AustLit

'Part observation, part imaginings, this string of short vignettes walks us through an urban and psychological landscape of Australia—the isolation and loneliness of city life—that is both unsettling and serene.

'From the very first lines you’ll be transported back into your years of city living, when you lived in such painful proximity to people that you knew their daily schedules, the sound of their coughing, the sounds of their sobbing, the blur of the news on their small TVs, and the smells of their cooking. You’ll build up a picture of a man living alone in an apartment—a small balcony his window to the world—making small forays to the local café or the local bookshop. You’ll watch the crows, the basil plant that has gone to seed. You’ll worry that if you buy a typewriter it will upset the very same neighbour who has no qualms about sending her cigarette smoke drifting in your direction.

'Jonathan Hadwen paints a world full of characters and character. He seeks out the noise and the clamour of his world, and then finds the quiet that stitches it all together.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie.

'Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie’s mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie’s father, doesn’t live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie’s stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won’t allow it.

'To Bonnie, The Book is sadness.

To Penny, The Book is liberation.

To John, The Book is forgiveness.

To Ted, The Book is envy.

But The Book in this book isn’t what it seems at all.

'If there was one thing in this world you wished you could hold in your hand, what would it be? The world bets it would be The Book.' (Publication summary)

'Twisted Velvet Chains is a collection of poems which follows the experiences of a young woman growing up with a bipolar, drug addicted, Gothic musician mother. Each poem represents specific moments of their life that embrace vivid rich imagery, and illustrate the turmoil of emotions both experience while together. The collection is divided into four parts that flow one into the other from childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and post-death.' (Publication summary)

'A rich collection of poems that take the reader on a deep tour of the psyche. Charting and moving across politics of language, Bell explores love, pain, failure and redemption from a variety of angles. Most of the poems sit at the fragile threshold of instinct and meaning, using symbol and sensation to get to the shock of denouement. From 'Spandex' to the Greek kafeneion, there are unexpected juxtapositions and discoveries to be found in Jessica Bell's 'Fabric'. This voice is equally inspired by the quotidian, Greek jargon words, and the mythic figures of Echo and Narcissus, Aphrodite, and, of course, Euterpe, the muse of music and the lyric. The interstices of the so-called ordinary with the always larger dramas of feeling and its consequences are among the subjects this young poet explores in her vivid weave of language.' (Publication summary)

'Sonia yearns for sharp objects and blood. But now that she's rehabilitating herself as a "normal" mother and mathematics teacher, it's time to stop dreaming about slicing people's throats. While being the wife of Melbourne's leading drug lord and simultaneously dating his best mate is not ideal, she's determined to make it work. It does work. Until Mia, her lover's daughter, starts exchanging saliva with her son, Mick. They plan to commit a crime behind Sonia's back. It isn't long before she finds out and gets involved to protect them. But is protecting the kids really Sonia's motive?' (Publication summary)

'Kit is a twenty-five-year-old archaeology undergrad, who doesn’t like to get her hands dirty. Life seems purposeless. But if she could track down her father, Roger, maybe her perspective would change.

'The only problem—Roger is as rotten as the decomposing oranges in her back yard according to the women in her life: Ailish, her mother—an English literature professor who communicates in quotes and clichés, and who still hasn’t learned how to express emotion on her face; Ivy, her half-sister—a depressed archaeologist, with a slight case of nymphomania who fled to America after a divorce to become a waitress; and Eleanor, Ivy’s mother—a pediatric surgeon who embellishes her feelings with medical jargon, and named her daughter after "Intravenous."

Against all three women’s wishes, Kit decides to find Roger.

Enter a sister Kit never knew about.

But everyone else did.' (Publisher's blurb)