Cirrus@Austlit

'A collection of inspirational and heartwarming stories about friendship, community and finding family in the unlikeliest of places...

'FAMILIES COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES.

'In these six captivating short stories, meet some members of the Otto Bin Empire - the homeless men and women who gather down by the docks.

'Adam, the teenage runaway, who has just one goal: to stay lost. Until life offers him a second chance.

'Oskar, the elderly Polish immigrant, who to outsiders cuts a lonely figure. But every afternoon, at the giant chessboard in the park, Oskar becomes a star.

'The poet Reginald, who claims he just wants to observe. Then he meets young Sally - and the scruffy kelpie who hangs around the bins – and is inspired in ways he’d never imagined.

'Johnny, the generous, charismatic, habitual criminal, who is finally determined to turn his life around – if only he can stay out of jail.

'Benny, the Big Issue vendor with a heart of gold, who loves nothing more than helping others.

'And finally Madge, the much-loved Otto Bin matriarch. Her past has always been shrouded in secrecy, but now she’s ready to share her story . . .' (Publication summary)

'Judy Nunn's new blockbuster is a sweeping historical novel about a prosperous sheep-farming family and the enigmatic young man with a dark past they let into their lives . . .

'Black sheep - there's one in every family . . .

'Orphaned at sixteen, James Wakefield was determined to be a gun shearer like his father. Now he’s killed twice, changed his name, and is on the run from the law.

'He had his reasons for both murders, and he felt no joy in taking life … Or did he?

'Ben McKinnon, meanwhile, is heir to the vast Glenfinnan sheep property near Goulburn, New South Wales. He too has a secret that, if ever revealed, would shatter the privileged lives of his father, Alastair, and his sisters, Jenna and Adele.

'When fate brings James and Ben together, a powerful friendship is forged, both men gladly becoming the keeper of the other’s secret.

'Then Ben insists his new friend come to work at Glenfinnan Station. Has James finally found the family he’s always longed for? Or has the McKinnon dynasty just unwittingly adopted a black sheep?

'From the Shearing Wars of Queensland to the close colonial community of Goulburn, to the trenches of the Western Front, Judy Nunn once again brings Australian history vividly to life.' (Publication summary)

 (Publication summary)

'As she celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday, actor turned film producer Jackie looks back on her seven decades – and all the many changes in her life. Not least the most recent and most surprising one of all . . .' (Publication summary)

'Tracy, Eve, Jet, Mel and Danielle are looking forward – if a little nervously - to their upcoming digital detox. No phones, no laptops – just a quiet weekend in a remote mountain shack. What could go wrong?'  (Publication summary)

'Collected together in print for the first time - including two brand new stories - this Judy Nunn anthology is an intoxicating mixture of suspense, history, romance, supernatural and mystery!

'A captivating collection of six stories from Australia’s master storyteller Judy Nunn.' (Publication summary)

'The fourth short story in Judy Nunn's Otto Bin Empire series is a heartfelt tale of love, tragedy and the universal need to belong.

'Down by the docks the homeless men and women who call themselves the ‘Otto Bin Empire’ gather together for companionship and support. But a recent newcomer always keeps himself to himself. Reginald, it turns out, is a poet and he simply wants to observe.

'Only two members of the ‘Empire’ dare to approach him: a vivacious teenage runaway named Sally, and the scruffy stray kelpie that hangs around the bins.

'Both the young woman and the dog are about to inspire Reginald’s life and work - in more ways than he ever imagined …'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Judy Nunn’s latest bestselling novel will take you from the cotton mills of England to the magnificent theatres of Melbourne, on a scintillating journey through the golden age of Australian showbusiness.

'‘So, Will, are you going to come with me and my team of merry performers to the sunny climes of Australia, where the crowds are already queuing and the streets are paved with gold?’

'In the second half of the 19th century, Melbourne is a veritable boom town, as hopefuls from every corner of the globe flock to the gold fields of Victoria.

'And where people crave gold, they also crave entertainment.

'Enter stage right: brothers Will and Max Worthing and their wives Mabel and Gertie. The family arrives from England in the 1880s with little else but the masterful talents that will see them rise from simple travelling performers to sophisticated entrepreneurs.

'Enter stage left: their rivals, Carlo and Rube. Childhood friends since meeting in a London orphanage, the two men have literally fought their way to the top and are now producers of the bawdy but hugely popular ‘Big Show Bonanza’. The fight for supremacy begins.

'Waiting in the wings: Comedy, tragedy, passion and betrayal; economic depression, the Black Death and the horrors of World War One…' (Publication summary)

'The third of Judy Nunn’s short stories featuring the citizens of the Otto Bin Empire is an inspirational tale of finding family in the unlikeliest of places . . .

‘I have no family,’ Adam said, the blue eyes in the baby face now ice-cold. ‘I have no mother and I have no father.’

'Adam is just fifteen years old when he stumbles upon the Otto Bin Empire, a community of homeless men and women who gather at the colourful wheelie bins down near the docks.

'The teenage runaway is fleeing from his violent, alcoholic father, and now has one goal: to stay lost.

'But parents can come in all shapes and sizes - as Adam is about to discover, following a chance encounter one winter night . . .'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It seems to have happened overnight, Val thought . How extraordinary. We’ve become a khaki town.

'It’s March 1942. Singapore has fallen. Darwin has been bombed. Australia is on the brink of being invaded by the Imperial Japanese Forces. And Val Callahan, publican of The Brown’s Bar in Townsville, could not be happier as she contemplates the fortune she’s making from lonely, thirsty soldiers.

'Overnight the small Queensland city is transformed into the transport hub for 70,000 American and Australian soldiers destined for combat in the South Pacific. Barbed wire and gun emplacements cover the beaches. Historic buildings are commandeered. And the dance halls are in full swing with jazz, jitterbug and jive.

'The Australian troops begrudge the confident, well-fed ‘Yanks’ who have taken over their town and their women. There’s growing conflict, too, within the American ranks, because black GIs are enjoying the absence of segregation. And the white GIs don't like it.

'As racial violence explodes through the ranks of the military, a young United States Congressman, Lyndon Baines Johnson, is sent to Townsville by his president to investigate. ‘Keep a goddamned lid on it, Lyndon,’ he is told, ‘lest it explode in our faces …’'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The second of Judy Nunn’s captivating short stories featuring the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks, is a heart-warming tale of friendship and community.

'For eight years now Oskar the Pole has been a widower. As a homeless vagrant, pushing a supermarket trolley through the streets of life, he cuts a lonely figure.

'But Oskar has a talent. He can play chess, and he can play it well.

'Every afternoon, at the giant chessboard in the park, Oskar becomes a star, a master, the undefeated champion . . .

'The second of Judy Nunn’s captivating short stories featuring the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks, is a heart-warming tale of friendship and community.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'On a barren island off the coast of Western Australia, a rickety wooden dinghy runs aground. Aboard are nine people who have no idea where they are. Strangers before the violent storm that tore their vessel apart, the instinct to survive has seen them bond during their days adrift on a vast and merciless ocean.

'Fate has cast them ashore with only one thing in common . . . fear. Rassen the doctor, Massoud the student, the child Hamid and the others all fear for their lives. But in their midst is Jalila, who appears to fear nothing. The beautiful young Yazidi woman is a mystery to them all.

'While they remain undiscovered on the deserted island, they dare to dream of a new life . . .

'But forty kilometres away on the mainland lies the tiny fishing port of Shoalhaven. Here everyone knows everyone, and everyone has their place. In Shoalhaven things never change.

Until now . . .' (Synopsis)

'Master storyteller Judy Nunn has now sold over 1 million books worldwide. In her spellbinding new bestseller she takes us on a breathtaking journey deep into the red heart of Australia.

'It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a long-lived vision to create the 'backbone of the continent', a line that will finally link Adelaide with the Top End.

'But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is Aboriginal land.

'Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure the Elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It's not easy to keep the peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never.

'When the paths of Jessica and Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback . . .' (Publication summary)

'The Otto Bin Empire: Clive's Story is a tellingly poignant short story from bestselling author Judy Nunn.

'To the members of the Otto Bin Empire – the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks – Clive is an enigmatic addition to their ranks. Intelligent, healthy and always well presented, even Clive struggles to understand why he finds himself at the bottom of the barrel. How did it happen?

‘I’m just a bloke going through a period of adjustment,’ he tells himself, ‘I’ll be back on my feet soon.’

'But as the weeks turn into months Clive slowly adjusts to his circumstances. He finds tolerance, acceptance and friendship and slowly begins to see humanity in its purest light . . .'

Source : publisher's blurb

'In 1881 ‘Big Jim' Durham, an English soldier of fortune and profiteer, ruthlessly creates for Elianne Desmarais, his young French wife, the finest of the great sugar mills of the Southern Queensland cane fields, and names it in her honour.

'The massive estate becomes a self-sufficient fortress, a cane-consuming monster and home to hundreds of workers, but ‘Elianne' and its masters, the Durham Family, have dark and distant secrets; secrets that surface in the wildest and most inflammatory of times, the 1960s.

'For Kate Durham and her brothers Neil and Alan, freedom is the catchword of the decade.Young Australians leap to the barricades of the social revolution. Rock ‘n' roll, the Pill, the Vietnam War, the rise of Feminism, Asian immigration and the Freedom Ride join forces to rattle the chains of traditional values.

'The workers leave the great sugar estates as mechanisation lessens the need for labour. And the Durham family, its secrets exposed, begins its fall from grace... ' (Publisher's blurb)