley Ronning
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