SOLD Classic historical fiction from Geraldine Brooks

 

SOLD

372 pp. PB. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The "complex and moving" (The New Yorker) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war.

Inspired by a true story, "People of the Book" is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author.

Called "a tour de force" by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain.

When it falls to Australian rare book expert Hanna Heath to conserve this priceless work, the tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—a butterfly wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock the book’s deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

Australian women at WWI

 

Rare book. Mint condition. Unavailable at Amazon.PB. 336pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The battlefields of WWI bring together Genevieve Howard, who becomes an Australian Army nurse, and Madeleine Aspinall, a British ambulance driver. Coming from very different beginnings, the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front provide the violent background to their friendship and the relationships with the men in their lives. 

Two Women Went to War is a novel about love, war and the complex bonds of friendship. Lives are challenged in numerous ways through the turbulent and dramatic landscapes of WWI and the years that follow. The battlefields of WW1 bring together Genevieve Howard, who becomes an Australian Army nurse and Madeleine Aspinall, a British ambulance driver. 

Coming from very different beginnings, the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front provide the violent background to their friendship and the relationships with the men in their lives. Two Women Went to War is a novel about love, war and the complex bonds of friendship. Lives are challenged in numerous ways through the turbulent and dramatic landscapes of WW1 and the years that follow. 

L.E.Pembroke was born and raised in Sydney. This, her second book, reflects her passion for history and the extraordinary stories of ordinary women and men. 

The best travel writing on Nepal

 

Mint condition. HB. 512pp. $30 including postage anywhere in Australia

In April 2015, catastrophic earthquakes left Nepal devastated. Over 7,000 people lost their lives and more than twice as many were injured. Hundreds of thousands were made homeless and UNESCO World Heritage sites were destroyed.

HOUSE OF SNOW is the biggest, most comprehensive and most beautiful collection of writing about Nepal in print. It includes over 50 excerpts of fiction and non-fiction inspired by the breathtaking landscapes and rich cultural heritage of this fascinating country.

Here are explorers and mountaineers, poets and political journalists, national treasures and international stars such as Michael Palin and Jon Krakauer, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and ManjushreeThapa – all hand-picked by well-known authors and scholars of Nepali literature including Samrat Upadhyay, Michael Hutt, Isabella Tree and Thomas Bell.

From award-winning Australian novelist Peter Carey

 

HB. Mint condition. 269pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

When Catherine Gehrig, a museum conservator in London, falls into grief after her lover’s sudden death, her boss gives her a special project. She will bring back to “life” a nineteenth-century mechanical bird. As she begins to piece together the automaton, Catherine also uncovers the diaries of Henry Brandling, who, more than a hundred years prior, had commissioned the bird for his very ill son. Catherine finds resonance and comfort in Henry’s story, but it is the mechanical creature itself, in its uncanny imitation of life, that will link these two people across a century. Through the clockwork bird, Henry and Catherine will confront the mysteries of creation, the power of human invention, and the body’s astonishing chemistry of love and feeling.

A fictitious biography of Donald Trump

 

PB. Excellent condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

A provocatively entertaining, savagely funny satire on Donald Trump by Britain’s greatest comic novelist, winner of the Man Booker Prize

A provocatively entertaining, savagely funny satire on Donald Trump by Britain’s greatest comic novelist.

Pussy is the story of Prince Fracassus, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Origen, famed for its golden-gated skyscrapers and casinos, who passes his boyhood watching reality shows on TV, imagining himself to be the Roman Emperor Nero, and fantasizing about hookers. He is idle, boastful, thin-skinned and egotistic; has no manners, no curiosity, no knowledge, no idea and no words in which to express them. Could he, in that case, be the very leader to make the country great again?

Howard Jacobson has written sixteen novels and five works of non-fiction. He won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award in 2000 for The Mighty Walzer and then again in 2013 for Zoo Time. In 2010 he won the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question; he was also shortlisted for the prize in 2014 for J.

Dawn French's hilarious story telling

 

Mint condition. PB. 352pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Who is in Coma Suite Number 5?

A matchless lover? A supreme egotist? A selfless martyr? A bad mother? A cherished sister? A selfish wife?

All of these. For this is Silvia Shute who has always done exactly what she wants. Until now, when her life suddenly, shockingly stops.

Her past holds a dark and terrible secret, and now that she is unconscious in a hospital bed, her constant stream of visitors are set to uncover the mystery of her broken life. And she must lie there, victim of the beloveds, the borings, the babblings and the plain bonkers.

Like it or not, the truth is about to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again and again...

SOLD Historical fiction by a Saudi dissident

 

SOLD

Rare book. Very good condition. PB. 640pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

"Banned in several Middle Eastern countries, this novel records the encounter between Americans and Arabs in an unnamed Gulf emirate in the 1930s. As oil exploration begins, the destruction of an oasis community amounts to "a breaking off, like death, that nothing and no one could ever heal." The promise inherent in the creation of a city divided into Arab and American sectors provides the novel's most striking revelation: here not merely two cultures, but two ages, meet and stand apart. Alternatively amused and bewildered by the Americans and their technological novelties, the Arabs sense in their accommodation to modernity the betrayal of their own traditions. Highly recommended, if only for its cross-cultural insights." Library Journal, L.M. Lewis, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"The only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country." Edward W. Said

Classic Australian comedic fiction

 

Very good condition. PB. 299pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

"I basically blew my university days in the pursuit of one girl."

Richard Derrington has been trashed, the sort of tragic thrashing when the take-out place's caller ID identifies you as your ex, the kind of thorough trashing that causes you to invent spontaneous trips to Melbourne and makes heartbreaking moments of junk mail. That may be why he's distracted and work and crap on the racquetball court. That may be why Greg the cat has found himself ground zero for a flea infestation and why Richard's renovation of his grandparents' home has begun and ended at the verandah railing.

But that's not altogether true. In between a complicated relationship with his boss and earning himself a Neighbor of the Month award on Zigzag Street, Richard will correct anyone who calls him Ricky, get caught up by The Spanish Tragedy, and stumble his way from perpetrator of a mild concussion to befuddled participant in a dinner party that may or may not be a first date.

Zigzag Street. It's where Richard Derrington will dance naked in the office. It's where he might just come of age in his late twenties.

And it's where it all began for critically acclaimed Brisbane author Nick Earls. Winner of the Betty Trask award, Who Weekly called Zigzag Street "A comic masterpiece." Readers called it "seriously funny" and "Great Australian writing."

Young adult fiction from Australia

 

Mint condition. PB. 368pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Azra's dreams of finishing high school in Sydney and going to university are threatened by her uncle's plans to marry her off to an older cousin she has never met - will she have to choose between her family and her happiness?

'Reading Promising Azra prompted me to revisit stories I have heard too many times to count. Forced marriage is not bound to a certain culture or religion, it's an epidemic affecting children from many backgrounds. For real change to be possible, it’s important for us to hear these stories.’ Dr Eman Sharobeem Community Engagement Manager, SBS

Azra is sixteen, smart and knows how to get what she wants. She thinks. When she wins a place in a national science competition, she thinks her biggest problem is getting her parents' permission to go. But she doesn't know they're busy arranging her marriage to an older cousin she's never met. In Pakistan. In just three months' time.

Azra always thought she'd finish high school with her friends and then go on to study science, but now her dreams of university are suddenly overshadowed. Can she find a way to do what she wants, while keeping her parents happy?

Or does being a good daughter mean sacrificing her freedom?

Stories from Australia's top authors

 

Good condition. PB. 346pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD From the author who brought you Rumpole of the Bailey ...

 

SOLD

Excellent condition. PB. 372pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The creator of the irrepressible barrister-sleuth, Rumpole of the Old Bailey, presents a superb collection of classic tales of mystery and suspense. With stories by such authors as P.D. James and Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe and John Mortimer himself, this anthology explores new dimensions in crime writing.

Hilarious and wise short stories from the Middle East

 

Mint condition. PB. 208pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Classic warped and wonderful stories from a genius (The New York Times) and master storyteller.

Brief, intense, painfully funny, and shockingly honest, Etgar Keret's stories are snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit the hidden truths of life. As with the best writers of fiction, hilarity and anguish are the twin pillars of his work. Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain - from a father's first lesson to his boy to a standoff between soldiers caught up in the Middle East conflict to a slice of life where nothing much happens.

A story of the cameleers who helped early Australian explorers

 

Rare book. Mint condition. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Taj and the Great Camel Trek, by award-winning author Rosanne Hawke is an inspirational, gripping adventure and a tribute to the Afghan camel drivers who helped explore Australia.

South Australia, 1875: Twelve-year-old Taj and his camel Mustara are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. They are joining explorer Ernest Giles on his second attempt to cross the Australian desert where wild dogs, scorpions, poisonous snakes and a constant shortage of water mean they are never far from disaster.

As if things weren’t tough enough, Taj, raised in the ways of the Afghan people, is struggling to find his place in this new and exciting land.

About the author

Rosanne Hawke is a South Australian author of over thirty books. She lived in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates as an aid worker for ten years. Her books include Kelsey and the Quest of the Porcelain Doll, a CBCA Notable Book, and Taj and the Great Camel Trek, winner of the 2012 Adelaide Festival Awards for Children’s Literature and shortlisted for the 2012 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She is the 2015 recipient of the Nance Donkin Award; an Asialink, Carclew, Varuna and May Gibbs Fellow; and a Bard of Cornwall. She has taught creative writing at Tabor Adelaide and writes in an old Cornish farmhouse with underground rooms, near Kapunda.

SOLD Historical fiction from Amitav Ghosh

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 404pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Once upon a time, an Indian writer named Amitav Ghosh set out as an Indian slave, name unknown, who some seven hundred years before had traveled to the Middle East. The journey took him to a small village in Egypt, where medieval customs coexist with twentieth-century desires and discontents. But even as Ghosh sought to re-create the life of his Indian predecessor, he found himself immersed in those of his modern Egyptian neighbors.
 
Combining shrewd observations with painstaking historical research, Ghosh serves up skeptics and holy men, merchants and sorcerers. Some of these figures are real, some only imagine, but all emerge as vividly as the characters in a great novel. In an Antique Land is an inspired work that transcends genres as deftly as it does eras, weaving an entrancing and intoxicating spell.

SOLD A feminist novel/memoir from Egypt

 

SOLD

Excellent condition. PB. 101pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Rebelling against the constraints of family and society, a young Egyptian woman decides to study medicine, becoming the only woman in a class of men. 

Her encounters with the other students - as well as with male and female corpses in the autopsy room - intensify her search for identity. 

She realises that men are not gods, as her mother had taught her, that science cannot explain everything, and that she cannot be satisfied by living a life purely of the mind. 

After a brief and unhappy marriage, she throws herself into her work, becoming a successful and wealthy doctor. 

But at the same time, she becomes more aware of the injustice and hypocrisy in society. She comes to find fulfilment, not in isolation, but through her relationship with others.

Hilarious book of fictitious travel

 

Good condition. PB. 274pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. 

Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay. 

Through Aunt Augusta, a veteran of Europe's hotel bedrooms, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life. 

In Travels with my Aunt Graham Greene not only gives us intoxicating entertainment but also confronts us with some of the most perplexing of human dilemmas.

SOLD The Ottoman wars come to Broken Hill

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 390pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Gool Mahommed worships Allah and Lifebuoy soap.

In 1914 he returns to Broken Hill, five years after he was sent back to his homeland by his mentor and benefactor, Abdullah.

A camel driver and mullah, Abdullah has learned through bitter experience that small-town Australia is not the place to be a Muslim immigrant.

But Mahommed is ready to embrace the Anglo-Australian lifestyle and has hopeful visions of himself as an assimilated citizen, a practitioner of the habits of English gentlemen, and eventually a prosperous owner of a submarine shipping line.

Alice Mercer yearns for a life in a place where the streets aren’t named after the poisons that spew out of the smoke stacks - Sulphide, Oxide, Chloride - and when she encounters Mahommed on the train, she is immediately drawn to him.

But this is outback Australia in 1914, and the prejudices of others prove an obstacle in their fledgling relationship, not to mention the outbreak of World War I.

And there’s Broken Hill’s other residents: Alice’s friend Irma, conservative and disapproving of Alice’s interest in Mahommed yet longing for a marriage proposal from the town’s Chief Sanitary Officer, Robert; Alice’s brother, Lewis, who is looking for the adventure of a lifetime by enlisting in the Imperial Forces; and Adrian Kadran, boarding-house proprietor and town quack, who is administering a stupefying tonic to his patients.

When a series of cruel acts against Abdullah drive him to despair, and, finally, revenge, what follows is unthinkable.

Based on a disturbing true story, this beautifully crafted story has a deeply affecting fable-like quality that provides a startling insight into how the seeds of terrorism are sown.

About the Author

Chris McCourt was born and educated in Sydney. After a brief career as an actress, she joined Crawford Productions in Melbourne as a trainee script editor, and has since written for many celebrated Australian television dramas. The Cleansing of Mahommed is her first novel. She lives in Balmain.

The best Indian literature

Excellent condition. PB. 638pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

This is a definitive anthology that vividly reveals the greatest writers from the Indian continent.

Spanning 150 years, this collection of fiction and non-fiction shatters many contemporary illusions about Indian writing.

Translations sit alongside writing in English, bringing to light the most engaging writers from modern India, including R.K. Narayan, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie.

The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature is a wonderful collection of the best Indian writing comprising fiction and non-fiction.

SOLD Taking the piss of travel writers in this sort-of-memoir

 

SOLD

Rare book. One of Paul Theroux's finest and funniest books. PB. 456pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia. Theroux literally takes the piss of himself and the whole profession of travel writing.

In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called this exuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention and confession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writer can bring us to a world beyond." 

The book spans almost thirty years in the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs, and employment, and between continents. It's a wry, worldly, erotic, and deeply moving account of one man's first half century - "among the strongest things Theroux has ever written" (New York Times Book Review).

A classical satire of English sea travel

 

Mint condition. PB. 322pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.