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The Kwinkan is a satirical parable surrounding a mysterious narrator who is part-politician, part Queensland property developer, and the forces at work in the Asia-Pacific region. It deals with international corporatism, political ambitions in an age of decaying colonialism, the clashes of competing mythologies, and the play of the dark, atavistic powers which manifest themselves in sexual disease and violence. These forces act on the characters, sometimes to unite strange bedfellows and at other times to sever connections either at a personal or national level.

 

PRAISE FOR MUDROOROO'S PREVIOUS NOVELS

'[Wildcat Screaming is] full of insight into the nature of man inside and outside of institutions and the sources of strength into which people dip in order to maintain hope and to survive.' - Roberta Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald

 

'Master of the Ghost Dreaming is a real page-turner. The prose is lyrical, yet simple, the images rich and ironic... an exciting, moving and engaging novel.' - Sophie Masson, Australian Book Review

The Ladder is Simon West's third collection of poetry, and his first in four years. Many earlier preoccupations return-the natural environment, Italian art, the dimensions of place. There is a new focus on worldly and artistic responsibility, and finding that 'certain poise' of 'being in between'. At the collection's heart are the building blocks of language, along with the more literal ones of Rome, where some of these poems were written during a residency at the Whiting studio in 2012.

When Eric Maidstone was found dead near Bore Ten, just west of the Dingo-proof Fence, the first thought of those who discovered his body was that he might have been attacked by the rogue camel known as The Lake Frome Monster. But camels don't carry guns... and Maidstone had a bullet-hole in his chest which put the Monster in the clear. So who killed young Maidstone? Bony, disguised as a worker on the Fence, intends to find out…

 

There are sand storms galore, there are mad camels, there is personal and professional deprivation, there are rabbits by the millions. In this typical Upfield country there is the boredom of loneliness, there is the sheer weight of the Australian outback; it is vintage Upfield... - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.

William Swallow was a wayward boy who became a wayward man. Transported as a convict, he became a diligent escaper, but his greatest exploit was when he and some of his fellows commandeered the Cypress in Recherche Bay Tasmania and sailed to Tahiti.

The adventures that follow are as amazing as they are exciting, packed with historical detail and event. Swallow and his companions, and those he inspired, lived in harsh times. Their stories shed entertaining light on a forgotten corner of history. - Sally Odgers, Author

Whitehall London was the environment where William Swallow was raised. At fourteen, he joined His Majesty's Navy in order to escape from the filth and degradation of his home.

Life at sea was hard; he experienced several floggings for insubordination, but he didn't have a moment of regret. He got to see the world and became an experienced mariner.

Swallow's first voyage to Canton, China, was in 1826 aboard the ship Prince of Wales, a 120-gun man of war. The ship's assignment was to escort several British merchant ships from the East India Company who intended to trade with the Chinese. It was on this voyage that his life turned for the worse - he was arrested for pilfering the officer's larder. On arrival back in London he was court-marshalled.

James Porter, also a very young seaman, had a similar life to William Swallow. His life also had a turn for the worse. He began his criminal career at the age of eleven. He went to sea and spent a large part of his young life in South America. He was arrested and sent to Sarah Island where he befriended William Swallow. He too embarked on a wondrous journey.

The time is an imaginary future, one and a half millennia after the collapse of our own civilisation.

Nicholas Raspero, the descendant of the Barons of Raspero and the possessor of wandlore secrets, has arrived in New Landern, the capital of Anglashia. Almost immediately he is drawn into the underworld when he defeats a group of thugs who attempt to rob him, thus making him an enemy of Jolly, the most powerful gangster in the city. Jolly therefore recruits Angela Ashton, the lovely actress, to act as bait for a trap he has set for Nicholas Raspero. Meanwhile, Nicholas has set his heart on Isabel Grangeshield of Grangeshield House - the wealthiest, most beautiful heiress in New Landern and the most obstinate.

For lovers of steampunk and fantasy, The Last Suitor will have you cheering for Nicholas Raspero, the wand-fighting hero, and wishing that you too could transport to the world of New Landern, where everyone who has a wand is not afraid to use it in a duel to maintain one's honour.

The story of a man wanting to move forward by travelling back to where he was born, the Northern Territory. Finding himself on a merciless cattle station where you weren't taught to be a stockman but broken to fit into the mould, he is caught in the middle of race wars and deadly violence between white station managers and Aboriginal traditional land owners. As black power surges, his sympathy grows for an Indigenous elder and his besieged community...

 

"It was like reading parts of Alex Haley's Roots, only it happened in Australia. The tale of brutality and injustice in an indifferent country."

Geoff McDonald, author of Red Over Black

 

"The writer looked death in the face to protect his Aboriginal friends, we owe it to put our hands up and support his story. Made me angry, sad and proud but couldn't put it down. A must read for all Australian's as it exposes a dark, mostly unknown part of our race relations most people would rather not know, but need to see to remind them standing up to racism demands constant vigil." Reggie Jobuda, Council of Aboriginal Elders and Indigenous Advancement.

Temper trantrums, doomed relationships, failed businesses, Magellan's crew and house-hunting... This is, at first glance, a quite disparate collection of stories. The settings range from New York, Texas and San Francisco to Sydney, Lismore and Malaysia. The characters vary in age from three years old in 'Rights of Man' to nonagenarians in 'Shady Oaks.' And yet this varied assemblage of work is unified by core themes that speak to us all: the search for one's place in the world, failed attempts to connect with other people and lofty aspirations not acted upon.

'The Last Wilkie's and Other Stories is a quirky collection of short stories that are by turns funny, dark and troubling. Effortless to read, these stories are laced with a quick, sardonic wit that pokes fun at the life narratives we so earnestly attempt to create.' - BOOKS+PUBLISHING

'Jon Steiner's writing manages to articulate last night's forgotten dreams.' - MIKE TOPP, Sasquatch Stories

'Jon Steiner's brilliant and innovative short story collection veers from surreal to hilarious to disturbing to touching and back again. The Last Wilkie's and Other Stories is the kind of adventurous, unpredictable, unclassifiable short story collection that Australian short fiction needs more of.' - RYAN O'NEILL, The Weight of a Human Heart

JON STEINER is a writer and screenwriter who lives in Sydney. An American by birth, he migrated to Australia in 2000. His work has appeared in the UTS Writers' Anthology and two Spineless Wonders productions, Escape and Little Fictions.

One summer’s day in the bush, a lazy lizard finds himself caught in the path of a bushfire!

With the help of some kind bushland friends, can the lazy lizard find his way to safety?

In The Legacy of Douglas Grant, John Ramsland vividly re-creates the famous Aborigine's life - now lost in the mists of history. Douglas was born to Indigenous parents and, as an infant, was the sole survivor of a cruel massacre in northern Queensland. As an adult, he was a charismatic speaker on Aboriginal rights, but spoke with a distinct Scottish burr. Why was this so?

He was rescued by a kindly Scottish immigrant and brought up and well educated in the Scottish way in Sydney’s leafy suburb of Annandale.

Highly successful at school, he became a leading engineering draftsman at Mort's Dock Company in Balmain and, later, a woolclasser at "Belltrees" station near Scone in the Hunter Valley of NSW.

With friends from "Belltrees", he joined the 1st AIF. His dangerous encounters on the Western Front and as a prisoner-of-war in Germany are pieced together by the author from many fragments.

Douglas bravely faced unpleasant racism in post-war Australia, but never lost his keen sense of humour and scholarly interests.

The Levant: A Short History of the Middle East, by G.S. Willmott is one of those unclassifiable books that moves seamlessly between fact and fiction. From the stone age to modern times, the author follows the fortunes of the Middle East, giving a broad historical perspective as well as more intimate stories about characters, familiar and not familiar, from different eras. We follow Orr and his tribe as they go hunting for deer and find an elephant instead, Hugues de Payens, a young man soon to be a knight, Saul, the boy who would become a king, David with his sling, the Knights Templar, and, in more modern times, Vida, a Jewish woman who lost her family in the holocaust, but who lived on to become an associate of Benjamin Netanyahu. Storytelling about individual people renders broad history much more interesting, and the fortunes of these characters, real, imagined or a combination of both, makes the story feel real. Readers of G.S. Willmott's other books will know what to expect, and will probably be moved to do some extra research on their own. - Sally Odgers, Editor and Author

The Levant: A Short History of the Middle East, by G.S. Willmott is one of those unclassifiable books that moves seamlessly between fact and fiction. From the stone age to modern times, the author follows the fortunes of the Middle East, giving a broad historical perspective as well as more intimate stories about characters, familiar and not familiar, from different eras. We follow Orr and his tribe as they go hunting for deer and find an elephant instead, Hugues de Payens, a young man soon to be a knight, Saul, the boy who would become a king, David with his sling, the Knights Templar, and, in more modern times, Vida, a Jewish woman who lost her family in the holocaust, but who lived on to become an associate of Benjamin Netanyahu. Storytelling about individual people renders broad history much more interesting, and the fortunes of these characters, real, imagined or a combination of both, makes the story feel real. Readers of G.S. Willmott's other books will know what to expect, and will probably be moved to do some extra research on their own. - Sally Odgers, Editor and Author

These simple sketches and photographs of Territory life centre around the young Aboriginal girl Bett-Bett (Dolly Bonson) and her dog Sue; as she appears from the Never-Never, stays awhile, learns a little, laughs a lot, wonders much, and finally returns to the bush again.

This early tale of life in the Northern Territory was first published in 1905, and was followed up bby the classic We of the Never-Never, the author's memoir of life with her family on Elsey Station.

Down the street, not far away, there is a little Hardware Shop.

From paint for a baby’s new room to a rubber tip for an old man’s walking stick. Travel through the pages of this book to find yourself down the street, not far away, in a little hardware shop with a big heart.

Riding a motorbike in howling high winds and freezing temperatures to reach Nordkapp, the northern most point of Europe could have been disastrous. But for Shirley Hardy-Rix and Brian Rix it was one of the best days of their lives.

 

This is what the well-travelled retired couple had hoped for when they planned to fill a gap in their riding experience and take on Scandinavia, the old Silk Road in Central Asia and the world's largest country, Russia. They shipped their motorcycle to Greece and spent the next six months riding to the northern most tip of Europe and then taking the long road to Vladivostok in Russia.

 

From freezing cold to the searing heat of 47°C in the deserts of Central Asia, Shirley and Brian pushed the boundaries, tackling icy roads and gravel tracks. They rode through water crossings and deep sand drifts to reach some of the most beautiful cities on the Silk Road.

 

The Long Way to Vladivostok takes readers through some of the world's most glorious and remote areas, sharing the joys and hardships of life on the road. Experience their travels from the comfort of your armchair or be inspired to pack your bags and hit the road.

As engrossing as a novel, this story of the death of childhood in the cradle of the world's mightiest empire, and the atmospheric tale of crime and punishment leading to a sensational murder trial is from another time but implicitly raises questions which remain with us today.

Steve Harris' book humanises a most bizarre social experiment and brings out its grotesqueness in dramatic form. The tale is so comprehensively and authentically written that it is a service to Australian and British readers.

- Tom Keneally, winner of the Booker Prize and Miles Franklin Award