Australia’s 21st‑century reading conversation
From the explosion of global publishing to intimate personal reckonings, the first 25 years of this century have produced countless books that linger in the mind. ABC Radio National has launched a nationwide vote to crown Australia’s 10 favourite books of the 21st century, with the countdown airing on October 18 and 19. Voting remains open until 5pm AEST on October 2, inviting readers to weigh in on which titles have become touchstones for Australian readers.
To help spark discussion and reflect the country’s diverse reading tastes, a group of acclaimed Australian authors have shared their own top picks. Their choices span genres, eras and voices, reminding us that great books often reveal more about the reader than the pages themselves.
Markus Zusak: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Sydney’s Markus Zusak selects an American epic. His pick is Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a 2002 historical novel about two Jewish cousins who create a fictional superhero as the early comic-book era unfolds. Zusak notes the novel’s sweep, warmth and craft, and even cites a line describing an ocean liner entering New York Harbor “like a mountain wearing a dinner jacket” — a moment he says captures the essence of what writing can do: make language sing in new, surprising ways. For Zusak, this is storytelling at its most fertile, expansive, and human.
Hannah Kent: Braiding Sweetgrass
Hannah Kent’s 21st‑century favourite is not fiction but a powerful work of Indigenous knowledge and ecology: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Kent calls it a book she can recommend to anyone, a text she rereads and still finds something new in. It blends science, ethics and a deep sense of place, inviting readers to see land and learning as a kind of living embroidery. The choice sits beside Kent’s own historical fiction, underscoring how non-fiction can reshape a writer’s sense of belonging and responsibility to country.
Ocean Vuong: Ghosts of My Life
Ocean Vuong’s pick lives squarely in critical thought about the era we inhabit. Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures, by Mark Fisher, is a collection that Vuong calls a seminal landmark. It argues that the 21st century’s anxieties—loss, memory, cultural stagnation—are not merely trends but diagnoses. Vuong frames the book as a rigorous, unsettling lens through which to view contemporary culture, urging readers to confront uncomfortable truths while remaining open to remedies and possibilities that fiction and criticism alike can propose.
Trent Dalton: A Fraction of the Whole
Trent Dalton names Steve Toltz’s A Fraction of the Whole (2008) as the book that most shaped him in this century. Dalton, known for Boy Swallows Universe and other works, says Toltz’s novel — with its sprawling Australian family saga and inventive voice — is a reminder that everything is possible for an Australian writer. The book’s driving sense of invention and its twists left a lasting impression on Dalton, influencing how he imagines scale, ambition and the audacity of a debut that becomes a landmark for a generation of readers and writers alike.
Kate Grenville: The Biggest Estate on Earth
Kate Grenville’s century‑spanning lens lands on Bill Gammage’s The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Grenville says the book profoundly transformed her understanding of Australian identity, revealing sophisticated Indigenous land management practices that shaped landscapes long before colonisation was written into history. It’s a reminder that history, science and storytelling can converge to reveal a country’s ‘embroidery’ — a layered, living texture that informs how Grenville writes, teaches and sees the land today.
Craig Silvey: The Book Thief
Finally, Craig Silvey circles back to Markus Zusak with The Book Thief (2005), a choice he describes as haunting, humane and enduring. Silvey praises its storytelling mastery and its quietly Australian resonance, noting that the novel’s emotional reach remains with him long after first reading. It’s a testimonial to the power of a careful, humane history told through a child’s perspective, bridging personal and national narratives across borders and generations.
Australia’s conversation about 21st‑century literature is ongoing, with a nation of readers invited to vote for ten titles that resonate most deeply. The mix of fiction and non‑fiction, local voices and international storytelling, underscores how the century’s best books can travel far beyond their pages—inviting us to read ourselves anew, one treasured title at a time.
