Our List of 10 Must-Read Fiction Books You Need in Your Booklist
If you’re after your next read, or your next ten, here’s a list I keep coming back to when friends ask what to put on their bedside table. A mix of brand new releases and a few beloved favourites that never go out of style.
**The Correspondent by Virginia Evans**
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026, this one is told entirely through the letters of seventy three year old Sybil Van Antwerp, a stubborn, cantankerous, endlessly opinionated woman making sense of her life one post script at a time. Funny, moving and completely absorbing, it’s already being compared to 84 Charing Cross Road and A Man Called Ove.
**A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by M.K. Oliver**
If you want something darkly funny, meet Lalla Rook, a wife and mother in North London who will do absolutely anything, including a spot of light murder, to secure her perfect life. Think Killing Eve meets Motherland. It’s satirical, sharp and genuinely hilarious in places you probably shouldn’t laugh.
**Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth**
From the Melbourne based, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister comes a twist filled, darkly funny mystery about eighty one year old Elsie, once Australia’s youngest convicted murderer, whose past comes knocking when a new investigation reopens her case. Warm, sharp and surprisingly tender.
**Every Wild Soul by Katherine Johnson**
Winner of the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, this lyrical Tasmanian novel is set on wild and remote Maria Island, where eighteen year old Min is trying to break free from her controlling father with the help of an eccentric, homeless biologist. A gorgeous read about nature, freedom and the ties that both protect and confine us.
**The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester**
A feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre set inside Hollywood’s infamous Chateau Marmont hotel, from the Western Australian, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress. Glamorous, gothic and full of secrets.
**Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena**
The queen of the one sit read is back with a twisty new thriller about a couple who love their beautiful home so much, they might just kill to keep it. Perfect for a weekend when you want to be completely absorbed.
**Tight Lines by Allee Richards**
A Melbourne author’s coming of age story set on the Victorian coast, following a friendship that spans two decades after one reckless summer changes everything. Sparse, honest and quietly devastating.
**The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams**
If you haven’t read this one yet, now’s the time. Set in Oxford during the early 1900s, it follows a girl who grows up collecting the words that the men compiling the Oxford English Dictionary leave out. A modern classic and one of the most loved Australian novels of the last decade.
**The Housemaid by Freida McFadden**
The book that everyone was talking about, and for good reason. A domestic thriller with one of the best twists in recent memory, following a live in housekeeper whose new employers are not what they seem.
**Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty**
From one of Australia’s most successful novelists, this is the story of a family thrown into chaos when their retired tennis coach mother goes missing. Moriarty at her sharp, character driven best, and a great pick if you haven’t already devoured her whole back catalogue.
What would you add to this list? I’d love to hear what’s currently on your own bedside table.
