Cirrus@Austlit

'Christopher was seventeen and had everything to live for. He was smart, charismatic, loving, and deeply loved, and a champion rugby player. Yet he was struggling. Diagnosed a year earlier with depression and severe anxiety, he hid his fears from family and friends. Finally, Christopher chose to stop fighting.

'This is the story of Christopher's shocking death and its tragic aftermath for the family. It is also the story of a mother and father's love, and their determination not to lose another son to the temptation of taking his own life. Honest, raw, and deeply moving, Jayne's account brings to life the visceral experience of grief and the long, painful journey towards finding meaning in life again.

'This is compelling and inspirational reading for anyone affected by the death of a young person.' (Publication summary)

'At once a non-fiction thriller and a moral maze, this is one man's epic story of trying to find a safe place in the world.

'When Ali Al Jenabi flees Saddam Hussein's torture chambers, he is forced to leave his family behind in Iraq. What follows is an incredible international odyssey through the shadow world of fake passports, crowded camps and illegal border crossings, living every day with excruciating uncertainty about what the next will bring.

'Through betrayal, triumph, misfortune - even romance and heartbreak - Ali is sustained by his fierce love of freedom and family. Continually pushed to the limits of his endurance, eventually he must confront what he has been forced to become.

'With enormous power and insight, The People Smuggler tells a story of daily heroism, bringing to life the forces that drive so many people to put their lives in unscrupulous hands. It is an utterly gripping portrait of a man cut loose from the protections of civilisation, attempting to retain his dignity and humanity while taking whatever path he can out of an impossible position.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Since white settlement, the history of the traditional owners of the south-west remains largely untold. Existing histories tend to represent the Noongar people as passive victims of colonisers and governments; it is all too easy to assume that theirs is little more than one of attempted assimilation, separation and state intrusion. Noongars are rarely represented as active survivors - as people who retained their traditional ways and country in the face of policies aimed at eliminating all aspects of their heritage.

Originally titled 'Applicants Historical Report' and prepared as expert evidence in the native title case known as the Single Noongar Claim, this book analyses the historiography and associated anthropology of the south-west. Coupled with Noongar oral history, it examines the survival of Noongar tradition, law and custom, proving that many of the most common misconceptions regarding the disappearance of Noongar culture have no basis in fact.' [Source: Publisher's blurb]

'Alec Kruger was stolen as a child from his family and his country. From this early time he knew the cold and harsh reality of institutions and not the caressing love of his mother or the warmth of other close relations. Still young, he was taken again - to the cattle stations of Central Australia where, even as a boy, he was expected to display all the independence and ingenuity of someone much older. In isolation. Alec faced possible death, till the arrival of Old People from country who saved him, taught him and made him culturally strong.

'Alec Kruger spent years droving and roaming throughout the Territory and Queensland, forever seeking his place in the world. He found a sense of belonging and somewhere to call home through having his own family and with the emergence and leadership of groups such as the Central Australian Stolen Generations and Families Aboriginal Corporation in the struggle of recognition, reconciliation and recompense.

'Alone on the Soaks enhances our understanding of the diverse journeys of Australia's stolen generations by offering readers intimate stories told in an original and valuable voice.' Source: Publisher's blurb