Best of 2017: Literary Fiction

by |December 27, 2017

Best of 2017 Literary Fiction

Lovers of good books have been richly rewarded with invigorating, challenging and uplifting fiction from young writers and household names alike. 2017 was a massive year for international fiction – new books coming from Arundhati Roy, Paul Auster, Ali Smith, Karl Ove Knausgaard and the first ever full-length novel from the now Man Booker-winning mastermind, George Saunders. But the most promising supply of new novels sprung from Australian authors with notable new books from Richard Flanagan, Robert Drewe, Tony Birch, Melanie Cheng, Peter Carey, Kim Scott, A. S. Patric, Alex Miller, Sofie Laguna… and the list goes on.

Below is our shortlist of seven outstanding books with one lucky winner. Each of these stories, even those placed far away and long ago, speak to this moment – to our urgent need to connect. This year’s winner united Booktopia’s staff in their adoration. It’s a book of unresting wit and acute observation. Read it. It’ll change your world.

Be sure to subscribe to the Booktopian for more of this year’s best.


Literary Fiction: Winner


The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser. 9781760296568.The Life to Come
by Michelle de Kretser

Set in Sydney, Paris and Sri Lanka, The Life to Come is a mesmerising novel about the stories we tell and don’t tell ourselves as individuals, as societies and as nations. It feels at once firmly classic and exhilaratingly contemporary.

Pippa is a writer who longs for success. Celeste tries to convince herself that her feelings for her married lover are reciprocated. Ash makes strategic use of his childhood in Sri Lanka but blots out the memory of a tragedy from that time. Driven by riveting stories and unforgettable characters, here is a dazzling meditation on intimacy, loneliness and our flawed perception of other people.

Profoundly moving as well as bitingly funny, The Life to Come reveals how the shadows cast by both the past and the future can transform, distort and undo the present… Learn more.

Read a review of The Life to Come by Bookopia’s Ben Hunter.


Literary Fiction: The Shortlist


Best of 2017 Literary Fiction

Best of 2017 Literary Fiction

The Shortlist: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Winter by Ali Smith, A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey, 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster, The Choke by Sofie Laguna.

Read staff reviews for Lincoln in the Bardo, Winter, 4 3 2 1, and The Choke.

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About the Contributor

Tanaya has been a lover of books for as long as she can remember. Now, her book collection is a little out of control, mostly consisting of YA fiction and pretty hardcovers. When she’s not reading, she spends a lot of her time taking photos of books for her bookstagram account, @prettypagesblog. She also has a love of Disneyland, bullet journaling and cats.

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