The stories in this collection explore the complex worlds of lovers, poets, lawyers, immigrants, students, and murderers. They tell of corporate betrayals and lost opportunities, and of the obsessions, hopes, fears, and vagaries of desire. Views: 23
Stolen from her family as an infant, a prize-winning poet recounts her arduous journey to reconnect with the Aboriginal culture of her birth.In Too Afraid to Cry, Ali Cobby Eckermann—who was recently awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world—describes with searing detail the devastating effects of racist policies that tore apart Indigenous Australian communities and created the Stolen Generations of "adoptees," Aboriginal children forcibly taken from their birth families. Told at first through the frank eyes of a child whose life was irretrievably changed after being "adopted" into a German Lutheran family, Too Afraid to Cry braids piercingly lyrical verse with spare prose to tell an intensely personal story of abuse and trauma. After years of suffering as a dark-skinned "outsider," Eckermann reveals her courageous efforts to reconcile with her birth family and find acceptance within their Indigenous community.... Views: 22
Danny Dawson lives on a cattle station in the Australian outback. Usually the annual cattle muster excites Danny, but everything is different now. Because Danny's beloved older brother died in an accident last year, and nobody will talk about it. Because his teenage sister is pregnant and won't tell anyone who the father is. Because his mother can't cope with any of it and has hired a wide-eyed English house girl to deal with the family. Timber Creek Station is the story of a grieving family, entrenched racism, and the surprising ways one boy—who thought he'd be stuck in one terrible place forever—can take a leap forward. Views: 20
A novel about memory, music, friendship, family rifts and reconciliation, this is an intelligent, compelling read set in Melbourne.Nina Jameson, an international consultant on memorial projects based in London, has been happily married to Daniel for twelve years. When her her life falls apart she accepts a job in her hometown of Melbourne. There she joins her sister, Zoe, embroiled in her own problems with Elliot, an American biographer of literary women. And she finds herself caught up in age-old conflicts of two friends from her past: the celebrated pianist Ramsay Blake and his younger brother, Sean.All these people have been treading thin ice for far too long. Nina arrives home to find work, loves and entrenched obsessions under threat.A rich and compelling story of marriage, music, the illusions of love and the deceits of memory, THE MEMORY TRAP's characters are real, flawed and touchingly human. Views: 20
### Product Description *Underground* is the novel that at least half the country has been waiting for. Think ahead five or so years from now, to an Australia transformed by the never-ending war on terror. Canberra has been wiped out in a nuclear attack. There is a permanent state of emergency. Security checkpoints, citizenship tests, identity cards and detention without trial have all become the norm. Suspect minorities have been locked away into ghettos. And worse - no one wants to play cricket with us anymore. Enter Leo James - burnt-out property developer and black-sheep twin brother of the all powerful Bernard James, Prime Minister of Australia. In an event all too typical of the times, Leo finds himself abducted by terrorists. But this won't be your average kidnapping. Instead, vast and secret forces are at work here, and Leo and his captors are about to embark on a journey into the underworld of a nation gone mad. Like some bastard child of Dr Strangelove and George Orwell, *Underground* is both an adrenalin-pumped thriller and a gleefully barbed satire that takes a chainsaw to political neo-correctness and Australia's new ultra-nationalism. Blistering and blackly comic, this book goes straight to the heart of the country's future - and it isn't pretty. Views: 14
The kind of book that keeps you reading past midnight, holding on for dear life. There's a sense of menace on every page. An incredible debut by a brilliant new talent.'Rohan Wilson, author of To Name Those LostVan Diemen's Land, 1826.When Bridget Crack arrives in the colony, she is just grateful to be on dry land. But finding the life of an indentured domestic servant intolerable, she pushes back and is punished for her insubordination-sent from one place to another, each significantly worse than the last. Too late, she realises the place she has ended up is the worst of all: the 'Interior,' where the hard cases are sent-a brutally hard life with a cruel master, miles from civilisation.She runs from there and finds herself imprisoned by the impenetrable Tasmanian wilderness. What she finds there-what finds her-is Matt Sheedy, a man on the run, who saves her from certain death. Her precarious existence among volatile and murderous bushrangers is a different... Views: 13
A DOUBLE RESCUE MISSION A princess and her doppelganger are missing, and a
grief-stricken king turns to Aaron Timmer for answers. As a bodyguard to the king,
Aaron's mission is clear when one of the women is found: keep her out of danger and
find the abductor. But how can he do that when the mystery woman doesn't remember
the events leading up to her disappearance? Terror strikes a young woman when she wakes
up in a private hospital with no idea who she is, how she came to be
hospitalized[unknown-8230]and whose baby she's carrying. But there is something
about the man sent to protect her that makes her feel safe. As they seek the truth
together - and the secrets of her past finally begin to resurface - they must prepare
for the dangers that await them[unknown-8230]and a desire that may be all too
familiar. Views: 11
Courage, betrayal, an impossible journey. Dow's quest continues in this second adventure set upon the seas of a strange and compelling world. From award-winning author Andrew McGahan.A vast figure loomed above the ice walls. It was made, no doubt, only of cloud or whirling snow, but it was an immense manlike thing, cast hugely against the sky. Its head stared down at them blindly, but one great arm seemed to beckon, urging the Chloe onwards. And from the depths of the gulf ahead the terrible whistling rose again.Dow Amber has set sail at last upon the battleship Chloe, but can an outsider and an enemy ever truly belong in the Ship Kings' world? All too soon, Dow finds himself entangled in rebellion and treachery, and embarked upon a desperate voyage to the frozen north that will decide the future of the very empire. In the icy wastes Dow must take his fate in hand. Is he truly destined to be a mariner? Is the mysterious scapegoat girl Ignella a friend or a foe? And... Views: 9
In the early 1800s the penal colony of Botany Bay was an unforgiving and harsh place. Isabella O'Shea is transported to New South Wales for wounding a member of the British aristocracy who raped her, so it is understandable that she loathes members of the upper class and the system that punished her; sentenced her to seven years transportation. Tiger Carstairs is rich, ambitious and English-so is it any wonder she is determined to hate her new master. Tiger dreams of making a new life beyond the aptly named Blue Mountains, so called because of the perpetual haze of blue surrounding them.
Mystic Mountains is a story of courage and persistence-traits that were essential for the settlers who carved out a new life in a raw land where suffering and heartbreak were commonplace.
Isabella and Tiger face tragedy and many hardships in their quest for a new life in this untamed land. Views: 7
