Sydney-based writer and book critic Madeleine Gray on the five books that impacted her the most

“For me, this is pretty much the perfect novel.”

Every avid reader has a book (or two, or three) that holds a special place on their shelf. Maybe it’s the first book that really hooked them on reading or a novel they read while at one of life’s pivotal crossroads. For Australian writer and book critic Madeleine Gray, her favourite books are the ones she’s constantly having to repurchase “because I gift them to everyone who visits my apartment.”

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Madeleine’s debut novel, Green Dot, wittily explores early adulthood through the lens of insecure 24-year-old Hera as she navigates morality, desire and the search for connection. With a background in literary criticism, Madeleine is bringing her insights to the After Lizzie and Darcy panel at the Sorrento Writers Festival on Thursday, April 25. She’ll be joined by Michael Earp, Saman Shad and Graeme Simsion to discuss “great lovers and sizzling romance in contemporary fiction”.

“Because I write across fiction, literary criticism and academic literary theory, my reading patterns are all over the place – so, there’s not much genre continuity,” Madeleine explains. Here, she shares the five books that have impacted her the most.

Like by Ali Smith

I will never stop talking about this book. It’s Scottish author Smith’s debut and for this reason, it is often overlooked (as her later novels have all won a million prizes). For me, though, this is pretty much the perfect novel. It’s about two friends, Amy and Ash, and each protagonist gets her own half of the novel to tell her version of their story.

The pair meet as children and form an intense but inscrutable bond. It’s clear throughout that something traumatic must have happened between them but Smith circles around it, hinting, suggesting… it’s not until the very end of the novel that you realise how masterfully you’ve been played.

Get it here. 

The Cultural Politics of Emotion by Sara Ahmed

This is technically an academic text but Ahmed writes so lyrically that it sometimes reads like prose poetry. Ahmed is an exceptional feminist scholar who, in this book, argues that emotions are also cultural practices: that particular emotions get attached to particular socio-cultural groups, and that a language of emotions governs how society directs attitudes to those understood to be ‘others’. Read this and follow it with another of her books, The Promise of Happiness, another banger.

Get it here.

This Happy by Niamh Campbell

People might be tempted to dismiss this novel as another ‘sad girl’ story, but first of all, I take issue with that term and the sexist flattening it enacts, and second of all, this book is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. The plot is compelling – it’s about Alannah, a twenty-nine-year-old woman who once had an affair with an older man, and who is now, years later and newly married, reflecting on that time – but it is also just one of the most beautifully written novels. The prose is crisp and delicious and sometimes dreamy but always incisive, and Campbell perfects the interior monologue of a young woman coming to terms with what power she has and what power she cannot hope to possess.

Get it here.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters is the queen of lesbian historical fiction, and Fingersmith is my personal fave of hers, although they’re all brilliant. Waters knows how to do plot, and she knows how to do sexy. Set in Victorian London, this is the tale of young street urchin Sue, who is sent by her petty criminal adoptive mother to seduce a wealthy heiress, Maud, and ensnare her fortune. Plot twist: things do not go according to plan. What instead happens is espionage, kinky sex, false imprisonment, jailbreaks – the whole shebang. This novel also inspired the superb South Korean film The Handmaiden, which you should also watch.

Get it here.

Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird

I couldn’t not include this phenomenally funny and sincere and stupid and smart book of poetry by New Zealander Bird. Bird writes about wanting and heartbreak and growing up and sadness in a dizzying array of mixed metaphors and comically placed ellipses. Whenever I’m feeling uninspired I thumb through this collection to remind myself that good art is necessary.

Get it here.

To catch Madeleine Gray’s panel at the Sorrento Writers Festival, book here.