Cirrus@Austlit

'An against all odds historical love story set in WW 2 Cowra, central NSW about a Japanese prisoner of war (Hiroshi) who escapes from the POW compound and is taken in by a member of the local Aboriginal Mission (Banjo Williams). His eldest daughter Mary and Hiroshi fall for one another over the year that he is with them but her father and the Acts of Protection and Assimilation stand in the way of any future happiness...'' (Publication summary)

'Not Just a Piece of Cake' takes the reader behind the books. This quirky memoir shares the diverse workstyle of a long term author, who also has a family.

'Collaborating with illustrators, performers, co-authors and even family. Heart tugging fan mail. Literary speed dating with characters. Dealing with the Plateau of Boredom and the Map of Serendipity. But also sharing 'the process of the process of writing' and why storytelling matters culturally, and personally. And why a 6 year old knew she wanted to be an author.' (Publication summary)

'Storytellers are all thieves. They pilfer from old legends, history books, newspaper reports. So Akabane Sei IX is told by his manager. A professional storyteller for over fifty years, as the book opens Sei recalls the inspiration behind the story that made him famous, The Silk Kimono . It was a story pilfered, not from any of these sources, we learn, but from his own life.He transports us to Tokyo, 1884, a time of change. It is summer and the country is gripped by the words of Jack Green, an Englishman who spins exotic tales from his European past and even Sei s wife is won over by the heady melodrama. Sei himself is feeling uninspired, old, beyond passion, but he knows passion is what people want so that, he decides, is what he will give them. Soon everywhere he looks, everyone he sees, is involved in some form of intrigue - political, sexual, emotional - and each conversation leads to a possible plot line, each person is a possible character, an adulterer, a murderer, a mistress, a spy.Yet even as his imagination tries to embroider his world, real life draws Sei back. Two of his daughters return home, unhappy with their husbands; his third daughter s husband s new play opens and a real sword is substituted for a false one; Sei is attacked after performing a new story. Secret societies, samurai warriors, vendettas and illicit love: the story that will save Sei is all around, all he has to do is recognise it, tame it, and, of course, survive it.Then he can really begin to write.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Approximate Life: The Prince and Other Stories brings together three acclaimed collections for the first time. Letters to Francesca (1996), The Prince (1997) and Duckness (1998) range across forms, from short story to novella and screenplay, and from surrealism to hyperreality-connected by common characters as well as themes of identity, authenticity and artifice. They are playful and poignant, satirical and serious, with echoes of Borges and Calvino grounded in a distinctly Australian perspective.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Bestselling children's author and internationally respected literacy expert Mem Fox reveals the incredible emotional and intellectual impact reading aloud to children has on their ability to learn to read.

'With passion and humor, Fox speaks of when, where, and why to read aloud and demonstrates how to read aloud to best effect and how to get the most out of a read-aloud session. She discusses the three secrets of reading, offers guidance on defining and choosing good books, and addresses the challenges that can arise. And this new edition boasts twenty pages of fresh material, including two new chapters on boy readers and phonics, a foreword, and a list of "Twenty Books that Children Love."

'Filled with practical advice, activities, and inspiring true read-aloud miracles, this book is a favorite of educators and parents and a must-have for anyone interested in how children learn to read.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Born in Sydney and brought up in Greece, Martin Johnston’s experience of two languages and two cultures led him to produce a body of work that is both very Australian and quintessentially European.

'This selection includes his two previously published volumes, some of his early poems and Greek translations and the work he produced in the period before his death in 1990. It shows the range of Martin’s voice, the clarity of his perception, and the breadth of his passions.'

Source: publisher's blurb

'As a boy Arai Sunaomi was known as the Miracle Child and crossed between the worlds to walk among the dead. Now he has put aside his past to follow the way of the warrior. His aunt, Kaede, is considering making him her heir, and her General, Miyoshi Kahei, hopes to betroth Sunaomi to his daughter, Kinu. But there is one girl whom Sunaomi cannot forget: Utahime, who has been dead for seven years. Will he dare bring her back to life?

'Utahime's brother, Masao, is Sunaomi's oldest friend and the only surviving relative of the great warlord Saga Hideki. When Masao disappears after a fight in the city, Sunaomi is charged with finding him. With his cousins, Kiyoko and Kichizo, sibling assassins from the Tribe, Sunaomi sets out on a journey which will take him into an enthralling and dangerous world of spirits and supernatural beings, rebels, pirates and saints - the extraordinary and enchanting world of the Tales of the Otori.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''It was as if they were pieces on a board which had been kicked over, each scattered in the dirt and alone.'

'Orphaned or left fatherless: such is the fate of many children of the Otori and the Tribe. Sunaomi and Chikara, sons of Arai Zenko, also carry the burden of their father's treachery, but their aunt, Kaede, is able to save their lives on condition they become novice monks and never leave the temple at Terayama.

'Sunaomi has been brought up as a warrior, yet his grandmother is Muto Shizuka. He cannot escape that he is also a child of the Tribe. As he discovers unimagined talents within himself he comes up against Hisao, Takeo's son, the ghostmaster, as well as Saga Hideki, the most powerful warlord in the realm, the Emperor's General.

'Taking place in the magical medieval world of Tales of the Otori and following on from The Harsh Cry of the Heron, Orphan Warriors is a coming-of-age adventure story in a human world of courage and sacrifice behind which always hovers a supernatural world of danger and dread.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Dorothy Porter's fourth poetry collection is an exhilarating ride through passions found, imagined and richly lived.

'From a modern, petrol-headed Carmen and Don José to pairs of polar explorers and silent twins, an intersection of birds and asylums, reflections on vanished love and new desire, Driving Too Fast bursts with vitality, a horsepower rhythm and language that turns on a dime.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel mourns the demise of his marriage and his life. Full of Dorothy Porter's customary bite and sensuality, Wild Surmise is an engrossing duet between two passionately estranged voices. An intensely moving verse novel of passions and vulnerabilities, love and death.' (Publication summary)

'Dorothy Porter’s sixth poetry collection (1997–2001) travels the solar system for comets, distant moons and other heavenly bodies before returning to South America and the Northern Territory and finishing with a selection of commissioned works—including one for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and one for the collection Dick for a Day.

'This collection sees a number of emerging themes and images that Dorothy Porter would further explore in later works such as her verse novel Wild Surmise—which was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award in 2003 and won the Adelaide Festival Award in 2004. It is a wonderful collection illustrating a key era in the evolution of one of Australia’s most cherished poets.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'As the new Superintendent at Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Peter Cyren must perform medical alchemy - turn diseased minds into healthy ones. But in the case of his own soul, this sacred process works irrevocably in reverse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Garry Disher’s first novel is a reflection on a long life from childhood to late middle age, with all its ambition and disappointment, its opportunities tragically seized and missed, its triumphs and consolations.

'Robert Saxby looks back on his life in a series of fragments that build into a map of wrong turns and false waymarks that have led him to a point of crisis. He remembers his parents’ compromised marriage, his father’s unrealised dreams, Robert’s exuberant rejection of their limitations and his eventual repetition of their mistakes and his own, and the way his children flirt with those old patterns.

'This is a fully realised portrait of a life and all its contradictions and connections, still as fresh as it was on its debut.'

Source : publisher's blurb (Ligature)

'A collection of award-winning short stories by Garry Disher spanning the continents of Australia, Africa and Europe, the extremes of loneliness and connection, and all the relationships between people and places.

'Stories in this collection have won the National Short Story Award, the Alan Marshall Award and the Henry Lawson Award, and have been published and broadcast across Australia and in the UK, Canada and Denmark.'

Source : publisher's blurb (Ligature)

'The unsettled South Australian frontier near Mount Gambier is a strange and difficult place for a Galway family trying to make sense of their new world.

'Rosanna and brother Skelly long to escape. Their older brother Edwin races against poets in steeplechases and schemes over cattle, carts and cards to get ahead. They are all half in love with a visiting priest and a disturbing Irish play about their ancestors. 

'When she goes to work at a nearby station, Rosanna is caught up in a string of events—throwing a horserace, the allure of a visiting actor, violent threats to her Boandik friends, and the wreck of the Admella—that lead to a reckoning with the land, its histories, its religions and its ancient and recent cultures.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Almost a century after the Catastrophe, a group of survivors have built a new society deep in the safety of the underground network.

'Marri knows the rules are there to keep their population healthy and growing, but they don’t leave much room for attraction—let alone love. Her duty is no match for her desire, and now her life is in danger. Can she escape the world below—and what will she find if she does?

'The Earth Below is a dystopia, an adventure and a love story that introduces a thrilling new voice in young adult fiction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.