The winner of the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, Every Wild Soul is a lyrical and compelling tale of secrets, survival, and the healing power of nature. On Tasmania's wild and remote Maria Island, eighteen-year-old Min is trying to break free from her controlling, overly protective father, the island's head ranger. Her unlikely ally is Werner, an eccentric, homeless biologist who has always taught her to care for the imperilled natural world around her - even as it sets them against Piers, her father, who has his own plans. When Lucie, a journalist haunted by her family's role in the thylacine's extinction, arrives from London to investigate the island's Tasmanian devil conservation project, she is drawn into the island's rare beauty and mysteries, discovering a community grappling with the tension between progress and preservation, care and control. After a tempestuous storm sees a stranger wash ashore, a chain of events is set in motion that ends in a shocking and mysterious death, only weeks later. A breathtakingly beautiful and gripping exploration of humanity's connection to the wild - and the hope that can be born from even the darkest of times - Every Wild Soul is an absorbing and evocative exploration of resilience, rewilding and healing, a story with nature and courage at its heart. Perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Prodigal Summer, and Wild Dark Shore, it is a vivid and haunting ode to the wild in all of us. 'A heartfelt and intriguing novel set in a wild and beautiful place. A wonderful read.' Favel Parrett 'A tender, aching story of our elemental need for wilderness.' Robyn Mundy 'A sense of wonder for the land and sea pervades this beautifully crafted novel. It is a work of passion and ferocity - also of gentleness - that, in bringing to life the rewilding of an island and the people who live there, offers a spark of hope to us all.' Suzanne Leal 'A thrilling journey into the wildness of landscape and heart, longing and desire, captivity and freedom. Science meets love. Nature meets redemption. Cleverly woven and beautifully written. An intricate portrayal of the fragility of human relationships and the natural world. Lyrical, mysterious, unexpected, Every Wild Soul will bring you closer to nature and the wilderness that hides inside all of us.' Karen Viggers

‘Razor sharp and startlingly original, The Cross Thieves crackles with street spirit. A big-hearted, unholy riot!’ Bram Presser, author of the award-winning Book of Dirt. Two hungry boys set out from their squat by a slow river on a not quite mythic quest for revenge. At the same time, a local pastor drives from his beachside home to visit a dying parishioner. What each means to the other will be revealed as brothers, Gark and Pell, run for their lives over one desperate night, across a coastal town haunted by its past. The Cross Thieves is bold, mature and compassionate. And sprinkled with humour, 80s pop, carny lore, and the mysteries of philately. Fyfe’s knowing eye for place, poverty and powerlessness and his empathy for the underdog is captured in an unforgettable story of profound emotional power.

The winner of the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, Every Wild Soul is a lyrical and compelling tale of secrets, survival, and the healing power of nature. On Tasmania's wild and remote Maria Island, eighteen-year-old Min is trying to break free from her controlling, overly protective father, the island's head ranger. Her unlikely ally is Werner, an eccentric, homeless biologist who has always taught her to care for the imperilled natural world around her - even as it sets them against Piers, her father, who has his own plans. When Lucie, a journalist haunted by her family's role in the thylacine's extinction, arrives from London to investigate the island's Tasmanian devil conservation project, she is drawn into the island's rare beauty and mysteries, discovering a community grappling with the tension between progress and preservation, care and control. After a tempestuous storm sees a stranger wash ashore, a chain of events is set in motion that ends in a shocking and mysterious death, only weeks later. A breathtakingly beautiful and gripping exploration of humanity's connection to the wild - and the hope that can be born from even the darkest of times - Every Wild Soul is an absorbing and evocative exploration of resilience, rewilding and healing, a story with nature and courage at its heart. Perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Prodigal Summer, and Wild Dark Shore, it is a vivid and haunting ode to the wild in all of us. 'A heartfelt and intriguing novel set in a wild and beautiful place. A wonderful read.' Favel Parrett 'A tender, aching story of our elemental need for wilderness.' Robyn Mundy 'A sense of wonder for the land and sea pervades this beautifully crafted novel. It is a work of passion and ferocity - also of gentleness - that, in bringing to life the rewilding of an island and the people who live there, offers a spark of hope to us all.' Suzanne Leal 'A thrilling journey into the wildness of landscape and heart, longing and desire, captivity and freedom. Science meets love. Nature meets redemption. Cleverly woven and beautifully written. An intricate portrayal of the fragility of human relationships and the natural world. Lyrical, mysterious, unexpected, Every Wild Soul will bring you closer to nature and the wilderness that hides inside all of us.' Karen Viggers

A father who has been abducted by aliens; a mother who sees the spirits of dead people; a sister who communicates with angry dogs; and 29-year-old Noah Grey, whose life has gone off the rails. In Tasmania, strange lights appear in the skies every summer, signalling we’re part of something bigger than the world of our worries. Bigger even than our hopes. When economic pressures force the Greys to live together for one season – the first time in twelve years since Noah left home after college – tensions are high. Things get weird as locals become increasingly convinced the residents at this Hobart address have been targeted for alien abduction. As the summer unfolds Noah accepts things will never be normal again, even though his measure is the simplest of all. Family love. Brendan Colley’s The Season for Flying Saucers is strange, alluring and tender – a love letter to hope.

A father who has been abducted by aliens; a mother who sees the spirits of dead people; a sister who communicates with angry dogs; and 29-year-old Noah Grey, whose life has gone off the rails. In Tasmania, strange lights appear in the skies every summer, signalling we’re part of something bigger than the world of our worries. Bigger even than our hopes. When economic pressures force the Greys to live together for one season – the first time in twelve years since Noah left home after college – tensions are high. Things get weird as locals become increasingly convinced the residents at this Hobart address have been targeted for alien abduction. As the summer unfolds Noah accepts things will never be normal again, even though his measure is the simplest of all. Family love. Brendan Colley’s The Season for Flying Saucers is strange, alluring and tender – a love letter to hope.

A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union. As the turbulent twentieth-century nears its end, calls for independence grow increasingly louder in the Soviet Georgia. During this period of great upheaval, childhood friends Keto, Dina, Nene, and Ira grow up in one of the many “Italian courtyards” that define Tbilisi’s Sololaki neighborhood. The four girls are as different as can Dina, the rebellious, daughter of an unconventional mother; Ira, the clever outsider; Nene, the romantic, and niece of the most powerful criminal in the city; and Keto, the sensitive, motherless waif. Rising up to challenges both personal and political —a first love that can only blossom in secret, violence that erupts in the wake of national independence, bloody street battles and civil wars, food rationing and power cuts—the four women’s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatters their bond. Decades later, the three survivors are reunited at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photographs in Brussels. The pictures document not only their story, but that of their country. Confronted by the evidence of their shared past, the trio must contend with memories that emerge from the shadows of their minds. Unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili’s The Lack of Light is an explosive, decades-spanning novel in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgian culture and its people, and told in the classic style of an epic. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again. Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. Translated by Charlotte Martin and Ruth Martin

A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union. As the turbulent twentieth-century nears its end, calls for independence grow increasingly louder in the Soviet Georgia. During this period of great upheaval, childhood friends Keto, Dina, Nene, and Ira grow up in one of the many “Italian courtyards” that define Tbilisi’s Sololaki neighborhood. The four girls are as different as can Dina, the rebellious, daughter of an unconventional mother; Ira, the clever outsider; Nene, the romantic, and niece of the most powerful criminal in the city; and Keto, the sensitive, motherless waif. Rising up to challenges both personal and political —a first love that can only blossom in secret, violence that erupts in the wake of national independence, bloody street battles and civil wars, food rationing and power cuts—the four women’s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatters their bond. Decades later, the three survivors are reunited at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photographs in Brussels. The pictures document not only their story, but that of their country. Confronted by the evidence of their shared past, the trio must contend with memories that emerge from the shadows of their minds. Unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili’s The Lack of Light is an explosive, decades-spanning novel in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgian culture and its people, and told in the classic style of an epic. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again. Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. Translated by Charlotte Martin and Ruth Martin

O brave new world, that has such people in't. Once upon a time not very far from now, two children come home to find a line of wet red paint encircling the outside of their house. What does it mean? It’s a truism of our time that it’ll be the next generation who’ll sort out our increasingly toxic world. What would that actually be like? In a state turned hostile, a world of insiders and outsiders, what things of the past can sustain them and what shape can resistance take? And what’s a horse got to do with any of this? Gliff is a novel about how we make meaning and how we are made meaningless. With a nod to the traditions of dystopian fiction, a glance at the Kafkaesque, and a new take on the notion of classic, it's a moving and electrifying read, a vital and prescient tale of the versatility and variety deep-rooted in language, in nature and in human nature.

O brave new world, that has such people in't. Once upon a time not very far from now, two children come home to find a line of wet red paint encircling the outside of their house. What does it mean? It’s a truism of our time that it’ll be the next generation who’ll sort out our increasingly toxic world. What would that actually be like? In a state turned hostile, a world of insiders and outsiders, what things of the past can sustain them and what shape can resistance take? And what’s a horse got to do with any of this? Gliff is a novel about how we make meaning and how we are made meaningless. With a nod to the traditions of dystopian fiction, a glance at the Kafkaesque, and a new take on the notion of classic, it's a moving and electrifying read, a vital and prescient tale of the versatility and variety deep-rooted in language, in nature and in human nature.

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda—a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane—as she navigates a rapidly changing world. Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature. Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time— The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda—a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane—as she navigates a rapidly changing world. Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature. Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time— The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.