AustLit

'The beautifully hand-drawn true story of artist Joshua Santospirito's visit to the Aeolian Islands of Italy with his parents to seek out past connections and family roots.

'Joshua and his father hope to locate the burial place of Joshua's great-great-grandfather on the island of Salina. But it's not always so easy to find the past you're looking for, nor to travel with your parents.

'As Joshua learns more about the sun-drenched volcanic archipelago, its people, and their history, he also explores the mysteries of family - and the magic of creating your own place in the world.

'This is a tale of migration and return, of the rise to stardom of actress Ingrid Bergman, of the cheeky wind god Aeolus, of ancestry, place, and belonging, and of so much more. Told from Joshua's unique and charming perspective, there is something here for everyone.' (Publication summary)

'A black comedy, set in suburbia, about one woman’s struggle to be free.

'When Winona Dalloway begins her day — in the peaceful early hours before her children, that ‘tiny tornado of little hands and feet’, wake up — she doesn’t know that by the end of it, everything in her world will have changed.

'On the outside, Winona is a seemingly unremarkable young mother: unobtrusive, quietly going about her tasks. But within is a vivid, chaotic self, teeming with voices — a mind both wild and precise.

'And meanwhile, a storm is brewing …' (Publication summary)

'A powerful indictment of the criminal behaviour of police officers, and a call for institutional reform, edited by the multi-award-winning author of Black and Blue.

'When Cops Are Criminals examines the widespread problem of police brutality and corruption from the perspectives of those who understand it in depth. Pulling together the accounts of survivors, campaigners, and academics, it explores different forms of criminal behaviour by police, the factors that contribute to it, the impact it has on victims, and the challenges of holding perpetrators accountable.

'Told with candour, honesty, bravery, and rage, these stories will challenge readers to reflect on the institutions that so many people take for granted. Whose interests are they really serving? And where can people turn when the institutions that are supposed to protect them are the ones doing the damage?' (Publication summary)

When I've been overtaken, I have stood and watched the water in my porridge simmer away into the air, and then the oats turn black and crackle with dryness, and my ears fill with the smoke alarm's shriek.

'When Adele Dumont is diagnosed with trichotillomania - compulsive hair-pulling - it makes sense of much of her life to date. The seemingly harmless quirk of her late teens, which rapidly developed into almost uncontrollable urges and then into trance-like episodes, is a hallmark of the disease, as is the secrecy with which she guarded her condition from her family, friends, and the world at large.

'The diagnosis also opens up a rich line of inquiry. Where might the origins of this condition be found? How can we distinguish between a nervous habit and a compulsion? And how do we balance the relief of being 'seen' by others with our experience of shame?

'Reminiscent of the writing of Leslie Jamison and Fiona Wright, The Pulling is a fascinating exploration of the inner workings of a mind. In perfectly judged prose, both probing and affecting, Dumont illuminates how easily ritual can slide into obsession, and how close beneath the surface horror and darkness can lie.'(Publication summary)

'From the author of the multi-award-winning bestseller Between a Wolf and a Dog, a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories.

'A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother’s memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life.

'In We All Lived in Bondi Then, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain’s final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.' (Publication summary)

'Marcus had a bad day on the footy field, but maybe his Nonna's birthday lunch will cheer him up.

'Marcus loves visiting his Nonna, although he's afraid of her spooky cellar. Marcus has never been down there, and he never will. But when disaster strikes, Little Bont might have to face his fear to save Nonna's birthday dessert ...

'From Western Bulldogs' captain and four-time club Best & Fairest winner Marcus Bontempelli comes a heartwarming story about courage, family .... and of course, a little bit of footy.?' (Publication summary)

(Publication summary)

'A is for artichokes and long spears of asparagus. It's for bright, creamy avocados and salty little anchovies ...

'From apple pie to zeppole, and everything in between, Artichoke to Zucchini introduces young readers to fruit, vegetables, and dishes from around the globe. Full of tasty favourites and delicious new discoveries, it's sure to lead to inspiration in the kitchen!

'Following from the award-winning Off to The Market, acclaimed artist Alice Oehr takes you on a mouth-watering trip through the alphabet and around the world.' (Production summary)

'A multi-award-winning journalist and former editor-in-chief of a major Australian newspaper searingly explores his Jewish identity at a time when a substantial - and growing - part of the left is opposed to the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

'Born in a displaced persons' camp two years after the end of the Holocaust, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years in a left-wing non-Zionist Jewish youth group in Melbourne. This shaped the sort of Jew he became - a secular Jew who loved the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture.

'Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist, including his role as editor-in-chief of The Age - the only Jewish editor-in-chief in the newspaper's history. Throughout this time, and since, he became dismayed and pained by the growing hostility of the left to Israel and to Jews like him who were not prepared to declare themselves as anti-Zionists. This has also forced him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel.

'At a time of rising anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, My Life as a Jew is a controversial book. It is also a vital book. It should be read by activists for Israel and Zionism, as well as for the Palestinians. It should be read by readers of all political stripes. It should be read by journalists, as it is in part about journalism and its failings. And it should also be read by people interested in the remarkable life and career of its author, Michael Gawenda.' (Publication summary) 

'The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Animals in That Country.

'A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men.

'With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers hallucinogenic glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans behave like animals and animals talk like humans.

'The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.' (Publication summary)

'For half a century, the Murdoch media empire and its polarising patriarch have swept across the globe, shaking up markets and democracies in their wake. But how did it all start?

'In September 1953, 22-year-old Rupert Murdoch landed in Adelaide, South Australia. Fresh from Oxford with a radical reputation, the young and brash son of Sir Keith Murdoch had arrived to fulfill his father's dying wish- for Rupert to live a 'useful altruistic and full life' in the media.

'For decades, Sir Keith had been a giant of the Australian press, but his final years were spent bitterly fending off rivals and would-be successors. When the dust settled on his father's estate, Rupert was left with the Adelaide-based News Ltd and its afternoon paper The News - a minor player in a small, parochial city.

'But even this inheritance was soon under siege, as the left-wing 'Boy Publisher' stared down his father's old colleagues at the city's paper of record, The Advertiser, and a conservative establishment kept in power by a decades-old gerrymander.

'Led by Rupert's friend, ally, and editor-in-chief Rohan Rivett, the fledgling Murdoch press began a seven-year campaign of circulation wars, expansion, and courtroom battles that divided the city and would lay the foundations for a global empire - if Rupert and Rohan didn't end up in custody first.

'Drawing on unpublished archival material and new reportage, Young Rupert pieces together a paper trail of succession, sedition, and power - and a fascinating time capsule of Australian media on the cusp of an extraordinary ascension.' (Publication summary) 

''I chose the jagged rocks, the broken bones, the spattered brains. I chose beauty. I'd choose it again.'

'Luna Lewis is white. But her friends aren't, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia-finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to 'exotic' beauty, Luna reinvents herself as 'Luna Lu' and takes her ticket out of the most isolated city on earth. However, as her international modelling career approaches its expiry date, Luna must grapple with what she's sacrificed - and who she's become - in her mission to conquer the world.

'Featuring an intersecting cast of glamour-hungry public schoolgirls, WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, West Girls examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia's richest state. It's also a devastating catalogue of the myriad, inventive ways in which women love and hurt one another.'(Publication summary)

'Fergus lives down in the deepest, darkest depths of the sea and is scared of just one thing ... the light! Who's Afraid of the Light? is a fresh and funny new narrative nonfiction picture book from the award-winning creator Anna McGregor.

'Come on a trip to the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean.

There are many fascinating creatures that call it home.

There's nothing to be afraid of?.?.?.

?.?.?.?is there?

'From the award-winning creator of Anemone is Not the Enemy and A Pair of Pears and an Orange comes this spooky, funny adventure with a surprise twist that you literally won't see coming. Anna McGregor introduces young readers to the wonders of the ocean's 'midnight zone', where no sunlight at all is able to penetrate. We meet Fergus as he hides from a parade of sea creatures that use bioluminescence to find their way in the dark. At least, we think he is hiding ... or is it something else entirely?' (Publication summary)
 

''You're a politician, a public figure. What on earth were you thinking?'

'Up-and-coming junior minister Gregory Buchanan has had a portrait painted of himself by the acclaimed artist Sophie White - a painting she intends to enter in this year's Archibald Prize. Until then, Gregory has hung it in pride of place on his dining-room wall. It's a life-sized standing portrait, practically photographic in nature. And it's a nude.

'His wife will be home soon and he thinks the painting will be a pleasant surprise. Even more surprising will be an unexpected accumulation of guests- his sardonic mother, his fundamentalist mother-in-law, his lycra-clad cycling-enthusiast sister, and the state premier, Louisa Wetherly - a senior minister has just resigned in scandalous circumstances, and she needs Gregory to step into the spotlight ahead of the coming election.

'It's going to be a wild afternoon, and an even wilder campaign - to do something about Gregory's naked ambition.' (Publication summary)

'Acclaimed historian and biographer Ross McMullin has again combined prodigious research and narrative flair in this sequel to Farewell, Dear People, the winner of multiple awards, including the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History.

'Life So Full of Promise, his second multi-biography about Australia's lost generation of World War I, features a collection of interwoven stories set in that defining era. The extended biographies give prominence not only to the extraordinary identities who died, but also to their families and friends.

'The rich cast of characters includes a talented barrister whose outstanding leadership enabled a momentous Australian victory; an eminent newspaper editor who kept his community informed about the war while his sons were in the trenches; a soldiers' mother who became a political activist and a Red Cross dynamo at Bendigo; an admired farmer whose unit was rushed to the rescue in the climax of the conflict; the close sisters from Melbourne who found their lives transformed; a popular officer who was more fervently mourned than any other Australian casualty; the most versatile top-level sportsman Australia has ever known; and a bohemian Scandinavian blonde who disrupted one of Sydney's best-known families.

'Also revealed is the untold story of an enthusiastic cricketer who was chosen in an Australian national side to tour England, and the surprising explanation for his decision not to go. In addition, there is a superb biography of a brilliant yet practically unknown cricketer whose stunning feat has never been matched.

'The storytelling is superlative, illuminating, and profoundly moving.' (Publication summary)

'Eliza is a thirtysomething struggling single mother and poet. Sasha, a twentysomething yearning for direction in life, just moved back in with her parents and dabbles as a sex worker. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that, as it veers towards something more, becomes a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off. Parrish's fully realised characters and gorgeously painted pages make Men I Trust one of the most moving and insightful works of fiction in any medium this year.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'To essay means to try, to endeavour, to attempt — and to risk failure. For Kim Mahood, it is both a form of writing and an approach to life.

'In these finely observed and probing essays, award-winning artist and writer Kim Mahood invites us to accompany her on the road and into the remote places of Australia, where she is engaged in long-established collaborations of mapping, storytelling, and placemaking. Celebrated as one of the few Australian writers who both lives within and can articulate the complexities and tensions that arise in the spaces between Aboriginal and settler Australia, Mahood writes passionately and eloquently about the things that capture her senses and demand her attention — art, country, people, and writing. Her compelling evocation of desert landscapes and tender, wry observations of cross-cultural relationships describe people, places, and ways of living that are familiar to her but still strange to most non-Indigenous Australians.

'At once a testament to personal freedom and a powerful argument for Indigenous self-determination, Wandering with Intent demonstrates, with candour, humour, and hope, how necessary and precious it is for each of us to choose how to live.' (Publication summary)

'Is it possible to survive as a new farmer and change the future of farming at the same time?

For years we’ve been told that the food system is destroying the planet. That there are too many cows and tractors, too much fertiliser, too much waste, and that farmers and food manufacturers are polluting our atmosphere. But we’ve also been told that food can help save us from the worst of global warming. How can it be both destroyer and saviour?

In 2018, Nicola Harvey and her husband, Pat, left their careers and inner-city Sydney life to farm cattle in rural New Zealand. They thought it would be exciting, even relaxing, but soon found themselves in the middle of heated arguments and deep divisions about food, farming, and climate change.

'In this profoundly personal story, Harvey takes readers into the heart of the industrialised global food system to share what life on the land is like when you’re a new farmer just trying to survive — and change the status quo.

'At odds with her family, and struggling to find a place within her new community, Nicola is at first outraged at the lack of action to curb global warming. When she realises, though, that we’re all being sold a false fix, she begins to transform the farm into a site of activism. In the kitchen and on the land, Nicola finds hope and a path towards a cooler future.' (Publication summary)

'It's the 1950s in conservative Australia, and Christopher, a young gay man, moves to 'the City' to escape the repressive atmosphere of his tiny hometown. Once there, however, he finds that it is just as censorial and punitive, in its own way.

'Then Christopher meets Morgan, and the two fall in love - a love that breathes truth back into Christopher's stifled life. But the society around them remains rigid and unchanging, and what begins as a refuge for both men inevitably buckles under the intensity of navigating a world that wants them to refuse what they are. Will their devotion be enough to keep them together?

'In reviving a time that is still so recent yet so vastly different from now, Jay Carmichael has drawn on archival material, snippets of newspaper articles, and photos to create the claustrophobic environment in which these two men lived and loved. Told with Carmichael's ear for sparse, poetic beauty, Marlo takes us into the landscape of a relationship defined as much by what is said and shared as by what has to remain unsaid.'  (Publication summary)