Pam Macintyre

Top of my list is Sonya Hartnett’s bitter-sweet story of love and loss, The Ghost’s Child (Viking), for its emotional punch, mixture of realism, fairytale and magic realism, and exquisite prose. Also written with emotional clout is Bill Condon’s witty and frank Daredevils (UQP). Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight (Penguin), by Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow, gives sheer pleasure in a double-double writing act: Earls writes the wannabe Matthew Reilly contributions to a joint school writing task, while Sparrow has Cat channelling Jane Austen. The consequences of the uneasy school and personal relationships between the two, their increasingly intertwined lives, and the story they create are hilarious.