Iluka: the brilliant 2026 debut for readers of Emily Maguire, Charlotte Wood and Anne Tyler

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Cassie Stroud

Iluka

Name: Iluka
Price: 32.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781038933652

the brilliant 2026 debut for readers of Emily Maguire, Charlotte Wood and Anne Tyler

Cassie Stroud

$32.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

HARPER360
28 January 2026

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Sagas; Australian Fiction

'Knife sharp perception ... fiction that is an absolute pleasure to read,' Emily Maguire, author This vivid, engrossing, beautifully crafted family drama from an exciting debut author charts the hurtful messes, complicated relationships and profound loves of three siblings.

After their grandfather's death, siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan, and Helen's daughter, film student Tig, are gathered together at Iluka, a typical fibro beach house in a small town on the south coast. Iluka is the house they grew up in when their troubled mother ran away to the bright lights of the city, leaving their grandparents to raise them.

As they slowly clear the house for sale and relive various memories, they find a bundle of letters addressed to each of them from their missing mother, Marguerite, that were sent long after they'd been told she died.

Their world shifts on its axis, as the siblings begin to question everything they have been told. Why did their grandmother hide these letters? Was their grandfather complicit? And could the mother they thought they had lost still be alive?

Viewed through the unsparing eye of Tig's camera, we watch a family first implode then reform around a new reality, a reality that brings with it profound change in the way they view themselves and each other.

By: Cassie Stroud
Imprint: HARPER360
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 406g
ISBN: 9781038933652
ISBN 10: 103893365X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 28 January 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Photograph: Kate Williams Cassie Stroud is a writer, editor and bookseller. She lives in a 1950s house on Sydney's north shore with her husband, son and their Siamese cat. Iluka is her first novel.