Cirrus@Austlit

'Victoria is delighted to help Gran unscrew the U-bend. She always guessed there was another world beyond the plughole.

'Welcome to the hidden complexities of life in an ordinary Australian suburb. Who will fix the plumbing? How do you adapt to a trans person in the family? How do you end racism and make a safe haven for refugees, or keep up with the housework? And what on Earth do you do about the climate emergency?

'Here at last, between these two covers, we present the complete instructions for being a lesbian granny.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'They surged across King William Street, around and up onto the bronze Boer War horseman at the corner of North Terrace. Ro linked arms with the woman next to her. 'Take the toys from the boys', they sang. The hero almost disappeared under a festoon of women, but clung valiantly to his rifle, bronze upper lip stiff. It was his horse who looked most horrified.

'Meet Ro at thirty-something. She is committed to cures for every ill from monogamy to orange armpit fungus. Her ambitions are passionate, her energy boundless, her intentions generally good ...

'Thirty years later, are the edges any smoother?

'''You thought feminism would stop violence against women,' said Julia. 'And that would stop war. And stop people trashing the Earth. You tried.'

''Not alone,' said Ro modestly. 'I had help.'

'This is a story of community, friendship, sisterhood, and the coming of age that continues all our lives.'  (Publication summary)

'Is your phone smarter than you are?

Why does the weather map turn purple, and how do you protect your tomatoes when it does?

'And just what do you do with a lesbian grandmother?

'Fables Queer and Familiar is a wry, affectionate look at the lives of two lesbian grannies, their friends, family and community. Anyone who knows an ageing activist will recognise the combination of good intentions and aching joints. And anyone who has been young will identify with the children as they try to make sense of a mystifying adult world.'

'Marian couldn't see the woman's eyes behind her glasses, and was filled with panic. That bosom was not for comfort. Not for Marian. She, Marian, was here so that this woman, this psychologist, could expose her failure to be a proper mother.

'Her son's actions shatter Marian's life. As the days pass she is haunted by layers of grief rising like the salt of the degraded earth.

'Marian's everyday heroism, her earthy humour and innate honesty, sustain her as she confronts her own tragedy and sees beyond it to other moral dilemmas of white Australian life - racism, environmental damage.

'This novel has its roots in an ancient landscape - the dry farming country around Koikyennuruff (Stirling Ranges) in the south of Western Australia. It is the story of a journey from the country to the city and back again, a journey that will change Marian forever.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.