transit lounge publishing yarraville vic (186 results)

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Scott is in shock when his family his father Leo, sister Natalie, the twins and their stepmother Sally move to a rundown old house on the outskirts of town.The garden is a menacing jungle that refuses to be tamed. An ancient gnome in its midst supposedly stands guard against lurking secrets, much to Scott's disgust and Sally's delight.When strange and scary things start occurring and the creatures from the trees begin to invade the house, Scott must face the peril of an unknown force that threatens to turn their world upside down.'Gripping, suspenseful, genuinely scary with an unexpected seam of humour running all the way through.' Susan Green, author of the Verity Sparks series'.a great read for horror fans, especially boys aged 11 and up, and readers who enjoyed Skulduggery Pleasant or Kenneth Oppels The Nest.' Dani Solomon, Books+Publishing'An eery yet at times funny story, this book kept me on the edge of my seat and even had me a little scared. The story of 13 year old Scott, who has recently lost his mum, and is dealing with relocating to a new home with his family. The house has a haunted element about it and Scott tries to grapple with what is happening around him. I loved Soon by Lois Murphy and was curious how she would transfer writing for a younger audience. This book suits a lower secondary readership and is very well written.' Suzie Bull, Farrells Bookshop, Victoria Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Michele Lee describes herself as the 'fence-sitting' middle child in a large Hmong-Australian family. Banana Girl is the explosive and poignant memoir of her rites of passage. Sexy, irreverent and nuanced, Lee isn't afraid to lay herself and her relationships bare. Intimacy in an on-line world, sexual adventures and Gen Y yearnings, turning thirty as an Asian-Australian woman in inner city Melbourne, and the travails of becoming an artist, all capture Lee's riveting gaze. The result is a book that is erotic, witty and revealing, a gutsy true story of self-acceptance that takes hold and won't let go. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. When Mark Heyward first went to Indonesia, to teach at asmall school in East Kalimantan, little did he realise how life changing hisdecision would prove to be. Within three years his Australian life would bebehind him and he would be travelling, with fellow adventurers, across remoteIndonesian Borneo. The story of that remarkable expedition a true traveladventure coalesces with the author's longer journey into the complex heartof Indonesia. It is a journey that spans two decades, that takes the readerfrom a treasured childhood in Tasmania to a new life in the world's mostpopulous Muslim nation. Along the way the author travels from one end of thearchipelago to the other, from the jungles of Kalimantan to the riots andpolitical turmoil of Jakarta. When he meets and falls in love with Sopan, hemust make another life changing decision. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. This is the story of two flawed eccentrics. Everything they do subverts their firm intention of keeping up appearances. They meet just after the war in liberated Paris but they cannot quite free themselves from the many strings attached to them the old aunts, the sisters, the cousins, the nuns and the ominous concierges who dog their footsteps.Alexandre is a banker and a Resistant and lives in a world of numbers and Roman emperors. Poum resides in the Odyssey and in her bed, hiding from the mysterious disapproval of their relatives, for they both seem to persist in some irreparable faux pas which has them wading through a lifetime pickle. Their daughter, Catherine, would like to help but she seems to be part of the problem. This is no ordinary childhood, and Catherine de Saint Phalle's acceptance of her parents, despite their flaws, shines through, propelling us head first into their strange, yet beautiful, Parisian world.Poum and Alexandre is a searingly honest, humorous and moving elegy to family and place, and a meditation on the ways they ultimately define us.'A memoir of a very gifted writer's unusual parents, woven from myth, history, and family lore. This is a disturbing, bittersweet and poetic rendering of the longing for love and understanding. More than personal, it conjures past worlds, their horrors and their triumphs, as if they were wholly present to us.' Tracy Ryan, author of Unearthed, Claustrophobia and SweetView Reading Group notes here Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. *Shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Literary Awards 2022: UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing*Potent, haunting and lyrical, Night Blue is a debut novel like no other, a narrative largely told in the voice of the painting Blue Poles. It is a truly original and absorbing approach to revisiting Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner as artists and people, as well as a realigning our ideas around the cultural legacy of Whitlam's purchase of Blue Poles in 1973.It is also the story of Alyssa, and a contemporary relationship, in which Angela O'Keeffe immerses us in the essential power of art to change our personal lives and, by turns, a nation.Moving between New York and Australia with fluid ease, Night Blue is intimate and tender, yet surprisingly dramatic. It is a glorious exploration of how art must never be undervalued.'Intimate, sublime, this work shines.' Favel Parrett, author of Past the Shallows and There Was Still Love'Intelligent and poignant, Night Blue traverses the boundaries between language and art in a delicious tour de force. I found it impossible to put down.' Mette Jakobsen, author of What the Light Hides and The Vanishing Act'Miraculous O'Keeffe gets under the skin of a painting we all thought we knew, giving it agency and voice, releasing a spirit that is by turns dreamlike, tender and ruthlessly true.' Michael Fitzgerald, author of The Pacific Room and Pieta Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A unique experience. A novel in spindle sonnets. A drama. An impassioned cry for a beautiful and stolen world under threat. A protester who has been living in a shallow cave in the limestone cliff in front of Bathers Beach under the colonial Round House prison in Fremantle is arrested for demonstrating against the late 80s visit of the nuclear-armed 7th Fleet. In the cells the protester witnesses police violence and threatens to tell what they have seen. An act of declaration becomes entangled with what is happening outside the cells. This haunting incantation looks back before and after these events, to the present day. The sea, the coast around Fremantle, the 'Scarp', all come into play in a work that attempts to decolonise the space, to contest nuclear, military and colonial power without claiming any rights over country.In this verse-paced novel Kinsella never quite uses Audens phrase in The Fall of Rome altogether elsewhere but we sense the priorities and judgement of the natural environment, and of an older world. Coastal birds and dolphins are among his observers, and we too feel the wind and ocean currents fall and rise so that, despite surveillance and silencing, we may also remember and join in bearing witness. Kim ScottA book against laughter and forgetting if ever there was one. Moving, incandescent, quietly devastatingCellnight is contemplative, fiercely elegiac, and a panoramic ode to Whadjuk Noongar country and anti-ode to its settler colonial overlay. As Kendrick Lamar said: the judge make time. So does Kinsella. Declan FryTo open Cellnight is to encounter John Kinsellas cats cradle of a verse novel intersecting threads pulled tight and tense between prison bars, protest signs, booze bottles and warships. Feathered visitors also flit among the narrative fibres, bearing witness to the fists raised over prone and vulnerable bodies in the carceral corners of a swelling port city. Cass Lynch Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The Pines, an outer Melbourne suburb down on its luck. A country in the grip of recession.Experienced collector Ron senses new possibilities: swift evictions provide hard-rubbish to scour and garage-sales have doubled. There's only one problem: since losing his wife, Ron has struggled to navigate the suburbs alone. Plus, his deteriorating health slows him down.This all changes through a chance meeting with Joseph, a troubled, withdrawn and unemployed 19-year old who knows nothing about antiques. As Joseph comes to understand and appreciate Ron's world of eccentric bargain hunters, and hopefulness, his ability to navigate a history of family violence and to see a future for himself grows. Both come to share the wild dream of finding a rare bargain such as an original Frederick McCubbin painting and making their fortune. So begins an exhilarating adventure and an unlikely and beautiful friendship.Set against the background of the early 1990s, Chasing the McCubbin is funny and sad in equal measure. A story of loneliness and the ageless desire for belonging, it will be the most heartbreaking yet feel-good novel you will read this year.'Truly fine writing with a great sense of characters and place, sympathetic and heartfelt without being sentimental, Scaunich pulls us into a fascinating world of low stakes and petty rivalries.' Graeme Simsion 'Authentic, subtle, evocative and alive.' Kate Ryan Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Winner of the Unpublished Manuscript Prize, Tasmanian Premiers Literary Awards Brothers Geo and Wes are testing their relationship now that their parents have passed away. Geo and Wes rarely agree on anything, especially not the sale of the Hobart family home. Geo needs the money to finance his musical career in Italy. For Wes the house represents the memory of their father, and what it means to live an honest, working life. But then a ghost train appears in Hobart, often on the tram tracks that once existed, along with the Swedish man who has been pursuing it for 40 years. Everyone it seems is chasing their dreams. Or are they running from the truth? The Signal Line is a warm-hearted, unforgettable novel about what we are all searching for, even when our personal dreams and aspirations have collapsed: love and acceptance. My favourite kind of book one that lets you see the world differently. It relocates the line between reality and fantasy, letting through an exhilarating strangeness. I felt the unbelievable become entirely natural. I loved every minute of it. Rohan Wilson, author of To Name Those Lost and Daughter of Bad Times Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. *Shortlisted for the TAG Hungerford Manuscript Award 2018**Shortlisted for the International Chaffinch Press Manuscript Award (Ireland)*Chilling to read, cut with powerful energy and strong feeling.T or Timothy lives on the economic margins, both using and selling methamphetamine in Mandurah. When a friend, Gulp, tragically dies and T grows close to Lori-Bird his life promises to become more centred. But he moves between loving and leaving her.This is a lyrical and arresting portrait of characters who crave love but struggle with addiction and the tenuous yet intimate community connections it gives them. The spirit of the Peel landscape informs both Ts identity and the lives of the people he encounters and offers a way out.Intimate with suffering and beauty, T is also at times transcendent. A contemporary novel with the urgency of what Davies Candy, Kerouacs On the Road, and Garners Monkey Grip were to their own times.Confronting and discomfiting, with small moments of redemption T is very much a story for our times. Kate Noske and Richard Rossiter (Hungerford Award Judges).There is nothing else currently being written that is quite as exciting. Its blend of realism, grittiness, pared back lyricism and magical realism is unique and hasnt been seen since the work of a powerful novelist of regional life like Tom Flood. T works the margins, both in terms of place and subject of the culture around meth use, in utterly compelling ways. This story needs to be told. Lucy Dougan, Premiers Award winner and Westerly editor. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Climate change has arrived, and it's not going away. In the absence of effective world action, global warming is certain to continue. The Handbook is not another book about climate change science or politics. Rather it is an intelligent guide, and a potential ground breaker, for all of us who feel helpless in the face of government disagreement, and want to know in a practical way what we can do now.Not only will The Handbook help you prepare for increased droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves, it will provide you with stories and advice from individuals who are already quietly doing amazing things. Jane Rawson and James Whitmore, previously Environment editors for The Conversation, look at how to establish your risk and face your fears; where to live and with whom; and how to survive heat, fire and flood. They investigate ways to provide your own food, power and water, make sure you can still get around, and get rid of your waste and sewage. They talk about new ways to think about home and possessions, the sadness of living through climate change, and how, for both individual and common good, we might positively change the way we live.The Handbook is both practical and philosophical. It can be read cover-to-cover, or dipped into when you need specific advice. It can help you plan and execute a strategy to deal with the effects of climate change. It might change your life. But it should also make you ask, does it really have to be this way? Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In the spirit of Patti Smith's M Train, Road Series is both love story and elegy. Renowned musician Hugo Race's evocations of Melbourne, Sydney, the USA, Europe and Mali, and the life of a rock musician on the road are revealing, incisive and exquisitely written.'A cerebral "road-poem" of the musician-as-outlier, crossing decades and continents, from the Melbourne punk scene of the early 1980s to quite literally Timbuktu.' Luke Davies, author of Candy and God of Speed'Hugo writes with a unique voice and the insights of one in the middle of the maelstrom.' Mick Harvey Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 'Oneof the most exciting narrative historiesto come out of India.' William DalrympleIt was a scandal thatrocked the highest echelons of the British Raj. In 1891, a notorious jewellerand curio dealer from Simla offered to sell the world's largest brilliant-cutdiamond to the fabulously wealthy Nizam of Hyderabad. If the audacious dealsucceeded it would set the merchant up for life. But the transaction wenthorribly wrong. The Nizam accused him of fraud, triggering a sensational trialin the Calcutta High Court that made headlines around the world.The dealer was AlexanderMalcolm Jacob, a man of mysterious origins. After arriving penniless in Bombayin 1865, he became the most famous purveyor of precious stones in princelyIndia, and a confidante of Viceroys and Maharajas. Jacob also excelled in themagical arts. He inspired all those who met him, including Rudyard Kipling whoimmortalised him as Lurgan Sahib, the 'healer of sick pearls', in his novel Kim.Now for the first time,John Zubrzycki, author of The Last Nizam, conveys the page-turningcolour, romance and adventure of Jacob's astonishing life. Starting on thebanks of the Tigris in modern-day Turkey where Jacob was born, Zubrzycki stripsaway the myths and legends. He follows Jacob's journey from the slums ofBombay, to the fabulous court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, from thehedonistic heights of Simla, the summer capital of the Raj, to the CalcuttaHigh Court. This is a story of India, of strange twists and unexpectedoutcomes. Most importantly Zubrzycki enters into and truly captures the spiritof the mysterious Mr Jacob, one of the most enigmatic and charismatic figuresof his time. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. From the authorof Travels with My Angst andAny Guru Will Do, a vivid, nostalgic, and funny memoir of growing upin Hong Kong in the 1960s.Phil Brown's lifebegins in small town Australia Maitland, NSW to be precise but in 1963 hisfather Ted hankers to return to the Hong Kong of his childhood and to cash inon a construction boom in the burgeoning colony.Then under Britishrule, the world of Hong Kong is a truly fascinating place for gweilos or foreigners, both a colonialoutpost and a region redolent with all the exoticism and contradictions of theFar East. The Brown's home, in the garden suburb of Kowloon Tong, buzzes withcharacters: the family's amah, Ah Moy, frequent visitors such as theinscrutable Mr Lai, the spy-like Tony Parr, and family members such as UncleCyril. Not to mention the kid from across the road, Michael Hutchence.Combining recentvisits to Hong Kong, where the author explores his childhood touchstones of theKowloon Cricket Club, the beach at Shek O, the Peninsula Hong Kong and the bustlinglanes of Kowloon, with an affectionate yet truly honest portrait of family,self and the 1960s The Kowloon Kid isan intimate and tender gem.'An exquisite loveletter to Hong Kong.' RossFitzgerald Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 'It starts to rain as I stepout of my hotel .' So begins Subhash Jaireth's striking collection ofessays on the writers, and their writing, that have enriched his own life. Theworks of Franz Kafka, Marina Tsvetaeva, Mikhail Bulgakov, Paul Celan, HiromiIto, Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and others ignite in him the urge totravel (both physically and in spirit), almost like a pilgrim, to the placeswhere such writers were born or died or wrote. In each essay a new emotionalplane is reached revealing enticing connections. As a novelist, poet, essayistand translator born into a multilingual environment, Jaireth trulyunderstands the power of words across languages and their integral connectionsto life of the body and the spirit. Drawing on years of research, translationand travel Spinoza's Overcoat and its illuminations of loss,mortality and the reverie of writing will linger with readers. 'Eloquent and original, Jaireth's meditationson the lives-of-poets are full of astonishing details, tender connections andthe magnificent melancholy of devotion to words. Encompassing matters oftranslation, love, mortality and homage, this is a rare model of what might becalled "literary philosophy" and an utter joy and surprise for anyoneinterested in the reading and writing life ' GAIL JONES, author of The Death of Noah GlassSubhash Jaireth was born in India. Between 1969 and 1978 he spent nineyears in Russia studying geology and Russian literature. In 1986 he migrated toAustralia. He has published writing in Hindi, English and Russian and his novelAfter Love (Transit Lounge 2012) waspublished in Spain in 2018. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. *Shortlisted for the Small Press Network 2021 Book of the Year Award**Shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize*Like fireflies to the light, Mona, Benny and Jimmy are drawn into the elegantly wasted orbit of the Crystal Ballroom and the post-punk scene of 80s Melbourne, a world that includes Nick Cave and Dodge, a photographer pushing his art to the edge.With precision and richness Kirsten Krauth hauntingly evokes the power of music to infuse our lives, while diving deep into loss, beauty, innocence and agency. Filled with unforgettable characters, the novel is above all about the shapes that love can take and the many ways we express tenderness throughout a lifetime.As it moves between the Blue Mountains and Melbourne, Sydney and Castlemaine, Almost a Mirror reflects on the healing power of creativity and the everyday sacredness of family and friendship in the face of unexpected tragedy. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. *Shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Literary Awards 2022: Christina Stead Prize for Fiction*'The tall trees nearby called them up and red-tailed black cockatoos carried messages to them that they told no one else about.'Pushing Back is John Kinsella's most haunting and timely fiction to date. It is populated with eccentric, compelling characters, drifters, unlikely friendships, the silences of dissolving relationships, haunted dwellings and lonely highways, the ghosts of cleared bushland and the threats of right-wing nationalists and senseless destruction.A couple make love in an abandoned asbestos house, a desperate carpet cleaner beholden to the gig economy begs a financially distressed client not to cancel his booking, an addict cannot bear to see his partner without the watch he once gave her, a mother casts her shearer son's ashes on the property on which he worked, fascists pile into a little red car with the intent of terrorising tourists on the Nullarbor, a man more at home with machinery than people rescues a drowning kitten.Yet throughout this assured distillation of contemporary Australian life, empathy rises like the red- tailed black cockatoos that appear and reappear, nature coalescing with the human spirit, the animals, the trees, the land, the people pushing back. These stories are at once disturbing, tender and hopeful. 'One of the nation's most significant living writers.' Tony Hughes-d'Aeth, Australian Book Review Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Danged Black Thing is an extraordinary collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, patriarchy and womanhood, from a remarkable and original voice. Traversing the West and Africa, they celebrate the authors own hybridity with breathtaking sensuousness and lyricism.Simbiyu wins a scholarship to study in Australia, but cannot leave behind a world of walking barefoot, orange sun and his longing for a once pillow-soft mother. In his past, a darkness rose from the river, and something nameless and mystical continues to envelop his life. In A Taste of Unguja sweet taarab music, full of want, seeps into a mothers life on the streets of Melbourne as she evokes the powers of her ancestors to seek vengeance on her cursed ex. In the cyberfunk of Unlimited Data Natukunda, a village woman, gives her all for her family in Old Kampala. Other stories explore with power what happens when the water runs dry and who pays, capture the devastating effects on women and children of societies in which men hold all the power, and themes of being, belonging, otherness.Speculative, realistic and even mythological, but always imbued with truth, empathy and Blackness, Danged Black Thing is a literary knockout.Eugen Bacon gives us a cornucopia of dark fruitfulness. Her writing is equal parts fecund earth and fine-cut jewels; her stories juxtapose the scarred and abused with the powerfully magical, the numinous and the deceptively mundane. They travel the known world, remaking all its parts as they go, and they pull new worlds, fully formed, from Bacons unfettered imagination. Margo Lanagan'Lyrical, rich, oftentimes dark and sometimes hopeful, Danged Black Thing is a speculative fiction collection that takes the reader on a journey from Africa to Australia. The cities and villages the stories are set in are sometimes familiar, while others are plucked fully formed from author Eugen Bacons imagination, providing a vast backdrop to her exploration of the emotional costs of being a woman.Where men rule, there will be women who suffer. With the lyricism of Toni Morrison and the worldbuilding of Ken Liu, Bacon secures herself as an important voice in Australian genre fiction. Danged Black Thing is the feminist science fiction debut that brings women and Blackness to the forefront.' Jing Xuan Teo, Books+Publishing Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Set in the near future during a time of plummeting fish stocks, toxic algae blooms and jellyfish swarms The Good Captain follows a group of radical environmentalists committed to a mission of extreme civil disobedience against the powers threatening to destroy the last of the worlds marine life.Led by the wild Rena born and raised by the ocean the characterful crew engages in a high seas drama that contains all the thrill of a cat-and-mouse seafaring classic, while at the same time offering a timely warning for the political classes that their negligence will not go unpunished.Evoking a disturbing vision of what the world that might soon become random, dangerous, surprising and sometimes even miraculous The Good Captain is a gripping, confronting and truly unique novel.If you care about the ocean, about extinction, about deforestation youll find yourself immersed in this novel. With originality and wit, Sean Rabin asks how far is too far? when youre fighting to save the planet. Jane Rawson, author of The History of Dreams and From the Wreck Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Anja is a young, ambitious antiquarian, passionate for the clean and balanced lines of mid-century furniture. She is intent on classifying objects based on emotional response and when her career goes awry, Anja finds herself adrift. Like a close friend, she confesses her intimacies and rage to us with candour, tenderness, and humour.Cast out from the world of antiques, she stumbles upon a beachside cottage that the neighbouring naval base is offering for a 100-year lease. The property is derelict, isolated, and surrounded by scrub. Despite of, or because of, its wildness and solitude, Anja uses the last of the inheritance from her mother to lease the property. Yet a presence human, ghost, other seemingly inhabits the grounds. Hydra is a novel of dark suspense and mental disquiet, struck through with black humour., Adriane Howell beguilingly explores notions of moral culpability, revenge, memory, and narrative all through the female lens of freedom and constraint. She holds us captive to the last page. From the treacherous auction houses of Melbourne to the sun-struck islands of Greece, Hydra took me places I never expected to go. Adriane Howell writes with the dreamy precision of Marguerite Duras, the humour-laced disquiet of Patricia Highsmith. A fever dream of a debut elegant, savage, and delightfully unhinged. Laura Elizabeth Woollett, author of Beautiful Revolutionary and The Newcomer A puzzle box of creeping dread, Hydra had me questioning my own grasp on reality. This is sophisticated, genre-defying literary fiction of the first order. Bram Presser, author of The Book of Dirt Hydra crosses planes; it is superb, distinct, and breathtaking. It surprises, disturbs and enthrals at every turn. Angela Meyer, author of A Superior Spectre and Moon Sugar Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. *Winner of the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award*Black Rock White City is a novel about the damages of war, the limits of choice, and the hope of love. During a hot Melbourne summer Jovan's cleaning work at a bayside hospital is disrupted by acts of graffiti and violence becoming increasingly malevolent. For Jovan the mysterious words that must be cleaned away dislodge the poetry of the past. He and his wife Suzana were forced to flee Sarajevo and the death of their children.Intensely human, yet majestic in its moral vision, Black Rock White City is an essential story of Australia's suburbs now, of displacement and immediate threat, and the unexpected responses of two refugees as they try to reclaim their dreams. It is a breathtaking roar of energy that explores the immigrant experience with ferocity, beauty and humour.'What impresses first about A.S. Patric's novel is the assuredness of the writing, his accomplished and confident language. But what is most moving is the humanity of his story, the vividness and truth of his characters' emotional worlds. Black Rock White City is a bold, mature and compassionate novel, and I couldn't put it down.' - Christos TsiolkasView Reading Group notes here Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Two women from different worlds in Renaissance France cross paths in a way that changes both their lives.One is Marguerite de Navarre, a Kings sister. Powerful, privileged and widely admired, Marguerite must nonetheless marry where she is told to, regardless of her feelings, and despite the thrilling new ideas of religious reform causing upheaval in France must toe the line for the good of her brothers kingdom. Ever a risk-taker, she does what she can to protect her reformist friends. But she has always loved to write, and when disaster strikes in her personal life, she picks up her pen but some of what she writes will get her into trouble.The other is a cast out, itinerant child who longs to be a printer like her late father. Jehane goes dressed as a male by the name of Josse, at first for safetys sake and then by choice, fending off the risks of being alone, unprotected and born female, poor but trying to live in freedom. Eventually Josse joins a group of printers and publishers in Paris. Despite her suspicion of men, she comes to idolise one among them. But can they be true friends, and can she share her whole self with him?Long before #MeToo, women were telling their unspeakable stories, and these two, both rich and poor, are no exception. They come together in the most unexpected of ways. In The Queens Apprenticeship one of our very best writers brings to fully realised and magnificent life a world of drama and intrigue.An enthralling novel of passion, literature and power, bringing to vivid life the story of Marguerite de Navarre an ardent defender of the arts and in doing so also giving voice to those who were often disregarded in the dramas of the time. Dominique Wilson, author of Orphan Rock and The Yellow Papers Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. I want to tell a story. A long but simple story. A tale of long recovery. A tale of love. A tale of lost and found.In his remarkable new novel, award-winning Australian author Michael Meehan sensitively explores the links between generational conflict, family, and the creative act. At its heart An Ungrateful Instrument is a novel that portrays a sons struggle to be more than a mere instrument of the fathers ambition. Antoine Forqueray and later his son Jean-Baptiste, were each brought up as child prodigies to the court of Louis XIV. Together, they were said to be the only musicians in France who could play the fathers brilliant, eccentric music for the viola da gamba. In an imaginative masterstroke the story is told by Jean-Baptistes highly attuned deaf-mute sister, Charlotte-Elisabeth. Threaded throughout, deep in a forest an old man creates the gift of a special viol for the boy, Jean Baptiste. This is a novel that can almost be heard like music, as it soars in language, theme, and a wisdom that both embodies and transcends its period setting. An imagination of another order. The Australian Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Set in both Prague and Melbourne, Call Me Marlowe captures a mans search for his motherland in the hope of making sense of his life.With a delicate touch, the novel embodies the nature of trauma both personal and political in peoples lives. Harold Vanek loves Marylou, a woman he met in South Korea, where she was working as a sex worker, but whom he has managed to bring to Melbourne. She is the one who calls Harold Marlowe. Theirs is an uncommonly beautiful but tenuous intimacy. Harold feels his mistakes are urging him to leave Melbourne. In a wild gamble to retrieve all he has lost, he disappears to Prague. What happens in the City of a Hundred Spires is both remarkable and affecting. The people he meets there Vaclav, Marie, Pete, and Petr and the soul of the city itself provide answers and a world that he desperately wants Marylou to be part of. But is it all too late? Praise for Saint Phalle's writing:'Saint Phalle writes with a clear-eyed humanity and wisdom about human nature.' Stella Prize Judges An engaged and engaging novelist we cant afford to ignore. Australian Book Review Novels of this quality are a rare event.The Sea & Us resembles a beautiful symphony. ArtsHubPoetic yet down-to-earth, Poum and Alexandre is a work of sustained intensity, tenderness and generosity of spirit. The Age Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The Crying Room movingly explores family boundaries and stories, finding original ways to express the contradictory experience of belonging to a family, and being an individual at the same time.When Bernie Rodgers and her husband move to the coastal town of Ballina, she finds that there is more than a physical distance separating her from her adult daughters. Bernie loves her daughters, but the problem she realises is with the way she loved them.Bernies daughter Susie is professionally successful, but her feelings remain distant, even to herself. When she takes on the responsibility for caring for her niece, the pieces of her life finally snap into place. The inexplicable disappearance of an aeroplane though, plunges her life into mystery once again.Morally acute and dazzlingly accomplished, this is an affecting novel about loneliness, love, family and the need to feel.Deeply rewarding. Shirm dances with a light step across the delicate territory between laughing and weeping. Helen Garner Deft, original and clever; this novel unfolds a drama of family distance, kindness and the surprising endurance of love. Gail Jones Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Never Look Desperate is Sedaris meets Fleabag, a tragi-comedy romance set in Melbourne 2023. It features cremation bling, pineapple underwear, grief and vaccinated cruise ships. The central characters Bernard, Goldie and Minh are everything TED Talks tell you not to be.The story tackles the absurdity of despair in a recovering world, the liberation from isolation and the wild frontier of middle-aged Tinder.'Matthewss voice is funny and wry and heartbreakingly honest. She has empathy for everyone even those of us who, like Bernard, are a little bit hopeless but not entirely without hope.' Toni Jordan, author of Addition, Nine Days, Fall GirlRachel Matthews understands the pleasures of tragi-comedy and knows exactly how to deliver them the giggle that turns into a sob, the delight that morphs into insight, the black humour that assuages grief. The vulnerabilities of her characters make you want to scold them, scoop them up and tell them you love them. Sian Prior, author of Shy: A memoir and Childless: A story of freedom and longing'Matthews writes with unflinching honesty tempered by humour and a wise compassion. Touching, funny and sexy, Never Look Desperate is transgressive but hugely readable' Clare Strahan, Cracked and The Learning Curves of Vanessa PartridgeNever Look Desperate shines light on generational trauma and the effects it carries through our bloodlines in the most elegant and sophisticated ways. Without being afraid to touch on controversial topics, Rachel Matthews reveals the struggle of each character and their subsequent triumphs, entwining their stories to deliver a masterpiece on fear, resilience and, finally, love. Shayling Ngo, journalist, Seven West Media, Perth'Dense, wry, glorious and tragicfigures who lodge deep in the heartthe unravelling and humiliation of being humanwith humour, complexity and wit. There are precarious moments evoked in the wider cultural backdrop to this storythe post-viral anxiety runs like a vein beneath the characters every thought. This work feels timely and tender.' Ilka Tampke, author of Skin and Songwoman'I was hooked. Rachels characters are always exquisitely crafted, yet utterly real.' Di Websdale-Morrisey, On A Wing and a Prayer Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. He looked down at his watch and saw that the long hand was overlapping the short, pointing towards twelve. The old year had passed and the new year had begun. He was swept by a feeling of loss and attachment to a past that was no longer there: If I were in China now, I would beA father and son muse on the value of fame and fortune and the path of chu jia or receding from the world by becoming a monk. On Christmas Eve a lonely immigrant travels from his deserted outer suburb to the city in search of life. Spouses navigate their adult sons need to rebrand himself with an English name. Between Shanghai and Montreal, a Chinese student and a Canadian man who has fallen in love with him exchange correspondence. Haunted by the sounds of piano and violin and the long-lost friend who returns only to him in dreams a man confronts the past. Can we ever really trust a car salesperson or those friends who say we must catch up soon but never do? Ouyang Yus first collection of stories in English is both assured and tender and at times surprisingly funny. It includes stories set in China and Australia that revel in the truth and candour of lived experience and the joys and constraints of language. In The White Cockatoo Flowers Ouyang Yu deftly peels back the layers on what it means to move from one culture to another, and what it means to be a writer, a husband, a parent and a stranger on foreign and familiar ground. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. When she is four yearsold Amra Pajalic realises that her mother is different. Fatima is loving butsometimes hears strange voices that tell her to do bizarre things. She isfrequently sent to hospital and Amra and her brother are passed around tofamily friends and foster homes, and for a time live with their grandparents inBosnia.At sixteen Amra ends upin the school counsellor's office for wagging school. She finally learns thename for the malady that has dogged her mother and affected her own life: bipolardisorder. Amra becomes her mother's confidante and learns the extraordinarystory of her life: when she was fifteen years old Fatima visited family friendsonly to find herself in an arranged marriage. At sixteen she was a migrant, amother, and mental patient.Surprisingly funny, Things Nobody Knows But Me is a tenderportrait of family and migration, beautifully told. It captures a wonderfulsense of bicultural place and life as it weaves between St Albans in suburbanAustralia and Bosanska Gradiska in Bosnia. Ultimately it is the heartrending story of a mother and daughter bond fracturedand forged by illness and experience. Fatima emerges as a remarkable butwounded woman who learns that her daughter really loves her. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Journalist Aaron Smith's new memoir holdsup a unique mirror to Australia. What he sees is at once amazing, disturbingand revealing. The Rock explores the failings of ournation's character, its unresolved past and its uncertain future from thevantage point of its most northerly outpost, Thursday Island.Smith was the last editor, fearlessjournalist and the paperboy of Australia's most northerly newspaper, the TorresNews, a small independent regional tabloid that, until it folded in late2019, was the voice of a predominantly Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginalreadership for 63 years across some of the most remote and little understoodcommunities in Australia. The Rock is a story of self-discovery where Smith grapples tounderstand a national identity marred by its racist underbelly, where he istransplanted from his white-boy privileged suburban life to being a racial andcultural minority, and an outsider. Peppered with his experiences, Smithgradually and sensitively becomes embedded in island life while vividlycapturing the endless and often farcical parade of personalities andpoliticians including Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott.Smith pulls no punches while he reflectson the history of Terra Australis incognita, dissecting whatis truly Australia, and its gaping cultural and moral divide.'A credit to regional journalism,Aaron carried on the fine tradition of the Torres News holding governments toaccount and telling stories of everyday life in the Straits, never shying awayfrom controversies, lifting all the rocks and even out foxing prime ministerTony Abbott on his visit to Mabo's grave.' Stefan Armbruster, SBS'AaronSmith makes a huge and extremely valuable contribution to journalism in Australia. With insight and committment he brings issues of national andinternational significance to audiences in Australia and beyond.' DrTess Newton Cain, Griffith Asia Institute 'Aaron's journalism has provided a rare and valuable insight into issuesaffecting the Torres Strait Islander community. Navigating cultural protocolsand geographical challenges, he has given a voice to some of Australia's mostmarginalised people and shared important stories that would otherwise have goneunheard.' Ella Archibald-Binge, SydneyMorning Herald Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Mila cant shake her grief for the life she thought shed have. Shes broke, childless, and single. But her developing relationship with Josh, a sugar baby, opens her eyes to new possibilities.Then Josh goes missing on a trip to Europe a presumed suicide. Mila, and Joshs best friend Kyle, are devastated, yet they suspect something is amiss. Together, they feel compelled to trace Joshs steps across Budapest, Prague and Berlin, seeking clues in his last posts online.Yet is there one mysterious factor Mila hasnt considered?Is running toward danger the only way for Mila to meet her true capacity? Or will it mean yet more loss?This genre-defying stunner asks how we might make the most of our power in the face of fear, loss, and the unknown. It celebrates our ability, despite great challenges, to be intimate with others and with the world.Sexy and smart and hyper-colour and haunted, in the most beautiful way. As I read Moon Sugar, memories and feelings from my own life and the characters' lives kept surfacing, and then sinking again. Using magic as a form of truth, Meyer has written a story that is at once pure, dark and startling as life itself. Laura McPhee-Browne, author of Cherry BeachMoon Sugar evokes a world that is strangely ours and recognisably something else. A wild, genre-bending ride, irradiated by grief. Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. From the winner of the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. David Cohen's most wryly humorous and disturbing work of fiction yet.A public memorials name is changed to avoid any mention of the tragedy it has been set up to commemorate. Two attention-seeking activists campaign against exclusionary policies adopted by the gift shop at a suburban shopping mall. A customer service representative becomes obsessed with a colleague who has worked from home for so long, nobody in the company remembers her. A middle-aged father loses his marriage and falls in love again with a cherished but damaged childhood toy. An academics research into roadside memorials takes a peculiar turn.David Cohens sometimes bizarre yet pitch-perfect stories capture everyday horrors but are always shot through with a profound empathy and generosity.The Terrible Event delivers not just one terrible event, but many events of varying degrees of terrible-ness. Death, destruction, disappearance, decline, defeat it has something for everyone.Wildly inventive. Deeply unsettling. Delightfully strange. The Terrible Event is Cohens best, most hilarious book yet. I absolutely loved it. Bram Presser, The Book of DirtThese are not the stand-up comedians one-liners; they have an awareness of the absurd, the surreal, the comic, in everyday life; the true comics unsettling serious gaze at the strange ways we make sense of existence. Judges, Russell Prize for Humour Writing. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.