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In the Shadow of the Fire
A breathless criminal investigation against the bloody canvas of the French Revolution The Paris Commune's "bloody week" sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes "suggestive" photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiancé Nicolas, a member of the Commune's National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her. Their race against the clock to find her takes them through the shell-shocked streets of Paris, and introduces them to a cast of fascinating characters.
Talking to Ghosts
With his son Pablo's kidnapping still unsolved, and his marriage ruined by the torment of hope, the brutal murder of a single mother in her own home is an almost welcome diversion for Commandant Vilar. The woman leaves behind a son, Victor, thrown into the foster system with only his mother's urn for company. Struggling with bullies, trauma and the first pangs of teenage love, Victor carries a secret that followed his mother to her grave. Struggling for leads, Vilar is shaken when the colleague investigating Pablo's kidnapping disappears. When a sadistic caller claims to have information about his son, Vilar is torn between duty and a desperate chance of redemption.
After the War
1950's Bordeaux. Even now, the Second World War is never far from people's memories, particularly in a city where the scars of collaboration and resistance are more keenly felt than ever. But another war has already begun. A war without a name, far away across the sea, in Algeria, where young men are sent to fight in a brutal conflict. Daniel knows what awaits him. He's heard stories. Patrols, ambushes, reprisals, massacres, mutilations, all beneath a burning north African sun. He has just a month left before he leaves but, haunted by the loss of his parents and sister in the atrocities of the last war, Daniel questions why he is even going to fight in the first place. Meanwhile, past crimes are returning to haunt Albert Darlac, the godfather of Bordeaux: corrupt police chief, fascist sympathiser and one-time collaborator. Before long, a series of explosive events will set off a spiral of violence that will bring the horrific legacy of wars past and present to the streets of Bordeaux. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor
The Slap
The reverberations from the slap are far-reaching, affecting the marriages and friendships of all those who witness it. What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex, marriage, and the fury and intensity that family can arouse. In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas brilliantly weaves together a maze of complex relationships. Told through the eyes of eight different characters, the slap and the ensuing emotional maelstrom become catalysts for an unflinching and all-seeing journey into the modern family and domestic life. Children come of age, marriages teeter on the brink and midlife crises erupt against a backdrop of lust, jealousy, deception and inadequacy. In its penetrating and incisive examination of the evergrowing middle class and its fears and aspirations, The Slap is a fiercely intelligent and provocative story about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.
Underground
Why would a wombat be registered for war? It's 1965, and an old Tattersalls barrel starts rolling marbles to randomly conscript young Australian men to fight in the war in Vietnam. Melbourne housewife Jean McLean is outraged, as are her artist friends Clif and Marlene Pugh, who live in the country with their wombat, Hooper. Determined to wreck the system, Jean forms the Save Our Sons movement's Victorian branch, and she and her supporters take to the streets to protest. Meanwhile, in the small country town of Katunga, Bill Cantwell joins the Australian Army, and in Saigon, young Mai Ho is writing letters to South Vietnamese soldiers from her school desk. And when Hooper's call-up papers arri...
Now That I See You
The winner of the prestigious The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award. In those first moments, that admission felt precious to me: it was something that I alone had been deemed worthy enough to carry and I was grateful. I was grateful to finally know, but I still couldn't speak. Something was wrong, she knew it, but she was entirely unprepared for what he would tell her. Viewed through the lens of a relationship breakdown after one partner discloses to the other that they are transgender, this autofiction spans eighteen months: from the moments of first discovery, through the eventual disintegration of their partnership, to the new beginnings of independence. In diaries and letters, Now That I See You unfolds a love story that, while often messy and uncomfortable, is a poignant and personal exploration of identity, gender, love and grief. 'An insightful novel . . . absorbing page-turner from the start.' Hsu-Ming Teo, previous winner of The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award for Love and Vertigo
Suiza
A sensuous Frenchwoman transforms the life and world of an introverted Spanish widower for better or worse in this “moving” debut novel (RTS, France). Across the Galician countryside, where there are just as many rain-soaked days as not, villagers face hardships armed with hope and solidarity. Tomás is a successful farmer in this small village, but he’s not happy. His days are busy with work. His nights are a drunken spiral into self-pity and despair. A widower plagued with guilt, his life has been tarnished by tragedy that has pushed him into isolation and loneliness. All of that changes when he sees Suiza. Warm-hearted and sensual, Suiza lands in the village en route to visit the se...
Scary Monsters
Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize (UK) A profoundly original exploration of racism, misogyny, and ageism—three monsters that plague the world—this novel from a beloved and prize-winning author is made up of two narratives, each told by a South Asian migrant to Australia “When my family emigrated it felt as if we’d been stood on our heads.” Michelle de Kretser’s electrifying take on scary monsters turns the novel upside down, just as migration has upended her characters’ lives. Lili’s family migrated to Australia from Asia...
Suburra
Fast-paced crime thriller set in Rome: Gomorrah meets House of Cards Suburra will be released as a Netflix original series in 2017 Criminals on the rise and senior members of the Italian mafia clash in and around Rome over the backing of an urban development bill that promises to turn the seaside town of Ostia into a gambling paradise. The problems plaguing the political system of contemporary Italy are played out against this florid, cinematic background. Before the end of Berlusconi's days, a massive real estate development bill that will bury the city's outskirts under tons of cement remains on the floor in the Italian parliament. Ostia, a small dot of a town on the coast, could become It...
The Night of Rome
When an Italian kingpin falls, a battle of successors begins in this “razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi’s Rome” (The New Statesman). Things are changing in Rome. The new Pope, determined to reform the Vatican, proclaims an extraordinary Jubilee year, one “of Mercy.” A new center-left government replaces its disgraced predecessor. And with the underworld kingpin Samurai in jail, his protégé Sebastiano Laurenti plans to establish himself as his designated successor. But to do it, he must reckon with a new generation of gangsters and racketeers edging in on the corrupt profits to be made off the Jubilee’s public works. Meanwhile, Laurenti must also keep an eye on the ambitious newly elected politician Chiara Visone. As the sharks circle and the street-dogs fight, a tenuous hope endures. An incorruptible politician of the old left is about to forge an unlikely alliance with a young bishop who refuses to play the Vatican’s power games. Sharp, dark, and taut, The Night of Rome is fiction that sails dangerously close to the wind of current events.
