The playwright’s debut novel is an intergenerational saga that explores how fostering a strong sense of community brings happiness and harmony

Blending dystopic soothsaying and raucous imagination, Prosser’s debut novel is a bit Philip K Dick, a bit Jennifer Egan and a bit entirely unique

This writer’s tantalising second novel is packed with marvellous characters, whose unfurling stories examine generational secrets

This novel, by an assured writer known for her female-led stories, succeeds in its ambition to entice and delight

Set in 13th century Mongolia, this novel articulates a quiet, pragmatic optimism about the ways we can heal each other amid war and trauma

If novels like this one are feminist – and that’s a slippery question – then it feels like a masochistic kind of empowerment

Navigating on foot, Cleary is guided by histories, traditional owners and some unexpected weather, resulting in a rich account of the natural world

This novel is both biting satire and love story, unfolding in a surprising melange of wonder and intelligence

Tan’s fast-paced, acidic essays are guided by big ideas, drawing on her personal story to speak to the invisible, powerful forces that shape us all

Metal objects launched into space observe perplexing humanity in this wildly inventive novel from the author of Only the Animals

The Miles Franklin winner has somehow created a novel that feels warm and generous even when provoking feelings of discomfort and shame

These stylish autobiographical essays take the reader into backstreets rarely traversed in Australian literature – sex clubs, street fights and emergency rooms

This excellent debut novel follows a weary son who clashes over his gender transition with his elderly mother, a supplement devotee hellbent on becoming an influencer

This tightly plotted story shows a woman on the brink, and doesn’t make much room for anything else

A novel that’s torn between two books – one is a half-hearted skewering of money and power, the other a modern romance

After undergoing electroconvulsive treatment, the author powerfully documents how art helped her recover her memory, autonomy and sense of self

Spanning 1933 to 2181, this ambitious novel explores the future of humanity through the lives of a few women, zeroing in on capitalism, AI and violence

These cleverly interconnected stories explore the power and price of beauty, following an ethnically ambiguous girl who pretends to be part-Asian to become a model

Often unsettling and sensitive novel follows a thread of emotional repression through three generations of women

The Nobel laureate’s new collection of stories is concerned with death, desire and old age, glinting with flashes of humour and grand, existential strangeness