AustLit

'Full of simmering tensions, Katherine Allum's award-winning debut novel, The Skeleton House, pulls back the layers on a seemingly perfect family, exposing the complexities of marriage and motherhood when you are fighting to keep your own identity, no matter the cost.

'Meg's life is woven into the fabric of St Stephens. It's a tapestry made of two precious children, a hidden truth and a husband whose ideas of a perfect wife do not match her own. When Meg puts her foot down on a third kid, gets a job and is empowered by the same book group that was meant to keep her in her place, her marriage begins to disintegrate. Set in a tiny Mormon community, this is a novel about resilience and courage - the fierceness of mother-love and the power that comes with never forgetting who you really are.' (Publication summary)

'The Glass House, Brooke Dunnell's debut novel, is a stunning portrayal of family and friendship, secrets and betrayal.

'Relieved to take time out from her faltering marriage, Julia Lambett heads across the country to her hometown to help her father move into aged care. But moving an elderly man is easier said than done, especially when her father reveals that a guest has come to stay.

'Soon after her return, Julia bumps into her childhood friend Davina. True to form, Davina takes a determined interest in all the things that Julia hoped she had left behind. Along with four decades of possessions to be managed and dispersed, Julia uncovers some long-forgotten, deeply unsettling memories.' (Publication summary)

'‘There is madness in it.’

'‘Yes. But magic too.’

'Following the death of their parents, Jessie and her older sister Kay move to their grandmother’s abandoned house. One night they discover The History of Mischief hidden beneath the floor: it is like no book they have ever seen.

'From Ancient Greece to war-torn China, from the Ethiopian Empire to Victorian England, the pages reveal a world of mischief and mystery, adventure and adversity – stolen bones and fiery dragons, feisty philosophers and tempestuous tyrants, shape-shifting trees and scorched scrolls.

'But not everything is as it seems, in the book or in her life, and Jessie is determined to find the truth. The History has a history of its own. Unravelling its secrets might be the biggest mischief of all. (Publication summary)'