Archive | New Releases

Jenny Nordberg

An investigative journalist uncovers a hidden custom that will transform your understanding of what it means to grow up as a girl.

In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child – a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.

The Underground Girls of Kabul is anchored by vivid characters who bring this remarkable story to life: Azita, a female parliamentarian who sees no other choice but to turn her fourth daughter Mehran into a boy; Zahra, the tomboy teenager who struggles with puberty and refuses her parents’ attempts to turn her back into a girl; Shukria, now a married mother of three after living for twenty years as a man; and Nader, who prays with Shahed, the undercover female police officer, as they both remain in male disguise as adults.

At the heart of this emotional narrative is a new perspective on the extreme sacrifices of Afghan women and girls against the violent backdrop of America’s longest war. Divided into four parts, the book follows those born as the unwanted sex in Afghanistan, but who live as the socially favored gender through childhood and puberty, only to later be forced into marriage and childbirth. The Underground Girls of Kabul charts their dramatic life cycles, while examining our own history and the parallels to subversive actions of people who live under oppression everywhere.

Winton Shaw

The Japanese attack on Broome is the second most deadly air raid on Australia soil in our history and yet it’s almost entirely overlooked. On 3 March 1942, nine Japanese Zero planes strafed the small town planning to destroy the aerodrome and American planes. With no notice, the townsfolk could only put up minimal opposition and in an attack that lasted only an hour, almost one hundred men, women and children lost their lives. Not a single operational aircraft remained in Broome, but the shocking loss of human life can never be truly calculated. The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay tells the story of this tragedy, shining light on a story that has slipped through the cracks of history. A captivating tale of refugees and soldiers, of reputations made and lost, of survival and spirit that resonates to today.

Sovannora Ieng

Surviving Year Zero is the story of one young man, yet it is the story of millions of people. It tells of how Sovannora Ieng lived through the genocide that tore at the heart of Cambodia in the 1970s.

Sovannora survived in an environment where survival was barely possible. He and his family experienced starvation, backbreaking labour and constant surveillance. They learnt to be silent in a world where a casual remark could be turned into a sentence of death.

Sovannora’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge remind us of the terrible things that we humans have done to each other, and his eventual escape to Australia is a testament to his resilience and ingenuity in the face of constant danger.

Sovannora Ieng escaped from Cambodia to Thailand as a refugee before migrating to Australia.

Anne de Courcy

Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister’s wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her last five years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life.

In 1912, when Anne de Courcy’s book opens, rumblings of discontent and cries for social reform were encroaching on all sides – from suffragettes, striking workers and Irish nationalists. Against this background of a government beset with troubles, the Prime Minister fell desperately in love with his daughter’s best friend, Venetia Stanley; to complicate matters, so did his Private Secretary. Margot’s relationship with her husband was already bedevilled by her stepdaughter’s jealous, almost incestuous adoration of her father. The outbreak of the First World War only heightened these swirling tensions within Downing Street.

Drawing on unpublished material from personal papers and diaries, Anne de Courcy vividly recreates this extraordinary time when the Prime Minister’s residence was run like an English country house, with socialising taking precedence over politics, love letters written in the cabinet room and gossip and state secrets exchanged over the bridge table.

By 1916, when Asquith was forced out of office, everything had changed. For the country as a whole, for those in power, for a whole stratum of society, but especially for the Asquiths and their circle, it was the end of an era. Life inside Downing Street would never be the same again.

 Sarah Boston

What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen’s term: cancer surgery doctor) thinks she has cancer herself? Enter Sarah Boston: a vet who suspects a suspicious growth in her neck is thyroid cancer. From the moment she uses her husband’s portable ultrasound machine to investigate her lump — he’s a vet, too — it’s clear Lucky Dog is not your typical cancer memoir. She takes us on a hysterical and thought-provoking journey through the human healthcare system from the perspective of an animal doctor. Weaving funny and poignant stories of dogs she’s treated along the way, this is an insightful memoir about what the human medical world can learn from the way we treat our canine counterparts. Lucky Dog teaches us to trust our instincts, be our own advocates, and laugh while we’re doing it.

William McInnes

From bestselling author William McInnes, a book about the languid, unending holidays of summer; it’s about going away and staying at home, about sunburn, seagulls, family and friends.
Remember those long, languid holidays when the only decisions to be made were what to pack in the Esky and who should get the front seat on the drive to the beach?
Let William McInnes reignite your nostalgia for holidays past, and give you a taste of the boundless opportunities that await in holidays to come in this book about our love affair with life away from the everyday.
This book will take you back to the holidays you had as a kid and remind you of the ones you’ve had with your own family or friends or even the ones where you’ve flown solo.
Holidays are the runway to possibilities – a romantic sunset, the spare seat at breakfast being taken by an attractive stranger, a miraculous airline upgrade – or missing bags, unfortunate rashes and wrong turns that lead to places you definitely did not intend to go. Whether you are away from home and somewhere exotic or just in your own backyard on a lilo in an above-ground pool, whatever happens, you know that life is sweet because you’re on HOLIDAYS.
Whatever kind of holiday you’ve got planned, make sure you pack this warm and funny celebration of Australia’s favourite national pastime.

Buddhi Lokuge

When Dr Buddhi moved to Arnhem Land to run a health program for Aboriginal children, he had no idea he would face the challenge of his life. Six months into running the $5 million dollar program he realised it was going to fail, and that’s when the trouble began. In the face of powerful opposition from high profile experts, he listened to the elders and took the slow road. Through painstaking observation and working in partnership with patients and the community, together they found a way to overcome a neglected disease as debilitating and stigmatised as leprosy.
This is a powerful story of redemption, and an honest and inspiring account of a family living and working in remote Aboriginal Australia to give voice to forgotten people.

Fiona Walker

A house-sitter gets her mojo back in this hilarious and touching love story Teacher Jenny loves her summer job house-sitting, and she’s looking forward to a fortnight looking after The Old Rectory, a quintessentially English pile stuffed with glorious artwork and books. Owned by two celebrated writers, everything about it boasts of a successful family, reminding Jenny of her own happy home life before divorce.

In a sizzling heatwave, as Jenny encounters the forceful personalities of the family dog and the eccentric neighbors, she soon starts to realize that the Lewis family may not be as enviably perfect as their big portrait above the fireplace suggests. And a new friendship may represent a surprise second chance in Jenny’s life that paints a whole new picture.

 Stuart MacBride

One mistake can cost you everything…

When you catch a twisted killer there should be a reward, right? What Acting Detective Inspector Logan McRae gets instead is a ‘development opportunity’ out in the depths of rural Aberdeenshire.

Welcome to divisional policing – catching drug dealers, shop lifters, vandals and the odd escaped farm animal. Then a little girl’s body washes up just outside the sleepy town of Banff, kicking off a massive manhunt. The Major Investigation Team is up from Aberdeen, wanting answers, and they don’t care who they trample over to get them.

Logan’s got enough on his plate keeping B Division together, but DCI Steel wants him back on her team. As his old colleagues stomp around the countryside, burning bridges, Logan gets dragged deeper and deeper into the investigation. One thing’s clear: there are dangerous predators lurking in the wilds of Aberdeenshire, and not everyone’s going to get out of this alive…

 Bronwyn Parry

National Parks ranger Erin Taylor loves her job, is falling for her colleague, Simon, and is finally leaving her past behind . . .

Until a woman is murdered. But the victim is not just any woman – she’s Simon’s wife, Hayley. The wife he’s never mentioned. The wife he’s not seen in fourteen years. On the edge of the national park the alternative lifestyle ‘Community of Bliss’ denies knowledge of Hayley, but Simon and Erin suspect otherwise. Erin will have to draw on all her old skills – deception, lying, cheating – to gain the trust of its members and discover their secrets.

As Simon uncovers shocking details about the reclusive group, Erin is drawn further into their midst and finds a web of lies, decades old – and comes face-to-face with the charismatic, manipulative, dangerous leader who will let nothing and no-one stand in his way. On the wrong side of a river in flood that has become a lethal torrent, Erin and Simon must race to expose the truth and prevent a tragedy . . .