Aussie Books

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!

1. Cloudstreet – Tim Winton
2. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
3. A Fortunate Life – A.B. Facey
4. The Harp in the South – Ruth Park
5. The Power of One – Bryce Courtenay
6. Jasper Jones – Craig Silvey
7. The Magic Pudding – Norman Lindsay
8. The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
9. The Secret River – Kate Grenville
10. Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay
11. Seven Little Australians – Ethel Turner
12. My Brother Jack – George Johnston
13. My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin
14. True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey
15. Eucalyptus – Murray Bail
16. Power Without Glory – Frank Hardy
17. The Broken Shore – Peter Temple
18. Monkey Grip – Helen Garner
19. The Riders – Tim Winton
20. The Tree of Man – Patrick White
21. The Fatal Shore – Robert Hughes
22. Unreliable Memoirs – Clive James
23. The Tall Man – Chloe Hooper
24. The Man Who Loved Children – Christina Stead
25. The Dressmaker – Rosalie Ham
26. The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney – Henry Handel Richardson
27. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith – Thomas Keneally
28. Capricornia – Xavier Herbert
29. Wake in Fright – Kenneth Cooke
30. Ransom – David Malouf
31. The Year of Living Dangerously – C.J. Koch
32. The First Stone – Helen Garner
33. Gallipoli – Alan Moorehead
34. Maestro – Peter Goldsworthy
35. The Monkey’s Mask – Dorothy Porter
36. Wanting – Richard Flanagan
37. Come In Spinner – Dymphna Cusack & Florence James
38. Grand Days – Frank Moorhouse
39. 1788 – Watkin Tench
40. It’s Raining in Mango – Thea Astley
41. Riders in the Chariot – Patrick White
42. Carpentaria – Alexis Wright
43. The Tyranny of Distance – Geoffrey Blainey
44. That Deadman Dance – Kim Scott
45. For Love Alone – Christina Stead
46. An Intruder’s Guide to East Arnhem Land – Andrew McMillan
47. The Life – Malcolm Knox
48. The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony – Hal Porter
49. Here’s Luck – Lennie Lower
50. Visitants – Randolph Stow