Michaela Kolowski

The Natural Way of Things was just extraordinary.

And I love that she's, I think at any moment in your life, you're always sort of reflecting on the contraction or the expansion of your circle of friends, depending on what you're up to in your life.

And I love that she's kind of, for me, I'm not there yet, but she's flashing me forward as to what can happen and does happen.

And I love that.

Curious impulse drifting slow in the state

It was hard to choose an Australian work of fiction, but the one I wanted to mention, again, maybe flew under the radar a bit, is by Lexi Freeman.

She's an Australian who moved to the US in 2010, and her first novel was called Inappropriation.

It is a satirical novel, first and foremost, and it takes aim at everyone.

There is no one, no idea that the left wing or the right wing holds sacrosanct that is safe from her.

She skewers everyone, and yet it's not unkind.

It's really centred on a very troubled and confused teenager called Ziggy, who's trying to navigate the social hierarchy of a very

upper crusty kind of Sydney school, but it could really be any school.

It's a really interesting look at how class functions and how money flattens out things like culture and difference.

But through Ziggy, we kind of get a sense of the absolute confusion and confusing nature of identity politics in her absolute desire to...

fit in somewhere in her school or in her life.

She'll take on every kind of persona she can, including trying to be a transhuman.

So there's this really interesting exploration of things in the book.

She straps a GoPro helmet to her head and won't talk to anyone unless she can see them through the camera and all that kind of stuff.

But really, the book is really about, it's also about gender, the most feminine character in the book, the most caring and nurturing character in the book is a transgender man.

It's a really beautiful exploration of how we choose to become who we are and that process.