My fiction picks for this year start with The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa, a haunting novel based on a real event that tells the story of a group of Jewish refugees sent to Cuba in 1939.

When they arrived most were turned away, and The German Girl is the story of those who remained to make a new life there.

For when it is just too hot, grab a copy of Ian Maguire’s The North Water, which focuses on a whaling trip to the Arctic in the 1850s. An engrossing and utterly harrowing novel, it tells a story about ruthlessly violent men who are at odds with both nature and each other.

If you’re after a novel that is simply too good to put down, read Sara Taylor’s The Shore.

Set offshore from Virginia in the American South, The Shore is Southern Gothic at its best. Think dirty, lost children, violent men, a bit of witchcraft, lush landscapes and a crack smokin’ daddy. Wild!

For those who like to follow current events, a must-read is Mei Fong’s One Child. This is an utterly un-put-down-able chronicle of her travels around China meeting people whose lives have been damaged by the country’s one-child policy, and her reflection on how that damage will affect all our futures.

A great read that is wonderfully fascinating as well as huge fun is David Hunt’s True Girt, the second volume in his unauthorised history of Australia.

This volume is all about the “wild south” – bushrangers, pioneers, rugged landscapes, tired horses and some rather alarmed locals.

The 2017 Adelaide Writers’ Week will run from March 4 to 9, with the full program to be released in January.