Staff Recommended Reads

New book by celebrated Aboriginal author Alexis Wright, author of Carpentaria and The Swan Book.A collective memoir of one of Aboriginal Australia’s most charismatic leaders and an epic portrait of a period in the life of a country, reminiscent in its scale and intimacy of the work of Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Svetlana Alexievich.Miles Franklin Award-winning novelist Alexis Wright returns to non-fiction in her new book, Tracker Tilmouth, a collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker, and entrepreneur who died in Darwin in 2015. Taken from his family as a child and brought up in a mission on Croker Island, Tracker Tilmouth returned home to transform the world of Aboriginal politics. He worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council. He was a visionary and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his anecdotes. His memoir has been composed by Wright from interviews with Tilmouth himself, as well as with his family, friends, and colleagues, weaving his and their stories together into a book that is as much a tribute to the role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of a remarkable man.

"A collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker and entrepreneur Tracker Tilmouth, who died in Darwin in 2015 at the age of 62. Taken from his family as a child and brought up in a mission on Croker Island, Tracker Tilmouth worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council of the Northern Territory. Tracker was a visionary, a strategist and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his determination to tell things the way he saw them. Having known him for many years, Alexis Wright interviewed Tracker, along with family, friends, colleagues, and the politicians he influenced, weaving his and their stories together in a manner reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize–winning author Svetlana Alexievich. The book is as much a testament to the powerful role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of an extraordinary man."--Back cover.

1959: Grace is a young mother with four children under four. All she ever wanted was to have a family of her own, but there are thoughts Grace cannot share with anyone about the true state of her marriage, and the terrifying numbness that engulfs her in the months after childbirth. Instead she pours her deepest fears into the pages of a notebook, hiding them where she knows husband Patrick will never look. When Grace falls pregnant again, desperate and in despair, she turns to her sister Maryanne. 1996: When Beth's father Patrick is diagnosed with dementia, she and her siblings make the heart-wrenching decision to put him into care. As Beth is clearing the family home, she discovers a series of notes. Patrick's children grew up believing Grace Walsh died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but these notes suggest something much darker may be true. 1959: When Maryanne responds to her sister's call for help, she sets in motion a series of tragic events, ending Grace's life. With the explosive details of what happened that day buried in Grace's notes, Maryanne must find them before Patrick does... because if the truth is revealed, it will cost her everything.

A dark, captivating novel of family secrets, desperate ambition and the deepest betrayal . . .TO BE ONE OF THEM, SHE WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.1938. Gillian Larking is used to blending in and going unnoticed, until she is befriended by her new roommate at boarding school, the vibrant and spirited Violet Claybourne. As the Christmas holidays approach, Gilly can't believe her luck when Violet invites her to spend them at her home, the crumbling Thornleigh Hall.At Thornleigh, Gilly is dazzled by the family's faded grandeur, and above all by Violet's beguiling older sisters who seem to accept her as one of their own. But following a terrible incident in the house's grounds, Gilly begins to realise the Claybourne sisters aren't quite what she thought they were. And if she's to survive in their world, she may have to become just like them . . .'Pulls the reader into its dark depths like quicksand. I couldn't put it down' Hester Musson, author of THE BEHOLDERS'Dark, chilling and tightly plotted, this is the perfect read for a winter's night' Sarah Clegg, author of THE DEAD OF WINTER'Utterly spellbinding. Atmospheric and full of secrets waiting to be untangled' Louise Hare'A moving tale of class, duplicity and the irreversible consequences of betraying a friendship. I devoured this wonderful book' Jo Leevers, author of THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU'With shades of Sarah Waters and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, this is a riveting story about sisters, secrets and the lengths people will go to fit in with others. I raced through it because I struggled to put it down!' Caroline Bishop, author of THE LOST CHAPTER''Stunning . . . a dark and immersive plot that becomes more gripping and sinister with every turn of the page' Louise Douglas, author of THE HOUSE BY THE SEA

The year is 2221 and the world is dying. Temperatures soar as high as fifty degrees every day. Sea levels are rising year by year. The population has fallen to below 2 billion people. The ruined cities of the north – Sydney, Brisbane and beyond – were abandoned as the rising sea and the sun’s intensity turned them to wastelands. In an isolated coastal town south of Sydney, young Finch Taylor is captivated by the mysterious beauty April Speare and her pianist husband William when they move into a nearby beach house with a piano and a tragic secret. Finch soon begins a lifelong love affair with music, and with April. But as he and April follow the great migration south to Tasmania, and eventually to a warming Antarctica, they must decide whether to bring children into a world without a future.

It is 1940s coastal Lincolnshire and Carolyn Holmes is keen to do what she can for the war effort. Raised on the family farm, she is prevented by her mother, Lilian, from going to secretarial college after leaving the local grammar school, although nothing is too good for her brother, Tom.Phyllis Carter, a widow from the Great War, lives close by with her son, Peter, who works on the farm. Peter and Carolyn are great friends but do not see a future together, although it is the dearest wish of both Phyllis and Lilian to see them marry.After their home town is caught in an air raid, Peter decides to volunteer – to the distress of his mother, who makes life difficult for Carolyn as she blames her for not marrying Peter and keeping him safe at home. Carolyn leaves to join the ATS, where she meets Beryl Morley, who will become a lifelong friend.After their basic training, Carolyn and Beryl are posted to Beaumanor Hall as ‘listeners’, the most difficult of signals intelligence gathering, intercepting enemy messages which are then sent to Bletchley Park for deciphering.As the war unfolds and their work becomes even more vital, Carolyn and Beryl’s friendship strengthens and, in the dangerous times that follow, they will both need the support of the other as they face personal troubles of their own and the lives of those they love are put at risk.

Two years ago Eva Khatchadourian’s son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a popular teacher. Now, in a series of letters to her absent husband, Eva recounts the story of how Kevin came to be Kevin.Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault? When did it all start to go wrong?Or was it, in fact, ever ‘right’ at all?Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story while framing the horrifying tableau of teenage carnage as a metaphor for the larger tragedy—the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.‘By far the best novel I’ve read in years…exquisitely crafted…a breathtaking work of art.’ Age‘Brilliant…compulsive.’ Guardian‘A great read with horrifying twists and turns.’ Marie Claire‘Harrowing, tense and thought-provoking, this is a vocal challenge to every accepted parenting manual you’ve ever read.’ Daily Mail

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Murder Rule comes an emotional novel of suspense about two families pitted against each other. Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family's cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?Nobody knows. Simon's explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn't add up. Nina's parents push the police for answers, and Simon's parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign.HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fuelled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina's social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive 'fans.'HOW FAR WILL HER FAMILY GO TO GET TO THE TRUTH?Nina's family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters - finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon's wealthy, powerful family, Nina's parents recognize that if playing by the rules won't get them anywhere, it's time to break them.

'Library. What a nice-sounding word. So comforting. I feel like I'm a student again. Library ... Am I allowed to borrow books?''What are you looking for?' asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. She is no ordinary librarian. Naturally, she has read every book on her shelf, but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of anyone who walks through her door. Sensing exactly what they're looking for in life, she provides just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.Every borrower in her library is at a different crossroads, from the restless retail assistant - can she ever get out of a dead-end job? - to the juggling new mother who dreams of becoming a magazine editor, and the meticulous accountant who yearns to own an antique store. The surprise book Komachi lends to each will have transformative consequences.Magical and uplifting, What You Are Looking for is in the Library is about the wondrousness of libraries and the power of books for change. Highlighting all the tiny comforts of being alive, it is a story that no reader will ever forget.

For years, rumours of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world until the unthinkable happens.