Here are the books you should be reading this Christmas

SUMMER holidays finally bring the time to actually read something longer than a to-do list. Here’s a few great books you can get stuck into.

Author Charlotte Wood. Picture: John Fotiadis

NOTHING says ‘out of office’ quite like the summer book stack.

You may not get through all of the books, you may end up drunk on the couch or at war with passive-aggressive in-laws for most of your summer break, but the Christmas book stack by the bed remains a promising portent of freedom.

The books themselves hardly matter, it’s what they represent: the calm after the mad dash through December; the inboxes that will go unchecked; the secluded holiday cabin where, try as you might, you can’t seem to get the two bars of reception necessary to Instagram the important-looking book stack.

For those determined to crack the spine on some good-quality tomes, you’re in luck. The past year has been a great one for book lovers, especially fans of Australian authors.

Here’s what to read:

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

It’s told from the perspective of two women, who wake to find themselves, with a handful of other young women, imprisoned in a strange camp in the middle of nowhere with two sadistic camp jailers. All of the women are linked by scandal with high-profile men, but exactly why they’re there, and how they’ll get out, is a mystery. Wood recently took out the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction for this novel (alongside Lisa Gorton for The Life of Houses), and deservedly so. It’s pacy, it’s well written, and the characters are believable.

The Dry by Jane Harper

Jane Harper’s novel about a crime in a drought-stricken Australian town has already been snapped up for a film. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Jane Harper has had a dream run for a first-time novelist. The journalist wrote her novel in between shifts on the business desk at The Herald Sun in Melbourne, and her manuscript was quickly snapped up by publisher Pan Macmillan. Built around a shocking crime in the drought-stricken bush, The Dry involves a policeman returning to the small town of his youth after his childhood friend committed what looks like a murder suicide. Publishing rights have been sold in more than 20 countries, and Reese Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard production company has bought the film rights.

The Good People by Hannah Kent

Fans of her debut Burial Rites will adore Kent’s return to fine form with The Good People. Set in a rural Ireland in the early 19th century, itis the story of Nora Leahy, who is grieving the deaths of her only daughter and her husband. She is also left to care for her grandson, Micheal, who cannot walk, talk or speak, and — desperate — she seeks out the services of the controversial local healer. There are very few Australian authors with Kent’s lyrical yet concise style, and The Good People has that same magnetic quality of her debut.

Zero K by Don Delillo

Without doubt one of the greatest living American writers, Don Delillo never fails to ignite the imagination with his big-picture obsessions. This time it’s cryonics, with two of the main characters opting to be frozen at a remote and top-secret cryonics compound in the hope that, one day, scientific advances will allow them to be resurrected. The story is also about the myriad ways a father-son relationship can be strained, and how our lives are haunted by a desperation to not grow old and lose the ones we love. The writing is, as always, hypnotic.

Quicksand by Steve Toltz

Steve Toltz created quite a stir with his Booker-nominated A Fraction of The Whole, and his follow-up Quicksand is equally ambitious. It was published in 2015, but remains a fabulous holiday read. Liam is a struggling writer and a unenthusiastic cop, while Aldo, his best friend, has probably the worst luck going: failed businesses, a wife who has deserted him, a raft of run-ins with the law, you name it. Naturally, Liam decides to base his next novel on Aldo’s terrible misfortunes, which are not only immense, but are continuing to mount. It’s funny, artful and dark.

The Boy Behind the Curtain by Tim Winton

It must be summer — there’s a new Tim Winton book to read. Source: Supplied

It doesn’t feel like summer without a dog-eared copy of a Tim Winton novel to take to the beach. The Boy Behind the Curtain is a highly personal collection of essays and ruminations on the world, in which Winton writes about his love of words, nature, surfing, his family and the auspicious moments that make up, and shape, a life. He also zooms his lends back to look at the social issues that haunt him, and the writing is both tender and probing.

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver’s The Mandibles is a timely look at the state of the world’s largest democracy. The book is set in US in 2029 during a world war, a collapse of the country’s economy and the introduction of a new global currency, called Bancor. Against this larger backdrop of chaos and poverty go The Mandibles, a family that has lost an inheritance in the economic collapse and are struggling to stay afloat, while pining for their expensive wine and overseas holidays. Fascinating.

Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman

Abigail Ulman’s has attracted attention from some big names. Source: Supplied

Melbourne writer Abigail Ulman is one to watch. Her 2015 debut collection of short stories read like the work of a late-career writer: accomplished, mature and with none of that desperate display of virtuosity and verbiage that plagues many first-timers. The stories are all built around young women — from teens to late twenties — coming to terms with their desires, responsibilities and their place in the world. This year, the book really found its fans. It was endorsed by Lena Dunham on her Lenny Letter website, and has been sold to the UK, the US, and Germany, which is a testament to the quality of the writing.

Johanna Leggatt is a Melbourne-based freelance journalist and book reviewer. Follow her at @johannaleggatt

Originally published as Here are the books you should be reading this Christmas