A South Australian Romance


Book Description

"The foundation of this Colony [South Australia], and the formation of the Methodist Church therein, run parallel. They are strangely interlinked ... It is our intention to give - not an up-to-date history of the Colony, nor of the Church, but a vivid picture of early colonial life, and of the romantic circumstances under which a Church was formed and the pleasing rate at which it grew." From Chapter One Introductory







The Big Dead Dry


Book Description

Would you drive into a small Australian town in drought, packed with intrigue, lust and murder? Brumby Flat, a small country town in South Australia, suddenly rises to notoriety and becomes the centre of the world through a baffling series of murders and accidental deaths. Raquel Willaston and her son, Steve, have just moved into town, and Raquel soon gets caught up in the local goings on, whether she wants to or not, and a love entanglement she'd rather not deal with. The quiet arrival of a mysterious homeless man and his subsequent brutal murder at the base of the town silos is the catalyst for the chaos which erupts. City-based Senior Detective Phillip Duncan is in charge of the ensuing investigations and has to cope with some colourful and quirky characters to find out who the killer is. There's Anabella Williams who wears vintage clothes and still lives in the 1950s and is renowned for her 'killer cakes'. Famous silo mural painter Phil Proctor, newly arrived from New York, seems to know more than he lets on. There's Chris Jones, an ex-military officer, who lives his life with military-like precision. Bridie Browne, who runs the local post office, seems more preoccupied with the male of the species rather than actually sorting mail. And then there's 'The Raindrops Shop' run by Bette Mitchell which offers a range of merchandise completely at odds with a town in the middle of a two-year drought. Nothing is as it seems in Brumby Flat. It's going to be a tough ask to identify the serial killer hiding amongst them.







Salt Creek


Book Description

Voted The Times' Book of the Year, Salt Creek is an Australian historical novel about a family pursuing their dreams, duty, and displacement. ‘Salt Creek is a love song to a lost world' The Guardian A story of love, duty, hardship and intolerance through the eyes of a strong woman in 1850s colonial Australia. The comfortable and respectable life Hester Finch now leads in Chichester, England, could not be further from the hardship her family endured on leaving Adelaide for Salt Creek in 1855. Yet she finds her thoughts drawn back to that remote, beautiful and inhospitable outcrop of South Australia and the connections she and her siblings forged there, far from the city society in which they had been raised. Encounters with the few travellers passing along the nearby stock route and the local indigenous people, in particular a boy, Tully, whom Hester's father seeks to educate almost as his own son, would change the fates of the Finches forever; nor would life ever be the same again for those who had long called the area home.




A History of South Australia


Book Description

A History of South Australia investigates the state's history from before the arrival of the first European explorers to today.




Paris Dreaming


Book Description

Libby is determined to stay on her no-man fast: no more romance, no more cheating men, no more heartbreak. But in the city of love there is no escaping fate … A hilarious and heartfelt romantic comedy from bestselling Wiradyuri author, Anita Heiss. Libby has given up on romance. After all, she has her three best girlfriends and two cats to keep her company at night, and her high-powered job at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra to occupy her day – isn't that enough? But when fate gives Libby the chance to work in Paris at the Musée du Quai Branly, she's thrown out of her comfort zone and into a city full of culture, fashion and love. Surrounded by thousands of gorgeous men, romance has suddenly become a lot more tempting.




Devotion


Book Description

'A glorious love story' – Sarah Winman, author of Still Life Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award A stunning story about the impossible lengths we go to for the ones we love, with a breathtaking twist, from the bestselling author of Burial Rites, Hannah Kent. Hanne and Thea’s friendship is a miracle. Before, Hanne always felt apart from the local girls, but with Thea it all came easy. Suddenly she could imagine a future for herself, a happy one, by Thea’s side. But when their tight-knit community embarks on a long and brutal journey to Australia, in search of new freedoms on old land, Hanne and Thea’s bond must find a way to survive the most impossible devastation. Will their love prove too strong for even Nature to break? 'Extraordinarily daring . . . a remarkable novel, an almost visionary celebration of the death-defying power of the women’s love' - Sunday Times 'Exquisite . . . it's taken root in my heart' – Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies 'So beautiful and so raw . . . Devotion is impossibly good' – Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock




The Anthology Of Colonial Australian Romance Fiction


Book Description

The Anthology of Colonial Australian Romance Fiction collects captivating stories of love and passion, longing and regret. In these tales women arriving in the New World make decisions about relationships and marriage, social conventions, finances and career—and even the future of the nation itself. The 'slim and graceful' Australian girl becomes a new character type: independent, self-possessed and full of promise. These stories also show women gaining experience about the world, and the men, around them. They are put to the test by a new life and a new place. And not every relationship works out well. The best of colonial Australian romance fiction is collected in this anthology, from writers such as Ada Cambridge, Rosa Praed, Francis Adams, Henry Lawson, Mura Leigh and many others.




Burial Rites


Book Description

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tv=ti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?