A Nazi in the Family: The hidden story of an SS family in wartime Germany


Derek Niemann - 2015
    Every day Karl Niemann commutes to work, a business manager in charge of various factories. In the evenings he returns home to life as a normal family man.For many years this was all Derek Niemann had known about his grandfather – until he made the chilling discovery that Karl had actually been an officer in the SS; and that his “business” used thousands of slave labourers in concentration camps. Suddenly, a lifetime of unsettling hints and clues fell into place.With the help of surviving relatives and hundreds of previously unknown photographs, Derek reconstructs the lives of his German forebears and uncovers the true story of what Karl did. A Nazi in the Family is an illuminating portrayal of how ordinary people can fall into the service of a monstrous regime."All families have secrets, but few are as shocking as Derek Niemann's." Culture Trip"Extraordinary." Glasgow Evening Times"Vividly captures the complex life of an ordinary man." Andrew Bomford, BBC Radio 4

Gulpilil


Derek Rielly - 2019
    In this country, he's more important than Ned Kelly.' Jack ThompsonIt's been almost fifty years since a teenage David Gulpilil illuminated screens worldwide with his breakout role in Walkabout. It was one of the first times we'd seen an Aboriginal person cast in a significant role and only four years after Holt's referendum to alter the constitution and give Indigenous people citizenship and, subsequently, the right to vote.Gulpilil quickly became the face of the Indigenous world to white Australian audiences. Charisma. Good looks. A competent, strong, mysterious man starring in films ranging from Crocodile Dundee to Rabbit-Proof Fence.But what has marked Gulpilil, despite his fame and popularity, is the feeling that he's been forever stuck between two worlds: a Yolngu man, a hunter, a tracker, who grew up in the bush in Arnhem Land outside any white influence; and a movie star flitting from movie sets to festivals.Able to exist in both worlds, but never truly home.From the author of the bestselling Wednesdays with Bob , Derek Rielly builds a narrative around his attempt to encapsulate the most beguiling and unconventional of Australian entertainers, observing Gulpilil's own attempt to find a place in the world. With interviews from notable icons and friends - such as Jack Thompson, Paul Hogan, Phillip Noyce, Craig Ruddy, George Gittoes, Gary Sweet and Damon Gameau - this book unriddles a famous enigma at last.'He has an extraordinary presence, what ever that word means. It's very real. Some people have it and some people don't. And David has it - he knows how to feed the camera.' Jack Thompson

The Lost Love Song


Minnie Darke - 2020
    And like any good love song, it has two parts.In Australia, Arie Johnson waits impatiently for classical pianist Diana Clare to return from a world tour, hopeful that after seven years together she'll finally agree to marry him.On her travels, Diana composes a song for Arie. It's the perfect way to express her love, knowing they'll spend their lives together... Won't they?Then late one night, her love song is overheard, and begins its own journey across the world.In Scotland, Evie Greenlees is drifting. It's been years since she left Australia with a backpack, a one-way ticket and a dream of becoming a poet. Now she spends her days making coffee and her nights serving beer. And she's not even sure whether the guy she lives with is really her boyfriend or just a flatmate.Then one day she hears an exquisite love song. One that will connect her to a man with a broken heart...

The Postmistress


Alison Stuart - 2019
     To forge a new life she must first deal with her past... 1871. Adelaide Greaves and her young son have found sanctuary in the Australian town of Maiden's Creek, where she works as a postmistress. The rough Victorian goldmining settlement is a hard place for a woman - especially as the other women in town don't know what to make of her - but through force of will and sheer necessity, Adelaide carves out a role. But her past is coming to find her, and the embittered and scarred Confederate soldier Caleb Hunt, in town in search of gold and not without a dark past of his own, might be the only one who can help. Can Adelaide trust him? Can she trust anyone?When death and danger threaten - some from her past, some borne of the Australian bush - she must swallow her pride and turn to Caleb to join her in the fight, a fight she is determined to win...

Happy Endings


Bella Green - 2021
    Divorced dads, IT nerds, international students - she's here for the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour, for soothing the lonely. But really for the cash.From an entrepreneurial kid to a young woman trying to find herself (and desperate to stay out of call centres), Bella started sex work for the glamour and the taboo. Instead, she found her place in this surprisingly mundane and often entertaining industry, where the hierarchy is strict, the names are fake, and spare towels always come in handy.Taking us on a funny, candid, can't-look-away journey through brothels, strip clubs, peep shows and dominatrix dungeons, Happy Endings is a hilarious and compelling memoir from a bright and bold new Australian voice.Praise for Bella Green'Authentic, hilarious, and uplifting.' WeekendNotes'No holds barred ... Smart as a whip ... Green's the real deal who wants everyone to get their happy ending.' The Advertiser (Adelaide)'A brilliant stand-up comedian.' Wil Anderson'The voice modern comedy needs.' DeAnne Smith

Bittersweet


Colleen McCullough - 2013
    The four Latimer sisters, famous throughout New South Wales for their beauty, wit and ambition, have always been close; always happy. But then they left home to train as nurses, swapping the feather beds of their father's townhouse for the spartan bunks of hospital accommodation. And now, as the Depression casts its shadow across Australia, they are bound by their own secret desires as the world changes around them. Will they find the independence they crave? Or is life - like love - always bittersweet? 'As clever, compelling and as down-to-earth as its four heroines' Australian Women's Weekly

The Rules of Backyard Cricket


Jock Serong - 2016
    The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game.Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety—one of those men who’s always got away with things and just keeps getting.Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged, cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow grave.

Beyond the Blue Mountains


Jean Plaidy - 1947
    Kitty Kennedy loses her lover before Carolan is born; Katharine, Carolan's child, chooses what must inevitably be a life of danger; but it is Carolan, sensitive and proud, bold and reckless, who must suffer most deeply and who is the central figure around whom events revolve.Her adventures in the East End, in Newgate Jail and in the foul women's quarters on the prison ship transporting her to Australia are told with terrible clarity and a powerful imagination. The profligacy, perversion, vice and cruelty of that age are forcefully recreated. Having survived the journey and been taken to the house of Materman of Sydney, Carolan finds that her experiences have changed her from an innocent girl to a ruthless woman, determined to establish herself in the Masterman household, and her method of doing so is such as will haunt her for the rest of her life. The main characters in this unusual novel are not only vivid but convincing.There is the gay and amorous Marcus, vain Kitty, bawdy Margery and sweet Katharine; there is Masterman who, for love of Carolan, forgets he is ambitious and a Puritan; the pious Esther, and Carolan herself--these and many others, living in a world of crime and horror, dirt and luxury, cruelty and indifference are all reaching out hopefully to better times beyond the symbolic Blue Mountains.

Two Hands Together


Diana Kidd - 2000
    But Lily can't understand why her Dad doesn't like the Rileys. Why doesn't he want them to go over there? Why is he being so horrible and mean? Does something big have to happen to change his mind?

The Drover's Wife


Henry Lawson - 1994
    A famous Australian short story

Walk in My Shoes


Alwyn Evans - 2004
    I took Mum's hand, whispering, 'Are we really safe here?' After a perilous and terrifying journey from war-torn Afghanistan, Gulnessa and her family find themselves in Australia, a place they know nothing about. They are exhausted and traumatised, but so full of hope. At last-somewhere safe to call home. But they soon discover that their struggle isn't over yet. They are imprisoned in a detention centre for illegal immigrants, and forced to prove their refugee status. As the days drag into weeks and months, Gulnessa is determined to stay strong. She must keep her family together, and fight for Abdul, her special friend from home, with whom she has secretly fallen in love. She can never give up hope, of a temporary protection visa, and a chance to build a future in a beautiful foreign land.

Search for the Light


Rosemary Noble - 2014
    Sentenced to transportation she has to grow up fast to survive prison, the long journey and then life as an assigned servant in Van Diemen's Land of the 1820s. She is sustained by real friendships with other prisoners, Sarah and Helen. Can anyone of them overcome the pitfalls of convict life to become pioneering settlers of modern day Tasmania?

Daughter of the Razor: An Australian True Crime Story


Maria Tinschert - 2016
    Before the age of 11 Maria was introduced to the world of prostitution by her mother who was in the sister hood of Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine.This story would of never have been told had it not been for another violent crime perpetrated on the now adult Maria many years later which led her to break the code of silence.Now 84 years of age Maria is an inspiring survivor who works every day of the year as a volunteer Community Care Counsellor helping others. Maria does motivational speaking on all aspects of her life, with the aim of inspiring people to take responsibility for their decisions and actions, no matter what unfortunate beginnings that anyone of us has endured.Daughter of the razor is a shocking story in itself - but it is an even greater story of survival. It is it is powerful and moving and tells of the triumph of the human spirit of a little girl in her rise out of depravity, sadism and debauchery. It is a story which has been an incredible lifetime in the making.Ralph James Solicitor Accredited Specialist--Criminal Law

Hot Island Nights


Sarah Mayberry - 2010
    But that's the best way to find her true and less than proper self. So here she is in Australia, standing in front of a man who's clad only in a towel. Nathan Jones is so tempting he could be the ideal candidate to help this good girl be very bad! Sure enough, thanks to Nathan's talented hands, Elizabeth is living all her sensual fantasies. And while the sex is great, something more is developing. She trusts him, and wants to share her secrets with him. Suddenly this feels more like a real relationship than some fun in the sun. Luckily, there's a cure for too much commitment;more wickedness!

Song of the Crocodile


Nardi Simpson - 2020
    The sign taunts a fool into feeling some sense of achievement, some kind of end- that you have reached a destination in the very least. Yet as the sign states, Darnmoor is merely a gateway, a waypoint on the road to where you really want to be.Darnmoor is the home of the Billymil family, three generations who have lived in this 'gateway town'. Race relations between Indigenous and settler families are fraught, though the rigid status quo is upheld through threats and soft power rather than the overt violence of yesteryear.As progress marches forwards, Darnmoor and its surrounds undergo rapid social and environmental changes, but as some things change, some stay exactly the same. The Billymil family are watched (and sometimes visited) by ancestral spirits and spirits of the recently deceased, who look out for their descendants and attempt to help them on the right path.When the town's secrets start to be uncovered the town will be rocked by a violent act that forever shatters a century of silence.Full of music, Yuwaalaraay language and exquisite description, Song of the Crocodile is a lament to choice and change, and the unyielding land that sustains us all, if only we could listen to it.