IN 1941, AS THE Nazis occupied France, Irène Némirovsky began to write an epic work to convey what her fellow country people were going through. It could not be published in Nazi occupied France and so became lost in time. Sixty years later, long after her death in Auschwitz, Némirovsky’s manuscript was rediscovered in the early 1990s by her daughter and published to international acclaim.
Books
Swallow the Air Simply connect
WHEN MAY AND BILLY lose their mother, they are taken in by their aunt. Plunged into a world of brutality and substance abuse, the siblings react in different ways to the sense of loss and not belonging. Billy continues his self-destructive behaviour, while May embarks on a quest around Australia to find her true sense of self, and to re-connect with her Aboriginal heritage.
Genre:
The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize The pursuit of excellence
IN A WORLD WHERE fewer and fewer students study science, this marvellous book might just re-dress the balance. By exploring the Nobel Prize, its history, and its effect on science and scientists around the world, Peter Doherty gives a fascinating insight into the passion, determination and creativity that drives so many scientists. He argues that science is about illuminating truth and promoting causes that link us together as human beings.
Genre:
The Big Picture Where will you be in 10 years' time?
DO YOU WANT TO talk confidently about what Australian society is really like? Would you like to be able to quote figures about the percentage of Australians that still believe in God, or the number of Australians working from home? Then this is the book for you. Bernard Salt is one of Australia’s leading demographers, and he has been taking a long, hard look at Australians for over 20 years.
Genre:
The Butterfly Man Lord Lucan lives!
ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER 1995, Henry Kennedy wakes up and can’t remember anything—who the girl in his room is, what he is doing in Tasmania and whether he’s ever drunk gin at that time in the morning before. All he can remember is that he’s Lord Lucan—the notorious English peer who disappeared after the murder of his nanny in 1974.
This intriguing novel explores notions of truth and deception as Lord Lucan’s story gradually unfolds. The Butterfly Man won the The Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel.
Genre:
The Cat on the Mat is Flat Squashed cats and big bats
HERE’S THE WILD AND wacky story of how the rat got revenge on the cat. There are also lots of other yucky and hilarious stories like Pinky Ponky the Shonky and Wonky Bonky Donkey. They’re all written with infectious rhymes and irresistible rhythms—so you’ll find yourself repeating lines long after you’ve finished the book. You might call it poetry, but it’s nothing like the poems you’re used to at school.
Genre:
The Dragon Man Murder on the Peninsula
LIFE ON THE PENINSULA, just south of Melbourne, is gearing up to a hot dry Christmas. Detective Inspector Hal Challis thinks the biggest issue in his sleepy beat is how to recycle shower water. That is, until a murderer rapist strikes on the old Peninsular Highway. After a second killing, people begin to suspect a serial killer. When a third death takes place, all hell breaks loose.
Genre:
The Great War History at its most compelling
AFTER THE CRITICAL ACCLAIM and enormous success of Gallipoli, Les Carlyon has broadened his scope to produce the definitive Australian account of the First World War and the Anzacs on the Western Front. From the power plays in the palaces of Europe, to the stench of rotting flesh in the trenches, Carlyon covers the entire scope of this most terrible of wars.
Genre:
The Gypsy Crown Charmed in the 17th century
GYPSY CHILDREN EMILIA AND Luka are forced to embark on a quest to find six ancient charms their grandmother says will save their family from the hangman’s noose. It won’t be easy. As well as the various challenges they must meet to gain each charm, the brutal thief Coldham is also hot on their heels.
Kate Forsyth takes a rich array of characters through historically factual events. A thrilling start to an epic six-book adventure.
Recommended for age 12+
Genre:
The Last Explorer "The bravest man that I have ever seen"
THE FIRST ANTARCTIC FLIGHT, the first submarine navigation under polar ice, the first flight between America and Europe over the North Pole, the only Australian war photographer to be decorated in battle twice…this list of Hubert Wilkins’ extraordinary achievements is virtually endless, and yet today his name is almost unknown.
This superbly written account of Australia’s greatest explorer will change that. The Last Explorer is a fascinating read about a true hero. No one, before or since, has discovered more previously unknown land and sea.
Genre:
The Memory Keeper's Daughter The secrets that men keep
ON A SNOWY WINTER’S night in 1964 a doctor is forced to deliver his wife’s baby in his surgery. A beautiful son is born but soon the doctor discovers a twin is on the way. It is a girl who he instantly realises has Down’s Syndrome. In a split second he makes a decision that will haunt him, his wife and son for decades to come. He charges the nurse present to take the baby away to an institution and informs his wife their daughter died. The nurse, unable to leave the girl in the terrible institution disappears and raises her as her own daughter.
Genre:
The Shifting Fog How far would you go to keep a secret?
AN EPIC MYSTERY THAT spans eight decades, The Shifting Fog is a compelling love story and family saga.
A young poet commits suicide by the lake of an English country house as a party rages inside, and two sisters witness his desperate act. What drove him to this point, and why will the sisters never speak to each other again?
Genre:
The Thirteenth Tale Is truth really stranger than fiction?
WHEN MARGARET LEA, A BIOGRAPHER, receives a letter from one of Britain’s most famous authors—Vida Winter, the lure to go and visit her is irresistible. Vida has always avoided revealing her true self, teasing journalists with fanciful fabrications of her ‘life’. Now she has finally decided to tell the truth…or has she?
Genre:
The Undertow Cold case downunder
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ a Cliff Hardy thriller, then you don’t really know Australian crime fiction. In Peter Corris’ 30th Cliff Hardy book, the past is coming back to haunt Frank Parker, a friend of Hardy’s. Early in his career, Frank solved a case involving a doctor who hired a hit man to kill another doctor…or thought he solved it. Now many years later, it emerges the doctor might have been innocent.
Genre:
Tobruk The triumph of mateship
IN 1941 ROMMEL WAS sweeping across Libya reconquering the territory lost by Italy in the Second World War. His progress came to a serious halt in a small town with a strategically vital deep-water port—Tobruk. With few other forces available, the town was left to the Australian Imperial forces and a contingent of British artillery, the toughest most determined bunch of mates that could be assembled. The Rats of Tobruk became a legend, not just for Australians but also for everyone involved in the war in Northern Africa.
Genre: