Book picks similar to
They Cannot Take the Sky by Michael Green


non-fiction
biography-memoir
australia
refugees

12 Edmondstone Street


David Malouf - 1985
    A complex history comes down to us, through household jokes and anecdotes, odd family habits, and irrational superstitions, that forever shapes what we see and the way in which we see it.Beginning with his childhood home, David Malouf moves on to show other landmarks in his life, and the way places and things create our private worlds. Written with humour and uncompromising intelligence, 12 Edmondstone Street is an unforgettable portrait of one man's life.

Wish You Were Here


Sheridan Jobbins - 2017
    I am free to be whoever I want, and all I want to be is a woman in a red spotty dress, speeding into her future in a shiny red car.'Raw, sharply funny and heartfelt, Wish You Were Here is a girl's own adventure with bite, a hilarious rollercoaster ride that will make you itch to escape the everyday and hit the road with this irresponsible and irresistible adventurer. Reeling from the devastating collapse of her marriage to the man she thought was the love of her life, after a late night enjoying smashing all her china a little too much Sheridan Jobbins decides she needs to do something drastic to save her sanity. Her solution is to buy a hot red car and drive across America. Hopelessly unprepared and heartbroken, she sets out on the road trip of a lifetime determined to find herself - and ironically finds love instead. But not before she has a whole bunch of crazy adventures and wrong turns along the way. Every woman with a heart and a sense of humour will want jump on board this unforgettable ride - and it's the best antidote for anyone who's ever had her heart broken and thought she might not survive.

The White Mouse


Nancy Wake - 1985
    Nancy Wake, a New Zealander who became one of the most highly decorated women of WW II, here she tells her own story.

Back Story


David Mitchell - 2012
    Despite what David Miliband might think

Heartsick


Jessie StephensJessie Stephens - 2021
    And so we are left in the middle of the ocean, floating in a dinghy with no anchor, while the world waits for us to be okay again.'Claire has returned from London to the dust and familiarity of her childhood home, only to realise something is wrong with her partner Maggie.Patrick is a lonely uni student, until he meets Caitlin - but does she feel as connected as he does?Ana is happily married with three children. Then, one night, she falls in love with someone else.Based on three true stories, Heartsick is a compelling narrative nonfiction account of the many lows and occasional surprising highs of heartbreak. Bruising, beautiful, achingly specific but wholeheartedly universal, it reminds us that emotional pain can make us as it breaks us, and that storytelling has the ultimate healing power.

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure


Sarah Macdonald - 2002
    So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, and him, the finger.But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life and death.Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—and her sanity—can survive.

A Sunburnt Childhood


Toni Tapp Coutts - 2016
    But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.