An Avalanche of Awesome: New Release Fiction in June

June is an avalanche of awesome? We agree. The only thing apart from Donald Trump that makes us want to curl into a ball and disappear from the world is a fantastic story.

Whenever we read through a list of new releases we are searching for exactly that. But we’re never sure what’s more exciting, the return of favourite authors or being introduced to new ones. June, thankfully, offers both old and new, Australian and international, with a mix of stories that span genre and style and country so broadly that there’s guaranteed to be a read for everyone.

Some particular highlights include the latest from Mary Kubica, ‘Every Last Lie,’ and ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’, the long-anticipated second novel from Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy. 

Have a look below for the full list of our favourite June releases:

Ache by Eliza-Henry Jones: A heart-wrenching, tender and lovely novel about loss, grief and regeneration, Ache is not only a story of how we can be broken, but how we can put ourselves back together.

Defectors by Joseph Kanon: These days it’s tough to find a thriller that’s fast-paced, prophetic and erudite, without using familiar tricks of genre or storytelling along the way. Joseph Kanon’s latest offering, Defectors, is rich with nostalgia, reminiscent of the Cold War paranoia that characterised John le Carré’s spy novels, while offering a dramatic family schism of two brothers torn apart by their ideological allegiances.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate: Born into a world of wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all. A loving daughter to her father, a US senator, with her own ambitious career as a lawyer and a handsome fiance waiting for her in Baltimore, she has lived a charmed life. But when Avery returns to Aiken to help her father weather a health crisis and a political attack, a chance encounter with May Crandall, an elderly woman she’s never met before, leaves Avery deeply shaken.

A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson: The events surrounding Agatha Christie’s disappearance in the winter of 1926 are well-known – that her husband was unfaithful and, after a row, Agatha disappeared on 3rd December and was eventually discovered in a hotel in Harrogate ten days later. But what happened to her in those ten days?

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner: In this brilliant crime novel from the author of Missing, Presumed, a detective investigates her most personal case yet: a high-profile murder in which her own family falls under suspicion.

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton: The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.

Fatal Crossing by Lone Thiels: When a picture of two Danish girls who disappeared on a boat bound for England in 1985 surfaces in an old suitcase, journalist Nora Sand’s professional curiosity is immediately awakened. Before she knows it, she is mixed up in the case of a serial killer serving a life sentence in a notorious prison.

Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica: New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl and Pretty Baby, Mary Kubica is back with another exhilarating thriller as a widow’s pursuit of the truth leads her to the darkest corners of the psyche.

Camino Island by John Grisham: A struggling writer burdened by debts, Mercer Mann spent summers on Florida’s idyllic Camino Island as a kid, in her grandmother’s beach cottage. Now she is being made an offer she can’t refuse: to return to the peace of the island, to write her novel – and get close to a certain infamous bookseller, and his interesting collection of manuscripts . . .

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness transports us across a subcontinent on a journey of many years. It takes us deep into the lives of its gloriously rendered characters, each of them in search of a place of safety- in search of meaning, and of love.

Hunger by Roxane Gay: From the New York Times best-selling author of Bad Feminist, a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself. 

Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb: Book 3 of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy. Assassin’s Fate is a magnificent tour de force and with it Robin Hobb demonstrates yet again that she is the reigning queen of epic fantasy.

The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet: An electrifying global conspiracy-thriller from the internationally bestselling author of HHhH.

The Nothing by Hanif Kureshi: The Nothing is Hanif Kureishi’s powerful new work: a tense and captivating exploration of lust, helplessness, and deception.

Music and Freedom by Zoe Morrison: Winner of the 2016 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, a gripping and beautifully written novel for fans of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout.

Nighthawk by Clive Cussler: From the Galapagos Islands to the jungles of South America to an icy mountain lake many believe to be the birthplace of the Inca, the entire NUMA team will risk everything in an effort to avert disaster . . . but they may be caught in a race that no one can win.

Sycamore by Byrn Chancellor: Skillfully weaving together multiple points of view, Bryn Chancellor brings to life a cast of indelible characters, most notably Jess Winters, an unforgettable young woman poised on the precarious, wide-eyed threshold of adulthood.

The Barrier by Shankari Chandran: Twenty years ago an ebola epidemic brought the world to the edge of oblivion. Now Agent Noah Williams is being sent over the barrier to investigate a rogue scientist who risks releasing another plague. But why would a once-respected academic threaten the enforced vaccination program that ensures humans are no longer an endangered species?

The Gulf by Anna Spargo-Ryan: The Gulf is an acute, moving and uplifting story from the inimitable, alchemical imagination of Anna Spargo-Ryan.

The Clever Guts Diet by Dr Michael Mosley: The Clever Guts Diet is packed with delicious, healing recipes, menu plans, checklists and tips – all the tools you need to transform your gut and change the way you eat forever.