Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Literature & Fiction

Vera and Thea are mother and daughter. Vera writes for the internet: she constructs identities and scenarios for brands to cater to the ideal consumer. Yet she also consumes the offerings of the online world herself: the addictive pursuit of a cure, the narratives she craves in which mother and daughter find a way out of the shared experience of chronic illness. She becomes preoccupied with a blog written by a woman named Claudia, a mother whose daughter also has a chronic illness.

When a drought dries up the contents of a water hole on her uncle's property, the last thing Investigative journalist Phillipa Davenport expected to find was a body. On a deadline and with a severe case of writers block, Pip doesn't have time to investigate this story—she just wants to write her book. However, the universe and her neighbour seem to have other ideas. And then there's the mysterious detective assigned to the case, who Pip is beginning to find very distracting.

Rae is 10 years old, and she’s tough. She’s had to be: life with her mother has taught her the world is not her friend. Now suddenly her mum is gone and Rae is alone, except for her dog Splinter. Rae can do a lot of things pretty well for a kid. She can take care of herself and Splints, stay under the radar at school and keep the front yard neat enough that the neighbours won’t get curious. But she is gnawed at by fear and sadness; haunted by the shadow of a terrible secret.

Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond have been best friends since childhood. Now, as young men running their families' formidable businesses, they make up Saigon's most powerful group of friends in 1928 Vietnam's elite society. Until one of them is murdered. In a lavish mansion on a hill in Dalat, all four men have gathered for an evening of indulgence, but one of them won't survive the night.

Sully McCoy has spent the last twenty years distancing himself from his father's reputation and has made a good life for himself and his daughter in Rockne Heads. Yet now Alex Kelly is back in town and somehow still turning his life upside down. He thought he'd never see her again. And Alex is making it perfectly clear that she's not here to relive old memories—she's here to end them once and for all.

Harley, a man of Nyoongar ancestry, finds himself at a difficult point in the history of his country, family and self. As the apparently successful outcome of his white grandfather's enthusiastic attempts to isolate and breed the ‘first white man born', he wants to be a failure. But would such failure mean his Nyoongar ancestors could label him a success? And how can the attempted genocide represented by his family history be told?

All Frances wants is a cure for her daughter, but that would take a miracle, and miracles aren't something Frances believes in anymore. Newly divorced from her pastor ex-husband and excommunicated from the church community she once worked within, she wrestles alone with the prognosis of her terminally ill child. Any suggestion of ‘divine intervention' is salt in the wound of her grief. So when Frances is forced to take in a homeless and pregnant teenage girl who claims to have had an immaculate conception, she's deeply challenged.

When Sarah Murphy returns to Australia she desperately needs a break from her high-powered London life. And though mystified by her grandmother's dying wish for her ashes to be scattered under 'the wishing tree' on the banks of the Negallan River, she sets out to do just that. While searching for the wishing tree, Sarah stays in the small township of Negallan. It's there that she finally has some time to relax and unwind, there that she finds herself drawn to a handsome local farmer, and there that she discovers her enquiries about her grandmother are causing disquiet.

In 1890, artist Edward Burne-Jones finished a monumental series of paintings inspired by Sleeping Beauty. Told through the eyes of the five women in his life - wives, daughters and mistresses of famous artists - this is the astonishing story behind that famous painting - a story of love, obsession, scandal and betrayal.

Learning to kick a football in a suburban schoolyard. Finding your feet as a young black dancer. Discovering your grandfather’s poetry. Meeting Nelson Mandela at your local church. Facing racism from those who should protect you. Dreading a visit to the hairdresser. House-hopping across the suburbs. Being too black. Not being black enough. Singing to find your soul, and then losing yourself. Welcome to African Australia. Compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Maga.

Already struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of her husband, Sophie Bryant nearly loses her life whilst on duty as a paramedic. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Sophie retreats to the remote township of Hilsons Ridge. The tranquillity of the small community, discovering the secrets of her old farm's history, and an unexpected spark with vet, Zac, all help Sophie heal. Love, just like the past, waits for the right person to come along and unlock its secrets.

Geraldine is born with an adventurer’s heart. Whether it is sneaking out of home in Yorkshire, escaping from boarding school in Rhodesia, or buying hormones from the local speed dealer in Weston-super-Mare, Geraldine is wide open to all the world has to offer–even if the world doesn’t know what to make of Geraldine. Arriving in Australia as an adolescent, Geraldine will use music as the key to unlock her soul. And as a woman, she will find a way to inspire others, and to be accepted for herself.

Eighteen-year-old Aaron is charismatic, resourceful and addicted to heroin. His mum has kicked him out of home in a last-ditch move to help him get straight, and he wanders the streets of South Melbourne, living on his wits and sleeping rough–all the while chasing drugs, dreams and love. Desperate to fund his addiction, Aaron climbs into the car of The Man, a distinguished elderly gentleman willing to pay for a certain kind of relationship.

Every evening, Allison watches her husband’s new house, desperate to find some answers. Every morning, she puts on a brave face to teach kindergarten. She’s a good teacher, everyone says so - this stalking is just a tiny crack in her usual self-control. A late enrolment into her class brings little Gracie. Allison takes the sick girl under her wing, smothering Gracie with the love she can’t give her own son. When Gracie has a chance to go to America for treatment, Allison whips up the community into a frenzied fundraising drive.

During a hot Melbourne summer, Jovan's cleaning work at a bayside hospital is disrupted by acts of graffiti and violence. For Jovan, the mysterious words that must be cleaned away dislodge memories of the past.... Intensely human, yet majestic in its moral vision, Black Rock White City is an essential story of Australia's suburbs now, of displacement, immediate threat and the unexpected responses of two refugees as they try to reclaim their dreams.

Friday Woolfe is in London's notorious Newgate gaol, awaiting transportation for prostitution and theft. There she meets three other girls: intelligent and opportunistic thief Sarah Morgan, naive young Rachel Winter, and reliable Harriet Clarke. On the voyage to New South Wales, their friendship becomes an unbreakable bond - but there are others onboard who will change their lives forever. And in the land behind the sun, the only thing they have is each other....

Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue. As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals.

Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town – full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town – and partly because their neighbors treat them with such suspicion. When Jessie Else goes missing – it's easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspect.

It's 1969, and a remote coastal town in Western Australia is poised to play a pivotal part in the moon landing. Radar technician Evan Johnson and his colleagues stare at a grainy screen, transfixed, as Armstrong takes that first small step.

I was in my cage, of course, unheard, underestimated, biscuit crumbs on my beak. But fate is a curious thing. For just as Evan's story is about to end, my story prepares to take flight.

At Windale Mountain Sheep Station there's only one rule: don't sleep with the guests. In her ten years living on the mountain, Indigo Mills has never once thought about breaking the rules. After a childhood of neglect and an adolescence that still haunts her, the opportunity to live and work on the sheep station was a lifesaver—literally—and Indy won't do anything to jeopardise her mountain family and home. That is until Carter Hendrix, the best half-back in the game of professional rugby league, turns up.