Cirrus@Austlit

'Bumbling Mangoland academic, Professor Dr Grafton Everest, has been elected to the Australian Senate, without really knowing why, and due to the influx of weird Independents, finds himself holding the balance of power. Despite this, his personal life is a train wreck. A prostatectomy has left him impotent, his daughter is staging a theatrical event with an outlaw motorcycle gang and he suspects his wife is planning to have him put to sleep. On top of it all, Australia is facing natural disaster from Tectonic Change. Can Grafton save his family, his country and himself?'

Source: Publication summary.

'Arguably Australia's most influential political journalist, Alan 'The Red Fox' Reid covered Australian politics from the 1930s to the 1980s. During his career he was both a chronicler of, and player in, Australian politics.

'In this book Ross Fitzgerald and Stephen Holt take us into a Machiavellian behind-the-scenes world of recurrent plots, crises and leadership challenges, and show how it was possible for a skilled journalist to help shape both public perceptions and actual outcomes of political power plays.' (From the publisher's website.)

'This extraordinary novel moves between Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia, and Ireland, with its cast of flamboyant misfits playing out the eternal search for love and passion. Rodney (hang-glider and merchant of erotica); Rebekah (19 year old Alcoholics Anonymous member, father unknown) ; and Michael (maverick motorcycling priest) are the three voices which speak powerfully, nakedly to us in Soaring. ' (Publication summary)