Cirrus@Austlit

'From the acclaimed author of Cooper Not Out comes a delightfully comic novel set in the Melbourne Goldrush era that reimagines the running of the inaugural Melbourne Cup.

'Some stories are too good to be true ...

'In the year 1861, there were three campfires burning outside the gold mining town of Mull Creek, in the British colony of Victoria.

'At the first is Jesus Whitetree, an escaped orphan with no knowledge of his new world, not even his age or real name. He only knows he wants to find gold. Gold makes everything good.

'At the second fire is the Jack Pink Gang. Jack is a little-known bushranger who is a violent criminal by day and a nervous wreck by night. His mother - a notorious criminal known throughout the colony as Mother Pink - engages the services of a bush poet to get Jack's name in the newspapers and make him feared and famous.

'And at the third fire is Mary, a young Aboriginal girl, and police constable Harry Logan. Harry has a good heart, but he also has Mary in chains. Despite her hard life and current circumstances, Mary remains smart, cheeky and troublesome to the struggling policeman.

'With the announcement of the first Melbourne Cup, all three parties descend upon Melbourne town. And the thrilling horserace offers something different for each of them - a new beginning, a chance to be written into history, or a prize bigger than they could imagine.

But only one can take the gold.

'GOOD AS GOLD is a reimagining of the very first 'race that stops a nation', and a heartwarming story about triumph and the things that mean more than gold.' (Publication summary)

'This summer, an unlikely hero is about to rewrite history.

'It's the summer of 1984, the West Indian cricket team is touring Australia, and the Aussies are getting flogged. Then, a very unlikely hero steps up to the crease...

'Sergeant Roy Cooper is a country policeman in the small country town of Penguin Hill. He's been batting for his local cricket club for decades - where he's a statistical miracle. He's overweight, he makes very few runs, he's not pretty to watch, but he's never been dismissed.

'When young local schoolgirl Cassie chances upon the story, she takes it all the way to Donna Garrett, a renowned sports columnist from a Melbourne newspaper who's forced to write under the male pseudonym of 'Don' Garrett to be taken seriously. The Australian people's love of cricket is lower than it's ever been. But Donna's columns on Roy Cooper ignite a new passion, and soon there's pressure to select him for the national team.

'Despite pushback from the cricket establishment, particularly from an old grump called Sir Walter Grant who once played for Australia, the people are about to discover that when it comes to sporting miracles, anything is possible, and one R Cooper might just find a way to write himself into sporting history.

'COOPER NOT OUT is a heart-warming comic novel set within real events of 1984. It's a story of how things that seem ordinary can be magnificent, a reminder of how much sport can mean to us, and it's about the agony of pretending to be something you're not.' (Publication summary)

'James Kite is a Vietnam veteran. He’s alone and at the end of his life, haunted by his role in the death of a mentally disabled Vietnamese boy during the War.

'Grace Moore spent her teenage years hiding her body before becoming a plus size model and getting the attention she’d always craved. After she’s assaulted during a street robbery, she finds herself in a new battle, with depression. 

'The Soldier is a serving military professional. After a failed suicide attempt, he returns to duty in Afghanistan. One day while on patrol in the mountains, he cradles a local woman as she dies — an event that follows him home to his wife and newborn child.

'James, Grace and the Soldier meet on Anzac Day while watching the dawn service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. Has fate brought them together for one last chance at finding peace?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.