Cirrus@Austlit

'Unforgettable characters, chaotic family life and an intriguing ghost story combine in this funny, absorbing tale of a family who inherit a mansion on the other side of the world.

'I know what an endsister is,' says Sibbi again.
We are endsisters, Else thinks, Sibbi and I. 
Bookends, oldest and youngest, with the three boys sandwiched in between.

'Meet the Outhwaite children. There's teenage Else, the violinist who abandons her violin. There's nature-loving Clancy. There's the inseparable twins, Oscar-and-Finn, Finn-and-Oscar. And then there is Sibbi, the baby of the family. They all live contentedly squabbling in a cottage surrounded by trees and possums...until a letter arrives to say they have inherited the old family home in London.

'Outhwaite House is full of old shadows and new possibilities. The boys quickly find their feet in London, and Else is hoping to reinvent herself. But Sibbi is misbehaving, growing thinner and paler by the day, and she won't stop talking about the mysterious endsister. Meanwhile Almost Annie and Hardly Alice, the resident ghosts, are tied to the house for reasons they have long forgotten, watching the world around them change, but never leaving.

'The one thing they all agree on - the living and the dead - is never, ever to open the attic door...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Claire lives in an ordinary world where everything is whole. But inside Claire is broken. The silvery notes of her music box allow her an escape from her grief into a dream-world, into Clara's world.

'Clara's world has always been broken. She finds broken things to swap at the markets; she walks the treacherous route past the brown river where lone dogs prowl; she avoids the seamy side when she can, but with powerful people pulling the strings, it's not always possible.

'Which world is real?

'Claire's and Clara's paths are set to collide, and each has much to lose - or gain.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Tilly, Zara and Mieke have always spent each summer together at Indigo Bay. But this year Tilly and Zara will have to spend the first week together without Mieke. Tilly isn't sure how she'll get along with golden girl Zara. Mieke has always been a buffer between them.

'But what Tilly doesn't know is that Zara is battling hidden demons, and has her own concerns. Will they survive this summer unscathed?' (Publisher's blurb)