AustLit

The site enables access to Allen & Unwin's current publications (searchable by genre) and provides information on authors via photographs and profiles. Due to its role as promotor of the The Australian/Vogel Literary Award (and publisher of the winning entry), the Allen & Unwin site gives details of the history of the award and guidelines for submission of entries. The site also provides targeted resources for students, teachers and reading groups.

'For Ava, heading to university in Sydney is her escape from a poverty-stricken upbringing. Her mother is long gone, her father able to provide love but little else. On the other side of the world, Laurie tolerates university only at the insistence of her father, a Marxist professor. Her mother died in childbirth, and Laurie dreams of freedom, far from the Cambridge cloisters.

'It is within these college grounds that Ava and Laurie cross paths. They could not be more different, and yet as each grapples with the lasting effects of losing a mother, their lives become entwined in ways neither could have anticipated.

'Alison Edwards' brilliant novel Two Daughters explores family, class, social justice and love with a large dose of wit, the occasional detour into darkness, but always with the heartbeat of hope.' (Publication summary)

'A gripping, haunting work about the reverberations of a serial killer's crimes in the lives of everyday people.

'In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged with a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims' families, but its impact travels even further - into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes.

'Highway 13 takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more: through the investigation of the aftermath of this violence across time and place, from the killer's home town in country Australia to the tropical Far North, and to Texas and Rome, McFarlane presents an unforgettable, entrancing exploration of the way stories are told and spread, and at what cost.

'What damages, big and small, do these crimes incur? How do communities make sense of such atrocities? How does the mourning of families sit alongside the public fascination with terrible crimes? And can we tell true crime stories without putting the killers at the centre of the story?

'From the acclaimed author of The Sun Walks Down and The Night Guest comes a captivating account of loss and fear, and its extended echoes in individual lives.' (Publication summary)

'Sabine returned carrying a bag containing an effortless pair of Christian Wijnants fringed trousers and Ann Demeulemeeter Crinkle Nero boots. The sales assistant had agreed that the combination made Sabine looks exactly like an artist. 'A conceptual artist?' Sabine asked, and the sales assistant said, 'Or an actual artist.'

'Sabine is having a moment. Her new exhibition, Fuck You, Help Me, is opening soon and, as her gallerist says, 'hell is an artist three days before their exhibition opens'. But it's not only this coming milestone that is causing Sabine to melt down.

'She is being stalked. As exhibition day draws closer, so too does the man who has been watching her. As his approaches become more overt and threatening, Sabine's fear amplifies and transforms into something feral and primal. And then things start to get really strange.

'Darkly funny, intense and unsettling, Woo Woo is an astonishing and unflinching dissection of creativity and obsession, love and passion and vengeance and rage. Nothing will prepare you for this literary firestorm from the author of the internationally acclaimed debut New Animal.' (Publication summary)

'Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the Australian commandos.

'Garry made a report on the radio: 'I see around 200 women and children heading north up the valley.' Less than 400 metres below us, a steady stream of women and kids were hurrying away in single file.
'Where are all the men?' I asked Garry. 'Waiting for us,' he responded, with a look of concern I had not seen on his face before. My heart skipped a beat—we were on.

'From the age of 12, Scott Ryder knew he wanted to join the army, and he signed up as soon as he could. After serving as a paratrooper and in East Timor with 3 RAR, he wanted more. He trained all summer and took the gruelling selection course for the commandos, earning the prized green beret on his second attempt.

'Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the commandos. Ryder shares battlefield stories from his tours to Afghanistan, where his regiment saw some of the heaviest fighting Australian forces have experienced since the Vietnam War. After being seriously injured in a shocking Black Hawk helicopter crash in Kandahar, he was the only survivor to return to active service.

'Frankly written, with self-deprecating humour, it reveals the qualities of strength and mental resilience that characterise special forces operators.' (Publication summary)

'Amber and her insects are back in a thrilling adventure with old friends and new villains!

'From Australia's bestselling author, Anh Do, comes the latest adventure in this smash-hit series about an ordinary girl with extraordinary powers.

''I just realised something,' whispered Amber. 'Scorpions aren't insects – they're arachnids, like spiders! I don't know if my powers can affect them!'

'After a battle with the mighty Scorpios in the desert, Amber finds herself growing sicker and sicker. Now she must race to save herself, but finding the cure to the curse in time is harder than she thought...' (Publication summary)

'A laugh-out-loud fish-out-of-water story (if that fish was an alien visiting Earth to complete his school project) from an award-winning cartoonist and bestselling children's author.

'With a whispery hiss, the spaceship touched down on the grass. A door opened. A ramp extended. An alien slid forward. 'TAKE. ME. TO. YOUR. LEADER.'

'Alex wants to win the National Young Cartoonist Competition. She's got the talent, but what should she draw? Along comes Hi, an alien from the Planet Wendy. Hi is also working on a project: he has three days to learn about Earth's leaders for his Earth Studies class. Maybe they could help each other?

'Soon, Hi's Earthly visit sets in motion a chain of extraordinary events, including a viral TikTok, a haunted shoe shop and an astronomically wild rock concert.

'A cosmically funny story about leaders, followers and friendships that are out of this world.' (Publication summary)

'A darkly funny illustrated novel from the Victorian Premier's Literary Award-winning creator of Ghost Book about a young girl who is being haunted by an evil spirit. For fans of Goosebumps.

''Frightfully fun. A masterpiece of storytelling.' Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood, bestselling creators of the Real Pigeons series

'Once upon a time, I skipped assembly, snuck into the attic, awakened an evil and now I'm h(a)unted.

'When Hannah and her friends play the game Spirit of the Coin, they don't really expect to unleash something evil. But now Hannah is experiencing unfortunate 'accidents' and her journal is talking to her. Is there any way to escape the curse?' (Publication summary)

'With tensions rising and their powers no longer a secret, the Nightbirds must decide for whom and for what they are willing to fight for and how far they will go in the spellbinding conclusion to the international bestseller Nightbirds.

'The Nightbirds were once their city's best-kept secret, but now the secret's out. Everyone knows there are girls who can gift their magic with a kiss, and everyone wants a piece of them. Such girls are in more danger than ever. But Matilde, Sayer, Æsa, and Fenlin can do feats of magic no one has seen in centuries. They're like the Fyrebirds of old: powerful women who once moved mountains, parted seas, and led armies. But they don't want the world to know the full extent of their power – not yet.

'Matilde is too busy trying to show the city that girls with magic can be trusted while Sayer stalks the night, punishing any man who dares cross her. Fen struggles to keep her gang together and her magic hidden while Aesa tries to settle back into life in the Illish Isles.

'But fate tugs them inexorably toward each other, and back into the fight to protect magical girls. As the new suzerain works to lift the prohibition on magic, the churchmen who support it – and the gang lords who profit from it – whisper rebellion. The Nightbirds' old enemies are rallying, too. Smelling blood in the water, a magic-mad Farlands king threatens to invade Eudea. As war looms, and the Republic's fate hangs from a knife's edge, the Nightbirds have to decide if becoming Fyrebirds is worth risking the lives and loves they might have had.' (Publication summary)

'A wonderful coming-of-age queer romance from the multi award-winning author of The Boy from the Mish. Jonah is the new kid in a country town. When he joins the local footy team to be closer to his crush, Harley, it feels like a fresh start – but he still has to navigate new friendships, an unresolved past, and the same body image issues he's always had.

'Footsteps approach behind me. I turn and see an Aboriginal boy arriving at the doorway. He's tall, taller than me. He's got curly hair. His body is fit. His chest is chiselled and bare and he's wearing only football shorts.

'When 17-year-old Jonah arrives in a new town – Patience – with his dad and younger brothers, it feels like a foreign place. A new town means he needs to make new friends - which isn't always easy. Especially when he's wrestling with his body image, and his memories of his mother.

'When he joins the local footy team so he can spend more time with his new crush, Harley, he feels like he's moving closer to something good. But even though he knows what he wants, it doesn't mean he's ready.

'Emotionally compelling, honest and featuring warm and authentically vulnerable characters, I'm Not Really Here is a beautiful novel from an internationally acclaimed bestselling Indigenous author about navigating family and friendships, and finding a way through grief towards love.' (Publication summary)

'Do you want to talk about a fictional murder in a book or do you want to talk about the actual murder that happened under our roof?'

'Ruth is less than thrilled to be spending the weekend at the family farm visiting the ancient GG, her coolly distant step-grandmother. With no internet or phone coverage, she occupies herself by re-reading old Agatha Christie novels, eavesdropping on the adults and definitely not daydreaming about her sort-of-cousin Dylan.

'But when GG dies under suspicious circumstances, Ruth's dull weekend turns into an enforced-family-holiday-slash-possible-murder-investigation – and she's not about to let the police get in the way of her chance to solve a real-life murder mystery. With Dylan as the Watson to her Holmes, Ruth soon discovers that plenty of people had reasons to be rid of GG, and her list of suspects grows to comprise everyone in the house, including, in the interests of fairness, herself.

'The thing about family holidays is that you've got to be prepared for fights.' (Publication summary)

'An epic Tail of Adventure! Can one gallant mouse find the Heartstone and save her homeland from destruction?

'When the sky fills with shadows
And all is turned to grey
Bravepaw will come

'When hope turns to ashes
And all have lost their way
Bravepaw will come

'The heart will light the dark
Night will turn to day
When Bravepaw comes

'Brought up on tales of the gallant mouse hero Bravepaw, Titch has always dreamed of adventure, but she never thought it would actually happen to her. Afterall, she is nobody special. She is the smallest mouse in her family, living in a peaceful little village where nothing exciting ever happens.

'When dire trouble comes to the Plateau, Titch and her best-friend Huckleberry must set out on a dangerous quest to take the Heartstone to the heart of Alluria, and repair the crack in the sky before the whole world breaks apart. Can Titch ever hope to live up to the legend of Bravepaw?

'A fully illustrated and brilliantly readable adventure full of magic and prophecy, quests, heroism and loyal friendship - the world of Bravepaw will hook young readers until the very last page. This is the stuff of legend.' (Publication summary)

'Ethel the Penguin's in my class
But she doesn't sit next to me
Miss Ink likes Ethel to sit by herself
She can be a bit lawless you see

'Everyone needs a best friend like Ethel. She's not afraid of teachers. She's not afraid of heights. In fact, she's totally WILD!

'An exuberant story about the vicarious joy of an unruly friend.' (Publication summary)

'After surviving a brutal attack, Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers has returned to her hometown to care for her mother. The remote coastal settlement of Waitutū holds complicated memories for Honey, not least the tragic suicide of her younger sister, Scarlett.

'Honey is hardest on herself. She let herself get too close to a gang informant. She got sloppy. The Reapers are a 501 gang of Aussie imports, ruthless and organised, and she's pretty sure the informant, mother-of-three Kloe Kovich, paid the price. But when a couple of gang enforcers turn up in Waitutū, Honey realises they are hoping she will lead them to Kloe. But if Kloe is still alive, can Honey save her this time around?

'When Honey catches up with her oldest friend, Marshall, her feelings are complicated. As teenagers they were inseparable, but Marshall was the last person to see Scarlett alive, and there are rumours they were sleeping together, that he broke her heart. Honey fears Marshall is not who she wants him to be. Eventually she learns the awful truth about the events that led her sister to take her own life.

'When Kloe arrives in town, Honey and Marshall must work together to try and keep the hapless Kloe out of the hands of those who want her – and Honey – silenced.

'Gripping and suspenseful, with a killer ending, The Call propels the reader into the world of a terrifying new kind of gang – and introduces a major new talent in crime writing.' (Publication summary)

'When student doctor Taylor Lawrence's city life is turned upside down, she seeks sanctuary on her grandparents' farm in the South Australian countryside.

'During the lonely nights, she fantasises of a time long-gone; of Anna, who, rising at dawn to milk the cows and fetch water from the well, is caught in a bushfire that threatens to leave her reputation as blackened as the surrounding bushland. And of Anna's rescuer, fellow settler, Luke Hartmann.

'Reality blurs as Taylor repeatedly escapes into Anna's world, and she realises she must discover whether her dreams are pure fantasy—or if they recount a story more familiar than she could ever imagine.

'Either way, it seems she'll end up with a broken mind or a broken heart. The problem is, Taylor is no longer sure which she would prefer.' (Publication summary)

'The first-ever in-depth biography of iconoclastic Sydney punk band Radio Birdman – drawn from more than 130 interviews with the band members, their closest associates and fans.

'Regarded as one of the earliest punk bands of the seventies – before the world had heard of the Sex Pistols or The Saints – Radio Birdman were feared and loathed by many, but adored by fiercely loyal fans.

'Tales of Radio Birdman will be handed down through generations. Singer Rob Younger drinking from a human skull filled with sheep brains; fans unknowingly breaking limbs while dancing wildly at gigs; fighting venue bouncers with microphone stands, and having publicans cut the power in a desperate bid to halt their force-of-nature-like performances.

While Birdman split after a disastrous UK and European tour in 1978, hunger for a reunion grew by the day, and their eventual regrouping was met with wild acclaim. In a series of electrifying shows at the 1996 Big Day Out, they overshadowed the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Rage Against the Machine and The Prodigy. Birdman continued to play sell-out gigs to devoted crowds both in Australia and across the globe. In 2007, the group were inducted into the ARIA Australian Music Hall of Fame.

'The Radio Birdman story is one of inspiration, confrontation and commitment, as well as the creation of a subculture that continues to this day. However, their story has never been told – in depth – until now.' (Publication summary)

'After I swim, I watch an osprey hanging in mid-air. It looks like pure pleasure, suspended, its wings barely beating. If those who came before really do dissolve and dissipate, and if their cells really are all around us, then that bird is held there by Mum and Peter and my grandmother Molly and Ning and Grandpa and billions of others of the long-dead. The osprey, on its updraft, is kept aloft by absences. Perhaps I am too.

'When her husband of nearly thirty years doesn't answer his phone, Ailsa Piper knows something is wrong. She calls their neighbour to ask him to check. Minutes later, he rings back. 'Oh, Ailsa. I'm so sorry,' he says. Five words to change a life...

'Wanting to flee her shattered world in Melbourne, Ailsa migrates north. She rejects all advice, trusting a Sydney real estate agent to find her a nest - and he does, in a sunlight-filled haven. Soon, the harbour works its way into her days. She learns to swim. She walks, up to the lighthouse and along sandstone cliffs, meeting the locals: winter swimmers, shoreline philosophers, and others, like her, hiding sorrow in plain sight.

'But we never leave our pasts behind. Ailsa is drawn back to the south, and even farther back, to the aqua waters of the west. Home, it would seem, is not just one place ...

'For Life is a testament to the healing power of the natural world, a celebration of renewal and wonder, and an unflinching look at grief. It calls us to bear witness to death, and perhaps even embrace it as part of life's raucous cacophony. Above all, For Life is a beacon of hope.' (Publication summary)

'When she breaks an unspoken family code not to dig too deep into the past, Andra is plunged into the bleak world of the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Latvia in World War II, and secret lives of her grandmothers.

'As children, we'd sneak into Grandma's bedroom on secret missions. Her cupboard was filled with old fur coats, strange woven folk costumes and small mountains of glowing amber. We were half-scared, made breathless by our discoveries, but knew we hadn't seen it all, hadn't understood what was really hidden there.

'When she breaks an unspoken family code not to dig too deeply into the past, Andra is plunged into the bleak world of the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Latvia in World War II, and secret lives of her grandmothers.

'Teenage Aline is separated from her parents and sent to serve in Germany's war-time labour force. With the much-feared Soviet army on the doorstep, pregnant Milda embarks on a desperate winter escape with her young son. They face heart-wrenching decisions and endure years of hardship before finally voyaging to Australia. Among the tight-knit Latvian migrant community, Aline and Milda forge new lives. But even there, reminders of wartime scandal and grief threaten to drag them under.' (Publication summary)

'What if you’re scared you committed a crime but can’t remember? From the bestselling author of Six Minutes and The Liars comes an unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep from each other – and ourselves.

'‘Petronella McGovern consistently delivers smart, twisty page-turners guaranteed to keep her readers coming back for more.’ – Liane Moriarty

'Family. It means everything to Sheridan. Her brother Lachy is finally home in Australia and she’s excited about Easter with both of their families. But when a traumatic incident tears the families apart, she blames him.

'Lachy knows he’s not coping right now but his sister doesn’t have the full story. And nor does he. There are some gaps in his memory. How is he connected to a DNA request, a missing woman, and a hit and run?

'To untangle the truth, he must decide who he can trust. His friends? His family? Himself?

'A gripping thriller about siblings and secrets, and the traces we can never erase.' (Publication summary)