Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto a thematically rich coming of age story set in New York and rural America in 2011.

Pile by the Bed reviews What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky – a small town tale full of odd characters and a fairytale feel.

Pile by the Bed reviews Miles Allinson’s second novel In Moonland, an exploration of the growth of cults in the 1970s and the integenerational consequences of trauma.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Curlew’s Eye by Karen Manton an Australian gothic tale set in the Northern Territory.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Union of Synchronised Swimmers by Cristina Sandu a novella comprised of six linked, almost poetic short stories.

Pile by the Bed reviews Godspeed by Nickolas Butler, the story of the construction of an exceptional building in an unforgiving landscape that digs deep into issues facing modern America and the American dream.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura, an uncomfortable character study of an obsessive, one-sided relationship.

Pile by the Bed reviews Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon – a type of hero’s origin story which grapples with the power to confront a turbulent and violent history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Foregone by American novelist Russell Banks in which truth and fiction converge with aspects of Banks’ own life in the fictional reflections of an ageing film maker.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Others by Mark Brandi, a story of vulnerability, abuse of power and resilience set deep in the Australian bush.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Talk to Me by TC Boyle’s 18th novel, this one dealing compassionately and empathetically with issues of animal exploitation, experimentation and ethics.

Pile by the Bed reviews Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour a pointed, redemptive take down of the capitalist dream machine.

Pile by the Bed reviews All That I Remember About Dean Cola by Tania Chandler, a tough but compassionate story of a woman dealing with mental illness and a deep seated past trauma.

Pile by the Bed reviews Second Place by Rachel Cusk – an rish exploration of life, art, parenthood and gender.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, Dawnie Walton’s debut which explores issues of racism, gender relations, privilege and entitlement in the context of the story of a pair of 1970s music maker.

Pile by the Bed reviews Two Week Wait by Luke Jackson, Kelly Jackson and Mara Wild a graphic novel that charts one couple’s journey through the IVF system.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Like Mother by Cassandra Austin – a dark, engaging thematically rich novel with a devastating premise.

Pile by the Bed reviews Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, a story about what it means to be human that is thematically consistent with his broader body of work.

Pile by the Bed reviews Nick – Michael Farris-Smith’s prequel to The Great Gatsby, exploring the early life of that book’s narrator Nick Carraway

Pile by the Bed reviews The Last Good Man by Thomas McMullen a post-apocalyptic dystopia that considers the power of crowd-sourced justice.