Jealousy and ambition divide a tribe so much so that it splits into two communities - each of whom has to strive to become self-sufficient. Their failure almost leads to their destruction. It's up to the chief's son and the other children of the tribe to overcome the adults' prejudices and attempt reconciliation. When they are threatened by raiders from a stronger, more skilful race, survival is all. But will the tribes be able to reunite in time?
A triumphant family story and sharply observed exploration of privilege, identity, and love in all its forms, following four estranged siblings whose lives collide in the lead-up to a family wedding, when new clues surface about their long-missing father “Truly a great American novel that does the very best of what fiction can do: sink us into other people’s lives, show us new worlds, make our hearts pound and our breath catch. Superb.” —Julia Phillips April, May, June, and July Barber don’t have much in common anymore. An upcoming family wedding will place the four siblings in the same room for the first time in years. But shortly before, when April spots their father, who went missing while serving overseas a decade ago, their reunion becomes entirely more complicated. While the siblings’ search for the truth about their father forces them back into each other’s lives, it also intensifies their private dramas. April loves her husband, but seeks excitement outside their marriage. May had big dreams for the future, but she’s still stuck living at home. June is eager to marry her girlfriend, so why does she need a drink at every wedding-related event? And then there’s baby brother July, whose unrequited love for his straight roommate has him more confused than ever. Confronting the past together, April, May, June, and July will find not only answers about their father, but new romance, hope, and understanding as they learn to embrace the beauty of their shared history.
A psychic storm rages and ghosthunters stalk the city where young Davey Williams lives, destroying good and evil alike. Davey risks his own life to save his friends, but will the ghosts be there when he needs them? And now the Lady has returned, brimming with malice and hungry for vengeance. Davey must escape her deadly clutches by Midsummer, or be in her thrall forever...
Come Lucky April is set a hundred years on from Plague 99. Harry's great-granddaughter is a girl called April, who lives in an all-female run vegan society, which is carefully governed to eliminate risk of plague-like situations. Men have shamed themselves and are no longer in power. There's a primitive aspect to life as though the 21st century as we know it never happened. At 12, boys are exiled for 5 years ...'they went away as barbarians and came back civilised', which means castrated. 'Homecoming' is when they are welcomed back - but how welcome are they? We meet Daniel, a survivor of a patrician clan, whose quest it is to find unclaimed parts of the 'outside world'. His great grandmother was Fran and his great grand-father was Shahid from the first part of the trilogy. He wants to find the diary that Fran left behind in her family home in Croydon. In the abandoned house, girls and boy meet ... Daniel and April don't, at first, realise they are connected by their distant ancestors' friendship. A potential romantic attachment forms between them. His presence creates conflict, but they take him into their community, where the conflicts worsen. Daniel questions everything April has been brought up to believe. He challenges the women's views and their rejection of the orthodoxy he knows. He makes David, a long-term friend of April, question what he has lost as a man. An exciting novel, rich in texture and passionate in its ideas.
The label on the bottle reads 'There be a witch in here. Let her out and there be a peck of trouble'. But Mike is always trying to emulate his impulsive sister or his responsible brother. Then his friend Lee swears he sees something fly out of the bottle, and Mike decides to open it again. Out flows an extraordinary tableau - a Fire King astride a stallion, and a beautiful woman in a bower of flowers - the archetypes of Yin and Yang in terrible conflict. Mike, seeing that he can tip the balance, throws his lot in with the king. When things go wrong in the real world, Mike returns to his vision, to find that the Fire King has wreaked havoc. He changes his allegiance to the Lady - and sinks into a deep depression. Slowly he learns that the answer lies not in choosing the power of fire or of water, Yin or Yang, his sister's or brother's way - but in the eternal dance between them.
If you missed the first eight titles in MUP's acclaimed Little Books on Big Themes series, this is your chance to collect the whole set. Released in time for Christmas, the ON-nibus brings together eight 10,000-word essays on the big themes in life by leading Australian thinkers. Featured authors are Germaine Greer ('On Rage'), David Malouf ('On Experience'), Blanche d'Alpuget ('On Longing'), Barrie Kosky ('On Ecstasy'), Don Watson ('On Indignation'), Gay Bilson ('On Digestion'), Malcolm Knox ('On Obsession') and Anne Summers ('On Luck').
50 years on from Come Lucky April... April and David have confronted the orthodoxy - they believe girls and boys should be able to grow up together. They determine to send their son away, to spare him the humilation of castration. ' Hal spends several years there, waiting for the ban to be lifted. He befriends the daughters of the family he lives with - but when he challenges his 'father' he is sent from the house, and discovers a new life in the lawless part of the settlement. He realises he needs to help the girls he can to escape and return to Croydon. How can he save them? Life back in Croydon things are changing, too. People are dying. Beliefs are being challenged. Are things any better than they were 150 years ago? Is there hope for the future?
“[A] knockout debut…. Vengefully delicious.” —People People Magazine Book of the Week * New York Post Hottest Book of the Season * Newsday Notable Book of Summer * USA Today Book of the Week * Salon Best Book of the Year Three fierce women connected to a billionaire film mogul collide at a Hollywood party in this richly observed novel about female ambition, complicity, and privilege. It’s the Hollywood event of the season, and anyone who’s anyone will be enjoying their evening at socialite Holly Stabler’s gorgeous hilltop estate. For personal assistant Zanne Klein, the gala is her chance at a promotion she’s chased for far too long, which means she’ll finally be able to buy a house, pay off her loans, and give her girlfriend the life she deserves. But just when the perfect party seems to be in reach, Phoebe Lee, a talented director who mysteriously disappeared decades before, shows up uninvited—with a dark secret. As the event unfolds and truths are exposed, Zanne, Holly, and Phoebe are set on a collision course that promises to make the night one Hollywood will never forget… “A bold and wholly satisfying novel about power, ambition, and the price women must often pay for their dreams.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow *Don't miss Alison B. Hart's next novel, April May June July, a family drama on sale in May 2024 and available now for preorder.
By twenty-two, Jacob Day had been ambitiously pegged as the next Bob Dylan. By twenty-five, he was working as a cleaner. Aprils Fool follows Jacob for one year as he looks to reclaim, rectify, and refine a life he once had.
