This collection of vivid, accessible, contemporary stories can be read purely for the immense pleasure they offer. However, the stories can also be read for the way they explore elements from earlier works: from Maori myth and fairy tale to masterpieces by writers such as Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce and Anton Chekov. As the award-winning author says, those stories 'touched me deeply and I can recall their substance without hesitation'. Using them for inspiration, she also explores their concerns of dignity, honesty, bravery, weakness and passion.

Sue Orr has been a journalist and editor, and spent two years as Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright's speechwriter. She has worked in England and France, where two of her three children were born. She now lives with her family in Auckland, New Zealand.

It's 1948 and Handra Sparrow and her teenage daughters, Aria and Rosy, have fallen on tough times. With little more than the suitcases they carry and a few pounds between them, they must move to a housing commission camp on the outskirts of Sydney. While the prospect of life in a ramshackle tin shed is grim, these women soon learn that they are not alone. As they befriend other camp residents such as Mr Sparkle, who's had to leave his family behind to look for work in the city, Mr Gardiner, the war hero who never recovered, and the women of the laundry circle who are the eyes and ears of the camp, the Sparrow women discover that resilience and good humour might just be their salvation.

In The Sparrows of Edward Street, acclaimed author Elizabeth Stead uses her clear eye and sharp wit to recreate a little known corner of Australian post-war history.

In 1870 the celebrated midget General Tom Thumb and his troupe are touring Australia. While in Melbourne, Tom Thumb is rescued from the Yarra River by an impoverished governess, Mary Ann. She is hired by the troupe, but soon realises that relationships between the little people and their entourage are far from harmonious.

When it becomes clear to everyone that Mary Ann is pregnant, Tom Thumb and his wife hatch a plan that appears to provide her child with a secure future. Others among the touring performers are less happy with these developments, however, and Mary Ann starts to wonder just whom she can trust. As the pregnancy proceeds, Mary Ann's life and that of her child seem increasingly in danger.

This gripping historical novel is full of strange showbiz folk and has all the colour and flair of the circus, complete with sideshows starring the little people themselves. Reminiscent of the fantastical tales of Angela Carter and Peter Carey, and of Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Little People will charm and beguile you.

Sisters Tally and Grace have always dreamed of moving to the city: a bright, glamorous world full of luck and promise. Yet neither of them ever expected to be living there broke, homeless, and alone—as happens when they become separated after an accident. As undocumented people ('undoes'), the sisters are now confined to life's shady margins, where they encounter a range of memorable characters. But the city, increasingly dominated by surveillance, segregation, and civil unrest, is more dangerous than they imagined. Now they must struggle to find each other—or just to survive.

A young man is found unconscious in a remote forest. He is over seven feet tall, his skin covered in thick hair which reminds onlookers of an animal's pelt. When he wakes in a city hospital, he is eerily uncommunicative. Speculation begins. Medics want to run tests on him, the media want to get his story, and the public want to gawp and prod. When a young woman befriends him and he starts to talk, his identity seems to grow more complex. On his release from hospital, events drive him into hiding. Yet how can a young man of such uncommon appearance find true refuge?

Fosterling is a moving, compelling story about society and our reactions to difference, convincingly evoked, beautifully. written.