Showing results by publisher "Bolinda audio" in Contemporary Fiction

The Silent Country is a vast and beautiful wilderness, a place which holds secrets and stories that are rarely spoken. TV producer Veronica Anderson travels to the Northern Territory to retrace the journey of an expedition that had set out 50 years earlier to film the outback, but which mysteriously ended in tragedy. Of the group, led by the eccentric Maxim Topov, few are still alive and they are reluctant to talk about the intriguing events.

After a terrible argument with her father over their family property, 'Waters Meeting', Rebecca Saunders throws her swag in the ute and heads north with her three dogs. A job as a jillaroo takes her into the rowdy world of B&S balls, Bundy rum and boys. When she at last settles down to a bit of study at agricultural college, her life is turned upside down by the very handsome but very drunken party animal Charlie Lewis.

Robust country girl Emily Flanaghan and her country-music star brother, Sam, have been raised in the rugged Dargo High Plains by their mountain cattleman father, Rod. Despite the beauty of their High Country heritage, all of them are lost in life.

The valley is nestled between rugged peaks, divided by a magnificent river. Within its peaceful green contours are held the secrets of generations of tribes, families and loners who have come under its spell.

Tim Winton's characters are ordinary people who battle to maintain loyalty against all odds; women, children, men whose relationships strain under pressure and leave them bewildered, hoping, sometimes fleeing, but often finding strength in forgotten parts of themselves.

Since the early days of settlement men, women and children have battled the harshness of outback Australia to survive and in many cases prosper. But the price for settlement was high in the early days. Medical assistance was often thousands of miles away and children were raised without the benefit of education. The Australian Inland Mission, founded and led by the indomitable John Flynn, was the first organisation to recognise the unique needs of outback Australians.

On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.

Bondi Junction in the late 1940s is a microcosm of changing Australia, and life is changing too fast for locals like salt-of-the-earth Pop Wilson, prickly Miss McNulty and feisty single mum Kath, all of whom resent the European ‘reffos’ who have moved in. The newcomers are struggling to rebuild their lives while the unhealed wounds of the past threaten to overwhelm them.

It's the summer holidays and eleven-year-old loner, Seymour, lodged with a fussy guardian in an inner-city suburb, is bored and unhappy in his confined world. By chance he meets Angie, beautiful, charismatic Angie. He is bewitched, and his world is opened as she takes him on unexpected holiday outings and shopping sprees. Angie, however, is not what she seems.

2000: The wreckage of a downed WWII fighter plane is discovered in the forests near Russia's Ukrainian border.The aircraft belonged to Natalya Azarova, ace pilot and pin-up girl for Soviet propaganda, but the question of her fate remains unanswered. Was she a German spy who faked her own death, as the Kremlin claims? Her lover, Valentin Orlov, now a highly-decorated general, refuses to believe it. Lily, a young Australian woman, has moved to Moscow to escape from tragedy.

Claire McIntyre has it all: an adoring husband, a bubbly best friend, a chic townhouse and a high-flying corporate career in the city. But somehow she's forgotten what really makes her happy. After receiving tragic news, closely followed by the loss of her job, Claire's world is thrown into turmoil. She is then forced to reconsider everything that matters to her. Claire soon finds herself back at the very place she's been running from - the family property.

Desperate poachers are stalking the dwindling populations of Zimbabwe's great game parks. Ancient rivalries have ignited modern political ambitions and nothing is certain for those of the old Africa. But for Richard Dunn the stakes are even higher. Into his world comes the beautiful and compelling Steve Hayes, a woman struggling to guard her own dreadful secret. Richard has no choice: Face the consequences of the past and fight for the future. To lose now is to lose everything.

Charlie Johnson is 13 and in her first year of high school. She loves her family, netball and Liam, the cute guy who sits next to her in Science - but most of all she loves horses and horse riding. Charlie's parents have leased her a horse, Tic Tac, from the local pony club, but one day they go out for a ride in the national park and only Tic Tac returns.... Four months later, long after the police and the SES have called off the search, Charlie is found wandering injured and filthy, miles from where she was last seen.

Pru's husband has walked out, leaving her alone to contemplate her future. She's missing not so much him, but the life they once had - picnicking on the beach with small children, laughing together, nestling up like spoons in the cutlery drawer as they sleep. Now there's just a dip on one side of the bed and no one to fill it. In a daze, Pru goes off to a friend's funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy but...it doesn't sound like the friend Pru knew. And it isn't. She's gone to the wrong service.

Growing up in an Australian country town before World War I, Jackie Hanna and Cushie Moy are carefree and innocent in their love for each other, but Jackie is a dwarf, and his devotion to the beautiful Cushie is condemned by her parents. This is the story of their life-long odyssey, and of the triumph of a special kind of courage. In Swords and Crowns and Rings Ruth Park brilliantly captures the mood and tempo of Australian life from 1907 until 1931.

Fires light the sky over Kibera - East Africa's largest slum. It is the prelude to the bloody violence that erupts during Kenya's presidential elections. Joshua Otieng is caught between the brutal realities of life in the slum, and his dream of a return to the glories of his ancestral past. Mayasa is a young woman he believes could share his dreams, but he becomes inexorably swept along in the tide of tribal conflict surrounding the upcoming elections.

Wangira is caught between the traditions of his Kikuyu tribe and the disturbing new ideas of the missionaries. When, as a young warrior, he saves the life of a wealthy American photographer, he is offered the chance of a new life far away in the white man's world. Between the wars, Kenya is a land of boundless opportunity where the rich engage in hunting safaris, horse racing, outrageous parties, and all the pleasures that money can buy.

Philadelphia (Delie) Gordon, with her husband Brenton cruelly incapacitated by a stroke, continues to defy tradition by becoming first mate and skipper of the paddle steamer Philadelphia. Rising to this new challenge, Delie is happy with her activity-filled days, and with a growing awareness of the beauty of the river and its slowly paced life, she begins to find some contentment. However, Delie, though espousing the equality of the sexes, is all woman and is to be sorely tempted by the men who enter her life.

Likoma Island in Lake Malawi is renowned throughout Africa for its exotic and treacherous beauty - and its secret history of human sacrifice, hidden treasure, and unspeakable horror. A history that cannot be hidden forever. Lana Devereax travels to Malawi seeking the truth behind her father's disappearance near Likoma Island 15 years ago. But Lana soon finds herself caught in a web of deceit, passion, and black magic that stretches back over 200 years and has ramifications that reach well beyond the shores of Lake Malawi.

Melbourne, Australia: round one of the Formula One World Championship. Billy Hotchkiss no longer races a V8 Supercar, but that doesn't mean he's lost the need for speed. When the young cop uncovers a diamond heist in progress he leaps into action and almost captures the thieves. Lyon, France: Interpol are convinced the thieves are connected to Formula One. And they think this Australian ex-race driver is just the guy to stop them.