AustLit

'Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria was translated by Li Yao into Chinese in 2012. The following text describes Li Yao’s personal reflections on this translation, the reasons for Carpentaria’s success in China, and connected projects that the translation has led to. Beside promoting Aboriginal literature in China, translating Carpentaria has allowed Li Yao to build connections with Alexis Wright, as well as with fellow academics working in other Chinese universities and Chinese artists living in China and abroad.' (Publication abstract)

'Tragic family circumstances force siblings Ying and Lai Yue to flee their home in China to seek their fortunes in North Queensland. Life on the gold fields is hard, and they soon abandon the diggings and head to nearby Maytown. Once there, Lai Yue finds a job as a carrier on expeditions, taking him far away from his sister. Ying remains in the township, where she works in a local store and strikes up an unlikely friendship with Meriem, a young white woman with a troubled past. Maytown is a place where violence frequently erupts and, when a serious crime is committed, suspicion falls on all those who are considered outsiders.

'Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and timeless story about those exiled from family and place who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.'   (Publication summary)

'The art historian Noah Glass, having just returned from a trip to Sicily, is discovered floating face down in the swimming pool at his Sydney apartment block. His adult children, Martin and Evie, must come to terms with the shock of their father’s death. But a sculpture has gone missing from a museum in Palermo, and Noah is a suspect. The police are investigating.

'None of it makes any sense. Martin sets off to Palermo in search of answers about his father’s activities, while Evie moves into Noah’s apartment, waiting to learn where her life might take her. Retracing their father’s steps in their own way, neither of his children can see the path ahead.

'Gail Jones’s mesmerising new novel tells a story about parents and children, and explores the overlapping patterns that life makes. The Death of Noah Glass is about love and art, about grief and happiness, about memory and the mystery of time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A companion title to the best-selling Possum and Wattle: My Big Book of Australian Words, this is a book of Australian animals and landscapes from eagles to echidnas, geckos to crocodiles, from desert animals to creatures of the coral reef. Bronwyns beautiful artwork is perfect for teaching first concepts with its bright colours and bold lines.' (Source: TROVE)

'Possum and Wattle is a lavishly illustrated word book of Australia. With over 100 words about Australian animals, plants and landscapes and aimed specifically at children, this book is definitively the first of its kind. Words include blossoms and bees through to wombats and willy willys. The pages range from neatly vignetted illustrations to large narrative landscapes. The book is designed to intrigue, captivate and nurture inquisitive minds and to celebrate the uniqueness of Australia and its words.' (Publication summary)

'This remarkable book is more than an A to Z of Australian animals. It is a spectrum of every feeling under the sun - from wonder to vanity, from weariness to delight - and every one of these passions can be found between the covers of a book...' (Publication summary)

'Spurred on by his encroaching blindness, prominent historian David Walker's Not Dark Yet is a frank, witty and innovative memoir that connects the small, seemingly inconsequential events of daily life to larger historical themes of family, war, patriotism, racial identity, religious belief, knowledge of the world and death. Not Dark Yet captures the elusive voice of middle-class Australia and explores the moral values and lifestyles of people who kept few written records.

'In taking a fresh look at historical writing, Not Dark Yet offers new ways of imagining the past and making the everyday world of homes, families, childhood and memory central to the national story.

'This beautifully written and generously illustrated book is both a new departure for the author and a strikingly original contribution to our literary heritage.' (From the publisher's website.)

'From the coast to the outback, from cities to plains, from dramatic gorges to rugged alpine peaks, from deserts to rainforests ... Australia is a continent of many and varied landscapes.

'Each of them is dramatic and all inspire awe and reverence. In this glorious book, Aboriginal artist Bronwyn Bancroft explores both the country and her feelings for it.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Represents a series of Australian landscapes and habitats in 'patterns' as seen through the eyes of acclaimed indigenous artist Bancroft. Each landscape contains animals, birds, plants and flowers particular to that landscape hidden within it.' (Publication summary)

'Deep love of country inspires Bronwyn Bancroft's poetry and the richly layered hues of Colours of Australia. Each line speaks a different voice, each image stirs a different mood, and all combine to evoke the miracle of colour with which we are surrounded.' (Source: Hardie Grant Publishing website)

'"Me and Ben had been mates since we was boys and if it come to it I knew I would have to be on his side."

Bobby Blue is caught between loyalty to his only friend, Ben Tobin, and his boss, Daniel Collins, the new Constable at Mount Hay. 'Ben was not a big man but he was strong and quick as a snake. He had his own breed of pony that was just like him, stocky and reliable on their feet.' Bobby understands the people and the ways of Mount Hay; Collins studies the country as an archaeologist might, bringing his coastal values to the hinterland. Bobby says, 'I do not think Daniel would have understood Ben in a million years.' Increasingly bewildered and goaded to action by his wife, Constable Collins takes up his shotgun and his Webley pistol to deal with Ben. Bobby's love for Collins' wilful young daughter Irie is exposed, leading to tragic consequences for them all.

Miller's exquisite depictions of the country of the Queensland highlands form the background of this simply told but deeply significant novel of friendship, love, loyalty and the tragic consequences of misunderstanding and mistrust. Coal Creek is a wonderfully satisfying novel with a gratifying resolution. It carries all the wisdom and emotional depth we have come to expect from Miller's richly evocative novels.' (Publisher's blurb)

"The author describes his book as the answer to the question, so often asked, and posed in the title, as to why he went to China. It is not a history of the early, pre-Communist Republic of China; nor is it a complete biography. Fitzgerald's personality, does however, emerge from every page--independent-minded, obstinate, endlessly curious. The whole history of twentieth-century China and of modern Sinology is hardly humdrum, but this is an outstanding book by an unusual author. Here we have a first-hand account of old China surviving into the modern era, of China in turmoil, of old China hands, primitive transport and 'loony' missionaries."

Source: ANU Library.

"From boulders to bee hives, from mountains to coral, Bronwyn Bancroft explores the shapes that form our land." (Source: back cover)

'A lyrical story about waiting for the rain to come to an isolated Aboriginal community. Tension in the community builds as the rain clouds thicken and grow dark. Everybody waits. When will the rain come?' (Publication summary)

'The Tribe is a collection of three novellas portraying significant aspects in the life of an extended Muslim Lebanese-Australian family with its roots in the suburb of Lakemba in Western Sydney.The first novella describes the family house, and the three generations who live, often in some discord, in its rooms; the second explores the marriage of the boy’s uncle, and the threatened appearance of an estranged branch of the family at the ceremony. The third rounds off the circle, describing the death of the family matriarch, the boy’s grandmother. Together they offer an intimate insight into a community negotiating the conflict between tradition and modernity, and the complex tribal affiliations of the extended family.' (Publisher's blurb)