The Book Show

You voted, we counted and now we know: Tim Winton's Cloudstreet is our favourite-ever Australian book. In this Top 100 Australian Books afterparty we relive the highs, the lows and the controversies of the countdown.  

Claire Nichols and Hilary Harper take a deep dive into conversations from The Book Show with your favourite Top 100 Books authors. Tim Winton reflects on how Cloudstreet saved him, Markus Zusak shares the stories that made The Book Thief and we hear from other favourites: Melissa Lucashenko on Too Much Lip and Charlotte McConaghy on Wild Dark Shore. 

We also dig into the ABC archives for a 1987 interview with Sally Morgan on her seminal memoir, My Place.

Download a printable Top 100 Australian Books 1-100 ranked.

Relive your favourite moments of the weekend countdown.

Tune into our sister show, The Bookshelf, for the ones that got away (and the 101-200 list).

Donate to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, our Top 100 Australian Books partner.

Top 100 Australian Books: Ranks 1–100 

1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak3. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent5. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey6. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden7. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams8. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan9. The Secret River by Kate Grenville10. The Dry by Jane Harper

11. Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas12. Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe13. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta14. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks15. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas16. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy17. Storm Boy by Colin Thiele18. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin19. Magic Beach by Alison Lester20. Wifedom by Anna Funder

21. My Place by Sally Morgan22. The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book by Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark23. Stasiland by Anna Funder24. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay25. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner26. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay27. The Harp in the South by Ruth Park28. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth29. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do30. My Brother Jack by George Johnston

31. Monkey Grip by Helen Garner32. Animalia by Graeme Base33. Breath by Tim Winton34. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion35. Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton36. Limberlost by Robbie Arnott37. I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall38. Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner39. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty40. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

41. Dirt Music by Tim Winton42. The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs43. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks44. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey45. All That I Am by Anna Funder46. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough47. Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park48. Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek49. The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer50. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

51. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman52. Horse by Geraldine Brooks53. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood54. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally55. The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay56. The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander57. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland58. The Yield by Tara June Winch59. The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku60. The Man From Snowy River by Banjo Paterson

61. Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko62. Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester63. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan64. Damned Whores and God's Police by Anne Summers65. Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran66. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright67. Voss by Patrick White68. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James69. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute70. Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

71. The Tree of Man by Patrick White72. This House of Grief by Helen Garner73. Scrublands by Chris Hammer74. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes75. The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams76. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood77. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple78. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy79. Johnno by David Malouf80. For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke

81. We of the Never-Never by Aeneas Gunn82. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail83. Wombat Stew by Marcia K Vaughan and Pamela Lofts84. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts85. The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham86. The Lost Man by Jane Harper87. The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein88. Juice by Tim Winton89. Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko90. Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey

91. Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker92. The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper93. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead94. The Spare Room by Helen Garner95. The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose96. RecipeTin Eats: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi97. Devotion by Hannah Kent98. The Arrival by Shaun Tan99. The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton100. Round the Twist by Paul Jennings

Before Knives Out, escape rooms and true-crime podcasts, there was Agatha Christie. The 'Queen of Crime' perfected the murder-mystery format and, 50 years after her death, we still can't get enough of her trailblazing take on cosy crime.

Each episode we solve a case together. What made her mysteries so propulsive? What happened when she was the star of her own missing-persons case? And would The Thursday Murder Club, or Only Murders in the Building exist, without Agatha Christie?

Plus, each episode we'll put your little grey cells to work with a cryptic puzzle brought to you by David Astle, the ABC's resident Puzzle Master.

The surprising Australian links in Min Jin Lee's latest novel American Hagwon. And Bonnie Garmus stresses the importance of poetry in Peck and Peck, the follow up to Lessons in Chemistry.  

Why did it take ten years to write American Hagwon, the third novel exploring the Korean diaspora after Pachinko? Find out as Korean American author Min Jin Lee describes to Claire Nichols the ideas behind this family saga set just after the Asian financial crisis. The novel which centres on the sacrifices parents make to educate their children, but is also about expectations, class, migration and ultimately a celebration of family unity. While tackling the endemic Korean private cram academies called Hagwon, the story takes us to Korea, Sydney and California. And as a regular visitor to these shores, Min Jin Lee has some interesting conclusions about Australia's education and health systems.

And while Bonnie Garmus tells Claire Nichols the themes in her latest novel are very different from Lessons in Chemistry, the idea for Peck and Peck also came to her after a bad day at work. This time though it was a poem on the radio that sparked a story about a young man with an ear for identifying good poetry. And the complexities of twins. 

Conservative politician and bestselling author, Jeffrey Archer has died at 86. In one of the final interviews of his life, he recounts how his changing financial, personal and political fortunes propelled his writing career.

Jeffery Archer's own life story was just as colourful as those in the pages of his books. He was a British MP until he went bankrupt, then in 1976 he published the novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less which began his 50 year career as a novelist. He was made a British Lord, worked for Margaret Thatcher and went to jail for perjury.

With his days in politics long behind him, Jeffrey Archer was in a reflective mood for this interview. He told Claire Nichols that his new novel, Adam and Eve, was the best thing he'd written and it would be his last.

Why Shaun Micallef's latest novel DeAth Takes a Holiday features a cast of gothic characters including a vampire suffering from ennui, zombie slaves and the resurrection of the skeletal remains of Queen Victoria's husband.

What happens when you have to step in to a gig at the last minute?  With almost zero preparation Claire Nichols had to draw on all her skills to fill in as host at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival. But with a guest like comedian, author, TV presenter Shaun Micallef perhaps even the most rigorous research can never prepare you for what's about to unfold.  Thank goodness Claire had actually read and interviewed him about his new book DeAth Takes a Holiday, a unique perspective on the Gothic romance horror where the harbinger of Dracula attempts mortality. You can hear that interview here.   From his hilarious description of the font used, to the inspiration for the book; the 19th century satirical utopian novel Erewhon, Shaun pokes affectionate fun at the format of books, reprises his favourite historical figures and ponders more serious questions about the current state of the world. And is that Trump making an appearance?

Geraldine Brooks explains how she stumbled across the story that inspired her 17th century plague novel, Year of Wonders and Zoe Foster Blake channels her favourite getaways and strong female friendships in her latest novel Group Chat.

For Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote, Geraldine Brooks takes Claire Nichols back to the beginnings of her beloved debut Year of Wonders and reflects on whether it's an Australian novel despite being set in 17th century England. Now, 25 years after publication, Geraldine is amused by how she depicted horses in the novel (she's now a keen horserider), but she's still proud of it and offers wise words about the importance of accepting our younger selves.  

Will you be voting for Year of Wonders? Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Zoe Foster Blake describes to Claire Nichols how holidays in her favourite Greek island of Mykonos and her enduring friendships with women over decades inspired her latest novel. Group Chat is about five women in their forties who gather for a week of extravagance to support a girlfriend who's discovered her husband is cheating. As they dance till dawn, sip cocktails at beach bars or on luxury yachts, the women also question their own suburban lives and ask themselves, is that all there is?  

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Kim Scott was so disturbed by how Noongar people were depicted in the Western Australian archive that he wrote Benang: From the Heart. Plus Kate Grenville explains the origins of her latest genre-bending book and how The Secret River became a novel.  

In 2000, Kim Scott's Benang won the Miles Franklin Literary Award making him the first Indigenous author to win the prestigious prize (shared with Drylands by Thea Astley). In this special interview for Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote, he tells Claire Nichols why he wrote Benang as a reckoning with his own Noongar identity. Kim shares the rage he felt reading the work of A.O. Neville, the notorious WA "Chief Protector of Aborigines" and his reaction to the photos of Indigenous people used throughout Neville's racist manifesto "Australia's Coloured Minority". 

Will you be voting for Benang: From the Heart? Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Kate Grenville is the author of many books that explore Australian history including her celebrated novel, The Secret River. Her latest The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters is a genre-bending exploration of the archive and asks where does truth lie? Kate also tells Claire about how The Secret River began its life and why the book is still special to her. 

Kate Grenville is a regular guest on The Book Show and you can listen to Kate and Claire discuss the novel A Room Made of Leaves, a fictionalised account of the life of Elizabeth Macarthur. Or listen to Kate discussing her novel Restless Dolly Maunder. 

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Tim Winton explains why his beloved Cloudstreet is not a nostalgic novel, while Holly Ringland admits she was "nostalgia sick" for the 1990s while writing The World Beneath Her Feet.

Cloudstreet follows the Lamb and Pickles families, who live under the same roof but move in very different circles. Loosely based on the two sides of Tim Winton's family, the novel's distinctive vernacular grew from the stories he heard as a child. In this interview for Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books, Tim tells Claire Nichols why the book's enduring popularity remains a mystery to him more than 30 years after its publication. Ahead of the release of his memoir, Songs from the Firefront, Tim also shares some of the true stories that feature in this classic including the heartbreaking story of his grandmother.

Will you be voting for Cloudstreet? Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Holly Ringland's debut The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was voted into the inaugural Top 100 Books in 2025 and now she's published her third novel The World Beneath Her Feet. It's about the troubled past of a gemstone expert growing up in the 1990s which is significant to Holly as the last time teenagers grew up unrecorded without social media and a camera in their pocket

Listen to Claire's interview with Holly about her second novel The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding. 

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Helen Garner finds it painful to think back to the time when she wrote her autobiographical novel, Monkey Grip, about a young mum and her love affair with a heroin addict.

Monkey Grip was published in 1977 and was famously inspired by her own life in 1970s inner-city Melbourne. It recounts the turmoil of living in share houses and being in love but also revels in the joys of bike riding and swimming at the local Fitzroy pool. In this special conversation with Claire Nichols for ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote, Helen reflects on the criticism the book received at the time and why writing a diary (that others want to read) is an exercise in craft.

Will you be voting for Monkey Grip? Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Jordan Prosser's second novel Blue Giant is an unlikely reading companion for Monkey Grip; it's also about young people living in an inner city Melbourne share house, but this book is about millennial ennui and moving to Mars. Listen to Claire's interview with Jordan about his debut novel Big Time here (it's the third interview).

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Nadine Garner share the Australian books that shaped their reading life. Find out what they want to do with problematic classics like My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.

The event was recorded with The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange at Melbourne Writers Festival for ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote which is now open.

In the Top 100 Australian Books you can choose any ten Australian titles from fiction to non-fiction, kids books to cookbooks, history, biography or memoir. 

Be part of the countdown and cast your vote for your favourite Australian books here. 

Tune in to ABC Radio National for the countdown weekend: Saturday, 17 and Sunday, 18 October.

Guests:

Maxine Beneba Clarke is a poet, a children's book author and illustrator. She's also the author of the memoir The Hate Race and an award winning book of short stories, Foreign Soil. Her latest book is Beautiful Changelings.

Nadine Garner has been on our screens since the 1980s and The Henderson Kids. She's also starred in The Doctor Blake Mysteries, won Best Actress at the 1988 Australian Film Institute Awards and appeared in many TV roles and on the stage.

Omar Musa is a visual artist, poet, spoken word performer, playwright, novelist, short story writer and rapper. He's the author of two novels, Here Come the Dogs and his latest Fierceland won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Listen to his interview on The Book Show with Claire Nichols here.

Books discussed

Omar Musa's favourites:

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

The Monster that Ate Canberra by Michael Salmon

Tiddalick the Frog Who Caused a Flood by Robert Roennfeldt

Strange Objects by Gary Crew

Obernewtyn by Isabelle Carmody

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

Kim Scott's True Country

The Boat by Nam Le

The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher Koch

Shadow boxing by Tony Birch

The Monkey's Mask by Dorothy Porter

Nadine Garner's favourites:

Playing Beatty Bow by Ruth Park

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

My Place by Sally Morgan

Dear Sun: The Letters Of Joy Hester And Sunday Reed edited by Janine Burke

Burial Rights by Hannah Kent

Mullaway by Bron Nicolls

Power Without Glory by Frank

The Women of Little Lon: Sex Workers in Nineteenth-century Melbourne by Barbara Minchinton

Maxine Beneba Clarke's favourites:

Tram to Bondi Beach by Libby Hathorn, illustrated by Julie Vivas

Possum Magic by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas

Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein

My Place by Sally Morgan

Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch

Rock Flight by Hasib Hourani

Chinese Fish by Grace Yee

Praise by Andrew McGahan

Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas

Candy by Luke Davies

He Died with a Felafel in his Hand by John Birmingham

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.