The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong

$22.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Darren Keefe is in the boot of a car. The gag, the cable ties, the bullet hole in his knee - everything points towards a shallow grave. His story, now unrolling beneath him, starts with a boy wrestling his brother in a suburban backyard - all the fury in his small body poured into the rules of a made-up game. A kid with a pure talent that makes him a sporting star. A young man gorging himself on fame, seasoned with all the usual spices. A bloke who gets away with things, and just keeps getting. Until now... ...Show more

On the Java Ridge by Jock Serong

$22.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

On the Java Ridge, skipper Isi Natoli and a group of Australian surf tourists are anchored off the Indonesian island of Dana. In the Canberra office of Cassius Calvert, Minister for Border Integrity, a federal election looms and a hardline new policy on asylum-seekers is being rolled out. Not far from Dana, the Takalar is having engine trouble. Among the passengers on board fleeing from persecution are Roya and her mother, and Roya's unborn sister. The storm now closing in on the Takalar and the Java Ridge will mean catastrophe for them all. 'Taut and impressive.' Sydney Morning Herald 'You won't be able to put it down.'SA Weekend 'Cements Serong's place as one of Australia's most innovative and ambitious crime writers.' NZ Listener ...Show more

Night-Night, Sleep Tight by Paul Burman

$25.00 AUD

$28.95 (13% off)

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Meg Dapsy's family home has been destroyed in an arson attack. Her mother is dead and her father is missing, but Stella, the younger sister she's always taken care of, has one secret too many... and it involves an old boyfriend. With suspicion falling on a group of militant Animal Rights activists, Meg has no doubt where the blame really lies. Night-night, Sleep Tight is a psychological thriller set against the backdrop of a vast, forested wilderness. This is the third novel from Paul Burman, author of the surreal The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore and the thriller The Grease Monkey's Tale. ...Show more

Quota by Jock Serong

$22.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Charlie Jardim has just trashed his legal career in a spectacular courtroom meltdown, and his girlfriend has finally left him. So when a charitable colleague slings him a prosecution brief that will take him to the remote coastal town of Dauphin, Charlie reluctantly agrees that the sea air might be good for him. The case is a murder. The victim was involved in the illegal abalone trade and the even more illegal drug trade. And the witnesses aren't talking. And as Dauphin closes ranks around him, Charlie is about to find his interest in the law powerfully reignited. Jock Serong's most recent novel, On the Java Ridge, a fast-paced political thriller, was published in 2017. His  debut novel Quotawon the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel. The Rules of Backyard Cricketis nominated for a 2018 Edgar Allan Poe Award and was shortlisted for the 2016 Victorian Premier's Literary Award.  Jock teaches law and writes feature articles in the surfing media and for publications such as The Guardianand Slow Living. He lives with his wife and four children in Port Fairy, Victoria. 'Pitch-perfect dialogue, and a strong sense of place...A very engaging, and extremely realistic debut novel.' Reviewing the Evidence 'This gritty debut maintains the pace and suspense.' Qantas The Australian Way 'A very entertaining read. What we look for in fiction is a story that resonates somewhere in our memory/imagination, characters that are enthralling...and settings, in time and space, that are authentic...Jock can tick the boxes.' Queenscliffe Herald 'These characters are full of life.' NZ Listener 'You will revel in this great thriller. Jock Serong with his background s lawyer and a local living along the Surf Coast, effortlessly gives his novel a ring of authenticity. You will quickly become engrossed in this great crime thriller with its dark underbelly of secrets and divided loyalties.' Surf Coast Times 'Serong's prose is evocative, his dialogue convincing, and the atmosphere of small-town life pungently suggested.' Canberra Times 'A gripping work of literary suspense that blends tense courtroom drama with tight-lipped witnesses and brooding small-town strangeness...It's a well-placed, atmospheric tale that manages to be page-turning as well as poignant; whether you're a crime fan or not, it's worth a read.' Kill Your Darlings 'Rich with nuanced observation of people in pressured situations and the theatrics of those who understand courtroom rules and customs...Serong's human instinct flourishes.' Swellnet 'Jock Serong writes with a surfer's love of the water. The cold, the pulse and the power loom over this book...There will no doubt be more Charlie Jardim novels.' Law Institute Journal 'This debut novel by former lawyer Jock Serong is a very credible entry into the world of Australian crime, with its shades of Jack Irish and a hint of Rake...Jock Serong's familiarity with the people and social structures of small country communities enables him to forensically profile the characters who inhabit his novel and detail their often complex and sometimes contradictory relationships...His sea and landscape portraits are beautifully depicted. Bring on the next brief for Jardim of Counsel.' Good Reading 'This book is a ripper...The writing is beautiful. There is tension, rhythm, beauty and ugliness in here. This would make a great movie with its strong characters and narrative arc but then we'd miss the lyricism of the wriitng. Do read this one.' Geelong Advertiser ...Show more

The Burning Island by Jock Serong

$32.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Eliza Grayling, born in Sydney when the colony itself was still an infant, has lived there all her thirty-two years. Too tall, too stern--too old, now--for marriage, she lives by herself, looking in on her reclusive father in case he has injured himself while drunk. There is a shadow in his past, she k nows. Something obsessive. Something to do with a man who bested him thirty-three years ago. Then Srinivas, another figure from that dark past, offers Joshua Grayling the chance for a reckoning with his nemesis. Eliza is horrified. The plan entails a sea voyage far to the south and an uncertain, possibly violent, outcome. Out of the question for an elderly man--insanity for a helpless drunkard who also happens to be blind. Unable to dissuade her father from his mad quest, Eliza begins to understand she may be forced to go with him. Then she sees the ship they will be sailing on. And in that instant, the voyage of the Moonbird becomes Eliza's mission too. ...Show more

The Grease Monkey's Tale by Paul Burman

$25.00 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

For Nic the mechanic 'grease monkey extraordinaire' life is becoming a journey of stories: good, bad, happy and sad. When Siobhan McConnell beautiful, dynamic, but shadowed by secrets - hurtles into his world, Nic's life bounces between tragedy, romance and thriller. Framed for armed robbery, it seems h e's on the brink of losing everything until he's offered the 'job-of-a-lifetime' in the remote township of Gimbly, where very little is what it seems to be. Nic, haunted and supported by his past, attempts to uncover the truth behind Gimbly, and starts to discover a devastating truth peeking out from beneath the surface. Should Nic learn to live with what he finds, or take action to shake the town to it very core? ...Show more

Preservation PB by Jock Serong

$22.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Seventeen men survived the shipwreck of the rum-smuggling Sydney Cove--but only three are picked up on a beach near the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797. The three men have walked hundreds of miles across an alien landscape. They are distressed and injured. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive- -and conflicting. Tasked with investigating their stories, Lieutenant Joshua Grayling comes to realize that there might be something--or someone--behind the fourteen missing men. And as the full horror of the journey emerges, Grayling begins to wonder whether his own family is also in danger. ...Show more

Grimmish by Michael Winkler

$28.00 AUD

Category: BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

Pain was Joe Grim's self-expression, his livelihood and reason for being. In 1908-09 the Italian-American boxer toured Australia, losing fights but amazing crowds with his showmanship and extraordinary physical resilience. On the east coast Grim played a supporting role in the Jack Johnson-Tommy Burns F ight of the Century; on the west coast he was committed to an insane asylum. In between he played with the concept and reality of pain in a shocking manner not witnessed before or since. Award-winning writer Michael Winkler braids the story of Grim in Australia and meditations on pain with thoughts on masculinity and vulnerability, plus questionable jokes, in a haymaker of highly creative non-fiction. ...Show more

The Lost Lovelies Foundation by Beth Wilson

$29.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Anita Hammond-Jones is a stylish, charismatic, society figure, applauded for her strength and bravery, tireless advocacy, and speaking her truth.When Anita sets up the Lost Lovelies Foundation after the death of her son, Martha is quick to join and dedicates herself, heart and soul, to the cause. She fo llows willingly as Anita pushes legislation to punish perpetrators and keep children safe. If passed, the Victims Voices Act will give parents the final say on whether an offender walks free.Not everyone agrees with Anita's stance, and they're making Martha's job difficult. The ensuing debate on sentencing, parole, and perpetrator rehabilitation tests Martha's resolve and her loyalties.Everyone has a different perspective, and they each offer us a unique insight into what motivates charity - and what happens when grief distorts our sense of right and wrong. ...Show more

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

$24.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION | Reading Level: very good

Winner of the Miles Franklin Award and recognised as one of the greatest works of Australian literature, Cloudstreetis Tim Winton's sprawling, comic epic about luck and love, fortitude and forgiveness, and the magic of the everyday. After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united and - until God seems to turn his back on their boy Fish - religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords. Chance, hardship and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet. Over the next twenty years they struggle and strive, laugh and curse, come apart and pull together under the same roof, and try as they can to make their lives.'This is that rare book, a novel of both heart and intellect. It pulses with a sense of wonder and shines with the clear light of truth.? Robert Drewe'One of the great masterpieces of world fiction.? Philip Hensher'If you have not read Cloudstreet, your life is diminished . . . if you have not met these characters, this generous community, these tragedies, the humour. It is so wonderful.? Mem Fox'Cloudstreetis a comic, poignant and intelligent tour de force.? Jim Crace'A groundbreaking Australian narrative with an irresistible combination of the domestic and the mythic.? Thomas Keneally'Reading Cloudstreetfor the first time was like a summer dream from which I wished never to wake.? Gillian Mears'Cloudstreetis the sole epic of contemporary Australian literature- in it, Winton paints on the same canvas as Xavier Herbert and Patrick White.? Geordie Williamson'A writer of tremendous zest, warmth and humour.? Graham Swift'Reading Cloudstreetis like catching a wave.? Kate Jennings'Eccentric heights and unrepeatable genius.? Malcolm Knox ...Show more

Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

$19.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014. A novel of the cruelty of war, tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love. August, 1943. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma death railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two year s earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. This savagely beautiful novel is a story about the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost. 'The Narrow Road to the Deep Northis a big, magnificent novel of passion and horror and tragic irony. Its scope, its themes and its people all seem to grow richer and deeper in significance with the progress of the story, as it moves to its extraordinary resolution. It's by far the best new novel I've read in ages.' - Patrick McGrath 'Beyond comparison . . . an immense achievement . . . Wilfred Owen wrote of his Great War verse- "My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity." Flanagan's triumph is to find poetry without any pity at all.' - Geordie Williamson, The Australian 'A story of war and star-crossed lovers, the novel is also a profound meditation on life and time, memory and forgetting . . . a magnificent achievement.' - Katharine England, Adelaide Advertiser 'A masterpiece . . . The Narrow Roadis an extraordinary piece of writing and a high point in an already distinguished career.' - Michael Williams, The Guardian ...Show more

West by Carys Davies

$19.99 AUD

Category: CONTEMPORARY FICTION

An exquisite page-turner from the winner of the 2015 Frank O'Connor Award is "a tightly knit, compulsively readable tale...with all the heft of a sprawling western classic" (Booklist, starred review). When widowed mule breeder Cy Bellman reads in the newspaper that colossal ancient bones have been disc overed in the salty Kentucky mud, he sets out from his small Pennsylvania farm to see for himself if the rumors are true: that the giant monsters are still alive and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River. Promising to write and to return within two years, he leaves behind his daughter, Bess, to the tender mercies of his taciturn sister, Julie, and heads west. With only a barnyard full of miserable animals and her dead mother's gold ring to call her own, Bess, unprotected and approaching womanhood, fills lonely days tracing her father's route on maps at the subscription library in town and waiting for his letters to arrive. Bellman, meanwhile, wanders farther and farther from home, across harsh and alien landscapes in reckless pursuit of the unknown. From Frank O'Connor Award winner Carys Davies, "West taps the spirit of the great quest novels of Twain, Melville, Cervantes, but with a gentle feminist twist and a fraction of the page count" (The Toronto Star). "Moving, atmospheric" (Real Simple), West is a spellbinding and timeless epic-in-miniature, an eerie parable of the American frontier, and an electric monument to possibility--"the sort of book that warms even as it devastates, that forces serious reflection and yet charms" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). ...Show more