Search results for ""Ultimo Press""

Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction, from the author of instant crime classic The Woman in the LibraryIt's an author's job to create a new world in the pages of a book. But when lines start to blur and reality begins to fade, getting lost in a story can be dangerous—especially if you can't find your way back... Madeleine d'Leon doesn't know where Edward came from. He is simply a character in her next book. But as she writes, he becomes all she can think about. His charm, his dark hair, his pen scratching out his latest literary novel... Edward McGinnity can't get Madeleine out of his mind—softly smiling, infectiously enthusiastic, and perfectly damaged. She will be the ideal heroine for his next book. But who is the author and who is the creation? And as the lines start to blur, who is affected when a killer finally takes flesh?After She Wrote Him is a p

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"At once unsettling and totally captivating." – Natasha ShollBetween You and Me is a riveting portrayal of female friendship, and the frayed boundary between loyalty and desire. Mari and Elisabeth have been at the centre of each other’s lives for years. Close friends since university, they’re now drifting through their mid-twenties, working casual jobs and living in run-down share houses. When they meet Jack, a charming academic historian twenty years their senior, they’re attracted to the sophisticated, intellectual world in which he seems to move. As the summer gathers heat, Jack is drawn into their lives, and an unconventional relationship – halfway between friendship and love triangle – develops. But soon things grow more complicated, and as secrets and betrayals detonate, the fallout sets the course for the rest of their lives. In Mari and Elisabeth, Joanna Horton has created two unforgettable women, whose choices on the cusp of adulthood will resonate with anyone who has ever had to navigate where friendship, intimacy and love intersect when trying to make a life of one’s own.

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‘What joy to be at sea again, adrift on the vast Pacific, in the clutches of a gifted storyteller. Harrison Christian and the mutineers of Men Without Country held me happily captive to the very last page.’ – Dava Sobel, author of Longitude‘Men Without Country shows what a writer can produce when he has real skin in the game... Harrison Christian sets the record straight on the Bounty mutiny with forensic fervour, including the before, the during – and the after.’ – Adam Courtenay, author of The Ship that Never WasFull of misadventure and mystery, Men Without Country is a sweeping history of exploration and rebellion in the South Seas – told by a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, the man who led the infamous mutiny on the BountyA mission to collect breadfruit from Tahiti becomes the most famous mutiny in history when the crew rise up against Captain William Bligh, with accusations of food restrictions and unfair punishments.Bligh’s remarkable journey back to safety is well documented, but the fates of the mutinous men remain shrouded in mystery. Some settled in Tahiti only to face capture and court martial, others sailed on to form a secret colony on Pitcairn Island, the most remote inhabited island on earth, avoiding detection for twenty years. When an American captain stumbled across the island in 1808, only one of the Bounty mutineers was left alive.Told by a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, Men Without Country details the journey of the Bounty, and the lives of the men aboard. Lives dominated by a punishing regime of hard work and scarce rations, and deeply divided by the hierarchy of class. It is a tale of adventure and exploration punctuated by moments of extreme violence – towards each other and the people of the South Pacific.For the first time, Christian provides a comprehensive and compelling account of the whole story – from the history of trade and exploration in the South Seas to Pitcairn Island, which provided the mutineers’ salvation, and then became their grave.

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‘A stand out amongst contemporary Australian literary fiction for its stylistic and structural ambition, God Forgets About the Poor is the novel Polites has been climbing to. It is moving, poetic, powerful - at once a folktale and a modern day lament. Christos Tsiolkas meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez.’ - Maxine Beneba Clarke, bestselling and award winning author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race ‘In God Forgets About the Poor, Polites has produced a masterpiece.’ - ArtsHub ‘a triumphant reclamation, written in prose clean as polished stones’ - The Saturday Paper ‘God Forgets About the Poor feels like a culmination; it’s the author’s most striking work yet.’ - The Guardian ‘an important literary achievement’ - The Conversation ‘God Forgets About the Poor is a reminder that everyone has a story worth telling and hearing, but not everyone gets the chance to share it. This is one told well.’ - Books + PublishingI will tell you why you should draft my story. Because migrant stories are broken. Some parts in a village where we washed our clothing with soot. Some parts in big cities working in factories. How we starved for food in Greece and starved for Greece in Australia.You don’t know the first thing about me. A son can never see his mother as a woman. You will only see me in relation to you. I have had a thousand lives before you were even a thought. Hospitalised as a child for an entire year. Living as an adult without family in Athens when the colonels took control.Start when I was born. Describe the village and how beautiful it was. On the side of a mountain but in the middle of a forest. If we walked to a certain point on the edge, we could look over the valley and see rain clouds coming. Sometimes we would see a cat on a roof, we read that as a warning of a storm. When we looked down, we saw the dirt, which was just as rich as the sky. My island, your island, our island.Sometimes I think God forgot about us because we were poor.A stunning new novel from the author of Down the Hume and The Pillars, God Forgets About the Poor is a love story to a migrant mother, whose story is as important as any ever told. PRAISE FOR GOD FORGETS ABOUT THE POOR: ‘Polites brings to light his mother’s story, a migrant woman who has lived a number of lives, surely a common story in the Greek community, and while the title suggests god may forget about the poor, Polites wants to make sure the world does not.’ - Neos Kosmos ‘It is an exquisite mode for the diaspora story, a genre that is increasingly losing its meaningfulness in a time of its commodification. In God Forgets About the Poor, the old country is dead, yet it continues to live vividly in migrants' memories even as they evolve amongst future generations.’ - ABC Arts - The Bookshelf ‘Peter Polites is also sensitive to the ways in which migrant stories can be reduced, stereotyped and consumed in mainstream publishing, and is at pains to give voice to the complexity and richness of his subject's experience.’ - The Sydney Morning Herald ‘a nuanced portrait in which a mother—in her full and challenging complexity—is truly honoured.’ - Meanjin

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'This Devastating Fever is a very good novel.’ – Howard Jacobson, New Statesman'I loved this book. I absolutely loved it.’ – Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Barracuda'This is a great novel of enduring significance and enormous beauty.’ – Sydney Morning HeraldSometimes you need to delve into the past, to make sense of the present. Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come. Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague. Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is a dazzlingly original novel about what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.

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"Diana Reid will be called the new Sally Rooney – you’re certain of it by the end of page one. By the end of this real, raw and startling novel, you know Reid is the talent to whom every smart young novelist who follows her will be compared – or hope to be." – Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss'Likened to an Australian Sally Rooney, Reid has the [same] talent and acerbic wit ..' – iWeekend'Makes us care as the lies and half-truths pile up... Reid writes with a measured grace.'– The Times‘Diana Reid’s Seeing Other People is stacked with enthralling heart-in-your-mouth moments as it ripples with betrayals, shame, love and longing.’ – LoveReadingCharlie’s skin was stinging. Not with heat or sweat, but with that intense, body-defining self-consciousness—that sense of being watched. She lowered her eyes from Eleanor’s loving gaze. Her throat taut with tears, she swallowed. ‘You’re a good sister, Eleanor.’‘Don’t say that.’ After two years of lockdowns, there’s change in the air. Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend, Charlie’s career as an actress is starting up again. They’re finally ready to pursue their dreams—relationships, career, family—if only they can work out what it is they really want. When principles and desires clash, Eleanor and Charlie are forced to ask: where is the line between self-love and selfishness? In all their confusion, mistakes will be made and lies will be told as they reckon with the limits of their own self-awareness. Seeing Other People is the darkly funny story of two very different sisters, and the summer that stretches their relationship almost to breaking point.

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Song of the Sun God is about the wisdom, mistakes and sacrifices of our past that enable us to live more freely in the future. Nala and Rajan, a young couple, begin their married life in 1946, on the eve of Ceylon’s independence from Britain. Arranged in marriage, they learn to love each other and protect their growing family, against the backdrop of increasing ethnic tension. As the country descends into a bloody civil war, Nala and Rajan must decide which path is best for their family; and live with the consequences of their mistakes. Over time, Nala and Rajan teach their family why some parts of their history and heritage are worth holding onto; and why some parts and people have to be left behind. Song of the Sun God spans three continents and three generations of a family that remains dedicated to its homeland, whilst learning to embrace its new home. Funny, warm and tender, we see Nala and Rajan’s family navigate war, migration, old loyalties and new beginnings, relying on the philosophy of their religion, their ancestors and each other.

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‘Body Friend is a deeply intimate tribute to the fragile and porous self, written in prose of rare clarity and tenderness. I felt everything reading this book.’ – Claire Thomas, author of The Performance and Fugitive BlueLate in the summer five years ago, when I was recovering from a surgical procedure, I met two women within a few weeks of each other and I saw both of them regularly, always separately, for some months afterwards. Summer did not give way easily that year, and even so we must force our bodies down to sleep in the heat, and even if experience does not give itself up easily to representation, I will lay it down anyway; frame the raw and exigent weeks, the untrustworthy months after the hospital, render it and them, Frida and Sylvia, as closely as possible to reality—or whatever is the feeling of a life and mind lived inside a body. A woman leaves the hospital after an operation and starts swimming in a pool in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. There she meets Frida, who is uncannily like her in her experience of illness. Soon after, she meets another woman in a local park, Sylvia, who sees her pain and encourages her to rest. The two new friends seem to be polar opposites: Frida adores the pool and the natural world, Sylvia clings to the protection of interior worlds. What begins as two seemingly simple friendships is challenged by what each woman asks of her, of themselves, and their bodies. From the acclaimed author of The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins comes a new novel about the relationship between body and self, and how we must dive beneath the surface to really know ourselves.PRAISE FOR BODY FRIEND:‘Body Friend is a kind of ghost story by stealth, an account of devotion, obsession and chronic pain that reveals a netherworld inside this one. It is told with such delicacy, with such a tender and insistent voice, that it becomes—uncannily, thrillingly—luminous.’ – Miles Allinson, author of Fever of Animals and In Moonland ‘Brabon writes some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read, and this book is both muted and raw, like pain itself. A love letter to a body, to relationship and connection, and to water, Brabon explores what we need and how we need it with astonishing wisdom and candour.’ – Laura McPhee-Browne, author of Cherry Beach and Little Plum

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'Centred on three female outcasts who live on the margins of a cliquey community, this exquisite Australian noir novel shimmers with secrets, unlikely sisterhood and gasp-inducing twists.' – Love Reading'An incredible debut full of rich characters and a plot that will keep you guessing. Louise Wolhuter is a writer to watch' – J.P. Pomare author of In the Clearing'Darkly addictive. Once An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb gets its teeth into you, there’s no escape' – Adrian Hyland, author of Canticle CreekJessie Else disappeared the summer the Lambs came to Magpie Beach. Not that the two events were connected at all, in reality; only in my own head, in my own world. They marked for me the end of a certain quiet time and the start of a more complicated living. Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town – full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town – and partly because their neighbours treat them with such suspicion. When Jessie Else, all of 9 years old, goes missing – it’s easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspects – but what they didn't realise is that Jessie’s disappearance is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon all those secrets they’ve been trying to hide are going to be uncovered – and nothing will ever be the same again.

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Three women. One daring plan. A wedding heist to remember. Lulu has always been taught that money is the ticket to a good life. So, when Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor surprises her with a proposal, the only acceptable answer is yes, even if the voice inside her head is saying no. His family’s fortune would solve all her parents’ financial woes, but Lulu isn’t in love or ready for marriage.   The only people she can confide in are her two best friends: career-minded Rina, who is tired of being passed over for promotion as her biological clock ticks away; and Jane, a sharp-tongued, luxury-chasing housewife desperate to divorce her husband and trade up. Each of them desires something different: freedom, time, beauty. None of them can get it without money.   It’s not long before they realise that Lulu’s wedding is their golden opportunity. With Shanghai’s elite clamouring to att

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‘The sky above our heads was uncaged and unlike us, free.’The Uncaged Sky is Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s remarkable story of courage and resilience, and a powerful meditation on hope, solidarity and what it means to be free.On 12 September 2018 British-Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran’s most notorious judge, she was given a 10 year sentence and ultimately spent 804 days incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin and Qarchak prisons.Held in a filthy solitary confinement cell for months, and subjected to relentless interrogation, Kylie was pushed to her limits by extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Her only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other prisoners inside the maximum-security compound, communicating through the air vents between cells, and by hiding secret letters in the narrow outdoor balcony where she was led, blindfolded, for an hour each day.To survive, Kylie began to fight back. Multiple hunger strikes, co-ordinated protests and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to the isolated desert prison, Qarchak, to live among dangerous convicted criminals. On 25 November 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high-stakes three-nation prisoner-swap deal, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn.

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Winner of the Crime Fiction Lover Best Indie Crime Novel of 2022‘A seriously fun read.’ - Dervla McTiernan, author of The Murder Rule‘Wickedly clever, highly original and thoroughly entertaining – I loved it!’ - Chris Hammer, author of Scrublands‘Sulari Gentill delivers another murder mystery gem.’ - Tim Ayliffe, author of The Enemy Within‘And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realise that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply.’ Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library: four strangers; Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer. While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems... The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

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WINNER OF THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD'This is an engaging story that feels both urgent and necessary. It is also a terrific read.' – The Daily Telegraph (Australia)Welcome to Cinnamon Gardens, a home for those who are lost and the stories they treasure. Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule. But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided. Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how our stories shape who we are.

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‘An emotive and confronting debut.’ – Woman’s Weekly‘Truths of the heart, sisterly devotion, grief, and medical ethics – this beautifully-written debut is a life-affirming, love-filled tear-jerker.’ – Love Reading‘Posing profound questions about grief, love and fate, Bent’s debut celebrates life and sisterhood in an awe-inspiring way.’ – Harper's BazaarMarlowe and Harper share a bond deeper than most sisters, shaped by the loss of their mother in childhood. For Harper, living with what she calls the Up syndrome and gifted with an endless capacity for wonder, Marlowe and she are connected by an invisible thread, like the hum that connects all things. For Marlowe, they are bound by her fierce determination to keep Harper, born with a congenital heart disorder, alive. Now 25, Marlowe is finally living her own life abroad, pursuing her studies of a rare species of butterfly secure in the knowledge Harper’s happiness is complete, having found love with boyfriend, Louis. But then she receives the devastating call that Harper’s heart is failing. She needs a heart transplant but is denied one by the medical establishment because she is living with a disability. Marlowe rushes to her childhood home in Hong Kong to be by Harper’s side and soon has to answer the question – what lengths would you go to save your sister? Intensely moving, exquisitely written and literally humming with wonder, it is a novel that celebrates life in all its guises, and what comes after.

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Song of the Sun God spans three continents and three generations of a family that remains dedicated to its homeland, whilst learning to embrace its new home. Nala and Rajan, a young couple, begin their married life in 1946, on the eve of Ceylon’s independence from Britain. Arranged in marriage, they learn to love each other and protect their growing family, against the backdrop of increasing ethnic tension. Funny, warm and tender, we see Nala and Rajan’s family navigate war, migration, old loyalties and new beginnings, relying on the philosophy of their religion, their ancestors and each other. As the country descends into a bloody civil war, Nala and Rajan must decide which path is best for their family; and live with the consequences of their mistakes. Over time, Nala and Rajan teach their family why some parts of their history and heritage are worth holding onto; and why some parts and people have to be left behind. Song of the Sun God is about the wisdom, mistakes and sacrifices of our past that enable us to live more freely in the future. PRAISE FOR SONG OF THE SUN GOD ‘an emotive and insightful read.’ – The Saturday Paper ‘a book that doesn’t look away from the brutality of the Sri Lankan conflict – torture, forced displacements and disappearances, cultural destruction and worse – but it also balances horror with humour, and indeed love.’ – Sydney Morning Herald ‘[Chandran] does not shy from the horror of war yet holds hope for mankind.’ – The Weekend Australian ‘a rich heritage tapestry to embrace’ The Australian Women's Weekly ‘a sweeping tale of love, duty and migration’ – The West Weekend

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Set in Stockholm in 1930 and based on true events, Exquisite Corpse is a story about the madness and horror of a romance that knows no bounds.Romance is dead… Beautiful but impoverished Lina Dahlstrom is dying of tuberculosis and it seems that no one can save her. All hope is lost until an eccentric doctor, Carl Dance, becomes enthralled with Lina’s charms and vows to do everything in his power to cure her. But when the illness inevitably claims Lina’s life, Dance’s obsession with her only grows and so begins a mad and criminal scheme to bring her back from beyond the grave and claim her as his own forever.

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"Outstanding crime novel [...] electrifying." – The Sunday Times, November 2022 Crime Book of the Month"Adrian Hyland... sure has a way with words... The climactic inferno takes your breath away. More please." – The TimesCanticle Creek is a twisty crime thriller set in small town Australia. When Adam Lawson's wrecked car is found a kilometre from Daisy Baker’s body, the whole town assumes it’s an open and shut case. But Jesse Redpath isn’t from Canticle Creek. Where she comes from, the truth often hides in plain sight, but only if you know where to look. When Jesse starts to ask awkward questions, she uncovers a town full of contradictions and a cast of characters with dark pasts, secrets to hide and even more to lose. As the temperature soars, and the ground bakes, the wilderness surrounding Canticle Creek becomes a powderkeg waiting to explode. All it needs is one spark.

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"This beautiful, inspirational book is stuffed full of hard-won wisdom. Stunning." – The Daily Mail UK"A heart-tearing, character-driven page-turner about a troubled family, losing and finding one's way, and the cycle of life." – LoveReading For anyone who has ever loved and lost, and dared to rise again. Delphi Hoffman, a wild child living in London, is finally getting her life together with a new love affair and the offer of a coveted job – until she receives the phone call she hoped would never arrive. ‘It’s time.’ Her mother Vivian’s terminal illness has reached its tipping point and she summons Delphi to Australia to help her to euthanise. Unable to deny her mother’s suffering, or her promise to her of a good death, Delphi reluctantly returns to her mother for the last time. This is a story of the ties of family that enmesh in love and death, and the journey back to self in its aftermath. As Delphi is blown onto the wasteland of grief and shame, she has to discover where her mother’s life ends and she begins amid the atomic fallout her actions have unleashed. Incandescent and extraordinary, Where the Light Gets In heralds the arrival of a powerful new voice in Australian fiction.

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Two women. Two cultures. And a friendship that freed them both. ‘We don’t choose where we’re born. Geography ends up being everything.’ Shaimaa Khalil and Shelley Davidow met twenty years ago in the Middle East when Shaimaa was Shelley’s student at the University of Qatar. Strangers in a strange land where the silencing and oppression of women is deeply entrenched, they immediately formed a deep and abiding bond. Shelley saw Shaimaa as her ‘Rosetta Stone’, helping her decode a culture and world so foreign it appeared to be from another planet. Shaimaa saw Shelley and her apartment as her ‘Tardis’, a space where she could glimpse a world she dreamed of inhabiting. Born a decade apart on opposite ends of the African continent – Shaimaa, an Arab Muslim from Egypt and Shelley an Ashkenazi Jew from South Africa – tell the story of a friendship that has defied historical, geographic and temporal boundaries, mapping the vast emotional and geographic territories they have travelled as women pushing against patriarchal confines over the past two decades. In an exchange of words and memories, Shaimaa and Shelley recall what shaped them, what broke them, and how they made themselves whole again through their interwoven stories.

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‘Set in Sydney’s diverse Western suburbs, this tender coming-of-age story about love, loyalty and what home means also functions as a visceral love letter to the glorious, foliage-filled melting pot of its location… The author exposes various cultural stereotypes but then challenges and disrupts them, leaving us with a more nuanced view of the immigrant community she so evocatively describes. I rooted for Nicole and raced straight through to the end.’ – Daily Mail UKTwenty-six-year-old Nicole Najim is struggling to find herself after a painful breakup, just when she thought she was going to settle down. Working a dead-end job in the family car dealership and at a loose end, she picks up her camera and returns to the melting pot of Sydney’s West to rediscover her roots. When she catches up with childhood friend, Danny, who makes his living in a shadowy underworld, their relationship intensifies just as the law starts to close in. Nicole must weigh her feelings against her deepest fears, all while chasing her own dreams and capturing the hidden truths around her. Something Blue is a novel about loving home and leaving home, but never escaping your roots. Or your footy colours.

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‘Hyland, a seasoned firefighter, ensures the climactic inferno takes your breath away. More please.‘ – Mark Sanderson, The Times‘An atmospheric gripper‘ – Crime Monthly‘A gritty, inventive slice of Outback noir‘ – Paul Burke, Crime Fiction Lover‘had me gripped from beginning to end. I hope this is the start of a series as I'll be looking out for the next Jesse Redpath book.‘ – Victoria Goldman, LoveReadingCanticle Creek is a twisty crime thriller set in small town Australia. Two bodies. One long hot summer. A town that will never be the same. When Adam Lawson's wrecked car is found a kilometre from Daisy Baker’s body, the whole town assumes it’s an open and shut case. But Jesse Redpath isn’t from Canticle Creek. Where she comes from, the truth often hides in plain sight, but only if you know where to look. When Jesse starts to ask awkward questions, she uncovers a town full of contradictions and a cast of characters with dark pasts, secrets to hide and even more to lose. As the temperature soars, and the ground bakes, the wilderness surrounding Canticle Creek becomes a powderkeg waiting to explode. All it needs is one spark.

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‘Set in Sydney’s diverse Western suburbs, this tender coming-of-age story about love, loyalty and what home means also functions as a visceral love letter to the glorious, foliage-filled melting pot of its location… The author exposes various cultural stereotypes but then challenges and disrupts them, leaving us with a more nuanced view of the immigrant community she so evocatively describes. I rooted for Nicole and raced straight through to the end.’ – Daily Mail UKTwenty-six-year-old Nicole Najim is struggling to find herself after a painful breakup, just when she thought she was going to settle down. Working a dead-end job in the family car dealership and at a loose end, she picks up her camera and returns to the melting pot of Sydney’s West to rediscover her roots. When she catches up with childhood friend, Danny, who makes his living in a shadowy underworld, their relationship intensifies just as the law starts to close in. Nicole must weigh her feelings against her deepest fears, all while chasing her own dreams and capturing the hidden truths around her. Something Blue is a novel about loving home and leaving home, but never escaping your roots. Or your footy colours.'hysterically funny … This is the chaotic love child of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bridget Jones's Diary.' – Glamour'It’s clear Sarkis loves the place she comes from: every suburb, street, home and hair salon is written with affection for the people and culture it represents.' – The Conversation

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She needs to write the ending before she meets hers. Theo has one dream – to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar – and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect. As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realizes that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why. As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy online platform called The Shield. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery b

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" A cracking slice of Aussie Noir." – Heat magazine A murder made to look like an accident. A disgraced cop trying to forget his past. Nash Baker was once a celebrated cop, but his career was ended when he chose to take justice into his own hands. Now he’s living a quiet life in a small town caring for the local wildlife and trying to stay away from trouble. Jesse Redpath has a new job in a new town, Satellite – the stormy weather that greets her first few days on the new beat seems like a sign for what’s to come. A local has died in what seems like an accident, but Jessie isn’t so sure that ‘accident’ wasn’t planned. All evidence seems to point to Nash, but Jessie’s not sure about that either. Seems like Nash has enemies. And what looks like a close knit community might just be cover for dark secrets.No amount of rain will wash this town clean. The new Jesse Redpath crime thriller from the bestselling author of Canticle Creek.Praise for Canticle Creek: ‘The rural crime fiction wave continues with this brilliant new arid drama.’ ― Australian Women's Weekly ‘Hyland has mastered the architecture of noir – his sinister tale seethes with small-town atmosphere and satisfying twists, set against the dangers and harsh beauty of the Australian landscape.’ ― Sydney Morning Herald ‘an entertaining and engrossing novel. Hyland has written the ideal story for a long, hot summer, where fire always seems a possibility.’ ― The Canberra Times ‘You can almost feel the blanketing heat and crunch of dry foliage underfoot while reading Canticle Creek ... a well-paced, atmospheric thriller with unexpected twists’ ― The West Australian

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A missing girl. Decades of silence. A secret too big to bury. 1987: It’s late summer and a time of change when a 17-year-old girl leaves the local shopping centre in the sleepy town of Lowbridge and is never seen again. Her unsolved disappearance is never far from the town’s memory. There’s those who grew up in the shadow of her loss whose own lives were altered forever, and those who know more than they’re saying. It just takes an outsider to ask the right questions. 2018: Katherine Ashworth, shattered by the death of her daughter, moves to her husband’s hometown. Searching for a way to pick up the pieces of her life, she joins the local historical society and becomes obsessed with the three-decades-old mystery. As Katherine digs into that summer of 1987, she stumbles upon the trail of a second girl who vanished and was never missed because no one cared enough to see what was happening in plain sight. Her trail could lead right to Katherine’s door. In a town simmering with divisions and a cast of unforgettable characters, Lowbridge is a heart-wrenching mystery about the girls who are lost, the ones who are mourned and those who are forgotten.

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LoveReading Book of the Month April 2023'A Hitchcockian chiller with a powerful sense of rampant terror' – Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time'Drawn from real life cases, this brilliantly twisty thriller exposes the grimmest recesses of the dark web through a disturbing story of murder, misogyny and sickening surveillance.' – LoveReading'Riveting, tense and supremely chilling, this is an eye-opening must-read for crime fiction fans everywhere.' – Anna Downes, author of The Safe PlaceOnce you’re online, there’s nowhere to hide. A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time. Is it paranoia – or is someone watching? For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe. Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway. The victim looks just like her. Coincidence? As more murders shake the city and she’s increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear. She’s been found.

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Sometimes you need to go deep into the past, to make sense of the present. Alice had not expected to spend the first twenty years of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: was the world’s technology about to crash down around her? The world’s technology did not crash. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague. Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury set, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the twentieth century becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is Sophie Cunningham’s most important book to date – a dazzlingly original novel about what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.​

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'A vivid, twisting story that keeps you guessing to the end. This is top-shelf Australian crime.' – Mark Brandi, author of The Others'The combination of art, death and small town secrets makes for a sinister, complex tale that I could not put down.' – Sarah Bailey, author of The Dark LakeIn the wild, coastal town of Merritt, Alex Tillerson and her mother make a shocking find on the beach. The police claim it’s an accidental death but there are whispers of murder and that it is not the first.'It isn’t strangers you need to worry about here. Blood lines run deep and in unexpected places. Every victim, every accused, we’ll know. The past runs alongside us all the time. Some days it spills into the open.' Bella Greggs was found dead at the bottom of a ravine but drowned in salt water. Maxine McFarlane was pulled from the ocean but with no water in her lungs. Black feathers were found with both bodies but what do they mean? As Alex fights for answers to honour the dead, and to discover why her mother fled town as a teenager, good people keep looking the other way, memories become unreliable and secrets threaten to reveal the past. Alex discovers the truth never dies but it can kill...

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When the Japanese invade in 1942, the Australian men and women stationed at the New Guinea port of Rabaul flee into the jungle.Written off by their government as ‘hostages to fortune’, the little-known garrison on Australia’s tropic frontier has been left with no modern equipment, no lifeline to the outside, and no means of escape. Most are captured and killed in the sinking of the prison ship Montevideo Maru, which remains Australia’s worst sea disaster. But the surviving soldiers and nurses carry on, to fight the Japanese on other fronts, or to witness the collapse of the Japanese Empire from the inside. Having borne the brunt of defeat, their letters and diaries also record the turning point of the war and the march to victory. Rich in detail drawn from first person accounts, Should We Fall To Ruin illuminates this untold period in military history. It is a compelling tale of bravery and resilience in the face of a seemingly unstoppable enemy.

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Traversing decades and continents – from Iran to India, Sri Lanka to the Czech Republic, Adelaide to the Torres Strait — The God of No Good is a beautifully lyrical and funny intergenerational memoir about six women and how their lives intertwine. Filled with wit and wisdom, it is a story that only Sita Walker could tell, but it will resonate with readers everywhere. It’s Wild Swans meets Nora Ephron.This is not a book about divorce. It’s not a book about God, either. You might think it is a book about goodness and what it means to be a good person, but it isn’t. Like everything else, this is about love. Sita Walker was raised by five strong matriarchs who taught her to believe in God and to be good. Her grandmother, mother and three aunts believed in their unshakeable Bahá’í faith, in the power of prayer, in sacrifice, in magic, in the healing of turmeric and tea, and the wisdom of dreams. But as hard as she tries to be good, Sita always suspects that deep down, she isn’t very good at all. At thirty-five, she hasn’t prayed in years, her dream of true love has died, and along with it, her faith – not that she’s telling her mother, or her aunts. Now, the only way she can fulfill her destiny is to seek out the wisdom of the ones who came before, and truly understand the women who raised her. But will they understand her? Either way, the matriarchy will never be the same again.

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A profound insight into the stories behind the image of the Tour de France, showcasing the sacrifice, despair, strategy and chaos of those four weeks in July to reveal a fascinating new perspective on the greatest race on earth. Every year the Tour de France puts on one of the great viewing spectacles in sport, showcasing extraordinary human endurance and one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. But underneath the facade, it's a different story – a story of suffering, sacrifice and pain. This is that story. Pain and Privilege gets under the skin of cycling’s cruel super race and describes what the race that unites people from all over the globe is really like, from the laughs to the tears, from the politics to the personal, from inspirational triumph to desperate failure. Team staff, sports scientists, psychologists, media and dignitaries all contribute to draw a more complex and confronting portrait of the world's grandest sporting spectacle. With exclusive contributions from Richie Porte, Cadel Evans, Chris Froome, Michael Matthews, Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, Robbie McEwen, Michael Mørkøv, Jens Debusschere, Matt White, Allan Peiper, Cherie Pridham, Enrico Poitschke, Mathew Hayman, Simon Clarke, Marcel Kittel and Luke Durbridge. Plus, insights from Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish, Patrick Lefevere, David Brailsford, Tadej Pogačar and more.

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Feeling alienated from wider society, Sara, Abida and Naeem gravitate towards their university’s Muslim Students’ Association. Within its austere confines, Sara watches Naeem... How do you balance desire, ambition and expectations? Over time, the pair commence a furtive relationship outside of the gaze of their families and peers. But Naeem is especially burdened by the widening gap between his public façade and their clandestine forays. As the MSA elections approach, Abida seeks to win the presidency at all costs, threatening her longstanding friendship with Sara and risking her reputation. What will the repercussions be for all three if Sara and Naeem transgressions are exposed?

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Once you’re online, there’s nowhere to hide  Is it paranoia – or is someone watching?   For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe.    Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway. The victim looks just like her.  Coincidence?    As more murders shake the city and she’s increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear.  She’s been found.    A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.PRAISE for Dark Mode LoveReading Book of the Month April 2023 'A Hitchcockian chiller with a

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Voice memos, care packages, hours-long phone conversations, treasured traditions that go back decades, glasses held aloft during wedding toasts, hands held at funerals, first cuddles with newborns, lunches with work wives, taking it to the group chat – our friendships touch and enrich every part of our lives. But how often do we stop to consider them deeply?Just Friends explores modern friendship – what it means to be, to make and, sometimes, to lose a friend. It is a celebration of friendship, shining a light on the many different forms they can take and the comfort they provide, whether they exist within the workplace, emerge in motherhood, are uncovered inside our neighbourhoods or become our chosen family. Just Friends is an ode to the people that shape us. It is a book to devour on the beach or with a book club, a book to return to again and again, and, most importantly, a book to press into the hands of the friends you love the most. PRAISE FOR JUST FRIENDS ‘Yankovich’s debut is a celebration of the people that often know us better than we know ourselves. Comforting, warming, and tender, by a very talented writer.’ – The Australian ‘a joyful, hopeful and considered book that will have you texting your friends in a hurry to tell them how much you appreciate them’ – Lucinda Price, author of Perfect Candidate ‘This book not only made me think about my friends in a different way, it also made me think about the kind of person I want to be.’ – Bridie Jabour, author of Trivial Grievances ‘a thoughtful, brilliant, and wholly comforting read’ – Elfy Scott, author of The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About ‘This book honours our most significant relationships with the tender thoughtfulness of the best friend you’ve ever had.’ – Gina Rushton, author of The Most Important Job in the World

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‘This gripping tale of three women who are suspected in the disappearance of a 9-year-old is a powerful read you won’t want to put down.’ – Pedestrian.tv‘An incredible debut full of rich characters and a plot that will keep you guessing. Louise Wolhuter is a writer to watch.’ – J.P. Pomare, author of In The Clearing and The Wrong WomanJessie Else disappeared the summer the Lambs came to Magpie Beach. Not that the two events were connected at all, in reality; only in my own head, in my own world. They marked for me the end of a certain quiet time and the start of a more complicated living.Winifred is a small town full of prejudices and assumptions. Meg and Lily are outsiders who live on its margins at Magpie Beach, where they’ve managed to keep out of each other’s – and everyone else’s – way for years. That is, until Rosemary comes along and draws them into an unlikely friendship. When nine-year-old Jessie Else goes missing, the residents of Winifred begin locking their doors, and fingers soon start pointing towards Magpie Beach. Questions threaten to undo Meg, Rosemary and Lily’s quiet existence, and the women band together to protect themselves, and to protect each other, but all three are holding secrets that are too big for them to keep on their own. It’s only a matter of time before they start to unravel–and nothing will ever be the same again.

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Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist 2022 SHORTLISTED for the INDIE AWARD for BEST FICTION SHORTLISTED for the ABIA for Literary Fiction LONGLISTED for the BookPeople Book of the Year for Fiction ‘This! Was! So! Good! ... Diana Reid you are in a total league of your own.’ - Zara McDonald, Shameless Podcast ‘Seeing Other People will be the book of the summer.’ - PedestrianTV‘An extraordinary new voice in Aussie lit.’ ― Zoë Foster Blake ‘a captivating read that feels made for racing through while lying on the beach.’ ― Vogue AustraliaCharlie’s skin was stinging. Not with heat or sweat, but with that intense, body-defining self-consciousness—that sense of being watched. She lowered her eyes from Eleanor’s loving gaze. Her throat taut with tears, she swallowed. ‘You’re a good sister, Eleanor.’‘Don’t say that.’ After two years of lockdowns, there’s change in the air. Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend, Charlie’s career as an actress is starting up again. They’re finally ready to pursue their dreams—relationships, career, family—if only they can work out what it is they really want. When principles and desires clash, Eleanor and Charlie are forced to ask: where is the line between self-love and selfishness? In all their confusion, mistakes will be made and lies will be told as they reckon with the limits of their own self-awareness.Seeing Other People is the darkly funny story of two very different sisters, and the summer that stretches their relationship almost to breaking point. PRAISE FOR SEEING OTHER PEOPLE: ‘a great summer read.’ - The Guardian ‘The prose sparkles on the page, as effervescent and drinkable as a glass of prosecco on a warm summer's evening.’ - The Australian ‘We absolutely adored this hotly-anticipated novel’ - The Shameless Bookclub ‘If you tore through Love & Virtue last year, you'll want to add Diana Reid's second novel to the top of your reading bucket list.’ - Marie Claire ‘I enjoyed this funny, charming and enormously readable novel a great deal, in large part due to the wit and authenticity with which Reid represents her characters and their world.’ - The West Australian ‘Reid hasn’t lost her skewering wit.’ - Sydney Morning Herald 'a compulsive read’ - Primer 'funny and engaging’ - ArtsHub ‘Reid's witty and insightful social observation is something to relish’ - ABC Radio National, The Bookshelf ‘There is a genuine warmth as well as capacious intelligence and sly humour to Reid’s writing, and a dynamic energy to the novel that’s always compelling’ - The Guardian

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‘It isn’t strangers you need to worry about here. Blood lines run deep and in unexpected places. Every victim, every accused, we’ll know. The past runs alongside us all the time. Some days it spills into the open.’ In the wild, coastal town of Merritt, Alex Tillerson and her mother make a shocking find on the beach. The police claim it’s an accidental death but there are whispers of murder and that it is not the first. Bella Greggs was found dead at the bottom of a ravine but drowned in salt water. Maxine McFarlane was pulled from the ocean but with no water in her lungs. Black feathers were found with both bodies but what do they mean? As Alex fights for answers to honour the dead, and to discover why her mother fled town as a teenager, good people keep looking the other way, memories become unreliable and secrets threaten to reveal the past. Alex discovers the truth never dies but it can kill… Praise for When We Fall: 'A vivid, twisting story that keeps you guessing to the end. This is top-shelf Australian crime.' – Mark Brandi, author of Wimmera and The Others ‘Atmospheric and absorbing, When We Fall is an absolute page-turner.’ – Sara Foster, author of The Hush 'A suspenseful, rattling thriller with an ending that will have you gnawing your fingernails to the bone.' – Fiona Hardy, Readings ‘A wonderful storyteller. The combination of art, death and small town secrets makes for a sinister, complex tale that I could not put down. I’ve loved all of Aoife’s books but I think this is the best yet.’ – Sarah Bailey, author of The Housemate

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER’S AWARD FOR FICTION ‘her writing is poetic and reverential. The author’s understanding of love, romance and of responsibility runs deep.’ – Books + PublishingWhat happens when we become used to each other, when we become bored, when we anticipate each other’s moods like the seasons cycled in a day? What happens when you are tired of me and I tire of you? Every couple has a story. How they met, how they fell in love – their ups, their downs. What made them want to be in each other's arms day and night. The struggle of family expectations. The need to please each other, the desire to go their separate ways. It is about the private universe between two people as they try to hold to each other despite the barriers of geography, culture and class. Every couple has a beginning, a middle, and maybe an end. The Lovers is an enchanting fable that explores the light and dark of a relationship – a love distilled down to its barest form. You might think you know this story. Maybe you do. PRAISE FOR THE LOVERS ‘Sometimes, Kassab shows us, love can be another word for cruelty. Sometimes the stories we hide behind reveal our deepest truths.’ - Sydney Morning Herald ‘Beautifully told in Yumna Kassab's poetic prose, The Lovers is both the story of the tumultuous relationship between Amir and Jamila and an exploration of class, culture and the complex nature of love.’ - Sunday Life ‘The delicate power that fables hold – their universality, while retaining their specificity – is captured in The Lovers. Ultimately, Kassab’s novel rests on the premise of the ‘impossibility of language, of being able to ever understand someone else.’’ - Artshub ‘a raw, haunting and honest look at love, relationships, and the moments that break us.’ - MamamiaPRAISE FOR YUMNA KASSAB ‘the real deal’ – Favel Parrett, author of Past The Shallows ‘rare it is to read a voice as crisp and authentic as Kassab’​ – Zoya Patel, author of No Country Woman ‘Kassab creates an eerie sense of place as the reader is drawn into myriad perspectives and geographies. Without doubt Australiana is an unnerving contribution to contemporary novel writing in this continent.’ – Books + Publishing on Australiana​ ‘The unadorned style and unobtrusive realism of this book mask, at first, how experimental and original it is in other ways’ – Sydney Morning Herald on The House Of Youssef ‘Kassab’s prose is unsparing and frank yet unstinting’ – Australian Book Review on The House Of Youssef

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Meet Dorcas, a spirited 12-year-old struggling to contain her irrepressible humour and naughty streak in a family of Christadelphians in 1960s Adelaide. She is her mother’s least favourite child and always at the bottom of the order on the family’s string of beads that she and her younger siblings Ruthy and Caleb reorder according to their mother’s ever-changing moods. Dorcas, an aspiring vet, dreams of having a dog, or failing that, a guinea pig named Thruppence. Ruthy wants to attend writing school, and Caleb wants to play footy with the local team. But Christadelphians aren’t allowed to be ‘of the world’ and when their older brother Daniel is exiled to door knock and spread the good word in New South Wales after being caught making out with Esther Dangerfield at youth camp, each try their hardest to suppress their dreams for a bigger life. But for a girl like Dorcas, dreams have a habit of surfacing at the most inopportune moments, and as she strives to be the daughter her mother desires, a chain of mishaps lead to a tragedy no one could have foreseen. The Family String is a superb coming of age story that explores a fraught mother-daughter dynamic, and the secrets adults keep from their children. It is about resilience, and the loves that sustain us when our most essential bonds are tested, and how to find the way back through hope and forgiveness.

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‘Family dynamics are tested to the limit in this emotive and confronting debut.’ – Woman & HomeWhen Things Are Alive They Hum poses profound questions about the nature of love and existence, the ways grief changes us, and how we confront the hand fate has dealt us. Marlowe and Harper share a bond deeper than most sisters, shaped by the loss of their mother in childhood. For Harper, living with what she calls the Up syndrome and gifted with an endless capacity for wonder, Marlowe and she are connected by an invisible thread, like the hum that connects all things. For Marlowe, they are bound by her fierce determination to keep Harper, born with a congenital heart disorder, alive. Now 25, Marlowe is finally living her own life abroad, pursuing her studies of a rare species of butterfly secure in the knowledge Harper’s happiness is complete, having found love with boyfriend, Louis. But then she receives the devastating call that Harper’s heart is failing. She needs a heart transplant but is denied one by the medical establishment because she is living with a disability. Marlowe rushes to her childhood home in Hong Kong to be by Harper’s side and soon has to answer the question – what lengths would you go to save your sister?

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'Beautifully told in Yumna Kassab's poetic prose, The Lovers is both the story of the tumultuous relationship between Amir and Jamila and an exploration of class, culture and the complex nature of love.' – Sunday LifeWhat happens when we become used to each other, when we become bored, when we anticipate each other’s moods like the seasons cycled in a day? What happens when you are tired of me and I tire of you? Every couple has a story. How they met, how they fell in love – their ups, their downs. What made them want to be in each other's arms day and night. The struggle of family expectations. The need to please each other, the desire to go their separate ways. It is about the private universe between two people as they try to hold to each other despite the barriers of geography, culture and class. Every couple has a beginning, a middle, and maybe an end. The Lovers is an enchanting f

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Winner of the Crime Fiction Lover Best Indie Crime Novel of 2022‘Ingenious, light-hearted and old-fashioned in the best possible way. A great read.’ – Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time‘A seriously fun read.’ – Dervla McTiernan, author of The Murder Rule‘Wickedly clever, highly original and thoroughly entertaining – I loved it!’ – Chris Hammer, author of Scrublands‘Sulari Gentill delivers another murder mystery gem.’ – Tim Ayliffe, author of The Enemy Within Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library: four strangers; Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer. While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems... The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

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