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

The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she is denied as a woman. So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome.

In a small town, rumours can make or break a reputation. But after thirty years, can the truth heal a broken heart? After an enforced end to her tumultuous teenage love story, Aubree's life was so simple—she married Fletcher, had two children, worked in the successful family business and lived in the small town she grew up in. But thirty years later she's divorced, her kid's lives are imploding, and her ex-husband and his father have placed the family into the centre of major scandal and the ruthless gossip mill.

Without any warning, Justin Kowalski drives his vehicle across a line of traffic and through the front wall of Cafe 64, killing himself and three other people—and taking the reasons for this shocking act to the grave. Unable to locate any evidence of criminal behaviour or mental illness in Justin's past, and with no one left to prosecute, the police have no choice but to label it "an isolated incident".

The First Friend is a novel in a time of autocrats, where reality is a fiction created by those who rule. Reflecting on Putin's Russia, Trump's America, Xi's China and Murdoch's planet Earth, it is at once a satire and a thriller, a survivor's tale in which a father has to walk a tightrope every day to save his family from a monster and a monstrous society. Where safety lies in following official fictions, is a truthful life the ultimate risk?

Caroline will tell the story of how she came to Tasmania, when it was still called Van Diemen's Land, many times. She will cast her inventions into the future. Those who carry them on will call it history, but she will call it her life. Van Diemen's Land, 1839. A young woman of means arrives in Hobart. Leasing an old cottage next to an abandoned vineyard, Caroline Douglas must navigate an insular colony of exiles and opportunists to create a new life on this island of extreme seasons and wild beauty.

In the heart of a city blooming with flowers, three women face life-changing challenges. Driven by grief over the sudden death of her mother Corinne, Sydneysider Emma Taylor has taken refuge with her Parisian grandmother, Mattie, in her house with its secret garden. Determined to unlock the mysteries of Corinne's past, Emma's only clue is an enigmatic photograph.

Tasmania, 1874. Growing up in the impoverished tenements along the Hobart Rivulet, Harriet Brown is used to doing whatever it takes to survive. Including, at just twelve years old, shearing off her hair and pretending to be a boy to secure a job as label-paster at the George Peacock and Sons jam factory. Four years later, the deceit becomes too much to bear and Harriet risks everything on the chance at a future with her ambitious friend and workmate Henry Jones. But this decision forces her into a new deception: play the role of expert jam maker, or else be cast out onto the streets.

It was a straightforward request. Take her gran home to her beloved Scotland. In the space of a few days, Elle loses her job and her home and faces moving back in with her parents - where she knows she'll hear a lot about how she is wasting her life, unlike her three siblings. Then Gran's will is read and everything changes.

Wisecracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things - her hometown and prison. But now her Pop is dying, and she’s an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley. Kerry plans to spend 24 hours, tops, over the border. She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people. Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river.

The last time Lauren Green saw Jamie Sultana, they were seventeen and he'd just shredded her heart like a bad first draft. Back then, Lauren was a frizzy-haired bookworm who dreamed of becoming the next Margaret Atwood. Jamie was the impossibly charming boy who thought Margaret Atwood was a type of cheese. Still, they were hopelessly in love. Until, out of nowhere, they weren't. Twenty years later, Lauren is the vice principal of North Caulfield Primary. She's buried her old heartache and big, bold writing dreams under a stack of responsibilities and big, bold colourful dresses.

Accidentally buying a Sicilian villa for just one euro is not the great Eat, Pray, Love game changer that Brian Chapman hopes it would be. Instead, tumbledown buildings, a shortage of plumbers, and resentful locals make Brian’s drunken whim look like the biggest mistake of his chequered career so far. Who could believe that an outbreak of swearing would lead not only to cultural reconciliation but to this very Australian fish out of water finding true love in Italy?

It's 1921, and after years of working for Cadbury's at Bournville, Dorothy Adwell is on her way to a new adventure in the colonies, helping to establish the Firm's new Australian factory. A promotion and a fresh start are just what she needs after the horrors of the Great War and the loss of her beloved husband. During the long sea voyage, she meets Thomas and is immediately drawn to him. The war has left Thomas damaged, both mentally and emotionally, and Dorothy vows to help him—if only he will let her.

Reggie Macleod had her life sorted. As a kid in a small school with only twelve students; she vowed she was going to live in the city and be something important. And she'd followed her dream. Then her world changed with one phone call from her brother. Returning to River Styx, the cattle property where she grew up on the New England Tablelands, Reggie came home to help after her parents barely survived a car accident. It was only going to be for a couple of months … that was almost three years ago.

It's 1831. Assigned to a good family in Sydney town and now learning the art of tattoo, convict girl Harrie Clarke is still haunted by the horror of the brutal murder she, Friday Woolfe and Sarah Morgan committed the previous year. Powerful and vindictive criminal Bella Jackson continues to demand money in exchange for her silence regarding their crime. And when things go from bad to much, much worse for Harrie, she is left teetering on the brink.

Bridie Farrell and Shaun Broderick come from opposite sides of the tracks. Bridie's family are perennial strugglers whilst the Brodericks are the wealthy owners of Jinjulu - one of the most prestigious properties in the district. Bridie has always longed to leave the small town she grew up in, but family responsibilities have kept her anchored there. Meanwhile, Shaun's dream of taking over the management of Jinjulu is dashed by his dictatorial father. who tries to rule Shaun's life both on and off the farm.

There's nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring; and when you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi Picabea or Kate Evans who have come from Australia to Sylvie Morel's Paris Cooking School. Both are at a crossroads, and learning to cook the French way in Paris, far away from all their troubles, seems like the perfect escape. For each of the women, that extraordinary April in Paris will bring unexpected twists and transformations that will change the course of their lives.

For perhaps the first time in novel form, Benevolence presents an important era in Australia’s history from an Aboriginal perspective. Told through the fictional characterisation of Darug woman Muraging (Mary James), Benevolence is a compelling story of first contact. Born around 1813, Muraging is among the earliest Darug generations to experience the impact of British colonisation - a time of cataclysmic change and violence, but also remarkable survival and resistance.

The body of a local teenage boy is found on the beach of a sleepy northern New South Wales town. David went for an evening swim and got into trouble . . . at least, that's what it looks like. Three weeks before, Leila, a young backpacker, didn't turn up for her shift at the local cafe. Benny, the owner, isn't worried. It happens—backpackers are always on the move. There'll be another one.

Dr Katarina 'Kitty' Holliday thought that once she finished medical school and found gainful employment at one of Sydney's best teaching hospitals that her dream was just beginning. The hard years, she thought, were finally over. But Kitty is in for a rude shock. Between trying to survive on the ward, in the operating theatre and in the emergency department without killing any of her patients or going under herself, Kitty finds herself facing situations that rock her very understanding of the vocation to which she intends to devote her life.

With the sickening realisation that his cover has been blown, Detective Dave Burrows knows his family is in serious danger from the vicious stock thieves and murderers, Bulldust and his brother, Scotty. Devastating news brings Dave back to Barrabine, where circumstances force him to question his determination to stay in the police force. How could he live with himself if anything happened to Mel and the kids?