Fiction Archives

From where I sit the 2012 Miles Franklin Literature Award longlist seems right. The names I expected to see are listed, Elliot Perlman, Kate Grenville, Gail Jones, Alex Miller, as are some of the names I hoped to see, Charlotte Wood, Charlotte Wood and Charlotte Wood. There are a few disastrous exclusions,  though. The Life by Malcolm Knox, for one. Kylie Ladd’s Last Summer, is another. A... Read more

Happy 40th anniversary Picador. To celebrate, we have a great prize for one lucky Booktopia customer. Win the full 40th anniversary Picador collection  worth $315.00 The winner will be chosen from the customers who buy books from this collection before April 1st 2012. Click here to view the entire Picador 40th Anniversary Collection We also have 35 of Picador’s iconic tote bags to give aw... Read more

What follows is an exploration of fatherhood, of self, of loyalty, of obligation, of identity and perhaps, of the limits of unconditional love. There are wonderful insights into family, into connection and disconnection, and what it is like to watch someone decide to simply slip away from their moorings. Read more

In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Green has done something quite remarkable. He has written a tense psychological thriller and at the same time, a warm and moving story about life, death, love, loyalty and destiny. Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks M. J. Rose author of The Book of Lost Fragrances Ten Terrifying Questions ——————————– 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in New York City – on the upper east side – and raised there. In the shadow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park. I went to an all girl school ... Read more

This is a particularly sensual novel, and in that respect, it fits very well into that bush setting. The reader feels the ooze of the soil under hoof, smells the diesel of the red Fergy in the shed, hears the plop of the milk in the pail. And when it comes to longings of a more human kind, Tiffany's sparse and unsentimental style is both deft and poetic. Read more

For many parents there is a point, not long after New Years Day, when the long summer school holidays stop being fun. By then the kids have played with, broken or got bored with their Christmas presents, and the weather is too hot, too wet, too cold, too perfect for them to go outside. Parents know what I mean. Suddenly the TV is boring, the Internet is boring, video games are boring, the kids ... Read more

In Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, Keret serves up bite-size morsels of satire, realism and absurdism - the perfect combination for anyone suffering from the bloated , overblown hyperbole that constitutes so much of the the best sellers list. Read more

We can acknowledge that eBooks are cheap, convenient and instant… But I can’t think of them as sexy. These wonders from Penguin, however… Grrrrrrrrr… Penguin’s Clothbound Classics If, like us, you not only love having a great Classic to read but also cherish the feel of a wonderful object, then these are the books for you. Bound in cloth and each individually desig... Read more

What did Booktopia’s customers buy in 2011? Here are the twenty highest selling fiction titles… 1. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini Keeping in mind that the fourth and final instalment of Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle was only released in November, hitting the number one sales spot for the entire year is an amazing achievement. Pre-orders for Inheritance were astonishing, but ... Read more