Australian publishing house Text are in the midst of an ambitious project to resurface a number of 'lost' classics. What's the Australian novel you couldn't live without – and why?

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 March 2013

Fallen from fashion ... novelist Nevil Shute. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

Australian publishing house Text are in the midst of an ambitious project to publish a number of "lost" or never-published Australian classics, including Elizabeth Harrower's The Watch Tower and Patrick White's first novel Happy Valley – a whole army of wonderful books that have fallen from view.

It's striking how much great writing there is to be rediscovered – and Text are publishing them beautifully, with their distinctive yellow jackets, bold art work and new introductions. Another 20 or so books are planned for this year, including Tim Flannery's The Explorers and William Nagle's The Odd Angry Shot.

Who would you like to see added to the list? Is it time Nevil Shute's On the Beach, set in Australia after a global nuclear holocaust, reached a whole new readership? Is Patrick White overrated? Do you have an Australian novel – neglected or not – you couldn't live without?

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What's Haruki Murakami's new novel going to be about?

Cats, women's ears and awkward sex...what do you think Haruki Murakami's follow-up to 1Q84 will be about?

Alison Flood

Monday 18 February 2013 guardian.co.uk

Listen up...Haruki Murakami's got a new book out - will auricular delights be in store? Photograph: Getty

Much excitement for Haruki Murakami fans today after his Japanese publisher announced that he'd be publishing a new novel this April. It's been three years since the original edition of the last volume of Murakami's 1Q84 was published in Japanese – a little over a year since it was published in English translation - so readers are understandably hungry for more, but no details other than the publication date, not even the title, were given away by Bungeishunju.

It's "the worst form of teasing possible", concludes the Japan Daily Press, mournfully. Fans are in a frenzy of excitement , and in the absence of any more information, are speculating about what the book will cover.

"I bet it will contain ear porn, a lonely man, a teenage/under-age girl, the war in Manchuria [and] some cooking," opines one reader, probably fairly accurately. The NY Daily News, meanwhile, predicts that it's "safe to bet that there will be cats (that may or may not talk) and probably some awkward sex, too", while there's also talk that it could be a fourth part to 1Q84.

What we need, I feel, is a Haruki Murakami plot generator to keep us going until the mystery book is translated into English. It's that, or learn Japanese. Can anybody help out? It must start with a disappearing cat, surely...