ReadingRate · Best Books · 2026

The best books from Australia

Ranked by literary regard, Australian writing is led by Patrick White's Voss, Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children, Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark and Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang. White, the country's Nobel laureate, holds seven of the top twenty places on his own, and this list ranks the best Australian works in ReadingRate's catalogue with a difficulty score for each.

A computed ranking from literary-regard scores. Australia's list is dominated by one writer to a degree few countries match: seven Patrick White novels sit in the top twenty, and they are also among the hardest books here, clustered between 67 and 76 for difficulty. The modern entries read very differently — Kate Grenville, Hannah Kent and Charlotte Wood all hold high regard at close to half White's difficulty.

Reading all 70 takes about 539 hours — 8,078,071 words at an average pace of 250 words a minute. At two hours a day, 9 months. Signed in, ReadingRate uses the pace you actually read at instead of an average one.

1–10

  1. Voss by Patrick White (1957, difficulty 6.8/10)
  2. Patrick White: A Life by David Marr (1991, difficulty 4.5/10)
  3. The Conscious Mind by David J. Chalmers (1996, difficulty 6.4/10)
  4. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (1940, difficulty 5.7/10)
  5. The Oxford Literary History of Australia by Bruce Bennett (1998, difficulty 6.5/10)
  6. The Penguin New Literary History of Australia by Laurie Hergenhan (1988, difficulty 6.8/10)
  7. The Vivisector by Patrick White (1970, difficulty 6.7/10)
  8. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally (1982, difficulty 5.3/10)
  9. A History of Australian Literature by Leonie Kramer (1981, difficulty 5.7/10)
  10. The Aunt's Story by Patrick White (1948, difficulty 7.5/10)

11–20

  1. The Solid Mandala by Patrick White (1966, difficulty 7.1/10)
  2. The Eye of the Storm by Patrick White (1973, difficulty 6.2/10)
  3. Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction by Stephen Knight (1980, difficulty 6.2/10)
  4. Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White (1961, difficulty 7.2/10)
  5. The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White (1979, difficulty 7.4/10)
  6. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2001, difficulty 5.9/10)
  7. A Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White (1976, difficulty 7.6/10)
  8. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (1988, difficulty 7.2/10)
  9. The Secret River by Kate Grenville (2006, difficulty 6.7/10)
  10. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (2006, difficulty 6.8/10)

21–30

  1. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950, difficulty 2.3/10)
  2. The Riders by Tim Winton (1995, difficulty 5.7/10)
  3. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (2014, difficulty 5.0/10)
  4. Gossip from the Forest by Thomas Keneally (1975, difficulty 5.2/10)
  5. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (2024, difficulty 5.6/10)
  6. March by Geraldine Brooks (2006, difficulty 7.1/10)
  7. Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (2006, difficulty 5.9/10)
  8. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (2010, difficulty 3.6/10)
  9. Illywhacker by Peter Carey (1985, difficulty 6.1/10)
  10. Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville (2024, difficulty 5.3/10)

31–40

  1. Snap by Belinda Bauer (2018, difficulty 5.2/10)
  2. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (2008, difficulty 5.1/10)
  3. Bliss by Peter Carey (1981, difficulty 5.4/10)
  4. Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan (2001, difficulty 5.4/10)
  5. The Tree of Man by Patrick White (1955, difficulty 6.3/10)
  6. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (2021, difficulty 4.3/10)
  7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005, difficulty 3.1/10)
  8. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1977, difficulty 2.8/10)
  9. Sixty Lights by Gail Jones (2004, difficulty 5.8/10)
  10. Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (2010, difficulty 7.7/10)

41–50

  1. Confederates by Thomas Keneally (1979, difficulty 4.9/10)
  2. The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser (2008, difficulty 5.6/10)
  3. The Writing of the Australian Male by Robert Dixon (1986, difficulty 5.9/10)
  4. Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland (2006, difficulty 4.7/10)
  5. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally (1972, difficulty 6.9/10)
  6. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (2014, difficulty 5.7/10)
  7. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft (1989, difficulty 4.6/10)
  8. The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St John (1997, difficulty 5.2/10)
  9. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie (2016, difficulty 5.5/10)
  10. Dirt Music by Tim Winton (2002, difficulty 6.7/10)

51–60

  1. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1993, difficulty 6.1/10)
  2. Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser (2022, difficulty 5.7/10)
  3. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (2016, difficulty 1.9/10)
  4. Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith (2016, difficulty 2.8/10)
  5. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (2001, difficulty 6.5/10)
  6. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (2003, difficulty 5.9/10)
  7. Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (2024, difficulty 4.0/10)
  8. Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (2024, difficulty 6.3/10)
  9. The Dry by Jane Harper (2016, difficulty 3.5/10)
  10. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (2010, difficulty 6.9/10)

61–70

  1. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (2013, difficulty 4.6/10)
  2. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (2014, difficulty 4.4/10)
  3. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (2021, difficulty 4.1/10)
  4. A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (2023, difficulty 4.1/10)
  5. The Strength of the Few by James Islington (2025, difficulty 4.3/10)
  6. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (2018, difficulty 2.9/10)
  7. Sabriel by Garth Nix (1995, difficulty 3.2/10)
  8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (2013, difficulty 1.8/10)
  9. The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1) by James Islington (2023, difficulty 5.4/10)
  10. 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (2019, difficulty 1.5/10)

Questions people actually ask

What are the best Australian books?
By literary regard: Voss, The Man Who Loved Children, Schindler's Ark, The Vivisector and True History of the Kelly Gang lead, with Oscar and Lucinda, The Secret River and Carpentaria close behind. ReadingRate ranks them with difficulty data for each.
Where should I start with Patrick White?
Voss. It ranks highest of his novels and scores 68 for difficulty — demanding, but the most approachable of his major work. The Aunt's Story and A Fringe of Leaves rank nearly as high and read considerably harder.
What is the most readable book on this list?
Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice, which holds real literary regard at a difficulty score of 23 — the lowest of any highly ranked Australian book, and lower than almost anything on the site.
Which Australian books won the Booker Prize?
Schindler's Ark, Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang all won it, giving Thomas Keneally one and Peter Carey two. All three appear high on this list.