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Under the hawthorn tree
          by Ai Mi

Jingqiu, an innocent young woman from a poor and politically questionable family in the city, is selected as one of a small group of students to be sent into the countryside to work on a glorious new education project that will further the Cultural Revolution. Clever, curious and eager, she wants to fit in with her hosts and the rural way of life, and it isn't appropriate for her to fall in love. But she does, with the son of a mighty army general. This beautiful simple story of love against the odds will break your heart.

(CHINESE)

Blood falls
          by Tom Bale

Joe Clayton thought the dangers of his undercover career were behind him. He was wrong. One grey October morning, while working in a quiet Bristol street, he hears the voice of the man who has sworn to destroy him. Minutes later Joe is running for his life again. Desperate for sanctuary, he heads for the small Cornish town of Trelennan, and the home of Diana Bamber, widow of a former police colleague.

(SUSPENSE)

Liar bird
          by Lisa Walker

PR whizz Cassandra Daley isn't afraid of using all the dirty tricks of the trade to spin a story her way. A glamorous city-slicker, she has never given much thought to wildlife until she humiliatingly loses a PR war with a potoroo. Sacked and disgraced, she flees the city for an anonymous bolt-hole. But small-town Beechville has other plans for her. Feral pigs, a snake in the dunny, a philosopher frog and a town with a secret--could things get worse? Add one man who has the sexiest way with maps she's ever seen and they soon do. Her best friend Jessica thinks she's been brain-washed by some kind of rural cult, and Jessica could be right.

(ROMANCE) 

The crowded grave
          by Martin Walker

Life in south-west rural France is not the sleepy idyll you might suppose. Local duck and goose farms are being attacked by animal rights protestors attempting to halt the production of foie gras. A senior policeman has been shot by terrorists believed to be the Basque Separatists of ETA. A group of students have just unearthed a 'modern' skeleton during a dig at one of the ancient sites of this famous region and home to pre-historic man - a dig that has brought an influx of foreigners to the Dordogne. It is up to Chief of Police Bruno Courreges to get to the bottom of these seemingly unrelated events. 

(MYSTERY) 

Strictly confidential
          by Roxy Jacenko

Meet Jasmine Lewis, the smart, young publicist trying to work her way up from the bottom in Sydney's hottest PR Company. She's done the coffee runs, the dry cleaning pickups, the 5am starts, the 11pm finishes. But still, her evil boss Diane Wildenstein is never happy.

 

(CONTEMPORARY)

Breaking away
          by Anna Gavalda

"I hadn't even sat down yet, one buttock still hovering, my hand on the car door, and already my sister-in-law was on the attack: At last! Didnt you hear the horn? We've been waiting here for ten minutes! Good morning, I replied." On the car journey to a family wedding, Garance reflects on how adult life, with its disappointments and responsibilities, has not always gone to plan for herself or her three siblings. But just around the corner lies the chance for them to revisit their younger, carefree selves in a delightfully unplanned escapade.

(FAMILY)

The Freudian slip
          by Marion von Adlerstein

Mad Men move over – the Mad Girls are here! Former advertising copywriter, contributor to Vogue magazine and etiquette guru Marion von Adlerstein enters chick-lit territory with this story about feisty young women holding their own in the deeply sexist advertising industry in Sydney circa 1963. Bea, Desi and Stella are all determined to make their marks in the testosterone-fuelled environment of Bofinger Adams Rawson & Keane, but each goes about this a different way...

(AUSTRALIAN)

 

The haunting
          by Alan Titchmarsh

'History is boring; and what does it have to do with us?' Much as Harry Flint tries to fight against the beliefs of his pupils, there are times when he wonders if they are right. With a failed marriage behind him, he sets about changing his own life and researching that of his ancestors.

 

(MYSTERY)

Shelter
          by Frances Greenslade

Set forty years ago in Northern Canada Shelter is the touching story of two girls, aged twelve and fourteen. Their mother was imaginative and wild, their father, 'Mr Safety', a logger who knew the ways of the woods and taught his youngest how to survive, how to find and make a shelter in all weathers, in any conditions.

 

(CANADIAN)

A common loss
          by Kirsten Tranter 

They were originally five. Elliot. Brian. Tallis. Cameron. And Dylan -- charismatic Dylan -- the mediator, the leader, the man each one turned to in a time of crisis. Five close friends, bonded in college, still coming together for their annual trip to Las Vegas. This year they are four. Four friends, sharing a common loss: Dylan's tragic death. A common loss that, upon their arrival in Vegas, will bring with it a common threat: one that will make them question who their departed friend really was, and whether he is even worthy of their grief.

(CONTEMPORARY)

 

 

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