ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club has compiled this list with viewer assistance, and it was brought to my attention by fellow #reverb12 blogger Dani. The full list of the best Aussie books actually runs to 50 so I figure, what the hell, I’ll challenge myself to the full list!
We’ve been living in Australia for three years now, and in a little over 12 months my family and I will become Australian citizens, so it is high time I broadened my literary knowledge of our new home country.
I do love a list with one item that can be crossed off straight away, and happily I have already quite recently read The Slap by Christos Tsoilkas.
And so begins my Australian literary journey!
- Cloudstreet – Tim Winton
- The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
- A Fortunate Life – A.B. Facey
- The Harp in the South – Ruth Park
- The Power of One – Bryce Courtenay
- Jasper Jones – Craig Silvey
- The Magic Pudding – Norman Lindsay
The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas- The Secret River – Kate Grenville
- Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay
- Seven Little Australians – Ethel Turner
- My Brother Jack – George Johnston
- My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin
- True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey
- Eucalyptus – Murray Bail
- Power Without Glory – Frank Hardy
- The Broken Shore – Peter Temple
- Monkey Grip – Helen Garner
- The Riders – Tim Winton
- The Tree of Man – Patrick White
- The Fatal Shore – Robert Hughes
- Unreliable Memoirs – Clive James
- The Tall Man – Chloe Hooper
- The Man Who Loved Children – Christina Stead
- The Dressmaker – Rosalie Ham
- The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney – Henry Handel Richardson
- The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith – Thomas Keneally
- Capricornia – Xavier Herbert
- Wake in Fright – Kenneth Cooke
- Ransom – David Malouf
- The Year of Living Dangerously – C.J. Koch
- The First Stone – Helen Garner
- Gallipoli – Alan Moorehead
- Maestro – Peter Goldsworthy
- The Monkey’s Mask – Dorothy Porter
- Wanting – Richard Flanagan
- Come In Spinner – Dymphna Cusack & Florence James
- Grand Days – Frank Moorhouse
- 1788 – Watkin Tench
- It’s Raining in Mango – Thea Astley
- Riders in the Chariot – Patrick White
- Carpentaria – Alexis Wright
- The Tyranny of Distance – Geoffrey Blainey
- That Deadman Dance – Kim Scott
- For Love Alone – Christina Stead
- An Intruder’s Guide to East Arnhem Land – Andrew McMillan
- The Life – Malcolm Knox
- The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony – Hal Porter
- Here’s Luck – Lennie Lower
- Visitants – Randolph Stow
Advertisements
Oohhh … great list – I will add some of those. Some I have read and adored. I particularly will recommend to you Cloudstreet (and the miniseries), Picnic at Hanging Rock, Jasper Jones and Seven Little Australians (have loved this one since I was a kid). Enjoy!!! 🙂
Cheers! Now I have finally finished my first book of the year perhaps there will be no stopping me 😉