Showing results by publisher "Penguin Random House Australia Audio" in Literature & Fiction

Broome 2023: When Saskia's free-spirited mother leaves her a caravan in her will, it doesn't make sense. Saskia is a schoolteacher, tied to plans and schedules, even if they are beginning to feel restrictive. Then she finds clues in the van about her mother's mysterious past, setting her on a journey to Tasmania with her young daughter Anouk, who shares her late grandmother's fascination with birds.

Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has for centuries watched over the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries the fates of three women are linked: to this place, to each other. In the early 1700s, Sarah, accused of being a witch, flees for her life. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Ruth navigates a new house, a new husband and the strange waters of the local community. Six decades later, the house stands empty.

May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks and kitchen knives. During the bloody 11-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers. Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka.

Callie Madden, a grieving widow and single mother of three, is stunned to learn she's inherited one half of Hawkridge, a beautiful acreage in the Misty Mountains of Far North Queensland. A potential family scandal surrounds the reasons for this bequest and there are additional complications. Callie is to share the inheritance with Ben Galbraith, a Scotsman, who'd helped Hawkridge's owner in his final years. Also, the property can't be sold for twelve months.

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing 14 grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska. Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she's witnessed - inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love.

The O'Shea sisters couldn't be more different. Allison, an obstetrician, has always put others before herself and is torn between her job and young family. Prizewinning film director Bridie hasn't had work in over a decade, though her actor husband is on the brink of stardom. Clare, desperate for a baby, is bereft when her wife leaves her after their latest IVF failure. And Emma, the youngest, has turned to God to fill the aching loneliness in her life. When their only brother Daniel is killed the four women drift even further apart.

Orphan Fleur Appleby is adopted by a loving undertaker and his wife, and she quickly develops a special gift for helping bereaved families. Her ambition to be the first female mortician in the country is fuelled by her plan to bring more women into the male-dominated funeral industry. Raised in the outback of South Australia's Flinders Ranges, Tom Catchlove is faced with a life-changing tragedy as a young boy. He works hard but dreams big, striving for a future as a wool classer. A chance encounter between the two children will change the course of their lives.

At 38 and a quarter years old, Paris native Camille has everything she needs to be happy: a good job, a loving husband, a wonderful son. Why then does she feel as if happiness has slipped through her fingers? All she wants is to find the path to joy and fulfilment.

Norman and Jax are a legendary comedy duo in the making, with a five-year plan to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe by the time they're 12. But then Jax dies before they even turn 12. Norman's mum, Sadie, knows she won't win Mother of the Year anytime soon, and she really doesn't know, or care, who Norman's father is. But her heart is broken when she discovers her grieving son's revised plan: 'Find Dad', and 'Get to the Edinburgh Fringe'.

How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool.

In a world of perennial fire and growing extinctions, Anna’s aged mother is dying - if her three children would just allow it. Condemned by their pity to living she increasingly escapes through her hospital window into visions of horror and delight. When Anna’s finger vanishes and a few months later her knee disappears, Anna too feels the pull of the window.

Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby's speech doesn't exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair, and reads to the audience the evidence she found on his phone that very morning.

Marnie Sellick is adrift when she lands a job at the coveted, mysterious beauty brand rytual cosmetica. The enigmatic founder and CEO, Luna Peters, takes a liking to Marnie, and as the two grow closer Marnie becomes intoxicated by the life that Luna, and rytual, can offer her. But all is not what it seems at rytual. Luna has a cult-like hold over the all-female staff, and that's not to mention what happens at their weekly Friday Night Drinks. As Marnie edges closer to the darkness at the centre of rytual's millennial pink facade, cracks begin to show.

Severine Kassel is asked by the Louvre in 1963 to aid the British Museum with curating its antique jewellery, her speciality. Her London colleagues find her distant and mysterious, her cool beauty the topic of conversations around its quiet halls. No one could imagine that she is a desperately damaged woman, hiding her trauma behind her chic French image. It is only when some dramatic Byzantine pearls are loaned to the museum that Severine's poise is dashed and the tightly controlled life she's built around herself is shattered....

Amid a series of personal disasters, Aliyah and her daughter, Sakina, retreat to rural NSW to make a new life. Aliyah manages to secure a run-down property and hires a farmhand, Shep, an extremely private Palestinian man and the region's imam. During a storm, she drives past the town's river and happens upon a childhood friend, Hana, who has been living a life of desperation. Aliyah takes her in and tries to navigate the indefinable relationships between both Hana and her farmhand. Tensions rise as Aliyah's devotion to Hana is strained by her growing bond with Shep.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline's world is forever changed when Hitler's army invades Poland in September 1939 - and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement.

Armed with nothing but some loose change and her beloved dog Duke, Mallee girl Pippa Black has finally found the courage she needs to escape a dangerous relationship. Two cryptic words written on a paper napkin send her in search of the one person who might help her—a long-lost brother she has always dreamed of finding. Pippa's quest leads her to the remote town of Currajong, high in the beautiful Victorian alps. As a runaway seeking refuge among strangers, Pippa learns that she's been mistakenly implicated in a shocking crime.

When an invitation to travel across Australia on the Ghan for her mother's 70th birthday comes her way, she is at first apprehensive. But the trip offers a precious opportunity to spend some quality time with both her disgruntled mother, Valeria, and her distant daughter, Holly, and her meddling great-aunt Myrtle. The four generations of the family, all single women, would be reunited at last. As the iconic train chugs its way beneath majestic desert skies, Aggie's difficult past resurfaces, her business comes under threat, and long-held family rifts reignite.

History teacher Gwen is driving to school when she hears a news report about a man on his regular morning swim, taken by a Great White. She races to the beach, but all that remains of Jason is his swimming cap, a flipper with a bite taken out of it and a bit of torn, blood-stained wet suit found floating on the other side of the island. Her private heartbreak is interrupted by a woman screeching to a stop on a motor bike. A frantic Tish screams for information, convinced it's her husband who's been taken by the man-eater. Gwen tries to reassure her that it's Jason who's been killed.

Dolly Jamieson is not homeless, she's merely between permanent abodes. The 78-year-old spends her days keeping warm at the local library, where she enjoys sparring with the officious head librarian and helping herself to the free morning tea. It's not so bad, really. But it's certainly a far cry from the 1960s, when this humble girl from Geelong became an international star of the stage. As the acclaimed lead in the Broadway production of The Rose of France, all Dolly's dreams had come true. So how, in her old age, did she end up here?