Shortlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award, this is a confronting and compelling read from the very first chapter.

When Briony first meets Ren, he is standing in the freezing sea at the edge of their tiny town.

Ren hasn’t been home for a decade but has returned to be with his dying father.

Briony won’t leave, hoping that Sarah, her missing sister, will one day reappear.

But Sarah and her friend Aria have been stranded on a desolate island far off the coast. The longer they’re trapped there, the less alone they seem.

How many secrets in this town have been swallowed by the brooding sea?

A millennial-turned-magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga.

Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge.

But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone.

But the young woman’s initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it’s portrayed in stories. It isn’t just destiny—it’s work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand… is a credit card—which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn’t a monster or an intergalactic war. It’s global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too.

Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it’s ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated translator Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls—that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone’s game.

Almost everyone thinks they have one, but nobody knows what it is.

For thousands of years the soul was an ‘organ’, an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body and ventured to the underworld, or to heaven or hell.

The soul could be saved, condemned, tortured, bought.

And then, mysteriously, the ‘soul’ disappeared. The Enlightenment called it the ‘mind’. And today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain.

The ‘religious soul’ lives on, in the minds of the faithful, while the secular ‘soul’ means whatever you want it to mean.

In The Soul: A History of the Human Mind critically acclaimed historian Paul Ham embarks on a journey that has never been attempted- to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind have animated and driven the history of humankind.

The Soul is much more than a mesmerizing narrative and uniquely accessible way of explaining our story. It transforms our understanding of how history works. It persuasively demonstrates that the beliefs of the soul/mind are the engines of human history.

Imagine: it’s 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons – or perhaps your neighbour has stolen them. Or maybe your child has a fever. Or you’re facing trial. Or you’re looking for love. Or you’re hoping to escape a husband… What do you do?

In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might very well have been cunning folk – practitioners of ‘service magic’. Neither feared (like witches), nor venerated (like saints), they were essential to everyday life, a ubiquitous presence in a time when the supernatural was surprisingly mundane. For people from all walks of life, practical magic was a cherished resource with which to navigate life’s many challenges.

In Tabitha Stanmore’s beguiling account, we meet lovelorn widows and dissolute nobles, selfless healers and renegade monks. We listen in on Queen Elizabeth I’s astrology readings and track treasure hunters trying to unearth buried gold without upsetting the fairies that guard it. Much like us, premodern people lived in bewildering times, buffeted by forces beyond their control; and as Stanmore reveals, their faith in magic has much to teach us about how we accommodate ourselves to the irrational in our allegedly enlightened lives today.

Told with warmth, wit and above all, empathy, these stories take us deep into people’s day-to-day lives- their hopes and desires, their fears and vulnerabilities. Charming in every sense of the word, Cunning Folk is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world and a thought-provoking commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.

A house is not just a series of openings and closings but a curated collection of objects and belongings. From the architects who have built the spaces to the artisans and makers who have crafted the objects, here are twenty-four inspiring homes showcasing the rooms and people that make them exceptional.

Shannon McGrath, one of Australia’s best interiors photographers, opens her archive to reveal the details and layers that make up a room: from furniture and fittings, to lighting choices, colour palettes and art curation. Grand or small, each gesture speaks across generations, adding layers of detail that bring a house to life.

Written by Annie Reid, Assemblage is a true celebration of the beauty of design and intentional curation, revealing that even the smallest of objects, and the way they are assembled, can make an extraordinary impact.

A wry, affectionate and thrilling return to the world of the author’s critically acclaimed Soon I Will Be Invincible

Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a New England college. Even his vices are unremarkable. But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him- ‘pretend you were never different’.

Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world.

It was the best thing that ever happened to them. Until it became the worst.

Now, twenty years later, a mysterious disappearance means Tower must reunite with his former comrades. But while great power come might come with great responsibility, there’s little of that on display from any of them.

Combining compelling storytelling and fierce imagination with a rich cast of characters, Fight Me is a page-turning and distinctive thriller, a unique tale of good, evil and one man trying to do the right thing. Against impossible odds…

A joyful, rule-breaking experiment in biography, which celebrates ‘country life’ as a state of mind

1917. Virginia Woolf arrives at Asheham, on the Sussex Downs, immobilized by nervous exhaustion and creative block.

1930. Feeling jittery about her writing career, Sylvia Townsend Warner spots a modest workman’s cottage for sale on the Dorset coast.

1941. Rosamond Lehmann settles in a Berkshire village, seeking a lovers’ retreat, a refuge from war, and a means of becoming ‘a writer again’.

Rural Hours tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the country and was forever changed by it.

We encounter them at quiet moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold. Invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making homes, they emerge from long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment; they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living. In the country, each woman finds her path- to convalescence and recovery; to sexual and political awakening; and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing.

Graceful, fluid, and enriched by previously untouched archival material, Rural Hours is both a paean to the bravery and vision of three pioneering writers, and a passionate invitation to us all- to recognize the radical potential of domestic life and rural places, and find new enchantment in the routines and rituals of each day.

‘A stunning self-portrait of a woman trying to make sense of the misogyny and sexism she has faced throughout her life.’ – TIME Magazine

In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.”

In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. This is a memoir that speaks to every woman who has been made to question her own sanity, doubt herself and her worth. Anna Marie Tendler’s powerful writing, insight and clarity enabled her to find a way out of the narratives that had been foisted on her since girlhood and create her own, new story. This beautiful and heartfelt book invites us to do the same.

This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message of hope. Early in her stay in the hospital, she says, “My wish for myself is that one day I’ll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself.” By the end of the book, she fulfils that wish.

Discover the six seasons of the Noongar calendar in English and Noongar with emerging First Nations talent Ebony Froome and Leanne Zilm.

Djinang Bonar takes readers through the seasons of the Noongar calendar, exploring different seasonal indicators to increase readers’ awareness of the environment around them and their knowledge of Noongar language. Noongar country is portrayed in spectacular detail with gorgeous illustrations of the plants and animals typically seen in each season of the year.

This is the perfect picture book for parents, carers, teachers and librarians to share insights into the six Noongar seasons and learn some Noongar language.

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge.

It’s fifteen years since the Second World War and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the conflict is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel’s life is as it should be- led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season…

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis – she sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn’t. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house – a spoon, a knife, a bowl – Isabel’s suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate desire for order transforms into infatuation – leading to a discovery that unravels all she has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva – nor the house – are what they seem.