Pile by the Bed reviews The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee a critical but compassionate exploration of the complexities of modern India

Pile by the Bed reviews The Therapist by Hugh Mackay, a humanist and compassionate look at what goes on behind the psychologist’s door.

Pile by the Bed reviews I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai a novel which uses the creation of a true crime podcast to explore their popularity and their impact but also a range of other issues. Recommended

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith set in a dying Italian town, peopled with fascinating characters and lifted by luminous prose.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Birnam Wood by Booker Prize winning New Zealand author Eleanor Catton a deep, satiric and insightful exploration of power, idealism and environmentalism.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry which focusses on a retired policeman and uses crime fiction tropes to explore and expose the issue of child sexual abuse in Ireland.

Pile by the Bed reviews Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada, three connected stories that explore issues of parenthood and responsibility.

Pile by the Bed reviews Bad Cree by Jessica Johns an Indigenous horror story that explores issues of resilience in the face of the impacts of colonisation, exploitation and cultural loss.

Pile by the Bed reviews Shmutz by Felicia Berliner, a novel about a young woman questioning her place and her life in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community of New York

Pile by the Bed reviews Stella Maris, the coda to Cormac McCarthy’s forst book in sixteen years – The Passenger

Pile By the Bed’s Top 5 reads for 2022 include The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers, Hovering by Rhett David, Devil House by John Darnielle, The Colony by Audry Magee and Maror by Lavie Tidhar

Pile by the Bed reviews A Brief Affair, the fifteenth novel by twice Miles Franklin award winning Australian autho Alex Miller that asks deep questions about personal change and growth.

Pile by the Bed reviews Clarke by Holly Throsby, set in a regional Australian city which looks at the impact of a long running police investigation on the lives of two characters processing their own grief.

Pile by the Bed reviews Willowman by Inga Simpson – a love letter to Australian cricket and its traditions.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Trees by Percival Everett, a genre-mash satrire that explores the very real and painful history of lynchings in the United States that was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Pile by the Bed reviews We Spread by Iain Reid, a surreal and disorienting narrative from the perspective of an ageing protagonist put in a strange old age home.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Passenger, the first book from Cormac McCarthy for sixteen years full of beautiful and thoughtful passages but slightly less than the sum of its various exquisite parts.

Pile by the Bed reviews the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner The Netanyaus by Joshua Cohen a campus satire set in the late 1950s loosley based on a true story involving the familiy of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Pile by the Bed reviews Essex Dogs by Dan Jones, debut historical fiction following a group of English soldiers at the start of the hundred years war between Britain and France.

Pile by the Bed reviews Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris, tense historical fiction set in the aftermath of the English Civil War and the restoration of Charles II.