AustLit

'After the birth of her daughter in a Mexican village, Gabrielle Carey returned home to see her family. The day before she arrived, her father committed suicide. In My Father’s House is an attempt to find out why. Part eulogy, part a moving last letter from a loving daughter.' (gabriellecarey.com.au/books)

'Helen Brown wasn't a cat person, but her nine-year-old son Sam was. So when Sam heard a woman telling his mum that her cat had just had kittens, Sam pleaded to go and see them.

'Helen's heart melted as Sam held one of the kittens in his hands with a look of total adoration. In a trice the deal was done - the kitten would be delivered when she was big enough to leave her mother. A week later, Sam was dead. Not long after, a little black kitten was delivered to the grieving family.

'When Maggie's vibrant young husband, father to a five-year-old daughter and an unborn son, dies tragically, Maggie is left widowed and due to give birth three months later to their second child. Then her beloved mother, backbone of the family, mother to three children, grandmother to two, dies suddenly of aggressive cancer. In two short years, Maggie's life has shattered. After a year, she gives up trying to juggle single motherhood and the demands of an academic career and returns with her children to the family farm in central western New South Wales to take stock and catch a breath.

'Christopher was seventeen and had everything to live for. He was smart, charismatic, loving, and deeply loved, and a champion rugby player. Yet he was struggling. Diagnosed a year earlier with depression and severe anxiety, he hid his fears from family and friends. Finally, Christopher chose to stop fighting.

'This is the story of Christopher's shocking death and its tragic aftermath for the family. It is also the story of a mother and father's love, and their determination not to lose another son to the temptation of taking his own life.

'Shards of Ice is about Antarctica, the death of a beloved husband and grief. Written in fragments, Shards of Ice interweaves experiences of the author’s trips to Antarctica – the first was soon after her husband died – and stories of the early explorers, in the form of snapshots rather than linear history. There is a section on the Red Desert, central Australia, another spiritual home of the author’s, contrasting with the southern white desert. And significant reflection about the four years of her husband’s decline, his death and her grief.

'On 28 April 1996, Walter Mikac lost his wife, Nanette, and two daughters, six-year-old Alannah and three-year-old Madeline. They were shot dead, along with 32 other innocent people, during the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania.

To Have and to Hold is Walter's tribute to Nanette and the girls, and their uniqueness. Walter recounts their early life together, their love for each other and the years of happiness they shared - all of which have sustained him through his grief.

He tackles with courage and honesty aspects of bereavement that are rarely acknowledged.