Incidental Inventions (HB) by Elena Ferrante; Ann Goldstein (Translator); Andrea Ucini (Illustrator)

$29.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

"This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me." With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian. For a full year she penned short pieces, the subjects of which were suggested by edit ors at the Guardian, turning the writing process into a kind of prolonged interlocution; the subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the adaptation of her novels to film and TV. As she said in her final column: "I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that--if I have the will and the time--I'd like to develop within real narrative mechanisms." Here, then, are the seeds of possible future novels, the ruminations of an internationally beloved author, and the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called "one of the great novelists of our time" (the New York Times). Gathered here in a beautiful gift edition and accompanied by a new, original introduction by the author and Andrea Ucini's intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this is a must for all Ferrante fans. ...Show more

Bombshells by Joanna Murray-Smith

$23.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary | Series: Standard Plays Ser.

Bombshells is a series of outrageous portraits of six women barely coping with the stresses of modern life.

The Second Cure by Margaret Morgan

$32.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

'This hypnotic debut novel brilliantly captures the unease of our times.' Jane Caro'Wildly entertaining and frighteningly plausible.'James Bradley'A whip smart thriller with big ideas and big heart.'Steven Amsterdam A pandemic is racing through our world, changing people subtly but irrevocably. The fir st sign for some is losing their faith. For others it comes as violent outpourings of creativity, reckless driving and seeing visions. Scientist Charlotte Zinn is close to a cure when her partner becomes infected. Overnight her understanding of the disease is turned upside down. Should she change the path of evolution? As Australia is torn apart, reporter Brigid Bayliss is determined to uncover the dark truth behind the religious response to the outbreak. Brigid and Charlotte find themselves on the frontline of a world splintering into far left and far right, with unexpected power to change the course of history. But at what cost? Dark, thrilling and compulsively readable,The Second Cureis a provocative debut about control, courage and belief. ...Show more

The Neighbourhood by Mario Vargas Llosa

$29.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary | Reading Level: near fine

A thrilling tale of desire and Peruvian corruption from the world-renowned Nobel Laureate. From the Nobel Laureate comes a politically charged detective novel weaving through the underbelly of Peruvian privilege. In the 1990s, during the turbulent and deeply corrupt years of Alberto Fujimori's presidenc y, two wealthy couples of Lima's high society become embroiled in a disturbing vortex of erotic adventures and politically driven blackmail. One day Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposes. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page. Meanwhile, Enrique's wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique's lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru's unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embark on their greatest expose yet. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, the novel swirls into the kind of restless realism that has become Mario Vargas Llosa's signature style. A twisting, unpredictable tale, The Neighborhood is at once a scathing indictment of Fujimori's regime and a crime thriller that evokes the vulgarity of freedom in a corrupt system. ...Show more

A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers

$39.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

Following his hugely celebrated debut novel, The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers returns to the battlefield and its aftermath, this time in his native Virginia, just before and during the Civil War and ninety years later. The novel pinpoints with unerring emotional depth the nature of random violence, the ne cessity of love and compassion, and the fragility and preciousness of life. It will endure as a stunning novel about what we leave behind, what a life is worth, what is said and unsaid, and the fact that ultimately what will survive of us is love. ...Show more

I Still Dream by James Smythe

$34.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

"A strikingly intelligent book about intelligence itself" - Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent 1997. 17-year-old Laura Bow has invented a rudimentary artificial intelligence, and named it Organon. At first it's intended to be a sounding-board for her teenage frustrations, a surrogate best friend; but as she grows older, Organon grows with her. As the world becomes a very different place, technology changes the way we live, love and die; massive corporations develop rival intelligences to Laura's, ones without safety barriers or morals; and Laura is forced to decide whether to share her creation with the world. If it falls into the wrong hands, she knows, its power could be abused. But what if Organon is the only thing that can stop humanity from hurting itself irreparably? I STILL DREAM is a powerful tale of love, loss and hope; a frightening, heartbreakingly human look at who we are now - and who we can be, if we only allow ourselves. ...Show more

Patient X : The Case-book of Ryunosuke Akutagawa by David Peace

$39.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

Upstate by James Wood

$35.00 AUD

Category: Contemporary

Receiving word that his daughter Vanessa, who moved to America to become a professor of philosophy, has fallen into a severe depression, Alan Querry and his younger daughter, Helen, travel from England to upstate New York. Over six wintry days, the family begins to struggle with the questions that anima te this profound and searching novel: Why do some people find living so much harder than others? Is happiness a skill to be learned or a lucky accident of birth? ...Show more

The Melody by Jim Crace

$39.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

$22.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary | Reading Level: very good

No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.   But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.   Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .   The only way to survive is to open your heart. ...Show more

The Book of Joan by Yuknavitch, Lidia

$39.99 AUD

Category: Contemporary

Madness Is Better Than Defeat by Ned Beauman

$45.00 AUD

Category: Contemporary

'This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I've read in years - by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny - which is more than enough. I can't think of any type of reader who wouldn't enjoy it' Irish Independent 'It reminded me of a Co en brothers film... I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page... I really enjoyed it' Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review Conspiracy, insanity, ingenuity and adventure collide in the new novel by the Man Booker-longlisted, Granta Best of Young British Novelist Ned Beauman. #MadnessIsBetter In 1938, two rival expeditions set off for a lost Mayan temple in the jungles of Honduras, one intending to shoot a screwball comedy on location there, the other to disassemble the temple and ship it back to New York. A seemingly endless stalemate ensues, and twenty years later a rogue CIA agent sets out to exploit it as a geopolitical pawn - unaware that the temple is the locus of grander conspiracies than anyone could have imagined. Showcasing the anarchic humour, boundless imagination and unparalleled prose of one of the finest writers of his generation, this is a masterful novel that teases, entertains and dazzles in equal measure. PRAISE FOR NED BEAUMAN A Granta Best Young British Novelist 'Seriously funny and seriously intelligent at the same time' Daily Telegraph 'Dazzlingly inventive' The Times 'A singular, and almost recklessly gifted, young writer' Time 'A force to be acknowledged in the here and now' Dazed and Confused 'Gobsmackingly clever' Vanity Fair 'Playful, arresting, unnerving opulent, rude and - above all - deliciously, startlingly, exuberantly fresh' Guardian #MadnessIsBetter ...Show more