AustLit

'Empires rise and fall, human lives are lived, collisions occur more than we will ever know, and yet the unexpected can still happen. ''Alaska, 2018, and Mike is a long way from home, nursing a wrecked knee and an unspoken grief, striking out into real estate and parenting his partner’s son. London, 1978, and Simon is an Australian fish out of water navigating adolescence during the Winter of Discontent, and drawn to an eccentric impresario next door. Washington, DC, 1928, and a retired US senator is interviewed about his time in Russia in 1916, and his mission to save a young heir to an empire. Vienna, 1809, and an Irish teenager on the run from the law takes refuge among composers as Napoleon besieges and shells the city. Hong Kong, 2019, and estranged brothers Mike and Simon reunite in midlife to face the secrets of the past, and reconnect in more ways than one.

'Empires rise and fall, human lives play out, encounters, collisions and connections occur more than we can ever know – and yet, the unexpected can still happen.

'Endlessly compelling and inventive, Empires is a masterful novel in five parts with boys and men at its heart. Spanning centuries and crossing continents, it explores the empires we build, the way we see ourselves, the narratives we construct and the interconnectedness of all things. This is Nick Earls at his finest.' (Publication summary)

'While publishing industry noise has been about ebooks, audiobooks ahve quietly started booming, writes Nick Earls.'  (Publication abstract)

The story's narrator, Paul, remembers 'a giant who came to stay with his family when his father was trying to bring American football to Australia. The tall guy in question was a player called Knut Knudsen; as a small boy, our narrator sees him as the modern day equivalent of the Colossus of Rhodes. Knudsen has dreams of becoming of all things, a writer. And it turns out that when our narrator is all grown up, he himself has become a writer, and is on an author tour to a Canadian festival... As a side trip from his festival appearances, he reconnects with Knudsen, who has published several books and is now married and teaching creative writing at a university college' (Caroline Baum, Booktopia).

A series of novellas by Nick Earls. On the first of every month from May to September 2016, Inkerman & Blunt released one novella at a time, then a Deluxe Christmas edition in October 2016.

'From award-winning author Nick Earls and illustrator Terry Whidborne comes the book that tells you everything you wanted to know about being a word hunter – and more!

'Lexi, Al, Mursili, Will and Caractacus are back! This exciting book from the successful team behind the Word Hunters trilogy is packed with never-seen-before word hunter history – with new characters, new word quests,new adventures and all the behind-the-scenes information you have ever wanted to know about the words that make up the language we speak. ' (Publication summary)

'Gotham tells of the encounter between music journalist, Jeff Foster and ‘boy pharaoh’, Nasti Boi. It reveals how hollow celebrities cast their spell.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Adjusting to a new country and a new school was never going to be easy for Herschelle. The food is strange, it's so different to South Africa and, worst of all, no one understands the Aussie slang he's learnt on the web.

'But it's the similarities that make things really hard. Herschelle will have to confront racism, bullying and his own past before Australia can feel like home . . .

'A moving, funny new novel by one of Australia's best-loved authors.' (Publication summary)

'Do you ever feel like you might have just one more chance to get on top of your life and make things happen?

'They're starting to feel like Analogue Men trying to make sense of a digital age.

'Andrew Van Fleet is 49 and feeling 50 closing in. He's bailed out of his private equity job for something that'll let him spend more time at home, but the house is overrun by iPads and teenage hormones and conversations that have moved on without him. Plus his ailing father is now lodged in the granny flat, convalescing from surgery and with his scrappy bulldog in tow.

'And then there's Brian Brightman, the expensive fading star at the radio station Andrew's signed up to manage, whose every broadcast offers fresh trouble. He's 49 too and, like Andrew, starting to wonder if the twenty-first century might prove to be his second best.' (Publication summary)