AustLit

'When a circus trick goes horribly wrong and star magician Merry disappears in front of her daughter, Tulsi, everyone believes Merry’s gone forever. But then 11-year-old Tulsi discovers one tiny, impossible sliver of hope for bringing her mother back: If Tulsi learns enough Big Magic ;before the next full moon, she just might be able to rescue Merry by travelling to a parallel universe – a world where Tulsi has never been born, and which holds the key to saving their circus.

'There are reasons it's all but impossible: It can take a lifetime to learn Big Magic. Tulsi has never done any magic at all. And the only person who can teach her is her estranged grandmother, Sylvie – a strange, unlikeable woman who was banned for fifteen years from doing Big Magic herself.' (Publication summary)

'Years after the death of her cruel and complicated mother, Erika's house is still full of the things Michiko left behind: an onigiri basket, a Wedgewood tea set, a knotted ring from Okinawa. In defiance of Japanese tradition, Erika has also kept the urn containing Michiko's ashes, refusing to put her memory to rest. Erika throws herself into working as a chef at a high-end London restaurant and pretends everything is fine. But when a cousin announces that she will be visiting from Japan, Erika's resolve begins to crack.

'Slowly the things Michiko owned reveal stories of Michiko's youth amid the upheaval of Tokyo during and after the war. As the two women's stories progress and entwine, Erika is drawn to the island of Okinawa, the homeland of her grandmother. It's a place of magic and mysticism where the secrets of Erika's own past are waiting to be revealed.

'Beautiful and mysterious, THE THINGS SHE OWNED explores the complexity of lives lived between cultures, the weight of cross-generational trauma, and a mother and daughter on a tortuous path to forgiveness.' (Publication summary)

'I used to think that I'd escaped Southport . . .
Now I realised, Southport had been coming for me all this time.

'Erin Sloane was sixteen when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too, led by the intense, charismatic Ricky Hell. Five people went into West Cypress Road Woods the night Andre was murdered. Only three came out.

'Ativan, alcohol and distance had dimmed Erin's memories of that time. But nearly twenty years later, an ageing father will bring her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder that mesmerised the country. Erin's investigation propels her closer and closer to a terrifying truth. And closer and closer to danger.' (Publication summary)