THE BODY IN THE CLOUDS
Ashley Hay
What if you looked up at just the right moment and saw—out of the corner of your eye—something unexpected? What if it was something so marvellous, so extraordinary, that it transformed time and space forever?
The Body in the Clouds tells the story of one extraordinary moment—a man falling from the sky, and surviving—and of three men who see it, in different ways and different times, as they stand on the same piece of land. An astronomer in the late 1700s, a bridgeworker in the 1930s, an emigrated banker returning home in the early 21st century: all three are transformed by the one magical moment.
Allen & Unwin, paperback, 9781742372426
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MY SISTER CHAOS
Lara Fergus
An obsessive-compulsive cartographer trapped in the mapping of her own house. A painter turned codebreaker trying to find the lover she lost in the war. Two sisters on a collision course.
In My Sister Chaos two sisters escape an unnamed war-torn country into separate lives of exile. The cartographer is obsessed with keeping the world in order, but finds it unraveling under her own demands. Her sister, an artist, arrives unexpectedly. Her very presence is a sign of chaos for the cartographer. But in spite of this, the sister has a firm grip on the real world, and a greater connection to the past.
Spinifex Press, paperback, 9781876756840
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THE GOOD DAUGHTER
Honey Brown
Rebecca Toyer and Zach Kincaid each live on the outskirts of town, but come from very different sides of the tracks. When Zach's wealthy mother goes missing, Rebecca—the truckie's daughter—is implicated in her disappearance. In the weeks that follow, Rebecca and Zach are drawn into a treacherous, adult world. Eager to please, Rebecca finds herself in danger of living up to the schoolyard taunts she so hates, while Zach channels his feelings through the sights of his gun.
Original, unsettling and compelling, The Good Daughter is the much-anticipated second novel from Honey Brown.
Penguin (AU), paperback, 9780670074433
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DISTANT HOURS
Kate Morton
Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Millderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother's emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie's mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond. In the grand and glorious Millderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie's mother. She discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also, ultimately, the dangers. Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother's riddle, she, too, is drawn to Millderhurst Castle and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.
Allen & Unwin, hardcover, 978174371832
Atria Books, hardcover, 9781439152782
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UTOPIAN MAN
Lisa Lang
Co-Winner of 2009 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. In the 1880s, when Marvellous Melbourne was full of colourful identities, Edward William Cole was both legendary and mysterious. He was the colourful proprietor of Cole's Book Arcade - a multi-storey book arcade full of animals and fun park antics in the heart of Melbourne - and the creator of Cole's Funny Picture Books. Melburnians adored him; they could read all day in his Arcade and never be pushed to buy. But others were scandalised by his advertisement for a wife on the front page of the Herald and outraged when he campaigned against the White Australia Policy. Determined and eccentric, Edward ignored them all and went his own way. He was a collector of interests and causes, and they all ended up in his Arcade: a giant squid, a brass band, pet moneys, a black man whose skin had turned white, and a Chinese Tea Salon. He turned his passions into business, and his business thrived. But he was hit hard by the 1890's depression and the death of one of his children; grief, corruption and an unscrupulous widow all threatened to derail his singular vision. But it was not until he visited Chinatown one night - and his own deeply suppressed past - that the idealist faced his toughest challenge of all.
Allen & Unwin, paperback, 9781742373348
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LIMESTONE
Fiona Farrell
Clare Lacey is on a quest. In Ireland to attend an Art History conference, she sets out to find her father who walked out one day to buy a pack of cigarettes when she was a child, and disappeared. She is urged on her way by chance encounters: with a woman in a high tower, a blind man at a crossroads, a couple of rotund earthlings, a singer whose song she does not understand . . . Clues lie all around on a labyrinth of walls - but the final clue lies deep within.
See our review in this issue!
Random House (NZ), paperback, 9781869791681
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MEN OF BAD CHARACTER
Kethleen Stewart
When Rose's eighteen-year relationship ends in the most shocking and unexpected way, she emerges from years of what she thought was a loving relationship and realises the extent to which she was being emotionally manipulated and controlled. While trying to pick up the threads of her shattered life, she meets a charming and elusive new man. He offers hope and possibilities for the future, but as Rose is drawn further into the labyrinth that is Gary's life, she starts to wonder if he is the man she thought he was.
Compelling and darkly humorous, Men of Bad Character is a novel about modern love and dangerous liaisons.
Univ. Queensland Press, paperback, 9780702237737
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NIGHT STREET
Kristel Thornell
Co-Winner of 2009 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. Night Street is the passionate story of a young painter, Clarice Beckett, who defies society's strict conventions and indifferent art critics alike and leads an intense private and professional life. With her extraordinary talent for making simple city and seascapes haunting and mysteriously revelatory, Clarice paints prolifically and lives largely, overcoming the seemingly confined existence as the spinster daughter in the parental home.
Night Street began with Thornell's first encounter with the paintings of Melbourne artist Clarice Beckett (1887-1935) at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The subtle power of Clarice's highly atmospheric, enigmatic landscapes enabled her to imagine Clarice's inner life and shape an extraordinary novel.
Allen & Unwin, paperback, 9781742373362
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