AustLit

'For fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things, The Dictionary of Lost Words, The Natural History of Love is based upon the true story of 19th century French explorer, naturalist and diplomat the Count de Castelnau and his lover Madame Foneeca; a sweeping historical narrative set in the wilds of Brazil, salons of Paris and the early days of Melbourne's settlement.

'When Melbourne lawyer Nathan Smithson takes on the case of mad, wealthy Edward Foneeca's inheritance trial against his ruthless brother in 1902, he must unearth long-buried family secrets to have any chance of winning.

'Brazil, 1852: Franois, the Count de Castelnau and French Consul to Bahia falls dangerously ill on a naturalist expedition and is delivered by a Tupi Indian to the Foneeca household. Carolina Foneeca is 16 years old and longing to leave the confines of her family's remote Brazilian sugar plantation. With a head full of Balzac and dreams of Parisian life, she is instantly beguiled by the middle-aged Frenchman. What Carolina doesn't know is that Franois has a wife and son back in France. Desperate for a new life, she makes a decision that will haunt her forever.' (Publication summary)

'Home Truths began as a project in lit therapy, an extension to trauma counseling. The result is a collection of stories, essays and poems written by a diverse group of refugee and migrant writers, mostly from Africa and Asia. The authors share first hand experiences of war and dislocation and of being at odds with one's own culture. Collectively, this book demonstrates the human desire to connect and build relationships is universal.' (Publication summary)

 

Leah Kolbe, the daughter of a recently deceased British antiquities dealer, escapes to Macao as the Japanese occupy Hong Kong, where her fiancé is interned and where she has long lived. As a spy for the British, she takes a Japanese lover. When she returns with provisions on the first boat to reach liberated Hong Kong, she finds the English survivors totally altered. Although her fiancé cannot bear to remain in Hong Kong, Leah chooses to stay on and rebuild.

Source: Publisher's blurb

Hong Kong, 1937: Orphaned by the sudden death of her father, a shady Hong Kong dealer in antiquities, 19-year-old Leah Kolbe finds she has been left penniless. Her only assets are the skills her father taught her: connoisseurship, secretiveness, and duplicity.

She is approached by a Mr. Chang, who claims to have known her father and offers her a commission to go to Manchukuo (the Japanese puppet kingdom recently established in Manchuria) to smuggle out Chinese Imperial treasures. She consents and, accompanied by her faithful amah and a White Russian woman in Chang’s pay, takes the train north. The trip is perilous, as is her return through besieged Nanking and by sampan across the South China Sea. But it is not until she reaches the empty house back in Hong Kong that Leah becomes her own “country of one.”

Source: Publisher's Blurb