As we rapidly approach the end of the year, the AU Books team have been desperately sorting books, rating and re-rating, choosing and re-choosing as they try to narrow down their favourite reads of 2024.
It’s never an easy to task to choose just one, so we at least let them put forward a couple of picks. This list in no way covers everything we’ve loved, but here are some of the books that stayed with us, long after we put them down.
Ædnan: An Epic – Linnea Axelsson (Trans. Saskia Vogel)
Simon: Ædnan, in Northern Sámi, means the land, the ground, or the earth. And across a century, and 400 or so pages, Axelsson chronicles the lives of two Indigenous Sámi families as their connection to the land and their heritage is put under immense pressure by successive Swedish (and other Scandinavian) governments and society at large.
Ædnan is perhaps a bit of an acquired taste – it’s a novel-in-verse, and it took me a little while to get attuned to the novel’s rhythms and flow. But, once locked in, it’s a powerful, moving and profound read. There’s a sparseness and minimalism to the verse that really belies not only its power, but also its beauty – especially in the novel’s earlier stages.
The history of the Sámi people is likely to be one unfamiliar to many outside the arctic regions – though will surely have resonance across the globe, especially in decolonised countries. This beautifully realised novel is a great jumping off point to learn more. (Pushkin Press)
Grab a copy HERE
This Motherless Land – Nikki May
Emily: A modern and de-colonial look at Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, This Motherless Land is a heart wrenching story of two cousins set on different paths by tragedy and prejudice. It is a gorgeous family story, and also a careful examination of friendship between two women, cousins born into different circumstances.
Austen-ites can spend hours untangling the parallels between the two books, and may also enjoy the subtle discourse about race and white colonialism in the original, while readers who have never read Jane Austen before may simply relish a good story, well-told on its own. This book is funny, it’s smart, it’s realistic, and at times it is quite sad, and it’s my favourite book of the year. (Penguin Random House)
Grab a copy HERE
Depth of Field – Kirsty Iltners
Annie: I was not expecting a novel like this one to make my list of this year’s best new releases, but when it came time to think over all the books I read this year, I couldn’t stop returning to this one. It was just that well-written. Depth of Field, Kirsty Iltners‘ debut novel and winner of the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award, really struck a chord with me and tore me apart a little inside.
Told from the alternating perspectives of a lonely photographer and an isolated teen mother, it’s a beautifully and cleverly written story, and so emotionally raw that at times it was hard to read (but in my opinion, well worth the pain).
If you’re looking for some Aussie contemporary fiction and are prepared to cry, I cannot recommend this one enough. (UWA Press)
Grab a copy HERE
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland – Sarah Brooks
Jemimah: My highlight for 2024 is Sarah Brooks‘ The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland. In 1899, on the eve of a new age of industry and progress, the Trans-Siberia company run the great train that crosses the mysterious and dangerous Wastelands – a wild, uninhabited landscape between Beijing and Moscow.
But as the journey progresses it becomes clear that this crossing is different, no matter how much the Company representatives insist that the great train is impenetrable and cannot be stopped.
With three fully formed and morally complicated protagonists, it is a sweeping novel of strange lands, surprising character growth, and a train journey that will change the world. (Hachette Australia)
Grab a copy HERE
The Ministry of Time – Kaliane Bradley
Jess: It was a top notch year for challenging but charming speculative fiction and Jemimah really did me a favour by highlighting The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland as one of her picks because it made it so much easier for me to then choose this equally as fantastic book that is so worthy of recognition. The Ministry of Time is part time-travel spy thriller, part love story and part contemporary drama.
Following an unnamed civil servant, who lands a highly secretive role as a ‘bridge’ with a mysterious new government department, the story focuses on the interactions between the bridge and a group of people who have been pulled to the ‘present’ by the government from various points in the past. As the story continues, the mysteries around the time-door and the ministry start to become more and more sinister and the bridge is forced to reflect on her own role in the beauracracy at work. This is a book that I will undoubtedly come back to and reread again. I highly recommend it! (Hachette Australia)
Grab a copy HERE
Audrey’s Gone AWOL – Annie de Monchaux
Emily: An honourable mention this year must go to Annie de Monchaux’s charming book, Audrey’s Gone AWOL, which is a book which brought me a lot of comfort during a dark part of the year.
It’s indefatigable heroine, Audrey, absconds from her family life where she feels underappreciated and unfulfilled and flies to France to help her aunt run a guest house. There, she learns a lot of things, including how to tap dance, and who she is other than Mum, Wife etc etc.
It was refreshing to follow a heroine who is not newly in her 20s and looking for first love, and Audrey is a character who you will just want to hug and have a cup of tea with. This is my gift of choice book for this festive season, please get one for all the women in your life, it is a gem. Can’t wait to re-read it, and whatever Annie publishes next. (Ultimo Press)
Grab a copy HERE
The Horse – Willy Vlautin
Simon: I am a big fan of Willy Vlautin’s fiction (and that’s before we even get into his musical output), and for me The Horse is one of Vlautin’s best. It helps that it’s probably one of his most personal yet, and that it takes some inspiration from Vlautin’s other career. The Horse tells the story of Al Ward, a journeyman musician, who’s seemingly incapable of truly escaping the tragedies of his past, and never quite gets his big break.
Ward, as flawed as he is, is the novel’s drawcard. Vlautin has a knack for creating characters that feel lived in, that feel authentic and real. He also has a knack for creating characters that are on the fringes, scraping a living, and fighting desperately for their slice of the American dream.
It’s a short novel, but an impactful one – a poignant and striking exploration of addiction, of art, of heartbreak and the realities of a life on the road for small time bands and musicians. (Allen & Unwin)
Grab a copy HERE
The Last Murder at the End of the World – Stuart Turnton
Annie: It’s a sci-fi murder mystery full of wild twists and turns all told by a probably-not-reliable narrator, and I adored it. Taking place on a small island housing the last remnants of humanity, the story concerns the murder of one of the world’s last scientists, whose death will bring the destruction of the last few humans left alive if her murder isn’t solved soon.
But this isn’t just a simple who-dunnit – in order to solve this particular mystery, our protagonists the truth of their past, the apocalypse that destroyed the world, and the island they call home.
I always love a genre-blending mystery, and this one was filled with plenty of intrigue to sink my teeth into. The point-of-view and slow start might mean this one’s not everybody’s cup of tea. But, it’s definitely worth checking out if, like me, you heard the title and were immediately curious. (Bloomsbury)
Grab a copy HERE
A Song to Drown Rivers – Ann Liang
Jess: This historical fiction inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, absolutely captivated me. Xishi’s beauty leads her to be selected by the kingdom of Yue’s young military advisor Fanli for an important mission to infiltrate the enemy kingdom of Wu as a concubine. Weilding her beauty as a weapon, Xishi sets about toppling the Wu kingdom from within. But she has to be careful. There are enemies all around her, and not everyone is as swayed by her beauty as the Wu king.
Full of intrigue and tension, this book is a stunning look at war and feminine power. Liang’s writing is both beautiful and entertaining, filling the book with rich imagery while also keeping the book moving along at an enjoyable pace. The characters are nuanced, and she does a remarkable job of allowing the reader to sympathise with a character while still finding them detestable. Easily one of my favourite books of the year. This one blew me away. (Pan Macmillan Australia)
Read our full review HERE | Grab a copy HERE
Saltblood – Francesca De Tores
Simon: Every now and then you need a bit of a swashbuckling adventure of a novel and this year Saltblood delivered that for me. The novel is a fictional retelling of the story of Mary Read, a sailor, a soldier, a ‘pirate’ and one of history’s most remarkable (yet largely unknown) figures.
By all accounts the novel follows the facts of Mary’s life quite closely – I guess when you’ve lived a life that interesting there’s not much need to embellish. It’s a story of subterfuge, of illusion, of friendship and love; but ultimately, it’s a story of survival. Well researched, and beautifully crafted with great descriptive prose, Saltblood will transport you back to the golden age of piracy. (Bloomsbury)
Grab a copy HERE
Ninth Life – Stark Holborn
Jodie: Indulge me for a moment while I tell you to not only read my favourite book from 2024 but the two that came before it. Stark Holborn’s Ninth Life is the third in the Factus Sequence, and it’s as fitting a finale for child soldier turned smuggler turned all round badass Gabi Ortiz as you could hope for.
While this pacey space western can stand alone (as all the Factus Sequence books can), if you want to run the real gamut of emotions on this one, pick up Ten Low and Hel’s Eight first. I’ll be recommending this series (and, honestly, the entirety of Stark Holborn’s back catalogue) for years to come. (Titan Books)
Read our review HERE | Grab a copy HERE
Thanks to Simon Clark, Emily Paull, Annie Mills, Jemimah Brewster and Jodie Sloan for their contributions to this list.
