5 Australian novels not to miss this month

The next few weeks are busy with loads of new Australian novels being published here in the UK. Here are five titles that have caught my eye.

The books have been arranged in order of publication date:

The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader
Published in paperback by Faber on 7 April (already available on Kindle)

“England, 1255: Sarah is only 17 when she chooses to become an anchoress, a holy woman shut away in a small cell, measuring seven paces by nine, at the side of the village church. Fleeing the grief of losing a much-loved sister in childbirth and the pressure to marry, she decides to renounce the world, with all its dangers, desires and temptations, and to commit herself to a life of prayer and service to God. But as she slowly begins to understand, even the thick, unforgiving walls of her cell cannot keep the outside world away, and it is soon clear that Sarah’s body and soul are still in great danger…”

Relativity by Antonia Hayes 
Published in hardcover by Corsair on 7 April

“A tiny baby is rushed to hospital. Doctors suspect he was shaken by his father, who is later charged and convicted. The baby grows up in the care of his mother. Life goes on. Twelve years later, Ethan is a singular young boy. Gifted with an innate affinity for physics and astronomy, Ethan sees the world in ways others simply can’t – through a prism of light, time, stars and space. Ethan is the centre of his mother’s universe. Claire has tried to protect him from finding out what happened when he was a baby. But the older Ethan gets, the more questions he asks about his absent father. A single handwritten letter is all it takes to set off a dramatic chain of events, pulling both parents back together again into Ethan’s orbit. As the years seem to warp and bend, the past is both relived and revealed anew for each of them.”

The Midnight Watch by David Dyer 
Published in hardcover by Atlantic Books on 7 April

“On a black night in April 1912, fifteen hundred passengers and crew perish as the Titanic slowly sinks beneath the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Charting the same perilous course through the icebergs is the SS Californian, close enough for her crew to see the eight white distress rockets fired by the Titanic. Yet the Californian fails to act, and later her crew insist that they saw nothing. As news of the disaster spreads throughout America, journalists begin a feeding frenzy, desperate for stories. John Steadman is one such reporter, a man broken by alcoholism, grief and a failed marriage. Steadman senses blood as he fixates on the Californian and his investigation reveals a tense and perplexing relationship between the ship’s captain and second officer, who hold the secrets of what occurred that night. Slowly he peels back the layers of deception, and his final, stunning revelation of what happened while the Titanic sank will either redeem the men of the Californian, or destroy them.”

The Wonder Lover by Malcolm Knox
Published in paperback by Allen & Unwin on 7 April

“This is the story of John Wonder, a man with three families occupying their own compartment in his world, each with a loving wife and two children called Adam and Evie, and each completely oblivious to the existence of the others. As he travels from family to family in different cities, he works as an Authenticator, verifying world records, confirming facts, setting things straight, while his own life is a teetering tower of breathtaking lies and betrayals. Things really start to get complicated when on the search to authenticate the world’s most beautiful woman, he falls in love with a fourth woman.”

The Weaver Fish by Robert Edeson
Published in paperback by Aardvark Bureau on 18 April (already available on Kindle)

“A captivating zoological, mathematical, technological, grammatical, architectural, aeronautical literary thriller – unlike anything you’ve read before. When Edvard Tøssentern, the missing author of studies of the mysterious flesh-eating weaver fish, staggers in from a remote swamp, his colleagues at the research station on the island of Ferendes are overjoyed. But Edvard’s discovery about a rare giant bird throws them all into the path of a dangerous international crime ring. Part-thriller, part-literary and mathematical puzzle, this unique, bold and playful debut engages the reader in an exhilarating game, challenging everything we know – or think we know – about language, morality and truth.”

Have any of these books piqued your interest? Some have been published in Australia already, so if you’ve read any of them I’d be delighted to know what you thought…