Hours at an average pace
Showing 43 books
About 391 hours for 43 of 43 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 196 days for those books.
Voss is recognized as a cornerstone of Australian literature and a major work of postcolonial fiction. It consistently appears in scholarly discussions of antipodean identity, imperial mythology, and mid-century modernism. The novel has maintained critical attention since publication and is standard curriculum in Australian and Commonwealth literary studies.
After Randall Jarrell's landmark 1965 introduction rescued it from obscurity, the novel achieved masterpiece status, appearing on TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels 1923-2005. It remains continuously in print and features prominently in Women's Studies curricula. However, it lacks the universal recognition of Fitzgerald, Joyce, or Faulkner, occupying a tier below absolute canonical dominance despite critical consensus on its brilliance.
Patrick White is Australia's only Nobel laureate in literature, and The Vivisector (1970) is considered one of his four or five major works. It appears on Australian literature syllabi and is included in surveys of postwar fiction, though it receives less broad teaching than Voss or The Tree of Man. The Nobel Prize (1973) substantially elevated all of White's work in the canonical record.
The Eye of the Storm appears on Australian literature syllabi regularly and in world literature courses focused on postcolonial or Commonwealth fiction, but it is not among the most-taught novels globally. Wikipedia coverage exists in only 5 languages, reflecting its reputation as a significant but not universally assigned work. It sits in the shadow of White's Voss and Riders in the Chariot in academic curricula, though it remains his most accomplished late novel according to many critics.
Widely taught in Australian literature courses and postcolonial studies programs as a major work of contemporary Australian fiction. The novel has secured its place in discussions of national identity, historical fiction, and postcolonial literature. While central to Australian literary canon, it has somewhat less international canonical weight than older modernist classics.
The Booker winner is increasingly taught in Australian and war-literature courses, though its Wikipedia reach is still limited. It stands as a modern classic of Australian fiction rather than a fixture of world syllabi.
Oscar and Lucinda appears on 45 university syllabi (41st percentile), taught primarily in postcolonial literature and Australian fiction courses rather than mainstream Anglophone curricula. Its Wikipedia article exists in 7 languages, indicating moderate but not wide global reach — respectable for an Australian novel but well below the breadth of Booker winners like Remains of the Day.
Winner of the 2007 Miles Franklin Award, Australia's most prestigious literary prize. Taught in Australian literature and postcolonial studies courses but not widely assigned outside that context. An important book in Australian and Indigenous literatures, not yet a global curriculum fixture.
Shortlisted for the 2006 Booker Prize and the 2007 Women's Prize for Fiction, The Secret River has become a fixture in Australian secondary and university curricula, where it is widely taught as a foundational text on colonial history. Its reach beyond Australia remains more limited, though it appears in postcolonial literature courses internationally.
One of the most popular novels of the 1950s. A classic of wartime literature and Australian fiction. Still widely read.
No. 11 on this list. Burial Rites · Hannah Kent · 2014
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.
Moderate5.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 12 on this list. Gossip from the Forest · Thomas Keneally · 1975
In November 1918, German officials and their Allied counterparts negotiate the armistice in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne. Keneally imagines the conversations, tensions, and absurdities as war gives way to an uneasy peace. A darkly comic historical novel about the end of WWI.
Moderate3.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 13 on this list. The Riders · Tim Winton · 1995
In "The Riders", Tim Winton crafts a poignant and introspective tale of love, family, and the complexities of relationships. The story follows a man who embarks on a perilous journey to reunite with his wife and child, only to find himself confronting the harsh realities of his own desires and the elusiveness of human connection. As he travels to the farthest reaches of the globe, he must come to terms with the fragility of his own family and the sacrifices that must be made for love. Winton's writing is characterized by a lyrical, evocative style that captures the rugged beauty of the natural world and the turmoil of the human heart. Through his protagonist's journey, he explores themes of devotion, abandonment, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world. The narrative is both deeply personal and universally relatable, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences of love, loss, and longing. Readers of literary fiction will appreciate the nuanced character study and the author's thoughtful pacing, which balances introspection with a sense of forward momentum. While the subject matter can be intense and emotionally challenging, the writing is accessible and engaging, making it a compelling choice for those interested in character-driven fiction. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1995, "The Riders" is a testament to Winton's skill as a storyteller and his ability to craft compelling, emotionally resonant narratives. With its richly atmospheric prose and thought-provoking themes, this novel is sure to appeal to readers who appreciate literary fiction and are looking for a story that will linger long after the final page is turned.
Challenging7.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 14 on this list. Stone Yard Devotional · Charlotte Wood · 2024
A woman returns to a remote religious community in Australia, seeking peace but finding instead complications of the past and present. Wood's meditative novel explores solitude, faith, and the weight of history.
Challenging5.9 hours
Start this bookNo. 15 on this list. March · Geraldine Brooks · 2006
March does not appear prominently on university syllabi and lacks the curriculum-fixture status of older Pulitzer winners. It surfaces occasionally in American literature and historical fiction courses but has not achieved the kind of ubiquity that places a novel in the canon of essential reading.
Difficult11 hours
Start this bookNo. 16 on this list. Restless Dolly Maunder · Kate Grenville · 2024
Dolly Maunder, a working-class Australian woman in the 19th century, refuses to accept the limited life prescribed for her. Grenville returns to historical fiction to tell the story of a woman who would not be contained by convention.
Moderate3.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 17 on this list. That Deadman Dance · Kim Scott · 2010
Two-time Miles Franklin Award winner. Major Australian literary work.
Easy4.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 18 on this list. A Fraction of the Whole · Steve Toltz · 2008
"The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them... Heroes or Criminals? Crackpots or Visionaries? Families or Enemies?" Anyway, you know how it is. Every family has a story like this one. Most of his life, Jasper Dean couldn't decide whether to pity, hate, love, or murder his certifiably paranoid father, Martin, a man who overanalyzed anything and everything and imparted his self-garnered wisdom to his only son. But now that Martin is dead, Jasper can fully reflect on the crackpot who raised him in intellectual captivity, and what he realizes is that, for all its lunacy, theirs was a grand adventure. As he recollects the events that led to his father's demise, Jasper recounts a boyhood of outrageous schemes and shocking discoveries--about his infamous outlaw uncle Terry, his mysteriously absent European mother, and Martin's constant losing battle to make a lasting mark on the world he so disdains. It's a story that takes them from the Australian bush to the cafes of bohemian Paris, from the Thai jungle to strip clubs, asylums, labyrinths, and criminal lairs, and from the highs of first love to the lows of failed ambition. The result is a rollicking roller-coaster ride from obscurity to infamy, and the moving, memorable story of a father and son whose spiritual symmetry transcends all their many shortcomings. A Fraction of the Whole is an uproarious indictment of the modern world and its mores and the epic debut of the blisteringly funny and talented Steve Toltz.
Moderate8.9 hours
Start this bookNo. 19 on this list. Illywhacker · Peter Carey · 1985
Appears on only 2 university syllabi (7.5th percentile in the Open Syllabus Project). Wikipedia article exists in 1 language. A significant Australian novel but without the global canonical reach of Carey's later Booker winners.
Challenging20 hours
Start this bookNo. 20 on this list. The Thorn Birds · Colleen McCullough · 1977
Over thirty million copies sold. The 1983 miniseries made it a global cultural event. A defining popular novel of the 1970s.
Easy10 hours
Start this book
No. 21 on this list. The Book Thief · Markus Zusak · 2005
Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US)
Over 500 weeks on NYT list. Widely taught in schools. A modern YA classic.
Easy6.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 22 on this list. The Lost Dog · Michelle de Kretser · 2008
Tom Loxley, an Indian-Australian professor, is less concerned with finishing his book on Henry James than with finding his dog, who is lost in the Australian bush. Joining his daily hunt is Nelly Zhang, an artist whose husband disappeared mysteriously years before Tom met her. Although Nelly helps him search for his beloved pet, Tom isn't sure if he should trust this new friend. Tom has preoccupations other than his book and Nelly and his missing dog, mainly concerning his mother, who is suffering from the various indignities of old age. He is constantly drawn from the cerebral to the primitive--by his mother's infirmities, as well as by Nelly's attractions. THE LOST DOG makes brilliant use of the conventions of suspense and atmosphere while leading us to see anew the ever-present conflicts between our bodies and our minds, the present and the past, the primal and the civilized.
Challenging5.9 hours
Start this bookNo. 23 on this list. Confederates · Thomas Keneally · 1979
During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers from rural Ireland and Germany, former slaves serving as stretcher-bearers, and Southern officers march toward Antietam. Keneally follows these disparate lives through the bloodiest day in American military history, illuminating the chaos, courage, and moral complexity of war. An immersive historical novel from the author of Schindler's List.
Moderate7.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 24 on this list. Sixty Lights · Gail Jones · 2004
Lucy Strange, an Australian woman in late 19th-century London, reflects on her life through sixty different lights—candles, lamps, the sun. Jones's formally innovative novel uses light as a lens for exploring memory, loss, and the illumination of the past.
Challenging5 hours
Start this bookNo. 25 on this list. Carry Me Down · M.J. Hyland · 2006
John Egan, an eleven-year-old Irish boy, possesses an almost supernatural sense of smell and an unshakeable conviction that something is terribly wrong. As he tries to prove that his father is planning something sinister, his obsessions threaten to destroy his family. A dark, tense psychological novel about childhood perception and the unraveling of domestic life.
Moderate5.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 26 on this list. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith · Thomas Keneally · 1972
Appears on 49 university syllabi (42nd percentile in Open Syllabus), mostly within Australian literature and postcolonial studies courses. Wikipedia articles exist in only 2 languages. The novel is a fixture in Australian secondary and tertiary curricula but has limited presence in global canon lists or international reading programs.
Challenging6.2 hours
Start this bookNo. 27 on this list. The Essence of the Thing · Madeleine St John · 1997
The aftermath of a broken romance, set in England. Out of the blue, Jonathan announces to Nicola that he no longer loves her and that they should stop living together. The novel chronicles the way the two adjust to single life again.
Moderate4.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 28 on this list. Dirt Music · Tim Winton · 2002
Appears on 47 university syllabi (41.8th percentile, Open Syllabus Project), primarily in Australian literature and postcolonial fiction courses. Wikipedia articles in only 2 languages point to regional rather than global canonical standing. The novel has a dedicated Wikipedia article with reception and adaptations sections, reflecting meaningful cultural presence within Australia and the Commonwealth.
Challenging10 hours
Start this bookNo. 29 on this list. Remembering Babylon · David Malouf · 1993
Gemmy, a British cabin boy, is shipwrecked in 19th-century Australia and raised by Aboriginal people. When he returns to white society, both he and the settlers must confront what cannot be understood across the cultural divide. Malouf's Booker-shortlisted novel examines colonialism, otherness, and the limits of language.
Challenging5.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 30 on this list. Scary Monsters · Michelle de Kretser · 2022
No syllabus data available and no Wikipedia article found for this specific novel. Published in 2023, Scary Monsters is too recent to have entered university curricula at scale. De Kretser's earlier novels (Questions of Travel) appear in Australian and world literature courses, but this title has not yet achieved canonical status.
Challenging5.3 hours
Start this book
No. 31 on this list. Vernon God Little
DBC Pierre · 2003
No. 32 on this list. Here One Moment
Liane Moriarty · 2024
No. 33 on this list. The Idea of Perfection
Kate Grenville · 2001
No. 34 on this list. The Book of Strange New Things
Michel Faber · 2014
No. 35 on this list. Theory & Practice
Michelle de Kretser · 2024
No. 36 on this list. Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty · 2014
No. 37 on this list. The Slap
Christos Tsiolkas · 2010
No. 38 on this list. Horse
Geraldine Brooks · 2022
No. 39 on this list. The Husband's Secret
Liane Moriarty · 2013
No. 40 on this list. The Strength of the Few
James Islington · 2025
About this list
These 43 books are the highest-scoring eligible literary novels from Australia currently in the catalogue. By literary regard, it opens with Voss, The Man Who Loved Children and The Vivisector. About 391 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 44 to 62 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Oscar and Lucinda at 72.
This list is ranked by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent, and genre labels are the catalogue’s own, gathered into broader kinds.
When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0
Questions people actually ask
- What are the best literary novels from Australia?
- By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence, Voss, The Man Who Loved Children, The Vivisector, The Eye of the Storm and True History of the Kelly Gang lead. ReadingRate ranks 43 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
- Where should I start with literary novels from Australia?
- Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (about 3.6 hours), The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute.
- How hard are literary novels from Australia to read?
- Most of this list sits between 44 and 62 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Oscar and Lucinda at 72. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
- How is this list ranked?
- On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A list that is not a genre list keeps to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), with philosophy taking no more than one slot in five while there is literature left to rank; every list holds at most three works by one author.