Cirrus@Austlit

'Jack McPhail is a man on the run from his past, a drifter who lands by accident in a sleepy outback Australian town called Banjo Crossing. Jack - almost despite himself - becomes slowly drawn into the town, its community, its characters and its concerns.He's on the brink of falling in love with Mardi, a young widow and owner of the local coffee shop, when the community is confronted and divided by an unexpected development. A coal mining company has come to town, intent on buying up the local properties to build an open cut mine. The town of Banjo Crossing rallies together to fight off the threat. Jack wants to help out his new friends, but if he does, he's at risk of his past being exposed. Having his secret out there could change everything for him. Will he help them out, even if it costs him his second chance at happiness?' (Publication summary)

'A tender, sweet and funny novel from bestselling novelist Tess Evans.

'A delightful, sweet and funny novel from bestselling novelist Tess Evans, Mercy Street tells the heartwarming story of curmudgeonly pensioner George, who, since his wife's death three years ago, is living a life that is no more than the sum of his 'worn-out, washed out days'. While his marriage to Pen was a happy one, they never had children, so his life has narrowed to trips to the shop, occasional visits from his bossy sister Shirl and afternoons in the pub with his old mate Redgum.

'But one day, everything changes when Angie, a nineteen-year-old single mother, unexpectedly saves his life. George grudgingly acknowledges his debt to her, and later, when Angie asks for a favour, he has no choice but to agree. Gradually George's life begins to blossom, until Angie's fecklessness unexpectedly sets him on the wrong side of the law. It takes all of his love and courage, and friends both old and new, for George to deal with a very unexpected turn of events.

'A novel about mistakes, accidental families, and the transformative power of love, from the bestselling author of Book of Lost Threads, Tess Evans.' (Publication summary)

'Moss has run away from Melbourne to Opportunity on the trail of a man she knows only by name. But her arrival sets in train events that disturb the long-held secrets of three of the town's inhabitants: Finn, a brilliant mathematician, who has become a recluse; Lily Pargetter, eighty-three-year-old knitter of tea cosies; and Sandy, the town buffoon, who dreams of a Great Galah.

'It is only as Moss, Finn, Lily and Sandy develop unlikely friendships that they find a way to lay their sorrows to rest and knit together the threads that will restore them to life.' (From the publisher's website.)