I love it when I pick up a book, for which I hold no expectations and know very little about, and am totally captivated by it. This was how it went with Mullumbimby. I reckon Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko will feature in my top five books of 2016; it’s funny, tender, instructive and a page-turner all at once.

Mullumbimby: another must-read Australian novel

Two sisters share their country
Two Sisters is a fascinating and engaging account of sisters Ngarta and Jukuna growing up in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia as the last indigenous ‘desert people’ in the region in the 1960s.