Book to Screen

With the AACTA awards ceremony this month, it's a good time to check out some of the great Australian novels that have been adapted for the screen!

Updated January 16, 2024
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Barracuda
Tsiolkas, Christos
Tender and brutal and blazingly brilliant, the new novel from the acclaimed author of the international bestseller The Slap takes an unflinching look at modern Australia - at our hopes and dreams, our friendships and our families - and asks what it means to be a good person, and what it takes...
Big little lies
Moriarty, Liane
From the author of Here One Moment and The Husband's Secret comes the #1 New York Times bestselling novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE AWARD-WINNING HBO® SERIES STARRING REESE...
The book thief
Zusak, Markus
The extraordinary international bestseller from the author of new novel Bridge of Clay.NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE "Brilliant and hugely ambitious ... the kind of book that can be life changing" The New York TimesIt is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.Death has never been busier,...
Boy swallows universe
Dalton, Trent
'The best Australian novel I have read in more than a decade' Sydney Morning Herald 'Astonishing, captivating ... a wild, beautiful, heart-exploding ride' Elizabeth Gilbert The bestselling novel that has taken Australia, and the world, by storm. Brisbane, 1985:...
The brush-off
Maloney, Shane
Cocaine blues
Greenwood, Kerry
This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back.
The cry
FitzGerald, Helen
Dressmaker, the (fti)
Ham, Rosalie
The bestseller from the author of the upcoming new novel The Year of the Farmer. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING KATE WINSLET AND LIAM HEMSWORTHTilly Dunnage has come home to care for her mad old mother. She left the small Victorian town of Dungatar years before, and became an accomplished...
The dry
Harper, Jane
A small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper. After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend,...
The family Law
Law, Benjamin
Now a major SBS television series! Meet the Law family - eccentric, endearing and hard to resist. Your guide- Benjamin, the third of five children and a born humorist. Join him as he tries to answer some puzzling questions- Why won't his Chinese dad wear made-in-China underpants? Why...
Force of nature
Harper, Jane
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING ERIC BANA "I love Jane Harper's Australia-based mysteries." --Stephen King Goodreads Choice Award Finalist (Mystery & Thriller) * BookBrowse Best Books of the year * BookRiot's 25 Best Suspense Books of the year *...
Jasper Jones : a novel
Silvey, Craig
Full of unforgettable characters, a page-turning pace and outrageously good dialogue, this is a glorious novel - thoughtful, funny, heartbreaking and wise - about outsiders and secrets, and what it really means to be a hero.
The light between oceans
Stedman, M. L.
The years-long New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Spielberg's Dreamworks is "irresistible...seductive...with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page" (O, The Oprah Magazine). After four harrowing years on the Western Front...
The lost flowers of Alice Hart
Ringland, Holly
Winner of the 2019 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year Award. The international bestseller, now sold to over 30 territories internationally, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart tells the enchanting and compelling story of a young girl, daughter of an abusive father, who has to learn the hard...
Nine perfect strangers
Moriarty, Liane
**Read the addictive bestseller now a major Amazon Prime TV series starring Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Regina Hall, Manny Jacinto, Bobby Cannavale and Luke Evans** PERFECT LIVES OR PERFECT LIES? THE UNPUTDOWNABLE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER AND RICHARD & JUDY BOOK...
On the beach
Shute, Nevil
Following a nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere, the inhabitants of a small Australian community await the inevitable after-effects of the bombs to reach them.
Schindler's ark
Keneally, Thomas
Made into the award-winning film 'Schindler's List'. In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar...
Scrublands
Hammer, Chris
Set in a fictional Riverina town at the height of a devastating drought, Scrublands is one of the most powerful, compelling and original crime novels to be written in Australia.
The secret river
Grenville, Kate
After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. But among...
The slap
Tsiolkas, Christos
The bestselling cult author of Loaded and Dead Europe turns his blowtorch onto the belly of middle-class suburban Australia and its notions of child-rearing and acceptable behaviour.
The thorn birds
McCullough, Colleen
"Beautiful....Compelling entertainment." --New York Times One of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation.<...
True history of the Kelly Gang
Carey, Peter
With Ned Kelly as narrator, this is the heart-rending story of a young boy growing up in the grinding poverty of colonial Victoria and of a young man defiantly resisting the wealth and power of those who wish to destroy him. Undoubtedly Australia's most potent legend, this mythic hero and outlaw...
Wake in fright
Cook, Kenneth
Wake in Fright tells the tale of John Grant's journey into an alcoholic, sexual and spiritual nightmare. A middle class teacher, he finds himself trapped in a nightmarish outback community crippled by gambling debts. An undisputed modern classic, it is the original and the greatest outback horror...

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