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

With the festive season around the corner — and as firm believers that a good book is always a great choice for a gift — we’ve curated a selection of books to help you find the perfect present for every person in your life who might need one (including yourself!). 

To celebrate this festive season, we’re offering 20 per cent off all books purchased through the Scribe site, with an option for free gift wrapping. Just use the code XMAS22 at checkout during the month of December. For delivery by Christmas, put in your order before 12 December (find more about delivery cut-off details here).

If you know that you want to give someone a book, but you aren’t quite sure which one is right, keep scrolling to browse our gift guide for some helpful suggestions.

Translated treasures

Scribe is a proud publisher of translated fiction and nonfiction, and we’ve had some brilliant entries into the list this year.

• From the author of the International Booker Prize–longlisted The Eighth Life we published My Soul Twin, an epic forbidden love story about two families with a devastating secret. 
• For those looking for a story that offers more hope, we suggest The Picture Bride which is the English-language debut by Korean author Lee Geum-yi. Opening in 1918, this sweeping tale follows three women who journey from Korea to Hawai’i to marry men they’ve met only through photographs. 
• Vista Chinesa brings us to Brazil in 2014 when the city of Rio De Janeiro was in a state of euphoria, bringing light and shadow to the story of a woman and a city that were violated. 
• Translated from Mexican Spanish, What Goes Unsaid is an extraordinary fictionalised memoir about three men who are driven to escape the confines of their traditional lives and roles and search for their personal freedom. 

Chronically online

To support our growing presence on the internet (Scribe has joined BookTok!), we implemented our new quarterly newsletter for book bloggers and reviewers. These are some of the books that your friends who are plugged into the bookternet are likely to have seen around.

• The Pachinko Parlour is the latest book from Elisa Shua Dusapin, the author of perenially popular bookstagram pick, Winter in Sokcho. Nuanced and beguiling, this new book glows with intelligence in its exploration of identity and otherness, unspoken histories, and the loneliness you can feel within a family. 
• As if Joan Didion wrote Rebecca, Utopia is an atmospheric page-turner about women and art, set in in 1970s California, and a great summer read. 
• A TIME magazine Must-Read Book of the Year, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone offers a rare and candid insight into a profession that is conventionally bound with rules and secrecy, taking you behind the scenes of psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb’s practice. 

Someone else’s shoes

Sometimes the best escape is to to step into someone else’s life. Memoirs are a great choice for that, made even more interesting in the way that they let you explore the world beyond your own perspective, these books are perfect for introspective people or people who love getting to know others. 

• As a child forced to work in a sweatshop, Anna Qu called child services on her mother; this book tells her story. Made in China is a fierce debut memoir that asks thorny questions about trauma and survival in immigrant families, the meaning of work, and the costs of immigration.
• In Farm, Nicola Harvey shares her profoundly personal story delving into the heart of the industrialised global food system to share what life on the land is like when you’re a new farmer trying to survive, but also change the status quo. 
• Combining travel writing, feminist theology, and confessional memoir, Holy Woman is Louise Omer’s raw and personal exploration of spiritual life under patriarchy.
• Scribe’s latest book from the acclaimed author of Mrs Engels and The Sisters Mao, Cells is a coming to terms with separation and loss, whilst uncovering fillial love and its limits. 

For the armchair travellers

If you’re not going away this summer — but wish you were — we have some atmospheric and beautifully descriptive books that’ll help you feel like you’ve seen some other parts of the world. 

• To begin with, take a trip 70 years into the past with Marlo, to rediscover Melbourne as it was in the 1950s. Reviving a time that was so recent but still so different to now, Jay Carmichael has drawn on archival material, newspaper articles, and photos to create the claustrophobic environment in which two men lived and loved. 
• Fever is a multi-award-winning Italian debut from a bold new voice in contemporary queer literature. Jonathan shares his life in Milan and his childhood in Italy’s north, at once revealing a deeply peresonal story and a searing examination of poverty, prejudice, and opportunity in modern Europe.
• From award-winning writer Anjali Joseph, Keeping in Touch is a compelling new novel about a dysfunctional love affair, complete with lush descriptions of life in Assam, India. 
• A System so Magnificent it is Blinding is a joyful family saga about free will, forgiveness, and how we are all interconnected, set around the world following three disparate triplets who are living in Easter Island, Sweden, and London. 
• By the author of The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, Watersong is a spellbinding novel of loves lost and recovered and how our pasts shape our futures, set in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Akakawa.

All about the aesthetics

Are you looking for something for someone who doesn’t necessarily consider themselves a reader, but still loves to have pretty book objects around? We have a selection of photography books and graphic novels that are perfect for them. 

• Westography is the perfect present for anyone who is from, or lives in, the western suburbs of Melbourne. This book is a new edition of Warren Kirk’s beloved first book of photography, capturing exclusive access to homes and businesses of the last of a generation.
• Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990 is a captivating compilation of photographs taken between 1960 and 1990, and provides a fascinating glimpse of a time that is familiar and yet different. This book offers a brilliant hit of nostalgia for anyone who grew up in Melbourne during these years.
• Men I Trust is a gorgeously painted graphic novel by the Lambda award–winning Tommi Parrish. Moving and insightful, this book is a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off. 
• Our Members Be Unlimited is an original and visually powerful exploration of unionism by acclaimed comics journalist Sam Wallman. Perfect for the history buff or socialist in your life. 
• Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 is a great gift for anyone who is very into politics or comedy (or both!). Featuring some of Australia’s finest cartoonist, this twentieth-anniversary edition brings you the last year of politics in comics — and what a year it has been.

Supporting Australian authors

Scribe started with a focus on serious nonfiction, debuting as Australia’s first publishing house dedicated to the genre in 1972. Since then, our focus has grown, but never at the expense of what started it all — this section features some of Scribe’s best Australian nonfiction from the year.

• Our most anticipated political book of the year, Niki Savva’s Bulldozed lays out the final unravelling of the Coalition at the hands of a resurgent Labor and the so-called teal independents that culminated in the historic 2022 election. 
• Know someone who tends to get caught up on misinformation? Who Needs the ABC? is the book for them; it charts how, in its 90th year, the best-trusted news organisation in Australia arrived at its current plight: doing the most it ever has, with less than it needs, under a barrage of constant criticism.
• Making a revealing and compelling case to establish a strong national anti-corruption body, Keeping Them Honest explains what we need to do to expose political corruption, uphold accountability, and restore trust — and why we need to do it now. 
• Hard Labour is a startling investigation into how some of Australia’s best-known companies have been systematically underpaying their workers, showing the scale of the wage-theft problem and what needs to be done to change it. Particularly with the current cost of living crisis, this is one to keep in mind for workers everywhere.
• This one is for anyone interested in law, justice, and capital punishment. The Penalty is Death is a classic study, first published after the last execution in Australia. This new edition brings us up to date with the growing abolitionist nations around the world.

Fascinating accounts of historical events

Another stream of Scribe’s serious nonfiction covers historical events, people, and periods. From game-changing discoveries in science to stories of heroism and resilience during war, there’s something here for every history buff in your life. 

• The Age of Uncertainty is an epic and page-turning history of how a group of physicists toppled the Newtonian universe in the early twentieth century. Exploring the work of Marie Curie, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and Albert Einstein, this book takes you into the little-explored time when these physicists were changing the world.
• After the Romanovs is ‘an engaging group biography’ (Washington Post) that explores Paris’s glittering years before World War I, when the city served as a refuge for those fleeing persecution from the Russian Revolution. 
• The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street is a fascinating blend of memoir and history to create an ode to the divided soul of Russia and an unputdownable account of the author’s own sruggles with life, literature, and love. 
• A feminist spin on a World War II memoir, Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Sisters in Resistance tells the extraordinary story of three woman who raced against Hitler’s SS to deliver key evidence into the hands of the Allies. With the twists and turns of a spy thriller, this story reveals one of the most unlikely rescues from the war. 

Ways we can change the world

While the state of the world may be bleak sometimes, it’s important to find optimism and routes to improvement. These are some books that you can look to to help find ways to work together and better the world for everyone.

• Out of Office is a book that will resonate with anyone who works in an office. Based on groundbreaking reporting and interviews with office workers around the world, this book aims to reshape our entire relationship to the office. 
• How can we promise future generations a life free from sexual violence? Exposing the limits of the criminal justice system and the fault lines in our society when it comes to sex, sexuality, and relationships, Legitimate Sexpectations argues for a cultural shift towards valuing sexual wellbeing and preventing sexual violence.
• Popular with urban planners and everyone who uses the bike lane, Movement asks radical questions about how we approach the biggest urban problem, starting with one fundamental question: who do our streets belong to?
• By Dr Rebecca Giblin and activist Cory Doctorow, Chokepoint Capitalism is a call to action for the creative class and labour movement to rally against the power of big tech and big media. In an age where corporate concentration and profits have breached the stratosphere, they call for all sectors to unite and take back the profit and power that’s being heisted away. 
• Immune takes you on a fascinating journey through our body’s fortress: the immune system. Through no-nonsense language, a touch of humour, and lots of creative thinking, doctor Serbas Bingé explains how we become ill and how best to protect against it, providing superb guidance for the most important thing you can do — stay healthy.

If you truly just want to relax

The holiday season can be a lot. These books will help you read up on how to get some of the best sleep of your life, how to prepare for a busy new year, or learn how to just be — perfect for people who are constantly busy and never getting enough rest. 

• Saved by the Siesta is an expert guide on the art and science of napping, explaining how you can nap to overcome a bad night’s sleep as well as how to wake up without feeling sleepy. 
• For anyone who needs to be reminded to take a breath sometimes, Becoming Aware is a guide that shows readers how to practice the three pillars of mindfulness, by learning to focus attention, open awareness, and develop a positive state of mind.
• Generation Sleepless is a great gift for anyone who has teenagers in their life, to help them start a family conversation about sleep to help their teens and tweens — the most sleep-deprived population in human history — reclaim the restorative power of sleep. 
• A more reflective choice, When I Grow Up is a journey of discovery into what growing up really involves, delving into our psyches to learn what we need to thrive throughout our lives. 

I don't want a lot for Christmas...

Lastly, for the person who insists that they don’t want any gifts, but then always seems bitter if you follow through with their request.

• By celebrated short-story writer Jayant Kaikini, No Presents Please collects resonant stories about the pathos and comedy of small-town migrants struggling to build a life in the big city, with the dream world of Bollywood never far away.

Again, for 20 per cent off all Scribe books use code XMAS22 during checkout before 12 December. Happy holidays, everyone!