Cirrus@Austlit

'Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.

'The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.

'Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - in just a matter of days she was to provide the documents that will bring down the company she works for.

'Falk discovers that far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. But does it include murder?' (Publication summary)

'The most ingenious, unique novel you will read all year, where you choose your own story as you travel across the world

'You’ve grown roots, you’re gathering moss. You’re desperate to escape your boring life teaching English in Jakarta, to go out and see the world. So you make a Faustian pact with a devil, who gives you a gift, and a warning. A pair of red shoes to take you wherever you want to go.

'But where will you choose to go?

'To New York, to follow your dreams?

'To Berlin or Amsterdam? Lima or Tijuana? Or onto a train that will never stop?

'You’re forever wandering, everywhere and nowhere, but are you ever home?

'The choices you make may mean you end up as a tourist or an undocumented migrant, a mother or a murderer, and you will meet many travellers with their own stories to tell. As your paths cross and intertwine, you’ll come to realise that no story is ever new.

'The Wandering is a novel about the highs and lows of global nomadism, the politics and privileges of travel and desire, and the freedoms and limitations of the choices we make, by one of Asia’s most exciting writers. It’s a playful and ingenious reminder that borders are real, that turns the traditional adventure story on its head.' (Introduction)

'Mickey Carlyle disappeared, in a building with only five floors and eleven flats ? How is this possible? Everyone knows that Mickey Carlyle is dead and a man is in prison for her murder, except Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz, who cannot stop searching for her and will not give up hope that she is still alive. Vincent is found one night, shot and with a picture of Mickey in his pocket; he seems to have amnesia. After being accused of faking amnesia and under investigation by his colleagues he retraces his steps, and relives that night with the help of a psychologist. Facts, not memories will tell him what happened to Mickey Carlisle. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'She rejected him, but he keeps getting closer and asking her to marry him!
After her twin sister, Kristy, died in an accident in the Middle East while on a photoshoot, Karen took in her twin’s illegitimate child. Before she died, Kristy had told her boyfriend, Hal, about the baby. He hadn’t wanted marriage or a child. However, now Hal is saying he wants the baby and keeps asking Karen to marry him despite her rejections!' (Publication summary)

'Bernadette was born out of wedlock, the daughter of a famous businessman and his mistress. She’s independent, and she doesn’t believe in true love. But she’s unexpectedly reunited with a young and dashing tycoon on the night of her twenty-fourth birthday. That’s when her unfailing beliefs start to falter. Danton veils his attempts to melt her heart and win her love through challenges to compete with him. Are both work and love just games for the man? A loss in the competition leads Bernadette to spend a month at Danton’s island in the South Pacific. What will happen to her heart—and her destiny? '(Publication summary)