Plastic Budgie

‘There was no use googling am I cursed because the search engine algorithm would always say yes.’

Olivia was named after a lycra-clad singer her parents saw on Rage. As a child, she lost the ability to speak and spent a year barking like a dog. Her Gong Gong bought her a yellow bird in a shoebox from the Adelaide Central Markets. Her heart was broken by a guitar teacher after a school disco. She started university and learnt to run and travelled to Guangzhou for her cousin’s wedding. 

In her brutally funny, genre-defying debut, Olivia De Zilva collects stories on shelves: neat coming-of-age anecdotes and sitcom characters trapped behind glass. 

Then she breaks it all apart. 

Plastic Budgie questions how our memories and families form us, in a way that is both unapologetically sentimental and eternally surprising. It is full of itchy Y2K nostalgia, curses and glimpses of birds.

‘Funny and brutal and tender and lovely … De Zilva has the native talent of the true writer.’ – Declan Fry, ABC Best Books of 2025

‘A concise and affective representation of becoming in the contemporary world. De Zilva is an impressive new voice and has revitalised an excessively written genre with distinction.’ – Hellai Gul, Meanjin

‘Does not deliver a narrative that is safe, predictable or neatly structured, nor does it wrangle together a conventionally satisfying resolution; rather, it puts all the elements of second-generation immigrant memoir on the table and confronts readers with the instability of meaning and with their own expectations of the story.’ – Fernanda Dahlstrom, Mascara Literary Review

‘A powerful, unique voice … polished, well-realised and deftly woven together.’ – Elaine Chennatt, Aniko Press

‘Achingly funny and cleverly inventive.’ – The Australian Women’s Weekly

‘Quirky and beautiful.’ – Yumna Kassab

‘De Zilva proves herself as a literary force and pushes the boundaries of fiction and memoir.’ – Grace Gooda, Readings

‘You will definitely wish it was a lot longer than its very readable 150 pages.’ Laura Pietrobon, Mostly Books

‘The author’s evolving sense of self is beautifully and vividly portrayed; a well-layered and emotionally engaging novel.’ – Rebecca Wu, Glam Adelaide

'De Zilva’s writing is laced with dark wit and is emotionally devastating in equal measure; she has a voice that is bold, bright and steeped in complicated nostalgia ... De Zilva’s humour and unflinching honesty make the book compulsively readable, perfect for anyone who grew up feeling a little out of place.' – Books+Publishing

'A searching and companionable coming-of-age story that combines vulnerability and restraint, directness and discretion. Olivia De Zilva writes about loneliness and disruption with great humour and sensitivity.' – Shannon Burns

'De Zilva is a marvellous writer, effortlessly funny and yet able to pull off heartrending and meaningful scenes. Definitely a talent to watch.' – Matthew Hooton

Olivia De Zilva is a writer based on Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide, Australia. She has been awarded and shortlisted for prizes including the Deakin University Non-Fiction Prize, the Kat Muscat Fellowship and the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Westerly, Liminal, SBS, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara Literary Review and Australian Poetry Journal, among others. Olivia graduated with a Master of Philosophy from the University of Queensland; her thesis explored the representation of Asian-diasporic identity in contemporary Australian publishing.

If you enjoyed Plastic Budgie, we suggest:

• Going full sad-girl (and rebelling against the phrase while we’re at it) with My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfeg and Bunny by Mona Awad as well as Olivia’s poetry book, Sick Note

• Getting into autofiction with Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser and Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

• Revelling in 2000s nostalgia with Looking for Alibrandi and Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

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