Cirrus@Austlit

'From the subtropical lushness of Queensland’s Tamborine Rainforest to the claustrophobic bedroom of a Boston physicist, Janette Turner Hospital’s characters breathe an atmosphere of passion and suspense. Charade Ryan, an enigmatic story-spinning Scheherazade, searches for a way to unravel the long-held secrets of her family origins. As the narrative flits between the present and the past, and truth becomes increasingly subjective, Charade weaves a rich and textural tale out of the myths of her past. This vibrant, superbly crafted novel explores the elusive boundaries between existence and imagination, memory and truth.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (UQP, 2015 ed.)

'My Brilliant Career was written by Stella Franklin (1879-1954) when she was just nineteen years old. The novel struggled to find an Australian publisher, but was published in London and Edinburgh in 1901 after receiving an endorsement from Henry Lawson. Although Franklin wrote under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin', Lawson’s preface makes it clear that Franklin is, as Lawson puts it 'a girl.'

'The novel relates the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a strong-willed young woman of the 1890s growing up in the Goulburn area of New South Wales and longing to be a writer.' (Publication summary)