Kathy Lette, mum rage and a cursed vagina: the best Australian books out in February
Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman review – a perfect fairytale for our times
What does good living look like? With his marriage and career in meltdown, a man tries to get back to nature in this thought-provoking fable
Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan review – sex and teenage secrets
Queer self-discovery drives this powerful coming-of-age debut set in a bohemian 1970s school
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë audiobook review – Aimee Lou Wood reads the romance of the moment
As Emerald Fennell’s provocative adaptation hits screens, this narration from the White Lotus actor reminds us of the brilliance of Brontë’s tempestuous novel
Bugger by Michael Mohammed Ahmad review – tender, unflinching and difficult to read
The author’s fourth novel offers a devastating day in the life of a 10-year-old boy who cannot be kept safe
Allan Massie obituary
Acclaimed novelist and literary critic who was a staunch opponent of Scottish devolution
Crux by Gabriel Tallent review – a passionate portrait of teenage climbers
The follow-up to My Absolute Darling, this tale of best friends who dream of a better life features exquisite sports writing and a lovable heroine – but the plotting is unconvincing
White River Crossing by Ian McGuire review – colonial greed drives a doomed hunt for gold
The author of The North Water vividly captures bleak beauty and brutish appetites on an 18th-century expedition into the frozen wilds of Canada
Rebel English Academy by Mohammed Hanif review – a sure-fire Booker contender
This funny and subversive novel reckons with life under martial law in late-70s Pakistan
The best recent translated fiction – review roundup
White Moss by Anna Nerkagi | The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin | The Roof Beneath Their Feet by Geetanjali Shree | Berlin Shuffle by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
Susan Choi: ‘For so long I associated Dickens with unbearable Christmas TV specials’
The Booker-shortlisted novelist on the seismic effect of Sigrid Nunez, and wanting to write like Virginia Woolf
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash review – clever comedy for our conspiracy theory age
This tender satire of a dysfunctional American family’s search for moral guidance is precisely what our times need
The Puma by Daniel Wiles review – a visceral tale of cyclical violence
A father and son move to the Patagonian woods – but intensity wanes when a search for home becomes an obsessive quest for revenge
Glyph by Ali Smith review – bearing witness to the war in Gaza
This second novel in a sharp duology offers a powerful interrogation of language in the age of mechanical mass destruction
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar review – survival in a climate-ravaged Kolkata
This moral thriller offers a perceptive account of specifically Indian anxieties