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

At Scribe, we’re big believers that books make the perfect holiday gift. With so many diverse books published every year, you’ll be able to find something even your most eclectic loved one will enjoy. This gift guide has some of our favourite titles we published this year to help make a difficult gifting choice a little bit easier. 

Weird women fiction

This category of books is for the weird, absurd, and genre-blurring fiction centred around female narrators we’ve published this year. Perfect for the reader who’s keyed into popular books, or for someone interested in immersive, sometimes dark stories of women pushed to the brink. 

• By Booker Prize–longlisted author Anna Smaill, Bird Life is a lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently. Set during a woman’s semester teaching abroad in Japan, she connects with a fellow teacher over their shared grief. The story teeters between the real and the imagined, perfect for anyone that loves a meandering but entrancing read. 
• Strange, surreal, and mesmerising, Bear is a novel about two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor. Characterised by its lush prose and portrayals of nuanced sisterhood, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods.
• Gifted might be the shortest book we’ve published this year, but it packs quite the punch. Following a turbulent mother–daughter relationship across the streets of a red-light district in Tokyo, it addresses sex work, familial resentment, and grief with slick prose.
• At once social critique and black comedy, Reservoir Bitches is a gritty, streetwise collection of short stories from Mexico following 13 loosely linked women who spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to survive, telling their stories in bold, unapologetic voices. 

Political nonfiction to make sense of the world

These are extremely well-researched and argued books that will help you make sense of the political climate around us, how we got here, and what’s next.

• Over the past thirty years, through a mixture of naivety and arrogance, the West has lost its global advantage. In The New World Disorder, Peter R. Neumann charts this fall and assesses the West’s greatest challenges: the rise of China, climate change, and the polarization of society. 
• Working for the Brand asks how our major corporations have come to exercise repressive control over the lives of their employees, and explores what can be done to repair the greatest threat to democracy — the out-of-control corporation.
• New Cold Wars is a fast-paced account of America’s plunge into simultaneous Cold Wars against two very different adversaries — Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Books for your 2025 survival kit

Full of dread for what next year might bring? These books are full of practical advice to help you keep your sanity and composure, and mobilise in turbulent times. 

• In Life Skills for a Broken World, Dr Ahona Guha shows us how to cope, thrive, and still feel hopeful for the future. This book is a breath of fresh air, cutting through the confusion to provide solid, practical, and evidence-based answers to existential questions, big and small.
• What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression is the classic 1926 manual on repression by revolutionary activist Victor Serge. It offers fascinating anecdotes about the tactics of police provocateurs and how to dodge them — including how to avoid being followed, what to do if arrested, and tips on securing correspondence.
• 12 Rules for Strife is a stunning graphic story collection about being heard. It identifies as a ‘handbook for change’, exploring 12 powerful ideas distilled from the history of struggle for better lives, better working conditions, and a better world. They show how solidarity can be built across growing divisions — without compromising our values.

Translated treasures: 2024 edition

We have the privilege of publishing stories by some of the most brilliant authors around the world and bringing them to an English-language audience. Each of these books is immersive, enchanting, and beautifully translated. 

• Described as a queer Lolita story, Antiquity is all about desire, power, obsession, observation, and taboo. Translated brilliantly from the original German, it interrogates predatory relationships and the harmful nature of art with slippery and provocative prose. 
• Brothers and Ghosts is a nuanced and elegant investigation into family history and secrets, the unspoken interrelational casualties of war. Also translated from German, it’s a captivating breakdown of identity, familial duty, and the impacts of colonialism.
• Your Utopia is full of tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality. As the second novel by Cursed Bunny author Bora Chung, it shares her notorious dark and haunting approach to horror, but also her inimitable wry and tender humour.
• Thirst is a lyrical sapphic story of two vampires, haunted by a carnal yearning across different time periods. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America’s feminist Gothic, this novel takes an introspective approach to desire and the monstrousness of love. 

Spellbinding local fiction

Lush and immersive, these fiction picks carry a longing for freedom and agency that underpins their contemporary settings. Featuring unconventional and complex characters, they speak to the modern Australia that's slowly unravelling before us.   

• We All Lived in Bondi Then is a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories. Composed in Georgia Blain’s final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.
• Diving, Falling follows Leila Whittaker, who has kept quiet in her marriage for the sake of familial peace. However, upon the death of her husband, she’s given the confronting task of rediscovering herself. Ripe with wickedly wry observations, unashamedly bold and sexy, it examines the calculations and sacrifices women make to keep the peace, escape their pasts, and find the agency to pursue their own passions.
• Thunderhead is an edgy black comedy, set in suburbia, about one woman’s struggle to be free. Though Winona seems to be an unremarkable young mother on the outside, within is a vivid, chaotic self, teeming with voices — a mind both wild and precise.

For the animal lover 

Incredibly well-researched and easy to read, each of these books delves deep into the complex animal worlds and systems that exist outside of our busy human lives. 

• The Internet of Animals is the thrilling journey of new technology to study animals that Martin Wikelski has taken from just an idea to a project receiving funding from NASA. Full of intimate and delightful insights into the behaviour of animals, from lone foxes in the Arctic to wild elephants in Thailand, Wikelski theorises a future he calls the ‘Interspecies’, when humans finally listen to animals and respond to what they have to say about the health of our world.
• Sing Like Fish is a captivating exploration of how underwater animals tap into sound to survive, and a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes. Amorina Kingdon writes with enchanting prose to illuminate our impact on the sonic undersea world, and present alternatives for a quieter aquatic future. 
• Enchantment by Birds is the perfect gift for any bird lover. Charting the history of birdwatching, it follows the hobby from early historical mentions to its modern-day context and changing sentiments. An ode to both the innate magic of birds and how watching them fulfils a human need to connect with nature.
• In Bark!, animal behaviourist Zazie Todd provides solutions for these behaviours. Decoding the latest canine science, she shows readers how to address the root cause of your dog’s fears, with expert advice and practical tips for owners of anxious dogs.

Lastly, for the person who’s difficult to buy books for

We all know someone who either claims they have ‘read everything’ or, alternatively, that they’re ‘too busy to read.’ These are books with near-universal appeal for that tricky giftee.

• Melbourne Ghost Signs is a beguiling photographic collection of the faded signs and half–hidden logos of Melbourne, revealing the historic tales — big and small — of this ever-changing city.
• The newest edition of the iconic series, Best Australian Political Cartoons 2024, collates this year in politics as observed by Australia’s funniest and most perceptive political cartoonists.
• The Islands Where We Left Our Ancestors is the beautifully hand-drawn true story of artist Joshua Santospirito’s visit to the Aeolian Islands of Italy with his parents to seek out past connections and family roots.