Winner of the Victorian and Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for Fiction. The Spare Room is an extraordinary work of fiction from one of Australia'sbest-selling and most admired writers.Helen lovingly prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola. She is coming to visit for three weeks, to receive treatment she believes will cure her cancer. From the moment Nicola staggers off the plane, gaunt and hoarse but still somehow grand, Helen becomes her nurse, her guardian angel and her stony judge.The Spare Room tells a story of compassion, humour and rage. The two women-one sceptical, one stubbornly serene-negotiate an unmapped path through Nicola's gruelling therapy, stumbling towards the novel's terrible and transcendent finale.'A perfect novel, imbued with all Garner's usual clear-eyed grace but with some other magnificent dimension that hides between the lines of her simple conversational voice. How is it that she can enter this heart-breaking... Views: 59
The engines are very excited when the circus comes to Sodor. Everyone wants to pull the special freight cars and coaches. Henry carefully pushes an empty truck into the dark tunnel to clear the track. Imagine his surprise when something starts to push back!From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 59
The world's most famous reporter, the intrepid Nellie Bly, teams up with
science fiction genius Jules Verne, the notorious wit and outrageous
rogue Oscar Wilde, and the greatest microbe-hunter in history, Louis
Pasteur. Together, they must solve the crime of the century. They are
all in Paris-the capital of Europe and center of world culture-for the
1889 World's Fair. A spectacular extravaganza dedicated to new
industries, scientific discoveries, and global exploration, its gateway
is the soaring Eiffel Tower. But an enigmatic killer stalks the streets
and a virulent plague is striking down Parisians by the thousands.
Convinced that the killings are connected to the pandemic, Nellie is
determined to stop them both... no matter what the risks. The world's
most famous reporter, the intrepid Nellie Bly, teams up with science
fiction genius Jules Verne, the notorious wit and outrageous rogue Oscar
Wilde, and the greatest microbe-hunter in history, Louis Pasteur.
Together, they must solve the crime of the century. They are all in
Paris-the capital of Europe and center of world culture-for the 1889
World's Fair. A spectacular extravaganza dedicated to new industries,
scientific discoveries, and global exploration, its gateway is the
soaring Eiffel Tower. But an enigmatic killer stalks the streets and a
virulent plague is striking down Parisians by the thousands. Convinced
that the killings are connected to the pandemic, Nellie is determined to
stop them both... no matter what the risks. Views: 59
Hector Chetwode-Talbot, Eck to his friends, has left the army after a rather nasty moment in Colombia. From a privileged background, he is slightly at a loss as to what to do next, when he is approached by an old army pal, Bilbo Mountwilliam. Bilbo runs an investment fund company and business is booming. Bilbo persuades Eck to join the company as a 'greeter', for a person with Eck's list of contacts is an easy route to a rich seam of moneyed clients. All Eck has to do is supply the contacts with entertainment and large G&Ts and then the fund managers will do the rest. Soon Eck is able to buy himself a luxury sports car and decadent flat in the city. All that is missing in his life is a woman. It is on a golfing trip to France with his friend Henry Newark that Eck first meets Charlie Summers, a fly-by-night entrepreneur who is hiding out in France after a 'misunderstanding with Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue'. Charlie's latest scheme is to import Japanese dog food into the UK. Summers is clearly something of a freeloader but Henry casually mentions that Charlie should 'look us up' if he is ever in Gloucestershire. Not only does Charlie Summers look Henry up, he arrives with his suitcase, intent on staying with the Newarks and relaunching his dog food business in their area. In the meantime, Eck begins to suspect that the company he is working for is not what it appears to be.
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Science Fiction. 5874 words long. First published in Empire of Dreams and Miracles, ed.Orson Scott Card, 2002 Views: 59
13th June, 1940. Carefully labelled, and each clutching a little brown suitcase, Terry, aged seven, and his elder brother Jack, eleven, stand amid the throng of chattering children which crowds the narrow platform at Welling station, awaiting the steam engine which will pull them and their fellow evacuees across the country towards their secret destination – and a new life... In the tiny Cornish backwater of Doublebois the brothers find they have swapped the newly built streets of suburban London for the joys of the countryside. The woods become their playground, tree-climbing, rabbit-catching and night-fishing their new pastimes. But it is the railway, above all, which delights them. The main London to Penzance line runs through a cutting right below the small community, the goods yard and siding lie a couple of hundred yards down the line: to the two young sons of a railway worker, No. 7 the Railway Cottages seems the perfect new home. And despite a not-always-friendly... Views: 59
Now in the strange realm of Allyra, the Seven young lords confront a traitor in their midst, a creature–infested forest, teenage fears and doubts, inexplicable mysteries...and the Spider King himself.In a rigorous training program that makes boot camp look like Disneyland, the Seven must quickly learn to harness their own powers, work as one, and elude the Spider King's spies. But as the ancient Berinfell Prophecies are revealed, the Seven soon discover their training might not be enough. To stop the Spider King they must also unravel the secrets of the Rainsong, travel to a creepy, trap–infested fortress to find the legendary keystone, and lead the Berinfell Elves in an attack on the Spider King's own turf. An epic adventure with powerful messages about true strength, forgiveness, and working together as one body that will grab the attention of intermediate readers.Learn more about The Berinfell Prophecies at www.heedtheprophecies.com. Views: 59
