It's been almost ten years since Australian author, Julia Leigh, made a big splash with her first novel, The Hunter, a literary adventure featuring a deadly search for the legendary Tasmanian tiger. Disquiet, her most recent work, is a much, well, quieter release. Debuting in November to no fanfare at all, I would have missed it entirely had I not been drawn to its exquisite cover: a simple gothic image in midnight blue, a format the size of my hand. In this strange, beautiful novella, Leigh demonstrates the same powerful control of language and dark sensibility, but where The Hunter was big on plot, Disquiet is an echo of events that have happened off the page entirely.

The story begins with a woman and her two children arriving unannounced at her mother's chateau in France after a decade long absence in Australia that is never explained. It turns out that the woman's brother is also due to arrive that day, with his wife and their new born baby. The woman is on the run. The children seem to know things that young children should not know. And the baby is stillborn, but the parents bring her home anyway. These are the unsettling facts of a narrative that disquietly follows the characters movements in the house for the few days following everyone's arrival. Leigh's writing style is reminiscent of Ian McEwan's work, but her story is a haunting one, all her own.

Recommended by Allison