A memoir of China

 

 

Excellent condition. PB. 260pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Urgent and timeless, Legacies brings us closer than we have ever been to penetrating the great conundrum of China m the twentieth century. It could only have been written by Bette Bao Lord -- born in China, raised in America, author of the bestselling novel Spring Moon, wife of a former American ambassador to China, resident in Beijing during the "China Spring" of 1989. Lord's unique web of relationships and her sensitive insight have enabled her to observe Chinese life both high and low, Communist and dissident, intellectual and ordinary.

Lord interweaves her own story, and that of her clansmen, with the voices of men and women who recall the tumultuous experience of the last fifty years, and the legacy of the Cultural Revolution. In precise, subtle prose, Lord explores the reality of Red Guards and reeducation camps, of friends and families severed by political disgrace, and captures the individual voices of those caught up in them: the seven-year-old girl with a heart full of hate for her father; the journalist whose girlfriend believes the Party newspapers, not him; the imprisoned scholar who hid his writings in his quilt for years; the anti-revolutionary who tells his bitter story in a vein of high farce. All bear heartbreaking witness to the surreal quality of Chinese society today -- and to the astonishing resilience, humor, and heroic equanimity of the Chinese spirit.

On the law and reality of whistle blowers in Australia

 

Ex library. Mint condition. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

The whistleblower is the lone person who decides enough is enough and that it’s time to speak out.  But what motivates them? What do they go through to expose an issue? How do they deal with their employer or the authority they are confronting? What are the ramifications for both the employer and the individual? 

Here, Dempster – hard-hitting journalist – deals with issues ranging from the BHP and Westpac to the Civil Aviation Authority, giving the background of the issues and the individuals involved. He knows the price those individuals pay for their efforts and also looks at how companies or businesses should react so that in the longterm, the public interest is better served. 

Whether you are an employer or an employee, this book is for you.

You can watch Quentin Dempster discuss this further here.

An Australian war memoir from the Somme

 

Ex-Library. Mint condition. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

'It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying.' 

Somme Mud tells of the devastating experiences of Edward Lynch, a young Australian private (18 when he enlisted) during the First World War when he served with the 45th battalion of the Australian Infantry Forces on the Western Front at the Somme, which saw the most bloody and costly fighting of the war. In just eight weeks, there were 23,000 Australian casualties. 

The original edition of twenty chapters, was written in pencil in twenty school exercise books in 1921, probably to help exorcise the horrendous experiences Private Lynch had witnessed during his three years at war from mid-1916 until his repatriation home in mid-1919. Lynch had been wounded three times, once seriously and spent over six months in hospital in England. 

Published here for the first time, and to the great excitement of historians at the War Memorial Somme Mud is a precious find, a discovered treasure that vividly captures the magnitude of war through the day-to-day experiences of an ordinary infantryman. 

From his first day setting sail for France as the band played 'Boys of the Dardanelles' and the crowd proudly waved their fresh-faced boys off, to the harsh reality of the trenches of France and its pale-faced weary men, Lynch captures the essence and contradictions of war. 

Somme Mud is Australia's version of All Quiet on the Western Front. Told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, it is a testament to the power of the human spirit, a moving true story of humanity and friendship. It will cause a sensation when it is published.

SOLD Travels of a Somali refugee

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney, NSW

Mint condition. PB. 256pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

An inspirational and uplifting memoir, this is the story of an optimistic man and his journey of struggle, hardship and survival against the odds.

Abdi's world fell apart when he was only thirteen and his home was destroyed in Somalia's vicious civil war. Effectively an orphan, he fled Mogadishu with 300 others and headed to Kenya. On the way, death squads hunted them and they daily faced violence, danger and starvation. After almost four months, they arrived in Kenya - of the three hundred that set out, only five had survived.

All alone in the world, Abdi made his way first back to Mogadishu, to search for his family, then onto Romania, where he lived for a time with gypsies, then to Germany. He was fifteen years old when he arrived in Melbourne. He had no English, family or friends. Homeless for the first year, he slept in churches and mosques. One lunchtime, he was bashed by three men in suits in Melbourne's CBD. Yet, against these odds, he survived. In fact, he's done more than just survive. Abdi went on to complete secondary education and attended university. He became a youth worker, was acknowledged with the 2007 Victorian Refugee Recognition Award and was featured in the SBS second series of Go Back to Where You Came From.

Despite what he has suffered, Abdi is the most extraordinary and inspiring man, who is constantly thankful for his life and what he has. Along his journey, Abdi met many, many other refugees. He knows quite a few who, faced with the same circumstances that he did, did not make it. Some died, some gave up, some committed suicide, and some became bitter. Abdi did not. Everything he has endured and achieved is testament to his quiet strength and courage, his resilience and most of all, his shining and enduring optimism.

On the frontline fighting against ISIL

 

Mint condition. PB. 352pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

The gripping story of one woman's war against ISIS on the frontlines of Syria.

Joanna Palani made headlines across the world in 2016 when her role fighting on the front line of the Syrian conflict was revealed. She is one of a handful of western women who have joined the international recruits to the Kurdish forces in Syria and is the first woman fighter to tell her story.

Joanna was born to Iranian-Kurdish parents in a refugee camp in Iraq, before her family were accepted in to Denmark. During the Arab Spring, Joanna realised she needed to do something to protect the values she believes in, and the culture she loves. Leaving behind her life as a student, Joanna underwent considerable military training and travelled to the Middle East, where she spent time over several years fighting on the front line, including at the devastating battle for Kobani.

Despite her heroism, Joanna was taken in to custody on her return to Denmark for breaking laws designed to stop its citizens from joining ISIS, making her the first person to be jailed for joining the international coalition. Joanna now lives in Copenhagen under daily threat from ISIS supporters, as she continues her fight for women's rights off the front line.

Reporting on Putin's other genocide

 

RARE BOOK. Very good condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

In Chechnya: A Small Victorious War Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal tell the full story of how the Kremlin came to embark on such an ill-judged military adventure and how the Chechen fighters fought back. Switching between Chechnya and Moscow, the authors cover the whole sweep of the war from the horrendous destruction of the Russian invasion to the Chechens’ dramatic retaliation to force the Russian army out.

The book traces the roots of the conflict: the Chechens’ history of resistance to the Russian empire, the rogue state set up by the eccentric general-turned-president Jokhar Dudayev as the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Kremlin court politics that precipitated the decision to invade Chechnya.

With its exclusive material and eye-witness reporting, Chechnya: A Small Victorious War is the definitive account of the most tragic and extraordinary story to emerge from the end of the Soviet Union. It is also the story of the flamboyant, anarchic and unyielding Chechens and their struggle for survival.