Cirrus@Austlit

'The year is 1859 and the goldfields are filled with diggers -- and danger!

'Orphaned twelve-year-old Tigg is the Bandicoot Bushranger, the youngest bushranger on the Ballarat goldfields in 1859.

'When a robbery goes wrong, Tigg must flee in disguise as one of the tens of thousands of Chinese men and boys braving heat, thirst, starvation and murderous attacks on the long road from Robe in South Australia to the goldfields in Victoria.

'But even further danger threatens. Who has offered a large sum of money for Tigg's capture? And is the mysterious Henry Lau a friend or enemy?

'To be safe, Tigg must solve the greatest mystery of all.' (Publication summary)

'Summer, Adelaide, 1917. The impeccably dressed Miss Kate Cocks might look more like a schoolmistress than a policewoman, but don't let that fool you. She's a household name, wrangling wayward husbands into repentance, seeing through deceptive clairvoyants, and rescuing young women (whether they like it or not) with the help of a five-foot cane and her sassy junior constable, Ethel Bromley.

When shop assistant Dora Black is found dead on a city beach, Miss Cocks and Ethel are ordered to stay out of the investigation and leave it to the men. But when Dora's workmate goes missing soon after, the women suspect something sinister, and determine to take matters into their own hands. After all, who knows Adelaide better than the indomitable Miss Cocks?

'*In 1915, Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary as men. This novel is a rich exploration of that little-known chapter of Australian history.*' (Publication summary)

'The fourth book in the best-selling Jackie French historical series that places girls centre stage.

'Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history.

'History's sister, the mysterious Herstory, believes that the more you know about the past, the better you can understand the future. And so she now sends Ming back in time to work as a maid in an isolated English mansion to see a girl change the world in 1829.

'But which girl? The young mistress of the house is lying in bed blind and immobile, recovering from the measles. Abandoned by her aristocratic mother and the rest of her family, she may never walk - or even read and write - again.

'Ming becomes friends with another scullery maid, Hepzibah, who is desperately teaching herself to read and who longs to free slaves, as she and her parents had been. But what hope has a scullery maid?

'When Hepzibah is accused of a crime that might send her to the gallows, it is up to Ming to prove her innocent, as well as find the person in this lonely house who will - surprisingly - help pioneer the computer revolution.

'From one of the Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.' (Publication summary)

'A compelling, addictive novel for readers of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine told with heart, humour and insight by Anne Buist and The Rosie Project's Graeme Simsion

'Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.

'Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.

'With intelligence, frankness and humour, eminent psychiatrist Anne Buist tells it like it is, while co-writer Graeme Simsion brings the light touch that made The Rosie Project an international bestseller and a respected contribution to the autism conversation.' (Publication summary)

'In 1916 sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a Post Office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse Code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse – to take a secret position as a signaller in France.

'If Jean can keep the signals flowing between the soldiers at the Front and at headquarters, Britain might possibly win the war.

'But the British army are determined to hide their desperation – they will go on to burn every document that showed how women and girls were working behind the scenes, in the trenches, and even in battles during World War I.

'Decades later, and half a world away, an old woman on a motorbike tells the young man she has rescued from a flash flood the story of 'the telegraph girl': the friends she lost, the man who loved her, and the happiness she so surprisingly found again.

'Based on true events, this story of adventure, courage and unshakable loyalty restores women and girls to their place in history that the authorities tried to erase.' (Publication summary)

'Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed history throughout the world.

'She's faced danger and adventure when Herstory sent her to the past to witness girls' bravery in the incredible feats left out of 'histories'. Now Ming asks Herstory for another time-travelling quest – this time, one that is less confronting.

'Ming finds herself in relative luxury, heading to an unknown destination on a ship carrying royal Saxon sheep, travelling with the girls who care for them.

'What do female shepherds have to do with history? And is it even possible for sheep to be royal?

'As Ming knows only too well, change is never easy, so how can one girl – and a sheep – change the world?' (Publication summary)

'From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the secrets we carry, those that we unearth - and those that are too dangerous to tell.

'The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and now shuns them.

'The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.

'A chance visit to a circus brings about a mystery in the form of a fairylike child whose guardians claim was brought up by dingoes. The child cannot speak and seems deformed. But Agnes is inexplicably drawn to her and believes she can be cured.

'The decision to save the child will bring Agnes's lost fiance into her life again, as well as the love of her husband who finds his voice as the three try to solve the mystery of the 'dingo girl'.

'Agnes has put aside her own life and the dreams she once had. But now she has choices, with the main question the hardest: Who is Mrs Agnes Mulberry?' (Publication summary)

'An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.

'Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history.

'So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie -- an experienced spy at only twelve years of age -- she finally has her proof. Marie is involved with a female secret resistance group who risk their lives to outwit the German troops.

'But Ming now faces a tough choice: will she send coded messages and risk her own life in this war on which the future depends?

'As Ming learns, change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?

'From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.' (Publication summary)

'An unflinching theatrical descent into a dark underworld of heroes, gods and monsters.

'The myth of the hero towers over western history, but what festers within that image of man?

'The twelve labours of Hercules are legendary, and reveal a man trying to prove himself more than mortal. His impossible projects tear the natural world apart and plunder the animal kingdom for all it’s worth, all the while erecting an ideal of masculinity that continues to this day. Meanwhile, the lesser-known story of his violent murder of his wife and children is all but forgotten.

'Hercules is a powerful and challenging new work from the acclaimed Daniel Schlusser Ensemble that drops a mineshaft deep into the bedrock of the Greek myths, hauling into the sun a foundational story of violence, infanticide, divinity and madness.

'Performed by a trio of fearless female performers, drawing on Euripides, pop culture and contemporary experience, this unflinching descent into the underworld of hero-worship is an urgent attempt to topple a mythic figure, by women who defy the demands of tragedy.' (Production summary)

'In every person's story, there is something to hide...

'The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers sitting at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.

'Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books.

'So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace or an explorer's ship. Instead, she ends up in Australia in 1898, living a tough life as Flo Watson on a drought-stricken farm.

'Luckily, Ming is rescued by Flo's Aunt McTavish, from Sydney. Wealthy Aunt McTavish belongs to Louisa Lawson's Suffragist Society, who are desperately and courageously fighting for women's rights. And Ming is determined to get involved, to make a difference.

'But change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'If Emily and Scott can write one more best seller together, the world’s their oyster. But each of them believes they’re the talent....

'Emily was an aspiring literary writer, forced to make a living from editing annual reports, when she met Scott, a screenwriter in similar circumstances. With Scott’s punchy plot and Emily’s luminous prose, they crafted an international hit - and fell in love doing it. Three years later, Scott’s own novel has flopped, Emily’s struggling with her literary manuscript, and their relationship is falling apart. Can they overcome their creative differences to produce another masterpiece?

'Graeme Simsion is the internationally best-selling author of The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, The Rosie Result and The Best of Adam Sharp. He lives with Anne Buist, a novelist in her own right and co-author of Two Steps Forward and Two Steps Onward, in Melbourne, Australia.  

'This project is a work of fiction; any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. Sort of.' (Publication summary)

'From the author of beloved Top Ten bestsellers The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club and The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle comes a delightful new novel about friendship, love and finding yourself.

(Publication summary)

'The false cold of the theatre makes it hard to imagine the heavy wind outside in the real world, the ash air pressing onto the city from the nearby hills where bushfires are taking hold.

'The house lights lower. 

'The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness. '

'As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play.

'Margot is a successful professor, preoccupied by her fraught relationship with her ailing husband. Ivy is a philanthropist with a troubled past, distracted by the snoring man beside her. Summer is a young theatre usher, anxious about the safety of her girlfriend in the fire zone.

'As the performance unfolds, so does each woman's story. By the time the curtain falls, they will all have a new understanding of the world beyond the stage.' (Publication summary)

'Wild Chicory is the story of a journey from Ireland to Australia in the early 1900s, along threads of love, family, war and peace. It's a slice of ordinary life rich in history, folklore and fairy tale, and a portrait of the precious bond between a granddaughter, Brigid, and her grandmother, Nell.

'From the windswept, emerald coast of County Kerry, to the slums of Sydney's Surry Hills; and from the bitter sectarian violence of Ulster, to tranquillity of rural New South Wales, Brigid weaves her grandmother's tales into a small but beautiful epic of romance and tragedy, of laughter and the cold reality of loss. It's Nell's tales, tall and true, that spur Brigid to write her own, too.

'Ultimately, it's a story of finding your feet in a new land - be that a new country, or a new emotional space - and the wonderful trove of narrative we carry with us wherever we might go.

'In many ways Brigid and Nell are Kim and her grandmother Lillian Kelly, and many snippets of story in this work belong especially to them. It is primarily a work of fiction, but while the Kennedys and the O'Halligans in Wild Chicory are not the Kellys and O'Reillys of Kim's own family history, they have sprung direct from her heart, and show readers just how it is she came to be a writer of stories herself.' (Publication summary)

'January, 1920. Young Englishwoman Margaret Dalton is full of excitement as she arrives in Sydney to begin a new life in the warm, golden land of Australia. She leaves behind the horrors of WWI and can't wait to see her husband, Frank, after two years of separation.

'But when Margaret's ship docks, Frank isn't there to greet her and Margaret is informed that he already has a wife . . .

'Devastated, Margaret must swap her hopes and dreams for the reality of living and working in a strange new city. A growing friendship with army sergeant Tom McBride gives her a steady person to rely on. But just as Margaret and Tom begin to grow closer, news arrives that Frank may not have abandoned her. Where should Margaret's loyalties lie: with the old life or with the new?' (Publication summary)