Inspired by my reading of Shooting Blanks at the Anzac Legend, Australian Women’s War Fictions (2023) by Donna Coates, I’m collecting reviews of Australian and New Zealand literature that cover this terrain, grouped by the wars Australians have participated in. Links go to my reviews unless otherwise noted. An asterisk denotes that the book is mentioned in my review of Part 1 of Dr Coates’ book, and a double asterisk denotes that it’s mentioned in Part 2. (And yes, a triple asterisk will denote Part 3, when I’ve read it.)
This page doesn’t purport to include everything that’s available. It lists books by Australian authors that I’ve read, that are on my TBR, or that have interest because of their inclusion in Shooting Blanks. Corrections, contributions and suggestions are welcome. (But I’m unlikely to include genre fiction.)
Please note that these books cover multiple aspects of war including, for example, the home front, internment and POWs, the WW1 conscription debates, war brides, women who served overseas as nurses or in the military and so on. Most but not all of them are about Australians engaging in one of our wars in some way, but I’ve included a few that explore universal truths about wars Australia has (officially) participated in, even if there are no Australian characters, e.g. Steven Conte’s The Tolstoy Estate. And although NZ has widely kept out of some wars that Australia didn’t, I have included Kiwi authors (in italics) where appropriate. I have not included Holocaust fiction, see my reviews here instead.
Some novels are not primarily about war, but include war when it impacts on some aspect of the book’s trajectory. (For example, characters in Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Goldfields trilogy go to war or protest against it.)
Why, I wonder, is there so much war fiction by Australian writers?
- Colonial wars on Australian soil
- Boer War (1899-1902)
- World War 1 (1914-1918)
- World War 2 (1939-1945, including postwar occupation forces in Europe and Japan)
- The Cold War (1947-1991)
- Korean War (1950-1953)
- Vietnam (1962-1975)
- Afghanistan: Operation Slipper (2001–2014) and Operation Highroad (2015–2021).
- Iraq (2003-2009)
- East Timorese INTERFET Peace Keeping mission (1999-2000)
1. COLONIAL WARS ON AUSTRALIAN SOIL
1983: Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo a.k.a. Colin Johnson
2001: Earth, by Bruce Pascoe
2011: The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson
2017: Taboo by Kim Scott
2. BOER WAR
1973: The Breaker by Kit Denton
3. WORLD WAR 1
1916: The Anzac Book* an anthology of poems, stories, illustrations and cartoons collected by C E W Bean
1916: The Moods of Ginger Mick* by C J Dennis
1917: Broken Idols* by Mabel Brookes
1918: Soldiers Two* by Chrystal Stirling (1918)
1918: Letters of a V.A.D.* by Mollie Skinner
1929: The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning (censored version published as Her Privates We in 1930)
1934: Prelude to Christopher* by Eleanor Dark
1934: Trooper to the Southern Cross a.k.a. What Happened on the Boat* (1934) by Angela Thirkell a.k.a. Leslie Parker), reviewed at A Bookish Type.
1937: Tucker Sees India* by Mollie Skinner
1939: The Scarlet Cape* by Annie Rixon
1948: Golden Miles* by Katharine Susannah Prichard (Goldfields Trilogy #2, changing view on conscription)
1962: When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
1979: 1915, A Novel by Roger McDonald
1981: Always Afternoon* by Gwen Kelly (made into a mini series)
1982: Fly Away Peter by David Malouf
1987: The Invaluable Mystery* by Lesbia Harford (written in 1920s, but published posthumously)
1991: Struggle of Memory* by Joan Dugdale (internment)
1991: The Day They Shot Edward by Wendy Scarfe, reissued 2018, set in 1916 when the First Conscription Referendum was tearing Australia apart.)
2004: Mansfield, a novel, by C K Stead
2005: The Wing of Night* by Brenda Walker (read before starting this blog)
2008: A History of the Great War, a novel by Peter McConnell (enduring trauma of war, from a woman’s PoV)
2009 Traitor by Stephen Daisley
2012: The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally
2019: Long Flight Home by Lainie Anderson (WW1 aviation pioneers)
2020: Where the Line Breaks, by Michael Burrows (interrogates the Anzac myth)
2023: A Better Place by Stephen Daisley
World War 1 fiction by male writers
World War 1 fiction by women writers
(covers of some of those listed above are yet to be found online)
4. WORLD WAR 2
1944: We Were the Rats by Lawson Glassop
1945: The Little Company** by Eleanor Dark
1947: The Fatal Days** by Henrietta Drake-Brockman
1947: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow** by M. Barnard Eldershaw
1950: Winged Seeds by Katharine Susannah Prichard (Goldfield Trilogy#3)
1951: Come in Spinner** by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James. (Made into a mini-series, read before starting this blog.)
1951: Dead Men Rising by Seaforth Mackenzie
1953: Southern Steel ** by Dymphna Cusack (on my TBR)
1962: The Far Road, by George Johnson (set during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) which some historians count as part of WW2)
1967: The Ridge and the River by T A G Hungerford, see fourtriplezed’s review
1970: The Bay of Noon, by Shirley Hazzard
1983: Smile, the War is Over** by Robin Sheiner (on my TBR)
1992: Blood Stained Wattle** by Maria Gardner (on my TBR)
1991: To The Burning City by Alan Gould
1995: Time Out for Living** by Estelle Pinney
1995: The Long Green Shore by John Hepworth, see fourtriplezed’s review.
1998: Signaller Johnston’s Secret War Trilogy by Peter Pinney, see fourtriplezed’s reviews here, here and here.
1999: Pukunja** by Vilma Watkins
2000: The Australian Fiancé ** by Simone Lazaroo
2001: Gilgamesh** by Joan London (Read before starting this blog, but see Jennifer’s review at Tasmanian Bibliophile at Large.)
2002: The Bread with Seven Crusts** by Susan Temby read before starting this blog).
2003: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard, winner of the Miles Franklin Award, read before starting this blog but see Jim’s review at Goodreads
2002: Borrowed Eyes ** by Saskia Beudel (see excerpts from reviews at Beudel’s website)
2005: The Italian Romance** by Joanne Carroll (read before starting this blog).
2007: Sorry** by Gail Jones
2007: The Zookeeper’s War by Steven Conte
2008: A History of the Great War, a novel by Peter McConnell (enduring trauma of war, from a woman’s PoV)
2008: The Orphan Gunner** by Sara Knox, on my TBR, see reviews by Elizabeth Knox at Goodreads and Jo Case’s at Readings. )
2009: The Paperbark Shoe ** by Goldie Goldbloom
2010: Borrowed Landscape** by Helen Heritage
2010: A Soldier’s Tale by M.K. Joseph
2011: The Farmer’s Wife** by Dale Turner
2011: The Voyagers, a Love Story** by Mardi McConnochie, see Lily’s review at Goodreads)
2011: Love in the Years of Lunacy** by Mandy Sayer, see Michael’s review at Goodreads)
2011: Spirit House by Mark Dapin (enduring trauma of POWs on the Thai-Burma railway)
2012: A Stranger in My Street** by Deborah Burrows, see Marg’s review at The Intrepid Reader
2012: Nine Days by Toni Jordan
2013: My Beautiful Enemy ** by Cory Taylor
2013: The Railwayman’s Wife, by Ashley Hay
2013: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, winner of the Booker Prize in 2014
2013: Shame and the Captives by Thomas Keneally (the Cowra Breakout of Japanese POWs.)
2014: After Darkness ** by Christine Piper
2014: The Return , by Silvia Kwon (Japanese war brides in Australia)
2015: Archipelago of Souls, by Gregory Day
2017: Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms ** by Anita Heiss
2018: The Sweet Hills of Florence by Jan Wallace Dickenson
2018: The Passengers ** by Eleanor Limprecht
2019: Bodies of Men by Nigel Featherstone
2020: Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English (Set in New Guinea)
2020: The Tolstoy Estate, by Steven Conte
2022: Salonika Burning by Gail Jones
2022: One Bright Morning by Wendy Scarfe
2022: Only Birds Above by Portland Jones (Australian POWs in Indonesia, also lingering effects of WW1)
2023: Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith (Italian partisans)
2023: Sunbirds, by Mirandi Riwoe (Japanese invasion of Java)
World War 2 fiction by male writers
World War 2 fiction by women writers
5. THE COLD WAR
2012: After Love by Subhash Jaireth
2016: The Memory Artist by Katherine Brabon
2018: Dinner with the Dissidents by John Tesearch
2011: Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse
2021: Past Life by Willian Lane
-
- 2011
6. KOREAN WAR
2009: After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
2019: Typhoon Kingdom by Matthew Hooton
7.VIETNAM WAR
2009: After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
2014: In My Father’s House by Jane Mundy
2015: R&R by Mark Dapin
2016: Seeing the Elephant by Portland Jones
2018: Shell by Kristina Olsson
2021: Underground, a graphic novel by Mirranda Burton
8. AFGHAN WAR
2019: The War Artist, by Simon Cleary
2021: Here in the After by Marion Frith
9. IRAQ WAR
2018: A Stolen Season by Rodney Hall
10. East Timorese INTERFET Peace Keeping mission (1999-2000)
2023: The Idealist by Nicholas Jose
PS In the course of researching online, I found this very interesting site about the militarisation of the Australian school curriculum.
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