AustLit

Baillie describes some of his experiences travelling in Nepal with friends in the 1960s.

Mary Ann comes to work as a domestic in Sophie's aunt's house in Balmain. She brings her two children, and a secret plan to help the children's father escape from the nearby Cockatoo Island prison.

'Having recovered from malaria, Yvette, a young French girl, is in the city of Luang Prabang with her greedy and unscrupulous Uncle Henri when the Haw bandits arrive. Uncle Henri thinks he can trick the monks and a young Lao hero into giving him their precious statue, the Pha Bang, for "safe-keeping," but he is tricked in turn' (Source: The Source).

'When playing chicken with a bull a boy, Mon, has to overcome his fear to rescue his new friend Dave' (Source: The Source).

'A young man, keen to try everything, foolishly catches a bus into war torn Laos despite warnings from those wiser than he. He is nearly shot, saved only by a fellow traveller, but despite this scare shows he has learnt nothing' (Source: The Source).

In Cambodia, a freelance photographer looking for a great shot encounters a man with one leg.

On a trip overseas, a girl has her handbag snatched by thieves who escape on a scooter. The girl pursues the thieves, but eventually loses them. As the thieves examine her possessions, they wonder why she was so upset.

Hussein is a ten-year-old refugee. At school in Australia, his classmates try to work out why he acts so strangely. As they get to know him better, they start to understand, and to treat him more kindly.

In Burma in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi won an election, but the ruling military junta refused to acknowledge the result. Author Allan Baillie heard a story about a real incident of rebellion that occurred that year, an incident in which a thong was thrown at a military officer. 'Rebel!' is based on that story.

'An Asian boy and an Australian girl are to be separated at the end of their senior schooling because of family expectations but not before an act of defiance' (Source: The Source).

'A frightening story of life for women in Afghanistan under the rule of the "Beards", the Taliban, told from the perspective of a young girl. Caught with a stub of carpenter's pencil and threatened by an old man with execution, she nevertheless continues going to a secret school for girls' (Source: The Source).

'On Mars people can be different beyond sex or race. Like the currency lads and lasses of early Australia, second generation humans born on Mars are very different to 'Earthlings'. Can Alice and Weyen ever form a bond across this divide?' (Source: The Source).