An unforgettable and moving insight into loss, hope and starting again, aided by the incredible healing power of nature and a community of unexpected angels—for fans of Phosphoresence by Julia Baird.After I swim, I watch an osprey hanging in mid-air. If those who came before really do dissolve and dissipate, and if their cells really are all around us, then that bird is held there by Mum and Peter and billions of others of the long-dead. The osprey is ...

A celebration of friendship, renewal, nature and the human spirit told through letters between a writer and an 80-year-old priest. Original, surprising - both highly entertaining and deeply moving.Dear Ailsa, Sometimes I wonder whether the friendship that has caught us both-a most unlikely friendship I must confess-might find an echo in a far off Irish village somewhere in the wild, windy hills of old Donegal. Or am I allowing that uncontrollable imagination of...

A long-haul flight. Two ambitious dance mums. A child in danger.Bridget and Simone aren’t friends. But their daughters are in the same dance troupe, so they’re flying to Los Angeles for the girls to perform at Disneyland. Simone’s daughter Zahra is indisputably a leader in the group, but Bridget’s daughter Becky is a talent on the rise.Simone and her husband are accustomed to business class, but Bridget is less comfortable there. Both lonely women are surprised to find somet...

It is the winter of 1985. Hope Farm sticks out of the ragged landscape like a decaying tooth, its weatherboard walls sagging into the undergrowth. Silver's mother, Ishtar, has fallen for the charismatic Miller, and the three of them have moved to the rural hippie commune to make a new start. But here, at just thirteen, she is thrust into an unrelenting adult world, and the walls begin to come tumbling down, with deadly consequences.

Charlotte Wood’s The Writer's Room is essential reading for writers at all stages of their careers, and also pure reading pleasure for booklovers everywhere. Charlotte's interviews with a wide variety of well-known writers, range in topic from the subject matter of the writers' work to intricate - and intimate - revelations about the ways in which they work. Frank about the failures and successes, the struggles and triumphs of the writing life, this is a must-read for writers and readers.

Pilgrim seeks sinners for mutually beneficial arrangement. Tireless. Result-oriented. Reliable. Seven Deadlies a specialty. On her 1300 kilometre pilgrimage from Granada to Galicia, Ailsa Piper carried an unusual cargo. Walking in the tradition of medieval believers who paid others to carry their sins, Ailsa lugged a swag of confessions from friends, colleagues and strangers. Although some days her load weighed heavy, Ailsa’s story celebrates impossible kindnesses, the wonders of Spain, an...

It all began when Tony Doherty, an 80-year-old priest, emailed writer Ailsa Piper to say how much he enjoyed her latest book. Soon emails were flying back and forth as these two inquisitive minds shared stories, experiences, questions and ideas over the course of many seasons. And through this exchange grew an unexpected but deep friendship.

For fans of Julia Baird's Phosphorescence, Heather Rose's Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here or Indira Naidoo's The Space Between the Stars comes an unforgettable and moving insight into loss, hope and starting again, aided by the incredible healing power of nature and a community of unexpected angels.I landed in this place six years ago in a welter of panic, pain and instinct. I'd been in fight-or-flight mode for twelve months, wanting only to keep on flying – or fleeing. I brought alm...

**BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTA NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEARA WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEARA LOS ANGELES TIMES TOP FIFTEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR“Stone Yard Devotional is as extraordinary as you’ve heard.” —The Washington Post“An exquisite, wrenching novel of leaving your life behind.” —*New York Times Book Review"*Riveting prose about how humans beat back despair."—Los Angeles Times

Meet Jimmy Flick. He's not like other kids - he's both too fast and too slow. Jimmy's mother Paula is the only one who can manage him. She teaches him how to count sheep so that he can fall asleep. She holds him tight enough to stop his cells spinning. It is only Paula who can keep Jimmy out of his father's way. But when Jimmy's world falls apart, he has to navigate life on his own, and make things right.

Ester is a family therapist with an appointment book that catalogues the anxieties of the middle class: loneliness, relationships, death. She spends her days helping others find happiness, but her own family relationships are tense and frayed. Ester is yearning to fall in love again. Meanwhile, her sister is struggling through her own directionless life; her ex-husband’s past decisions are catching up with him; and her mother is about to make a choice that will profoundly affect them all.

A “beautifully written, heartbreaking” (S. J. Watson) literary novel about a gifted boy obsessed with physics who uncovers the truth about his past—and the devastating family secret his overprotective single mother has tried to hide.“Original, compassionate, cleverly plotted, and genuinely difficult to put down.” —Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author of The Rosie ProjectTwelve-year-old Ethan F...