AustLit

'A compelling, addictive novel for readers of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine told with heart, humour and insight by Anne Buist and The Rosie Project's Graeme Simsion

'Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.

'Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.

'With intelligence, frankness and humour, eminent psychiatrist Anne Buist tells it like it is, while co-writer Graeme Simsion brings the light touch that made The Rosie Project an international bestseller and a respected contribution to the autism conversation.' (Publication summary)

'If not for money, then maybe for love.

'Three years ago, Emily was a struggling literary author when she met Scott, a struggling screenwriter. Combining her elegant writing with his gripping story, the pair crafted a novel that became an international bestseller—and fell in love along the way.

'Now her latest manuscript is stuck, his solo novel has flopped, and their relationship is on the rocks. The situation is made even messier when an eager aspiring writer gets involved. Can Emily and Scott come together to produce another hit?

'Creative Differences is a wry and incisive study of partnerships—in love, in writing—and creativity, from internationally bestselling author Graeme Simsion. It’s paired with a selection of stories from across his career, including the first appearance of Don Tillman.' (Publication summary)

'Save the drama for the story.

'‘Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.’ Variously attributed to Thomas Wolfe, Paul Gallico and Ernest Hemingway, the quote portrays writing as mysterious, romantic and, implicitly, unteachable. This book is about another approach, based on established theories of creativity and design—and on the experience of authors who have adopted a more structured and reliable process.

'It’s aimed at those who want to write a book for publication, or at least one that others will want to read. It could have been called What They Don’t Teach You in Writing School, because its focus is on the writing process as a whole: it treats writing a book as a step-by-step project.

'Easy to follow, practical and highly entertaining, The Novel Project is the inside scoop from an author who started his writing career at fifty and whose novels have sold millions of copies around the world. It will help you craft the best book you’re capable of—no blood on forehead required.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'If Emily and Scott can write one more best seller together, the world’s their oyster. But each of them believes they’re the talent....

'Emily was an aspiring literary writer, forced to make a living from editing annual reports, when she met Scott, a screenwriter in similar circumstances. With Scott’s punchy plot and Emily’s luminous prose, they crafted an international hit - and fell in love doing it. Three years later, Scott’s own novel has flopped, Emily’s struggling with her literary manuscript, and their relationship is falling apart. Can they overcome their creative differences to produce another masterpiece?

'Graeme Simsion is the internationally best-selling author of The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, The Rosie Result and The Best of Adam Sharp. He lives with Anne Buist, a novelist in her own right and co-author of Two Steps Forward and Two Steps Onward, in Melbourne, Australia.  

'This project is a work of fiction; any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. Sort of.' (Publication summary)

'Three years after any hope for their transatlantic relationship fizzled out, Californian illustrator Zoe and Northern English engineer Martin have another opportunity to follow in the footsteps of pilgrims. This time they won’t be walking the well-travelled Camino but the Chemin d’Assise, the path from rural France to Rome.

'And this time, rather than each setting off solo in search of themselves, they will be together, accompanying Zoe’s outspoken college friend Camille—who, despite her terminal illness, insists she will walk all of the trail to seek an audience with the Pope at the end of the journey. And they will be accompanied by Martin’s daughter Sarah, whose own life may be about to fall to bits…

'Two Steps Onward is a wise, witty and wine-filled sequel to Graeme Simsion’s and Anne Buist’s bestseller about walking the Camino, Two Steps Forward. It is a novel about the challenge of walking a great distance to figure out what you really want. It’s about helping the people you love, and knowing when to let them go. Most of all, it’s about seizing the second chances life offers.' (Publication summary)

'I was standing on one leg shucking oysters when the problems began…

'Don and Rosie are back in Melbourne after a decade in New York, and they’re about to face their most important project.

'Their son, Hudson, is having trouble at school: his teachers say he isn’t fitting in with the other kids. Meanwhile, Rosie is battling Judas at work, and Don is in hot water after the Genetics Lecture Outrage. The life-contentment graph, recently at its highest point, is curving downwards.

'For Don Tillman, geneticist and World’s Best Problem-Solver, learning to be a good parent as well as a good partner will require the help of friends old and new.

'It will mean letting Hudson make his way in the world, and grappling with awkward truths about his own identity.

'And opening a cocktail bar.

'Hilarious and thought-provoking, with a brilliant cast of characters and an ending that will have readers cheering for joy, The Rosie Result is the triumphant final instalment of the internationally bestselling series that began with The Rosie Project.' (Publication summary)

'Zoe, a sometime artist, is from California. Martin, an engineer, is from Yorkshire. Both have ended up in picturesque Cluny, in central France. Both are struggling to come to terms with their recent past—for Zoe, the death of her husband; for Martin, a messy divorce.

'Looking to make a new start, each sets out alone to walk two thousand kilometres from Cluny to Santiago, in northwestern Spain, in the footsteps of pilgrims who have walked the Camino—the Way—for centuries. The Camino changes you, it’s said. It’s a chance to find a new version of yourself.

'But can these two very different people find each other?

'In this smart, funny and romantic journey, Martin’s and Zoe’s stories are told in alternating chapters by husband-and-wife team Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist.

'Two Steps Forward is a novel about renewal—physical, psychological and spiritual. It’s about the challenge of walking a long distance and of working out where you are going. And it’s about what you decide to keep, what you choose to leave behind and what you rediscover.' (Synopsis)

'A novel about love, music and coming to terms with the past, from the author of the international bestseller The Rosie Project.

'On the cusp of fifty, Adam Sharp has a loyal partner, earns a good income as an IT contractor and is the music-trivia expert at quiz nights. It’s the lifestyle he wanted, but something’s missing.

'Two decades ago, on the other side of the world, his part-time piano playing led him into a passionate relationship with Angelina Brown, who’d abandoned law studies to pursue her acting dream. She gave Adam a chance to make it something more than an affair—but he didn’t take it. And now he can’t shake off his nostalgia for what might have been.

'Then, out of nowhere, Angelina gets in touch. What does she want? Does Adam dare to live dangerously? How far will he go for a second chance?' (Publication summary)

'‘We’ve got something to celebrate,’ Rosie said.

I am not fond of surprises, especially if they disrupt plans already in place. I assumed that she had achieved some important milestone with her thesis. Or perhaps she had been offered a place in the psychiatry-training programme. This would be extremely good news, and I estimated the probability of sex at greater than 80%.

‘We’re pregnant,’ she said.

'The Rosie Project was an international publishing phenomenon, with more than a million copies sold in over forty countries around the world. Now Graeme Simsion returns with the highly anticipated sequel, The Rosie Effect.

'Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are now married and living in New York. Don has been teaching at Columbia while Rosie completes her first year of a psychology degree. Just as Don is about to announce that Gene, his philandering best friend from Australia, is coming to stay, Rosie drops a bombshell: she’s pregnant.

'In true Tillman style, Don instantly becomes an expert on all things obstetric. But in between immersing himself in a new research study on parenting and implementing the Standardised Meal System (pregnancy version), Don’s old weaknesses resurface. And while he strives to get the technicalities right, he gets the emotions all wrong, and risks losing Rosie when she needs him most.

'The Rosie Effect is the charming and hilarious romantic comedy of the year.'

'Don Tillman is a forty-year-old geneticist with undiagnosed Aspergers. When he wants to find a partner, he approaches the project the only way he knows - systematically. He creates a questionnaire designed to find the perfect woman - a punctual, non-drinking, non-smoking female who will fit in with his regimented lifestyle. When Rosie appears on the scene, she fits none of Don's criteria - but she does turn his life upside down.'

Source: Wheeler Centre website,
Sighted: 28/05/2012