Cirrus@Austlit

'Set in the Australian outback in the early part of the 20th century, this novel tells of the life of a young woman struggling against her privileged background to become a nurse and to cope with the harsh life that the bush and World War I have inflicted upon her.' (Publication summary)

'For the young Peekay, it is a piece of advice that he will carry with him throughout his life.Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice. Bryce Courtenay's classic bestseller is a story of the triumph of the human spirit - a spellbinding tale for all ages.' (Publication summary)

'A worthy successor to the prize-winning Just Relations, Hall's second novel to appear in this country is shorter and tighter, with the same mythical, almost mystical quality of an Australian legend, here distilled to the rambling memories of apparently senile Patrick Murphy. Patrick is outraged by the deathbed confession, in 1956, of Barney Barnett, a contemporary who was once betrothed to Patrick's sister Ellen. Barney says that 58 years ago he committed the brutal murders of three of Patrick's siblings: Norah, 27, Ellen, 18, and Michael, 29. (Hall uses an actual, unsolved murder case of 1898 and the real victims' names; no culprit was ever found.) Barnett's confession, a final try for some kind of fame or glory, is exposed as a hoax; he makes a grave error of fact and the Sydney police inspector grunts in disgust. Patrick's inner monologue does not at first reveal what he knows about the murders, although it's plain he knows a lot. As he ranges through his memories, describing childhood events from 70 years before, we are caught up in an extraordinary family of 10 children who lived with their tall, silent parents on a farm called Paradise, far away in the Australian farmlands...'

Source: Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-11889-1

'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)

'Clive Broderick, guitar-teacher and occultist - the Doubleman of the title of this acclaimed novel - is speaking of power, and of a realm beyond reality. This is a fable of the sixties, when shared belief-systems crumbled, and the spiritual bazaars of today opened up. Christopher Koch's theme is illusion; and all his characters are bound by it. The Rymers are an electric folk group enjoying mounting success in Sydney. Their producer, Richard Miller, came under Broderick's spell during his youth in Tasmania; so did the guitarists Brady and Burr. Now, years after his death, Broderick's presence remains with all three. Through his disciple, Burr, it will lead to nightmare.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (HarperCollins, 2013 ed.)

'The charismatic god-king Sukarno has brought Indonesia to the edge of chaos - to an abortive revolution that will leave half a million dead. For the Western correspondents here, this gathering apocalypse is their story and their drug, while the sufferings of the Indonesian people are scarcely real: a shadow play. Working at the eye of the storm are television correspondent Guy Hamilton and his eccentric cameraman Billy Kwan. In Kwan's secret fantasy life, both Sukarno and Hamilton are heroes. But his heroes betray him, and Billy is driven to desperate action. As the Indonesian shadow play erupts into terrible reality, a complex personal tragedy of love, obsession and betrayal comes to its climax.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two centuries of Australian history are chronicled in a story that ranges from the earliest days of transported convicts to the events of the twentieth century'  (Publication summary)

'The back-of-beyond New South Wales hamlet of Whitey's Fall is the home of a secret, solitary boy seeking love, two young men who crave the same woman, and an earnest, bumbling, and provocative government man.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Two women, two worlds. Together they must risk everything

'Judith Wilkes, an ambitious journalist, leaves her husband and two sons in Australia and goes to Malaysia to report on the international refugee crisis. Ten years earlier, Malaysia provided Judith with her first major career success, but also with a personal disaster that she would like to forget.

'While on assignment Judith encounters Minou, the manipulative young French-Vietnamese wife of a high-ranking Australian diplomat. Minou is desperate to rescue her children from Saigon, who were left behind when she fled. Judith also begins a romance with the enigmatic Indian scholar Kanan. These new loyalties throw her headlong into dramatic personal and professional dilemmas. It is on the East Malaysian coast, where the giant turtles gather to lay their eggs, that the conflict reaches its tragic, brutal climax.'  (Publication summary)