Series in Oceanian
Books in Oceanian
Beyond the Crushing Waves
Two generations face heartbreak and injustice in this poignant and emotional novel inspired by true events. Mary Roberts is an impoverished child living in a council flat in 1950’s London. When she and her sister are left at an orphanage by their mother, they don't think their lives can get any worse. Harry Evans is an orphan who finds himself, with Mary and her sister, on board a ship bound for Australia. They're sent to a farm school for children, where abuse and neglect are rife. A journey that will change their lives forever, and from which they’ll never return. Married to her dream man, and with a baby on the way, Dr Mia Sato’s life is in perfect order. When her beloved grandmother has a fall, the photograph clutched in her hand prompts Mia to ask questions her grandmother isn’t willing to answer. When she cries out a confession that rocks Mia to her core, it leads to a shocking discovery of a past filled with lies, broken families and forced child migration. Based on one of Britain's most secret and shameful real-life scandals in which over 100,000 British children were forcibly deported to Canada, South Africa, and Australia over several decades. Bronwen Pratley’s heartbreaking, captivating and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us that no matter where the journey leads us, our heart will always find its way home to those we love. For readers of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdad Sings . *** WINNER OF THE KDP SELECT ALL STAR BONUS FOR BOOKS THAT DELIGHT READERS!
Blurring the Line
⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ "Nicola Marsh is a genius. This was a great, short, contemporary read and I will definitely be reading more from this author." Between the Lines I travel halfway across the world… to fall in love with the boy next door all over again. Completing my degree at a college in Denver may be the most exciting thing this small town girl has ever done. Until I discover my new mentor is Joel Goodes, the guy who once rocked my world. Joel isn't a keeper. He'll break my heart again. But I can't resist the sexy Aussie at his devastating best and soon we're indulging in an all-too-brief ing. I want it all: career, relationship, and kids, in the hometown I've always loved. The same town that holds nothing but bad memories for Joel. When we return to Australia, will it be a homecoming we'll never forget? ♥ Nicola Marsh is a Romantic Book of the Year and National Readers' Choice Award winner! ♥ Fans of boy next door romance, small town friends to lovers romance, friends to lovers books, medical romance, small town big romance, friends to lovers romance, and small town big secrets will enjoy BLURRING THE LINE!
Crocodile Beat
In Australia's vast and desolate Northern Territory, Constable Petra 'Piitalaat' Jensen's most southerly missing persons case might just be her last. Forced to take some well-earned leave, Petra looks for solace in Australia's Northern Territory, only to find herself caught up in the hunt for a cop killer. Crocodile Beat is a stand-alone novel from the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels normally set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture. Crocodile Beat continues the adventures of Constable Petra 'Piitalaat' Jensen, ably assisted by interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series. All the Greenland Missing Persons stories are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter . Pick up your copy of Crocodile Beat for an alternative Greenland's missing persons story today!
Heroes
John Pilger's classic work of literary journalism, now with a new introduction by the author.
Jenna
She’s a city girl. He’s a country boy. Their no-strings fling was never supposed to feel this real… Jenna Matthews is a city girl, no question. Despite a childhood spent in the Outback, she's committed to her fast-paced life and the competitive world of corporate law. But when her best friend asks her to be bridesmaid in the tiny town of Wirralong, Jenna finds herself swept up in small-town charm and wildly attracted to the best man. A fling? Why not? Sam Twist is everything Jenna isn’t looking for—rugged, untamed, and dangerously sexy. As the owner of a vast family sheep property, he has no interest in complicated city women or long-term entanglements. He's keen as Jenna to keep their relationship at fling status. Until the past comes knocking. When the authorities turn up on his door step, Jenna jumps in to help despite Sam’s protests. She soon learns that after years of drought, there are others in the district who need her skills. The more time she spends in Wirralong, the more Jenna questions everything she thought she wanted. Her dilemma? Spending too much time around Sam is perilous. He could rob a girl of her heart. A sizzling opposites-attract romance set against the sweeping backdrop of the Australian Outback.
Khaki Town
Set in Queensland during World War II, this breath-taking historical novel is inspired by a true wartime story that has remained a well-kept secret for over seventy years. KHAKI TRANSFORMATION It seems to have happened overnight, Val thought . How extraordinary. We’ve become a khaki town. It’s March 1942. Singapore has fallen. Darwin has been bombed. Australia is on the brink of being invaded by the Imperial Japanese Forces. And Val Callahan, publican of The Brown’s Bar in Townsville, could not be happier as she contemplates the fortune she’s making from lonely, thirsty soldiers. TOWNSVILLE'S TURMOIL Overnight the small Queensland city is transformed into the transport hub for 70,000 American and Australian soldiers destined for combat in the South Pacific. Barbed wire and gun emplacements cover the beaches. Historic buildings are commandeered. And the dance halls are in full swing with jazz, jitterbug and jive. CONFLICT AND INVESTIGATION The Australian troops begrudge the confident, well-fed ‘Yanks’ who have taken over their town and their women. There’s growing conflict, too, within the American ranks, because black GIs are enjoying the absence of segregation. And the white GIs don't like it. As racial violence explodes through the ranks of the military, a young United States Congressman, Lyndon Baines Johnson, is sent to Townsville by his president to investigate. ‘Keep a goddamned lid on it, Lyndon,’ he is told, ‘lest it explode in our faces …’ __________________ 'Mistress of the ripping yarn.' SUN-HERALD '500 pages of perfect reading.' AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY 'Perfect summer reading.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'A master of what she does.' WEEKLY TIMES 'A stunning blockbuster.' WOMAN'S DAY 'A prolific writer of bestsellers.' THE AGE
Long Way Place
In the early 1900s gutter rat, Ned Hawkins aims to rise from the grinding poverty of an English slum, but is forced to flee the country and ends up in Papua. It is a dangerous place where cannibalism and cannibals are never far away. Despite this menacing backdrop, he prospers and almost by accident, finds love. However, there are ominous stirrings in the land that bode ill for the future... Published by The Electronic Book Company A New York Times Best-seller Listed Publisher www.theelectronicbookcompany.com
On Beverley Farmer
Across Farmer’s works, there has always been an attraction to those beings who occupy two realms … Once one has lived elsewhere, lived differently, it doesn’t matter whether she stays to forge a new life or turns back towards the old, or moves on once again; there will always be the shadow, the after-image, of the life not lived. Beverley Farmer’s writing reflects on restlessness, desire and homecoming. In this brilliantly acute essay, fellow novelist and short-story writer Josephine Rowe finds a kindred spirit and argues for a celebration and reclamation of this unique Australian author. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and well-written, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.
On David Malouf
Here was a very-much-alive half-Lebanese writer (from provincial Brisbane, no less) producing English-language writing of the very first order … The poetry was in the prose; it stayed and sprung its rhythms, chorded its ideas, concentrated its images. Every other novel claims to be written in “poetic prose”; the real thing, when you come across it, is actually shocking. Nam Le takes the reader on a thrilling intellectual ride in this sharp, bold essay. Encompassing identity politics, metaphysics, the relationship between life and art, and the ‘Australianness’ of Malouf’s work, it is unlike anything else written about one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers. In the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.
On Helen Garner
A brilliant essay by one of Australia’s most exciting literary talents, which offers new insights into Garner’s entire body of work and her life as a writer. What I love in Helen Garner’s writing is a particular kind of closeness to self, the good, greedy, mistaken, emotional, fierce, sceptical, changing and disrupting self. Garner makes so much from what seems to be just her individual sense, individual observation – rather than anything made by and for the group. But I also love the beautiful strong contradiction in her work: she’s always fighting to come back enough, as well, to find enough that can stop the self; enough of a good order, a rule, a law, a family, a home. In a brilliantly argued and very personal essay, Sean O’Beirne looks at the whole of Helen Garner’s writing life so far – from Monkey Grip to the recently published Diaries – while trying to come to terms with the demands, and the rewards, of Garner’s extraordinary, radical individualism and honesty. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.
On Robyn Davidson
Robyn Davidson, author of the classic memoir Tracks , has led a remarkable life of writing and nomadic travel. In this crisp, erudite essay, acclaimed critic and journalist Richard Cooke explores Davidson’s relationship with place and freedom, and her singular presence in Australian letters. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and well-written, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. The Writers on Writers series is published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.
On Shirley Hazzard
Hazzard was the first Australian writer I read who looked outwards, away from Australia. Her work spoke of places from which I had come and places to which I longed to go … It was reading as an affair of revelations and gifts. It fell like rain, greening my vision of Australian literature as a stony country where I would never feel at home. Splendour had entered the scene. In this vibrant, rich and personal essay on acclaimed author Shirley Hazzard, Michelle de Kretser offers a masterclass in writing that is powerful and exhilarating, that is ‘perfect’ because it is ‘exact’. She celebrates the precision and musicality of Hazzard’s prose and illuminates the humour, humanity and revelatory impact of her work. This jewel of a book is both a wonderful introduction to Hazzard and a treat for her long-time fans. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.