From the MWF Team: An Autumn Reading List
Autumn's official arrival this week is the perfect excuse to stay inside with a great read 🍂
From crime and YA mysteries, to Aussie debuts and stories from the back catalogue, these books will help you weather the cooler nights ahead.
Happy Autumn reading!
Adrian Basso, General Manager
I’m drawn to crime fiction, though it’s hardly a rigid rule. Dervla McTiernan’s The Unquiet Grave certainly sits squarely in the genre: a lead detective, an inhospitable setting, add a murder or two andvoilà, I’m won over. Irish-born and now based in Australia, McTiernan is firmly on my “read more” list.
Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in the Bank Is a Thief leans more toward humour: a PI, some crime, and possibly murder down the track – though I’m only 75 pages in, so time will tell. I’m enjoying the quirky, easy-reading style, and hoping everyone makes it out alive.
See these authors this May at the MWF event Dervla McTiernan and Benjamin Stevenson: Blood on the Page.
Georgia Booth, Marketing and Partnerships Manager
I recently finished Book Two in Solveg Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume series and am excited to start Book Three – if only to see how Balle will manage to make seven books out of this Groundhog Day-style concept. Book Two surprised me with its exploration of how we make time move when it won’t do so itself, and its reflection on seasonal milestones and the meaning they do, or do not, give us.
I’m looking forward to stepping back into the 18th of November to read what happens next.
George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a book I’ve had on my bedside for years and I feel the time has come to properly dive in. This is less of a book and more of a concentrated Russian literature course based on Saunder’s own syllabus from Syracuse University – not the easiest bedtime reading. Featuring short stories from Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, Saunders expertly guides you through how to approach reading these stories and makes the case for why reading fiction is a deeply important undertaking.
Jamila Djafar Khodja, Senior Development Manager
The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter (and translated by Frank Wynne) was one of the first novels I've read about the Algerian War, and my own cultural background. A sweeping yet intimate intergenerational story, it captures in heartbreaking prose the violence of colonial legacy and forced assimilation. Not a light read, but one I hope more people pick up.
Wreck by Catherine Newman follows a mother as she wrangles her adult children, her beloved cats and her addiction to decoding disease symptoms on Reddit. I loved this cosy peek into a genuinely happy family, even as they navigate mental health complexities, grief and generational differences. Lots of excellent writing about cooking - a sort of Nancy Meyers autumnal literary snack!
Maya Honey-Holmes, Program Producer
I just finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Quite the timely read and an incredible observation on the human condition (it earned him a degree in anthropology after all). It only depressed me a little, courtesy of his humour and wildly creative world-building.
It reminded me of my grandpa, so I texted him about it. He was amused to know I've been reading work that was popular when he was my age. After all the amusement he admitted he'd never read it. I told him to, so he did. He finished it a day later. He's retired after all. He loved it and thanked me for 'forcing [him] on the journey'.
I can't wait until I'm 80-something and I can just read books all day. Then I can get around to all the great books coming out now, coming recommended by my future know-it-all grandchild.
Maybe this Autumn I could force you on the journey. Join my grandfather and I in our generational kinship with Kurt.
Karys McEwan, Education Advisor
I loved Annie and Maeve Are Definitely Not Friends by Olivia Muscat for how gently and honestly it captures the awkwardness of early friendships. It’s warm and relatable, especially for those who like school stories with heart and humour rather than high drama. A perfect pick for middle grade readers who enjoy character-driven stories and seeing themselves on the page.
What Have They Done to Liza McLean? by Amy Doak is the kind of YA novel you can easily tear through in a couple of sittings. It's smart, unsettling and quietly furious about power, privilege and who gets protected. I’d recommend it to those who like their mysteries moody and psychological, with a strong emotional core and a protagonist you can’t help but root for. Ideal for teens (and adults) who love dark academia vibes and stories that linger in the imagination.
Veronica Sullivan, Festival Director/CEO
Kill Your Boomers is the debut novel from one of our most astute essayists, poets and observers, Fiona Wright. It’s a sharp, satirical and extremely readable story about the potentially murder-inducing consequences of the housing crisis and extreme intergenerational inequality.
Jasmin McGaughey’s Moonlight and Dust is a luminous YA novel about magic, friendship, culture and – of course! – secrets, set in a Queensland high school where the students are collectively in thrall of a mysterious substance that temporarily bestows magic powers. What could possibly go wrong?!
Canadian-Ukrainian writer Maria Reva’s novel Endling is both profound and absurd – one of my favourite combinations in fiction. Set in Ukraine after Putin’s invasion, it follows three very different women thrown together in a mobile laboratory... along with one endangered snail. Surprising and daring, with a revelatory formal playfulness, it fully deserved its 2025 Booker Prize longlisting.
See these authors this May at the MWF events Queer View Mirror: Kill Your Boomers, Burial Grounds: Indigenous Perspectives on Horror and Maria Reva: Endling.