Back to Index 1 Cover design © Penguin Random House Australia Click title to jump INDEX ahead ... The Fifth Letter | Nicola Moriarty 4-5 Snooze: The Lost Art of Sleep | Michael McGirr 36-37 The Scent of You | Maggie Alderson 6-7 Please Explain | Anna Broinowski 38-39 The Barrier | Shankari Chandran 8-9 Wish You Were Here | Sheridan Jobbins 40-41 Wimmera | Mark Brandi 10-11 Outback Legends | Evan McHugh 42-43 The List | Michael Brissenden 12-13 Beyond the Break | Darren Longbottom & Tim 44-45 Rushby-Smith The Trip of a Lifetime | Monica McInerny 14-15 Wreck | Fleur Ferris 48-49 Australia Day | Melanie Cheng 16-17 Sparrow | Scot Gardner 50-51 Bridget Crack | Rachel Leary 18-19 The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte 52-53 The Lone Child | Anna George 20-21 Mettlestone | Jaclyn Moriarty Rain Fall | Ella West 54-55 Too Easy | J.M. Green 22-23 Polly & Buster | Sally Rippin 56-57 The Way Back | Kylie Ladd 24-25 Surf Riders Club: Ava's Big Move | Mary van Reyk 58-59 Whipbird | Robert Drewe 26-27 Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-Time Husband | 28-29 Barbara Toner Three of Us | Kim Lock 30-31 Here it Begins | Aoife Clifford 32-33 Back to Index Fiction | 336pp | March 2017 Bestselling Australian and British title THE FIFTH LETTER Nicola Moriarty Publisher: Joni, Deb, Eden and Trina try to catch up once a year for some days away together. HarperCollins Now in their thirties, commitments have pulled them in different directions, and the closeness they once Format: enjoyed growing up seems increasingly elusive. This year, determined to revive their intimacy, they each share Paperback a secret in an anonymous letter to be read out during the holiday. But instead of bringing them closer, the Rights available: revelations drive them apart. Film/TV, Translation excl. Then, a fifth letter is discovered, venting long-held grudges, and it seems that one of the women is in serious German & Hungarian danger. But who was the author? And which of them should be worried? Agent: Nicola Moriarty lives in Sydney's northwest with her husband and two small (but remarkably strong-willed) Pippa Masson daughters. In between various career changes, becoming a mum and studying at Macquarie University, she began to Contact: write. Now, she can't seem to stop. [email protected] 4 5 Back to Index Fiction | 512pp | April 2017 THE SCENT OF YOU Maggie Alderson Publisher: Polly's life is great. Her children are away at uni, her glamorous mother – still modelling at eighty-five – is HarperCollins happily settled in a retirement village, and her perfume blog is taking off. Then her husband announces he needs Format: some space and promptly vanishes. As Polly grapples with her bewildering situation, she Paperback clings to a few new friends to keep her going. And while she distracts herself with the heady world of luxury Rights available: perfume, Polly knows she can't keep reality at bay forever. Film/TV, Translation Eventually she is forced to confront some difficult truths: about her husband, herself and who she really wants to Agent: be. Maggie Alderson is the author of seven novels and Fiona Inglis four collections of her columns from Good Weekend. Her children's book Evangeline, The Wish Keeper's Helper Contact: was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she edited several [email protected] magazines, including UK ELLE. She writes a column for the Sunday Age. She is married and has one daughter. 'A classic Alderson which mixes everything good in life; perfume, the internet, family and Very Good Looking men into one can't-put-down read.' — Vogue Australia 6 7 Back to Index Fiction | 320pp | June 2017 THE BARRIER Shankari Chandran Publisher: Twenty years ago an Ebola epidemic brought the world to the edge of oblivion. The West won the war, the East was Pan Macmillan isolated behind a wall, and a vaccine against Ebola was developed. Peace prevailed. Now Agent Noah Williams Format: is being sent over the barrier to investigate a rogue scientist who risks releasing another plague. But why Paperback would a once-respected academic threaten the enforced vaccination program that ensures humans are no longer Rights available: an endangered species? Hunting for answers amid shoot outs, espionage and murder, Noah will have to confront Film/TV, US, UK, a fundamental question: In the fight for survival, can our humanity survive too? Translation, Audio Shankari Chandran was raised in Canberra, Australia. She spent a decade in London, working as a lawyer in Agent: the social justice field. She eventually returned home to Tara Wynne Australia, where she now lives with her husband, four children and their cavoodle puppy. The Barrier is her second novel. Her first novel,The Song of the Sun God Contact: explores the recent history of Sri Lanka. She is currently [email protected] working on her third book, also set there. 8 9 Back to Index Fiction | 266 pp | July 2017 WIMMERA Mark Brandi Publisher: In the long, hot summer of late 1988, Ben and Fab are best friends. Hachette Growing up in a small country town, they spend their days playing cricket, yabbying in local dams, wanting a Format: pair of Nike Air Max and not talking about how Fab’s dad hits him or how the sudden death of Ben’s next-door Paperback neighbour unsettled him. Rights available: Then a newcomer arrives in town. Fab reckons he is a secret agent and he and Ben stake him out. Neither realise Film/TV, US, UK, the shadow this man will cast over both their lives. Twenty years later, Fab is stuck in the same town when Translation a body is found in the local river, and he can’t ignore the past any more. Agent: Mark Brandi was born in Italy, but raised in a small Grace Heifetz town in country Victoria. Mark’s writing appears in The Guardian, The Age, and is often broadcast on ABC Contact: Radio National. His creative work has been published in Meanjin, the London Journal of Fiction and the Big Issue, [email protected] among others. Winner of the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award (UK) Highly Commended for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript 10 11 Back to Index Fiction | 368p | August 2017 THE LIST Michael Brissenden Publisher: Sidney Allen is a Fed. Part of the Australian Federal Police's K block, a unit doing whatever it takes in order to Hachette Australia stop terrorist attacks on home soil. But when young Muslim men on the Terror Watchlist Format: start turning up dead, Sid and his partner, Haifa, have to work out what's going on. Paperback Sectarian war? Drugs? Retribution? For Sid, there's Rights available: nothing unclear about a bullet to the head and a severed hand. Someone is sending a message. Film/TV, US, UK, Deciphering that message reveals a much wider threat and Sid and the agency have to decide just how far they'll go Translation to prevent a deadly attack. Agent: Time is running out...for them and Australia. Grace Heifetz Michael Brissenden has been a political journalist and foreign correspondent for the ABC since 1987. He Contact: began his career covering Federal politics and has been a correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Washington. He [email protected] was the political editor for the 7.30 Report in Canberra from 2003 to 2009, the ABC's Defence and National Security Correspondent and host of the ABC's Radio National program. A two-time Walkley Award winner, Michael has recently joined the ABC'S Four Corners as a reporter. 12 13 Back to Index Fiction | 464pp | July 2017 THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME Monica McInerney Publisher: The wilful and eccentric Lola Quinlan is off on the trip of a lifetime, taking her beloved granddaughter and Penguin Random House great-granddaughter with her. More than sixty years after emigrating to Australia, she's keeping a secret promise to Format: return to her Irish homeland. But as she embarks on her journey, the flamboyant Lola is Paperback still hiding the hurtful reasons she left Ireland in the first place. What–and who–will be waiting for her on the other Rights available: side of the world? Film/TV, US, UK, The Trip of a Lifetime is a big, bold, beautiful book about the light and dark times of life, and all the wonders Translation in between. Moving from the Clare Valley of South Australia to the lush Irish countryside, this is a delightful, Agent: emotional story about a colourful and huge-hearted family that you'll want to call your own. Fiona Inglis Monica McInerney is one of the stars of Australian Contact: fiction and author of ten internationally bestselling novels including Lola's Secret and The Alphabet Sisters. Monica [email protected] grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia and has been living between Australia and Ireland for twenty years. She and her Irish husband currently live in Dublin. 14 15 Back to Index Collection | 272pp | July 2017 AUSTRALIA DAY Melanie Cheng Publisher: Australia Day is a collection of stories by debut author Melanie Cheng. The people she writes about are young, Text Publishing old, rich, poor, married, widowed, Chinese, Lebanese, Christian and Muslim. What they have in common—no Format: matter where they come from—is the desire we all share to feel that we belong. The stories explore universal Paperback themes of love, loss, family and identity, while at the same time asking crucial questions about the possibility of Rights available: human connection in a globalised world.