Cirrus@Austlit

'He may have traded furry feet and Middle Earth for a deadly infection and the undead, but don't tell Martin Freeman he's come to Australia to make a zombie movie. ...'

'It is now nearly two decades since Joe Cinque, a young civil engineer, died in a flat in Canberra's inner north after his live-in girlfriend, Anu Singh, injected him with heroin. ...'

'When I grew up in the south-west of Western Australia, I never learnt anything at school about the local Aboriginal people. They were, it seemed, written out of history. ...'

'The setting was extraordinary: 21st century Sydney's tall office buildings sparkling with lights; in front of them a low Federation-style pavilion; all around us lawns, giant Moreton Bay figs and avenues of roses; threatening rain and a chill wind. ...'

'Helen Thurloe is an award-winning Australian writer and poet. In her debut novel, Promising Azra (Allen & Unwin), a Sydney teenager discovers that her parents are arranging for her to marry a cousin in Pakistan whom she has never met. Her novel is based on extensive research into forced child marriage in Australia and overseas. ...'

'When the Desmarchelliers family moves in next door to an elderly couple who have lived in the street for many years, some violent clashes of temperament and personality ensue, especially over a new fence between the properties. ...'