Australian Short Stories

A fascinating collection of short stories by some of Australia's best classic writers.

A collection of four critically acclaimed, gripping short novels that delve into the depths of survival, obsession, and the dark side of human nature. Box of Bones Jim, an American expat teaching English in the Philippines, wakes up after a night out to find himself trapped inside a pitch-black coffin—running out of oxygen and out of time. With only his cell phone and his wits, he must fight panic and exhaustion in a desperate race against death. Six Bullets Thirteen months after a massive asteroid wiped out civilization, survivalist Burt James is still alive—bunkered in his fortified ...

When Ella boards a sumptuous charter off the coast of Australia, she feels…dread. Her husband, Mac, the social butterfly who makes these wellness retreats so much easier to navigate, is stuck at work, leaving her exposed to the other passengers. Luckily, she forms an instant bond with the charismatic Chloe, a newly single woman salving a broken heart. But as the friendship grows, Ella discovers they share more than the need for an escape, and their devastating connection has the power to forever alter their lives.

In Pelican Bay, Christmas isn't just a season – it's a reckoning. Beneath the glittering lights of a summer Christmas, 24 interconnected stories unfold, revealing the hidden lives and secret desires of a generation coming of age. From Ethan, reeling from a broken past, to Zoe, striving for an impossible perfection, and Tayla, bridging ancient traditions with modern life, each teen grapples with identity, family, and the ever-present question of where they truly belong. When the holiday season brings everyone together, the lines between public and private, rich and poor, rival schools and ...

Awarded the 5 Star Review Seal on Readers' Favorite. Can be read as a stand-alone story! On a frosty morning in Little Rock, a young teen named Penny arrives at the steps of the Noble Detective Agency, seeking help to find her missing puppy, Pumpkin. What seems like a straightforward poster-and-social-media inquiry soon spirals into something more disturbing. When five more puppies from the same litter vanish without a trace—and the seller’s home is found ransacked but untouched—the case takes on eerie overtones. As an eighteen-year-old private investigator for the NDA, John Smith ...

Charlie Truganini can’t believe his eyes when on a trip into Tasmania’s wilderness he sees a Tasmanian tiger – a carnivorous marsupial considered by most Australians to be extinct. Charlie has a number of claims to fame – one of those being he’s a direct descendant of one Truganini, the woman considered to be the last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian and whose name he inherited. A close second to that is he’s the great-grandson of one Dingo Truganini, the tracker who helped capture the last known Thylacine cynocephalus – an animal better known as the Tasmanian tiger. It’s ...

Brighten your day and dive into Flat Spell Tales! The author, Tony Martello, transforms ordinary events in our lives into fiction based on half-realities. Drop in and surf stories about romance, revenge, treasure hunts, and humor. He invites you along with him on a variety of adventures that take you into extreme nature, complex human relationships, and animal allegories.

I tell you, you meet some strange characters in this game.... Boasting the biggest beats in the world - some as large as France - Australia's outback police have seen it all: natural disasters, incredible acts of selflessness, unspeakable crimes and daring rescues, just to name a few. And they've met some unforgettable characters along the way: from the murderer who stuffed his victims' bodies down wombat holes to the policeman who arrested his own wife....

Is life giving me lemons, or lemonade? Just when Chloe's life should feel like it's falling apart post-divorce, things begin to take off in unexpected ways. She had been feeling undesirable and suddenly she's insatiable to men; for the first time in her life she was completely financially stable after many years of worrying about money. Chloe doesn't even have to worry about blaring alarm clocks anymore. But when there is no drama, we create some amiright? That's exactly what Chloe is doing when an eligible lawyer starts pursuing her. Will Chloe be with her new beau? Or will she cut the ...

Dive deep into the mystical world of Aboriginal culture with Charles William Peck's landmark work, Australian Legends. As one of the earliest compilations, this book intricately narrates tales steeped in Dreamtime mythology, helping you explore the indigenous culture's understanding of the cosmos, morality, and the natural world. Peck's storytelling draws you into an ancestral past that resonates profoundly with modern listeners.

Good girls and bad girls, they're everywhere. Which one are you? Girls is a collection of short stories about young women in the city and the country, who are living with choices made by, and for, them. Dive into their lives.

"McFarlane’s skill in evoking individual inner lives and Jones’s deftness in capturing their spirit make every character distinct." —The Washington Post on The Sun Walks Down, one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Audiobooks of 2023 A gripping, enigmatic collection of linked short stories...

Australia's national character and spirit have always been defined, rightly or wrongly, by 'the bush'. This entertaining, thought-provoking, humorous, nostalgic, and, above all, highly readable collection of stories for the modern reader shows why the romance endures.

From Jim Haynes, one of our most successful and prolific Australian authors, comes a collection of classic and iconic stories from the remote outback, cattle station, wheat farm, and rural town. The bush is where our iconic characters are found living in, taking refuge or exploring, whether an Aborigine, explorer, squatter, bushranger, or stockman.

Compiled by celebrated author and journalist Benjamin Law, Growing Up Queer in Australia assembles voices from across the spectrum of LGBTIQA+ identity. Spanning diverse places, eras, genders, ethnicities and experiences, these are the stories of growing up queer in Australia. For better or worse, sooner or later, life conspires to reveal you to yourself, and this is growing up.

What began as a family lunch ended in tragedy. Four guests sat down to eat. By the next day, they were fighting for their lives. This is the gripping true story behind one of Australia’s most shocking poisoning cases. Deadliest Lunch tells the true-crime story of a quiet meal that turned deadly — rewritten in clear, simple English for A2–B1 English learners and adult reluctant readers. In a small rural town, a family gathers for lunch. Soon after, multiple guests fall seriously ill. As police begin to investigate, disturbing questions emerge. What was served? What was hidden? And who ...

5 SHORT STORY GEMS is a compendium of short stories written by New Zealand author Lance Morcan and published by Sterling Gate Books in 2019/2020. The stories, which have also been released as standalone Kindle ebooks, are aimed at lovers of thrillers, adventure, romance and historical fiction. Details follow… ONCE WERE BROTHERS – Life will never be the same for young Benjamin Thomas after disaffected Maoris abduct his identical twin brother in this moving short story adventure set in Nineteenth Century New Zealand. Mr. 100% – When New York defense lawyer Madison ‘Mr. 100%’ Harley ...

The Best Australian Yarns is a substantial and definitive work collected from memory, mates, word of mouth and decades of researching popular Aussie culture and history.

Including oft-told legendary yarns, reminiscences from the shearing shed, tall stories from the bush, sporting yarns, railway yarns, stories from the world of show business, digger yarns from both world wars, convict and bushranger yarns and anecdotes from the colonial days, yarns from shanties and gold rushes, ghost stories, bunyips and yowies, hauntings, and weird happenings.

Onboard ship to the 1879 Sydney and Melbourne 1880 Expos, consultants Jed and Marie meet Robert and Jane. Discussing issues on women's rights sparks tension and a clash with Robert's traditional values. Yet Jed has a hint that something else is amiss. While Jed and Marie excitedly move forward with their part in the expo, little do they know a dark plot is unfolding. Counter-agents are set on sabotaging the Expo, coming up with some very creative ideas! The targets? Jed and Marie. As the danger escalates, Robert becomes an unwitting pawn, leading to a cliff-edge confrontation that will ...

Nostalgia Loneliness Discovery This collection, the second of its kind, is the result of three challenging but productive years after the author moved to the Rockingham area in Western Australia. Chosen for their evocative locations, they range from historicals to touches of speculative fiction, from light humour to nostalgic peregrinations, and contain within them the weight and heft of experience, rather than flights of fancy. It will be no surprise that the salient emotion in these works is loneliness in its many guises. All the stories in this clutch have been published and/or awarded ...

The new book from Jimmy Barnes, the award-winning author of the number-one bestsellers Working Class Boy,Working Class Man and Killing Time From larger-than-life adventures to vivid and poignant tales of the imagination, Highways and Byways is a collection of stories taking readers on an...