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

Sydney, 1930: In a well-heeled corner of Paddington, just a short distance from the razor gangs of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross, sits Maison des Fleurs, an upscale brothel run by the indomitable Madame. The star of Maison des Fleurs is Violet Kelly—beautiful, clever and determined to make something of herself in a world that has already taken so much. When a former associate of Madame's emerges to claim a long-owed favour involving a kidnapped girl and an ancient curse, Violet is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humor, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans.

Birdie McBride has it all: a fulfilling job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned. But then Ned dies. He leaves behind a document for Birdie—‘Things I Need You To Know'—a guide to everything from household maintenance to each daughter's emotional landscape. Reading Ned's manual, Birdie falls in love with her husband in a way she never did when he was alive. Yet the presence of his best friend, Marcello, complicates things.

In early 1933, Rowland Sinclair and his companions are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic; trouble seems very distant indeed...until Harry Simpson vanishes. Croquet and pre-dinner cocktails are abandoned as Rowland begins the hunt. Stockmen, gangsters and a belligerent writer all gather to the fray, as the investigation becomes embroiled with a much darker conspiracy.

Rin Braden is almost ready to give up on life after the heartbreaking death of her lover Yamaan and the everyday dread of working for her mother's corrupt private prison company. But through a miracle Yamaan has survived. Yamaan turns up in an immigration detention facility in Australia, trading his labour for a supposedly safe place to live. This is no ordinary facility, it's Eaglehawk MTC, a manufactory built by her mother's company to exploit the flood of environmental refugees.

In 1960, when the legendary icebreaker Magga Dan set sail for Antarctica, it contained a secret. Hiding on board was Nel Law, wife of expedition leader Phillip Law. She would make history by becoming the first Australian woman to set foot on the icy continent, but it was her art that would change everything. Though a talented artist, Nel has always been defined by her role as ‘the explorer's wife', but in the clear expanse of the Southern Ocean, her true self is finally allowed to emerge. Despite misogyny from the all-male crew and resentment from her husband, Nel's art begins to flourish.

The Carrington family owns the only pub in the small country town of Kangaroo Ridge. It’s been eight years since the five siblings became orphans and since twins Sebastian and Tamara stepped up to look after their younger brothers and sister with the help of their aunt, Maddie. Seb and Tam gave up their teenage years to make sure the family stayed together, but that’s been hard and they’ve grown apart. Seb is silent and stoic; Tam, on the other hand, wants to kick over the traces and catch up on the life she missed out on.

Eliza Carmody is working on the biggest law case of her career. But this time she’s on the ‘wrong side’ - defending a large corporation against a bushfire class action by her own hometown of Kinsale. On her first day back in town she witnesses an old friend, Luke Tyrell, commit an act of lethal violence, and as police investigate the crime and hunt for Luke they uncover bones at an a historic homestead in the district. Eliza is convinced that they belong to someone from her past and finds herself entangled in the investigation.

Six strangers from across the world converge on the tropical island of Bali to attend a course designed to help them face their fears.

Friendships and romance blossom as the participants are put through a series of challenges designed to test, but fun in the sun suddenly transforms into something far more serious when the unthinkable happens.... Shocking, powerful and utterly gripping, Fearless takes you to the edge and makes you look down.

Following his much-admired Books that Saved My Life, McGirr now shares his love of philosophy, focusing on the works of 20-plus eminent thinkers across history. It is animated by two related questions: from where do we draw a sense of life’s purpose? And how can philosophy make life better? It ranges widely across subjects - from solitude to community, language to order, experience to ecstasy, the idea of good to that of a good idea.

Grace and Dan Arden are in their 40s and have been on the IVF treadmill since the day they got married. Six attempts have yielded no results, and with each failure a little piece of their hope dies. Priya Laghari and her husband, Nick Archer, are being treated at the same fertility clinic, and while they don’t face the same time pressure as the Ardens, the younger couple have their own problems. Priya is booked for her next IVF cycle the same day that Grace goes in for her final, last-chance embryo transfer. Two weeks later, both women get their results.

1938, as the world spirals towards war, Klara Koch is employed as Hitler's personal cook. While Germany reveres the image of the Fuhrer, Klara and the household staff are privy to the real Hitler—his secrets, his ailments and his addictions. As Klara observes those circling the Fuhrer, she realises that not all of them are his admirers. Hitler is right to be paranoid. This thoroughly researched and compelling story takes listeners right up close and personal with Hitler as he spirals increasingly out of control in pursuit of his drug-fuelled quest for world domination.

Flora's teenage crush, Mitch, is standing at the altar when his bride has a sudden change of heart. Decades earlier, in the same church, a similar story of heartbreak played out. From the rolling green hills of the Tablelands to the crowded streets of Shanghai on the eve of the Second World War, this beautiful romantic saga asks the question - do we ever get over our first love, and is it ever too late to make amends?

Alice Wilson is happy to be returning home to Redstone Station after two years at agricultural college, having graduated with flying colours. Her grandfather, Sam, now sees Alice as the key to taking Redstone Station into a successful future. Alice is determined to justify her grandfather's faith in her. But will the arrival of stockman Jeremy, a good-looking larrikin with a bad-boy reputation, throw her - and the path of Redstone Station - off track?

From the acclaimed author of The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins comes a new novel about the relationship between body and self, and how we must dive beneath the surface to really know ourselves.

July, 1945. The war in Europe is finally over. But Auguste Duchene, who survived occupied Paris at great personal cost, cannot escape his past. He finds himself helping the Allies to pursue a Gestapo war criminal through the ravaged and dangerous streets of Berlin. Duchene soon learns, however, that, although one global conflict may have ended, another is beginning, and he is in a deadly race against the Russians as they hunt the same man. And, once again, at the heart of all he does, are his extraordinary wife Sabine and his beloved daughter Marienne.

Queensland in 1976 churns with corruption. When Detective Ray Windsor defies it, he is exiled deep into the state's west. Royalton is a town on its knees and plagued by crimes left largely un-investigated by the local police chief, Kennedy, and his elusive boss. Mutual dislike between Kennedy and Ray gradually turns ugly as Ray and his new partner, Arshag, uncover a pattern of crimes that no one seems concerned about solving. But when two girls from local immigrant families are found dead and another disappears, Ray and Arshag are forced to take the law into their own hands.

When a local father is convicted of the possession and distribution of child pornography, the tight-knit, middle-class community is quick to unravel. He is granted permanent name suppression, and soon friend turns on friend, neighbour delivers up neighbour, and hysteria rapidly engulfs them all. Who among them was capable of such moral trespass?

Mai On is devastated when her landlord sells her building to a property developer and the bakery she’s worked so hard to build is threatened. The last thing she needs is an outsider tearing down everything that matters to her. She’s determined not to be swayed by the sexy, charming developer. After costing his company millions of dollars, Nicholas Shadbolt is desperate to prove himself. Taking on the re-development of a rundown building is just the stepping stone he needs towards redemption.

Meet Dorcas, a spirited 12-year-old struggling to contain her irrepressible humour and naughty streak in a family of Christadelphians in 1960s Adelaide. She is her mother's least favourite child and always at the bottom of the order on the family's string of beads that she and her younger siblings Ruthy and Caleb reorder according to their mother's ever-changing moods.