After the inaugural countdown of Australia’s top 100 books in 2025, ABC Radio National’s ‘Top 100 Australian Books’ list returned for a second round this year. 

Celebrating ‘Australian writing in all its many forms’, the countdown features everything from picture books to cookbooks, with plenty of novels and non-fiction favourites along the way. 

This year, over 280,000 readers voted, making for a truly diverse list of the country’s favourite books.  Tim Winton’s 1991 masterpiece, Cloudstreet, took the number-one spot, further cementing it as a true Australian classic. 

Keep reading to learn more about the winning book and see the other great reads that made this year’s list. How many have you read?

The #1 book on the 2026 ‘Top 100 Australian Books’ list

Full list of ‘The Top 100 Australian Books’ 2026

1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 
3. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
5. A Fortunate Life by A B Facey
6. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
7. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
8. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
9. The Secret River by Kate Grenville
10. The Dry by Jane Harper
11. Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas
12. Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
13. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
14. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
15. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
16. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
17. Storm Boy by Colin Thiele
18. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
19. Magic Beach by Alison Lester
20. Wifedom by Anna Funder
21. My Place by Sally Morgan
22. The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book by Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark
23. Stasiland by Anna Funder
24. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
25. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner
26. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
27. The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
28. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
29. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Dosq
30. My Brother Jack by George Johnston
31. Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
32. Animalia by Graeme Base
33. Breath by Tim Winton
34. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
35. Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
36. Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
37. I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall
38. Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner
39. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
40. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
41. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
42. The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs
43. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
44. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
45. All That I Am by Anna Funder
46. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
47. Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park
48. Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
49. The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
50. Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
51. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
52. Horse by Geraldine Brooks
53. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
54. Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
55. The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
56. The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander
57. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
58. The Yield by Tara June Winch
59. The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku
60. The Man From Snowy River by Banjo Paterson
61. Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
62. Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester
63. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
64. Damned Whores and God’s Police by Anne Summers
65. Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran
66. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
67. Voss by Patrick White
68. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
69. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
70. Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
71. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
72. This House of Grief by Helen Garner
73. Scrublands by Chris Hammer
74. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
75. The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
76. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
77. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
78. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy
79. Johnno by David Malouf
80. For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke
81. We of the Never-Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn
82. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
83. Wombat Stew by Marcia K Vaughan and Pamela Lofts
84. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
85. The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
86. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
87. The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
88. Juice by Tim Winton
89. Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
90. Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey
91. Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker
92. The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper
93. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
94. The Spare Room by Helen Garner
95. The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
96. RecipeTin Eats: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi
97. Devotion by Hannah Kent
98. The Arrival by Shaun Tan
99. The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
100. Round The Twist by Paul Jennings