Cirrus@Austlit

' Iqbal Chaudhary is fortyish, but the mid-life crisis he faces is more complex than many. His Australian marriage has collapsed, his past surfaces to bother his conscience and he feels a compulsive need to go back to the country he left immediately after the war with Pakistan, eighteen years earlier. But his reception from family and friends is deeply mixed. Iqbal is forced to confront why he left Bangladesh and how he feels about his family as well as his native country whose poverty, squalor and overcrowding make him react involuntarily with the squeamishness of a Westerner.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Melbourne, 1871: John King is dying far from the deserts he traversed with the legendary Burke and Wills. Ten years on from that fateful expedition - the first to cross the Australian continent from south to north - King is finally ready to tell his story.The young Irishman had already endured the horrors of the Indian Mutiny when he signed on with the erratic Burke to explore a land he knew little about. As one of the advance group who were later abandoned by the rest of their party, King was with Wills as he penned his final letter; at Burke's side when he died. Then he was alone, the sole survivor, though barely alive when rescued by Alfred Howitt. But Howitt is a man who cannot let things be, and now he seems more inquisitor than saviour. He wants to know what King knows before it is too late . . .Effortlessly blending fact and fiction, this gripping novel brings to life the forgotten man of the most mythologised journey in Australia's history.' (Publication summary)

'Humour and poignancy are intricately entwined in this novel about Vamana, a dwarf, abandoned by his parents and adopted by Maji, a woman who sees beyond the child's deformity to the humanity within. As Vamana grows older, he realises that he is always going to be an outcast, despite his magical gift for storytelling. Drawn to the dark, seedy and dangerous underworld of Delhi, Vamana makes himself a home alongside the pimps, pickpockets, prostitutes and hjiras (eunechs) who populate its depths.With his unique storytelling skills he achieves a level of fame amongst this motley cast of characters, causing him to refuse all offers of redemption and acceptance from the 'normal' world. Vamana enjoys his notoriety and, despite craving acceptance, he refuses to give up his infamous reputation and once again become an object of ridicule. It is not the dereliction of his life that brings his downfall, but love perceiving a threat to the object of his desires, Vamana reacts with violence, and must pay the consequences.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'International thriller investigating the shadowy past of Raphael Ben Ari, a Polish Jew who has risen to become the Prime Minister of Israel. The author, who has had careers in journalism and marketing, has published several non-fiction books, including TThe Pregnant Father'. This is his first work of fiction.'(Publication summary)