The Emperor of Gladness is a touching, forceful novel about members of a team working at HomeMarket, a fast food restaurant in East Gladness, Connecticut. The novel slowly draws out each character as we are placed deep inside their modest yet poignant worlds. It is not a novel driven by plot, at least not at first. For a while, it wanders – a bit earnest, a little too weightless. But slowly, Vuong builds it into something extraordinary.

The novel’s heart sits with Hai, a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American boy hiding from his mother after lying to her about leaving to attend medical school. Hai is addicted, adrift – he has already dropped out of college once following the death by drugs of his best friend and likely lover - and, following an almost-attempt at suicide on the bridge on the outskirts of Gladness, begins sharing a house with Grazina, an older Lithuanian woman slipping into dementia. Their bond, born of separate but parallel estrangements, is quiet, strange, and deeply moving. They play war games from her fractured memories of childhood in occupied Europe, as she slips into a state of confusion between the past and present, initially only occasionally, but then more often as the book goes on, even as Hai nods off mid-conversation.

Around them, a constellation of characters form: Sony, Hai’s cousin - who may be autistic and whose portrayal by Vuong is brilliant - is obsessed with Civil War generals and the myth of American heroism. Sony’s mother is in jail. BJ, a co-worker, performs homemade rap and amateur wrestling while Wayne, the shift supervisor, manages them like a warden with a soft underbelly. Maureen and “Russia” make up the balance.

Loss pulses through the novel - loss of direction, of family, of memory, loss as a result of deceit. Sony believes his father was a hero in the Vietnam War and had a diamond lodged in his hand following a blast from a grenade. After being fired from HomeMarket at the direction of a crazed regional manager, Sony, along with Hai, Grazina, BJ, and Maureen, go on a quick dash across State-lines to find the diamond, it’s worth enough to pay the bond to get Sony’s Mum out of jail. They don’t recover it, but they locate the site of the car crash where Sony’s father likely committed suicide. Grazina’s son meanwhile, cruel and uncomfortable around her dementia, eventually moves her into a nursing home. And Hai, spiralling, having lost Grazina and deep in the tangle of lies he has told his mother, his addiction to pain killers worsening, manages a moment of clarity from within a dumpster he lies in outside the HomeMarket: “He had successfully thrown himself into the trash, and the act was so complete, so total, it felt clean.”

Vuong generally, although not entirely, resists the need to explain or repair. Everyone in The Emperor of Gladness carries fissures within them - failures, depressions, small cruelties, but the novel, intentionally, never insists on naming them in order to heal them. It’s enough that they exist and are seen.

There is an earnestness that chips away at the first part of the book, but the characters and the story develop in a taught, finely drawn way that by their clarity and depth signal Vuong as a novelist with great skill. It carries a heavy dose of symbolism - wrestling matches, pig slaughters, a glowing green ship in a forest, a giant brown Emperor hog whistling “Silent Night”, but none of that detracts from its beauty. Vuong still has room for development as a novelist – perhaps some scenes were unjustified, some explanation unnecessary - but the novel is a real technical achievement. A book of tender devastation, filled with grace and deep humanity. A quiet, profound epic, and an ode to the invisible workers of the world.

Thomas Vowles - Our New Gods

In Our New Gods Thomas Vowles spins a debut novel of murder, intrigue, and gay male love and desire, unfurled within a web of childhood secrets and erotic family histories. 

It is set in Melbourne, and places at its centre Ash, who has moved there from Perth in order to start a new life.  He meets James, a beautiful confident boy, who he quickly wishes to be with but settles for friendship.  After James meets Raf and they start to date, Ash sees Raf do something to another boy that on its face appears appalling and manipulative, perhaps evil, but that in hindsight could have been by consent.  When someone dies, Ash is thrust into a crusade of self-doubt and a search for the truth – about the boy that died, about Raf, about James - all of which is coloured by his undeniable love for James. 

The book raises a number of questions: what will Ash do to save James? Will he kill for him, and is he trying to save him, or is he looking out only for himself?  Is James even the one he should be saving, or is Ash too clouded by desire to see clearly?  What reality is Ash really obeying in his fight to find out what happened – truth or beauty?  And if he sees things for what they really are: will it burn him, “like some wrathful god”?

This is an astringent, electrifying debut novel.  The prose is tight, elegant, without flourish.  It moves at a consistent pace, but it becomes intoxicating toward the finish.  As new information comes to light, characters are seen in different ways.  The angles keep changing, so we are never sure who to believe.  Vowles manages to take a moment and dissect it while colouring the analysis with backstories, mainly Ash’s and James’, who have each had traumatic childhood relationships with their fathers.  It’s gripping, and by the end it was difficult to put down.

Having just read Hayley Scrivenor’s Girl Falling (see my review below), I’d place both books in a similar camp.  Death (or murder?), truth, love, secrets, friendship and family histories.  They all get entangled.  Vowles, like Scrivenor, evidences a fine ability to write a thriller with character development that is deep, meaningful and emotional.  A great debut.

Hayley Scrivenor - Girl Falling

Hayley Scrivenor’s Girl Falling is a queer crime novel that unfolds with quiet intensity in the gorgeous but wet backdrop of the Blue Mountains. A story of lifelong friendship, buried truths, and fractured families, it centres on two girls – Finn and Daphne - best friends since childhood, whose bond is tested after the tragic death of Finn’s girlfriend, Magdu, during a climbing expedition. The novel opens in the aftermath of the fall, then peels back the layers of tension and grief that have long existed between the two protagonists.

Scrivenor writes with control, her tone steady and unhurried, drawing the reader into a psychological landscape shaped as much by what’s left unsaid as what is revealed. The pace is deliberate and forensic and allows the emotional weight of each moment to build with a kind of quiet dread. This isn’t a crime novel driven by forensic clues or procedural twists, but one that locates its mystery within people—how they hide from each other, and from themselves. The suspense lies in the slow unfolding of long-held secrets between the girls, and the ways in which their respective family histories—marked by silences, care, and quiet violence—intersect.

The emotional resonance of Girl Falling brings to mind recent novels like The Guest by Emma Cline or Hanna Johansson’s Antiquity—not for thematic similarity, but for the way each explores the claustrophobia of close relationships and the complicated inner lives of young women. Scrivenor’s prose holds its tension with subtlety, and her portrayal of queer adolescence is as tender as it is unsparing.

Girl Falling is a satisfying, slow-burn thriller—never flashy, always emotionally precise—and confirms Scrivenor as a writer of sensitivity and depth. A compelling, quietly haunting read.

This new collection of macabre short stories by an International Booker Prize-shortlisted author delves into the seemingly ordinary lives of everyday people, where surreal, supernatural, and sinister threats, always keeping you on the edge of your seat, lurk just beneath the surface. The book is a testament to Enriquez's skill in weaving terror with literary finesse.

Layla Martinez - Woodworm

This powerful, compact book will leave you breathless. Two women, a grandmother and her granddaughter, live in a house that relentlessly haunts them with secrets and curses. The mysterious disappearance of a young boy forces them to confront their dark past and buried desires.

Olga Tokarczuk - The Empusium

The Nobel Prize Laureate returns with a historical feminist horror novel set in a health resort in Western Poland, where unspeakable terror unfolds. Suffering from tuberculosis, Mieczyslaw arrives at the resort seeking healing, only to uncover disturbing events within the house. The horror escalates until all the male residents are forced to confront the flaws in their understanding of the world—and of women.

K-Ming Chang - Cecilia

A slim novella about girlhood, friendship, and desire, told through K-Ming Chang's stylistic and imaginative prose. The story follows Seven, a cleaner at a chiropractor's office, who unexpectedly reunites with her school friend, Cecilia. As they embark on a journey together on the same bus, they must confront a long-suppressed, dark desire.

Dahlia de la Cerda - Reservoir Bitches

This provocative collection of short stories introduces a bold new voice from Mexico. In the face of everyday horrors, the female protagonists cheat, fight, and do whatever it takes to survive. Featuring diverse characters, including a trans woman, the daughter of a cartel boss, and a socialite, Reservoir Bitches unapologetically showcases feminine power and the fierce determination to live in a world that often overlooks such strength.

Delving into the history of the entertainment, music, and film industry between 1955 and 1979, Jon Savage meticulously charts the contributions of early gay and lesbian artists, like Johnnie Ray and Dusty Springfield, which paved the way to the explosion of queerness embraced by more contemporary artists, like David Bowie. It's a wildly-entertaining read for those interested in pop culture and queer history in general!

2. Leigh Boucher, Barbara Baird, Michelle Arrow, Robert Reynolds - Personal Politics: Sexuality, Gender and the Remaking of Citizenship in Australia

Personal Politics charts Australia's gender and sexuality political dynamics in the last five decades. Beginning from the reform of abortion and homosexuality laws in the late 1960s and 1970s, the book moves chronologically to more contemporary cases, including the queer involvements in national HIV/AIDS activism in the 1980s, the birth of Sydney and Lesbian Mardi Gras in early 1990s, the Safe Schools debate in the 2010s, and the achievement of marriage equality in 2017. Written in an accessible style, this is a long-awaited book that assesses the wins and losses of queer activism in Australia.

3. Brad Gooch - Radiant: The Life And Line Of Keith Haring

Brad Gooch's Radiant showcases Keith Haring's blazing art and life. It also follows the development of his political consciousness, eventually leading him to use his art to convey activist messages about human rights, HIV/AIDS, and equality. As Gooch was granted access to Haring's extensive archives and based on interviews with those who knew the artist, this biography also paints a complete picture of Haring as a human being - his ambitions, desires, and sexuality. A meticulous look at the life story of an important queer artist, the book also details Haring's friendships and collaborations with Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, and Timothy Leary. 

Written in a poetic style, this coming-of-age queer novel charts the intertwined lives of two boys who do not yet have the language to name their feelings and confront them. The book examines questions of friendship, identity, and alienation.

Misrecognition - Madison Newbound

This funny debut novel tells the story of a young woman struggling with her depression after the break-up of her relationship with heterosexual couple. Her dismay is soon compounded by her obsession with a non-binary person and a gay actor who happen to visit her town, throwing her on a self-discovery journey to figure out what she truly wants in life.

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

Reissued with the new cover from Virago, this queer classic follows the love story between Nan Astley, who falls in love with Kitty Butler, a drag king performer at a nearby theatre. Soon enough, Nan begins her adventure to become Kitty's dresser and, of course, lover. Erotic, empowering, and witty, Tipping the Velvet was Sarah Waters's first novel written in her signature style, which continues and permeates her bestselling books that followed. 

This wildly inventive debut is a page-turner about "what-ifs" in a lesbian relationship. What if your partner becomes a cannibal? What if, in another universe, she becomes a power-hungry submissive CEO and you a lowly employee and dominatrix at the same time? This book is full of creative possibilities and inventions for female same-sex desire.

2. Layla Martinez - Wormwood

This powerful, slim book will leave you gasping. Two women, a grandmother and her granddaughter, live in a house that never stops terrorising them with secrets and curses. The mysterious disappearance of a young boy eventually leads them to confront their dark past and repressed desires.

3. Hanna Johannson - Antiquity

Written in the sublime yet unsettling atmosphere narrative, this book follows the erotic desire of a thirty-something woman who becomes infatuated with an older female artist, Helena. When Helena invites her to join her in the Greek city of Ermoupoli, she must confront her murky understanding of love, power, desire, and jealousy! 

To customers and fans of The Bookshop Darlinghurst,

Charles Gregory here, writing to introduce myself. I recently purchased The Bookshop Darlinghurst from Les McDonald. Les founded The Bookshop in 1982 with Wayne Harrison, has owned it ever since, and last week, he handed the reins to me.

Photo: Miguel Sumera

I want to offer a huge thank you to Les. To run a bookstore, let alone one with a focus on queer literature, for more than four decades, is a major achievement. Everyone I know, or have spoken to recently about the shop, has a story about it or thinks of it fondly. It’s been a mainstay of Sydney’s electric and ever-changing queer community.

I want to say thank you, too, to all the staff that over its many years have made The Bookshop what it is. Graeme, Noel, and Paul, who are at the shop now and have been with it for many years, have never wavered in their belief in its purpose and importance, in making it such a precious queer space in the heart of Darlinghurst. There are many others who have worked at the shop over the years, too many to name. I know some of them personally and have never met others, but thank you to all of you. The Bookshop means everything to me and means a lot, I’m sure, to all of you.

Photo: Miguel Sumera

I worked for Les at the shop more than 15 years ago. I loved working there. Back then, the shop opened to midnight some nights, which meant I could go straight from the shop to the bars. Oxford Street was full of people walking to and from dinners, going out to clubs, ambling home in the morning light. It’s because I had such a good time then, that I still hold those days and nights working in the store as cherished memories, that I decided I wanted to see it continue.

Les had the courage to start The Bookshop two years before homosexuality was decriminalised in NSW. When I was working at the shop in the mid-2000s, age of consent laws were being aligned and non-binary and trans members of the community were fighting for the right to have their gender properly recorded on government documents. Things change, laws change, the community has changed.

What I want for The Bookshop for the future is to continue it as a place that focuses on queer literature and queer history. And going forward, I feel a deep responsibility to ensure it reflects the ever-growing diversity and full range of perspectives that make up our beautiful queer family in Sydney. I want to bring even more people into the store, make it a space where everyone feels comfortable browsing in it at length, and make it a space not just for looking at books, but for events, book launches, and author talks. I also want to experiment with new events and formats that cater to our next generation of queer customers and beyond. It’s my mission for it to continue as a special queer space in the heart of LGBTQ+ Sydney that will continue to evolve and grow alongside our vibrant community.

I’ve never stopped loving being immersed in The Bookshop’s full carton of queer stories. I’m an avid reader, and enrolled in a creative writing course, and queer stories are only some of what I read. But when I want to read about characters who I can recognise from the queer community in Sydney, The Bookshop never faltered, never falters, in giving me that opportunity. I’ve always felt its range of books, the diversity in its stock, allowed you to spend a lot of time there. That is something I want to carry on.

So again I say thank you to Les, Graeme, Noel and Paul, and to all of you, the customers, who have supported The Bookshop over many years and everything it strives to be. I also say hello too, and welcome, to all of you. And finally, I say that I hope I can continue to make The Bookshop as successful as it has been in the past, and an even better shop in the future. I hope to meet all of you over the coming months and years.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Gregory

Enjoy the wild ride of this International Booker Prize short-listed novel! It tells the story of an ambitious female entrepreneur who transitions genders and sets up a whale-shaped cinema! With unexpected plot twists this book is impossible to put down.

2. Who's Afraid of Gender - Judith Butler 

An accessible book for everyone who is interested in learning how we have arrived at the current understanding of gender and sexuality. You will certainly be more confident to read Judith Butler's or any queer theory academic texts after this book, as you'll finally grasp their ideas clearly from this book! 

3. Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan 

A 52-year-old art professor, Campbell Flynn, writes an airport book to secure his finances and invites a handsome, popular actor to pretend to be the original author. What begins as an innocuous plot suddenly morphs into a scandal that involves a Russian oligarch and a criminal ring. 

4.  Ten Bridges I've Burnt - Brontez Purnell 

The award-winning author returns with his memoir written in verse in his usual style--wild, slutty, and brutally honest. This time, he doesn't shy away from celebrating failures and sexual misadventures as part of our queer life! 

5. The History of Sexuality - Toby Lakmaker 

A coming-of-age novel of a philosophising millennial who is first into men, then into women, but who will always be into women. Each chapter deals with the protagonist's ex and how they make sense of heartbreak, loss, and dysfunctional relationships. 

6. Change - Edouard Louis 

The French literary sensation chronicles his remarkable odyssey from abject poverty to becoming a respected gay writer in France. As he dines with upper-middle-class people and spends nights with multiple men, he may not be able to fully erase and leave his old identity behind. 

7.  Henry Henry - Allen Bratton 

A queer reimagining of Shakespeare's Henry plays, it follows the gay Catholic son of the Duke of Lancaster, who does copious amounts of cocaine and random sex, suddenly must confront the wounds of his family's past and grief. 

8. Transland: Consent, Kink, and Pleasure - Mx. Sly 

A self-discovery memoir of a non-binary person on their journey to discover self-worth and a sense of belonging in fetish and kink subculture. 

9. Holding The Man - Timothy Conigrave

Return to the Australian classic gay novel and an all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne. It's a time when gay marriage was not legal yet, yet a strong love between Timothy Conigrave and John Caleo would survive disapproval and even death 

10.  Madonna  - Mary Gabriel 

In this new biography, journalist Mary Gabriel explores Madonna's connections with her queer circles and how their relationships have transformed pop culture and queer arts.

By Joseph O’Connor

This historical novel explores the life of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula and depicts him as a closeted gay man. Set largely around London’s Lyceum theatre, it explores Stoker’s complicated relationships with the famous real-life actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry and the torments of the creative life.

2. A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom

By John Boyne

It’s a time travelling saga that ranges from Palestine in AD1 to a colony in outer space in AD 2080. This is rich and imaginative storytelling that takes John Boyne’s skills as a historical novelist in a very dynamic and exciting direction.

3. Swimming in the Dark

By Tomasz Jedrowski

First love is a common subject for gay fiction, but what makes this debut novel so distinctive and fascinating is its setting: early 1980s communist Poland. There is also the added tension of the two young men having quite different political sensibilities.

4. The Adversary

By Ronnie Scott

This Australian debut novel has a wry charm and a very distinctive literary style. There is very little plot, yet The Adversary is a thoroughly engaging read - witty, very well-written and genuinely fresh.

5. Cleanness

By Garth Greenwell

Greenwell has wisely returned to the same setting - Sofia, Bulgaria - that made his debut novel What Belongs to You so distinctive. Thisis edgy, intelligent and intensely candid writing about sex, desire and intimacy between men.

By Brit Bennett

The divergent fate of twin sisters, as one passes for white and the other remains black, challenges the nature of identity, revealing new possibilities to move beyond its strictures.

2. Shuggie Bain

By Douglas Stuart

An emotionally-charged entry to the intimate relationship between an alcoholic woman and her queer son, Douglas Stuart intensely captures the power of a mother-child bond in remaking the world previously shattered by poverty.

3. Real Life

By Brandon Taylor 

Real Life follows the passionate encounter between a black gay man and a white 'straight'-identified man in search of their true-self and freedom from the strictures of race, class, and gender.

4. Bestiary

By K-Ming Chang 

Full of spirits and creatures from Taiwanese and Chinese folktales, this wildly-inventive novel blurs the boundary between reality and dreams to encapsulate the intertwined journey of three generations of Taiwanese-American women to find their long-lost home.

5. The Death of Vivek Oji

By Akwaeke Emezi

Wrapped in poetic storytelling and interweaving the journey for a new self with spirituality, Akwaeke Emezi also explores how loss and sorrow often bring us to a new understanding of love, life, and identity that cannot always be fully captured by our language.