We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

This World Mental Health Day (October 10), the message is simple: ‘Look after your mental health, Australia.’

Belonging plays an important role in supporting good mental health, and one way to find community and feel less alone is to read narratives that let you feel understood.⁠ To this end, we have six book recommendations to share that bravely and powerfully explore different elements of mental health.

Ill Feelings by Alice Hattrick is a work of narrative nonfiction that blends memoir, medical history, biography, and literary nonfiction. Suffused with rag, it explores life with a medically unexplained illness, drawing on figures including Virgina Woolf, Emily Dickinson, and Florence Nightingale.  

Fever is Jonathan Bazzi’s multi award–winning debut, translated from Italian by Alice Whitmore. Following the aftermath of Jonathan’s journey coming to terms with his HIV-positive diagnosis, this book is a searing examination of class, poverty, prejudice, and opportunity in modern Europe. 

So Sad Today is a collection of personal essays by Melissa Broder. What started as an anonymous Twitter feed, this collection is radical in its treatment of anxiety, depression, illness, and instability, its inventive imagery, and its deadpan humour. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone takes you behind the scenes of a therapist’s practise, as author and therapist Lori Gottlieb takes you with her to explore the inner chambers of her patients’ mysterious inner lives. 

Judith Hoare’s The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code tells the remarkable story of Claire Weekes, the woman who pioneered an anxiety treatment that is now at the cutting edge of psychotherapies, putting the power back in the hands of the individual. 

Things That Helped is a series of essays by Jessica Friedmann navigating her journey through post-partum depression after the birth of her son, charting her return into the world. 

When selecting reading material, please remember to look after yourself first and be mindful of subject matter that may be triggering for you.