"The milkman cried when I told him you were dead.'Last night,' I said, 'Mark died.'"This collection brings together 30 short stories and poems about dying and bereavement. Written by mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, wives, husbands and dying people, these moving pieces talk honestly about how it feels to care for someone who is dying, to grieve for a loved one, and to face death oneself.A candid story about a daughter's relationship with her mother's carer; an inte...

A feel-good romance. Sometimes true love can be found where you least expect it... Perfect for the fans of Mhairi McFarlene and Fiona Gibson.Thomas Clark is a wealthy aristocrat. Sandy Price was the girl next door. They grew up spending their summer holidays on the same country estate, but Sandy couldn't stand Thomas and he hasn't crossed her mind since.Years later, an unexpected turn of events brings Thomas back into her l...

"One of those memoirs that remind you why you liked memoirs in the first place... It has the density of a very good novel... As you do with the best writers, you feel lucky to be in Ms. Brockes’s company." --Dwight Garner, The New York TimesA chilling work of psychological suspense and forensic memoir, She Left Me the Gun is a tale of true transformation: the story of a young woman who reinvented herself so completely that her previous life seemed...

The heart-wrenching but triumphant story of rebuilding a life and a family.'My body, suddenly, carries two stories of loss ... One is easy for people to recognise. My mother died of cancer. I watched her age twenty-five years in eight weeks ... My other story marks me as different. It is more silent and more savage, it is not pure and no one knows how to approach it. Somewhere I lost my husband.'When Maggie Mackellar's vibrant young husband, father to a fiv...

A wise and hilarious novel morality and what it means to be a "goof person" from the bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, Just Like you, Funny Girl and High Fidelity.A brutally truthful, compassionate novel about the heart, mind, and soul of a woman who, confronted by her husband’s sudden and extreme spiritual conversion, is forced to learn “how to be good”—whatever that means, and for better or worse…Katie Carr is a...

Australia's bravest and most honest writer explores the devastating aftermath of her elderly mother's decision to end her own life.Nikki Gemmell's world changed forever in October 2015 when the body of her elderly mother was found and it became clear she had decided to end her own life. After the immediate shock and devastation came the guilt and the horror, for Nikki, her family, relatives and friends. No note was left, so the questions that Elayn's death raised were endless. Was t...

A new short story from Australia's queen of hard-hitting family drama.A short story for fans of Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve.Step into the fragile domestic world of Roar and discover the unforgettable voice of Nicole Trope, bestselling author of The Secrets in Silence, Three Hours Late and The Boy Under the Table.*The baby sleeps peacefully, filled with milk and contentment. The man on the bed breathes his way into the da...

The loss of a parent is an experience that we all face without any training - relating to a parent through old age and illness; going through the actual death in different circumstances and whether we can help parents to have a good death; the emotional aftermath - shock, grief, relief, the effect on families; funerals, wills and other rituals; clearing out the house and keeping memories alive; recovery and carrying on with life; the longer-term changes in us and our relationship with our ...

While researching her next book, Julie Myerson finds herself in a graveyard, looking for traces of a young woman who died nearly two centuries before. As a child in Regency England, Mary Yelloly painted an exquisite album of watercolors that uniquely reflected the world in which she lived. But Mary died at the age of twenty-one, and when Julie comes across this album, she is haunted by the potential never realized. She is also reminded of her own child.Only days earlier, Julie and ...

SPECIAL PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIMEOne woman's journal of single life on the margins.A brilliant collection of Lynne Truss’ journalism – recording the life of a metropolitan refugee from coupledom. The alternative ‘Bridget Jones’.For seven long years, starting in ‘The Listener’ in 1988 and continuing in ‘The Times’ and ‘Woman's Journal’, Lynne Truss has been trying to make her cat laugh. It has been an uphill task, which is why she deserves this book, a recognition of ...

Diaries celebrating a dog's joy at owning a human, by the most famous dog in Britain.Buster has written these diaries himself - whenever he could remember where he hid the manuscript in his garden. In it he lays bear the truth of how The Man has held Buster back, pretending to protect fur and feathers. Buster's last book was an instant bestseller and, outrageously, The Man took all the credit. To add insult to injury, there were no extra biscuits. Worse, The Man fo...

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...