Clothbound Penguin Modern Australian Classics
Penguin Modern Australian Classics: Collector's Guide & Complete List
Jump to:
What is the Penguin Modern Australian Classics series?
Penguin Modern Australian Classics is a new Penguin Australia collection of twelve modern Australian favourites presented as clothbound hardbacks. The first six titles were released on 14 July 2026, with a second group of six following on 8 September 2026.
The list draws on Penguin’s long Australian publishing history and brings together a really broad selection of titles ranging from more heavyweight literary classics, contemporary fiction and memoir to beloved coming-of-age and children’s classics and contemporary bestsellers in a matching display format. Cloudstreet, The Yield, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and True History of the Kelly Gang have major literary-award recognition, while Looking for Alibrandi, Playing Beatie Bow, Hating Alison Ashley and Once are likely to have strong nostalgic appeal for Australian readers (at least, I remember them fondly!).
Each book has an Australian RRP of $35.00.
Design Notes
The covers are designed and illustrated by Jessica Cruickshank, an artist based in Brisbane, Australia. Each title has its own brightly coloured cloth binding and repeating pictorial motif, unified across the collection by gold-foil decoration and a matching spine treatment. Although the format is a similar style to the ever-popular Penguin Clothbound Classics series, with a bright rainbow array of colours and gold foil detailing, this is a separate Australian collection with its own designer.
The cloth has a linen-like texture. As with many foil-blocked cloth editions, the surface decoration may mark or rub if the books are packed too tightly against one another on the shelf. The books are glue-bound, not sewn.
There’s a series double-sided tote bag featuring the covers of all twelve books. It was released on 14 July 2026 under ISBN 9781761623714, with an Australian RRP of $32.99.
Penguin Modern Australian Classics - The Complete List
Jump to 2026 – wave 2 | 2026 – wave 1
Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links for which I may be compensated (this does not affect my reviews nor cost you any money, but helps support my site hosting costs). I deeply appreciate your support of my site if you use these links, but warmly encourage you to buy from your local Indie bookshop if you have the opportunity.
2026 wave 1
Cloudstreet — Tim Winton
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761620577. 480p.
“Two damaged families, the Lambs and the Pickleses, are thrown together in a vast house in Perth. Over twenty years, Winton turns their quarrels, losses, superstitions and stubborn loyalties into a comic, mythic portrait of ordinary Australian life.”
Stasiland — Anna Funder
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761620591. 304p.
“A non-fiction classic that travels through the afterlife of East Germany, listening to people who resisted, endured, collaborated with or worked for the Stasi. The result is a gripping account of surveillance, memory, conscience and the human cost of authoritarian control.”
The Yield — Tara June Winch
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761620621. 352p.
“August Gondiwindi returns to Country after her grandfather’s death and discovers his dictionary of Wiradjuri words, memories and cultural knowledge. A formally inventive novel about language, dispossession, survival and the work of reclaiming what colonialism tried to erase.”
Holding the Man — Timothy Conigrave
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761620584. 304p.
“Conigrave’s memoir follows his relationship with John Caleo from schoolboy first love through adulthood, illness and grief. Tender, funny and devastating, it is one of Australia’s defining queer love stories.”
Looking for Alibrandi — Melina Marchetta
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761621451. 304p.
“In her final year of school, Josephine Alibrandi confronts family secrets, first love, class pressure and the ache of being caught between cultures. A beloved coming-of-age novel about identity, independence and finding your own voice.“
Hating Alison Ashley — Robin Klein
Notes: 14 July 2026. 9781761621918. 192p.
“Erica Yurken is convinced she is destined for greatness, if only everyone else could see it. When perfect Alison Ashley arrives at school, Erica’s ambition and jealousy collide in one of Australia’s funniest stories about rivalry, insecurity and growing up.”
2026 wave 2
A Fraction of the Whole — Steve Toltz
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761620560. 720p.
“From a prison cell, Jasper Dean recounts the wild history of his father Martin and uncle Terry: criminals, schemes, philosophical obsessions, family disasters and almost impossible comic momentum. A maximalist Australian novel about fathers, sons and the absurdity of existence.”
Playing Beatie Bow — Ruth Park
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761621277. 208p.
“When Abigail follows a mysterious girl through Sydney’s Rocks, she slips back into the nineteenth century and becomes entangled with the Bow family. A time-slip classic with atmosphere, danger, romance and a strong sense of Sydney’s layered past.”
The Narrow Road to the Deep North — Richard Flanagan
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761620614. 208p.
“Flanagan’s Booker-winning novel centres on Dorrigo Evans, an Australian surgeon haunted by love, war and his time as a prisoner on the Thai–Burma railway. It is a fierce, lyrical novel about memory, survival and moral compromise.”
The Light Between Oceans — M. L. Stedman
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761620607. 368p.
“On a remote Western Australian island, a lighthouse keeper and his wife make a life-changing decision when a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a living baby. A moral page-turner about grief, longing, love and the consequences of mercy.”
True History of the Kelly Gang — Peter Carey
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761620638. 496p.
“Carey reimagines Ned Kelly’s voice in a rough, urgent first-person confession addressed to Kelly’s daughter. The result is a brilliant invented autobiography: part bushranger legend, part colonial critique, part tragic family history.”
Once — Morris Gleitzman
Notes: 8 September 2026. 9781761621482. 160p.
“Felix escapes from an orphanage in Nazi-occupied Poland, convinced that stories and hope can help him find his parents. Written with Gleitzman’s characteristic clarity and emotional directness, it introduces young readers to courage, loss and humanity in wartime.”
