Melbourne itself is a UNESCO designated City of Literature. It’s no wonder that there’s such a strong literary culture in Australia. It has thieves, hunky priests, imaginary schoolmates, POWs and gumshoes. Tonga Tales of the Tikong by Epeli Hau’ofa (short stories)Ī satirical look at contemporary South Pacific island life that is set on the fictional island of Tikong, about what happens when development arrives and threatens the traditional way of life.This list of the best Australian books runs the spectrum from wacky history to institutionalized racism to ’80’s wastelands. This book is more academic than the others on this list and is a detailed examination of Fiji’s colonial history. This is a title from the Pacific Islands Monograph Series it is a history of a country that is shaped by the author’s own life history and experiences as an Indo-Fijian (Lal is one of the few historians from Fiji). Fiji Broken Waves by Brij Lal (nonfiction, history)

Utami was one of the first Indonesian female writers to explicitly discuss sexuality and sparked a new era of Indonesian literature.

Indonesia Saman by Ayu Utami (fiction)Ī novel set in Indonesia about the lives of four sexually liberated friends. This is her third short story collection and concentrates on exploring the theme of darkness. Dark Jelly by Alice Tawhai (short stories)Īlice Tawhai is a short fiction writer whose stories have been published in literary journals in Australia and New Zealand. This book is set not just in New Zealand but incorporates elements from multiple places across the Pacific (Hawaii and Japan), which makes it seem particularly fitting for this task. The story of a young man sent to live with his Maori grandmother and his discovery of his family history. A story of love, destiny, and whales, this is a quick but sweeping read.

New Zealand The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (fiction)Ī novel that was adapted into a movie in 2003, it is about Kahu, an eight-year-old Maori girl who craves the attention of her great-grandfather, who has no attention for her because he is blinded by tradition and wishes for a male heir. Stan Grant is one of Australia’s leading journalists and this book is an account of his life and experiences he faced as an Aboriginal Australian as well as a look at deeper issues around colonialism and oppression. Talking to My Country by Stan Grant (memoir)

Growing up aboriginal in australia book