The award-winning, much-loved memoir of renowned author and musician Anna Goldsworthy about her first steps towards a life in music.In this remarkable story, Anna Goldsworthy recalls her journey from childhood piano lessons with a local jazz muso to a successful career as a concert pianist. As she discovers passion and ambition, and confronts doubt and disappointment, she learns about much more than technique.Piano Lessons captures the hopes and un...

A charming, sharply observed first novel from one of Australia's best writersFrom the bestselling author of Piano LessonsSometimes events occur as one might wish but sometimes they do not.So says the ever-practical Ruby, always striving for what is right and proper, from the time we meet her as a striking soldier's fiancee through to the rather less steady years of her old age. With an eyebrow pencil in one hand and gardening she...

Humanity in the age of AIHow will we be changed by the rise of artificial intelligence? In this scintillating essay, Anna Goldsworthy argues that AI is a rupture that makes us confront what it is to be human – what we do, and want. As it learns human ways, AI raises big questions about work, leisure and education. It brings new existential, social and ethical risks. Above all, it invites us to consider what is irreplaceable in us, starting with the body and the friction of others...

Anna Goldsworthy was nine years old when she met Eleanora Sivan, the charismatic Russian émigré and world-class pianist who became her piano teacher. Piano Lessons is the story of what Mrs. Sivan brought to Anna's lessons: a love of music, a respect for life, a generous spirit, and the courage to embrace a musical life.Beautifully written and strikingly honest, Piano Lessons takes the reader on a journey into the heart and meaning of music. As Anna discovers passio...

When classical pianist Anna Goldsworthy falls pregnant with her first child, she is both excited and anxious about what lies ahead. Should she indulge her craving for sausage after sixteen years without meat? Will her birth plan involve Enya or hypnosis, or neither? And just how worried should she be about her baby falling into a composting toilet?This delightful memoir reveals the love that binds families together. Welcome to Your New Life captures the shock of leaving be...

On the surface, it seems the best time ever to be a woman in Australia. The prime minister, governor-general and the richest person are all female; women are at the forefront of almost every area of public life. Yet when Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech ricocheted around the world, it clearly touched a nerve. Why?In the fiftieth Quarterly Essay, Anna Goldsworthy examines life for women after the gains made by feminism. From Facebook to Fifty Shades of Grey, from Girls

In this remarkable story, Anna Goldsworthy recalls her journey from childhood piano lessons with a local jazz muso to international success as a concert pianist. As she discovers passion and ambition, and confronts doubt and disappointment, she learns about much more than technique. Piano Lessons captures the hopes and uncertainties of youth, the fear and exhilaration of performing, and the complex bonds between teacher and student. An unforgettable cast of characters joins her: her family...

Western women today have unprecedented freedom and power. In Australia we have a female prime minister and governor-general; women are at the forefront of almost every area of public life. Yet when Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech ricocheted around the world, it clearly touched a nerve. Why? In the fiftieth Quarterly Essay, Anna Goldsworthy examines the world we’ve landed in after the gains of feminism. For young women in particular, it is both rewarding and confusing. What cultural message...

The leading Catholic in the nation and spiritual adviser to Tony Abbott, Cardinal George Pell has played a key role in the greatest challenge to face his church for centuries: the scandal of child sex abuse by priests.In The Prince, David Marr investigates the man and his career: how did he rise through the ranks? What does he stand for? How does he wield his authority? How much has he shaped his church and Australia? How has he handled the scandal?

With an election looming and criticism of the ALP now a national pastime, Mark Latham considers the future for Labor. The nation has changed, but can the party?With wit and insight, Latham reveals an organisation top-heavy with factional bosses protecting their turf. At the same time Labor’s traditional working-class base has long been eroding. People who grew up in fibro shacks now live in double-storey affluence. Families once resigned to a lifetime of blue-colla...

Tony Abbott is the most successful Opposition leader of the last forty years, but he has never been popular. Now Australians want to know: what kind of man is he, and how would he perform as prime minister?In this dramatic portrait, David Marr shows that as a young Catholic warrior at university, Abbott was already a brutally effective politician. He later led the way in defeating the republic and, as the self-proclaimed "political love child" of John Howard, rose rapidly in the Li...

At twenty-something, Alice is eager for the milestones of adulthood- leaving home, choosing a career, finding friendship and love on her own terms. But with each step she takes she feels the sharp tug of invisible threads- the love and worry of her parents, who want more than anything to keep her from harm. Her father fears for her safety to an extraordinary degree - but why?As she digs further into her father's story, Alice embarks on a journey of painful discovery- of memories lo...