Published...Or Not: Recent Episodes
Jan Goldsmith and David McLean
Australian and international authors talk about their books and how they got published or how they self-published. Listeners, writers and readers will also hear about what's going on in our local writing community.
s debut novel that satirises the excesses of our current social condition when the protagonist, Abby, becomes obsessed with the earthbound scheme of colonising Mars.
When an ancient roman treasure is illegally dug up, three 12 year olds and a ghost go into pursuit, in ‘Hunt for the Nighthawks’. A children’s book that parents will enjoy reading too! Written by prolific author Felice Arena.‘The Picasso Ransom’ by Aidan Prewett is a funny, copy crime novel inspired by the Weeping Woman theft.
debut novel, ‘Neighbourhood Watch’.The complexity of growing up: learning about yourself, changing friendships, and if tragedy happens knowing what to do is all in ‘Tight Lines’ as well as dares, humour, surfing and fishing, very well told by Allee Richards.
by Ellena Savage appeals to several literary tropes as the protagonists, with the greatest of expectations, fall into a self destructive cycle that undermines their ideals and ambitions.As author Ed Coper writes ‘If you don’t want to live in a world of angry racist trolls, manufactured culture war outrage and authoritarian destruction’ you should read his book ‘Angertainment’. I did and I learnt a lot.
, within this febrile environment as partisans, facists, communists and allies confront each other in Trieste.Can a top-tier law firm be made accountable for silencing the protests from environmental damage in another country or hiding a paedophile killer. ‘The Graduate’ is on a quest for justice in this crime novel by Rebecca Lim
The Bookshop of Buried Pasts’. Sarah Clutton has woven together a family saga, Celtic mythology, unmarried mothers and a love of antiquarian books.
50 years for 3CR and 50 years of writing programs. Sherryl Clark was a presenter on Writers at Work for many years and talks about her own writing on our Radiothon program.
s suicide. Always remember, help is only a phone call away through such groups as Headspace (1800 650 890) or Lifeline (131114) should you wish to seek advice.
continues to detail the mental health challenges faced by psychiatric registrars, interns and specialists in the fraught world of public care. It is the third in a detailed series centred around the professional and personal development of Doctor Hannah Wright by Anne Buist an Graeme Simsion.
set in Kiliptown, South Africa.Sarah Walker’s book is ‘The Water Takes’. The title is unfinished just as the ending is open but the novel has characters so honestly drawn in their reaction to a catastrophe that they will live on beyond the page.
is a sprawling, enigmatic, idiosyncratic delta of a novel by Michael Winkler that poses curious existential questions about memory, responsibility and accountability as the main protagonist would prefer to lead his life as a dog.
In ‘The Writer’s Retreat’, it’s not just fiction that is being written and the closer it becomes to real life is when the suspense just doesn’t happen on the page, cleverly crafted by Victoria Brownlee.
s latest novel, ‘Legacy’, leads to the discovery of an age old feud in the outback where the journalist is seeking to hide.
s accolytes claim his remains.There are dangerous currents of untold secrets, a vicious Group in the Irish Catholic Church and facing trauma in ‘Shellybanks’, another crime novel by Louise Milligan.
by Claire Thomas.Bridie Blake has written about the chaos and joy of big-family life – the overlapping conversations, the competitiveness, the laughter especially in suppressed desire and mouthwatering cakes in ‘The Boyfriend Clause’.
s debut novel about the travails of parenting in the modern age. She has reminded us about the joys and hazards of parenting by bringing alive the problems and delights of a year in Grade 3,. Things go right and very wrong.
s, ‘Dust’. What follows is a tale of intrigue and deception in a morally deprived and environmentally compromised landscape.Fiona Lowe talks about her new book ‘The Drowning’ and also about Sisters in Crime and what that organisation does for readers and writers.
where terminology is explained and the dangers and benefits of living in the digital age are made apparent.
Donnell and Emma Westwood which speak to the range and versatility within the collection.
speak to the emotional challenges faced by those contributing to art, music, acting and the culture in general.
s novel, Ghost Cities, won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2025. We thought it timely, as we begin our 2026 season, to revisit his interview on Published or Not when the book first came out. The imaginative and allegorical references, the literary influences, and the diverse timelines make this an enthralling and entertaining read.
‘The Hiding Place’ is a literary thriller written by Kate Mildenhall.‘What Have They Done to Liza McLean?’ sister Meg needs to get into the school data base which requires help from the very handsome and wealthy Benedict Hargreaves the fourth. Horticulture, herbology, chemistry and psychology are all in play as well as murder in this YA book by Amy Doak.
‘The Hiding Place’ is a literary thriller written by Kate Mildenhall.‘What Have They Done to Liza McLean?’ sister Meg needs to get into the school data base which requires help from the very handsome and wealthy Benedict Hargreaves the fourth. Horticulture, herbology, chemistry and psychology are all in play as well as murder in this YA book by Amy Doak.
A remarkable novel about lust, not just for a person but for music and the consequence of choice in Indyana Schneider’s ‘Since The World is Ending’.Sam Guthrie takes us into the world of espionage and deceit where diplomats are emotionally blackmailed to betray their country in, ‘The Peak’.
, reveals the macabre world of a serial killer artist who turns the blood and bones of his victims into paint and pigment to create renowned and admired works or art.
.Leisl and her daughter Else are awkward in society but in the demands of a climatic crisis they find their capabilities more attuned to their changing environment, one in which other animals have adaptions and techniques to survive. ‘Else’ is a book set in the not so distant future by Rose Michael.
‘Shutter City’ has photographs of early Melbourne. They come alive as Robyn Annear guides our eye into the detail and describes it with her insightful humour. Christian White takes us on a journey of kidnapping, revenge and violence over one concentrated evening in, ‘The Long Night’.
s in his book, Entertaining Mr Coppin - an Antipodean Showman in Civil War America. (Theatre Heritage Australia publication)Heather Rose has been inspired by true events in this historical fiction of a women who travelled alone from London to Van Diemen’s Land, set up a vineyard and a family in ‘A Great Act of Love’.
The Run Club has popularity because of the social media hits following a blossoming relationship, but these two only got together in a pretend situation, will it stay that way as there are many hurdles in their training for a marathon. ‘In the Long Run’ is a romance novel that does go the distance by Emma Mugglestone.Katherine Pollock’s ‘Starry Eyed’ romantic comedy meets science fiction meets fan fiction.
Makayla wants to make up for lost time after her divorce but her list of no regrets detailing things yet to be done leads to complications she didn't quite foresee in Holly Brunnbauer's novel, What Did I Miss?The Empress Murders is a razor-sharp whodunit by Toby Schmitz.
Noel Harcourt writes about his job for 33 years as one of the zoo keepers at Melbourne Zoo in his memoir ‘For Keeps’.Philomena McCarthy is compromised in her role as a police officer because she is the daughter of one of London's crime bosses. How then does she investigate and solve the robberies and murders on her beat in 'The White Crow'? Michael Rowbotham makes it all clear in his latest crime thriller.
George Ivanoff gives us 'Prehistoric Peril' in the latest choose your own adventure where virtual reality, mad scientists and you, as the reader, decides what will happen next.A heist, a robbery, a theft planned and undertaken to not only save the Earth, but even refugees from another planet. Science Fiction at its most dramatic, absurd and humorous for kids and their parents to read in the ‘Heist’ trilogy by Joel McKerrow
Pip Smith explores the emotional and psychological consequences of the refugee vessel, The Janga, that crashed into Christmas Island in her fictionalised account of that event, The Pull of the Moon.
Monica Raszewski's, 'Crimson Light, Polished Wood', explores the intersecting lives of three generations of women and their connection over time.The love of literature from Then as 17 year olds to Now, 20 years later may lead to a new chapter in this rom-com ‘Love Overdue’ by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus.
Our social contract with the world, our very purpose in the digital age is brought into question in the novel, 'Arborescence', by Rhett Davis Martha has ideas but she is shy. Can she show her friends, family and classmates who she really is and what she is capable of? Jo Dabrowski is the author, and ‘The Making of Martha Mayfield’ is her book.
Toni Jordan’s book ‘Ternderfoot’ is a coming of age story set in the 70’s.A. L. Booth’s crime novel, ’Death at Booroomba’ includes a mysterious inheritance, a violent murder, a hint of romance and a large dollop of country town gossip.
If you had the power to change history would you dare? ‘The Turing Protocol’ by Nick Croydon.'King Tide' is Luke Johnson's debut novel set in a small coastal town where a mutilated body of an adolescent is found. Added to that, a child disappeared some five years before. Are the events linked and who is responsible?An American war hero with harsh life experiences and a naïve Melbourne socialite are such opposites just as Night and Day, which is a melodic theme through this book. Set in the 1940’s, ‘Flight’ is a historical romance written by Anne Vines.
Matt Rogers takes us on a nhilistic journey of murder and corruption with equal parts of philosophy and asceticism in his novel, 'The Forsaken'.Jayne Tuttle's memoir is an exploration of creativity, motherhood and Paris.
Dmetri Kakmi's novel, The Woman In the Well, blends the spiritualism associated with numerous faiths; Christianity, Islam and indigenous belief.Not even a respectable job digging graves can keep an ex-con from a form of corruption that could put him behind bars once again. This is the world of guilt and suspicion that Mark Brandi explores in his latest novel, Eden,
Amie Kaufman's, 'Lady's Knight' features the tournament of the dragon slayers and is a sapphic fairytale.A couple grapple with the breakdown of their relationship on a road trip in the southwest of America where the environmental degredation of the landscape is apparent in Madeleine Watts' novel, "Elegy, Southwest"
You have to be smart to be in academia and so is this romance fiction by Jodi McAlister. 'An Academic Affair' has characters and situations which are humorous and not so predictable.In Lucy Nelson's debut short story collection 'Wait Here' the theme is women who will never be mothers: who can't, who don't or won't have children.Both authors also talk about getting published under different wings of Simon and Schuster.
Lawyers and politicians were involved with both Federation and the trial and hanging of Jimmy Governor in the historical true crime novel of ‘The Last Outlaws’ by Katherine Biber.The regrets and indiscretions of our past and our present day poor judgement are a continual presence in our lives that, perhaps, only a psychic can give us licence to address. Samantha Byres touches on much of this in her novel, ‘Dead Ends’.
The intriguing elements of seances and criminal conduct behind the writing of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde come to the fore as Belinda Lyons-Lee explores the life of Robert Louis Stevenson as narrated by his wife, Fanny Osbourne in 'The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson'.Shokoofeh Azar's book 'The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen' spans fifty years in the history of modern Iran, and many centuries of Persian poetry and myths before that. It is a story of a family's love and loss, their involvement in the revolution and the different destinies of twelve cousins.
Thomas Vowles' novel, 'Our New Gods' is a psychological thriller where sinsiter sexuality and murder coincide amongst the queer scene of Melbourne.Elle McFadzean's, The Potion Experiment, is a middle grade fantasy about science and magic.
‘The Last Egg’ is a picture story book by Sofie Laguna. It is about love, kindness and loyalty with a fantastical end. Lili Wilkinson has Titch the mouse on an epic journey of magic, heroism and loyal friendship in ‘Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire’‘Music Camp’ by Penny Tangey is a big hearted story about finding your way when you’re twelve. These primary school nerds have music in common but come with very different personalities.
A much loved daughter could ruin a family and just what is it, that this family have to hide? Anna Snoekstra has written a very well crafted mystery in ‘The Ones We Love’. Robbie Coburn's verse narrative, 'The Foal in the Wire', is a coming of age tale about survival and the bonds between individuals that both undermine and affirm.
Audrey has left her husband and career in advertising. Now she bakes cakes and fortune cookies that tell the bitter truth, but can she start a business with her motley lot of new friends in Catherine Greer’s ‘The Bitter Sweet Bakery Café’.
A grandson tries to learn a family story in Andre Dao’s ‘Anam’. Murder and mayhem on the waterfront, marihuana cigarettes and a turf war over brothels, thankfully the Tea Ladies can solve crimes and cement friendships in this, the third book of the series, ‘The Deadly Dispute’ by Amanda Hampson.
He wants to be a successful and acclaimed writer. He wants to know all the truths and write her biography even if it requires deceit. Dominic Amerena has written this crafty book about literary theft in ‘I want Everything’. Mystery surrounds a new pandemic that takes the lives of those reaching their ninth birthday in Chris Flynn's, ‘Orpehus Nine’. The resulting conspiracy theories, riots, fundamentalism and political powerlessness are things with which all readers may identify given the events of the recent past.
The bond of friendship can unravel when doubt and superstition start to take hold. And the spiritual comfort we seek in such circumstances can also lead to our undoing. Christine Keighery delves into these notions in her novel, 'We're Not Us Without You'.The gold rush made the city of Melbourne rich but women’s lives and choices were still very limited. Madeleine Cleary has written a historical murder mystery with a brothel and the slums of Little Lon at its centre in ‘The Butterfly Women’.
‘Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice’ has Ellie a type 1 diabetic wanting independence from her controlling family but not wanting to be hurt again by her teenage crush in this romantic comedy by Cynthia Timoti. Gregory Day's anthology of poetry, Southsightedness, connects creativity, the landscape and the artist as a collective whole in verse that is imaginative and unique.
Food blogger, Chloe, is competing for an interview with a famous chef in Victoria Brownlee's novel, 'Eat Your Heart Out'.Doctor Hannah Wright must balance her personal and professional life as she treats psychiatric patients at the Menzies Hospital in the latest novel, The Glass House, by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion.
By Her Hand is Marion Taffe's debut novel where the protagonist must write her rage to win her war.Laura McCluskey takes us to an isolated island off the west coast of Scotland where superstition and resistance hamper a murder investigation in her debut novel, The Wolf Tree.
Peter Norris writes about his upbringing with his career criminal father who was a bank robber and jail escapee in the memoir, The Bank Robbers Boy.Kate Grenville talks about her latest work, Unsettled.
A cicada leaves a shell of its former self behind suggesting a past life and this notion is played upon in Ella Ward's novel, The Cicada House.
Kate Solly has written a cosy crime book ‘The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch Up’.Family saga mixes with macabre happenings in ‘First Name Second Name’ Steve MinOn has a dead man walking back through four generations of family history to recover his lost identity.
Her Gramps has dementia and it is through a time slip that Charlotte relives the moon landing and brings sparks of awareness and her own empathy to him and others in the aged care facility, in Anna Ciddor’s ‘Moonboy’.Several months after her father's death, Belinda Probert discovers that his name is actually Roy. She outlines the journey of discovery that followed in her book, ‘Bill's Secrets - class, war and ambition’.
Alice and Teddy are two women on the fringes of criminality who begin to realize they are implicated in drug running and murder in Fiona Hardy's novel, 'Unbury the Dead'.Three people from different generations, backgrounds and work, form an unlikely connection and this friendship alters the course of their lives in Andrea Goldsmith’s ‘The Buried Life’
It is not only communicating with the spirits of the dead that is perplexing for Ellen but her feeling towards one of the other members of the family that make up the church in ‘The Spirit Circle’ by Tara Calaby, an intriguing historical mystery.Geraldine Brooks' memoir, ‘Memorial Days’, addresses the nature of loss and grief as she comes to terms with the unexpected death of her husband, Tony Horwitz.
Jennifer Wolfe thinks she is fighting just for her family but her survival and the truths she could reveal could bring down a dictatorship. She becomes ‘The Hunted’ in Tayla Holborow’s adventure story. ‘The Thrill Of It’ takes us into the malevolent world of a serial killer dispatching old women. Mandy Beaumont bases her version on real life events in Sydney of the 1990’s.
Lili Wilkinson's, "Unhallowed Halls', is set on the Scottish moors. It is where dark academia and demons collide. Should the creative arts be inviolable or should artists use their knowledge for personal gain. This is one of the concepts in Alex Miller's latest novel, The Deal.
The stories and songs coming from a writing course in a women’s prison, brings black humour and a little understanding of these women’s lives and crimes in Valerie Colyer’s ‘Tales that talk to you’Geoff Parkes takes us to the backwater town of Nashville in New Zealand where a Finnish backpacker, Sanna Sorensen, goes missing. The whole town is full of suspects and secrets making the truth hard to establish when Sanna's sister, Emilia, comes after the investigation has failed to find a culprit in 'When the Deep Bush Swallows You Whole'
Thuy On, once again, explores, language, love and the arts in her latest poetry collection, ‘Essence’.Grace had to contend with grieving parents, conflicted staff and hounded by relentless media for the decision she made at the beach and then the consequences to come to her in this page turning thriller ‘Three Boys Gone’ by Mark Smith.
‘You Must Remember This’ by Sean Wilson is an eloquent jumble of a family story with a tender portrait of Grace and her slippages of memory with dementia.When a well-meaning community is challenged by the homeless living close by, it is how they act individually and as a group that make this such a wryly humourous and readable fiction. The book is ‘The Campers’ by Maryrose Cuskelly.
Blue Lake by David Sornig is part history, part biography and part personal reflection on a much overlooked part of Melbourne's landscape. Situated to the west of the city lies a tract of land, Dudley Flats, that was once a lagoon but embodies the social, industrial and cultural changes to Melbourne over time. It was a marshland, waste dump, shanty town and shipping centre but is still often overlooked by Melbournites.
When Captain Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia, he renamed many of the landmarks. In ‘Warra Warra Wai’ the names and stories of these landmarks are explained as well as how the Indigenous Australians were impacted by this uninvited visitor. Darren Rix and Craig Cormick have recorded and researched this most interesting book.
Ghost Cities by Siang Lu is an epic tale. Historical China with paranoid emperors finds a parralel with megalomaniaical film directors in the present day where empires are build on false promises. But Lu's story goes into the very foundation of language and social attitudes where we begin to question the foundations of what we believe and how social truths are formed. And there are real 'ghost cities' in some countries today which prove the point Lu is making.
'Thoroughly Disenchanted' is Alexandra Almond's take on a fictional world where magic casts a spell on us all and keeps us in thrall without us even knowing.'The Lost Book of Magic' is the last in a fantasy trilogy for middle grade readers by Amelia Mellor.
Peter Rose, long time editor of ABR, talks about the recent edition '2024 Books of the Year', with over 40 contributors. David, Lisa and Jan add the books that resonated with them over the year on Published or not, and we alll discuss different aspects of reading, writing and reviewing.
The subtitle says it all – ‘A celebration of joyful rebellion, glorious women and cats’, it is also factually interesting and beautifully illustrated. The author is Anna Go-Go and the title is ‘Cat Lady Manifesto’.Iain Ryan's latest novel,’ The Dream’, is a dark noir thriller set against the backdrop of corruption and dysfunction that was prevalent in Queensland before the Firzgerald Inquiry.
A rabbit and a grandmother come to stay during lockdown. Will this help a grieving family heal in Melanie Cheng’s ‘The Burrow’.Ginny Dilboong has a unique way of publishing her poetry. She plants her compositions in the earth and by so doing affirms her indigenous ties to the landscape in Nardi Simpson’s book ‘TheBelburd’.
‘Six Summers of Tash and Leopold’ by Danielle Binks is a beautiful middle-grade novel for contemporary tmes.Zoe’s Elevator Pitch to her agent says it all…….“A thriller writer who starts dating a celebrity has to deal with a psycho fan who uses everything in her first book against her. The police can’t help her, nobody can help her…except maybe the man she loves “ or can he? in Pip Drysdale’s crime novel ‘The Close-Up’.
Darren Rix and Craig Cormick have co-authored ‘Warra Warra Wai’. It is a richly researched book telling of Captain Cook’s Endeavour visit and what happened then, from both historical records and indigenous story telling. Writers block can be a very debilitating condition made all the more problematic when stranded on a remote island where the mythology of the landscape and fellow attendees with suspicious pasts make knowing who to trust a challenging exercise. This is the world into which Brooke Hardwick takes us in 'The Fog'.
'Little Puggle's Christmas' is a beautiful Christmas book by Vikki Conley with an Australian setting.The 70's were a time of social revolution and one of the epicentres of the ferment was London where Grace has travelled. Her meeting with Marigold is pivotal to her journey of self discovery which is all revealed in Mira Robertson's novel, 'Grace and Marigold'.
Rosalie Ham completes her trilogy of The Dressmaker with ‘Molly’, the mother who challenged society’s norms in wanting changes, fairness for women in the work place and sensible underwear. A humorous and well-crafted story which explains how her daughter, Tilly Dunnage, grew up in Dungatar.Yannick Thoraval’s book ‘The Marriage Gap’ challenges the conventional notions of marriage and prompts reads to question what truly makes a relationship successful and fulfilling.
As ‘The 113th Assistant Librarian’ Oliver’s life now has seven cats, hundreds of deadly books and he has to learn how to stop people dying in the library. Stuart Wilson has written a magical tome for parents to enjoy reading to their primary aged kids and remember books can be dangerous! After reading Gabriel Bermoser's novel, The Hitchhiker, you will forever reconsider assisting strangers waiting by the roadside. With everyone having a secret and individual's having macabre agendas, you never know who will be sitting in the seat beside you.
Managing a boutique hotel overlooking a surf beach in Sri Lanka sounds like paradise. Dasha Ross writes about the joy and disasters of trying to do this with her husband John Pinder in ‘Big Trouble Coming’. Tigest Girma creates a world where mortals and vampires coexist in 'Immortal Dark' where betrayal, violence and romance are intertwined and life is tenuous.
Lynette Clarke has written about strangers in London sharing rooms with no personal space. Some will find work, fall in love and forge friendships but one will be driven to violence in ‘The Rat Cage’. Finding time to be yourself given the travails of life besetting you is at the core of Sophie Green's novel, 'Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel'.
Guilt, hope and recrimination are at play in Matthew Hooper's debut novel, A Cold Season.The Little Clothes by Deborah Callaghan is about grabbing onto life and claiming your place in it.are
Casey Nott has written a novel about motherhood, identity and loss in ‘Forgotten’.Fay works as a translator but it is her choice of lover and employer that lead to betrayal, ambition and questioning what love means in Jessie Tu’s ‘The Honeyeater’.
Amanda Willimott has written an historical thriller, based on an actual trial of a werewolf. ‘Winter of the Wolf' is also about the power of law and religion for educated men while many women had no voice at all for fear of being charged with witchcraft.Keshe Chow takes us back to imperial China and the notion that behind every mirror lies an alternate universe waiting to escape their duty of mimicking reality in, 'The Girl With No Reflection'.
Displacement can be the shift in location from a country, a city or a family. All of these aspects come to life when Aliya and her daughter choose to move to rural New South Wales in Jumaana Abdu’s debut novel ‘Translations’.The pieces of our lives, the influences and experiences, are like a mosaic joining together to make a whole that may be stranger than we imagine. This is evident in 'Mural' by Stephen Downes where a madman reveals the forces that may have shaped him.
Household debt takes on a new meaning when you are a former assassin seeking retribution for the death of a child while, at the same time, trying to manage your domestic life. Mark Mupotsa-Russell explores these dilemmas in his novel, ‘The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt’.Melbourne is the city. It and the characters who just want to be heard are given a voice in ‘The Degenerates’. They are brought to life with originality, humour and very fine writing by Raeden Richardson
'Together We Fall Apart' is Sophie Matthiesson's novel about running away and coming home against a backdrop of addiction.'The End and Everything Before It' is Finegan Kruckemeyer's first novel where the tale twists upon itself highlighting the development of a town over the course of time where legend and life are intertwined.
A small town but with a dark history and when an old woman tells a secret from the past, there is a mystery to unravel and a crime to solve in Amy Doak’s YA novel ‘Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep a Secret’.Courtney Collins explores the universal connection between women that transcends time, cultures and countries in her novel, 'Bird'.
Jack Dunne wants a future for his son but Australia has an occupational force which wants to eradicate the last hill of resistance and that's where their home is. 'Outrider' is an action packed fiction, a story of survival and hope by Mark Wales.J P Pomare has us delving into the cold case morder of the Primrose family some seventeen years after the event in his latest novel, '17 Years Later'. It is a true crime podcast that brings to life new information that could just as easily prove innocence as well as guilt. We never know which until the end of the novel.
Movie reels, photographs a camera and letters link two women 100 years apart in this parallel story of history and the complication of relationships in ‘The Lost Letters of Rose Carey’ by Julie Bennett. 'The Infant Vine' is Isabella G. Mead's debut collection of poetry that explores new life and motherhood with particular associations with nature that are often intriguing and thought provoking.
A teenage girl is influenced by both her mother and an adult friend, but it is only after a tragedy she learns how she fits into complex society of family and friendships and becomes her best self in ‘Jade and Emerald ‘ by Michelle See-Tho.Scott Wilson takes us into the realm of super-forecasters gauging the economic, political, and military temperature for global political powers in his novel, 'The Bowman Standard'.
‘If You Go’ by Alice Robinson, is a domestic sci-fi about motherhood and what we pass onto our children.Marnie’s daughter has a raging drug habit and a repellent boyfriend. She can see the danger for her grandchildren. Her determination to keep them safe means she has to trust some strangers who become friends in ‘’Edenhope’ by Louise Le Nay.
Tim Ayliffe weaves a web of intrigue in 'The Wrong Man' where deaths of young women two years apart have a mysterious connection linked to a serial killer. The corruption within the police force impedes the investigation and there is a suggestion a not so innocent man has been framed.Fred is kind and has so much love to give, but no one to give it to. Mistaken identity gives him not only security and friends, but also immense guilt in Anna Johnston’s ‘The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife’.
‘The Glass House’ by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion delves into the challenges faced by both psychiatric patients and clinicians as they seek diagnoses and an equitable path forward with their lives. ‘Murder in Punch Lane’ has well known people as suspects in Jane Sullivan’s gothic crime novel set in the laneways of 19th century Melbourne.
Before mobiles there were letters and that’s how three friends from the past communicated. The letters were found and three friends from now want to solve the mystery of who they were and what happened to them. In solving the mystery they also learn about themselves in 'Return to Sender' by Lauren Draper.'Naked Ambition' is Robert Gott's hilarious look at politicians, the Archibald Prize and Christian fundamentalism. A politician sees no problem being painted in the nude but the repercussions compound as he is elevated to the minister for education. This is a replay of an interview conducted in 2023.
A child walks out of the Wimmera desert in Lia Hills' novel, The Desert Knows Her Name'. She is an enigma that others, all with their own agends, try to solve.'Portraits' by W. H. Chong is a collection of more than 300 drawings of artists, writers, musicians and thinkers.
Lindy Cameron, Hugh McGinlay, Narrelle Harris and Robert Gott talk all things crime while constantly being interrupted through the Radiothon Program.
The changes that happen from primary school to high school with friends, family and your own body can be difficult. Helen Brown has the love of ‘Mickey’ to help her and writes about this cat and these incidents with humour and understanding. Jenny Ackland explores a dystopian future in her latest novel, 'Hurdy Gurdy', where a troupe of female performers provide more than just entertainment especially for women in need.
There is murder and corruption in Michael Brissenden's 'Smoke' where loyalty and betrayal are exposed after a fire has ravaged a small community. The consequences of a once in a lifetime comet will reveal long held secrets, astronomy, romance and a thriller ending in Ruby Todd’s, ‘Bright Objects’.
Richard Broome tells the story of early European contact with its guns, diseases and ideas upon the First Nations people of Victoria in 'Aboriginal Victorians'.'The Work; by Bri Lee is a stunning debut novel about power, art and money.
'The Accident' by Fiona Lowe is a story of a devastating accident with a shocking web of lies. What happens when you are‘Suddenly Single at Sixty’? Jo Peck has written of her loss, anger and hurt along with her social experiment of on-line dating, in this often humorous memoir.
Garry Disher's latest novel, 'Sanctuary', reveals a world of scams, crime, corruption and characters seeking solace while, all the while, looking over their shoulders lest they are made accountable for their misdeeds.They met in 1958 in Holywood when producers controlled every aspect of an actor's life . Three of the four friends continued to meet regularly. Fifty years later they learn the reason behind one of their friends betrayal to the group in 'The Studio Girls' by Lisa Ireland.
Organised crime and ballroom dancing go hand in hand in Andrea Barton's novel, 'The Godfather of Dance'. Both are cutthroat industries.‘Pheasants Nest’ is a crime novel of rape and abduction. As well as action and suspense, Louise Milligan has created characters which give this book a realistic heart.
The woman, mother, wife in Miranda Darling’s book is so much more, but will she spiral with subservient silence into her relationship or will her anger compound into a climatic burst and the title of this book is ‘Thunderhead‘.Carmel Shute tells us what’s happening with ‘Sisters in Crime’.
An ancient map links two women from the studio of Ruebens in the 1620’s to Antwerp today, Lisa Medved’s historical research and clever cryptic clues have you guessing in ‘The Engraver’s Secret’.Lauren Chater takes us back to Restoration England where theatre and art gave women greater agency in 'The Beauties' and where a commoner married a soon to be king.
Magic, humour, horror and even romance are ‘mettled’ together in Lili Wilkinson’s latest tale of not so damsel in distress and a secret society, featuring sinister Toadmen, in ‘Deep is the Fen’.‘The Winter Palace’ by Paul Morgan is a sumptuous novel of war, survival and love.
‘The Cryptic Clue’ is a crime novel which puts capable older women in the spotlight and brings laughs about attitudes and happenings from the not so distant past. This is another Tea Ladies mystery written by Amanda Hampson.Ouyang Yu explores the dissonance between cultures which can lead to both comic outcomes and even a sense of loss in his collection of stories, 'The White Cockatoo Flowers'.
Myfanwy Jones takes us into the historical past associated with the Queensland Tablelands and the friction between fathers and sons over three generations in, 'Cool Water'. An unflinching portrayal of modernday parenting is revealed in Bella Ellwood-Clayton's novel, 'Weekend Friends'.
'The Pyramid of Needs' by Ernest Price is a darkly funny story about transphobia and family dysfunction.'Someone Else's Bucket List' by Amy Matthews is an exploration of values in the digital age as much as it is a story of an individual finding romance and her own identity.
'The Pyramid of Needs' by Ernest Price is a darkly funny story about transphobia and family dysfunction.'Someone Else's Bucket List' by Amy Matthews is an exploration of values in the digital age as much as it is a story of an individual finding romance and her own identity.
Anne Freeman's novel, 'Me That You See' is a thrilling glimpse into online sex work.Steven Carroll's murder mystery, 'Death of a Foreign Gentleman', may appear to be simply detective fiction but we are taken on a whirlwind historical tour of philosophy and literature as the crime is finally solved.
'The Eleventh Floor' by Kylie Orr is a suspense filled psychological drama.Donna Cameron's novel, 'The Rewilding', negotiates the balance between corporate consumptionism and eco-terrorism in an action packed adventure.
In Imbi Neeme's novel, "Kind of, Sort of, Maybe . . . but probably not", we have the potential of relationships forming, a mystery to solve and psychologically quirky characters grappling with life's challenges.Teenage sports games descend into a brawl in 'Sidelines' by Karen Viggers.
‘The Independent Pea’ is another colourful picture story book from Maree Coote. It not only pleases the eye but questions what is best: individuality or co-operation. There is humour in the illustrations as well as the many pea puns. All her books are available through Melbourne Style.Elizabeth Coleman neatly weaves stalking, a disappearance and a murder into her latest novel in the Edwina 'Ted' Bristol mystery series, A Dance with Murder.
What could be worse than losing a child and never finding them again. ‘Gone’ by Glenna Thomson has a younger sister still experiencing the grief, so centered in the family, but still questioning and looking 40 years after.
‘The 20 Minute Author’ by Maja Wolnik is a clever way to write, publish and promote your book – fast.Old friends and new beginnings in ‘Whenever you’re ready’. Trish Bolton has three women, two friends and a daughter, look at their past and the possibility of an altered future after the unexpected death of a close friend.
The challenge of finding your indigenous identity and heritage as an adolescent is explored in Graham Akhurt's novel, 'Borderland' where landscape, social assumptions and career potential all collide for Jono.Robbie Arnott highlights the changing attitudes and expectations of a society in 'Limberlost' as Ned grows into adulthood. The forces that shape Ned are mythic and not always kind but his development, in many ways, is tied to the landscape of Tasmania. (This is a repeat broadcast).
'What You Become' is an anthology from RMIT's writing course.Murder, drugs, liasons and lies lie behind a quiet NSW coastal town in Bryan Brown's novel, The Drowning'.
Chelsea Roffey talks about her time as an AFL goal umpire in, 'An Open Letter to Doubting Thomas'. This essay addresses the changing attitudes in the AFL and the behaviour of ardent football supporters. The essay is now included on the VCE English Framework of Ideas book list for 2024 and is one of the mentor texts.
‘Conversations With My Cat’ by Chuck McKenzie is a book of dialogue where you can read between the lines to further understand the characters.Parts of which are dramatised by David and Lisa. We all talk about some of the books we enjoyed this year and our book list is added on to our Published or Not website. Happy reading, we will be back in 2024.
A short, strong, boyhood friendship and catastrophe link lives and emotional responsibilities many years later in Matthew Ryan Davies, ‘The Broken Wave’.In 'Dark Heir', C. S. Pacat continues the saga of the Dark King's rise but now that the Stewards are defeated it seems as if Sinclair will control the Dark King's army if he can faind and rejuvenate them. Will Kempen and his cohort stand in his way but Will is not who many think he is.
Meredith Temple-Smith has written about the harshness and highlights of a scientific field trip and how it may have shaped her life in ‘From Patagonia to Professor’.Towns run Deep. People run deep. And so it is in Lucy Treloar's latest novel, 'Days of Innocence and Wonder' where Till tries to escape her past only to see the trauma she experienced when young mirrored in the small town.
Two middle aged men, Perry and Ivan, find love and respect having experienced loss, betrayal and the need to meet the assumptions and expectations of their respective cultural backgrounds and social groups in 'The In-Between', the latest novel by Christos Tsiolkas. Charli blames herself for her mother’s death and the township blames her for a bush fire and now she has made a gruesome discovery in the lake. Can these incidents be connected to the Sanctuary, a conservative closed community in ‘Deep in the Forest’, a crime thriller by Erina Reddan.
Tara Calaby has set her historical fiction novel ‘House of Longing’ in the Kew mental asylum. A street corner gives a location point and can become a meeting place. In Robyn Annear’s book we read about some of the remarkable happenings and people in Melbourne’s early history linked to ‘Corners of Melbourne’.
'Big Weird Lonely Hearts' is an anthology of delightfully absurd short stories where Allen C Jones challenges readers to challenge perceptions and expectations.Tim Loveday is a writer and he chats about his writing life with Lisa.
Kate Grenville speaks about Restless Dolly Mauder. A compelling novel about her grandmother.
At the heart of many of Justine Sless’s short stories is connection, but little real contact between people. In ‘Measured, Silk and other stories’ there is keen observation by characters but it is the loneliness that people feel and their inability to voice it that gives these stories a potency. Dias Novita Wuri’s, “Birth Canal” addresses the inherited intergenerational legacy of suffering and guilt most often borne by women that has been brought about by colonialism, conquest and even ignorance.
Colin Batrouney has creatively crafted six books and authors for a literary prize ‘The Bannerman Shortlist’, as well as a mystery involving an enduring friendship of very different characters. A beautifully produced book by Clouds of Magellan.J P Pomare, once again, explores the darker side of people's psychology in 'Home Before Night' where the aftermath of an abduction decades earlier and a mother's concern that her child is safe turn out to be stranger than the reader might imagine.
Tom Valente and Geoff Rolls talk about their written and artistic contributions to 'Synergy' - an anthology of works produced by the Bayside University of the Third Age. Natasha Lester’s historical fiction is of the male dominated fashion industry and the difficulties of three women over three generations wanting acknowledgment of their creativity while also wanting to be a better mother than their own, in ‘The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard’.
Short stories are like a bag of mixed lollies there’s going to be something that sparks interest. Laura Jean McKay has given us just that with ‘Gunflower’, especially as they are grouped into Birth, Life and Death. Darren Mort takes us into the challenging world of child custody when parents separate in his novel, ‘Isla’s Song’.
Emily Spurr has researched brains, parasites, chat bots, psychological health and perimenopause and given us this humorous fictional relationship in ‘Beatrix and Fred’.The lives or three servicemen who died in World War One are cast against a backdrop of their heritage and their potential in Ross McMullin's latest historical biography, 'Life So Full of Promise'. Their loss is set against the experience that shaped them and the future to which they could have so readily contributed.
Detectives with a difference, especially as one has a particularly good sense of smell, and that’s Monty the golden retriever in Louisa Bennett’s crime novel ‘The Nosy Detectives’. Murder and Melbourne seem to go hand in hand in Hugh McGinlay’s, ‘Silks’, where a circus aerialist is throttled at the end of a silk performance rope. Can milliner and part-time detective, Catherine Klint, establish if this was an accident or a gruesome murder?
Willa watches the dramatization of Shakespeare’s Much To Do About Nothing and wants the same stirring in her heart and loins. She finds zing in the romance e-books she publishes but not in her real life. Jessica Dettman has written a comedy of modern love in ‘Without Further Ado’.Living up to the expectation of your parents along with years of racism and sexism influence the health, the writing and the maturation to womanhood in Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut novel, ‘But the Girl’.
Anna Kate Blair writes insightfully and amusingly while exploring the issues of social conformity, desire, sexuality and a career in art through her debut novel, ‘The Modern’.The scarred and psychologically damaged platoon of the graves retrieval unit attempt to form a New Eureka in France after World War One but the utopia they strive for is soon compromised in Scott Bennett’s debut novel, ‘Night in Passchendaele’.
Allee Richards has written ‘A Light in the Dark’, a story of ambition, envy, and disappointment. The title can refer to the theatre world or hopefully the way forward from secrets and grief.The migrant experience and its impact echoes through Australia. Eva Collins has captured some of that sensibility in her poetry collection, ‘Ask No Questions’
Our lives, influenced as they are by our upbringing and past relationships, are both comic and even tragic. Such is the case in Rachel Matthews' novel, Never Look Desperate, as the central characters look for understanding as well as intimacy.
'The Heart is a Star' by Megan Rogers is a lyrical story about how we can uncover our true selves when we are forced to face the myths that make us.'Serengotti' sees not just characters but the very reader dislocated as we question the values and narratives we create. Eugen Bacon's narrative style is energetic and intriguing as her displaced characters face the challenge of survival.
‘The Hummingbird Effect’ by Kate Mildenhall. A kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread.Was Vincent van Gogh a good Samaritan or self centred artist? In ‘Vincent and Sien’ Silvia Kwon has written about a prostitute who became his model and lover during the time of his own artistic development.
Another thought provoking crime novel by Amy Suiter Clarke. Instead of podcasts concentrating on cold case murders in ‘Girl, 11’ this time she has a cult-like church being exposed in ‘Lay Your Body Down’.A billycart race, a brother in jail and mum’s on again – off again friend all make life hard for Jimmy as he tries to make sense of the world while waiting for the Southern Aurora train to pass through his isolated country town. Mark Brandi, once again, captures the challenges of childhood in his latest novel, 'Southern Aurora'.
‘Death in the Sauna’ by Dennis Altman is a murder mystery with an array of interesting characters who may all be suspects in this enjoyable story of politics, sexuality and secret lives. ‘Thaw’ is Dennis Glover’s account of Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic and the modern day consequences. More is trapped in the ice than we realize.
‘Born For You’ by Magdalena McGuire has written a luminous short story collection about the intensity of women’s lives and reveals the myriad of ways that women are compelled to reinvent themselves and to confront who they were, with who they become.Politics, money and power are usually behind terrorism, but what connection does this have with young refugee woman? ‘The Tears of Hope’ is the first book in a trilogy by Peter Hubbard.
‘Monster Island’, the latest children’s book by George Ivanoff, is populated by strange and unusual creatures that could well be real. Bernie and Ivy must prevent poachers from stealing these curious mythical and prehistoric animals. (Puffin)Is the purpose of life making the right choices when it comes to friends, family, relationships and especially your career. What if that career involves wanting to be an author. Pip Finkemeyer has a character trying to work it all our in ‘Sad Girl Novel’.
Nine Year old Ruby and her father Mitch, had an itinerant lifestyle in Gina Perry’s debut novel ‘My Father the Whale’. Sixteen years later we see the repercussions of those lifestyle choices.In The Rush, Michelle Prak has the weather and her characters morph from friendly to violent in this tense and twisted thriller 65
From boarding houses to share houses to tough accommodation on the streets, Libby Angel has written about a young women encountering like minded artists and activist in 1990’s Melbourne. ‘Where I slept’ has short colourful descriptions of these people and places.'Cursed Bunny' by Bora Chung was shortlisted for the Booker prize. Lisa speaks with her about her short story writing secrets and and what being shortlisted meant for her.
Primrose has problems. It’s not just her obsessiveness but her marriage, her journalistic career, her first love living over the road and her entitled brother-in-law coming to stay. Nina Wan writes humorously about golf perhaps not being the answer in ‘The Albatross’.Truth and reality are blurred in Michelle Jager’s, Bird Bones, as Vera’s narrative of her childhood, her marriage and affair are distorted by memory and the unreliable stories people tell.
Lisa Moule talks with author, literary agent and creative writing teacher, Danielle Binks on our Radiothon program.
'The Glow' is a wonderfully spooky children's story (also for adults) by Sofie Laguna.'The Secret History of the Rainbow Trout Hotel' is a quirky novel about discovery where the protagonist, Andy Lightfoot, discovers new people, new ideas and new situatons. The author is David Metzenthen.
'After The Rain' addresses the foundations of uncertainty within lives and even countries and is the debut novel of Aisling Smith.Lorraine Peck continues the crime saga of drugs and money which are all part of a violent crime family in 'The Double Bind'.
'Search History' by Amy Taylor is a sharp and funny debut novel about obsession and desire in the internet age.Catherine de st Phalle entertains us once again with familiar characters in 'Call Me Marlowe' where we find individuals and countries resemble each other when they try and avoid or escape reality.
Robert Gott's novel, 'Naked Ambition', mocks politicians, fundamentalists and public relations experts who all have a habit of over exposing themselves in one way or another. Claire Christian is the author of the contemporary and progressive new novel, West Side Honey, which is an inclusive, gently subversive and joyful rom com.
‘Where Light Meets Water’ is a big historical read. Susan Patterson has written about a sailor and the sea and the artistic talent that he shares with the woman who fights for him even though her own artistic abilities are overlooked in a time when class and gender were paramount. The complex and transformative nature of desire is seen evolving with all its passion, jealousies and insecurities in Madelaine Lucas’ novel, ‘Thirst for Salt’, where a young woman falls for an older man.
Every family is different and in Jacinta Halloran, ‘Resistance’ it’s a therapist’s job to decide if a mother and father are fit parents but with so many other family stories in the book, how can anyone decide what makes a good parent.Dominic Smith explores just how much our past can haunt us in ‘Return to Valetto’ where long buried secrets from World War Two in an almost abandoned Italian village lead to recriminations and unexpected outcomes.
Angela Buckingham and Robyn Bishop talk with Lisa Moule about their short stories in the anthology, 'It's All Connected' released by Spinifex Press.
'Deep', by writer illustrator Jess McGeachin, plumbs the depths of the ocean, of space, of the jungle and even our own subterranean world of subways and sewers. The snippets of information will interest young and old alike.'The Tea Ladies’ are a group of older women who team together to solve this pot boiler of kidnap, murder and arson. Author Amanda Hampson has them handling organised crime and standover tactics with humour while taking a nostalgic leaf from the past.
Pip Williams returns to Oxford after ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’. It is 1914 and through the eyes of Peggy Jones we see the impact of WW1, war refugees and the Spanish Flu in class and gender, town and gown and on her own ambitions and desires or restrictions in ‘The Bookbinder of Jericho’.
We meet Lisa Moule, the new co-presenter on Published or not.Big banks, big bucks, big business and big problems are written about in a satirical way by Robert Verlander in ‘Dazzled by Dollars’ David talks about the upcoming Sisters-in-Crime event, 'A Life of Crime'.We all talk about the sessions we would enjoy at the Melbourne Writers festival.
What could be so important in a family that one member would be ostracised. Zoya Patel has the mother and sisters explain their reasons, but will it be possible for the family to reengage in ‘Once a Stranger’. Anthony Hill has us travelling with Matthew Flinders circumnavigating the new continent of Australia in ‘The Investigators’ - a fictionalized account detailing the trials and tribulations of exploration in leaky ships.
‘Seven Sisters’, a psychological thriller by Katherine Kovacic, takes domestic violence to a new level when women exact revenge for their lost sisters who were all killed by their respective partners. Seven murders are surprisingly easy to accomplish when everyone provides alibis for each other. Lenny wants to ignore her past and continue teaching through the day and at night playing scrabble with a pretend housemate, watching reruns of Friends and rearranging her 36 copies of The Hobbit, but her past does catch up with her and her life starts to unravel. Kerryn Mayne has written a funny, tender story with a character you will come to care about in ‘Lenny Marks gets away with murder …or does she’.
The malevolent side of the internet and social media confronts us in 'Dark Mode' by Ashley Kalagian Blunt when the psycopathy of a marginalized few is unleashed.What are the flow on effects on classmates when a Year 10 student is abducted and how are the stresses dealt with by family and especially the girls who question their role in society? ‘The Gaps’ is winner of the Prime Ministers Literary Award for YA and is written by Leanne Hall.
Gregory Day’s, ‘The Bell of the World’, resonates with the interconnectedness of life’s elements; music, literature and nature.
The consequence of doing ‘The Favour’ turns mild-mannered Doctor Jude’s life upside down. Nicci French has written a crime novel where the reader is concerned for Doctor Jude’s own safety, in this murder investigation. Ronnie Scott’s novel, 'Shirley', toys with the assumptions surrounding social conventions and how individuals shape identity but it also plays with the reader’s expectations by playing on the unconventional.
The climax of The Death of John Lacey happens in a church. Through the book, Ben Hobson has us question the ethics, justice and prejudices in early Victorian gold rush times with the settlers and aboriginal communities. Paul Ashford Harris takes us on a journey through the lives of Gertrude Bell, William D’Arcy and Sea Lord Jacky Fisher in ‘Love, Oil and the Fortunes of War’. Each altered the world through their advice, actions and conduct prior to World War One the consequences of which still resonate today.
Graeme Simsion counterpoints the formulaic with the organic in ‘Creative Differences’ when the practical Scotty provides writing advice to his partner, Emily, who is more creative. Will their relationship survive different approaches to generating a novel? Grief and love and the wonderful little details that make up a life are at the heart of Paul Dalgarno’s book ‘ A Country of Eternal Light’
When there is a murder in a hospital, the police think they have an open and shut case, but a psychiatrist who was a patient in the hospital and knows everyone involved, including the police, believes the wrong person has been convicted in ‘Locked Ward’ by Anne Buist.Catherine Johns’ novel, ‘Maggie’, delves into the ramifications of an illicit relationship between a convent school girl and a young priest and the social ramifications of what was all too common as recently as the 60’s when the novel is set.
Lyn Drummond has lived and worked in many places around the world. She has written about the people, historical and contemporary who live there too, in ‘Painters, philosophers and poets sustain a seven-year cycle’ . The formative stages of Ned's life as an adolescent in Tasmania hunting rabbits to his adulthood accounting for a changed world and the benefit of hindsight make for Robbie Arnott's touching novel, 'Limberlost'.
Women sing for friendship, fun and fury in ‘The Angry Women’s Choir’ by Meg Bicknell and readers laugh and learn about activism for women’s rights and how to be a positive role model.Chris Flynn, once again, is at his anthropomorphic best in the short story collection, ‘Here Be Leviathans’, where even objects and not just animals have voices, feelings and opinions.
'Left/Write/Hook' is an anthology of works generated in Donna Lyon's writing workshop which is giving voice to victims of abuse.This year Fin J Ross won the highly prized trophy from the Sisters in Crime. Her short story ‘Tuesday Jocks’ is one of the winning stories in ‘Scarlet Stiletto: The Fourteenth Cut’.
In "Day's End", Garry Disher, once again, develops the case load of Paul Hirschhausen in the rural South Australian town of Tiverton where isolation masks a myriad of social ills; a disappearance, a body in a suitcase, drugs, cybercrime, nationalism and the public reation to Covid.
We are floating along in the universe between the horizon and the stars after an epic inundation in Allen C. Jones' novel, 'Her Death Was Also Water'.'The Stranger' is what every closed patriarchal community needs and Katherine Hore has written a whip-cracking, smart feminist Western.
When a feisty Palestinian girl befriends a Zionist the consequences are dire in The Olive Tree by Miariam El Houli.(Dean Publishing)The centrality of cricket to the well being of not just individuals but society in general is at the heart of Inga Simpson's novel, 'Willowman'. (Hachette)
Alex Miller explores those inner voices that sustain us in his latest novel, 'A Brief Affair' where Fran learns of the person who previously occupied her office when it was an asylum cell. A lost notebook speaks of a life nearly lost but brought to life again.‘Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here’ is deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity, and healing, dealing with courage and joy from Heather Rose, the award-winning author of ‘Bruny' and 'The Museum of Modern Love'.
Sean Wilson’s novel, ‘Gemini Falls’, is set in the Great Depression era of the 1930’s where a murder has been committed. Thirteen year old Morris and his friends investigate going behind the scenes where his detective father cannot go, discovering parts of the family history as well as who perpetrated the crime. Brooke has many anxieties about her own abilities and over thinks other people‘s actions but good friends and embarrassing circumstances lead to much humour in ‘Unnecessary Drama’ written by Nina Kenwood.
Philip Salom challenges us to re-evaluate notions of identity in an age where algorithms predominate in his latest work, ‘Sweeney and the Bicycles’.Three sisters are aware of their frailties, addictions and bossiness, but will they reconnect if they could control or even value these characteristics in each other, in Peggy Frew’s ‘Wildflowers’.
Craig Silvey takes us on a delightful journey of identity and friendship as Annie and her stray dog take on the world in 'Runt'. Petronella McGovern has linked many issues such as teenage activism, toxic masculinity, female ambition and whales into ‘The Liars’, part crime novel part history book but all round very good read.
A novelist is thinking about environmental damage, but in researching and writing about Leonard and Virginia Woolf, she sees the parallels between their lives with wars, pandemics and politics getting more right wing and what is happening now. ‘This Devastating Fever’ is the book the novelist wants to write, Sophie Cunningham did. When Josh disappears, Mila and Kyle have their own reasons for trying to find him but the search leads to some very unusual discoveries in Angela Meyer’s, 'Moon Sugar'.
Else Fitzgerald has written over 20 connected short stories through the grief of drought, fire and floods and into the uncertain future where humans have become genetically adapted to cope, but what about their own desires and hopes in ‘Everything Feels Like the End of the World’. ‘The Settlement’ is Jock Serong’s fictional account of true historical events when George Augustus Robinson attempted to resettle Tasmanian aborigines on a remote island. It is testament to colonial practices that were not only short sighted but cruel.
Sexual assault can happen anywhere, but in a small town how hard is it to prove and to get justice. Vikki Petraitis won the Allen and Unwin Crime fiction Prize with her book ‘The Unbelieved’. ‘Decadence’ demonstrates Thuy On’s delight in playing with language, words and even grammar in poems that are both playful and, at times, evocative.
Geraldine Brooks provides a sweeping account of America’s past by following the horse, Lexington, in a book simply titled, ‘Horse’. What is revealed are links to slavery, the art world and how history is preserved today but there are also echoes of the past in the current day attitudes of its citizens.Three generations are looking for inspiration and guidance to find out how to love and live. From the Indian ashram in the 70’s to closed societies of the future, the outcomes for these three generations, lead to very different consequences. Miles Allinson looks into the past and future in his novel ‘In Moonland’.
The past of witches and the present of beached whales, male violence and grief affect all those on a Scottish island in Eliza Henry-Jones, ‘Salt and Skin’.Paul Daley examines the question of indigenous dispossession in ‘Jesustown’ looking closely at the changing European attitudes over several generations and the need to alter the discourse.
Food and culture come together in unexpected ways in Jess Ho’s memoir, ‘Raised By Wolves’. Parisian society, pre WW2 with sumptuous parties, couture fashion, bohemian wine bars, plenty of secrets and a murder. ‘The Paris Mystery’ is the start of a new crime series by Kirsty Manning and an introduction to Charlie James, foreign correspondent for The Times.
John Kinsella has begun a retrospective of his collected poems. Volume 1, ‘The Ascension of Sheep’ covers the period from 1980 to 2005 and details his engagement with landscape, fauna and Australian identity.Is medicine a caring profession or a cut throat culture? Neela Janakiramanan has a woman, facing many obstacles, while training to become a surgeon in ‘The Registrar’.
Christine Balint won the 2021 Viva La Novella Prize with ‘Water Music’, about the possible life choices for a female violinist in eighteenth century Venice. J. P. Pomare provides us with a fatal car accident, a jaded private investigator and several spurned women who all have a grudge against the deceased who was one of the last people to have contact with two missing girls in ‘The Wrong Woman’. The outcome is not what you’d expect as all the multiple lines of inquiry converge.
Pirooz Jafari has written an interwoven saga spanning Australia, Iran and Sweden in ‘Forty Nights’. It explores love, loss, migration and dispossession across centuries.Jay Carmichael details the journey of a young homosexual man as he comes to terms with his identity and relationships. Set in the 1950’s, the novella, ‘Marlo’, details some of the impositions and assumptions of a society that hadn’t yet addressed gender diversity.
Set in Ireland ‘Family Matters’ has the importance of family, sisterhood and motherhood at its heart and Ellie O’Neill has written with humour about the age old desire for matchmaking .‘Denizen’ explores the psychological landscape of truth as Parker confronts his childhood in a remote NSW town when he returns to go camping with former school friends. Only when an accident occurs does the reality of his past and the challenges of the present become all too real and troubling.
Scott McCulloch's 'Basin' is a dystopian novel a character known as Figure is revived after a suicide attempt and has to taransverse a bleak landscape and his own sense of identity.Matthew Spencer's 'Black River' is a murder mystery thriller where the potential psychyopathy of a possible serial killer is explored before he kills again. The interplay between Adam Bowman, a struggling journalist, and the police lead to revealing insights about the ethics of such investigations.
Like a hydra with nine heads, our own demons can get the better of us and such is the case in the novel ‘Hydra’ by Adriane Howell where Anja, the narrator, has to face the character flaws that have brought about her undoing. Anna Mandoki has written about a slightly futuristic Melbourne, of human connection in an increasingly fragmented world and where three very different women’s lives become entwined in ‘Random acts of Unkindness’.
How well can we remember events from our past? Matilda agonises over things said and unsaid, looking for the truth in ‘A Place Near Eden’. The Australian/Vogel Literary award winner for 2022 by Nell Pierce.'Our Members Be Unlimited' is Sam Wallman's account of the rise and significance of unionism. As a graphic artist, the message is conveyed pictorially which has as much impact as the words making this a unique insight into the evolution of the worker's movement.
Claire Coleman explores the bubbles of thinking and attitudes within society and the dangers of living within gated expectations in her latest novel, "Enclave".Their father's car accident brings adult siblings home and they question what they know about their father and what they know about each other and themselves in Matthew Ryan Davies, "Things we Bury".
What happened inside the Russian Revolution and what were its effects on Melbourne in the 1950's? Maree Roberts has given us Olga and a light hearted, well researched look in 'The Impossible History of Trotsky's Sister'.Brenda Colley takes us on a phantom train journey in 'The Signal Line'. A mystery train appears in Hobart on rail lines that no longer exist.
The history and the how of doing standup comedy along with the difficulty it has been for women, are written about by Justine Sless as she takes us around a department store and on to the stage in 'Mistress of Mirth’s Comedy tour'.
A different court case, ten years apart and both involving kidnapping, but who was the perpetrator and who was the victim in ‘Release’, Lucy Christopher’s psychological drama. Jared Thomas challenges stereotypes in his coming of age novel, ‘My Spare Heart’, whose antagonist, Phoebe, comes to terms with her indigenous heritage.
Zadie Ma is 11 years old with the super power of having her stories come alive. Will this help her to get a dog and be allowed to keep it? Gabrielle Wang is Australia’s Children’s Laureate and ‘Zadie Ma and the Dog who Chased the Moon’ is her latest book.Establishing an identity and fathoming the challenges of different cultures as a young girl lie at the heart of ‘The Cuckoo’s Song’ by Amra Pajalic.
‘Apollo and Thelma’: he was constantly seeking fame as the world’s strongest man and his sister owned a pub in remote Northern Territory. Jon Faine writes about his links to them through his own legal and media background and what it taught him about Australia’s colonial history. In ‘Bad Art Mother’, Edwina Preston profiles the life of a troubled poet and the relationship she has when her art and maternal responsibilities collide. While the account is fictional, the premise is based on an Australian artist whose son was later adopted by Sunday and John Reed.
Steve Tolz explores a fictional afterlife constrained by similar concerns to that which we would find on earth in his comic and confronting novel, ‘Here Goes Nothing’. ‘The View Was Exhausting’ is an inside look at how the rich and famous may live and perhaps an insightful look at the control the publicity plays in their lives, co-written by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta.
Hidden within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community lies dark secrets that have a profound influence on the lives of those whose world is determined by the religious beliefs that give them a sense of belonging in Ashley Goldberg’s novel, ‘Abomination’. Scott Pearce has written about two very different families in The Rider on the Bridge, a boy finds his in a share house of drug addicts in Fazed Yellow by the Winter a loving supportive family has to make a decision about leaving its community.
Tosh Greenslade applies his satirical eye in 'The Scomo Diaries' revealing that elections are more a marketing campaign than true politics. Cathy Koning writes about her experience with cancer in ‘Life Blood’ and also talks about how she became a self publisher of this and other books.
Grade 6 is a year of growth and change, with puberty happening to climate awareness. Fiona Wood has also included blending families and humour in ‘How To Spell Catastrophe’.In Hilde Hinton’s, ‘A Solitary Walk on the Moon’, we find behind ordinary people and events, lies the majesty and the pathos of life. Evelyn creates a family of misfits who each have a weakness but will that family hold together?
In ‘The Mother’ Jane Caro has written a story about the difficult and sensitive area of coercive control, how a relationship can become toxic and what a mother will do to protect the family she loves..Toni Jordan highlights the humour and pathos of a man struggling to cope with his altered circumstances after going bankrupt and the challenges of facing a contemporary world of digital influencers and new age jargon in ‘Dinner with the Schnabels’.
‘Sheilas: Badass women of Australian History’ is researched and written by Eliza Reilly, with just as much determination and innovation as the woman had in their defying the rules and norms of their times.Carmel Shute relates the history of ‘Sisters-in-Crime’ and what is happening to celebrate its 30th year.
‘Facts and Other Lies’ gives background information about why fake news spreads and how politicians, especially right wing conservatives have exploited it so successfully. Ed Coper uses extensive research but writes cleverly with specific examples and humour and even explains how individuals can defuse disinformation. Josh Kemp distorts perceptions with a drug addled protagonist and a ten year old girl he is trying to rescue whose perspective is plagued by nightmares as they search the outback for her father in ‘Banjawarn’.
In ‘When We Fall’ a mother has moved back to the small town she grew up in. Her daughter, Alex, wants to know who her father is, but finds that she is involved in a murder mystery instead, and there is a possibility that she could be murdered too! Sean Rabin takes us into the not too distant future where radical environmentalism is required to save the planet in, ‘The Good Captain’
Twenty years after a younger, impulsive sister returns from a summer overseas, she dies. She has left her reliable older sister instructions of where to scatter her ashes with letters to read of explanation. There are hidden secrets and undisclosed truths that connect very different families in Jane Cockram’s ‘The Way From Here’. The dislocation the characters feel in Rhett Davis’ novel, ‘Hovering’, can be extrapolated into the dispossession one would feel on losing everything familiar to them. The very landscape becomes disorienting and this is even expressed in Rhett’s strategic use of form and style.
The Dalhunty family have only their prestigious name after generations of pastoral wealth. Their downturn is also reflected in the demise of the riverboat trade on the Darling. ‘The Last Station’ is written with detailed depictions or rural life, action and humour by Nicole Alexander.We inherit property but we can also inherit the past. Robert Lukins grapples with these notions in ‘Loveland’ as May journeys to claim the property left to her by her grandmother and we discover just how similar their lives are.
Insight and satire abound in short stories about The advertising industry in ’Sadvertising’ by Ennis Cehic.Dominique Wilson traverses one hundred years of Australian history in her novel, ‘Orphan Rock’, giving us a glimpse at the attitudes and mores that have changed and those things, like pandemics, that have stayed the same.
Australia is diverse, Keren Heenen is one of the sixteen writers who surprise you, as they take you to places you know, or think you know, in ‘The Furphy Anthology’, selected stories from the Furphy Literary Award in 2021. Far from being about an isolated case of abuse, Mandy Beaumont’s, ‘The Furies’, speaks to the endemic victimization of women in society and one doesn’t have to look too far beyond the fictional page to find parallels within ‘respectable’ institutions like our own parliament.
Most people have obsessions, Katherine Collette has written about those who take on speech making in ‘The Competition’. This delightful read has a mixture of memorable characters who find happiness despite themselves.Megan Albany’s account of someone dying of cancer balances both the tragic and comic in her novel,' The Last List of Vivian Walker', where the mundane and ordinary in characters’ lives are celebrated.
Emily Brugman writes of the Finnish migrants building homes and families in Australia, connected by hard work, crayfish, the beauty and the terror of the sea and nature in ‘The Islands’.Garry Disher’s cold case mystery in, ‘The Way It Is Now’, counterpoints the past and the present when a now mature but suspended policeman finds more similarities with his constable father than he realized.
During a bombing raid over Yorkshire in WW2, a German pilot is shot down and protected by a farming family for what reason and what risk? Karen Turner has written a big book of sacrifice and love and what the past can teach us in ‘Stormbird’. Garry Disher’s cold case mystery in, ‘The Way It Is Now’, counterpoints the past and the present when a now mature but suspended policeman finds more similarities with his constable father than he realized.
In Joy Dettman’s ‘The Hope Flower’ there is a volatile mother, her children raise themselves away from the gaze of the authorities, but when she emerges after body shaping surgery, will it be for hope or hell? Michael McGirr provides us with a potted history of philosophy connecting the ideas and themes in a very personal way to his own real life experiences and challenges in, ‘Ideas to Save Your Life – philosophy for wisdom, solace and pleasure’.
Patsy Popenbeek is one of 40 contributors to ‘South of the Sun: Australian fairy tales for the 21st century’ which are strictly for grown ups!Maxine Beneba Clarke’s poetry is both funny and alarming. Her collection, ‘How Decent Folk Behave’ shows the power of poetry in addressing contemporary issues; the treatment of women, the moral corruption of politics, and the challenge to find a social balance.
Second time around, Evie is reliving her 20’s, will she find the love she is looking for and the career she wants? Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus join together to make the romantic comedy ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’ twice as funny. Chris Hammer takes us to an isolated outback opal mining region for his latest murder mystery, ‘Treasure and Dirt’, where the intrigue is as deep and dangerous as a mine shaft.
Not all crime novels have to have serial killers or gore. ‘Who sleuthed it?’ is a light hearted and fun read with animals helping to solve crimes. These short stories are by 19 different writers from many countries and edited by Lindy Cameron.Eugen Bacon’s collection of speculative short story fiction, ‘Danged Black Thing’, transports us into other times and other realities but her delight with cultural customs and language variations is always evident.
'The Colonial’s Son' is historical fiction from the Palmer River goldfields to the political power play of Europe, Peter Watt writes of the fighting by bushrangers or armies to achieve their ambitions.In ‘Dark Rise’, C. S. Pacat creates a fantasy world where there is an ambiguity between good and evil – the light and the dark. Nothing is what it seems.
A step-mother, younger than the groom’s daughters, creates uncertainty in the family with secrets and lies being revealed. Sally Hepworth has written another page-turner in ‘The Younger Wife’ which starts with the wedding and a murder.Katherine Kovacic adapts the Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries television series for the page fleshing out the character of Peregrine Fisher as the young 60’s sleuth solves a double murder in ‘Just Murdered’.
An oldie but a goodie! A relevant read about everyday violence, the media's obsession with pretty dead girls and the search for answers in a country town community.
Hannah Kent ‘s book ‘Devotion’ in part tells how devout Lutherans emigrated to South Australia but more so about two young woman in the group who find friendship and committed love that follows them beyond the grave.The vast desolate openness of central Australia is the perfect setting for murder – no one can hear you scream. Margaret Hickey utilizes this landscape in ‘Cutters End’ as the setting for a series of cold case murders and challenges our notion of justice.
A young man runs from Melbourne into the excesses of capitalism in New York and again into the rural heartland of Ohio . Will he find what he is looking for in Emily Bitto’s novel, 'Wild Abandon'. Mirranda Burton has written/illustrated a graphic novel entitled, ‘Underground’ that provides an insight into Australia’s growing resistance to the Vietnam War including a wombat that was drafted and who went underground to avoid being conscripted.
The best of creativity and compassion and the worst of unchecked greed and entitlement are in ‘The Eighth Wonder’, a historical fiction set in the Gilded Age of New York by Tania FarrellyAntoni Jach, in his latest work, ‘Travelling Companions’ demonstrates that travelling is more about the journey than the destination as well as the people you meet along the way.
Erin’s teenage friends were charged with a horrific murder. 16 years later and as a crime writer, she gets to investigate it herself, in ‘I Shot the Devil’ by Ruth McIver.Ann Rennie’s, ‘Blessed’, is a collection of reflections about the simple things in life that are, in their own way, keys to more profound thinking.
Jacquie Byron has created a feisty 65 year old woman, getting older but perhaps not wiser. Friends had become unwelcome in her seclusion until circumstances, being the new neighbours, breach her fortress and heart in the humorous ‘Happy Hour’.J P Pomare explores the psychological intrigues made possible by the voyeuristic capabilities of the digital age in his new book, ‘The Last Guests’, where your every move can be monitored and where there are no such things as secrets.
Kate Ryan takes the reader back and forth in ‘The Golden Book’ from a childhood friendship and devastating accident to adult acceptance of blame and learning about the nature of fear and love. Robert Gott continues his 1940s Melbourne based detective murder mystery series with ‘The Orchard Murders’ where obsession and religious fanaticism come to the fore.
When family stories are not told or things go unsaid between mothers and daughters or a relationship ends, there is a little death. The grief is played out in many ways through the short stories by Paige Clark in ‘She is Haunted’.Gabrielle Williams crosses both time and continents in her riff on a ‘freaky Friday’ type transfer of souls in her adolescent novel, ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’.
Three generations are looking for inspiration and guidance to find out how to love and live. From the India ashram in the 70’s to closed societies of the future, the outcomes for these three generations, lead to very different consequences. Miles Allinson looks into the past and future in his novel ‘In Moonland’.Stephen Orr blurs the line between fact and fiction in his account of the great Australian literary hoax, The Ern Malley Affair, in his novel, 'Sincerely, Ethel Malley'. The Malley myth and the resulting poems have endured and are remembered more so than the actual people involved in the whole affair.
Grandmothers may live on the periphery of a family’s life but when Shirley and Beth suspect their grand daughter is being abused they abduct her with much interest from police, media and of course their family in The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer by Ilsa Evans. Sara El Sayed’s memoir, ‘Muddy People’, is more than just an account of a young Egyptian Muslim girl negotiating cultures. The pressures within her family expose how traditional practices are not necessarily reconcilable with a new generation in a new country.
Poland in 1939, with the background of anti-semitism and the imminent Nazi invasion, Maria is absorbed in finding the whereabouts of her mother in ‘Secrets my father kept’ by Rachel Givney.Against the tide of communism and nuclear devastation that followed World War Two, individuals find a simple, common good that gives them comfort. The Quaker, Wes, finds happiness with the socialist, Beth, and Wes’ sister, Patty, finds purpose in nursing the victims of Hiroshima. ‘The Bride of Almond Tree’ is Robert Hillman’s account of their selflessness.
In the middle of a heatwave in Brisbane, a son disappears. This causes a family to reconnect, share their secrets, surprisingly make new friendships and investigate their skills, be it art or disappearing, in ‘The Rabbits’ by Sophie Overett. Told in the voice of an eleven year old boy, Mark Brandi’s, ‘The Others’, provides an insight into a child’s coming of age against a backdrop of uncertainty where an irascible father controls the boy’s destiny.
Japanese life is steeped in traditions, but four interconnected characters tell of how a different life can be lived in ‘The Shut Ins’ by Katherine Brabon. Charlie Donlea uses the Twin Towers collapse as the source of a cold case that must be solved in ‘Twenty Years Later’ but there is still intrigue in the present day. The FBI spy on the investigative journalist whose past could be embarrassing if revealed, but she may yet uncover the truth behind the gruesome murder at the centre of that cold case.
Things are falling apart: the lake is drying up, the town is changing and who you are in a marriage and a broader family is under scrutiny, in ‘Echolalia’ by Briohny Doyle.Tania Chandler exposes the fractures in social behaviour that lead her protagonist, Sidney, to question her own mental stability. The novel, ‘All That I Remember About Dean Cola’ creates a complex scenario where memory and emotional development intermingle and stereotypes about such illnesses are challenged.
Murder can be opportunistic or professional planned. Simon Rowell has Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer investigating against time in 'The Long Game'. In Michelle Wright’s, ‘Small Acts of Defiance’, little gestures come to mean a great deal and such is the case for Australian girl Lucie living in occupied France during world War Two.
Brendan Murray takes us back to school highlighting the challenges and rewards in his book, “The School”, where he covers the academic yearly cycle of tests, bullying and the kindness of students.Tippy and her flamboyant uncles help to solve murders in a Nancy Drew way, but with a lot more inappropriate humour and alcohol in ‘Nancy Business’, a cosy queer crime novel by R.W.R. MDonald.
Elle has a popular true-crime podcast, her investigation into a cold case serial killer has more murders happening in this thriller, ‘Girl, 11’ by Amy Suiter Clarke.‘The Newcomer’ plays on the murder mystery genre. Laura Elizabeth Woollett gives voice and agency to the victim who is a damaged individual but, none the less, deserving of the reader’s sympathy.
'By chance the Future' by Amy Rudder blends the philosophy of why we travel, with politics and comedy with the big question what did we learn on the way? There’s no better way to appreciate how the ancient Roman’s lived than to read Anna Ciddor’s adventure of ‘The Boy Who Stepped Through Time’ where Perry finds himself living an authentic Roman lifestyle.
Melissa Manning has created resilient characters who live in the small communities of southern Tasmania, in the linked stories of ‘Smokehouse’.Jacqueline Bublitz merges the lives of Alice and Ruby in her novel, “Before You Knew My Name” and highlights the shared experience of women as Ruby tries to account for and solve Alice’s murder. Intriguingly, the narrator is Alice.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s protagonist, Bani Adam, is encouraged to marry but must negotiate the customs and traditions inherent within his Lebanese Alawite community while simultaneously establishing where he stands in current day Australia as a young Muslim man. ‘The Other Half of You’ continues the saga that began in ‘The Lebs’. A Room called Earth takes place in just 24 hours but Madeleine Ryan has given us a universe of thoughts of how men and women live with each other and themselves. Is it possible to meet the perfect person, your soul mate, at a party?
Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist wrote about fictional walkers, learning about themselves and others on the Camino, in 'Two Steps Forward'. Another book, with another walk and more humour. 'Two Steps Onward' has fictional friends and family walking the Way of St Francis of Assisi. One friend has health difficulties and a lie she only wants to share with the Pope.
‘The French Gift’ could be the unpublished manuscript of a crime novel or the bond of friendship between two unlikely women, one a French Resistance fighter and the other, a murderer. Historical fiction at its best by Kirsty Manning.Alice Pung highlights the travails of a pregnant teenager looking for agency and independence in her life against the backdrop of a cultural divide, a controlling parent and her own divided sense of self in her latest novel, ‘One Hundred Days’.
In their youth, lovebirds Elizabeth and Ray had to fight to be together. Conscription altered their happiness and Lizzy now has to fight her own stubbornness on a bizarre road trip to reunite her family in Amanda Hampson’s 'Lovebirds'.Hope lies in the resourcefulness and resilience of children in Kelly Rimmer’s novel, 'The Warsaw Orphan', set against the backdrop of war torn Warsaw.
Could a successful female Melbourne doctor be as vulnerable as an orphaned girl from remote Pakistan? L. P. McMahon takes us on a remarkable read through the circumstances of life and surgery in 'As Swallows Fly'.We can often drive ourselves to the edge in our search for identity and meaning. Both Ethan and Harry, half-brothers, find themselves on the brink of emotional, moral and physical crisis in Christopher Hawke’s novel, “The Miscreants’.
John Kinsella's evocation of the Australian landscape and the voices of the ordinary people speaks eloquently of the emotions, concerns and feelings with which we can all identify in his anthology of short stories, "Pushing Back".From the formalities of a funeral home to the inside working of a kink club, death, sex and make-up are all parts of "New Animal" by Ella Baxter.
Belinda Lyons-Lee touches on the macabre history of Madame Tussaud, the lifelike images of wax and how they excited the likes of the necromancer, Philidor, and the His Grace William Cavendish in her gothic tale, 'Tussaud'.'Now That I See You' is a story of complicated love when a partner becomes transgender. Emma Batchelor tells this through letters and journal entries over an eighteen month period.
Emily Maguire has written about ‘Love Objects’. Things that are personal becoming public and the deep hurt associated with it especially if those things are sex and hoarding. One person’s trash is another’s treasure in Sandi Scaunch’s novel, 'Chasing the McCubbin', where the world of garage sales provides hope and opportunity for those seeking direction.
Private Investigators have to use discretion, spy craft, endless patience and self preservation to get results. Sandi Kent needs all of these to crack cases of sexual slavery in the suburbs of Melbourne in Robin Gregory’s ‘Traffic’.Disability shouldn’t be a hindrance. Indeed, it often hides a remarkable intelligence as Stuart Everly-Wilson shows in his debut novel, ‘Low Expectations'.
Can one person be a model citizen as well as a feared monster? After 20 years a small rural community hasn’t solved the disappearance of a young girl. ‘The Silent Listener’ by Lyn Yeowart is so much more than just a crime novel. In ‘The Devils You Know’, Ben Sanders takes us into the violent world of drug running cartels and confronts us with the notion of violence as a necessity on the personal and political front.
Both 10 year old Rae and next door neighbour Lettie have secrets and houses but not homes. Emily Spurr has written about isolation, Splinter the dog and love in ‘A Million Things’.Shakespeare is timeless and in Kathryn Barker’s, ‘Waking Romeo’, we find that time travel had much to do with the Bard’s writing of Romeo and Juliet.
Can the attitudes within school, work and marriage be changed? Can society become fairer? Anna Geoge has a very hopeful and insightfully humorous book about all of this happening in 'Tipping'.‘The Shaman’ is Roland Perry’s latest novel about the personal and political repercussions when wealthy companies and self interested states vie for control of the oil industry and the elusive key to controlling cold fusion.
‘Friends and Dark Shapes’ by Kavita Bedford has short sharp observations of emotions, memories, landscapes and the difficulties of being a mature adult, or whatever that is.In the best traditions of Agatha Christie, Allie Reynolds’ murder mystery, 'Shiver,' leads the reader on an intriguing journey to determine ‘who done it’ with the characters all implicated but confined to a chalet close to a glacier in the alps.
‘The Imitator’ by Rebecca Starford is a page-turning, shocking WW2 spy thriller loosely based on the real-life events of a MI5 female agent based in London in the 1930s and 40s. “I have seen the past – and it works.” Dennis Glover’s satire, ‘Factory 19’, shows what can happen when we idealize the past. The work, while comic, has Orwellian overtones and a latent political message which is in keeping with Glover’s past as a political speech writer.
‘The Tour’ of the new Queen in 1954 was to be a glamorous adventure for the Chettle sisters serving as maids in waiting, but instead it was a royal disaster in waiting, humoursly written by Andrew Mackie.The naivety of tourists lies in their expectations of another country; the romantic stereotype they envisage. The same can be said for relationships and these two notions come together in Irma Gold’s, ‘The Breaking’.
‘Elizabeth and Elizabeth’ are the wives of John Macarthur and Lachlan Macquarie. They should have been bitter foes, but author Sue Williams has them combining their courage and wisdom to influence what is happening in the fledgling colony of New South Wales. The Croatian-Serbian conflict manifests itself in the rivalry between gangs in Sydney’s west in Loraine Peck’s crime novel, 'The Second Son'.
'The Women and the Girls’ is an entertaining read about women being challenged as they try to excel as mothers and friends in a sharehouse, without husbands and set in Sydney in the 1970’s.Your best friend can also be your worst enemy. Polly Phillips explores this notion in her novel, ‘My Best Friend’s Murder’.
Good characters in a good story, Rebecca Lim has Wen, a 14 year old ‘Tiger Daughter’, grappling against racism, sexism and the cultural expectations of her family. ‘The Schoolgirl Strangler’ by Katherine Kovacic is a disturbing account of a real life serial killer in 1930’s Melbourne who lures young girls to their death.
Will 'Repentance' be known for logging or rainforest tourism? It's a town and the title of Allison Gibb's novel, set during the protests of the 1970's, full of characters who have their own histories and perspectives of what it should be, but what of their own future?Gary Lonesborough’s novel, 'The Boy from the Mish', tackles the challenging question of indigenous identity in young male adolescents which is compounded by the his protagonist, Jackson Barley, being gay.
Rock climbing, horse riding, burglaries, stolen guns, drugs, kidnapping and a "freely given, open-ended, joyous declaration of love", this and more in Leisl Leighton's 'Climbing Fear'.Life becomes a sinister ‘choose your own adventure’ for Iain Ryan’s protagonist in, The Spiral’ where truth and fiction are interchangeable.
‘The Beach Caves’ by Trevor Shearston is more than a dip into Australian prehistory, it’s a novel of behind the scenes academic envy, guilt and the impact of the choices we make.J P Pomare, once again, takes us into an all too possible scenario where murder is the outcome of obsessive behaviour in his psychological thriller, 'Tell Me Lies'.
Aaron Smith spent seven years editing The Torres News from Thursday Island. His account, The Rock, highlights many of the political, social, personal and economic issues the islanders face and the challenge ahead for Australia in addressing these concerns.Tudor times were full of political plots and conspiracies just as in the fantasy world of Middengard that June Wilson has magicked up in 'Gloriana' Book 1 of The Chronicles of Albion.
Denise Leith has set 'The Night Letters' in Afghanistan. As well as the ongoing political problems, an Australian doctor meets and learns of the secrets, friendships and loves of a wealth of characters living within her square.Disgraced lawyer, Clementine Jones juggles the interests and egos of businessmen, coal miners and conservationists when investigating the murder of a friend in Sarah Thornton’s “White Throat”.
Barry Jonsberg takes us into a world compromised by climate change where artificial intelligence is a necessary survival tool in, Catch Me If I Fall. Twins, Ashleigh and Aiden, as they mature, realize they have different perspectives about the privileged lives they are afforded in this new world. Mythological dangers lurk for four adolescents on schoolies week as they meet a stranger and venture onto an uninhabited island in Anna Morgan’s, 'Before the Beginning'.
The unusual characters, the interesting situations and the building of friendships make ‘Honeybee’ another moving, occasionally devastating, read by Craig SilveyBarry Jones applies his incredible intellect to the future once again in, What is to be Done. The political landscape, education, technology and the environment all come under close scrutiny.
Sally Hepworth has mixed humour and dark reality, with the wonders and horrors of having a sister in 'The Good Sister'.Every Second Tuesday is a collection of poetry, fiction and memoir generated by the Elwood Writers who just happen to meet every second Tuesday. Their aim is to mentor each other to become the best writers they can be.
Readers and writers alike get lost in stories. Philip Salom plays on this conceit in his latest work, 'The Fifth Season'.If we could instantly know the rules to being an adult, would that make growing up easier? Georgina Young has a 20 year old woman questioning herself and her artistic ambiions in 'Loner'.
Once again, Chris Hammer’s protagonist, Martin Scarsden, confronts murder and corruption but this time Sydney is where the action takes place. Martin doesn’t know if he can trust anyone – not even his paramour Mandalay Blonde. Appropriately, the book is entitled, 'Trust'.The 'Tiny White Lies' are told to protect the ones we love or perhaps they are to cover the secrets we are embarrassed to have exposed. Fiona Palmer has written another family drama with beleivable characters and issues.
Some people find consolation in their obsessions and some of those obsessions can lead to murder. Gary Disher explores that psychological conundrum in the next instalment of his Hirschhausen series, 'Consolation', where a country cop deals with everything from the mundane to multiple murders.How far would desperate farmers go to save or make money? Could stock theft lead to manslaugter or murder? Sandi Wallace's crime novel 'Black Cloud' has police and journalists following a small crime which evolves into tragedy.
20 years ago Rosalie Ham gave us Tilly Dunnage from Dungatar in her debut novel and has followed it with another story of fun and frocks in 'The Dressmaker's Secret'.‘None Shall Sleep’ is Ellie Marney’s disturbing insight into the world of an adolescent serial killer. Can the name of the killer currently on the loose be discovered before more gruesome murders occur?
The power of words can change lives, and the power of revenge can live for a long time in Benjamin Stevenson's crime novel 'The Other Side Of Midnight'. Boys need a discourse and language that help them grapple with the challenges faced on the road to maturity. Tobias McCorkell explores this notion in his novel, 'Everything In Its Right Place', as his protagonist ‘crosses the river ‘ - the social classes that divide Melbourne.
What can teenage boys learn about themselves from playing sport? Lots, especially in Rawah Arja's amusing and insighful novel, 'The F Team'.A sibling exacts a form of retribution for being denied opportunities and choices by her domineering brother in S L Lim’s novel, 'Revenge'.
Petronella McGovern's suspense novel of kindness and berayal culminates when 'The Good Teacher' crosses the line from professional to personal.A murder mystery and a suspect without a motive – S R White’s novel, 'Hermit', is a psychological expose of the cat and mouse game that is the interrogation process.
Jock Serong, in 'The Burning Island', takes us on an epic journey into Australia’s early days; the shipwrecks, the eccentric individuals and odd communities found on the islands in Bass Strait.The how and why of Alex Miller's search into finding the facts about his friend Max Blatt, a Nazi-resistance figure, make for an interesting read of connections in 'Max'.
Eliza's godmothers are her mother's best friends. Will they be able to help her find her father? Friendships and truths are at the heart of 'The Godmothers' by Monica McInerney.The stories in Barry Lee Thompson’s collection, ‘Broken Rules and Other Stories’ are united by the universal elements of the unspoken and unstated especially where the question of one’s sexuality is involved.
No one had come through the storm unscathed. Twelve years later, and with another death, blame and guilt rise to the surface again in 'The Survivor' by Jane Harper.‘State Highway One’ is Sam Coley’s road trip narrative of a protagonist taking on the physical, emotional and psychological challenges associated with the loss of his parents, his sexuality and his twin sister’s betrayal.
Kings Cross in the 60's is a place to swing, or a place to hide. There is a collection of friends who are trying to find their own identities while helping each other, in Deborah Challinor's 'The Jacaranda House'.Memory and identity collide in Lili Wilkinson’s adolescent psychological thriller, The Erasure Initiative.
Rebellion and dissent were bubbling just below the surface in the early Australian colony which Meg Keneally explores in her latest historical fiction, 'The Wreck'. 'Poly', by Paul Dalgarno, is a funny and moving story of a man who wants it all in the normality of a not-so-normal modern family.
Kathleen Jennings takes us behind the fairytale face of a country town to something a little more darkly mythic as her central character searches for her lost father and brothers in ‘Flyaway’.'The Morbids' by Ewa Ramsey is an uplifting book about anxiety, the depth of friendship and how different people and a variety of strategies can help in hurtful siturations.
A mother is too full of shame and a daughter is too full of anger. When the past secrets meet the secrets of the present, will there be any forgiveness in 'Where We Begin' by Christie Nieman.Melissa Davey undertakes a forensic examination of all the court proceedings in ‘The Case of George Pell’.
Peter O’Brien takes us back in time in ‘Bush School’ highlighting the primitive living and learning conditions of a single-teacher classroom in rural New South Wales in 1960.Using big words may show scholarship but for a young girl in Early Melbourne they lead her into a propinquity in 'Billings Better Bookstore and Brasserie' by Fin J. Ross
Pip Williams has written a most engaging story of why a word may have been lost and how a woman engages in society in the early 1900's in 'The Dictionary of Lost Words'.
'The Dickens Boy' by Thomas Keneally looks at not just the life of Edward (Plorn) Dickens, the son of the great author sent to Australia when he was sixteen, but at the social landscape of a continent transforming itself in a new age. 'Sisters in Crime' is an open community of crime writers and readers. Carmel Shute explains how they are connected and what events are coming up in their on-line presence for everybody.
Crime fiction with more twists and surprises than the bush tracks through the atmospheric landscape of rugged Tasmania. Is it just bad choices or something worse that casuses the death of teenage females in 'The Bluff 'by Kyle Perry.Victoria Hannan has used the Beach Boy’s song, 'Kokomo', as the title of her novel where the protagonist, Mina, discovers the hidden secret that has kept her mother inside the family home for twelve years.
Robbie Arnott in creating the myth of ‘The Rain Heron’ speaks eloquently about some of the attitudes and concerns we face today as a society. Bold, brave and darkly funny, Rita Therese writes about her life as an escort in 'Come, a memoir'
A traumatic past and an unexpected inheritance bring heart, humour and hope in 'The Farm at Peppertree Crossing' by Leonie Kelsall.Working as an undercover cop can be lonely and dangerous work. Keith Banks recounts his time in the corrupt Queensland years of the 70’s infiltrating the drug trade in ‘Drugs, Guns and Lies’
Jena Lin had a public life as a celebrated violinist and a private life as a raging sex addict. The how and why is fearlessly told in Jessie Tu's 'A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing'. Anxiety can be like a fog undermining relationships and making communication difficult. Such is the case in Luke Horton’s novel, 'The Fogging'.
Was Elizabeth Macarthur the demure woman history may have her to be? Kate Grenville has turned biographical fiction inside out in 'A Room Made of Leaves'. Patrick Mullins explores the absurdity of Australia’s past censorship laws in his account of the case against Philip Roth’s novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, in his work, ‘The Trials of Portnoy’.
Dystopian novels can be a little unsettling given the current global climate but Patrick Allington provides an insight into what we will consume in the future and how we will sate our appetites in his novel, Rise and Shine. Where there is life there is death, but how do different communities and individuals handle grief? Dani Powell has set 'Return to Dust' in and around Alice Springs.
When things happen in a family as they do in 'The Spilt' by Imbi Neeme, blame can be apportioned unfairly, this leads to moments of regret for things said to hurt, or things not said at all. What would have happened had Captain Cook been shipwrecked on the shores of a new continent instead of bumping into a reef? Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick explore this interesting notion in their novel, 'On a Barbarous Coast'.
Coffee and kids connect three parents until they are forced out of their respective comfort zones. They learn more about each oher and themselves than they thought possible in 'The Drop-off' by Fiona Harris and Mike McCleish. There is also a web series - what a laugh! Are men shallow or is it the society in which we live? Dan Kaufman explores how journalist and educator, David, handles middle age in ‘Drowning in the Shallows’.
Is Isobel a better detective than she is a pscycholigist? She needs to solve the mystery of a baby's murder and prevent another possible tragedy in Anne Buist's ' The Long Shadow'.‘Prey’, by L A Larkin, takes us into the murderous world of poaching where political intrigue and corporate influence abound. Once again, Olivia Wolfe must solve a series of gruesome murders.
Who can truly know their parents? Darleen Bungey writes about her celebrity father with a truthful eye and loving heart in 'Daddy Cool'.Hilde Hinton’s, ‘The Loudness of Unsaid Things’ highlights the evolving struggle children face when confronted with mental instability.
Our perceptions of early Australia are challenged in K M Kruimink's novel, A Treacherous Country', as we follow the naïve Gabriel Fox on his almostimpossible quest to find a woman sent to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land.Balance & Other B.S. is Felicity Harley’s lively and entertaining debut book, published by Allen & Unwin.
Chris Flynn’s “Mammoth’ novel takes us on an historical journey that encompasses the rise of America on the global stage, the foundations of French scientific thought, the uprisings in Ireland and Lewis and Clark crossing America – and all told from the perspective of an ancient mammoth dinosaur.Radio Girl by David Dufty, published by Allen & Unwin, is an overdue biography of one of the most remarkable Australians you’ve probably never heard of: Violet McKenzie.
If you could talk to the animals would you listen to what they really wanted to say? Laura Jean McKay has set 'The Animals In That Country' in a time of a pandemic where the infected can do just that.Peter Grose relates the true story of piracy, mutiny and an epic voyage by ten convicts escaping the penal colony on Sarah Island in, ‘Ten Rogues’.
From the depths of Wonthagi coal mines to innercity Melbourne, this is a story about a young woman looking for personal happiness during WW1 but caught up in community sentiment and religious judgement in Christine Bell's 'No Small Shame'.Suzanne Leal confronts us with an ethical question in ‘The Deceptions’ that could well be answered at the altar but hers is a story that dates back to the holocaust.
Gay Lynch and Angela Sungaila are some of the authors in 'Thrill Me', an anthology of suspenseful stories.What is is like to be an English teacher in China? Asheg Brom has written about his time doing just that in 'Chicken Same Duck Talk'.
Suzanne Daniel won the Indie Award for a Debut Novel with her humorous and caring story of a young girl being brought up by two very different grandmothers in 'Allegra in Three Parts'.
Kirsty Manning's 'The Lost Jewels' is a story about mining, trade, design, families, love, loyalty and of course well researched history.
David reads a letter written by F. Scott Fitzgerald about self isolating in France during the Spanish Flu pandemic.The fantastic intercontinetal flight of the Grey Plover is the focus of Andrew Darby's work, Flight Lines.Fiona Lowe has given us another very readable account of what life and circumstances can throw up, especially for four women who realise that they may not be in 'Just an Ordinary Family'.
Margaret Bearman's book tells of a father, a famous artist, and how his choice of a subject profoundly effects his family. His daughter is the narrator of this book, 'We Were Never Friends'.Sophie Hardcastle's evocation of acquiesence and consent in 'Below Deck' challenges the reader to navigate notions of sexual identity in the contemporary world.
Hit and run has its consequences, as with all actions there are reactions, some most surprising. Kirsten Alexander's 'Riptides' is a family drama set in Brisbane through the 1970's.Recently Kirsten spoke at a Sisters-in-Crime event and convenor Tara Mitchell explains all about the work and connectiveness of Sisters-in-Crime.
Sean's collection of short stories, 'A Couple of Things Before the End', speak to social change and the challenges ahead when it comes to discourse and communication. It's a Black Inc release
Ali Alizadeh talks about his latest collection of poetry, 'Towards the End' and reflects on social dysfunction and how we lead our lives in the contemporary age. The economy, elections and education all come under the scrutiny of his verse.
Wayne Marshall talks about his debut collection of short stories: Shirl. It's published by Affirm Press.J P Pomare takes us into the dark and sinister world of cults with his latest novel, In The Clearing. It's an Allen and Unwin release.
In 1705, the French Court in Versailles was full of plotting and scheming. This was also happening with a Duke's wife and his five mistresses, who were all trying to improve their own circumstances in 'The Orange Grove' by Kate Murdoch. When truth is stranger than fiction you have a novel in the making. Meg Keneally fictionalizes the real life story of convict Mary Bryant in 'Fled' which dramatises the transportation and escape of a forthright and independent women in those early years of Australian settlement.
How would a destitute but charming and talented artist cope with painting portraits of Generals during one of the Napoleonic wars? Caroline Miley has written with knowledge and humour in 'Artist on Campaign'.1956 was the year Melbourne hosted the Olympics but the ripple effect of history, the influences before and the consequences after, informed the social and political landscape as Melbourne and Australia became globally more aware. Nick Richardson explores those elements in his work, '1956 - the year Australia welcomed the world'.
Luke Arnold blends the film noir detective genre with a mythical world more closely associated with Tolkein in 'The Last Smile in Sunder City'.
Set in Victorian times and the gem dealers in London, diamonds are the connection between an English heiress and a Zulu warrior in 'The Diamond Hunter' by Fiona McIntosh.
The universal need for connection and belonging is profound but is best illustrated in Catherine de Saint Phalle's novel, 'The Sea and Us' which is set in a simple fish and chip shop in Sydney Road, Brunswick.Caleb Zelic has a new motto in life - stay out of trouble, but murders seem to surround him. He will have to work with double-crossing partner again to solve the crimes in "Darkness for Light' by Emma Viskic.
'Nothing New' by Robyn Annear traces all things second hand: the history, the stigmas attached to it and the business that it continues to be.Christos Tsiolkas provides the reader with a unique sense of enlightenmet regarding the formative years of the Christian Church in his latest novel, 'Damascus'.
What does it take to be a typical farming family in the Mallee? Youngest daughter Marjorie worries about her 'nervy' mother and wants to keep it a family secret but do others have family secrets too? Anne Brinsden's 'Wearing Paper Dresses' is a wonderful read with well developed characters and a horrendous surprise. In a digital future, old rivalries between city states show how fantastical the world has become and, yet, how familiar everything remains with people battling for control. Scott Westerfeld in his adolescent novel, 'Shatter City', has Frey searching to establish her identity and reassert control over her own future.
It's suprising the extent of crime one can find in a country town. Garry Disher's, 'Peace', builds in intensity as seemingly trivial crimes and incidents investigated by a rural cop' lead to more far-reaching and extensive corruption.Mary Moody's book 'The Accidental Tour Guide' has the subtitle 'Adventures in Life and Death'. It is her memoir of life before and after her partner of 43 years, death.
'The Electric Hotel' is the title of one of the first silent films ever made and Dominic Smith has used the concept of film in our lives and history in his novel which goes by the same name. The influence of film on the lives of his characters and the iteration of the social impact of film through history forms the foundation of this intriguing work. The joy and wonderment of film, how people altered their character to suit the genre. the way film was used as propoganda and how it has become an archival foundation for social research all become part of Smith's narrative.
Nate is in a dysfunctional family, he is not a hero but author Vikki Wakefield gives him an honesty which is both funny and heartbreaking in 'This is How We Change The World'.'Land of Fences' is the third instalment of Mark Smith's post apocalyptic tale set in coastal Victoria. Our hero, Fin, faces ethical and moral compromises as a new society emerges.
Anna Krien draws parrallels between the lives and situations of her characters in 'Act of Grace', that show how close we are as a global community and how our actions ripple through neighbourhooods and societies.Ender Baskan's book 'A Portrait of Alice as a Young man' is about travelling, working with words and finding a confidence within ourselves.
Lucy Treloar conjurs a physical and emotional landscape in her novel 'Wolfe Island' that speaks of a looming personal and moral displacement in society.With the seriousness of sexual harassment and corporate corruption, Elliot Perlman's 'Maybe the horse will talk' is also a story of love, family, friendship and doing over the bully.
Amanda Niehaus juxtaposes the scientific and the emotional, the expextations of the natural world against the mores of cultural propriety, in her novel, The Breeding Season, in which the characters, Elise and Dan, come to terms with the loss of their first child.
There were many things that could disgrace a person in 1920's society: divorce, being placed in a mental asylum and pregnancy before marriage. Jennifer Bryce's debut novel, 'Lily Campbell's Secret', touches on them all. 'A Fixed Place - the long and short of story' is an eclectic collection of stories by Kathleen Mary Fallon that toys with story telling conventions.
'The Near and the Far - Volume 2' has over 20 writers from the Pacific region contributing, with Francesca Rendle-Short telling us about the WrICE project.Astrid Scholte's imaginary kingdom is divided into four realms ruled by four queens and each is being assassinated. Find out how and why in "Four Dead Queens".
'Here Until August' is a short story collection by Josephine Rowe with characters from many countries, on the verge of pivotal decisions.Deception and Vietnam War coding are central to Barry Heard's novel, 'The Operators', which highlights the dangers of travelling in foreign countries.
Past, present and future are combined in Claire Coleman's dystopian novel, 'The Old Lie', where we see colonialism reimagined in a galactic war.What were your favourite books as a child? Was it characters, different worlds or even a sense of fear that made you read on? Jane Sullivan reareads the books that made an impression, with adult insight into why they did, in 'Storytime'.
'Lucky Ticket' is a story collection from a range of story tellers, connected by deing displaced in a different country or their own, with insightful writing by Joey Bui.The world can be discombobulating unless you have magic glasses. This children's book, 'The Magic Glasses', has the authors; Marcus Verstraelen, Shannon Sands and John Head, playing with language.
Vikki Pertaitis is a 'true-crime' writer. Her accounts of actual crimes in 'Inside the Law - 25 years of True Crime Writing' will shock and amaze.'The best writing is the hard writing, the honest writing' is from Chloe Higgins book, 'The Girls' a grief memoir.
Sarah Bailey writes about Detective Gemma Woodstock again in 'Where the Dead Go'. Will her personal problems interfere with her investigation of a missing girl and a murdered boyfriend?Marieke Hardy talks about this year's Melbourne Writers Festival the theme of which is 'When we talk about love'.
'The Trespassers' by Meg Mundell, is a thought provoking thriller set on an ill-fated migrant ship coming to Australia.Mel Campbell and Anthony Morris delve into the absurdity of reality television in their novel, 'Nailed It'.
Hana Assafir's 'Arab Australian Other - stories on race and identity' speaks to the assumptions and prejudices inherent in societies about race and religion.Family life with no privacy of city life with corporate success? Penny must decide which would be most satisfying and with which man, in 'Wildflower Ridge' by Maya Linnell.
Elizabeth Bryer reveals how the corruption of stories, language and art speak to the fears within society in her novel, 'From Here On, Monsters'.Drugs and romance are alive in 'Echo Springs'. Leisl Leighton and three other authors weave crime and relationships through the police who work there.
Kerry Cue writes about how to set up a salon. It is like a book club without books, instead tales are told of love and loss with the growth of self identity. Some of the real-life stories are in 'The Sunday Story Club'.Philip Salom explores the vagaries of ordinary lives and relationships in a most revealing way though his latest novel, 'The Returns'.
Angela Savage takes us on an intriquing journey into the financial and ethical issues associated with fertitlity in her novel, 'Mother of Pearl'.Black Saturday was a firestorm situation happening 10 years ago. Alice Bishop has written about love, grief and recovery in 'The Constant Hum', over 40 tenderly written portraits of heartache.
Juvenile detention and drugs have facts readers will come to question in the fiction of 'The Subjects' by Sarah Hopkins.Melbourne has mote ghosts than you realize and Michael Pryor reveals the extent of the haunting in 'Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town'.
A world at the brink of war, a sinister conspiracy, a race to find a secret treasure, all with an archelogical bent, in 'The Emerald Tablet' by Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios.'Deviate' has author Jay Kristoff, exploring the chaos of a dystopian future in the sequel to 'Lifelike'.
Families come in all shapes and sizes as does humour. R.W.R. McDonald gives us gays, a headless body and a feisty 11 year old detective in 'The Nancys'.Alex Rance talks football, education and also about his charming children's picture book 'Rabbit's Hop,' illustrated by Shane McG.
Barry Scott talks about small indendent publishing company, 'Transit Lounge'. Being our Radiothon program we are asking and acknowledging listeners who have donated to Published or Not. You still can! (03)9419 8377
We transcend time and identities as souls are passed from one indidual to another in Alex Landragin's, 'Crossings'.Will virtual reality be there just for entertainment or will it take over our lives? Some of the issues at play, in K.H.Canobi's YA novel 'Mindcull'.
'Little Stones' reveals the post colonial world of Zimbabwe through the eyes of an eleven year old girl who is negotiating her parents' divorce and the social upheaval around her. A University fo Queensland Press release.'City of Trees' by Sophie Cunningham is an engaging and moving collection of essays on life, death and the need for a forest. It is released by Text Publishing.
'From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting' is a fascinating book by Judith Brett, released by Text Publishing.Melanie Cheng highlights the social and cultural forces that influence our lives when two individuals share accommodation in her novel, 'Room for a Starnger'. It is aText Publishing release.
Wayne Marshall's debut short story collection, 'Shirl', was a runner-up in the 2019 Victorian Premier Awards' Unpublished Manuscript Competition, and will be published by Affirm Press in early 2020.Amra Pajalic's account of her childhood and her mother's battle with bipolar disorder is set against a backdrop of her Bosnian heritage and the cultural and even historical forces that came into play when deling with marriage, mental challenges and the role of women. It is published by Transit Lounge.
Second thoughts are not uncommon before a wedding but what do you do when you receive a note from your fiance's former girlfriend on the morning of the wedding? Sallie Muirden explores the anxiety and confusion of the bride facing such a dilemma in Wedding Puzzle."Choice Words: A Collection of Writing about Abortion" is edited by Louise Swinn, with a foreword by Tanya Plibersek, and published by Allen& Unwin.
'Life Before' has an ordinary family caught in a terrible situation and 20 years on, a sister has to confront memories and a brother she hasn't seen since. Carmel Reilly's 'Life Before' is part family drama and part crime novel.'All The Tears in China' is the latest installment in the Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill. The shadow of Nazism prior to WW11 reaches to a cosmopolitan China where murder and intrigue abound.
'Simpson Returns' is a novella by Wayne Macauley that delves into the significance of the myths and tropes that shape our identity as a nation and how we may have lost sight of the values and meaning that underpin the stories we tell about ourselves. Journey with Macauley's mythical and quixotic Simpson on aquest to find the true Australia.
A plagiarised romance novel titled Lost and Found Heart is also a clever pun in Elizabeth Coleman's very humorous, 'Lost the Plot'.Mothers-in-law are much maligned. How much is deserved and how much is all just simple misunderstanding is explored in Sally Hepworth's 'The Mother-in-Law'.
Does sex appeal come with a use by date? Virginia Duigan has a happily married woman of older years, testing this in 'The Age of Discretion'.Anna Ciddor takes us on a nostalgic journey into the 60's' in her children's novel '52 Mondays'.
One migrant changes countries and changes the lives of those she meets. 'Invented Lives' by Andrea Goldsmith is set in 1980's Melbourne but has a back story of Russian history.'The Shining Wall' is Melissa Ferguson's glimpse of a dystopian future where hope's glimmer lies in the possibility of altruism.
Mark Brandi takes us into the drug sub-culture of Melbourne in his latest novel, 'The Rip'.The unsolved mysteries in the world of mathematics may cross all boundaries but will maths help to make or break a family in 'A Universe of Sufficient Size' by Miriam Sved.
An island can be a holiday destination as well as a metaphor for social and family continuity, but it can also represent how isolated individuals can become. These actions are explored in Peggy Frew's 'Islands'.
'Highway Bodies' is a young-adult zombie-apocalypse novel by award-winning author Alison Evans.Crime is a caper in which the individual is often powerless. Such is the case for Lachie Munro, in Andy Muir's novel, 'Hiding to Nothing'.
A cursed painting sets the tone for the latest murder mystery by Katherine Kovacic, 'Painting in the Shadows'. Will art dealer, Alex Clayton identify the clues that sets forgeries apart from the truth?Fires leave devasted bush land, burnt buildings and fractured relationships. 'Home Fires' by Fiona Lowe is set in the fictional community of Myrtle, before and after with the rebuilding and the ongoing hurt.
'The Librarian of Auschwitz' is a story of courage and hope, written in Spanish by Antonio Iturbe and translated by Lilit Thwaites.Don Tillman, the hero of The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, now confronts raising his eleven year old son and the labels applied to children and those on the autism spectrum. The author is, or course, Graeme Simsion and the book is 'The Rosie Rebuilt'.
Logging or tourism, parenting attitudes, control, good fiction and football all come into play in a small Tasmanian community with 'The Orchardist's Daughter' by Karen Viggers.Identity, memory and abduction form the thread of intrigue in 'Call Me Evie' by J P Pomere.
A son is lost, a child is found and a trial ensues in Kirsten Alexander's 'Half Moon Lake' which questions if choice is prejudiced to the white and wealthy, set in America, 1913.Contemplative, Jane Carswell's work, 'Talk of Treasure' takes us on the journey of a book coming to fruition in a tale that is both mediative and thoughtful.
Once again, Bren MacDibble takes us into the immediate future where food secuity is compromised. 'The Dog Runner' looks at what happens when all grasses are destroyed and ten year old Ella and her half-brother, Emery, have to survive.How do you find your own identity, especially if you have a disability. Twins, Sea and Serene are co-joined physically, but does this make them agree to everything? 'Fusion' by Kate Richards is fiction but immensely believable.
Two worlds converge in Emily Brewin's, 'Small Blessings'; the priviledged life of Isobel and Rosie's social poverty. Both, however, are blessed in ways they perhaps don't realize despite the challenges they face.
The Anne Elder Award has been bestowed annually since 1977 to recognize the best first book of poetry by Australian writers. The anthology, The Bright and the Cold, compiled by her daughter Catherine, and the biography, The Heart's Ground, written by Anne's niece, Julia Hamer, provide a perspective of a poetic voice and the creative spirit of an Australian poet who was the contemporary of such voices as Bruce Dawe, Judith Rodriguez and Les Murray. Copies of both works are available from Readings on-line.
Holly Throsby has another small town crime or mystery read. Two people come to 'Cedar Valley' on the same day, one to find out about her mother, the other to die.Australia is divided. Those effected by the virus have enhanced creativity but can't get into Cornucopia, a religous republic in the north. 'The Second Cure' is a fascinating read about scientific possibilities and political divides by Margaret Morgan.
Bill Jenkins explores the frailties, quirks and contradictions of individuals in his poetry collection, We Carry the Cave. As a psychologist,pastor and scientist, his perspective is both telling and revealing.Rosalie Ham takes us through drought, infidelity and administrative corruption in her latest novel about life on the land. It's entitles The Year of the Farmer.
Toni Jordan has written about a lost book and a secret love in 'The Fragments' which connects a literary mystery with the transitional times in politcs of 1936 and 1986.June Laurie's adolescent novel, 'into the air' is part of the Blake Collider series where we are taken into the strange world of the CERN laboratory and dimensional travel.
'(Definitely) the Best Dogs of All Time' is a charming and humorous gift book by Jadan Carroll with illustrations by Molly Dyson.A death on a remote cattle station, murder or suicide, but why? Jane Harper's 'The Lost Man' is a crime novel involving three brothers.
If you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and wondered what happened to some of the characters, you will delight in 'What Kitty Did Next' by Carrie Kablean.Chris Hammer takes us through the scorching landscape of outback Australia in his psychological thriller, 'Scrublands' delving into an inexplicable atrocity in a country town.
"The mystery of how boys and brothers love" is at the very core and a quote from Markus Zusak's 'Bridge of Clay'.
The latest two poetry collections by Clive James - Injury Time and The River in the Sky - seemingly defy his terminal cancer diagnosis. He continues to write and the compulsion has led to evocative recollections of his life that are touching, insightful and memorable. His inevitable demise seems to have opened up new horizons for examination and discussion.
Jock Serong delves into an often overlooked chapter of early Australian history in his novel, 'Preservation' which addresses the puzzling riddle of The Sydney Cove wreck in 1797 and its cargo of rum.Would life be simpler if relationships were mathematical instead of emotional, perhaps so, but not near as much fun as Katherine Collette has written about in 'The Helpline'.
Alec Patric delves into the impulses and desires driving individuals in his short story collection, 'The Butcherbird Stories'.A woman, learned in spirtual ways, helps to lead the tribes fighting against the Romans during the iron age in Ilka Tampke's 'Songwoman'.
Claire Varley has interconnected five characters in 'The Book of Ordinary People' who by telling their own stories, or by hearing other's stories, learn more about themselves.It is always a perfect storm of comedy, tension and second thoughts when families gather for a wedding. Bridie Jabour fathoms these dedpths in her novel 'The Way Things Should Be'.
Maryrose Cuskelly explores the events, personalities and psychological impact of the murders that took place in the small rural Victorian town of Wedderburn in 2014. The book is entitled, Wedderburn - a true tale of blood and dust.
Sarah Myles has written a gripping moral thriller about an abduction of a young Australian aid worker. 'The Wolf Hour' is set in Africa .Myth and reality collide in Katya de Becerra's, 'What the Woods Kept'.
'August Falling' by Les Zig delves into the fraught nature of relationships and the challenges they represent.Nina Stanton chose 100 beautiful objects that related to her life and Mary Ryllis Clark wrote her biography with mini histories of the objects in 'A Tear in the Glass'.
Stuart Kells investigates the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's works in 'Shakespeare's Library'.It is the entire family that undergoes change in 'The Last Summer of Ada Bloom' by Martine Murray.
There can never be justice after a war as Adam Wakeling's account of the Pacific War Crimes Trials in his work, 'Stern Justice' so aptly illustrates.Three women redo a 5 day trek that they did 20 years ago, will it reignite more blame and shame or restore a broken friendship in Sally Piper's 'The Georgraphy of Friendship'.
'The Honourable Thief' has archaeology, Artemis, sex and black market antiquity sales in this action packed adventure by Meaghan Wilson Anastasios.Louisa Deasey rediscovers family, her father, his love of literature and the artist's life in her memoir, 'A Letter from Paris'.
Ted Todd has written short stories about dating from a male perspective in 'Fifty Something Male' and 'A Doubtful Inheritance' is his autobiofiction as Tibor Weisz. The title says it all - 'Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Role'. Fiona Patten reveals the current malaise within our political system.
'Into the Fog' by Sandi Wallace is a new rural crime thriller with a wild storm, a long way from home and three missing children.What lengths will you go to if your survival is at stake? Lili Wilkinson explores this conundrum in 'After the Lights Go Out', where doomsday preppers and their isolationism is challenged.
Debut director, Marieke Hardy, talks about this year's Melbourne Writers Festival, themed - a matter of life and death.Cher Chidzey's book 'Ken's Quest' has opinionated Ken wanting to live and work in Australia but will Australia, and especially Julia, change his attitudes?
'Beautiful Revolutionary' is an engrossing historical fiction by Laura Elizabeth Woollett, explaining the charismatic Jim Jones and why so many followed him to their death. We are taken on a mythical ride in Rebecca Lim's 'The Relic of the Blue Dragon' when an ancient Chinese vase is broken releasing a girl who has been trapped for two thousand years.
'George Parker Goes Global' is a delightfully ridiculous adventure for the teenage reader by David Metzenthen.Kirsty Manning's 'The Jade Lily' is an intriguing tale of how three generations are shaped through the circumstance of war with Shanghai, as the backdrop.
The nature of narrative is exposed in 'Antidote to a Curse', an intriguing novel by James Cristina whose protagonist waits upon a HIV diagnosis.True characters give us an insight into the Victorian asylum histoy in Jill Giese's book, 'The Maddest Place on Earth'.
Alison Booth's, 'A Perfect Marriage', has domestic violence at the centre but love, loss, friendship and honesty help to heal the hurt.Peter Cotton's, 'Dead Heat' begins with a domestic murder but soon escalates to a regional, nuclear crisis.
Ten Women tell their stories in Gwenda Beed Davey's 'Girl Talk: One Hundred Years of Australian Childhood'.Jacqui Horwood from Sisters-in-Crime talks about the upcoming Davitt Awards.
Alli Sinclair has set 'Burning Fields' in the sugar cane area of northern Queensland in 1945 with a character, Rosie, who wants to rebuild her family without losing the man she loves. Moreno Giovannoni takes us into the unique atmosphere of rural Tuscany in his collection of tales 'The Fireflies of Autumn'.
Who is your best friend and why? In 'The Art of Friendship' Lisa Ireland writes about two women who share a histroy but question whether they should continue with their friendship. Trauma is seen through the eyes of a child in Kate van Hooft's 'WE See the Stars'.
A brazen murder with hundreds of witnesses takes place on the streets of Melbourne, in Sarah Bailey's crime novel 'Into the Night'.Clare Strahan tackles the challenging topic of adolescent sexuality in her novel, 'The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge'.
The Emerging Writers Festival Artistic Director, Izzy Roberts-Orr, highlighted the interests and challenges of running this festival for the new creative voices in the community during our Radiothon programme.
Blue Justice is a gritty Melbourne crime novel that draws on Phil Copsey's four decades in the police force.Other Worlds is an intriguing series by Melbourne author, George Ivanoff, that invites the younger reader to let their imaginations run wild and visit impossible but plausible worlds.
Megan Goldin’s novel, The Escape Room, delves into the murky world of finance where people are literally prepared to murder to make money. But what happens when some of those corrupt executives become caught in an elevator? A Penguin publication.The Bridge by Enza Gandolfo is a moving and poignant novel that revolves around Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge. Two tragic accidents four decades apart deeply affect the lives of families in and around Yarraville. A Scribe Publication.
Just how does a woman operating a fish and chip shop in rural Australia become a private detective influencing commercial development in Australia? Sue Williams shows us how in the amusing 'Live and Let Fry'.Glenda Guest takes us on a trans-Australian journey of both distance and memory in her novel, 'A Week in the Life of Cassandra Aberline'.
Award-winning and NY Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff's latest riveting young adult sci-fi novel is LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike), published by Allen & Unwin.Yvonne Fein takes us into the layered intensity of Jewish culture in her absorbing collection of short stories, Choose Somebody Else, published by Wild Dingo Press.
The orchestration of Monash's battle at Le Hamel in France is compellingly detailed in Monash's Masterpiece by Peter FitzSimons, published by Hachette Australia.Once A Copper: The Life and Times of Brian 'The Skull' Murphy is the latest gripping true-crime book written by award-winning author Vikki Petraitis, published by Wild Dingo Press.
'Little Gods' by Jenny Ackland has a young girl on the cusp of womanhood who wants to find answers to a family secret but also learns that the truth doesn't always set you free.Family and social dysfunction feature heavily in Julie Prendergast's 'The Earth Does Not Get Fat'.
'Bonesland' by Brendan Lawley, takes us on an adolescent journey full of testosterone trauma.An extended family is tangled together by a wealthy inheritance, secrets, simmering childhood rivalry and betrayal in Fiona Lowe's 'Birthright'.
Michelle Scott Tucker has written the biography of an ordinagry English country woman who fell in love with a difficult man and came with him to New South Wales in 1790 in 'Elizabeth Macarthur; A life at the edge of the world'.Never say never is the maxim of Robert Hillman's latest work, 'The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted'.
An extended interview with Michael Mohammed Ahmad about his novel, The Lebs, which illustrates the struggles of Bani Adam who is coming to terms with his sexual and cultural identity in the Australian Muslim community of Sydney's Punchbowl.
S. A. Jones has cleverly written about the many and varied sexual encounters in 'The Fortress' where men have to be subservient to women.Emily's horizons are broadened after she is dispatched to the family property in Mira Robertson's, 'The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean'.
Rodney Hall explores the self-imposed shackles and constraints of society in 'A Stolen Season'.'The Everlasting Sunday' by Robert Lukins has boys in trouble, learning about surviving, not just against a vindictive winter but for life.
Investigate the death of an aspiring writer in Katherine Kovacic's, 'The Portrait of Molly Dean'.The tragedy of war, the power of hope and all sorts of love are at the heart of Ada Langton's novel 'The Art of Preserving Love'.
'What the Light Reveals' by Mike McCoy delves into identity and allegiances in the Cold War era of Australia's past.Gert Loveday is the author of 'Writing is Easy' and also the humourous invention of Gabrielle Daly and Joan Kerr.
Debra Oswald's 'The Whole Bright Year' is a fiction about growing up. She chats with Judy Bierwirth as they both have writen for stage and screen.
A novel for the modern male, Craig Sherborne's, 'Off the Record', skewers the male ego and current day journalism.How well do you know your neighbours? Sally Hepworth has interesting twists and turns in 'The Family Next Door'.
Intrigue, espionage and a global threat are at the heart of James Phelan's 'The Agency'.The revolution in Iran is combined with magic realism in 'The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree' beautifully written by Shokoofeh Azar.
There are countless stories to be found behind each door of a single street as Lynette Washington discovers in 'Plane Tree Drive'.
Richard Holt's, 'What You Might Find', is an entertaining collection of micro-fiction with a poetic bent.What will an aspiring journalist do get out of her small country town? Anna Snoekstra has many twists and turns in 'Little Secrets'.
Who should have custody? Author, Anne Buist, has used her own knowledge as a psychiatrist in the psychological thriller, 'This I Would Kill For'.A family relocating to a haunted house, riviving the spirits from the past and exposing family friction in Penni Russon's, 'The Endsister'.
Nadia Wright explores the myth of Raffles and the contribution of William Farquhar in her account, 'William Farquhar and Singapore'.Medieval Italy is the setting for Kate Murdoch's 'Stone Circle' with romance and the craft of geomancy, incantations and shape shifting in the plot.
Speechless: A Year in My Father's Business is a "masterpiece" memoir written by James Button, first published by Melbourne University Press in 2012, followed by a revised edition in 2013.James Button's 2016 book, published by Melbourne University Press, is Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong.
Joel Martin is the organiser of the inaugural 'Speculate' festival of speculative fiction, being held on 28 April 2018 at the Gasworks Arts Park in Albert Park, Melbourne. For more info, visit: SpecFic.com.auGordon Thompson (and his company Clouds of Magellan Press) is the publisher of the inaugural 'Bent Street' anthology from Australia's LGBTIQA+ community. 'Bent Street' will be launched on Sunday 11 February 2018 at 4 pm in Hares & Hyenas (Bookshop), 63 Johnston Street, Fitzroy.
Glenna Thomson's second novel is 'Stella and Margie' (2018), her first is 'Blueberry' (2017), both are published by Penguin Random House (Bantam imprint). The Melbourne launch of 'Stella and Margie' is on 25 January 2018 at Readings in Hawthorn.The Cass Tuplin series of crime-comedy novels is written by Sue Williams, published by Text Publishing. 'Live and Let Fry' is now on pre-order for release on 1 May 2018. The first two novels in the series are 'Murder with the Lot' and 'Dead Men Don't Order Flake'.
Patti Miller's authoritative book on life writing is 'Writing True Stories: The Complete Guide to Writing Autobiography, Memoir, Personal Essay, Biography, Travel and Creative Nonfiction', published by Allen & Unwin.'Wish You Were Here' is a funny and moving memoir about driving across the USA, written by Sheridan Jobbins, published by Affirm Press.
Carmel Bird's latest collection of stories is 'The Dead Aviatrix: Eight Short Stories', published by Spineless Wonders. Available exclusively as an ebook.
'Siren' by Rachel Matthews is a compelling account of sexual exploration and the associated misunderstandings, published by Transit Lounge. (Replayed 2017 highlight from August.)'In The Dark' is a charming and humorous novel for younger readers, written by Carole Poustie, published by Celapene Press.
Tony Wilson talks about 'Sir Bum', his contribution to 'Laugh Your Head Off Again and Again' which delves into the possible improbabilities of the lives of childen.Monica McInerney explores the meaning of home, in this big read about family, love and secrets in 'The Trip of a Lifetime'.
The vibrant life and history of Acland Street is revealed in Judith Buckrich's 'Ackland Steet - The Grand Lady of St Kilda'.Tess Evans has written with humour about the community of a small Australian town, where a new business and new people will test friendships, in 'The Ballad of Banjo Crossing'.
A bird teaching about building design! 'Robin Boid: Architect' is a delightfully creative picture story book by Maree Cootes.The criminal and ethical implications of Australia's soverign border policy is starkly illustrated in Jock Serong's 'On the Java Ridge'.
Sandi Wallace writes about the highs and lows of cops on the job, in short stories 'On The Job' and rural crime in 'Dead Again'.'Insights and Reflections' is a selection of articles from Phillip Adams on the issues, people and ideas that have caught his attention since 2003.
'The Tides Between' is an historical novel of early migration to the Port Phillip settlement of Melbourne by Elizabeth Jane Corbett and published by Odyssey Books.Konrad Marshall delves into the stories associated with the Richmond Football Club; its players, leadership and support network. Serendipity saw the club win the 2017 premiership which makes 'Yellow and Black' a journal about success.
Life is a voyage on a deep, dark ocean in A.S. Patric's, 'Atlantic Black'.Alex Miller has written a novel which is also based on his own life in 'The Passage of Love'.
Would you write letters of regret or revenge as your 'Parting Words'? Cass Moriarty has a family learning about their father through letters he has left.Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travelled to Australia. It's true! 'The Australian Casebook' proves it and Lucy Sussex, one of the contributors to the anthology, explains how it is so.
Fiona Wood joins with Cath Crowley and Simmone Howell for 'Take Three Girls, a story of school age friendships surviving toxic websitesClaire Aman's short story collection, 'Bird Country' beguiles, entertains and amuses.
Both redemption and romance can be found on Spain's Camino in 'Two Steps Forward' by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion.There are five self contained stories introducing a variety of characters and lives, all with a connection to Pippa in Michelle de Kretser's 'The Life to Come'.
'The Rain Never Came' is a post-apocalyptic novel written by Lachlan Walter, published by Odyssey Books.Lois Murphy provides a cautionary tale of just how easily we can be overcome by an allegorical mist in her novel, 'Soon' - a Transit Lounge release.
Bram Presser's 'The Book of Dirt' delves into Jewish tradition and the struggle of assimilating the past.'The Blood within the Stone' is the first book in the Wraith Cycle of mind control and power at play by T R Thompson.
'We That Are Left' tells how some wives deal with their hopes, dreams and outcomes from a war, by Lisa Bigelow.Set in the near future, 'Widler Country' has the themes of asylum and violence in a continuation of the issues Mark Smith introduced in his first novel 'The Road to Winter'.
We see the challenging life around Justine through her young eyes in Sofie Laguna's 'The Choke'.'The Library: A calalogue of Wonders' is authored by Stuart Kells and is published by Text Publishing.
Featured this week are two contrasting novels of speculative fiction: The Art of Navigation by Rose Michael, published by UWAP; Year of the Orphan by Daniel Findlay, published by Penguin Random House.
Superstition, faith and witchcraft all feature in Chris Womersley's 'City of Crows' set in 1673 Paris.Emma Viskic has Caleb Zelik, deaf investigator, m doing his best to find out who is committing the crimes in 'And Fire Came Down'.
Rachel Leary's, 'Bridget Crack', is a convict struggling for survival in the township and wilderness of Van Dieman's Land. Jessica Alice provides an overview of the authors and events in the 2017 Melbourne Writers Festival.
Charlie was missing for three months, will the abuse warp her for the rest of her life? Family complexities are at the forefront in 'The Way Back' by Kylie Ladd.Dangerous challenges and unexplained events lie within Vikki Wakefield's 'Ballad for a Mad Girl'.
'Tell it to the Dog' is Robert Power's memoir that provides an unusaul take on memory and reflection and how these elements shape a life. Jennifer Down has death as a connection in the 14 short stories that make up 'Pulse Points'.
There is a pathos in Rachel Matthews' novel, 'Siren' which explores the circumstances in society contributing to sexual violence.Anna George centers the challenges and pressures of motherhood across society in 'The Lone Child', a page turning novel.
Alan Brough's, 'Charlie and the Karaoke Cockroaches', continues the delightfully entertaining series and includes an insect orchestra.Mark Baker's memoir, 'Thirty Days', utilizes the Jewish tradition of shloshim or thirty days of mourning as a foundation for a memoir that recounts the life he shared with his wife who passed at fifty-five years of age.
Dennis Glover has fictionalized the life of George Orwell and recounted how the classic dystopian novel, '1984', came to be written.'How to Dress a Dummy' is a frank and funny book by former international model, Cassie Lane, published by Affirm Press.
Melanie Cheng's award-winning collection of short fiction, Australia Day, is published by Text Publishing.Iain Ryan's noir journey, The Student, explores the criminal potential in every university student.
Teenager Josie is in self destrutive behaviour with underage sex and drugs in Moira Burke's 'Losing It'.Innocence meets the dark underbelly of society in Mark Brandi's 'Wimmera'.
False memories can play havoc with a murder investigation making Megan Goldin's 'The Girl in Keller's Way', an intriguing psychological thriller.Can you blame King Arthur or the Hawthorn Football Club for a family falling apart, in Vivienne Kelly's 'The Starlings'.
The digital world is fraught with challenges especially if your adolescent comments go viral. Gabrielle Williams explores the fallout from such an event in her novel, 'My Life as a Hashtag'.Katherine Boland writes about different cultures, communities an d family expecations in 'Hippy Days, Arabian Nights'.
Jenevieve Chang's, "The Good Girl of Chinatown" is a memoir that takes us on Jenevieve's journey to the land of her ancestors, China, with its growing demand for all things European including the world of burlesque. A Penguin release.
Sally Abbott reveals a dystopian Australia of the not so distant future in 'Closing Down'.Alex Miles talks about her different writing styles in her 'Olive Black' series featuring a 10 year old superstar and her handy guide of 'Sixty Secrets for a Happy Bride'.
'Wedding Bush Road' is a novel about the choices we make, the duty to parents and the regrets that linger by David Francis.'Some Tests' by Wayne Macauley takes us on a surrealistic journey through the labyranthine world of the medical profession.
'The Dark Lake' is a murder mystery by Sarah Bailey set in a small Australian country town. It is part psychological intrigue with a very flawed female detective and a victim with a dubious past. An Allen and Unwin release.Nicolas Brasch is the co-founder of The Garret, a series of podcasts by acclaimed writers on writing. It is available for free via thegarretpodcast.com or itunes.
The Vogel Award winner, Marija Pericic, talks about her novel, The Lost Pages, which not only delves into one of the contemporary world's literary controversies regarding Franz Kafka and Max Brod but raises existential questions of identity and insecurity.The Director of Writers Victoria, Kate Larsen, discusses what the organisation does for the writing community in Victoria.
Bernadette Brennan shines a light on five decades of writing by one of Australia's most important authors in 'A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work'. Published by Text Publishing.'Margaret Flockton' is a biography of Australia's first botanical artist by Louise Wilson. It also includes beautiful coloured photographs of her work. A Wakefield Press release.
Money or a sense of humour - what is worth more? Be amused by Rosemary Macindoe's The Toorak Jackpot.Myth and fable are integral components of Rebecca Rosengrave's Gumtree Gargoyles.
Self storage facilities are the answer for our excess property, but are these storage facilities for the soul? Find out more in David Cohen's, 'Disappearing off the Face of the Earth'.Lia Hills' novel "A Crying Place' makes us question whether Australia's inland desert is the dead centre or the heart of Australia.
Bruce Pascoe's book Mrs Whitlam is fiction for young readers (shorlisted for CBCA 2017 awards), which follows the adventures of Marnie Clark after she acquires a horse named Mrs Whitlam. A Magabala Books release.Steph Bowe's book Night Swimming is young adult fiction exploring the emerging awareness of sexuality within a young teenage girl whose life is a myriad of challenging and conflicting concerns. A Text Publishing release.
'How to Bee' is a journey into the near fuure where real bees are extinct. It is written by Bren McDibble.Bullying, teachers, single parents, Henry Lawson and dogs are part of 'Harry Kruize, Born to Lose' by Paul Collins.Bren and Paul talk about the diffficulties and skills in writing for kids.
Klaas Kalma's self-published novel, 'Distant Echoes', takes us back to post-World War Two Australia.Fiona Lowe's novel, 'Daughter of Mine', exposes the secrets within families over time.
Two women who share a love of herbs, but in different places and times is just one of the topics in Kirsty Manning's wonderful debut novel 'The Midsummer Garden'.Peter Polites takes us on a noir journey through the Sydney homosexual community in 'Down the Hume'.
Frank Moorhouse talks about the life of a writer in his Meanjin essay 'Is Writing Still a Way of Life'.Sally van Gent has drawn sketches that enhance the writing of her life's most significant memories in 'The Navy-blue Suitcase'.
R. D. Gennari has a Sci Fi fantasy series,'Battle for Skeptron, The First Uncovering' is the first, set in the land of Numaria.'a chink in a daisy-chain' is Phil Day's divertisment down several rabbit holes. A Finlay Lloyd release.
The bridge isn't the only thing that has broken in 'All Fall Down', Cassandra Austin has set her book about broken relationships in outback Australia.Ouyang Yu provides an unique insight into Australia's past in his novel 'Billy Sing', a Transit Lounge release.
Sasha's antics will have you laughing and her pastries will also give you pleasure in Lesley Truffle's 'The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte'.Carmel Shute talks about a Sisters-in-Crime event and how the past is fertile ground for story telling.
Caroline Miley, is an art historian and writes convincingly about an artist's life and difficult times in Georgian England in 'The Competition'.Lorina Hastings is one of 50 writers from around the world contributing to an ebook, 'A Pocketful of Dreams'.
A program about highflyers.Libby Angel's 'The Trapeze Act' is about a daughter wanting to find out about herself, will the humourous and bizarre stories of her decendants help?Maree Coote has put famous artworks and art education together in an entertaining way in 'Andy Web;Artist'
Sunni Overend's 'The Dangers of Truffle Hunting' is a sexy story questioning if passion will outweigh the simmering discontent in both love and food.
Wisdom Tree is a collection of five novellas by Nick Earls released by publisher, Inkerman and Blunt. Neither short stories nor novels, these pieces allow for a more extended development of character and situations not achievable in conventional short stories. Current social values, the needs of children, the changing social landscape are issues and concerns identified in these stories allowing readers to make their own connections.
'Crimes of the Father' is, ostensibly, a simple story of a priest returning home but the implications and ramifications of his visit leads to an investigation of the institutional malaise within the Church. This Penguin Books release touches on culture, conscience and celibacy making for compulsive reading.
Holly Throsby has created 'Goodwood', a small town where it is impossible to keep a secret - so how and why did two people disappear?The summer season of Published or Not brings us a replay of 'The Serpent's Sting' by Robert Gott. A Scribe Publication.
'The Museum of Modern Love' is a fictional story by Heather Rose about the people who came to watch and participate wih Marina Abramovic in her Arist is Present performance.Jude Perera's 'The Beast' is a story of friendship, deception and survival, set in Sri Lanka.
Kimberley Starr takes us on a medieval journey of crusades and demons in 'The Book of Whispers'.Chocolate, Quakers, WW1 and romance all mixed together for another well researched fictional story by Fiona McIntosh. 'The Chocolate Tin' is about a woman wanting more than just a marriage of convenience.
'Double Dissolution' is a memoir of Australia's recent federal election set against the backdrop of Lee Zachariah's faltering marriage.
'Beyond the Vapour Trail' is Brett Pierce's memoir of life as an aid worker in some extremely challenging parts of the world.Second hand bookshops are full of mysteries and Cath Crowley has given us love and loss as well in 'Words in Deep Blue'.
Set in three different periods of time, Dominic Smith's, 'The Last Painting of Sara de Vos', provides the reader with insights into the world of Dutch art masters and the contemporary world of art forgery. (An Allen and Unwin release).
Di Morrissey has her main character starting a new life, in a new country but with a family that has a tragic secret in 'A Distant Journey'.Duncan McNab looks into the life and murders of one of Australia's corrupt policemen in 'Roger Rogerson - from decorated policeman to convicted criminal'.
The indigenous poet, Ellen van Neerven, talks about her collection, 'Comfort Food'.Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days in 1926. 'On the Blue Train' is Kristel Thornell's novel of what may have happened.
Tania Chandler has entwined a murder mystery and a domestic drama in 'Death in the water'.'Cassocked Savage' is Cenarth Fox's account of the life of Patrick Bronte.
'Poum and Alexandre - A Paris Memoir' is Catherine de Saint Phalle's recollection of her parents in post was Paris. They are eccentric characters and their lives are told through the eyes of Catherine's recollection as an eight year old.
Hannah Kent's latest novel, The Good People, takes us on a journey into the world of superstition and folk lore to be found in an isolated Irish community of 1825 where changelings and fairies abound. Like her first novel, Burial Rites, it is based on historical events and documents providing an insight into customs, practices and beliefs that really occurred.
David Carlin is one of the co-directors of the WrICE program and one of 21 Asian and Pacific authors in the collection 'The Near and Far'.The world of the poet, Judith Wright, is explored in Georgina Arnott's partial biography, 'The Unknown Judith Wright'.
Kate Mildenhall's, 'Skylarking', explores the sexual awakening of two teenage girls on an isolated lighthouse post in colonial Australia.Genetics, art, twins and growing up through 1950's Melbourne all have a part in Jacinta Halloran's 'The Science of Appearances'.
Laura Elizabeth Woollett has blended creative fiction with true crime in 'The love of a bad man'.Cross-cultural differences are explored in Isabelle Li's short story collection, 'A Chinese Affair'.
In a world of have and have nots, the haves may have money but not emotions or books. This is where Mary Borsellino has set 'Thrive'.'Five ways to be famous now' is Maurilia Meehan's social satire full of eccentric characters on a cruise ship where murder abounds.
Angela Flournoy writes about the complications of a large family, especially when deciding what to do about their family home in 'The Turner House'.
Michelle Wright's short story collection, 'Fine' is a poetic evocation of love, loss and the joy of writing.Darrell Pitt mixes action and humour in a science fiction romp 'A Toaster on Mars'.
Exciting times in Melbourne as the 2016 Writers Festival is about to begin. Lisa Dempster tells us all about it.Dallas Lyons talks about his children's book 'The Night Guardians' and we all talk about self publishing with Aly Walsh.
Do you know of young girls who defy their parents, who are not good girls? These 17 stories from 'Rebellious Daughters' are from many different backgrounds and Lee Kofman is just one of them.Revel in the fiasco that is the life of William Power - actor and detective. He is the bumbling hero of Robert Gott's, 'The Serpent's Sting'.
What happened at the BBQ affects friendships and families in Liane Moriarty's 'Truly, Madly, Guilty'.Zane Lovitt's 'Black Teeth', is a murder mystery where the victim hasn't yet been dispatched and the murderer yet to commit the crime. Find out if it happens.
Alby is a guide dog in the three books of the 'Alby and the Cat' series by Leanne Davidson. Christine Wells gives us romance across time in 'The Wife's Tale'.
Mark Smith's first novel, The Road to Winter, is a fast paced story of survival set in the not too distant future. It's a guaranteed page turner or your money back.
'We Ate the Road Like Vultures' is a contemporary 'road trip' by Lynette Lounsbury full of invention and surprises.
Nick Richardson explores the power and influence of sport during the great conflict of World War 1 in 'The Game of Their Lives'.Rebecca Ryan has written about simple ideas on how to meditate which are suitable for anyone in 'Mindfulness for Mothers'.
Zana Fraillon's, 'The Bone Sparrow', is a heart rending story of what happens to asylum seekers incarcerated in detention centers.'Dead Men don't order Flake' is another of Sue Williams humourous crime stories, set in country towns where government policies could be the 'sauce' for murder.
When a young woman is murdered it makes media headlines. Emily Maguire's book 'An Isolated Incident' concentrates on the effect to loved ones.
Katherine Brabon's, 'The Memory Artist', explores the collective soul of Russia as her character, Pasha Ivanov, revisits the past and the landscape of his future.
'Two Decades Naked' is Leigh Hopkinson's memoir about her two decades working as a stripper in Australia and overseas. It provides an interesting insight into an industry normally not discussed.
Indulge in 'The Hotel Du Barry' - a novwl of 1920's manners and decadence by Lesley Truffle.
Join in a tribute of four decades of 3CR's community service in 'Radical Radio-celebrating 40 years of 3CR, introduced by Juliet Fox.Toni Jordan has written a comedy about love and marriage, how kids are hurt and the hurt that comes with the inability to conceive them in 'Our tiny, useless hearts'.
There are many perspectives possible when writing about conflict; the hero's as well as the enemy's. David provides both views in 'Dreaming the Enemy'.
Explore love and the delights of Rome in Mark Lemprell's novel, 'A Lovers' Guide to Rome'.Kat Patrick has listed the loves and amusing truths in 'I Am Doodle Cat', illustrated by Laureen Marriott and published by Scribble, the brand new kid's imprint of Scribe Publications.
In 'The Art of Reading' Damon Young writes about curiosity, courage and patience being just a few of the dispositions necessary for a good reader.The role of The Californian in the Titanic tragedy remains an enigma that is explored in David Dyer's 'The Midnight Watch'.
The truth about a dog being man's best friend is behind Reka Kaponay's supernatural story of nightmares, 'Dawn of the Guardian'.
Aoife Clifford has set 'All these Perfect Strangers' in a university, with new friends to be made, secrets to be hidden and murders. A morally complex page turner.
The effect of suicide on best friends is at the heart of Jennifer Down's 'Our Magic Hour'.Ruth Clare's 'Enemy' looks at how her father brought the Vietnam War home.
How much does Angie, a single mother manipulate George an elderly widower? Tess Evans 'Mercy Street' is a book about love, loss and loneliness
Will the daughter tell her secret and allow her family help her? Sara Foster's 'All That is Lost Between Us' is a domestic noir set in the Lake District in England. A lost child, a mother's responsibility and a critical society come to the fore in Olga Lorenzo's 'The Light on the Water'.
Hugo Race takes us on a journey through music, time and history in his reminiscence, 'Road Series', and provides insights about life as a musician.Fiona McFarlane has characters reviewing themselves at the end of each short story in 'The High Places'
Barry Jones takes us on a journey of the great classical works of music and literature in a book that spans several ages and continents.
'Kings Rising' is the third installment in C.S. Pacat's Captive Prince trilogy.Erica Jewel is Kathryn Ledson's creation and in her third crime novel, 'Grand Slam', she protects the number one seed at the Australian Open from danger and herself!Both authors also discuss their involvement with Romance Writers.
David Carlin knows Sosina well and has written her story of growing up in Ethiopia, finding asylum and a circus career in Australia and the emotional draw back to family and culture of Ethiopia in 'The Abyssinian Contortionist'.
We journey into a surreal world in Leanne Hall's adolescent novel, 'Iris and the Tiger'.
Mary Parker's, 'Fairy tales Written by Rabbits', is an allegorical tale that blends reality and fantasy. The journey of Heath and Millet is one of discovering identity.Anne Brown's, 'Wimmera Journeys'. explores the clash of cultures in the Australia of the 1850's. It is a fictionalized account of a true story. European settlers imposed their expectations on an indigenous boy, Willy, who was taken back to England.
'The Secret Chord' is a contemporary imagining of the life of the biblical King David. Geraldine Brooks recounts his life through the eyes of Nathan the prophet who is tantalizingly mentioned in the Bible as not just the one who confronted David but who wrote an account of David's life. The scrolls, if such there are, have yet to be found.
Tony Park has set a fast and furious adventure in Namibia with rhinoceros horn being at the centre of the drama in 'An Empty Coast'.Steve Tolz takes us on a writer's journey in 'Quicksand'.
Leah van Poppel talks knowledgably about where, why and who are the characters in literature and what do they represent.Honey Brown is the author of many books where there isn't a character with a disablility although she has one. She speaks about why.Write-ability are writing courses run for people with disabilites at Writers Victoria.
If you loved somebody, why would you want a 12 month separation and a divorce? 'Unmarry me' is an amusing novel by Nicki Reed.What virtue lies in assassination? Read Roland Perry's, 'The Honourable Assassin' to find out.
Sonja Dechian's, 'An Astronauts's Life' is a short story collection exploring social issues and different realities.Cooktown has had an interesting history and is the setting of Di Morrissey's 'Rain Music', telling about a musician who will not find his music until he deals with his past.
Robert Power's 'Tidetown' is an allegorical tale containing multiple characters encounting the travails of life.Drugs, laundered money and the mining boom, how are they connected? Debut crime novelist J.M. Green connects them and has Stella Hardy solve them in 'Good Money'.
Jane's memoir is part social history, part social commentary and part personal insight. In reflecting on her life, she initially takes us back to a more innocent time, challenges taboos like sexuality, addresses educational needs and provides an insight into her own battle with anxiety.
Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff take us on a narrative and graphic journey into the future in 'Illuminae'.In 'The Natural Way Of Things', Charlotte Wood has 10 women imprisoned, why and how they cope with each other, their captives and the outdoors would make this a definite book group recommendation.
Fiona Wood's book 'Cloudwish' is told through a Vietnamese school girl as she learns about herself: scholarship winner, dutiful daughter, artist with beautiful Caucasian boyfriend. Is it really true or just a wish?Tony Birch takes us down a primal water force in 'Ghost River'.Fiona Wood and Tony Birch also talk about their association with the Stella Prize.
Paul Dalgarno faces the challenges of relocation, employment, marriage and children in his memoir, 'And You May Find Yourself'.Shirley Barrett gives the true story of whales and whalers from Twofold Bay a fictional bent in 'Rush Oh!'
Charles Bean carried a pen and not a rifle in the World war One trenches. He became an active and respected historian documenting Australia's role in that great conflict. Peter Rees delves into the life, experience and achievements of this remarkable man in his book, 'Bearing Witness'.
When is a boy not a boy? Read David Astle's 'Riddledom' to find out.'Hope Farm' should be a self sufficient happy hippy commune. Peggy Frew writes about a 13 year old daughter and her realisation that she wants a different life circumstance to her mother.
Lesley and Tammy Williams tell about their lives with each achieving so much from the United Nations, Michael Jackson and the Queensland Parliament.Jenny Ackland's 'The Secret Son' links Ned Kelly and Turkey. Read it to find out how!
Tania Chandler has written a pschological thriller, a domestic noir ripper with 'Please Don't Leave Me Here'Cassandra Atherton's prose poetry is a delightful diversion in 'Trace'.
William dies suddenly and secrets are revealed about him which effect all who love him, in Marion Halligan's 'Goodbye Sweetheart'.Annitta S.W. has written about her son and friends growing up with technology in 'My Five iFriends'.
'Boyhoodlum' is Anson Cameron's eulogy to his mis-spent childhood.Nikki has a good job in Hollywood but The Guy is elusive in Lisa N Edwards romance, 'Can't Fight Fate'.
Eka Kurniawan has written about Indonesia's political and cultural history in the epic, disguised as a family saga, 'Beauty is a Wound'. It is written very cleverly and is most readable even the ghosts are believable. Antonia Hayes combines physics and emotion in her novel, 'Relativity'.
Penny Hueston talks about the translating of 'The Little Jewel', a book written by Patrick Modiano. A French writer and winner of 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature. Lisa Dempster talks about some of the authors and issues in this years Melbourne Writers Festival.
Honey Brown has six interconnecting short stories with six different couplings of sex in a most readable and enjoyable 'Six Degrees'.Joel Deane documents the power plays and personalitiies of the Brumby/Bracks Victorian Sate Government in 'Catch and Kill'.
Is writing a love story easier than living one? Author Claire Varley has her character Oliver, sharing insights in the very funny 'The Bit in Between'.Abigail Ulman's short story collection 'Hot Little Hands' explores women confronting contemporary life.
Sophie Laguna follows up from an earlier interview on Published or Not having won the Miles Franklin Award for her novel, 'The Eye of the Sheep'.The South Australian coastal area of Coorong, is the location of this family drama 'Salt Creek' set over 100 years ago. Lucy Treloar has her characters, both European and Ngarrindjeri, question what it is to be civilised.
Tegan Bennett Daylight's 'Six Bedrooms' are short stories of adolesent happenings but allow reflection from a more mature reader.
Liam Pieper writes with humour about his eventful like in'Mistakes were made'. It is one of the Pengun Specials, designed to be read in a single sitting.Lisa Joy knows in real life what it is like to work for a celebrity chef. 'Yes, Chef' is a fictional, fun story where it isn't just cooking going on in the kitchen.
Rebecca Lim has Sophie being challenged, not just by her own peers, but by a paranormal presence who requires her to find her killer in 'Afterlight'.Alex Hammond's crime novel 'The Unbroken Line' explores corruption violence and the ethical boundaries of the law.
Leonie Binge writes about her famly history and why her grandmother sent her mother and aunt to an orphanage in 'Nellie's Vow'.Jane Harrison raises issues and assumptions about being indigenous just as her teenage character does in 'Becoming Kirralli Lewis'
Lucy Sussex's meticulously researched biography provides insights into author, Fergus Hume, and his novel, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which became a world wide publishing phenomena.
The contemporary challenges of women living in an ordinary suburb that has been touched by the spirit of Jill Meagher is the focus of 'On Brunswick Ground' by Catherine de Saint Phalle. These are concerns that touch us all.
Published or Not is one of the many shows on 3CR that rely on donations to remain on air. Community radio plays an important role in keeping an independent voice on the airwaves. The discussion between the appeals centred on publishing, publicity and writing in general.
Rod Jones traces the arc of social change towards women and the challenges of pregnancy in his novel, 'The Mothers'. His own history as an adopted child contributes to the dynamic of the story.
The 'Life of Houses' delves into the shared history of a mother and daughter who are both trying to reconcile themselves with each other and the future.
Peter Millett talks about the challenges of writing for nine year olds and the first instalment of his Johnny Danger spy series.Sam Twyford_Moore talks about the authors and events at this year's Emerging Writers Festival.
Jennifer Scoullar's 'Turtle Reef' is a romance set in tropical Queensland.Krissy Kneen read a lot of erotic fiction and researched William Reich's orgone accumulator while writing 'The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine'. Holly White is a sci-fi super hero with a climatic difference!
Maggie Alderson's 'Secret Keeping for Beginners' is much more than a romance story. Her characters are dependent on social media but do they really want everything about them to be told? Should some secrets never be told?Vogel award winner, Murray Middleton, talks about his short story collection 'Where there is nowhere else to run'.
Anna Jaquiery has 'Death in the Rainy Season' another Commandant Morel, French detective novel, set in Cambodia.Maria Katsonis documents the challenges of her identity and depression in her autobiography, 'The Good Greek Girl'.
'Captive Prince' is a groundbreaking fantasy by C.S. Pacat that challenges certain sexual taboos.Robert Verlander's 'Of White and Shady' is set in Williamstown. This fun read covering secrets held for 50 years, explains why a grandson would be inheriting a ballet shoe factory.
Wendy Scarfe has written a historically compelling story set between wars involving depression, Communism, Port Adeliade and love.
Black Rock White City is A. S Patric's first published novel. Rich in symbolism, it explores the struggle of a tramatized European couple reestablishing their lives in suburban Melbourne whilst grappling with a new language and their troubled past.
Cenarth Fox takes us to a Europe on the brink of war in 'A Plum Job'.In 'Bad Behaviour', a memoir of bullying and boarding school' Rebecca Starford writes about a time of freindship and joy but also of shame and fear.
Robert Gott's, 'The Port Fairy Murders' is set in 1940's Victoria where social values and attitudes are exposed as wanting and where the body count mounts.James Bradley has set 'Clade' into the future. The world is facing challenging catastrophies but three generations of an extended family find optimism to go.
"Breaking Beauty" is a collection of short stories that challenge the reader's assumptions of what is beautiful in our lives.In 'Fables Queer and Familiar', Margaret Merrilees writes anecdotes of family, friends and life from lesbian grannies.