Cirrus@Austlit

'Bestselling author Tricia Stringer asks whether age necessarily brings wisdom when the sale of a deceased estate pits sister against sister, divides a community and wreaks havoc in a small country town.

'Margot and her sister Roslyn have lived side by side in a little town in the Adelaide Hills most of their lives, supporting each other through thick and thin.

'Then their neighbour Gunter dies. Surprisingly, his will asks that his house and vineyard be sold and that Roslyn donate the money to a charity of her choice. When a developer wants to buy the land and create a hotel just over Margot's fence, Margot is outraged and decides to stand for Mayor and fight the development. But Roslyn feels differently. Her awareness of family violence and homelessness is sparked by the arrival in town of a young pregnant woman, who is escaping abuse and sleeping in her car. Determined to do some good, Roslyn supports the sale - she has found her charitable cause and the money will go to the homeless.

'Suddenly the sisters are on opposite sides of the fence, literally and figuratively. As the row heats up, their local community is divided between those pro-development and those against, and battle lines are drawn, neighbours eyeing each other angrily either side. As vandalism erupts, bitter words are hurled, and pots are stirred. Will the town - and the sisters - ever recover their community spirit? Will anything ever be the same again?

'Gentle humour, practical wisdom and trademark warmth underpin this clever novel from a bestselling Australian author.' (Publication summary)

'A heartwarming story of friendship in an imperfect world, this is binge-worthy, feel-good fiction at its best.

'Meredith established the Copeton Crochet Collective (no knitters please) because it would be like having friends, only with her in charge, and because there would be no men. It comes as a nasty shock, then, when Luke, the handsome grandson of no-nonsense Edith, decides to stay and learn to crochet.

'Claire has five children, which is why people sometimes look at her with mild concern. She longs for an Insta-perfect life like her online hero, Siobhan, but she's drowning in domestic failure. She joins the Copeton craft group in the hope of making some non-virtual friends.

'Yasmin is Muslim and proud. But sometimes it would be great if people stopped asking her about her hijab and instead asked who she thought was going to win MasterChef. Pregnant with her first child, she should be elated. So why can't she stop panicking? Perhaps crocheting a set of baby clothes can get her in the right headspace.

'With plans for a new mosque and the resettlement of refugees in the retirement village, Copeton becomes a breeding ground for Islamophobia. Together with the other members of the group, this small band of fibre-arts enthusiasts battle racism and bigotry with colour and creativity, but will the fragile threads of community be enough to bind them when more than one member has something to hide?' (Publication summary)

'Widow Marcella Ross won't let anything - or anyone - stop her from discovering the truth behind a deadly family mystery ... Mystery and romance collide in this compulsive historical adventure from a bestselling Australian author.

'1898, South Australia

At the gateway to the Flinders Ranges lies Kanyaka Station, once a thriving sheep and cattle property, now abandoned and in ruins. But a discovery in her late mother's papers draws recently widowed Marcella Ross out to its remote landscape in search of clues to the disappearance of her Uncle Luca, an Italian immigrant whose fate seems to have been bound up in that of his mysterious partner - also long-since vanished. When Marcella is nearly run over by a handsome stranger, she discovers he too is entangled in the secrets of the past. When tragedy and obsession threaten Marcella's fragile independence, how far will she have to go to unlock the secrets of Kanyaka - or solve the puzzle of her own future?

'1955

After learning that they are unlikely to have children, Frances and Joe MacDonald have taken the unusual step of buying a caravan and travelling together through the outback. They stop and camp at Kanyaka Station, where Fran becomes mesmerised by the past. Family lore holds that an ancestor met an untimely end amid the desolate ruins. But what truly happened, and to whom, at the isolated station? As fate alters the course of her life, Fran's footsteps echo another woman's from so long ago ...

'As the mystery unravels, will these two women have the chance to take control of their own destinies?' (Publication summary)

'Having acquired the first three charms in the quest to secure their family's freedom, Luka and Emilia flee into Sussex with soldiers hot on their heels, in company with a Royalist duke, a Catholic priest, a highwayman and young Tom Whitehorse.

'Only the Catholic underground can help them all escape – but this is a most dangerous religion in the time of Puritan rule. And Emilia and Luka still must find the elusive gypsy tribe of the cat's eye shell, who, it seems, have turned to smuggling...' (Publication summary)

'Sussex was the first county secured by the Roundheads because of its iron foundries. Here in the Weald, the Smith tribe are working for Parliament, making cannons and weaponry.

'They have prospered under Cromwell's rule, and have no interest in old gypsy charms. And it is here where Luka and Emilia must find the fifth charm, a finely-wrought lightning bolt, and amidst the smoke and noise of the Horsmonden foundry, the gypsy children run into old friends... and old enemies.' (Publication summary)

'Once there was a gypsy queen who wore on her wrist a chain of six lucky charms - a golden crown, a silver horse, a butterfly caught in amber, a cat's eye shell, a bolt of lightning forged from the heart of a falling star, and the flower of the rue plant, herb of grace. The queen gave each of her six children one of the charms as their lucky talisman, but ever since the chain of charms was broken, the gypsies had been dogged with misfortune.

'It is even worse for the Finch tribe - they have been thrown into gaol with only three weeks to live. The only members of the family to escape are thirteen-year-old Emilia and her cousin Luka, who have been entrusted to find the six charms and bring them together again. What Emilia and Luka do not realise is that there is a price to be paid for each lucky charm, and that the cost may prove too high...' (Publication summary)

'Luka and Emilia must travel to the New Forest to find the Wood tribe, whose charm is a rue flower, the herb of grace. Its power is that of plants and herbs - which can both heal and poison.

'On the way, the two children tangle with an impoverished widow, the thief-taker Coldham, a highwayman and a witch, and find themselves caught up in a Royalist plot to restore King Charles II to his throne.' (Publication summary)

"I think the best number in the whole universe is eight. My friend, Asim, likes numbers about as much as me, but he likes them all - odd or even. Esmerelda, though, who lives across the street, isn't so fond of numbers and she hates maths. Singing's more her thing. She's really good, too, nearly as good as my mum. Mum's a professional singer. Or was, until we had to move.

'The worst number in the universe, though, is seven. For a start it's an odd number, and it's thin and sharp and mean-looking, like a medieval scythe. So when I saw 777 on that Mustang's numberplate, I knew it was the start of something bad.

'And I was right..." (Source: Back cover)