Cirrus@Austlit

'All children deserve to be happy. There are loud yelling noises coming from the kitchen. Queenie, the baby quoll, is frightened, and so she runs to Eric Echidna's house for help. Eric shows Queenie how to feel brave, stay calm and keep safe.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lena, the lost child...

'Found wandering the streets of wartime Paris. No-one knows her real name or where she came from.

'Australia in the 'Swinging Sixties.'

'Lena is working in the Melbourne Law Courts. One day in court she hears a man's voice. A voice that sounds hauntingly familiar. A voice that sends icy chills down her spine. Is it possible that this man has something to do with her unknowable past?

'Lena embarks on a search for more. A newspaper story. A history. A connection. And slowly, layer by layer, the past is peeled away, revealing a picture of evil involving thousands of lives and touching on Lena's own personal tragedy.

'The Butterfly Enigma ranges from the submarine-patrolled sea lanes of the Baltic to the courtrooms of mid-sixties Australia, to the island of Crete, to Paris, Tel Aviv, and Rio de Janeiro. A gripping story of one young woman's search for her lost past. Above all, her passionate and overwhelming desire for justice and retribution.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Jinx Farber is a beautiful, young portrait painter who is pregnant with her second child - and dying of melanoma. Felix Morton is the doctor who misdiagnosed her case and denied her the chance to be treated. Jinx is consumed with anger and spends her last months suing Felix. We experience the battle from both sides until finally Jinx gives birth to her daughter. And then everything changes. This is a story of life, death, art, the Australian sun and seeing situations from different perspectives. It is readable, moving, has intriguing characters and tackles the topical issue of coping with cancer.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

A novel written true to the histories, and true to the memories of Enric Torres i Barbo, whose life and philosophies this novel takes for its guide.

Twin boys Enric and Josep, at ten years of age, served as spies and couriers in the Resistance by the Republican Spanish against the invasion of Fascist forces in Spain, then from Italy and Germany during the Civil War.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Port Campbell Press).

'A 'blue' is an argument or a verbal stoush, mostly light hearted, and immediately forgivable in Australia. Its combatants are usually known to each other e.g. family, best friends, acquaintances etc. Life goes on after the 'blue'.In this series of anecdotes, Richard Plant details in his usual humorous light-hearted way the visits he and Katie made to holidays, hospitals, even hospices, and how an occasional 'blue' can assist the appreciation or otherwise of each.He also recalls lifestyles in the late 1940s and early '50s and compares them for better or for worse with those of the early 2010s.'Life's a Blue' is another eclectic series of tales based on fact, but perhaps embellished a little (or a lot) by 'coulda-been or 'shoulda-been' endings - each story an entity within itself.' (Publisher's summary)

''This book is hilarious, quirky and completely out of left field,' said somebody. From debut author Hayden Bradford comes a rip roaring yarn which could be the funniest book published this year. 'Travesty' is an unashamedly hilarious tale of a bloke so hard done by in his life, he could only have been born from the imagination of another bloke. His mother named him Travesty as she believed his birth signalled the beginning of one long, drawn out disaster for her. But without warning, Travesty's life comes to an abrupt and ridiculously funny end. He is then delivered to Heaven. How does that happen to an atheist? Hitch yourself a ride on Travesty's crazy journey on Earth and in Heaven! 'You know when you are sitting alone laughing out loud you have a classic. Great laugh,' said another someone.' (Publication summary)

Four stories following the narrator from To the Death, Amic.

'Here is Brodie, an expatriate trader in New Guinea, whose understanding of the sorceries and rituals he now lives with is moving close to respect and wonderment. He watches his visiting daughter, a twelve year old, being captivated by this culture of theatre.

'When daughter Meg falls suddenly ill, Brodie fears she will be relying more on a matrix of magic rather than the sterile planes and inoculant infusions he would better trust.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Five Asian pieces, four from Kalimantan, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, and one column piece from Samarinda, in one volume.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.