February: What do French food, Chinese vampires, New York and Gaelic myths have in common? Read on to find out and win!
My goodness it's a bumper crop of great reads this month. Prepare to be spoiled!
Well hello!
Welcome to the February edition of New Voices Down Under. In the publishing world, February marks the start of the year proper. We’re back at work, the kids are at school, summer holidays are fading in our memories and Autumn is just around the corner. Into this mix comes the start of a plethora of new titles to tantalise and delight. Let me tell you, if this crop of books is anything to go by, we are in for a fantastic year of reading.
In Books to Love there is the tale of a woman who throws her lot in for love at a huge personal costs in the glorious Love Unedited. There is a man reckoning with his life and the ghosts of the past in the witty and melancholy First Name Second Name. And if you can’t decide between romance and crime then Eat Your Heart Out is a delicious blend of food, rivals, love and a slightly mad chef.
This month in Meet the Author, I chat with Laura McCluskey about her debut novel, The Wolf Tree, which is being touted as THE debut crime novel of the year. I enjoyed every moment I spent with this book and I hope you enjoy my chat with Laura.
The MUD Literary Prize has just been announced. Find out which book won in Newbie News.
And what would be a newsletter without Freebies? This month, you have the chance to win one of three titles. You know the deal, read the reviews and interview and answer the questions to be in the running.
Books to Love
Love Unedited by Caro Llewellyn
(Published 25 February 2025 ANZ)
Edna is an editor working for the Australian arm of a large publishing house when she is tasked with chaperoning a Pulitzer Prize winning author on the Sydney leg of his book tour. The job would normally fall to a publicist but the star author insisted on Edna and who wouldn’t want to hang out with a handsome charming man? What she is not prepared for is the instant attraction. From the moment she picks him up at Sydney Airport, her fate is decided. She will do anything and everything to be with him.
Edna upends her life and moves to New York. She knows no one, has no job just a driving desire to establish a life here, be close to him. She becomes an editor for a different major publishing house and establishes a successful career. But the man she loves is not interested in courting her, marriage or any of the things Edna desires. He keeps her at arms length. He runs hot and cold. She struggles to hold his attention and castigates herself for allowing him to dominate hers. But she never leaves and she never gives up hope. Now nearing the end of her life, she wonders, was it worth it. If she had her time over, would she make the same choices?
Caro Llewellyn’s first foray into fiction is captivating reading. Eloquent, lyrical but also with a sharp eye for the truths of human nature and the complexities of passion. What makes Love Unedited work, in part, is that the story is told in flashbacks. As the novel opens, Edna and her author meet up in Melbourne for coffee, decades after they finally set each other free. Her complicity in allowing him to treat her the way he did is laid bare. His self-admonishment for the shabby way he treated her is genuine. We, the reader, are curious as to how they got to this point.
But alongside this is a fictional story within the story. A young editor in New York, Molly, receives pages of a novel from an anonymous author. The story is compelling, familiar. But no one knows the identity of the writer. This journey of discovery leads back to Edna, now living in a nursing home, who is capricious and elusive about how much of her work of fiction is actually the truth. Llewellyn cleverly plays with the idea of who gets to choose how our story ends. Which means the reader is also left guessing how much of Edna’s story we should believe, how will it end. And what will we think of Edna once all is revealed.
Love Unedited is a tantalising novel that has a nostalgic sensibility of unrequited love and passion. Edna is beguiling, unknown, as too is the famous author. Edna is also somewhat brutal and cold-hearted. It makes her a wonderfully complex character and an unreliable narrator of this broody novel of yearning. Love Unedited manages to be romantic, tense and problematic all at the same time, a little like falling in love itself. A richly rewarding and riveting read.
A little bit about the author …
Caro Llewellyn is the author of Fresh! Market people and their food and the Stella Prize shortlisted memoir Diving into Glass, co-author of Jobs for the Girls: Women talk about running a business of their own and editor of the anthology My One True Love. For more than three decades she has worked with writers variously in publishing and as a Festival Director and human rights advocate in Australia, France and the US. She lives in the US with chef Maurizio Esposito.
Connect with Caro Llewellyn
Instagram @caro.llewellyn
Australia: Buy a copy of the book or take a peek inside here
First Name, Second Name by Steve MinOn
(Published ANZ 4 March 2025)
On his death bed, Stephen Bolin leaves a note for his sisters asking them to take his body back to their hometown in Far North Queensland. Only then will he be at peace. Since the women ignore his request, he is left with no choice but to make the journey on his own.
In the dark of night, Stephen’s corpse starts the thousand-mile journey . The long walk is an opportunity to reflect on his life and the four generations of his mixed-heritage history that has brought him to this point. To reflect on the trauma that has filtered down from his great-grandfather, Pan Bo Lin, trying to forge his fortunes on the goldfields, his Scottish lineage, the family violence, racial identity and his sexuality.
MinOn slowly reveals that this unlikely setup has its origins in an old Chinese story about the jiangshi, Chinese vampires. That a soul could not lay at rest until the body of the deceased was returned to its birthplace, borne by members of the remaining family. In a darkly comic take, Stephen becomes fascinated by the slow inevitable disintegration of his body as nature takes its course. The story weaves in and out of the various family voices, each telling their own portion of the tale, building a picture of how the Bolins have become who they are today. Ultimately, it is a reckoning of how Stephen became the man he was when he died.
First Name Second Name won Steve MinOn the 2023 Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer. The novel is fresh, witty, incisive and melancholic. It’s a fascinating exploration of what it means to come from a mixed racial background and the impact that has on one’s sense of self. The seemingly bizarre set up, the jiangshi, works brilliantly on the page and allows MinOn to use the ridiculousness to his advantage as both a story device and as a way of exploring and developing character. It is an intelligent novel, filled with wisdom and humour. First Name Second Name is the kind of book that lingers long after the last page is turned.
A little bit about the author …
Steve MinOn was an internationally awarded advertising copywriter and a restaurateur before becoming a writer of fiction. He grew up in North Queensland and he now lives in Meanjin/Brisbane. Steve has written often about outsiders and his family’s mixed-race ancestral history, and his articles and short stories have been published in SBS Voices, Mamamia and various anthologies. He won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for First Name Second Name.
To WIN a copy of First Name, Second Name, scroll down to Freebies
Connect with Steve MinOn
Find him on Instagram here @steveminon
Read more about Steve on his website here
Australia: Preorder a copy of the book here
Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee
(Published ANZ 25 February 2025)
Chloe Bridgers has escaped her family at one end of the world (Tasmania) for the City of Love, Paris. She’s building a name for herself as a food blogger in the cut throat Parisian food scene. So when she is invited to an exclusive dinner at Chez Duris, she’s excited. Except this is no ordinary dinner. The owner, renowned chef Carla Duris, has invited the city’s leading food critics to dinner for a reason: she plans to choose one of them to ghost-write her tell-all memoir. The ‘winner’ will be decided over a weekend at her estate on the Cote d’Azur.
Chloe’s main rival is Henri de la Fontaine. Charming and attractive, he’s virtually inherited his elite position as a top food journalist from his uncle. Against the likes of him, she realises that her chances of ‘winning’ the gig is pretty much zero. Except she’s always been fascinated by the Duris family, especially Carla, whose reputation precedes her. Who could say no to the opportunity to find out if even half the stories are true.
Beneath the glitz and glamour of the glorious estate, there’s something off about the weekend. Those vying for the honour of writing Carla’s memoir are dispatched on short notice. The tasks set to test their mettle become increasingly bizarre. Chloe and Henri find themselves unlikely allies in what rapidly descends from a job interview into a game of cat and mouse.
Victoria Brownlee has drawn on her fascinating career as a food writer to create a memorable cast of characters, most with very impure motives, and pitted them against each other for what seems like the ultimate prize but is actually a poisoned chalice. There’s something quite gleeful about the skewering of the stereotypes of the world of temperamental chefs and overblown egos.
That aside, Eat Your Heart Out, is a romantic comedy with an enemies-to- lovers vibe. It’s an immensely fun read with plenty of unusual twists and turns and a splash of the outlandish. The path to true love is more than a little bumpy for Chloe and Henri. It makes diving into the pages of Eat Your Heart Out a highly entertaining place to escape.
To WIN a copy of Eat Your Heart Out, scroll down to Freebies
A little bit about the author …
Victoria Brownlee is an international food writer and editor, currently based in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. She started writing about food over a decade ago, first as a blogger and then as the food and drink editor at Time Out Shanghai. She continues to write freelance articles on food trends across Europe.
Connect with Victoria Brownlee
Find Victoria on Instagram here @victoria_brownlee
Read more about Victoria on her website here
Australia: Buy a copy of the book here
Laura McCluskey is a writer, editor and actor. As well as writing novels, she has penned several film and television projects for her production company Sibylline Films. Laura is also co-founder of Three Fates Theatre Company, and has performed across theatre, film, and television. The Wolf Tree is her debut novel. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
A little bit about the book …
On a small island off the coast of Scotland, an isolated community is grieving. Eighteen-year-old Alan Ferguson was found at the foot of the lighthouse - an apparent suicide.
DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate. A raging storm keeps them trapped on the island for five days. And the locals don't take kindly to mainlanders.
As George and Richie question the island's inhabitants, they discover a village filled with superstition and shrouded in secrets. But someone wants those secrets to stay buried. At any cost. A gripping and atmospheric debut crime thriller set on an isolated Scottish island ... where outsiders are not welcome.
Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind this story?
I love true crime and a good scary story, and I have a Scottish background, so I was immediately intrigued when I came across the case of the missing Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers. The mystery genuinely kept me up at night; and a few months later I read a journal article that inspired the title of the book (can’t say more without spoilers, sorry!) and found that it linked quite well with the keepers’ story. That formed the foundation of what became The Wolf Tree.
I was so convinced that Eilean Eader was a real island off the Scottish coast. Is the island based on a real place you’ve travelled to?
Eilean Eadar is indeed fictional! It’s inspired by a couple of different places - one is the real island that the keepers disappeared from, Eilean Mor, and the other is another remote Scottish island, Hirta. Eilean Mor is tiny and uninhabited aside from the lighthouse (which was decommissioned shortly after the men disappeared), so I knew I needed to create a larger island that could accommodate a small community. I was inspired by the topography of Hirta, and used it as a loose reference as I was creating Eadar. I was set to visit Hirta a few years ago, but the trip was cancelled because of the brutal weather - however, I used my experience visiting seaside towns to construct the village on Eadar.
The story leans into old Gaelic myths and legends that inspires the book’s title. It has an almost mediaeval atmosphere to it. Where did the idea for this angle spring from?
My experience visiting Scotland showed me how much traditions and folklore are woven in the fabric of modern day society, but not necessarily still practiced. However, since Eadar is an island somewhat trapped in time, it made sense that there would be many myths and legends that this tiny fishing community have held on to and continue to observe. I did plenty of research and discovered that some tales are very regionally specific, and I reference a few creatures as well as customs and beliefs regarding medicine and curses. I also enjoyed exploring the balance between folklore and religion, how Scottish people are able to hold space for both, and how it impacts their decisions and lifestyle.
We have two main characters, DIs George (Georgina) Lennox and Richard Stewart. George is recovering from an horrific attack on the job. Questions are being asked about her readiness to return to work. Richard is the older, steadier partner. A family man, Christian and a cop who does things by the book. How did you come to create those two characters? And what did this allow you to do plot wise?
I think my intention was just to create characters I personally liked, and to build a dynamic between them that felt fresh, believable and safe. I also just really like when people are good at their jobs, even when they make mistakes or missteps along the way.
George and Richie just rolled straight out of my head and onto the page - they already felt fully-formed, and as I wrote, they came with unique personalities and quirks and beliefs that just made them feel so authentic. This authenticity also helped justify their behaviours, reactions, and decisions when it came to the twists and turns of the plot; we know this about them, therefore it makes sense (even if it’s the wrong decision in our eyes) that they would do that. In my opinion, that’s how you keep readers on board.
In terms of their friendship, I wanted to build them on a foundation of just that - they’re friends, they care deeply about each other. Richie is her mentor and wants to see her succeed; George’s fear of disappointing him, one of the few senior male figures in her industry who is genuine and kind, is what ends up driving a wedge between them.
One of the (many) great things about The Wolf Tree is the islanders themselves. This is a population that is isolated, resilient and insular. You’ve created a wonderful, complex and individuated cast of characters. Did that unfold in the writing or were you always clear this would be an ensemble piece?
I’m a big planner (I make very detailed Post-it note plot walls) so there were a few characters - Father Ross, Kathy, MacLeod, Catriona - who were already part of the cast before I started writing because they were going to serve a crucial purpose. Other characters I knew of in theory - Alan’s ex-girlfriend, a mainlander who George befriends, a handyman who gives George some local insights - who developed themselves on the page as I wrote.
The book is about to be published on 5 March. Reflecting on the journey from first words to a real book, what have been some of the high -and low- lights?
I’m so fortunate that my journey has been one of mostly highlights - from getting my agent, to signing with HarperCollins here in Australia and then with my international publishers, to the entire editing process and now the promotional experience. I don’t have any lowlights, perhaps just tougher moments where hard work or perseverance was required - from wondering if anyone would care about this strange story I wrote, to time-sensitive or complex edits, or moments when self-doubt has crept in. But I’ve committed myself to finding the joy in this experience, focusing on how incredible it is that my lifelong dream of being a published author is finally coming true; doing this has meant that the low moments really don’t feel that low - or if they do, they don’t feel low for long.
To WIN a copy of The Wolf Tree, scroll down to Freebies
Connect with Laura McCluskey
Find Emma on Instagram @lauramccluskey_
Australia/ NZ: Preorder a copy of the book or take a sneak peek inside here
Newbie News!
Since 2018, MUD (Mates of Ubud) has sponsored the MUD Literary Prize (MLP), recognising the best first literary novel by an Australian author. The philosophy behind the prize is an acknowledgement that while literary fiction plays a vital role in the cultural life of Australia, and internationally, it rarely offers writers a living wage. The prize acknowledges that most writers need funds to make it possible to write. The prize is one that the writer may spend as they see fit – to live, to travel, to explore and be inspired by new ideas. It now stands as one of the most important literary awards for new writers in the country.
The winner of the 2025 MUD Literary Prize, worth $10,000, is Cameron Stewart for Why Do Horses Run? from a shortlist that included:
Translations (Jumaana Abdu)
The End and Everything Before It (Finegan Kruckemeyer)
The Degenerates (Raeden Richardson)
Previous winners include Girl in a Pink Dress by Kylie Needham (2024) All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien (2023) Love and Virtue by Diana Reid (2022) Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (2021) Master of My Fate by Sienna Brown (2020) Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (2019) and See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (2018).
Freebies!!
If you enjoyed the interview with Laura McCluskey, then this is your chance to win a copy of The Wolf Tree. Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing us with **three** copies to giveaway. All you have to do is send a reply email with the answer to this very tricky question.
Where is The Wolf Tree set?
And, if you think Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee sounds like your croissant, then you’re in luck. Thanks to Affirm Press, you have a chance to win one of **three** copies. All you have to do is answer the question below.
Who is Chloe’s main rival for the role of writing Carla Duris’ memoir?
For a chance to win one of **two** copies of First Name Second Name by Steven MinOn, thanks to the folk at University of Queensland Press, all you have to do is answer this final question.
In what form does Stephen Bolin’s corpse make its journey home?
The fine print: Giveaways are currently only open to subscribers and you must reside within Australia to be eligible to win (postage!) The winners will be picked at random and will be emailed on Tuesday 18 March 2025. Good luck!
The End
And here we are at the end of a bumper edition. I hope some (all!) of the books discussed have tickled your fancy. Please leave a comment, follow us on socials and come back again next month where there will be more bookish news, reviews, interviews and freebies. See you soon!
Don’t forget, you can always catch up with us on Instagram @newvoicesdownunder
And, if you’d like to read my author newsletter, you can subscribe to A Cuppa With Meredith here The next edition is out Monday 5 April!