AustLit

'A terrible accident burns down a family's life on the same day a murder is committed. From the ashes of these acts comes revelation, darkness, and the truth. Psychological suspense and profound family drama meet in this heartrending and original Australian novel.

'1975, Ballarat Alice is happy in her world and in return for her happiness the world is good to her. She has everything she needs - a lovely house and children, and a devoted husband. Even though her journalism job doesn't pay much, she doesn't have to worry about the bills. All is well with her world until a terrible accident rips a child from her, a profound betrayal is uncovered, and things fall apart.

'On the same day Alice's world collapses, a man is found brutally murdered on respected teacher Ellery's farm. Ellery can't remember what happened but there is blood on his clothes, and he is arrested.

'Neither Alice nor Ellery realise that their paths in life are about to intertwine and a desperate bargain is about to be made. A bargain that could save or destroy them in their quest to draw some light and fathom the darkness that surrounds them.' (Publication summary)

'A stunning evocation of Australian life through the war to the 1950s, this novel is intimate and sweeping, immediate and dreamlike - a magical rendering of darkness and joy, and the beauty inherent in difference. For readers of Sarah Winman's Still Life, Trent Dalton's All Our Shimmering Skies and Rosalie Ham's The Dressmaker.

'Connie Starr was always a difficult child. That day in 1934 when she arrived screaming into a Ballarat living room, her mother knew that a little more chaos had entered the world and it would not leave until Connie did. But if Connie is difficult she is also different. From the safety of a branch high in her lemon tree where she speaks to angels, she sees the world for what it is - a swirling mass of beauty and darkness, of trauma and family, of love and war and truth and lies - lies that might just undo her and drive her to a desperate act.

'This ambitious, complex and insightful novel intertwines numerous stories of lives from before World War II and beyond, recreating with intimacy and breadth a world that is now lost to us. This book is a brightly coloured patchwork quilt of everything from shoes to polio, lemon trees to rivers, death to life that melds into one beautiful, luminous work of art.

'The Secret World of Connie Starr will set the literary firmament ablaze. This brilliant, quintessentially Australian ode to difference, transcends time and place - it's an achingly lovely tale that shines long after the last page.' Karen Brooks, author of The Good Wife of Bath'  (Publication summary)

'Ballarat, 1905

'The gossips call 19–year–old Edie Cottingham the ‘Too Girl' – too stubborn, too outspoken, and too modern to get a husband. But Edie does not care. She is determined to defy them all and find love with Theo Hooley, the gentle church organist and veteran of the African Boer war.

'But just as Theo prepares to ask Edie's father for her hand, their world is turned upside down. Edie's mother is gone and she must care for her new baby sister. Gracie is a sickly baby with a special smile that enchants everyone who sees it. How can Edie marry and leave the family home now?

'But Theo Hooley is a man who knows how to wait. Every Sunday, Theo walks from his home to woo Edie. Each week Edie refuses him, knowing that he is asking for more than a walk around the lake on a Sunday afternoon. Each week Theo resolves anew to wait for her.

'Slowly the town begins to fall under the spell of the romance. Women sigh and men mutter at the challenge Theo presents to their relationships. As the children create a growing procession that follows Theo each week, the whole community becomes caught up in his display of devotion, until an unexpected event changes all their lives.' (Publication summary)

'Stories of life from a remote Aboriginal community that sing with vivid and simple life, truth and power. At the end of 2008, Robbi Neal and her family travelled to the other end of mainland Australia to a remote Aboriginal community. They planned to stay for twelve months. Seven years later, they are still there. This moving collection of linked narratives centring around a remote Indigenous community has been inspired by real people and real events - the stories might read like fiction, but they are based on fact. The events they describe really happened. Each story is true to the person who inspired it and Robbi has been given permission to share these truths by writing them down, both by the person who influenced each story and by the Elders concerned. These stories sing with vivid and simple life, truth and power. These are stories of shame, pain and sorrow, but also joy and love - and they transform our understanding of 'the Indigenous experience'. The narratives tell familiar stories - of dispossession, destitution, children being taken away, hopelessness and powerlessness - but it tells them in a very different, direct, simple and powerfully moving way. Robbi Neal captures in a unique and compelling way the voices and histories of these people - their warmth, humour, wisdom and often their irrepressible joy. AFTER BEFORE TIME is profoundly fresh, powerful and moving.' (Publication summary)