AustLit

'Two eyes bore into him from across the room. They're not her eyes. They're the same colour and shape, but they're not her eyes.

''I see you.'

'Silas didn't have a happy childhood. Aunt Bunny made sure of that. But out of money and almost out of time, Silas and his girlfriend Rose are forced to return to his childhood home.

'Back to the darkness, back to the woods, where addiction and hedonism are disguising something much more sinister ...

'Plagued by strange, unnerving events, Silas is drawn back into the family by an ancient presence deep in the woods. It will not let him go, and neither will Bunny.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'How much would you sacrifice for another shot at the perfect life?

'Producer Mara Bolt is the queen of reality TV. Ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, Mara will do anything - anything - for ratings. When she meets Kristy Shaw, Mara is certain she's found the star of her newest series, The Shot.

'Kristy is languishing away in her small hometown and a dead-end job, pining for her first love, Max Irving. The Shot offers her a Total Body Transformation - extreme plastic surgery to render her unrecognisable - as a way to recapture Max's affections under a new identity. But there's a catch: if she doesn't secure his heart in thirty days, she must have her surgeries reversed, and go back to her old life.

'As the cameras start rolling, Mara and Kristy both get the sense that there is something happening behind the scenes - something that threatens to reveal old wounds and new secrets that neither of them wants to reckon with. If they are going to keep the show on track, they must contain the truths and desires that lie just beneath the surface.

'The Shot is a rollercoaster read about our obsession with beauty and the trappings of success, and the desperate, outrageous lengths we will go to for love and ambition.'(Publication summary)

'Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.

'Eddie lived with his family and adorable dachshund, Lulu, in the beautiful city of Leipzig in Germany. But one day, into the sunshine of his childhood crept a dark, heavy cloud. Not a rain cloud. Much worse than that. Adolf Hitler came to power.

'When Eddie was 18, he was sent to a concentration camp.

'A picture book adaptation for older readers (8+ years) based on the extraordinary, the bestselling adult title THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH.

'The story is framed as a conversation between 101-year-old Eddie and his great grandchildren - who are bursting with questions about the life of their Pépé.

'The story of Eddie's life unfolds beautifully, sensitively, heartbreakingly through his words, and exquisite illustrations by Nathaniel Eckstrom.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

From the battlefields of Korea, Malaya and Vietnam to the struggle for veterans' welfare, Keith Payne has never shied away from a fight. More than 50 years ago, this bravery saw him receive the Commonwealth's highest military honour - the Victoria Cross.

Keith grew up one of thirteen children in the shadow of the Great Depression and the Second World War. After seeing his father come home wounded from war, Keith joined the army. He was sent to fight in Korea at just 18 years old, the bloody beginning to decades of military service across the world.

Keith's life was defined by one night in 1969. In the dark jungle of Vietnam, under heavy enemy fire, Keith returned to a fled battlefield to rescue 40 of his soldiers. For his extreme act of bravery in leading his men to safety, Keith became the last Australian to earn the VC for 40 years.

Keith spent decades in the public spotlight while struggling with his own demons, then found new purpose as an advocate for others. In a lifetime of service, he has helped not only veterans of foreign wars, but also Indigenous diggers and communities left behind by civilian and military bureaucracy.

No One Left Behind tells, for the first time in his words, of Keith Payne's remarkable life. His definitive autobiography reveals the story of a big-hearted, iconic Australian and the heart and heartaches of a man who continues to fight for his mates.

Featuring a Foreword by Mark Donaldson VC.

Source : publisher's blurb

'Danger, passion and bravery in nineteenth-century Australia, Europe and onto the battlefield of Kandahar.

'As the son of 'the Colonial', legendary Queen's Captain Ian Steele, Josiah Steele has big shoes to fill. Although his home in the colony of New South Wales is a world away, he dreams of one day travelling to England so he can study to be a commissioned officer in the Scottish Regiment.

'After cutting his teeth in business on the rough and ready goldfields of Far North Queensland's Palmer River, he finally realises his dream and travels to England, where he is accepted into the Sandhurst military academy. While in London he makes surprising new acquaintances - and runs into a few old ones he'd rather have left behind.

'From the Australian bush to the glittering palaces of London, from the arid lands of Afghanistan to the newly established Germany dominated by Prussian ideas of militarism, Josiah Steele must now forge his own path.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Anika Molesworth fell in love with her family's farm, a sheep station near Broken Hill, at an early age. She formed a bond with the land as though it were a member of her family. When the Millennium Drought hit, though, bringing with it heatwaves and duststorms, the future she'd always imagined for herself began to seem impossible.

'As she learned more about the causes of - and the solutions to - the extreme weather that was killing her land and her livelihood, Anika became fired up and determined to speak out. Talking to farmers and food producers all around the world, she soon realised that there was a way forward that could be both practical and sustainable - if only we can build up the courage to take it.

'Beautifully written and full of hope, Our Sunburnt Country shows that there is a way to protect our land, our food and our future, and it is within our grasp.' (Publication summary)

''I am from a family of strong women.'

'Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.

'After her mother's death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents' relationship. They had been so unhappy for so long - should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.

'Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father's junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.

'Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.' (Publication summary)

'Life is not going to plan for failed fashion designer Lizzie March, until she finds herself pregnant to super-hot bad boy Jake Wheeler.

'Convinced that he's The One, all she has to do is make him realise that she is The One for him!

'But is it possible she's been looking for love in all the wrong places? Maybe everything she has ever wanted is right under her very own stilettos.' (Publication summary)

'Mark Wales thought his life would end in a cornfield in Afghanistan.

'Mark and his SAS troops emerged from that scorched battlefield twelve hours later, his mentor gunned down, his dream career now a nightmare. Over four deployments of intense warfighting, Mark watched the line between right and wrong become blurred. When he left the SAS he was adrift, crippled by guilt.

'On a mission to rebuild himself, Mark turned his life around. He fought his way into the gates of a US Ivy League business school and into the boardrooms of top-tier international corporations. He spent years navigating failure in a quest to find new meaning in life. With every setback Mark counterattacked, discovering the tactics and tools needed to become more resilient, and to find happiness, belonging and purpose.

'Told with gripping suspense, humour and touching warmth, Survivor is Mark's extraordinary life in and out of the SAS, a story of resilience and a testament to the power of transformation.' (Publication summary)

'There's an algorithm for everything else, so why not love?

'When 24-year-old lawyer Romy learns that she is at her 'optimal stopping point' (the mathematically designated point at which one should select the next 'best person' who comes along in order to have the best chance at happily ever after), she knows it's time to get serious about her love life.

'Ruthlessly rational, with a belief in data over destiny, Romy knows that reliability and consistency are dependable options, while passion and lust are transitory and only bring pain and disillusionment.

'That's why sensible Hans the engineer is the right choice, as opposed to graphic designer James who exhibits the kind of behaviour that has got her into trouble before. Isn't he?' (Publication summary)

'Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you. Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed on 9 November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on the Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country. Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the 'happiest man on earth'. Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.' (Publication summary)

'Two incredible women, an unlikely friendship, and a united mission to save the lives of some of the world's poorest and most desperate women.

'Healing Lives reveals the untold tale of Mamitu Gashe, Dr Catherine Hamlin's protégée, and the inspiring almost 60-year friendship between the two women.

'In 1962, three years after Drs Catherine and Reg Hamlin arrived in Ethiopia, an illiterate peasant girl sought their aid. Mamitu Gashe was close to death and horrifically injured during childbirth after an arranged marriage - at the age of just fourteen to a man she'd never met - in a remote mountain village.

'The Hamlins' Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital saved her and, in return, Mamitu dedicated her life to Catherine's mission. Under the iconic doctor's guidance, Mamitu went from mopping floors and comforting her fellow patients, to becoming one of the most acclaimed fistula surgeons in the world, despite never having had a day's schooling.

'This is the moving story of the friendship that saved the lives of over 60,000 of the poorest women on earth.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'A special sequel to The Tournament from Australia's favourite novelist and the author of both the Scarecrow and Jack West Jr series.

'When her life is threatened by an anonymous assassin, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I knows there is only one man she can trust to find the killer before he strikes: her unorthodox childhood tutor and mentor, Roger Ascham.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'A special prequel to The Two Lost Mountains from Australia's favourite novelist and the author of both the Jack West Jr and Scarecrow series.

'When a satellite hunter intercepts a top-secret transmission from the Moon, his old friend Jack West Jr is his only hope...'

Source : publication summary

'Schapelle Corby walked out of Kerobokan Prison in 2014, leaving behind a dark hellhole of violence, corruption and squalor, and straight into a global media circus. 

'She had been Hotel K's most famous inmate.

'Schapelle was a 27-year-old beauty-school student when, in 2004, Bali customs officers found 4.2 kilograms of marijuana in her boogie-board bag. She was convicted of a crime she still vehemently denies committing.

'She spent ten years in Hotel K, where she survived unimaginable horrors, corrupt guards, degrading conditions and abuse at the hands of other prisoners, but also, amazingly, found the love of her life - a love that still burns strong.

'In this revised and updated edition of My Story, first published in 2006, Schapelle describes her descent into madness and finding her way back, the chaos of her release, the trials of surviving outside on parole and, eventually, her dramatic return to Australia, all the while hounded mercilessly by the media.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It is 1857. Colonial India is a simmering volcano of nationalism about to erupt. Army surgeon Peter Campbell and his wife Alice, in India on their honeymoon, have no idea that they are about to be swept up in the chaos.

'Ian Steele, known to all as Captain Samuel Forbes, is fighting for Queen and country in Persia. A world away, the real Samuel Forbes is planning to return to London - with potentially disastrous consequences for Samuel and Ian both.

'Then Ian is posted to India, but not before a brief return to England and a reunion with the woman he loves. In India he renews his friendship with Peter Campbell, and discovers that Alice has taken on a most unlikely role. Together they face the enemy and the terrible deprivations and savagery of war - and then Ian receives news from London that crushes all his hopes...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A warm-hearted novel from the author of Walking on Trampolines about music, grief, relationships, gardens, love, laughter and family.

'Florence Saint Claire is a loner. Albert Flowers is a social butterfly. Good friends who think they know each other.

'But, somewhere between who they are, and who people think they are, lies The Best Kind of Beautiful.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Grace has the perfect life: a job she loves, a beautiful daughter and a rich, successful husband. But one night, when their world falls apart in a shocking disaster, Grace suddenly sees what she couldn't admit - her marriage and her husband are a fraud.

'With the life she knew in tatters, she takes an assignment promoting the launch of a unique luxury hotel, hidden in a stunning, untouched oasis in the heart of tourist-crazed Bali.

'Here, in this last paradise, Grace gathers the strength to take charge of her world. And, inspired by a woman's story from long ago, she discovers a path to a future she'd never dared to imagine . . .'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and is a rare talent on the harp. They are both training for the elite warrior band on Swan Island when they are asked to join a mission that requires posing as travelling minstrels.

'Their task is to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has mysteriously vanished. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted. Faced with plotting courtiers, secretive druids, an insightful storyteller and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realises an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom. When ambition clashes with conscience, Liobhan must make a bold decision and a heartbreaking choice ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.