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HEARTSEASE
Kate Kruimink
$ 34.99
Charlotte ( Lot ) and Ellen ( Nelly ) are sisters who were once so close a Venn diagram of the two would have formed a circle . But a great deal has changed since their mother ’ s death , years before . Clever , beautiful , gentle Lot has been unfailingly dutiful – basically a disaster of an older sister for much younger Nelly , still haunted by their mother in her early 30s . When the pair meet at a silent retreat in a strange old house in the Tasmanian countryside , the spectres of memory are unleashed . Heartsease is a sad , sly and darkly comic story about the weight of grief and the ways in which family cleave to us , for better and for worse . It ’ s an account of love and ghosts so sharp it will leave you with paper cuts .
HURDY GURDY
Jenny Ackland
$ 32.99
available 4 june
In a near-future Australia , the world has changed . A small circus caravan travels the countryside performing for dwindling audiences . Matriarch Queenie works outside the law , helped by high-diver Win , 19 and yearning for love . By night , they gather under the dark sky , joined by philosophical clown Valentina , and Girl , who they found at the side of the road . By day , they offer other services : hairdressing for women and a close shave for men . But while women come to them for help , men tend to disappear . And in the distance , a reverend and his nun-like companion preach against alcohol , adultery and abortion . Two groups on an ideological collision course in a landscape altered by time and human error , while overhead a space mission has gone wrong . Hurdy Gurdy is a feminist revenge tale about the choices that women have to make , and it asks the big questions : Can beauty be found in times of great darkness ? How do we go on ?
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LOVE & ROME
Jenna Lo Bianco
$ 34.99
Moving from Melbourne to Rome was meant to fix Stella Chiaro ’ s life – and it did , for a while . But destiny has other plans . Artist Stella is running out of time and money . She is desperate to find stable work in the art world to keep afloat , or she will have to leave her beloved Eternal City behind . The last thing she needs right now is distractions … The arrival of the full moon brings both the sweet owner of the new local bar and a handsome new flatmate .
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The promise of a new job and new love suddenly beckon Stella , but she quickly finds herself repeating patterns she once vowed not to . In a journey stretching to enchanting Florence and across the ancient cobblestones of Rome , Stella must free herself from the mess she ’ s in . But is it too late ?
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IMPERIAL HARVEST
Bruce Pascoe
$ 32.99
available 4 june
Imperial Harvest is a timely book that speaks to the universal lessons of war . It addresses pertinent themes of dispossession by tracing imperialist tactics all the way back to the rise of the Khan empire in the thirteenth-century . Yen Se has lost everything to the Khan ’ s brutality . Left with one eye and one leg , he is forced out of his home village to work in the city as a horse handler . Witness to the Khan ’ s violent crusade , their raids sweeping across Eurasia , he travels with the theatre of war , but exists outside of it ; stunned every morning to find himself alive . Yen Se moves randomly across Europe with a loose band of survivors – men who think of survival , men who think of resistance , and women who dare to dream of peace . Whilst narrated by a male , women are at the forefront of this story ; often the most active of the characters , both for their plight and for their guidance . Imperial Harvest tells the story of war , but more importantly , of hope .
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THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE AND FLYING CLUB
Helen Simonson
$ 32.99
available 4 june
It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects . Now that all the men have returned from the front , she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped to run during the war . Instead , she ’ s sent as a lady ’ s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel where she is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea and its colourful inhabitants , most notably , Poppy Wirrall . Poppy , the daughter of a land-owning baronet , wears trousers , operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women and runs a ladies ’ motorcycle club ( to which she plans to add flying lessons ). As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace ,
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Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked . In a timeless comedy of manners , with sharp humour , biting wit and a warm heart , Simonson captures the mood of a generation facing the seismic changes brought on by war .
HERA
Jennifer Saint
$ 32.99
When Hera , immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronus , helps her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father , she dreams of ruling at his side . As they establish their reign on Mount Olympus , Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed . She was always born to rule , but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence or can she find a way to forge a better world ? Often portrayed as the jealous wife or the wicked stepmother , this retelling captures the many sides of Hera , vengeful when she needs to be but also compassionate and most importantly , an all-powerful queen to the gods .
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MRS HOPKINS
Shirley Barrett
$ 32.99
available 4 june
On a rainy night in 1871 , an idealistic schoolmistress arrives on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour . Mrs Hopkins doesn ’ t know what to expect from the notorious Biloela Industrial School for Girls , but nothing could prepare her for what she encounters inside the high sandstone walls : the conditions are dismal , the rules are largely conceptual , and the girls spend most of their time finding creative ways to outsmart the adults . Very quickly , Mrs Hopkins realises that noble intentions won ’ t be enough to tame the chaos around her . An unconventional school requires unconventional methods . But her own ghosts have followed her to Cockatoo Island , and refuse to stay hidden for much longer . This witty and poignant final novel from Shirley Barrett is about what destroys us , what sustains us , and what we carry with us from one world into the next .
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romance NOT IN LOVE
Ali Hazelwood
$ 22.99 $ 19.99
available 11 june
Rue Siebert
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has friends she can count on , the financial stability she yearned for as a kid , and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline , one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science . Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down . Eli Kilgore has his own reasons for pushing this deal through . He ’ s a man who gets what he wants with one burning exception : Rue . Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction , Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows . Their affair is secret and has a built-in deadline : the day one of their companies will prevail . But the heart is risky business .
fantasy THE ASHES AND THE STAR-CURSED KING : CROWNS OF NYAXIA # 2
Carissa Broadbent
$ 34.99
available 11 june
In the wake of the bloody tournament known as the Kejari , Oraya is now a prisoner in her own kingdom . She cannot trust anyone , least of all Raihn , the vampire who betrayed her . Raihn has his own problems . The House of Night are none too eager to accept a Turned king , and the House of Blood are threatening to tear it apart from the inside . When Raihn offers Oraya a secret alliance , taking the deal is her only chance at reclaiming her kingdom – and seeking her revenge . But to do so , she ’ ll need to harness an ancient power , intertwined with her father ’ s greatest secrets . With enemies closing in on all sides , Oraya finds herself forced to choose between the bloody reality of seizing power – and the devastating love that could be her downfall .
GATE TO KAGOSHIMA
Poppy Kuroki
$ 32.99
available 4 june
Japan , 2005 . While researching her ancestors , 20-year-old Isla encounters a vicious typhoon who sends her back in time to 1877 , the dawn of the Satsuma Rebellion . Through a combination of fate and courage , Isla meets her ancestors , as well as Keiichiro Maeda , a samurai who she ends up falling for . She must decide whether to stay with the man she loves , knowing his samurai values irrevocably fate him to death , or to return to her previous life , forever changed by the history she has not only learned but lived .
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