AustLit

'Each morning on her way to school Claudia passes the glassblower’s workshop and admires the animals in the window, especially the winged horses, prancing, galloping, rearing in battle. One day the glassblower calls Claudia inside and gives her a damaged horse. It is beautiful, but its wings are broken. And Claudia sees only its imperfection.

'When a terrible storm floods their home, Claudia and her family have to leave. The glass horse is packed away, all but forgotten. Until one night it comes to life. And takes Claudia flying through the night sky, back to her beloved Venice.

'Arnold Zable’s picture story book The Glass Horse of Venice, sumptuously illustrated by Anita Lester, is a tale of the power of imagination that will delight children young and not so young.' (Publication summary)

'Luna rides a battered old broom that keeps crashing itself into the school pond. She has a witch’s hat and wand and sometimes she’s quite good at magic, but she isn’t completely sure that she’s a real witch. She doesn’t have a familiar for one thing, and she doesn’t know where she came from—only that she was found by three witches who she now calls her aunts. When she swaps her moonstone ring for an Australian boobook owl in the Lost Forest, the mysterious bird seller makes her promise to keep the bird hidden for as long as she can. This is not easy when you live with very inquisitive aunts. And it’s not easy when you find out that the fearsome Madame Valadon, the Best Witch in Paris, is missing her boobook owl and she’s sure that Luna knows something about it.

'Could it be that Luna has Madame Valadon’s boobook? Why then did the mysterious bird seller give it to Luna? Why did she say the bird belonged to her? A familiar can only belong to one witch, after all. Luna has lots of questions—the biggest one of all is who she really is.

'Fun and funny and full of life, The Best Witch in Paris is a delightful story of courage and self-belief, with colourful characters, fabulous magic and a puzzling mystery at its core.' (Publication summary)

'Following the interwoven lives of four characters across India, Australia and the United States, the novel takes root in Melbourne and brings its streets, shopping centres and laneways to life with astounding originality—the city may never be the same again.

'The Degenerates radiates with Titch’s fanaticism and Ginny’s obsessions. Somnath’s devastating history reflects every life divided around the globe. And Maha, the heart of the novel, is an extraordinary creation, an abiding figure of modern salvation. Brimming with vitality, humour, intelligence and brilliant writing, The Degenerates engages with the realities of modern loneliness and every form of departure—from our homes, from our families and even from life itself.

'In propulsive prose, The Degenerates summons the power of storytelling, disrupts conventional narratives and pays tribute to those lives often lost in the margins.' (Publication summary)

'Anna was never going to have an easy time at her best friend’s wedding. She’s the bridesmaid; her ex, Joel, is a groomsman. But she’s determined to get through the festivities with a smile on her face. Despite the fact that Joel is bringing his new partner, Bianca. Despite the fact she’s stuck sharing a house with the newly in-love couple. And despite the fact Anna has just turned thirty and her life is not exactly where she thought it would be by now. Anna has all her feelings completely under control—right up until the moment Joel drops a bombshell that rocks her to her core.

'She needs a distraction, and Patrick, the wedding photographer, just might be the solution. Everyone has decided he is perfect for her. He is perfect for her. But the arrival of Mac, a not-quite-famous actor who has flown in from New York, complicates everything.

'Much-loved YA author Nina Kenwood hits the spot with her first novel for adults. Laugh-out-loud funny with chemistry that jumps off the page, The Wedding Forecast will be the feel-good romcom of the summer.' (Publication summary)

'When you least expect it something surprising will spring out and shock you. Like when you study your dead bug shelf and there’s a live huntsman spider sitting on it. Or when your sausage dog turns up on a secret mission…‘It’s Gloria,’ I say. You can feel the shock hover over the fort like a sulphur gas cloud over a volcano.

'Gloria the talkative eclectus parrot is missing from the animal sanctuary, and Anna the massive ‘not an anaconda’ Australian scrub python has vanished from her enclosure at the library. Have they escaped? Or were they stolen?

'When Andy and the Sugarcane Kids hear about an illegal native-animal trade, they know they have to investigate—and fast! Gloria and Anna are not only much-loved residents of their small coastal town in far north Queensland, but they also have very particular care needs—their lives could be in danger!

'Andy, Eli, Harvey and the twins, Bernie and Fletch, along with Andy’s trusty sausage dog Washington, have their eyes on a prime suspect: the Hench, the fierce, mean new canteen lady who is behaving very strangely. Can the Sugarcane Kids follow the clues to discover what is going on? Will they find Gloria and Anna in time? And what unexpected dangers lie in wait for them? Find out in this exciting new Sugarcane Kids adventure.' (Publication summary)

'A debut novel from one of Australia's most internationally celebrated playwrights, The End and Everything Before It is a kaleidoscopic story about the way love and loss shape a community.

'Emma watched her mother's kayak disappear among icebergs in the Arctic Sea. Six years later, her brother, who had not spoken since their mother was lost, warns Emma of the curse of death that she brought to anyone who looked on her face-before tragedy befalls him too.

'Emma consigns herself to a solitary life at sea, where she can do no more harm. After years alone, she is mysteriously drawn to land. And she docks at an island, afraid of what her arrival might mean for the welcoming man and his daughter waving from the jetty.

'But who knows where our stories begin and end or how they are entwined? Who knows whether now, on the island, she begins a new tale-or takes a role in a story that began generations ago with a feast in the forest, or a chest of gold coins plunged into the sea, or an orphan in a bookshop beguiled by an elusive and troubled woman? (Publication summary)

'Finegan Kruckemeyer's astonishing debut, The End and Everything Before It, is a sweeping, joyous novel about love, loss and the power of stories-an uplifting journey into our deepest humanity.'

'Seven will come. Two will die. Two will sleep. Two will serve. One will rule.

'I didn’t want to rule the Risen. Wreak a little havoc upon them, though? That was something else entirely.

'Bell Silverleaf is a liar.

'It’s how she’s survived. It’s how all Treesingers have survived since they were invaded by the Risen and their fickle gods. But now Bell is in the Queen’s Test—she’s one of seven girls competing in deadly challenges to determine who will rule for the next twenty-five years. If Bell wins, she’ll have the power to help her people and take revenge on the Risen. But first she has to make it through the challenges alive.

'She doesn’t know how much she’s been lied to, or where she fits in a bigger story, a mystery stretching back generations. And she’s facing much bigger dangers than the Queen’s Test. She’s up against the gods themselves.

'Liar’s Test is a fast-paced, intricately woven fantasy novel with an unforgettable heroine inspired by the strength and power of Aboriginal women.' (Publication summary)

'You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

'Birdie McBride seems to have it all: a fulfilling and lucrative job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned, at home keeping the family machine running smoothly.

'But then Ned dies. He leaves behind a document for Birdie—‘Things I Need You to Know’—full of guidance on everything from household maintenance to the intimate details of each daughter’s emotional landscape. Composed in his dying days, it’s his last act of fatherly devotion. Reading Ned’s manual, Birdie falls for her husband in a way she never did when he was alive. Yet the presence of his best friend, Marcello, complicates things. As well as having been Ned’s doctor, Marcello is Birdie’s ex-lover—though not as ‘ex’ as most people would think. And his feelings for Birdie are as strong as ever.

'When more calamities rock her family, Birdie starts to wonder: how much trust can you put in feelings? And in old friends? Can the legacy of ‘Things I Need You to Know’ save her family from the catastrophic end barrelling towards them?' (Publication summary)

'The warm, heroic story of a grandmother's determination to save her family from themselves.

'Marnie is sixty-three and downwardly mobile. Her middle-class marriage is long gone, her only child more or less estranged. She's living in a granny flat behind a stranger's house.

'Still, things could be worse. She likes her new boss, Trinh, and her flat has a leadlight window depicting a galleon in full sail. Also, her daughter Lenny has just brought Marnie's adored grandchildren to stay.

'She's also brought her repellent boyfriend and raging drug habit, so nothing new there. But this time it's different. This time Marnie can see with absolute clarity the danger the children are in.

'And this time-she's going to do something about it.

'This is the revelatory story of an ordinary woman who will let nothing, not even the law, stand in the way of her grandchildren's safety. Simply, elegantly told and utterly compelling, Edenhope is an adventure for those who believe adventure can come from anywhere. And it is a love story for those who understand that love can be found everywhere.' (Publication summary)

'Dumped by her husband of twenty-five years, Jo Peck—smart, successful and sixty—is totally floored.

'There’s the complete bombshell of the news, the cliché of a younger woman—a much younger woman—there’s the disappointment of cancelled retirement travel plans, and there’s the foundation-rocking loss of her sense of identity—if she’s no longer Rex’s wife, who the hell is she?

'She’s lost and angry and hurt and confused.

'But not for long!

'There’s the comfort and support of excellent friends and newly forged connections with extended family, there’s therapy. And there’s internet dating.

'This inspiring, witty and at times hilarious memoir tells the story of the road from shock and despair to an unexpected new life, of friendship, romance and racy sex—proof that being suddenly single at sixty is not the end, it’s an opportunity for a fabulous new beginning.' (Publication summary) 

'Grace is a thief: a good one. She was taught by experts and she’s been practising since she was a kid. She specialises in small, high-value items—stamps, watches—and she knows her Jaeger-LeCoultres from her Patek Philippes. But it’s a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. It’s not the life she wants.

'Lying low after a run-in with an old associate, Grace walks into Erin Mandel’s rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A normal job. A place to call home.

'But someone is looking for Erin. And someone’s looking for Grace, too.

'And they are both, in their own ways, very dangerous men.' (Publication summary)

'From the dream duo of Australian middle-grade comes this time-slip novel that explores the early life of Kate Kelly, sister of the infamous Ned.

'Kate and Ruby live in the High Country in Victoria. They're both daring, quick-thinking and prepared to break the rules, and they're both brilliant horse riders-they'd probably be great friends. But they live in different times, 145 years apart.

'While galloping through the mountains, Kate rides headlong into a thrilling experience that transports her from 1878 to the future, where she meets Ruby. Kate and Ruby return to 1878, where Kate is secretly taking supplies to her brother Ned and the rest of the Kelly Gang, who are in hiding from the police. Together the girls work to confuse the police and keep the gang from being found and arrested. But the looming disaster makes things less clear-cut for Ruby. They're about the have the ride of their lives!

'Outlaw Girls is an exciting, fast-paced time-slip novel, narrated by both Ruby and Kate, about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, the complexity of right and wrong, and working out what matters most.' (Publication summary)

'Eminent Australian author Gail Jones examines the intersections of art and life via a fictionalised biography of Joseph Conrad in her distinctively immersive and rich prose.

'At Cambridge University, in the summer of 1992, Australian student Helen is completing her thesis on Joseph Conrad. But she is distracted by a charming and dangerous lover, Justin, and by a ghost manuscript, her anti-thesis, which she has left on a train.

'Haunted by this loss and others, by Justin's destructive tendencies and by details of Conrad's life, Helen is unmoored. And then the drama of the lost manuscript sets in motion a series of events-with possibly fatal consequences.

'In her masterly new novel, Gail Jones traverses the borders between art and life, between life and death, in a journey through literary history and emotional landscapes. Elegantly written, deftly crafted, One Another covers new territories of grief, memory and narrative.' (Publication summary)

'Maddy is mute. Since the Incident she has barely spoken. And now she and her mother and brother are staying in a farmhouse on an old apricot orchard not far from town. It’s a chance to rest and recuperate—or a way to hide further away from the world.

'Alice is waiting. Since Birdy, her darling daughter, disappeared forty-five years ago, she has sat in her house waiting for her to come home.

'Alice says Maddy reminds her of Birdy, and Maddy feels a strange connection to the long-lost girl. In the quiet not-speaking and waiting, amid the clutter of the old woman’s house, Maddy and Alice slowly become friends.

'Until Maddy takes something that’s not hers.

'Birdy is a tender warm-hearted verse novel about the pain of loss and shame, the beauty of words, and the healing power of small acts of kindness.'(Publication summary)

'In the early 1800s magistrates in the Australian colonies were often frustrated by the language used by reoffending convicts to disguise their criminal activities and intensions. Convict clerk James Hardy Vaux came up with a useful idea: a dictionary of slang and other terms used by convicts. And so, in 1819, he compiled what was to be Australia’s first published dictionary.

'With words such as fence (a receiver of stolen goods), flesh-bag (a shirt), flip (to shoot); galloot (a soldier), kid (a child thief), knuckle (to pickpocket), ramp (to rob out in the open), ruffles (handcuffs), screw (a skeleton key), serve (to rob), stamps (shoes) and wrinkle (a lie), Vaux's dictionary is a fascinating account of convict language, including the origins and early usage of several words that have evolved to become part of Australian English today. And Simon Barnard's illustrations and supporting accounts of individual convicts and their criminal antics complements this lively picture of Australia's convict history.' (Publication summary)

'The conversion was Nick’s idea.

'Nick: so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to design the perfect environment, convinced it could heal a wounded soul.

'The conversion was Nick’s idea, but it’s Zoe who’s here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out how to live in a deconsecrated church.

'What to do with all that vertical space, those oppressive stained-glass windows? Can a church become a home or, even with all its vestiges removed, will it remain forever what it was intended to be?

'For Zoe, alone and troubled by a ghost from the recent past, the little church seems empty of the possibilities Nick enthused about. She is stuck in purgatory—until a determined young teacher pushes her way into Zoe’s life, convinced of her own peculiar mission for the building.

'Melanie has something of Nick’s unquenchable zeal about her. And it’s clear to Zoe that she won’t take no for an answer.

'The Conversion is a startling novel about the homes we live in: how we shape them, and how they shape us. Like Amanda Lohrey’s bestselling The Labyrinth, it is distinguished by its deep intelligence, eye for human drama and effortless readability.' (Publication summary)

'The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

'I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

'I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

'But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

'And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

'To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

'And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.' (Publication summary)