Cirrus@Austlit

'Beatrix is a loner. She has a love-hate relationship with her one friend, Ray, a hate-hate relationship with everyone else in her office and a genuine attachment to a stuffed canary named Horatio. She drinks alone far too much. Lately she’s been finding the edge of the railway platform dangerously seductive.

'Her life needs to change. Then she crosses paths with an old woman who seems to be stalking her, and that’s exactly what happens. Eighty-something Fred is smart, earthy, funny and not the harmless elderly lady she appears to be. She is, in fact, quite literally something else. But what?

'When something happens to Ray, Fred decides to reveal herself. And Beatrix realises she has some agonising choices to make.

'Beatrix and Fred is an off-kilter love story wrapped in a satisfying layer of moral complexity and tied up with a ribbon of sheer fun. Warm, witty, more than slightly weird—it takes the age-old question of what it is to be human beyond humanity itself.' (Publication summary)

'Rae is ten years old. She’s tough and clever. She’s had to be: life with her mother has taught her the world is not her friend. Now something has happened, her mum is gone, and Rae is alone except for her dog, Splinter.'

'Rae can do a lot of things pretty well for a kid. She can shop and cook—a little—and take care of Splinter and keep the front yard neat enough that the neighbours won’t get curious. But she is gnawed at by shadows, anxieties that she cannot put into words.

'With Lettie, the old woman who lives next door, the words are not the problem. Lettie’s problem is a house full of objects that can’t make up for the things she has lost.

'Their friendship gives them both an escape, but how long can it last? (Publication summary)