Showing results by publisher "Penguin Random House Australia Audio" in Coming of Age

Despite coming out years ago, twenty-six-year-old Sean Preston has never been one to shout his sexuality from the rooftops. When his relationship of three months comes to a humiliating end, he vows never to become emotionally attached again, falling into a cycle of hook-ups, booze and an unrelenting gym routine. The rest of Sean's life isn't panning out how he hoped either.

Lei Ling Wen is lonely. Bored of her demanding after-school schedule of tuition, study and violin lessons, she struggles to see eye to eye with her strict Chinese-Malaysian mother. When Lei Ling is befriended by elegant, worldly socialite Gigi Nu, she is enchanted by the realm of luxury and freedom that suddenly opens up to her. Gigi encourages Lei Ling to flout her routines and treats her to designer products and expensive meals, and soon Lei Ling finds herself caught between two lives, and increasingly at odds with her exasperated mother.

'Skilfully written, with moments of laugh-out-loud humour, Lovebirds both warmed and broke my heart in perfect measure.' Joanna Nell In their youth, lovebirds Elizabeth and Ray had to fight to be together. Their future was full of promise and, blessed with children and careers, their happiness...

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'.

Tess is feeling burnt out from her uninspiring job and her busy city lifestyle. Even her personal relationships make her feel as if she's simply drifting through life rather than living it to the full. Having tragically lost her mother a few years earlier, she knows she owes it to herself to...

Kathy has worked at a beloved Brisbane indie record store for half her life. She arrived as a teenager high on her dad’s supply of Led Zeppelin, stayed through her twenties and suddenly thirty is on the horizon and she’s still there, measuring her self-worth by her knowledge of the Velvet Underground’s back catalogue.

A beautiful feel-good novel, that will make you laugh and make you cry, from the critically acclaimed author of The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman. Danny Mulberry is a man who 'could do better'. Better at life, better at taking on responsibility and most definitely better at being a grown-up...

CHILDISH: 1. Being a child. 2. Solving big problems using only a really good friendship, an endless supply of the world's best dumplings and a thousand kilos of plasticine. 3. E.g. Arkie and Dot...

Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance. Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs at 14. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and a porn stash for them to meet again.

Set between England and India, Faithless tells the story of Cressida, a writer and translator, and her consuming love for Max, an enigmatic older writer—and married man. Faithless charts the course of Cressida's passion for Max from the first giddy rush of sensation when home during her first year of university, to the blossoming of a desire so potent it overwhelms, and the great stunning blows to the heart delivered by a love that she can't share with friends and family.

On the cusp of turning thirty, Prue feels like everyone else is living their best life. Her friends are boasting about everything from their wellness achievements and exciting travel plans to their romantic relationships and newborn babies. Prue on the other hand is struggling to recover from a failed marriage engagement and an abandoned university degree, and her job at Love on the Line counselling lonely people only seems to highlight how truly alone she really feels herself.

John Mitchel, Irishman, lawyer, journalist, activist and politician, is a complex character. Charged with treason in Ireland and tried by an English judge, he was snuck off mainland Ireland on the day he was charged to avoid a breakout and rebellion. He was transported initially to Bermuda, then to South Africa and then to Van Diemen's Land where as an Irishman he was supported by many and given a ticket of leave. He soon became a farmer and activist and was eventually secreted out of Australia to the USA, where it was felt he could be more active for the Irish cause.

This is a not-to-be-missed reading experience. HAYLEY SCRIVENOR A gothic thriller exploring rural Australia's simultaneous celebration of harsh country and stoic people - a tension that forces its inhabitants to dangerous breaking points. On a remote property in western NSW, nine-year-old Parker...

Girl is spending the summer at an artist's residency in Scotland. Far from her home in Australia and her tight-knit Malaysian family, she is meant to be writing a postcolonial novel and working on a PhD on the poetry of Sylvia Plath. But she can't stop thinking about her upbringing and the stories of her parents and grandmother who raised her. How can she reconcile their dreams for her with her lived reality?

The daughter of Cambodian refugees, Ai grew up in the small Australian town of Whitlam populated by Asian immigrants who once fled war-torn countries to rebuild their shattered lives. It is now the late 90s and despite their parents' harrowing past, Ai and her tightknit group of school friends lead seemingly ordinary lives, far removed from the unimaginable horrors suffered by their parents. But that carefree innocence is shattered in their last year of school when an incident involving Ai and her friends spirals into senseless violence, leaving behind a trail of unresolved trauma.

'Ross's debut blends small-town mystery, romance and magical realism into an intoxicating, spell-binding mix. Jimny is an unforgettable character. I loved it.' Jeff Lindsay, bestselling author of DEXTER Small-town mysteries . . . Big-time secrets . . . Welcome to Possible Springs. Jimny Adams...