Margaret Atwood wrote The Year of the Flood as a prequel of sorts to her Booker-prize-nominated novel Oryx and Crake. Atwood has created a Dystopia of stunning depth that is as weighty and ominous as the fore-runners of the genre; George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. What sets The Year of the Flood apart from those other works is that, where they were set in a future that was not-too-distant, Atwood’s novel appears to be set in a future that is scarily and inescapably imminent.

Smoke in the Room is Emily Maguire’s third novel. The highly charged sexual content of this distinctly Australian novel reveals that her latest non-fiction work, thePrincesses and Pornstars, has been an obvious influence.