AustLit

'Out of the Ashes is the inspirational story of an Australian mother’s journey back from hell after the 12 October 2002 Bali bombings. The deadly terrorist attacks on Paddy’s Irish Bar and the Sari Club in Kuta’s party precinct claimed the lives of 202 innocent people, and maimed and injured hundreds more.

'The holiday of a lifetime turned into their worst nightmare for Australian nurses Bronwyn Cartwright and Therese Fox. Tragically, Bronwyn, 28, perished in the deadly bomb blast which ripped through Paddy’s Irish Bar. Therese survived, but suffered such horrific burns that doctors believed she would not survive a flight home to Australia.

'This is the story of her fight to get home to her children, and her long road to recovery. Therese’s story is interwoven with the tales of others who were there, detailing the horrors of that night and the long journey of healing for all those involved – and their families.

'Out of the Ashes is ultimately a story of hope, belief in the power of love, friendships forged in fire, and the extraordinary courage of a woman doctors nicknamed The Miracle of Bali.' (Publication summary)

'From the best-selling author of CARDINAL comes a searing examination of the power imbalance in our legal system - where exposing the truth is never guaranteed and, for victims, justice is often elusive.

'A masterful and deeply troubling expose, Witness is the culmination of almost five years' work for award-winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan. Charting the experiences of those who have the courage to come forward and face their abusers in high-profile child abuse and sexual assault cases, Milligan was profoundly shocked by what she found.

'During this time, the #MeToo movement changed the zeitgeist, but time and again during her investigations Milligan watched how witnesses were treated in the courtroom and listened to them afterwards as they relived the associated trauma. Then she was a witness herself in the trial of the decade, R v George Pell.

'She interviews high-profile members of the legal profession, including judges and prosecutors. And she speaks to the defence lawyers who have worked in these cases, discovering what they really think about victims and the process, and the impact that this has on their own lives. Milligan also reveals never-before-published court transcripts, laying bare the flaws that are ignored, and a court system that can be sexist, unfeeling and weighted towards the rich and powerful.

'Witness is a call for change. Milligan exposes the devastating reality of the Australian legal system where truth is never guaranteed and, for victims, justice is often elusive. And even when they get justice.' (Publication summary)

'The Arsonist takes readers inside the hunt for a fire-lighter. After Black Saturday, a February 2009 day marked by 47 degree heat and firestorms, arson squad detectives arrived at a plantation on the edge of a 26,000-hectare burn site. Eleven people had just been killed and hundreds made homeless. Here, in the Latrobe Valley, where Victoria’s electricity is generated, and the rates of unemployment, crime and domestic abuse are the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn’t know.

'The Arsonist tells a remarkable detective story, as the police close in on someone they believe to be a cunning offender; and a puzzling psychological story, as defence lawyers seek to understand the motives of a man who, they claimed, was a naïf that had accidentally dropped a cigarette.

'It is the story not only of this fire - how it happened, the people who died, the aftermath for the community - but of fire in this country. What it has done, what it has meant, what it might yet do. Bushfire is one of Australia’s deepest anxieties, never more so than when deliberately lit. Arson, wrote Henry Lawson, expresses a malice ‘terrifying to those who have seen what it is capable of. You never know when you are safe.‘

'As she did in The Tall Man, Chloe Hooper takes us to a part of the country seldom explored, and reveals something buried but essential in our national psyche. The bush, summertime, a smouldering cigarette - none of these will feel the same again.'  (Publication summary)

'One woman. Two husbands. Four trials. One bloody execution. The last woman hanged in NSW.

'In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of ten children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands died suddenly. The Crown was convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic and, to the horror of many in the legal community, put her on trial an extraordinary FOUR TIMES in order to get a conviction. Louisa protested her innocence until the end. Now, in Last Woman Hanged, writer and journalist Caroline Overington delves into the archives to re-examine the original, forensic reports, court documents, judges notebooks, witness statements and police and gaol records, in an effort to discover the truth.

'Much of the evidence against Louisa was circumstantial. Some of the most important testimony was given by her only daughter, May, who was just 10-years-old when asked to take the stand.

'The historical context is also important: Louisa Collins was hanged at a time when women were in no sense equal under the law - except when it came to the gallows. 'Women could not vote or stand for parliament - or sit on juries. There were no female politicians and no women judges.

'Against this background, a small group of women rose up to try to save Louisa's life, arguing that a legal system comprised only of men - male judges, all-male jury, male prosecutor, governor and Premier - could not with any integrity hang a woman.

'The tenacity of these women would not save Louisa but it would ultimately carry women from their homes all the way to Parliament House.

'Less than 15 years after Louisa was hanged, Australian women would become some of the first in the world to get the vote. They would take seats in State parliament, and in Canberra. They would become doctors, lawyers, judges, premiers - even the Prime Minister.

'Caroline says: 'My hope is that Last Woman Hanged will be read not only as a true crime story but as a letter of profound thanks to that generation of women who fought so hard for the rights we still enjoy today.'' (Publication summary)

' How did a young Somali man end up in gaol for the rape of a woman he had never met, in an over-28s nightclub he was too young to be admitted to, in a Melbourne suburb he had never visited? In the style of literary non-fiction comes a gripping true story that will appeal to mystery, crime and ‘CSI’ aficionados and anyone interested in justice for all, in the midst of cultural diversity.

'In 2010, nearly 18 months after Jama’s incarceration, his conviction was overturned when a mother’s profound faith in her son’s innocence, a prosecutor’s tenacious pursuit of truth and justice and a defence lawyer’s belief in his client, brought forth revelations that overturned one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Victorian legal history.' (Publication abstract)