The Glass Canoe
David Ireland, 1976 David Ireland’s Miles Franklin winning novel The Glass Canoe (1976) occupies a unique space in the IPA’s Australian Canon. It depicts an Australian way of life that has now all but vanished: It is a Shakespearean vision of white, male, working class, post-WWII Australia. [...]
Monkey Grip
Helen Garner, 1977 Helen Garner’s debut novel Monkey Grip follows the bohemian life of Nora, a single mother living in share houses in Fitzroy in the 1970s who has a habit of investing way too much hope and love in rather feckless men – in particular the [...]
Bad Debts
Peter Temple, 1996 Gambling, horses, murder, footy, dodgy pollies, dodgy coppers, dodgy property developers, wired journos, drunk lawyers, junkies and priests. Peter Temple’s Bad Debts, the first novel in his Jack Irish series, has it all. Riveting, gritty, and quintessentially Australian crime fiction, it won the [...]
Manning Clark’s History of Australia
Michael Cathcart (editor), 1989 Sitting down in his flat at Balliol College, Oxford, in October 1938, the drum beat of war growing louder across Europe, a twenty-three year old Manning Clark wrote an impassioned letter to his future wife, Dymphna. 'I feel certain that I can write [...]
The Harp in the South
Ruth Park, 1948 Now a bestselling Australian classic, The Harp in the South was hastily written in just six weeks by author Ruth Park at her parent’s kitchen table with two young children underfoot. It is conspicuously Australian, deeply empathetic and provides a unique insight into [...]
The Drover’s Wife
Henry Lawson, 1892 Poet and writer Henry Lawson explores the darker side of the Australian myth in his short story about a young mother living alone in the bush - The Drover’s Wife. Deeply gloomy in tone, Lawson paints a bleak but realistic picture of the [...]
A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute, 1950 The impact of World War II and the Prisoner of War experience on the Australian psyche is described in gritty detail by Neville Shute in his famous novel A Town Like Alice. It is a story of trial and triumph, cruelty and kindness, [...]
Dot and the Kangaroo
Ethel Pedley, 1899 A plea for environmental conservation sits at the heart of classic children’s tale Dot and the Kangaroo which constructs a strong sense of national identity based on Australia’s unique native flora and fauna. Ethel Pedley explores the wonder and beauty of the Australian [...]
Life Cycle
Bruce Dawe, 2009 Best-selling poet, Bruce Dawe (1930 – 2020) has been acclaimed as Australia’s premier bard of the suburbs. A highly respected writer and educator, Dawe’s work was described by Les Murray – arguably Australia’s most important poet of the 20th century – as “wonderfully [...]