New books by Lee Child, Richard Glover and Heather Morris in our list of Notable Books

What to read this week, with new titles by Heather Morris, Lee Child and Richard Glover on the shelves.

What to read this week: The Australian’s Notable Books column.

Heather Morris is enjoying enormous commercial success as a writer, having published The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey and Three Sisters, which have together sold 16 million copies. Her new book, Sisters Under The Rising Sun, takes readers away from Nazi death camps to the Pacific theatre of war in 1942. It follows two Army nurses who have just arrived in Singapore. Nesta and Vivian have fled there from Malaya, along with English musician, Norah Chambers. As the Japanese overrun the city, the women board the merchant ship Vyner Brooke, only for it to be sunk two days later. Nesta and Norah reach a remote island but are swiftly captured and sent to POW camps. There, the women begin their struggle to survive.

The new Jack Reacher by Lee Child

Speaking of commercial success (see above) Lee Child’s publisher sells a Jack Reacher book about once every nine seconds. Child doesn’t write the books on his own anymore. He’s teamed up with his younger brother, Andrew (who also writes under the name Andrew Grant). In their latest, The Secret, two strangers ask a hospital patient for a name to add to their list. When he isn’t able to supply it, he is thrown from the 12th floor window. The death of the man generates some attention from the US Secretary of Defence, who invites an inter-agency task force to investigate the death. Now enter Jack Reacher. After 28 books, does he still bring the magic? He does.

Rambling Man: My Life On The Road by Billy Connolly

I was raised watching the great Billy Connolly – my Dad’s influence mostly. While crude and rude, he is captivatingly funny but above all else, he is honest. He is a man of the world, a man with a genuine love for people, a man who loves to travel; by his own admission, a rambling man. Billy Connolly has wandered to every corner of the globe and believes that being a Rambling Man (or person) is more than just travelling – it’s a state of mind. It takes free spirits who live on their wits, are interested in humanity, and are curious about the world. Rambling Man: My Life on the Road is an unconventional travel memoir that takes readers to America, Nepal, the Arctic, New Zealand, Canada, and of course, our great land, Australia. I was thrilled to see that Billy Connolly personally narrated the audiobook and it is every bit as good as you would hope.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

After her marriage falls apart, an unnamed woman abandons her city life to live in a small religious community in the region she grew up. The woman does not believe in God, yet she cloisters herself. As she settles into the calm, she becomes absorbed in thoughts of her late mother. Then comes the return of the skeletal remains of a Sister, who left the community decades before, went missing, and was presumed murdered. The woman has no choice but to face some challenging questions about life, forgiveness, and grief. Charlotte Wood has written 10 books including seven novels and three nonfiction works. She has won multiple awards, including the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Stone Yard Devotional is a compelling and heart-wrenching novel that explores the human condition.

So Close To Home by Mick Cummins

Mick Cummins has written plays (Window Without a View and Perfect Madness), award-winning documentaries (Thomson of Arnhem Land) and the ABC docu-dramas, Monash: The Forgotten Anzac, and Menzies and Churchill at War. So Close to Home is his debut novel and was the winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. T Cummins draws on his career in social work with young people experiencing trauma, addiction, and homelessness, and asks the question, who can we ever truly rely on? Eighteen-year-old Aaron is addicted to heroin. His mum has kicked him out of home in an attempt to help him get his life together, but the pain of past trauma might be too much for him to get straight. So Close to Home is a thought-provoking and powerful debut.

Doll’s Eye by Leah Kaminsky

Anna Winter is a doll repairer who has fled Germany and is, by 1949, living in Australia. She has some secrets that might just derail her future. Moving seamlessly in place and time between Germany and Australia during the 1930s and 1940s, Doll’s Eye explores the themes of love, loss, oppression, belonging, and displacement, with Nazi Germany the vessel that drives the narrative. The prose is outstanding, and the storytelling is raw. Leah Kaminsky’s debut novel, The Waiting Room, won the Voss Literary Prize. The Hollow Bones won both the Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction categories of the 2019 International Book Awards, and the 2019 American Book Fest’s Best Book Award for Literary Fiction. A master of historical storytelling, Leah Kaminsky continues to capture moments in time with an eye for detail.

Best Wishes by Richard Glover

Richard Glover has written a number of best-selling books, including the highly successful The Land Before Avocado. In his latest book, Best Wishes, the endearing Glover has outlined 365 astute, hilarious, plain wrong, and thought-provoking observations about life and society, some of which I can absolutely get behind, such as wishing people would stop predicting the death of the book or wondering how computer cables, hanging untouched behind a desk, instantly tangle themselves into a knot. Others I can absolutely NOT get behind, like wishing cheap instant coffee was given the respect it deserves and wishing people would buy me socks for Christmas. But more than anything, I love that Best Wishes will start conversations about subjects that matter, ideas that could change the world, or some that will simply give us a good belly laugh.

Betrix and Fred by Emily Spurr

Beatrix & Fred is one of the most unique and curious novels of 2023, and that is precisely what makes it one of the best. Beatrix is a loner, she is struggling with depression, drinks far too much, and has a love-hate relationship with her only friend, Ray. Her life is coming apart at the seams as she finds herself on the edge of a railway platform, which is where she encounters Fred, a peculiar elderly woman. Spurr’s debut novel A Million Things was short-listed for the esteemed Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Prize. It was also voted BookBrowse Best Debut Novel of 2021, long-listed for the 2022 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, and Highly Commended for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award. Spurr is an up-and-coming star on the Australian literary scene, and it’s her distinctive style and voice that separates her from the rest.