AustLit

'When a violent brawl erupts at a suburban junior soccer game, some onlookers are shocked. But others saw it coming. Rivalry, parental pressure, coaching bias, inequity, and many other factors have played a part in turning Saturday mornings into a pressure cooker.

'Thirteen-year-old Audrey is a talented young football player. But does she want to play for Australia or does she just want to please her father, Ben, whose own thwarted sporting career looms large in his ambitions for his daughter? Audrey's mother, Jonica, doesn't know whether to be more concerned about her anxious daughter, her overbearing husband, or the only other girl on the team, Katerina, who is causing trouble on and off the field. And Katerina's mother, Carmen, is so busy looking for opportunities to give Katerina more game time that she fails to notice what is really capturing her daughter's attention. 

'When Griffin, a naturally gifted player with spectacular skills, arrives, the tension within the team reaches boiling point. But who is going to crack first - the parents or the players?' (Publication summary)

'When I first had small children, I used to say that all I wanted for them in life was to find a good job, a caring partner and to be happy. Simple. Or maybe not so simple — because that’s everything, isn’t it? It’s what we all hope for, and it’s not easy to find.' (Introduction)

'How do you define home? Is it where you grew up? Where your family lives? Where you’ve been happiest? Or is it where you are now? Where the heart is?' (Introduction)

'Sixteen-year-old Mikaela has grown up isolated and homeschooled on an apple orchard in south-eastern Tasmania, until an unexpected event shatters her family. Eighteen months later, she and her older brother Kurt are running a small business in a timber town. Miki longs to make connections and spend more time in her beloved forest, but she is kept a virtual prisoner by Kurt, who leads a secret life of his own.

'When Miki meets Leon, another outsider, things slowly begin to change. But the power to stand up for yourself must come from within. And Miki has to fight to uncover the truth of her past and discover her strength and spirit. Set in the old-growth eucalypt forests and vast rugged mountains of southern Tasmania, The Orchardist's Daughter is an uplifting story about friendship, resilience and finding the courage to break free.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The story of two remarkable women and their tales of forgiveness and acceptance, from the bestselling author of The Lightkeeper's Wife.

'Abby is a young woman shying away from close contact with others and running from a terrible event in her early teens which has shaped her life. Then she meets Daphne, the daughter of a pastoralist, who grew up in a remote valley of the Brindabella Ranges. Daphne raised her family in the high country with her husband Doug, in a world of horses, cattle and stockmen. But the government forced them off their land, and years later, Daphne is still trying to come to terms with her departure from the mountains and the tragic impact it had on her husband.

'Though years and life experience separate Abby and Daphne, they understand each other, and a gentle friendship forms. While Abby's traumatic past hampers her involvement with journalist Cameron, Daphne tussles with her own family history and the shadow it may have cast over the original inhabitants of the land. Both women must help each other face the truth and released long-buried family secrets before they can be free.

'The Grass Castle is a sweeping rural epic that reflects the strength which resides in us all: the courage to learn and grow from the past.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Elderly and in poor health, Mary fulfils her wish to herself to live out her last days on Bruny Island with only her regrets and memories for company. A long time ago, her late husband was the lighthousekeeper on Bruny, and she'd raised a family on the wild windswept island, until terrible circumstances forced them back to civilisation. The long-buried secret that has haunted her for decades now threatens to break free and she is hoping to banish it once and for all before her time is up.

'But secrets have a life of their own, and as Mary relives the events that led up to the shattering revelation, she realises she needs to trust a later generation to put things right. As she steadily weakens, she imposes herself on the island's ranger, Leon, who is reluctant to become nursemaid to Mary and resentful that he appears to have little choice in the matter. He has problems of his own and the last thing he needs is another drain on his time.

'Mary's adult children are respectively outraged, non-committal and sympathetic, but no amount of coaxing, pleading or threats will shake her resolve. Her youngest son Tom loves Bruny as much as his mother does, and can understand her primal connection to that wild island, a place of solitude, healing and redemption for them both.

'Years before Tom had spent a winter working on a base in Antarctica and had returned from that empty loneliness to find his marriage over and his life destroyed. Not for nothing do Antarctic regulars call that gruelling experience The Division of Broken Marriages and Shattered Lives. Still wounded, Tom lives a simple life in Hobart, unable and unwilling to make real connections with people in case he gets hurt again. But then he meets Emma, newly returned from Antarctica and as open and welcoming as Tom is not. Will Tom be healed by Emma's interest, or come to terms with his first trip there?

'As Mary's time winds down, both she and Tom must face their pasts in ways they cannot even begin to imagine. And Mary finds that the script she's written to the end of her life has taken on a few twists of its own. The Lightkeeper's Wife is a moving and redemptive story of love, loss and family, and what we have to do to live the best kind of life.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Lex Henderson washes up in a small coastal village after a tragedy shatters his life in Sydney. He is broken in every way, and wants only to escape from the world. The best place to hide is one where you'll be left alone, or so Lex thinks until the small community of Merrigan starts taking an interest in him. By then, despite himself, he's a little fascinated in return, and is soon drawn into the community in ways he could never have anticipated, discovering that Merrigan has social rules of its own that he must learn to navigate. It is through new and unexpected friendships that he gradually embarks on the path to recovery, finding support and common ground with his reclusive neighbour, the owner of the town cafe and his employer at a local dairy farm. He also meets Callista Bennett, an artist with a hidden history, and enters into a friendship with her that is both volatile and difficult. Slowly, painstakingly, they turn to each other, but each attempt to get closer ends up in retreat, as both of them are paralysed by their pasts and by the idea of trusting anyone ever again.

'What Lex does learn to trust is the beauty of the natural world, the strange comfort of the wild seascapes he sees from his windows, and the transfixing majesty of the whales that swim close to his house on the point. Giving himself up to nature is one thing he can do, and he embraces it wholeheartedly, swimming out among the whales, spending hours a day studying the ever-changing patterns of the sea and the play of light and shadow, storm and sunshine. This is one way he can connect with Callista, who has spent her whole life engaged with the natural world and whose paintings capture it so vividly.

'Then a whale is stranded on a remote beach near Merrigan, and Lex, Callista and the townsfolk become involved in a tense and uncertain rescue that challenges their attitudes and beliefs, creating rifts and liaisons. It is through the trials and emotions of this event that Lex and Callista see a way through their grief. But will their pasts ever let them go?' (Publisher's blurb)