News & Reviews

Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025 Winner Ghost Cities by Siang Lu This profound, highly imaginative novel cleverly draws on Chinese history to explore the absurdity of modern life and work. A young man named

Inside this Winter Reading Guide * Celebrate our cover artist, Tim Schultz. It was a privilege to visit Tim and witness his thoughtful, playful, inquisitive intellect reflected in his impressive library * A wide variety of

Join us on Saturday 16 August from 2pm for an afternoon of book-specials, games, competitions, performances and poetry for local kids! Plus, register with us and receive special access for 20% off our full

  You must read this smart, tragic, humorous story! Julia: Funny, smart, and strangely moving, I absolutely loved this book! Set in ancient Syracuse, but written with a modern Irish Street wit, it follows two

A wickedly funny satire. An academic flees a recent break up and lands in the absurd heart of Middle Eastern politics, charged with running a de-radicalisation program, armed with nothing but naïvely good intentions.

  Hard By a Great Forest reads like a dark fairytale for our times. Lyrical, unsettling and strangely tender, it is the story of young man on the hunt for his missing family, now

Modern Man is lost, floundering in a sea of neuroses. The legendary psychoanalyst presents an eminently readable theory of their origin and treatment, carefully articulating his understanding of the unconscious, the place of dreams

  Wed 03 Sep – 06:00 pm Glen Street Theatre (Glen Street, Belrose, NSW 2085) Suitable for ages 12+ 2 hours (inc interval) Kate Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and

Three debut authors join two returning finalists and a two-time winner on the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist, which the judges praised for “writing that refuses to compromise” and for inventing “new languages

  By the author of Bookoccino favourite Withering-by-Sea, a long-awaited new fantasy adventure novel for sophisticated 8-12 year olds who love a strong heroine and don’t mind a little danger. This much praised story will

  Helen Garner’s capacity to pay attention and look at life with a curious gaze has never wavered. In this simple, beautiful book she thinks about and appreciates young men as they train, play

Mums of Avalon, join us with your little ones for morning tea with Sophie Walker, founder of Australian Birth Stories and authors of The Complete Guide to Postpartum and The Complete Australian Guide to

Bookoccino’s Sally Tabner Wins National Bookseller of the Year Award Bookoccino’s Sally Tabner has been named the 2025 Bookseller of the Year by BookPeople– a respected industry award that recognises the vital role individuals

Uplifting. Moving. As journalist Cheng Lei describes her soul-destroying imprisonment in China, outrageously accused of spying, I wondered how she endured — more than three years in the cells, the lights always on, the

Wild Dark Shore has been one of the literary highlights of 2025. Join us for this free and fun interactive session with its author – Charlotte McConaghey, fresh from her sold out Sydney Writers

A tender love story and meditation on Blackness and masculinity set in contemporary London. Told in the second person with a lyrical prose that reads like water, Nelson questions what it means to be

I LOVED this book — funny, smart, and strangely moving. Set in ancient Syracuse but written with a modern, Irish street wit, it follows two unemployed potters who decide to put on a Greek

Hard New World: Our Post-American Future; Quarterly Essay 98 by Hugh White Generally speaking Americans no longer want to bear the economic costs of being the world’s policeman, believing their security is not at

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, A True Story of Abduction, Adoption and Separated Twins. A tour de force, in writing and reporting. As part of China’s one-child policy, a baby

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann Daniel Kehlmann’s historical fiction novel, The Director, delves into the life of legendary filmmaker G.W. Pabst. Known for his socially conscious and sexually frank silent movies, Pabst directed Greta