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It was a great year for literature in the Land Down Under. Here are some of the highlights.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Adelaide writer Hannah Kent's debut novel is based on the true story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland in 1829. Beheaded for the murder of two men, Agnes has traditionally been portrayed as a cold-blooded "witch", but Kent imagines a more complex and very human woman, isolated and desperate in the harshly beautiful Icelandic countryside.

Sample quote: "They will say ‘Agnes’ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there."

Pan Macmillan / Via panmacmillan.com.au

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman is a genetics professor with Asperger's syndrome who is determined to find a wife, even though he's never managed to make it to a second date. To increase his chances of success, Don creates a 16-page questionnaire that outlines his perfect woman. Enter Rosie, a hot mess of a barmaid, who definitely doesn't fit Don's criteria for the ideal wife - but just might be perfect for him, anyway. Adorableness ensues.

Sample quote: "I am thirty-nine years old, tall, fit and intelligent, with a relatively high status and above-average income as an associate professor. Logically, I should be attractive to a wide range of women. In the animal kingdom, I would succeed in reproducing."

Text Publishing / Via textpublishing.com.au

Eyrie by Tim Winton

Eyrie is a heart-wrenching page-turner filled with raw emotion, flawed characters, and Winton's characteristic humour. It tells the story of Tom Keely, who has hit rock bottom and spends his life trying to avoid the world. That is until he runs into a woman from his past and her strange grandson, and finds he can't help but get involved - for better or worse.

Sample quote: "Hapless, Keely looked to the kid, not really knowing what he expected – fraternal understanding? Weren't pissweak jokes milk and honey to a six-year-old? The boy studied him. Shade or no, Keely felt hotter than he had with the sun beating on his skull."

Penguin Books Australia / Via penguin.com.au

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

Dubbed "one of the greatest untold love stories of all time", The Wild Girl is based on the real-life love affair between Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm (of THE Grimm brothers). Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, it reveals how Dortchen was the source of many of the Grimms' stories, and how she had her own fairy tale romance with one of the brothers - if you take fairy tale to mean something dark and slightly horrific, as many of the Grimms' tales were.

Sample quote: "The day Dortchen Wild’s father died, she went to the forest, winter-bare and snow-frosted, so no one could see her dancing with joy… Holding out her bare hands, embracing the cold winter wind, Dortchen spun alone among the linden trees, her black skirts swaying.”

Random House / Via randomhouse.com.au

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