Book picks similar to
The Wardrobe by Judy Nunn


short-story
aussie-author
fiction
australia

Dharma


Charles de Lint - 2007
    Gerry Weiss & Helen S. Weiss; Tor Books, 2007.Set in Newford during 1967's Summer of Love, Beirut-born teen Dharma, runs away from his Muslim home and reinvents himself as a hippie poet-musician. Street-busking one day at an impromptu music jam, Dharma meets a lovely young hippie girl called Button. Love is in the air. Button and Dharma share a gorgeous, magical night at a huge music festival. But is this newfound love as perfect it seems?

The Secret Lives of Men


Georgia Blain - 2013
    The men in these tales frequently linger at the edges — their longings and failures exerting a subterranean pull on the women in their lives. In ‘The Secret Lives of Men’, a woman revisits her hometown and learns a long-held secret about her first boyfriend. In ‘The Bad Dog Park’, a man’s devotion to his pet ultimately forces him to confront his true hopes and fears. And in ‘The Other Side of the River’, a snap decision has devastating consequences for a mother and her family. Written in Blain’s trademark unadorned yet powerful prose, these stories resonate long after they are finished.The Secret Lives of Men is an exceptional collection by one of Australia’s leading writers.

The Man Who Traveled In Elephants


Robert A. Heinlein - 1948
    Written may 1948.First published in Saturn, October 1957 as The Elephant Circuit.First collected into The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1959.

Carrying The World


Maxine Beneba Clarke - 2016
    A feisty young black girl pushing back against authority. The joy and despair of single parenthood. A love-hate relationship with words.This collection brings the best of a decade-long international poetry career to the page.

Sign


Colin Dray - 2018
    He lives with his mother and sister Katie, all dutifully cared for by Aunt Dettie, their father's sister, who believes herself sympathetic to his pain. Their father abandoned the family some time ago, but when their mother begins to date again, Aunt Dettie reacts very badly. After an unexpected phone call, Aunt Dettie packs Sam and Katie into the backseat of her car and tells them that she's taking them to Perth to be reunited with their father. As Dettie drives the children across Australia in the middle of a sweltering and dangerous bushfire season, her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, and the children begin to realise that there is something very wrong. Voiceless, Sam can only watch helplessly as the family trip becomes a smoke-filled nightmare.

The Waddi Tree


Kerry McGinnis - 2006
    Rob, a stickler for correctness, manages a wealthy, company-owned property, while his easygoing brother Sandy struggles to support his wife and son on an impoverished leasehold. When tragedy throws the families together, before ultimately driving them even further apart, it's Sandy's young son Jim who suffers most. Left to rebuild his shattered world, he depends on the larger-than-life station characters and the comfort of horses. This is tough country, where personal heartache is kept in perspective by drought, fire and isolation. The times are just as unforgiving, and as the years pass, Jim discovers that he must pay for his father's mistakes as well as his own. Yet this harshly beautiful land is full of promise, a source of strength to Jim on his road from innocence to independence.

The Sparrows of Edward Street


Elizabeth Stead - 2011
    It’s November 1948, and the widowed Hanora Sparrow and her teenage daughters, Aria and Rosy, have fallen on tough times; when they move into a housing commission camp on the outskirts of Sydney, their spirits are low and their prospects few. While Hanora copes via various pharmaceutical offerings and Rosy with nothing other than indignity, the spirited Aria rises immediately to the challenge of keeping the family together in such trying circumstances. With her endless curiosity and lively sense of humor, Aria draws the Sparrow women into close friendships with other camp residents and supports her family through her work as a photographic model in the city. Despite the setbacks, Aria strives toward their eventual salvation.

Notes on an Exodus


Richard Flanagan - 2016
    With illustrations from Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty.In January 2016 Richard Flanagan and Ben Quilty travelled to Lebanon, Greece, and Serbia to follow the river that is the exodus of our age: that of refugees from Syria.Flanagan's 'notes' and Quilty's sketches bear witness to the remarkable people they met on that journey and their stories. These individual portraits from the Man Booker Prize-winning author and Archibald Prize-winning artist combine to form a powerful testament to human dignity and courage in the face of war, death, and suffering.Refugees are not like you and me. They are you and me. That terrible river of the wretched and the damned flowing through Europe is my family.

Selected Poems 1988-2013


Seamus Heaney - 2014
    This volume encapsulates the finest work from Seeing Things (1991) with its lines of loss and revelation; The Spirit Level (1996) where we experience "the poem as ploughshare that turns time / Up and over."; the landmark translation of Beowulf (1999); Electric Light (2001), a book of origins and oracles; and his final collections, District and Circle (2006) and Human Chain (2010), which limn the interconnectedness of being, our lifelines to our inherited past.

Rogue Farm


Charles Stross - 2009
    But when a bio-technological monstrosity known as a farm squats on their land, Joe and Maddie must confront not only it, but also their own hopes and dreams.Originally issued in print as part of the short story collection: Wireless. New York : Ace Books, 2009.1 sound disc (45 min.)

Matryoshka


Katherine Johnson - 2018
    Sara’s grandmother, Nina Barsova, a Russian post-war immigrant, lovingly raised Sara in the cottage at the foot of Mt Wellington but without ever explaining why Sara’s own mother, Helena, abandoned her as a baby. Sara, a geneticist, also longs to know the identity of her father, and Helena won’t tell her. Now, estranged not only from her mother but also from her husband, Sara raises her daughter, Ellie, with a central wish to spare her the same feeling of abandonment that she experienced as a child. When Sara meets an Afghani refugee separated from his beloved wife and family, she decides to try to repair relations with Helena – but when a lie told by her grandmother years before begins to unravel, a darker truth than she could ever imagine is revealed.Matryoshka is a haunting and beautifully written story about the power of maternal love, and the danger of secrets passed down through generations.

Outback Fever


Suzanne Brandyn - 2015
    An ongoing feud has existed between the Kinkaids and the Thorntons for generations, unknown to Cassandra until a few weeks ago. Now someone isn't happy and wants her out.Cassandra’s mother Beth holds a welcoming home party for Jake Thornton, hoping to end the feud for good. How can they end a feud when the air sizzles like the Capulets and Montagues, although Beth states there was never a Romeo and Juliet involved? Little does she realise Romeo and Juliet did exist, but they are far from star-crossed lovers.How can Cassandra forgive Jake for breaking her heart, and how can she give up on her Grandfather’s wishes? He’d turn over in his grave if he ever knew she was and still is in love with a Thornton. Besides, her grandfather left the property to her for a good reason and she isn’t about to give in for love, or is she?

The Serpentwar Saga: The Complete 4-Book Collection


Raymond E. Feist - 2013
    Feist. This bundle includes the complete Serpentwar Saga.The bundle includes: Shadow of a Dark Queen (1), Rise of a Merchant Prince (2), Rage of a Demon King (3), and Shards of a Broken Crown (4).Return to the world of Midkemia…Ancient powers are readying themselves for a devastating confrontation, and a dark queen has raised a standard and is gathering armies of unmatched might.Into this battleground of good and evil a band of desperate men are forced whose only hope for survival is to face this ancient power and discover its true nature. Their quest is at best dangerous and at worst suicidal.Among them are some unlikely heroes – Erik, a bastard heir denied his birthright, and his friend Roo, an irrepressible scoundrel with a penchant for thievery are accompanied by the mysterious Miranda upon whom all must wager their lives. She appears to be an ally but also possess a hidden agenda and may prove to be a more deadly foe when the final confrontation is at hand…This ebook bundle contains Shadow of a Dark Queen (1), Rise of a Merchant Prince (2), Rage of a Demon King (3), and Shards of a Broken Crown (4).

Alice to Nowhere


Evan Green - 1984
    Two vicious murderers, fleeing Alice Springs, hide on a battered truck carrying mail, food and supplies on its fortnightly journey to remote cattle stations.

Gunpowder Plots


Val McDermid - 2013
    In Sneeze for Danger, a killer is unmasked by unfortunate means, and in The Consolation Blonde, a misunderstanding turns a bestselling author to crime…‘Very smart and memorable . . . both stories are great reminders of a time when McDermid was sharpening her teeth on the crime fiction genre and the great writer she was to become . . . an excellent aperitif before the next McDermid novel’