Fiction: literary and general non-genre

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Book SynopsisAs the First World War looms, Anna-Rose and Anna-Felicitas, seventeen-year-old orphan twins, are thrust upon relatives. But Uncle Arthur, a blustering patriot, is a reluctant guardian: the twins are half-German and, who knows, they could be spying from the nursery window... Packed off to America, they meet Mr Twist, a wealthy engineer with a tendency to motherliness, who befriends them on the voyage. However, he has failed to consider the pitfalls of taking such young and beautiful women under his wing, especially two who will continue to require this protection long after the ship has docked, and who are incapable of behaving with tact. Many adventures ensue (and befall them) in this sparklingly witty, romantic novel in which Elizabeth von Armin explores the suspicions cast upon the two Annas and Mr Twist in a country poised for war.Trade ReviewA mistress of irony * Lisa St Aubin de Teran *An extremely talented writer...Elizabeth von Armin has a neat wit, a wild sense of comedy, and a vision continually thwarted though it was- of potential happiness. * Penelope Mortimer *

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Book SynopsisLove of Worker Bees, written by one of the most famous and gifted Russian women of our century, was greeted on publication in 1923 as sexually too explicit. The book collects three works of fiction, 'Vasilisa Malygina', 'Three Generations' and 'Sisters', and offers a graphic and rare portrayal of Russian life in the 1920s. the three stories unfold against a backcloth of the 'ordinary' Russian people of the time - the Party workers, entrepreneurs, prostitutes, manipulators, idealists. A Great Love is remarkable for its frank exploration of sexual feeling. These moving love stories depict loneliness, vulnerability, the power of the sexual appetite to distort judgement - the tragic element in love itself. In A Great Love, we follow the course of Natasha's love affair with the married Senya, and her disillusioning search for friendship and equality as well as passion for the man she loves. The story is now known to be based on Lenin's love affair with the beautiful and talented Inessa Armand.Trade ReviewGreat advocates for female independence, and resonate today as much today as they did seventy years ago * Daily Telegraph *An eloquent mixture of public and private themes, heart-searching and didacticism, love and work * Observer *A Great Love is a really outstanding literary achievement, subtle, moving and universal * New Society *Great advocates for female independence, and resonate today as much today as they did 70 years ago * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A Great Love is a really outstanding literary achievement, subtle, moving and universal * New Society *An eloquent mixture of public and private themes, heart-searching and didacticism, love and work * Observer *

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Book SynopsisSet amid the perils of illegal border crossings, The Iguana Tree is the suspenseful saga of Lilia and Hector, who separately make their way from Mexico into the United States, seeking work in the Carolinas and a home for their infant daughter. Michel Stone s harrowing novel meticulously examines the obstacles each faces in pursuing a new life: manipulation, rape, and murder in the perilous commerce of border crossings; betrayal by family and friends; exploitation by corrupt officials and rapacious landowners on the U.S. side; and, finally, the inexorable workings of the U.S. justice system. Hector and Lilia meet Americans willing to help them with legal assistance and offers of responsible employment, but their illegal entry seems certain to prove their undoing. The consequences of their decisions are devastating. In the end, The Iguana Tree is a universal story of loss, grief, and human dignity.

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Book SynopsisKlaus Rifbjerg's 1958 novel has become a constantly reprinted classic of twentieth-century Danish literature. It is the story of the unequal friendship between two teenagers, Janus and Tore, told from the point of view and in the schoolboy slang of the hero-worshipping Janus. Tore is a gifted student, mature beyond his years, effortlessly able to impress teachers and fellow pupils alike with his knowledge and charm. It is a foregone conclusion that he will fall in love at the school dance with the equally peerless Helle, and she with him; together they are the school's golden couple. It seems they will achieve a perfect union; but there is a snake in Paradise in the form of Helle's mother, fru Junkersen. Janus watches helplessly as the golden dream turns into a nightmare which destroys the two young lives, and he realises his own complicity in perpetuating an unsustainable myth. Rifbjerg has been a central figure in Danish literary life – as novelist, poet, playwright and cultural commentator – for the last sixty years, publishing works at an astonishing rate, around 175 in all. This novel, which was his first, is generally acknowledged to be his masterpiece.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION A schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany. An aspiring playwright writes to a convicted serial killer, seeking inspiration. A pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. A devoted Mormon wife follows her husband into the wilderness after he declares himself a prophet. The twelve stories in The Love of a Bad Man imagine the lives of real women, all of whom were the lovers, wives, or mistresses of various ‘bad’ men in history. Beautifully observed, fascinating, and at times horrifying, the stories interrogate power, the nature of obsession, and the lengths some women will go to for the men they love. PRAISE FOR LAURA ELIZABETH WOOLLETT ‘Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett's pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.’ The Age ‘The Love of a Bad Man imagines the inner lives of historical figures who committed crimes all in the name of love … The stories treat death with a gothic inevitability and explore human darkness with a light touch.’ The GuardianTrade Review‘The Love of a Bad Man imagines the inner lives of historical figures who committed crimes all in the name of love … The stories treat death with a gothic inevitability and explore human darkness with a light touch.’ -- Lou Heinrich * The Guardian *‘[Woollett’s] stories are beautifully written – poised and elegant.’ -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail *‘Woollett explores power, obsession and warped love in this absorbing collection.’ -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * Elle *‘[T]he varied voices are what makes this collection outstanding … truly unsettling reading.’ * Emerald Street *‘[Woollett] raises unnerving questions about the nature of desire: about why any of us are drawn to people who are bad, or bad for us, and why we stay with them. That she refuses to answer them is not to the detriment of The Love of a Bad Man, and in fact ensures that the collection never feels gimmicky … The stories are entirely concerned with conveying the distinctive interiority of the women, with the exploration of their impulses and insecurities. It is by the accretion of these case studies, rather than by armchair psychologising her girls, that Woollett builds her case.’ -- Veronica Sullivan * The Lifted Brow *‘A genuinely fresh reading experience … we’re sure to hear a lot more from this talented writer in coming years.’ * Books+Publishing, starred review *‘An unusual and affecting reading experience, coupling true crime with literary fiction … Laura Elizabeth Woollett is refreshing, challenging, and utterly unique and I’m already looking forward to her next achievement.’ * Readings Monthly *‘With each finely tuned voice, Woollett draws empathy from abject horror. A confident and mesmerising performance.’ -- Melanie Joosten, author of Berlin Syndrome‘The idea is intriguing and the execution goes well beyond expectation … The Love of a Bad Man gives sophisticated insight, and is full of empathy and nuance for the people portrayed.’ * Lip Magazine *‘The Love of a Bad Man is a rare combination of immense writing talent and wondrous imagination. You've never read a book quite like this one.’ -- Jeff Guinn, author of Go Down Together and Manson‘Chilling … [Woollett] has rendered these women so real, so believable, sympathetic, and even likeable in some cases, despite the dreadful things they condone or participate in.’ * AustCrime *‘Compelling and powerful … Woollett has inhabited the spirit of these various women in a manner both thought-provoking and touching.’ -- Ruth Wykes, co-author of Women Who Kill and Invisible Women‘Woollett’s work in her female narrators’ interior lives, her in-depth research and deployment of detail and vernacular, combines to lend a frightening and compelling understanding to these women’s choices, and in some but not all cases, their coercion.’ * Homer *‘Seductive and enthralling … Woollett is a master of her craft. You won’t be able to put it down.’ -- Stephanie Dickinson, author of Love Highway‘Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett's pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.’ -- Cameron Woodhead * The Age *‘Woollett is skilled at giving each woman a different voice, from the dramatic correspondence of Veronica Compton, to the semi-educated whining of Blanche Burrow. What each woman has in common is their transformation.’ * New York Journal of Books *‘[W]hat sets Woollett apart is the ease with which she floats through the lives of her protagonists … an experiment in the limits of empathy.’ * Crimereads *

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Book SynopsisYou only have yourself to blame, you might say, but that’s not true. Some decisions take you down one path, and others another … It’s all about power. Resi is a writer in her mid-forties, married to Sven, a painter. They live, with their four children, in an apartment building in Berlin, where their lease is controlled by some of their closest friends. Those same friends live communally nearby, in a house they co-own and have built together. As the years have passed, Resi has watched her once-dear friends become more and more ensconced in the comforts and compromises of money, success, and the nuclear family. After Resi’s latest book openly criticises stereotypical family life and values, she receives a letter of eviction. Incensed by the true natures and hard realities she now sees so clearly, Resi sets out to describe the world as it really is for her fourteen-year-old daughter, Bea. Written with dark humour and clarifying rage, Anke Stelling’s novel is a ferocious and funny account of motherhood, parenthood, family, and friendship thrust into battle. Lively, rude, and wise, it throws down the gauntlet to those who fail to interrogate who they have become.Trade Review‘Stelling is brilliant on the quantum universe of parenting, the sheer unpredictability of it … The novel moves effortlessly between time periods in recent German history and builds up the composite picture of a generation that has too often seen many of its ideals disappear into trust funds … compelling.’ -- Michael Cronin * The Irish Times *‘A bitterly funny and honest examination of what it means to look at oneself in the mirror and what happens to relationships in the midst of a transforming society.’ * Happy Magazine *‘German author Anke Stelling makes her English language debut with a swingeing screed against the privilege and hypocrisy of those who sell their souls to get ahead … A merciless tirade of a novel about class, so energised by rage and wit it’s impossible to tear your eyes from the page.’ -- Cameron Woodhead * The Age *‘Stelling makes a blistering English-language debut with this incendiary screed about hypocrisy and privilege among a group of friends in Berlin... This biting class critique is hard to turn away from.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘It’s a fantastic translation, capturing Stelling’s candid, often ironic tone, as well as the narrator’s propensity for rhyme and wordplay. The book is very much embedded in the social landscape it’s set in, and so Jones’ decision to keep a flavour of the original German works particularly well.’ -- Annie Rutherford * Goethe Institute *‘Stelling is down-to-earth and quick with her criticism of the liberal elite … There is a deep satisfaction in watching [main character] Resi defy expectation and norm, frustrating those who wish she would just be thankful.’ -- Connor Harrison * Necessary Fiction *‘[A]n apologia pro vita mea… this sad, angry, and occasionally funny book works as a portrait of modern Germany and its social mores.’ -- Bethane Patrick * LitHub *‘This is an extremely funny book. All credit to translator Lucy Jones here, for the humour is largely in the writing, with rhythms, bathos and the subversion of expectations all delivering laughs. Stelling is an expert on the ways human beings deceive themselves and how we often betray these lies unconsciously … Higher Ground is a deftly structured, ingenious piece of fiction … The result is a hugely entertaining, satisfying and thought-provoking novel. A really wonderful read.’ -- Ann Morgan * A Year of Reading the World *‘Higher Ground is an absorbing novel that kept me interested from start to finish. Laced with dark humour, it’s very contemporary, skewering complacency and hypocrisy among the moneyed classes in Berlin … It’s often laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s often wise as well, even when she’s sending herself up.’ -- Lisa Hill * ANZ LitLovers *

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Book SynopsisWhen her 29-year-old daughter Paulina goes missing on a sleepy pacific island, Judy Novak suspects the worst. Her fears are soon realised as Paulina’s body is discovered, murdered. Every man on the island is a suspect, yet none are as maligned as Paulina herself, the captivating newcomer known for her hard drinking, disastrous relationships, and a habit for walking alone. But even death won’t stop Judy Novak from fighting for her daughter’s life. A scintillating new thriller, inspired by real events, that puts the victim at the centre, by the author of The Love of a Bad ManTrade Review‘Woollett manipulates the structure of the crime novel, the suspense of the whodunnit, to destabilise the idea that there is ever one perpetrator of a crime … [her] prose is intellectual and deliberate … The Newcomer does a lot in its short pages, weaving together a story of grief and unhappiness with a compelling crime narrative.’ -- Bec Kavanagh * The Guardian *‘Powerful … Laura Elizabeth Woollett is an excellent writer. She doesn’t deal in stereotypes: even her toxic males … are sensitively portrayed.’ -- Mark Sanderson * The Times *‘Woollet subverts the crime-fiction genre in this character-driven narrative … immensely readable.’ -- Simon Humphreys * Mail on Sunday *‘An expertly plotted page-turner.’ * OK! *‘Laura Elizabeth Woollett has done it again. The Newcomer pulls you in from its eerie opening and drags you along with intriguing characters and beautifully wrought prose. As the mystery deepens, you begin to realise things are never clear-cut, and everybody is guilty of something. A cautionary tale inspired by true events by one of my favourite authors. Read this book now.’ -- JP Pomare, author of Call Me Evie‘The Newcomer is a dark and disturbing novel, speaking to some of the most troubling aspects of contemporary Australian society. As in Beautiful Revolutionary, Woollett’s prose is delicate and brutal in equal measure, offering an intimate portrait of a small and tight-knit community. With a fast-paced narrative and a complex central character, this is a searing exploration of sexual violence and victimhood, taking forward important conversations within our national psyche.’ -- Catherine Noske, author of The Salt Madonna‘Laura Elizabeth Woollett is my kind of writer — fearless, incisive, and darkly poetic. The Newcomer is by turns tragic, funny, sinister, and completely riveting.’ -- David Whish-Wilson, author of Shore Leave‘Intensely chilling and sucker-punch powerful, The Newcomer is a murder mystery but not as you know it. With a seamless blend of electric prose, simmering tension, and a deeply evocative setting, Woollett sharpens her focus on the humanity of the victim rather than the identity of the killer. The small-town intrigue sets your heart pounding — but it’s the characters, so nuanced and vivid you can almost reach out and touch them, who make it bleed. They pull you into their world from the first page and stay with you long after you've turned the last, forcing you to consider the stories of those who often go unnamed or unnoticed in the wake of violence and tragedy. The result is a crime novel that, like its protagonist, throws out the rule book and blazes its own dark and unforgettable trail.’ -- Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place‘Intriguing and touching, The Newcomer is a new kind of crime novel.’ -- Mirandi Riwoe, author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain'With its refreshingly real voice, Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s The Newcomer takes Australian crime fiction to a whole new level. Haunting. Raw. Compulsive. I can’t stop thinking about it.’ -- Anna Snoekstra, author of Only Daughter‘Woollett is a dexterous storyteller — she has a keen sense of place and dialogue, evoking a Kath & Kim-esque fish-out-of-water story as she illustrates the relationships between Fairfolk Island’s many locals and Paulina, a “mainie” who is as strange to them as they are to her.’ -- Cher Tan * Books+Publishing *‘[An] entertaining and powerful read.’ -- Bec Kavanagh * Readings *‘[Woollett’s] depiction of Paulina is as complex as it needs to be. No ‘victim’ is a facsimile. No story like this, whether true or not, is simple or merely two-sided. Paulina is difficult, moody and reckless much of the time. She seeks solace in the things – drink, drugs, and brutal sex – that hurt her. But as Woollett’s clever storytelling and research shows, none of this should lead to a killing in the wilderness.’ -- Chris Johnston * The Saturday Paper *‘Woollett convincingly and devastatingly evokes the everyday misogyny of the world her characters inhabit. This is a world in which even apparently friendly exchanges are laced with an acrid antipathy towards women and girls, one in which women are blamed for the male violence that they’re subject to … Politics and fiction haven’t always been an easy combination, but they are here … Throughout the novel, Woollett provides a sensitive and refreshingly unjudgmental insight into the lives of her two female protagonists … [and her] eye for dialogue and character development is impeccable.’ -- Jay Daniel Thompson * Australian Book Review *‘[The Newcomer] is stark, confronting, and as compelling as a car going over a cliff in slow motion.’ -- Sue Turnbull * The Age *‘Atmospheric and unsettling.’ -- Gemma Nisbet * The West Australian *‘This novel is part of a growing (and welcome) trend in recent fiction to explicitly interrogate the idea of “dead girl” mysteries, and make its victim whole and nuanced.’ * InDaily *‘A brilliant evisceration of the stories we tell about gendered violence and “good” victimhood.’ -- Dr Yves Rees * Sydney Morning Herald *‘This exquisitely crafted tale from the author of Beautiful Revolutionary explores … themes of power and the way we perceive victims. Memorable.’ * The Sunday Post *

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