Ten essential Australian novels

Susan Allott is from the UK but spent part of her twenties in Australia, desperately homesick but trying to make Sydney her home. She completed the Faber Academy course in 2017, during which she started writing her debut novel, The Silence. She now lives in south London with her two children and her very Australian husband.

Q&A with Susan Allott.

At CrimeReads, Allott tagged ten favorite Australian titles, including:

Evie Wyld, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice (2009)

Evie Wyld was born in London but spent part of her childhood in Australia. After the Fire is her debut, set on the East coast of Australia, about the trauma of war and the experiences that bind two men together despite their fractured relationship. Various critics have suggested that Wyld’s writing is on a par with Tim Winton and Peter Carey. I don’t like to draw comparisons but there are lines from After the Fire that I still think of, a decade after I first read it, and it has held its position as one of the best books I’ve ever read. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Betty Trask Award. Wyld went on to win a host of prizes for her second novel, All the Birds, Singing and her third novel, Bass Rock, is out now.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: After the Fire, a Still Small Voice.

--Marshal Zeringue