2024 Long and Short Lists

The title of this sparely-written, elegant novel ostensibly refers to trying to convert a church into a home after tragedy, but the story is as much about spiritual and life conversions as it is about a building. The novel follows the progress of Zoe’s life toward some sort of rebuilding after the betrayal and death of her husband.

The title is an early colonial name for Brisbane. There are two storylines: of Mulanyin and Nita, who watch as their lands are filled by white people, and Winona and Johnny, as they try to wrangle the feisty Mrs Eddie Blanket. In characteristically vivid prose, Lucashenko shows the ways that intimate relationships were, and continue to be, shaped by the violence of colonisation.

A strong collection with a wide variety of styles and concerns, with a consistent focus on social issues. If you want to sample the best of current Australian poetry, this book is for you.

This novel for younger readers explores the idea that we understand our lives in part by using stories from books, particularly in times of crisis and change. It shows that social convention can be not just constraining but fatal, even for adults.

This is a beautifully written contemplation: memoir, history, and analysis of the country’s relation to sport, including Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings of competition, play and belonging in life. Wide-ranging but always with controlled purpose, the book holds readers through a sometimes excruciating journey of shyness, experiences of racism and homophobia, committed othering, and losing and finding place.

In these difficult days with anti-Semitism sweeping the Western world, this tale of survival of the Nazi Holocaust is timely. But it’s a story not just survival, but of retaining humanity, optimism and love in the face of the most inhumane and vicious acts.