A young Vietnamese-Australian named Nam, in his final year at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, is trying to find his voice on the page. When his father, a man with a painful past, comes to visit, Nam's writing and sense of self are both deeply changed. Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice is a deeply moving story of identity, family and the wellsprings of creativity, from Nam Le's multi-award-winning collection The Boat. 'A tight and densely emotional journey that sucked me in and contained as much power as the lengthy title.' Killings, the Kill Your Darlings blog

In 1979, Nam Le's family left Vietnam for Australia, an experience that inspires the first and last stories in The Boat. In between, however, Le's imagination lays claim to the world. The Boat takes us from a tourist in Tehran to a teenage hit man in Colombia; from an ageing New York artist to a boy coming of age in a small Victorian fishing tow...

Set among the surf and sandhills of the Australian beach – and the tidal changes of three generations of the Lang family – The Bodysurfers is an Australian classic. A short-story collection which has become a bestseller and been adapted for film, television, radio and the theatre, The Bodysurfers on its first publication marked a major change in Australian literature.

Feel that War and Peace went on a bit? Wish there were more laughs in Catcher in the Rye? Then A Selection of Smithereens is for you. These pieces from one of Australia's funniest men (no, not John Clarke) feature the Borgias, Winston Churchill and the history behind cornflakes – and so much more! Fresh from the updated 2011 edition of Smithereens, these six short essays are small, perfectly formed and easily digestible pieces of Shaun Micallef.

Squeaker, a selector, is slowly clearing his piece of the Australian bush. However, lazy and shiftless, he leaves most of the work to his uncomplaining and hardworking mate. When she is crushed under a falling yellow gum, Squeaker responds only with selfish impatience. Taught to endlessly endure by her harsh surroundings, Squeaker's mate carries the burden of her injury quietly, with only her old dog for comfort. Published as part of Barbara Baynton's iconic collection Bush Studies in 1902, Squeaker's Mate is a visceral and lyrical story about the hostility faced by European settlers in the Australian bush during settlement. From an era when literature focused almost entirely on men and male experiences, Squeaker's Mate is an important depiction of the unique trials and strengths of women.

Beneath its peaceful exterior, the city of Adelaide and its surrounding areas have a dark history. From the disappearance of the Beaumont children to the Snowtown killings in the 1990s, it has been home to a long series of brutal and baffling killings and abductions. In The Element of Need, acclaimed author James Bradley uses this long history of violence as the basis of a fascinating exploration not just of his own childhood and adolescence, but of the psychic landscape of this most haunted of cities.

In a small Australian country town, a young woman is accused of the murders of her own daughter and the local rat catcher's wife. As she stands to face the charges in court, a stranger enters, determined to explain her crimes. This masterly story from Woman in a Lampshade perfectly displays Elizabeth Jolley's remarkable talent for character and story.

A big old Victorian terrace in Jersey Road, Woollahra, is thought to be haunted by the two Darkling sisters from the 1920s. When a young family moves in, dark images of these sisters, and of relationships closer to home, hang over them. Beautifully crafted and keenly observed, this story from Dorothy Hewett's acclaimed collection A Baker's Dozen is a stunning evocation of family, memories and neighbourhood.

When Jill Meagher went missing and was then found murdered in 2012, the city of Melbourne was shaken to the core. Emotional responses ranged from grief to guilt to rage to defensiveness, but no one was left untouched. The media coverage was unrelenting and overwhelming, constantly updating readers and viewers on the latest awful details, and friends and neighbours couldn't help but discuss it. Here acclaimed writer Michaela McGuire eloquently describes how, as the story continued to unfold, it wove itself through the fabric of the city. A Story of Grief is a deeply moving examination of the act of grief and how the death of someone we don't know personally can still consume us. 'Affecting and thought-provoking.' Newcastle Herald