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)

'Irreverent, witty and wise, But the Girl is a campus novel set off campus, and a coming-of-age story about not wanting to leave your family behind

'I used to have this line I saved and brought out for grant applications and writers festivals - that having been Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina and Esther Greenwood all my life, my writing was an opportunity for the reader to have to be me

'Girl was born on the very day her parents and grandmother immigrated from Malaysia to Australia. The story goes that her mother held on tight to her pelvic muscles in an effort to gift her the privilege of an Australian passport. But it's hard to be the embodiment of all your family's hopes and dreams, especially in a country that's hostile to your very existence.

'When Girl receives a scholarship to travel to the UK, she is finally free for the first time. In the gilded rooms of London and then Scotland she is meant to be working on a PhD on Sylvia Plath and writing a postcolonial novel. But Girl can't stop thinking about her upbringing and the stories of the people who raised her. How can she reconcile their expectations with her lived reality? Did Sylvia Plath have this problem? What even is a 'postcolonial novel'? And what if the story of becoming yourself is not about carving out a new identity, but learning to understand the people who made you who you are?' (Publication summary)

'Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.

'A grandson tries to learn the family story. But what kind of story is it? Is it a prison memoir, about the grandfather imprisoned without charge or trial by a revolutionary government? Is it an oral history of the grandmother left behind to look after the children? Or is it a love story, or a detective tale?

'Moving from 1930s Hanoi through a series of never-ending wars and displacements to Saigon, Paris, Melbourne and Cambridge, Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.

'Andre Dao mines his family and personal stories to turnover ideas that resonate with all of us around place and home, family legacy and expectations, ambition and sacrifice.

'Anam blends fiction and essay, theory and everyday life to imagine that which has been repressed, left out, and forgotten by archives and by families. As the grandson sifts through letters, photographs, government documents and memories, he has his own family to think about- a partner and an infant daughter. Is there a way to remember the past that creates a future for them as well? Or does coming home always involve a certain amount of forgetting?' (Publication summary)

'On a hot November morning, the first body lies in a cattle trough . . . It will be another two hours before rigor mortis sets in. Until then, the slim fingers will float below the water's surface, gently bobbing, beckoning Detective Giles to come and find her.

'Detective Rebecca Giles has just finished interviewing aging petty crim Sticky Pete over a spate of break-and-enters when a disturbing new report comes in. Twelve-year-old Kayleen Ellis has vanished from her home in Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley.

'Hours later, Giles is a local hero, having apparently solved Kayleen's case and the spate of jewellery thefts.

'Yet the hangover from her celebrations has barely kicked in when the body of young jillaroo Ava Emmerson is discovered in gruesome circumstances on a nearby farm.

'Giles is convinced the link between all three cases lies in the town's tragic history, perhaps even in her own mother's mysterious drowning thirty years ago.

'In a place where nothing much changes, suddenly a great deal is happening - and Giles's life and career are now on the line.' (Publication summary)

'In 1941, country girls Minnie Hodgson and Margot McNee set sail from Perth, Australia for Singapore in search of adventure, full of excitement and keen to do their part working as nurses to the fallen soldiers in a time of war. What they encounter is an army of new friends and the terrors of a city under siege.

'When the Japanese attack and Singapore falls, they are forced to flee aboard the Vyner Brooke. The ship is bombed, resulting in utter devastation. Separated in the mayhem, one group of nurses find themselves in prisoner-of-war camps for the duration of the war, surviving on their wits, with humour, dignity, loyalty and determination. But another group of young Australian nurses - the girls on the beach - are washed ashore on Bangka Island, where they will meet a fate that must never be forgotten.

'Inspired by the author's own family story, this is an unforgettable novel of enduring friendship and boundless courage, based on the shocking true events of the Bangka Island Massacre. It is both a riveting tale and an important tribute to our brave nurses who sacrificed so much during WWII.' (Publication summary) 

'A married couple launch a deadly plan to find their missing child.
A half-dead man washes up on a Los Angeles beach.
A rookie cop is fired on her first day.

'Ryan and Elsie Delaney don't accept the official line that their young daughter drowned on Santa Monica beach. Her body has never been found and their pleas for a proper investigation are rejected.

'So now the desperate pair are raining hellfire on the police.

'Taking three hostages at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, they give law enforcement an ultimatum- if Tilly isn't located in the next 24 hours, they will destroy evidence in several major cases.

'Detective Charlie Hoskins only just survived five years embedded with the ruthless gang known as the Death Machines. All his work is in that lab. If the police won't look for Tilly, he will. Even if that means accepting help from Lynette Lamb, the rookie officer sacked for blowing his cover - and having him thrown to the sharks.

'Finding Tilly is now a matter of life and death - for the Delaneys, for their hostages, for Charlie and Lamb, and for the little girl who one day simply vanished . . .' (Publication summary)

'The daughter of a celebrity must discover who is worthy of her devotion and who is just a fan.

'It's been twenty years since her mother was photographed, blood-soaked, outside the family home. A famous TV food personality, she fled the country. Since that time, the girl has grown up. She's bought an apartment, learned her own cooking style, fallen in love. She lives a quiet life, working as a copywriter for a health insurance company. She's found happiness, finally.

'But strange things are in the air. Her easy-going boyfriend has started sleeping with men. Her mother is selling the infamous family home. And a glamorous, pregnant neighbour has moved into the apartment downstairs, calling into question everything the girl believes about her own desires.

'How are we supposed to understand our past when all we have is our present? Do people still love us if they'd rather be anywhere but with us? And in a world of conspiracies, dubious loyalties, and mercenary impulses, how do we work out who is worthy of our devotion and who is just a fan?

'Equal parts funny and contemplative, Shirley charts a search for meaning in a world where the fracturing of ambitions - work and purpose, real estate and home, family and love - has left us uncertain how to recognise ourselves.' (Publication summary)

'Adventure, imagination and loads of fun.

'Willa has the perfect solution for kids who don't have someone to bring to Grandparents' Day at school - hire an oldie from the retirement village next to her house!

'But things aren't exactly going to plan. Frank, her best old-age friend, won't let her borrow him and something strange is going on with her best four-legged friend and trusty sidekick, Woof.

'She'll need her most imaginative ideas yet (and the help of Tae, her best same-age friend) to sort everything out in time!

'Can Willa make Grandparents' Day a big success?'  (Publication summary)

'From the bestselling author of Alice-Miranda comes this humorous and heartfelt series about eight-year-old Willa and her best four-legged friend, Woof!

'Willa’s in trouble. Mimi – the famous racing pigeon owned by Frank, her neighbour and best old-aged friend – is missing. And Willa is pretty sure she’s the one who left the cage door open . . .

'She’ll need her most creative ideas (along with the help of Tae, her best same-age friend, and her trusty sidekick Woof, the albino Irish Wolfhound) to track Mimi down before Frank finds out!

'Can Willa find Mimi before it’s too late?'  (Publication summary)

'The highly anticipated new historical adventure by the bestselling author of The Spy's Wife.

'Orphan Fleur Appleby is adopted by a loving undertaker and his wife and she quickly develops a special gift for helping bereaved families. Her ambition to be the first female mortician in the country is fuelled by her plan to bring more women into the male dominated funeral industry.

'Raised in the outback of South Australia's Flinders Ranges, Tom Catchlove is faced with a life-changing tragedy as a young boy. He works hard but dreams big, striving for a future as a wool classer.

'A chance encounter between the two children will change the course of their lives.

'By adulthood Fleur finds herself fighting for the survival of the family's business, while her widowed father drinks away generations of prosperity and a new, conniving stepmother wants Fleur gone. When Tom emerges from the isolation of the desert to find new work at the port woolstores, his path crosses with Fleur's again - only to be caught up in a murder investigation, in which they can only trust each other.

'At once tragic and triumphant, The Orphans is an unforgettable story about a unique bond between two children that will echo down the years, and teach them both about the real meaning of life, of loss, and of love.' (Publication summary)