Young black lives under scrutiny in Brit Bennett, The Mothers; the ethics and tragedy of World War ll in Rachel Seiffert, A Boy in Winter; queer urban noir in Peter Polites, Down the Hume

Can you imagine the NSW coast in 1796, 1900 and then 2717?

In a world of fantasy, with dragons and magic, you have to get the horses and the nails and the practicalities right to make it believable. If you do that, living ships too aren't such a stretch.

A lonely poet leaves a message in a bottle in 1932 - 'Telephone Helensburgh 120 and ask for Wystan' - and it's picked up by a lonely poet in the present. She calls, he answers, and they become friends across time.

Multi-award winning Australian writer Sophie Laguna reveals what's on her current Top Shelf.

Australia’s history and a speculative future in Catherine McKinnon, Storyland; epic fantasy concludes with Robyn Hobb, Fitz and the Fool; W H Auden and time slips in Polly Clark, Larchfield and what's on Sofie Laguna's Top Shelf.

"There's something about that hidden midnight tunnel to the outside world that makes you feel, if you were watching it as a lonely kid who really didn't connect to you surroundings and you saw this really weird, really compelling thing on the TV, you felt almost as if you had phantom company."

Writer Lisa McInerney presents an Ireland of complex characters, working class lives, drugs and drinking and violence and warmth.

Frost giants, dwarfs, gods and monsters create the world and create mayhem. And writer Neil Gaiman is delighted to retell these ancient stories.

What to read over Summer: Kayla Rae Whitaker, The Animators; Lisa McInerney, The Blood Miracles; Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology