From the MWF team: A Spring Reading List

The weather is warming up, the flowers are blooming and the downpours have started. Spring in Melbourne has begun! To complement the new season, the MWF team have some recent reading recommendations for your TBR pile. Old books, new ones, prize-winners from near and far, creepy fiction, coming-of-age stories and blisteringly smart essays–we’ve got it all. 

Happy Spring Reading, everyone! 🌸

Adrian Basso, General Manager
Outback noir is alive and well in Jane Harper’s Last One Out and Garry Disher’s Mischance Creek. Harper’s story circles a mining town scarred by loss and secrecy, while Disher draws Hirsch into a drought-stricken country where the shadow of abandoned mines and old mysteries still lingers – with a playful nod to Harper along the way. Both novels reveal how the land itself shapes crime, memory, and survival.

Jamila Djafar Khodja, Senior Development Manager
I’ve been waiting for Arundhati Roy’s memoir for a long time – and it was worth the wait. Mother Mary Comes to Me paints an unflinching and unique picture of a complex mother-daughter relationship, interwoven with descriptions of India’s recent political history. Roy is one of the most compassionate, singular writers of our time and, despite being memoir, this book still glimmers with the magical realism of her breakout novel The God of Small Things. 

I am embarrassingly late to the Shirley Jackson party, but I am happy to finally be here. We Have Always Lived in the Castle saw me reading late into the night, then double-checking the locks on the door. Her ability to conjure disquiet and a sense of unease is obviously why she’s such an icon and makes for perfect reading this rainy spring. I’m just sorry it took me so long to join the fan club. Next up is Come Along With Me, a collection of Jackson’s short fiction. 

Maya Honey-Holmes, Program Producer
Right now I’m reading Authority: Essays on Being Right by the wonderful Andrea Long Chu. I love this woman’s brain – she grapples with everything with brilliant consideration and wit. With all that’s happening right now, this collection feels as timely as ever. I implore you to get critical this season. 

I’ve been listening to Flesh by David Szalay on audiobook. Does it still count? By listening, I simultaneously get to walk and embrace the city’s transition into Spring… so it feels Spring-ish now. Local bookseller and MWF 2025 artist Jaclyn Crupi has her money on Szalay for the 2025 Booker, and I’m right there with her. 

Karys McEwan, Education Advisor
Catch by Sarah Brill is a warm and unexpected coming-of-age story. Sixteen-year-old Beth suddenly gains a strange ability: she starts catching people who fall. Between family mess, school stuff, crushes and feeling like you don’t quite fit in, this book shows what growing up really feels like. It's my favourite young adult novel so far this year.

Sonny & Tess by Nova Weetman is a sweet, funny, middle-grade romance. Tess wants a summer job; Sonny’s new in town and working in his aunt & uncle’s fish and chip shop. They crash into each other, sparks and dim sims fly, and we get the messy, hopeful joy of first crushes. The best part about it is the heartfelt authenticity. The young characters sound like real kids I know! 

Veronica Sullivan, Festival Director/CEO
Canadian-based Australian cartoonist Lee Lai’s second full-length graphic novel (after her Stella Prize-shortlisted debut Stone Fruit) is a beautifully observed study of a long-term friendship straining under the pressures of family, relationships, work, creativity and mental health. Following the alternately divergent and convergent perspectives of best friends Cannon and Trish over the course of a heatwave, Cannon is tender, gorgeously drawn, and mordantly funny. 

The new novel by British-Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite (author of the cult bestseller My Sister the Serial Killer) tells the interwoven stories of the women of the Falodun family – mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins and aunties – bound by a matrilineal curse that dooms their romantic relationships. Cursed Daughters spans generations but is anchored by its endearing, defiant characters. Eerie yet poignant, it will resonate with readers of Girl, Woman, Other and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books. 

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