JDA Rights Guide LBF 2013 from The PLot Lounge - Agencja ...

THE PLOT LOUNGE

JENNY DARLING & A S S O C I AT E S

I N T E R N AT I O N A L RIGHTS GUIDE

L O N D O N B O O K FA I R 2013

www.theplotlounge.com

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CONTENTS FICTION 3 The Storyteller and his Three Daughters Lian Hearn, Historical If I Should Lose You Natasha Lester, Women’s There Should be More Dancing Rosalie Ham,Women’s Darkness on the Edge of Town Jessie Cole, Contemporary A Savage Garden Christopher Muir, Thriller Mateship with Birds Carrie Tiffany, Literary Black Spring Alison Croggon YA/Crossover The Reluctant Hallelujah Gabrielle Williams YA NON FICTION 12 Seduced by Logic Robyn Arianrhod Biography Love and Hunger Charlotte Wood Personal Essays/Food Writing BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS, FICTION 15 Dog Boy Eva Hornung, Literary The Zookeeper’s War Steve Conte, Historical Thought Crimes Tim Richards, Short Stories Play Abandoned Garry Disher, Commercial Animal People Charlotte Wood, Contemporary The Dressmaker Rosalie Ham, Women’s Elizabeth Jolley Modern Classics

C O N TAC T S 1 9 Translation co-agents The Plot Lounge Jenny Darling & Associates

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FICTION

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NEW FICTION, HISTORICAL

The Storyteller and his Three Daughters Lian Hearn Hachette Australia, September, 2013

From the bestselling author of Across the Nightingale Floor ‘Storytellers are all thieves. They pilfer from old legends, history books, newspaper reports.’ So Akabane Sei IX is told by his manager. A professional storyteller for over fifty years, as the book opens Sei recalls the inspiration behind the story that made him famous, ‘The Silk Kimono’. It was a story pilfered, not from any of these sources, we learn, but from his own life. He transports us to Tokyo, 1884, a time change. It is summer and the country is gripped by the words of Jack Green, an Englishman who spins exotic tales from his European past and even Sei’s wife is won over by the heady melodrama. Sei himself is feeling old, beyond passion, but he knows passion is what people want so that, he decides, is what he will give them. Soon everywhere he looks, everyone he sees, is involved in some form of intrigue - political, sexual, emotional - and each conversation leads to a possible plotline, each person a possible character, an adulterer, a murderer, a mistress, a spy. Yet even as his imagination tries to embroider his world, real life draws Sei back. Two of his daughters return home, unhappy with their husbands; a play produced by his third daughter’s husband opens and a real sword is substituted for a false one; Sei is attacked after performing a new story. Secret societies, samurai warriors, vendettas and illicit love: the story that will save Sei is all around, all he has to do is recognise it, tame it, and, of course, survive it. Then he can really begin to write. KEY POINTS *Lian Hearn’s books have sold over four million copies worldwide and been sold into 36 territories. *A compelling novel in which a master storyteller unpicks, through story, the art of storytelling. *A sensuous depiction of life in late nineteenth century Japan. A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Lian Hearn studied modern languages at Oxford University and worked as a film critic and arts editor in London before settling in Australia. A lifelong interest in Japan led to the study of the Japanese language and many trips to Japan. This fascination culminated in Across the Nightingale Floor, the first in the internationally acclaimed Tales of the Otori series. Across the Nightingale Floor (2002) was followed by Grass for his Pillow (2003), Brilliance of the Moon (2004), The Harsh Cry of the Heron (2006), Heaven’s Net is Wide (2007) and Blossoms and Shadows (2010). In 2004, Lian Hearn was awarded the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. R I G H T S S O L D T O TA L E S O F T H E O T O R I ANZ, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, The Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, US. (Publisher details available on request).

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FICTION, WOMEN’S

If I Should Lose You Natasha Lester Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP), September 2012, 272pp

‘Through a cast of memorable characters, If I Should Lose You pitches art against life, and in the process exposes life in all its frailties. Here is a story that resonates long after reading.’ Andrea Goldsmith Alix is a brilliant heart transplant surgeon. She sees hearts as purely functional – until she falls in love with Dan. Then a sudden tragedy forces Alix to rethink the way she views love and medicine and the consequences of this are felt many years later, by her daughter Camille. Camille has two small daughters of her own and one is critically ill. Camille has no time to caretake her failing relationship with her husband and no time to face up to a niggling suspicion she holds about her mother, as Camille is the one person who can save her daughter. Camille is an organ donor coordinator and her daughter needs a new liver. Just how far will she go to keep her daughter alive - and what might the costs be? A sensitive exploration of ethical boundaries, impossible choices and the sacrifices we make for love. PRAISE ‘Well written and structured, this moody read will leave you thinking.’ Canberra Times ‘I was captivated by this honest, beautiful story that fuses love and art with the most profound challenges of motherhood. Written with extraordinary emotional wisdom and intelligence.’ Liz Byrski ‘a subtle and sensitive work that eloquently tackles loss, love and life’ The West Australian A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Natasha Lester’s debut novel What is Left Over, After won the T.A.G. Hungerford Award for Fiction. Her short stories and poems have been published in collections and journals. She divides her time between writing novels, raising three children and teaching creative writing. www.natashalester.com.au RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Fremantle Arts Centre Press)

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FICTION, WOMEN’S The Should Be More Dancing Rosalie Ham Vintage/Random House, 2011, 354pp

‘So very very funny…utterly brilliant.’ Pages & Pages What drove Margery Blandon to the 43rd floor of the Tropic Hotel? As she waits for the crowds in the atrium far below to disperse, she contemplates what went wrong. Her best friend kept an astonishing secret from her. She can’t trust the home help. It’s possible her firstborn son has betrayed her, that her second son, Morris, has committed a crime, that her only daughter is trying to kill her and her dead sister Cecily helped her to this, her final downfall. Even worse, it seems Margery’s life-long neighbour and enemy—now demented—always knew the truth. There Should Be More Dancing is a poignant and wickedly funny novel; the story of Margery’s reckonings on loyalty, grief and love. PRAISE ‘There Should Be More Dancing is a deceptively frivolous title, a wistful phrase with more sagacity than it might suggest: research shows dancing might help delay or prevent the onset of dementia. Its playful message hints at Ham's skill in disguising her informed eloquence on a serious subject behind sparkling, entertaining prose.’ The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Rosalie Ham has written a hilarious cautionary old-age tale’ The Sun-Herald ‘Ham deftly balances grief and trauma with a gentle humour, and her characters spring off the pages and settle (at times uncomfortably) in your heart. ‘ Australian Bookseller + Publisher A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Rosalie Ham is a failed rouseabout but a successful writer now based in Melbourne. Get to know Rosalie in a delightful video interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY9Eu-Zw01Y. She is also the author of the bestseller, The Dressmaker and Summer at Mount Hope. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Random House)

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N E W F I C T I O N , C O N T E M P O R A RY Darkness on the Edge of Town Jessie Cole Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, July 2012, 336pp

ASL Gold Medal, Shortlisted, 2013

Vincent is nearly forty years old, with little to show for his life except his precious sixteen-year-old daughter, Gemma: sensitive, insightful and wise beyond her years. When a stranger crashes her car outside Vincent and Gemma′s bush home, their lives take a dramatic turn. In an effort to help the stranded woman, father and daughter are drawn into a world of unexpected and life-changing consequences. Darkness on the Edge of Town is a haunting tale that beguiles the reader with its deceptively simple prose, its gripping and unrelenting tensions, and its disturbing yet tender observations. PRAISE ‘One of the standout debuts of 2012’ The Adelaide Advertiser ‘Jessie Cole’s spellbinding first novel is the kind of book that you can describe with words such as ‘beautiful’, ‘touching’ and ‘tender’ as easily as you can with words like ‘uncomfortable’, ‘painful’ and ‘disturbing’ … I can’t wait to see where this talented new voice takes us next.’ 4 and 1/2 stars, Good Reading Magazine ‘Jessie Cole's debut novel Darkness on the Edge of Town is on another level of storytelling altogether…It's exquisite writing.’ The Australian A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Jessie Cole was born in 1977 and grew up in an isolated valley in northern New South Wales. In 2009 she was awarded a HarperCollins Varuna Award for Manuscript Development, and her work has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, and the Big Issue. Nowadays, she lives in her childhood home with her two sons. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins)

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NEW FICTION, THRILLER A Savage Garden Christopher Muir Random House, 2014 ‘You don’t so much visit Africa, as get sucked into a vortex of magnificence of what once was and could be all over again.’ Jack Norton, Texan, ex-Navy Seal and now chopper pilot for hire, is man who long ago lost faith in anything other than what can be found in the bottom of a bottle. He’ll work for any dictator, warlord or militia leader who’ll pay him and knows he’s no better than any other mercenary in Africa and no longer cares - until an unexpected encounter with a beautiful French doctor reminds him that he does have a heart and it can still be broken. Despite being determined get out of the business, Jack’s resolve is broken when he meets Mark, an old comradeat-arms, in a seedy bar and they are approached by a man known as ‘Papa Jim’ to help ‘fix a small problem’. ‘Papa Jim’, it turns out, works with Mark’s wife’s brother - and he’s one of the good ones. Although in Africa, just like everywhere else, good is a relative term, so Jack finds himself pulled back into a world of darkness and violence, a world of boy soldiers, widowed mothers, blood diamonds, extreme poverty, corruption, exploitation and greed. This time however, he’s not doing it for money, but because he’s now convinced that there are still things worth fighting for - children and a country’s future, for instance. This means he’s not just on a job but on a mission, one he’s determined will not fail, no matter what the odds or what has to be done to complete it. A Savage Garden is a gripping, tightly plotted action novel set against the backdrop of a contemporary Africa that does not appear on the tourist routes. KEY POINTS *Christopher Muir has visited the African continent many times and his experience shows in the detail of this novel. *Will appeal equally to fans of novels such as John Le Carre’s The Constant Gardener, Michael Stanley’s A Deadly Trade and the blockbusters of Wilbur Smith. *This is an assured debut and the author is at work on his next work in the same genre. *Requests being taken for the manuscript. A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Christopher Muir has worked in the advertising industry for many years and won many industry awards. He has travelled widely, trekked the Kokoda Track, been kidnapped by wild orangutans in Borneo, driven herds of brumbies across the Australian Alps and lived in New York, London and Singapore - but it was Africa that stole his heart. He has lived with the Massai in Tanzania, spent months in the Congo, lived with gorillas on the top of mountains, climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in the winter, seen the worst of humanity in the prelude to the Rwandan genocide, canoed down the Zambezi River, hot air ballooned across the Serengeti, sailed a dhow across Lake Victoria...and been held at gunpoint more times than he cares to consider...but even with that, Africa continues to lure him back. A Savage Garden is his first novel. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Random House)

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F I C T I O N , L I T E R A RY: A WA R D S & L I S T I N G S Mateship with Birds Carrie Tiffany Picador, February 2012, 224 pages

Women’s Prize for Fiction, (previously the Orange Prize), Longlisted 2013 Miles Franklin Award, Longlisted, 2013 Stella Award, Shortlisted, 2013

A novel about young lust and mature love, Mateship with Birds is a hymn to the rhythm of country life – to vicious birds, virginal cows, adored dogs and ill-used sheep. On one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, a collection of misfits question the nature of what a family can be. PRAISE ‘not about mateship at all; it's about sex and it might just be the sweetest book about sex you will ever read’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘This is a tender and beautifully written story about lovers slowly coming together — and nearly missing each other. Carrie Tiffany’s sense of the natural world is unforgettably rich and poetic.’ The Times, UK ‘This novel is at once quietly beautiful and briskly sensual’ The Guardian, UK ‘[an] original and delightful book’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘Casually profound, evocatively descriptive, vaguely erotic but never gratuitous’ Time Out London A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Carrie Tiffany’s first novel Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005) won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book and the Western Australian Premier’s Award for Fiction, 2006. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. Rights sold include ANZ (Picador), UK (Picador), North America (Scribner), Dutch (De Arbeiderspers) and German (DTV). RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Picador Australia), UK & Commonwealth ex Canada/ANZ (Picador UK) C O -AG E N T USA: Emma Sweeney at Emma Sweeney Agency

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F I C T I O N , Y O U N G A D U LT / C R O S S O V E R Black Spring Alison Croggon Candlewick, August 2013

‘Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, BLACK SPRING reimagines the passionate story in a fantasy 19th century society sustained by wizardry and the vengeance code of vendetta. Anna spent her childhood with Damek and her volatile foster sister Lina, daughter of the Lord of the village. Lina has magical powers, and in this brutal patriarchal society women with magical powers are put to death as babies. Lina’s father, however, refuses to kill her but when vendetta explodes in their village and Lina’s father dies, their lives are changed forever. Their new guardian Masko sends Anna away and reduces Lina to the status of a servant. Damek—mad with love for Lina—attempts to murder Masko, then vanishes for several years. Anna comes home five years later to find Lina about to marry a pleasant young farmer, and witnesses Damek’s vengeful return and its catastrophic consequences. Passionate, atmospheric and haunting, BLACK SPRING will stay with readers long after they turn the final page.’ Good Reads, 5 stars KEY POINTS *Inspired by Emily Bronte’s gothic classic Wuthering Heights. *A crossover novel perfect for the Twilight readership. *Dark, brooding, romantic and beautifully written by award-winning poet Alison Croggon. *Author’s previous YA novels, the Pellinor Books, have been widely translated (see below). A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Alison Croggon is an author and award-winning poet whose work has been published extensively in anthologies and magazines internationally. She has written widely for theatre, and her plays and opera libretti have been produced all around Australia. Alison is also an editor and critic. She lives in Melbourne with her husband Daniel Keene, the playwright, and their three children. Her first series for young adults, The Pellinor Books, were published by Penguin, and rights were sold widely, including to the US (Candlewick), Germany (Luebbe), Spain (Ediciones Ambar); Portuguese, Polish and French editions were also published. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Walker, 2012), North America (Candlewick), UK (Walker), German (Luebbe)

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F I C T I O N , Y O U N G A D U LT The Reluctant Hallelujah Gabrielle Williams Penguin Australia, 2012, 228pp

Five friends. One dead guy. One helluva roadtrip. Dodie Farnshaw had enough on her plate, what with last day of high school pranks to plan and final exams coming up. That’s why she and her sister Coco didn’t notice at first that their parents were missing. Then that weird kid, Enron (not the smartest guy in the room), tells her that her parents were looking after something. Something hidden. In a basement she knew nothing about. Something a lot of people would like to get their hands on. Dodie, Coco and Enron find themselves the unlikely couriers of an ancient and precious cargo—they need to get it to Sydney, and fast. In the drains below Melbourne they’re joined by Taxi and Jones (kinda cute, actually…), a pair of misfits with nothing to lose, who will accompany them on a roadtrip like no other. But have you ever tried moving a dead guy 900 kilometres without anyone noticing? PRAISE ‘Funny, vibrant and at times incredibly moving, The Reluctant Hallelujah is a beautiful novel about finding faith in the strangest of places. With a quirky cast of characters, this novel captures a wide range of relationships and skilfully explores that time in a teenager’s life when everything is changing. Sharp, clever and surprisingly amusing for a book about a dead man, Gabrielle William’s latest YA adventure is a bittersweet story filled with characters you’ll never want to leave behind, and a road trip you’ll wish was your own.’ Bookseller & Publisher ‘The Reluctant Hallelujah is surprising and hilarious.’ Readings.com.au (Miranda, aged 15) A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Gabrielle Williams’ is the author of the much-loved Beatle Meets Destiny, a quirky romantic comedy of errors for teens. It was published in Australia (Penguin), The USA (Marshall Cavendish) and Germany (Blanvalet); films are under option to Anna Justice. It was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2010. This is Gabrielle’s second novel for young adults. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Pengiun, 2012)

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NON FICTION

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NON-FICTION, BIOGRAPHY Seduced by Logic Robyn Arianrhod Oxford University Press USA, September 2013

Isaac Newton’s Principia changed forever humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe – not with the traditional tools of theology or philosophy but with the seductive logic of mathematics. But it was feisty French aristocrat Émilie du Châtelet who played a key role in bringing Newton’s revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. Together with her lover Voltaire, Émilie – a largely self-taught scholar – personified the exciting mix of science, literature, politics and philosophy that defined the Enlightenment. A century later, in Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. Mary’s many books, and her charm, made her a legend in her own lifetime. Connected by their passion for mathematics, Mary and Émilie bring to life a defining period in science and politics, revealing the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty. PRAISE ‘An elegant and inspiring history of how scientific revolutions make their way.’ Edward Dolnick, The Clockwork Universe ‘For lovers of mathematics, this is the story of two delightful women whose translations and popularizations helped transform Newton's controversial theory of gravitation into [an accepted] natural law.’ Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, author of The Theory that Would Not Die and Prometheans in the Lab ‘It is impossible not to be caught up in Arianrhod's enthusiasm for her subject and [be] gripped from the first page.’ Weekend Australian A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Robyn Arianrhod is a writer and mathematician (she is Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University). Her first book, Einstein’s Heroes: Imagining the world through the language of mathematics, was first published by in Australia (UQP, 2003) and subsequently the UK (Icon), USA (Oxford University Press), France (Editions Dunod), Japan (Seidosha), Turkey (Pegasus Yayinlari) and Korea (Hainam). It was shortlisted for the Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's Prize for a first book of history. RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (UQP); World English Language, ex ANZ (Oxford University Press, USA)

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N O N - F I C T I O N , P E R S O N A L E S S AY S / F O O D W R I T I N G Love and Hunger: Thoughts on the Gift of Food Charlotte Wood Allen & Unwin 2012, 320pp ‘In this wonderful cookbook-cum-literary memoir, novelist Charlotte Wood evokes memory and emotion as she explains why she loves to cook and what it means to her. Slotted in among the reveries are recipes as diverse as an Elizabeth David-inspired milk-cooked pork and the hedgehog slice of a childhood in Cooma. It's a book that's satisfying to mind AND stomach.’ FEAST magazine PRAISE ‘...a joy mainly due to its simplicity and refreshing lack of self-importance - all 25 essays, from practical to reflective, and 75 bonus recipes ... her writing has a purity of heart that offers up an underlying philosophy that food connects families and friends during life's vicissitudes - in Wood's case in times of grieving, sickness and triumphs, or just for fun.’ The Age ‘Charlotte Wood’s Love & Hunger: Thoughts on the Gift of Food is in the poetic corner. [Wood] writes beautifully about food. ... No philosophy, snobbery, one-upmanship, no competing with restaurant cooks. Just a lot of honesty and admission of failings, mistakes, triumphs and pleasure.’ The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Love & Hunger manages to be a cookbook for the kitchen, a gentle read for the bedside table and a positive affirmation of the pleasure of cooking for family & friends ... This collection of 27 essays gently and sensitively explores the rich complexity and spiritual sustenance that good food with family & friends imparts to our lives. ... As one other reviewer noted, it’s rare for a cookbook to move you to tears; be warned you may succumb. ... If there is a criticism to be made, we would only want more’ Tim White, Books for Cooks bookstore ‘Author Charlotte Wood writes like a dream, wrestling with some of those common cooking conundrums, such as dealing with 'polenta paranoia', getting back your kitchen mojo and pondering just what the difference is between a chutney, a relish and a pickle. Her blog is also packed with scrumptious recipes - beetroot palak paneer, anyone?" MasterChef Magazine ‘A love of food oozes from Charlotte's every pore in this wonderful book’ Maggie Beer A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Charlotte Wood is the acclaimed Australian author of four novels. Animal People (2011) was described as ‘superb storytelling’ by The Australian and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. The Age called her ‘one of the most intelligent and compassionate novelists in Australia’. The Children (2007) was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Association’s Book of the Year, Literary Fiction; The Submerged Cathedral (2004) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in its region (2005). Her first book, Pieces of a Girl, was also shortlisted for several prizes. She writes the popular cookery blog, How to Shuck an Oyster, and her features about food and cooking have appeared in Good Weekend, SBS Feast, MasterChef, Gourmet Traveller and other magazines. www.loveandhunger.com RIGHTS SOLD Australia & New Zealand (Allen & Unwin); UK & Commonwealth (Allen & Unwin, UK) C O -AG E N T USA: Pamela Malpas, Harold Ober

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BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS FICTION

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BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS, FICTION Dog Boy Eva Hornung Text Publishing, 294pp Winner, Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction, 2010 PRAISE ‘Extraordinary. Utterly compelling.’ Yann Martel ‘A wonderful, intense and profoundly moving book from a writer of rare gifts.’ Geraldine Brooks ‘This gritty, richly imagined tale of an abandoned boy in a Moscow shantytown who comes to live with a pack of feral dogs more than lives up to its unlikely premise…Hornung knows how to wring emotion from a scene, making the bond between boy and dog deeply felt, while rarely running afoul of sentimentality. In her hands, this engrossing story becomes both an investigation into humanity and a vivid portrait of one of Russia’s millions of lost children.’ Publishers Weekly, USA ‘Dog Boy is a wonderful novel, a tour de force, morally and philosophically urgent in its core concerns.’ The Guardian, UK RIGHTS SOLD USA (Viking), UK (Bloomsbury), Canada (HarperCollins), Germany (Suhrkamp), Italy (Piemme) Netherlands (House of Books) Spain (Salamandra), Sweden (Forum), Denmark (Klim), Brazil (Paz e Terra), Portugal (Presença), Marathi (India, Mehta), France (City Editions), Russia (Centrepolygraph), Hungary (Nouvion), Chinese (Apocalypse Press), Hebrew (Aryeh Nir Publishers)

The Zookeeper’s War Steve Conte HarperCollins, 384pp Winner, Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction, 2008 It is 1943 and each night in a bomb shelter beneath the Berlin Zoo an Australian woman, Vera, shelters with her German husband, Axel, the zoo’s director. Together, Vera and Axel struggle to look after the animals through the air raids and food shortages of war. When the zoo’s staff are conscripted into the army, conscripted foreign workers are sent to replace them. At first, Vera finds the idea of forced labour abhorrent, but gradually she realises the new workers are the zoo’s only hope. Then she finds herself becoming close to one of them: a young Czech, with whom she forms an unexpected bond. In this powerful novel of a marriage and city collapsing, we confront not only the brutality of war and an occupying army, but transcendent and unexpected heroism, and an ending that is as shocking as it is deeply moving. PRAISE ‘Beautifully textured and extremely well realised…This is a clever, inspired, insightful, tension-filled drama.’ Australian Bookseller and Publisher RIGHTS SOLD ANZ (HarperCollins); UK (Quercus)

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BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS, FICTION Thought Crimes Tim Richards Black Inc, 272pp, August 2011

The stories in Thought Crimes are captivating and thought-provoking, shot through with a kind of tough whimsy: unrelated families who have struggled to conceive awaken to find babies on their doorsteps; the new teacher at a progressive high school is shocked to learn that students in her special class are being encouraged to have amputations and other surgery in order to feel whole; a medical test subject attempts to outwit his researchers. Bizarre, clever, and darkly funny, these stories are impossible to put down. PRAISE ‘Deeply unsettling, eerily prescient, unpredictable and exquisitely written. It’s also one of the best books of 2011, and deserves to be an instant cult classic...required reading for anyone doubting the power of quality fiction to engage, enrage, or empower the reader.’ Readings RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Black Inc.)

Play Abandoned Garry Disher Arcadia, August 2011, 260pp Garry Disher’s crime fiction has gripped readers the world over. In Play Abandoned, the master turns his hand to popular fiction, and a seaside town where the rhythms and rituals of the annual holidaymakers are about to be thrown into disarray. Every summer, country families load the roof racks and motor south to the Bon Accord hotel. They find order here, beside the sea. Constancy in a changeable world. But this time ladders and workmen choke the foyer. There’s ‘foreign muck’ on the menu, posters proclaiming a ‘Summer Festival of Writing’. And child abductors are lurking on the sun blasted streets, in the tricky dunes. There’s smoke in the hot inland winds. Everything’s different this time. This time Marian Parr is not complete. She knows she should not have come. As love fractures, and old certainties crumble, Marian leans grieving against a balcony post, meddling with the cosmos.

A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Garry Disher is the author of more than forty books including the Wyatt thrillers and the Challis and Destry police procedurals. He has won numerous awards including the German Crime Prize (twice) and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction (twice). RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Aracadia) Page 17


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BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS, FICTION Animal People Charlotte Wood Allen & Unwin, October, 2011, 262pp

Miles Franklin, Longlisted, 2012 Anita B Kibble, Shortlisted, 2012 Consider Stephen. Deeply harassed by modern urban life—starting with the neighbours’ lustful German shepherd—he struggles with his dead-end job, his demanding family and even best-thing-that-ever-happened-tohim Fiona. Set in Sydney over a single day, Animal People traces a watershed day in Stephen’s life. The day will bring untold surprises and disasters, but will also show Stephen what it might take to break free. Charlotte Wood brings a truly original, compassionate voice to this portrait of the connections and disconnections that knit us together. The result is a sharply observed 24-hour urban love story. PRAISE ‘This is a beautiful, resounding tale of an ordinary man flailing. It's superb storytelling.’ The Australian ‘arch, poignant and funny…When I finished, I wanted to start it all over again.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘This is a compelling and ultimately moving novel that cements Wood's place as one of the most intelligent and compassionate novelists in Australia.’ The Age RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Allen & Unwin)

The Dressmaker Rosalie Ham Duffy & Snellgrove Tilly - once Myrtle - Dunnage, a beautiful misfit and an extraordinary dressmaker, returns home after twenty years away to look after her mother, ‘old, mad Molly’. Dungatar is a small country town where the locals’ eccentricities are many and varied. In The Dressmaker, the policeman cross-dresses and everyone has their dark secrets, none more so than Tilly and her Molly. PRAISE ‘Rosalie Ham's The Dressmaker was one of those rare first novels that arrived virtually unannounced…and gathered momentum largely by word of mouth to become a bestseller and book club favourite. While it’s the social and romantic intrigue that carries the story, it’s Ham’s wickedly black humour and finely researched social observation that deliver the real joy of the book.’ The Australian RIGHTS SOLD Australia and New Zealand (Duffy & Snellgrove) Page 18


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BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS, MODERN CLASSICS

Elizabeth Jolley Selected Works Penguin Australia

‘a great master of black comedy’ literary critic Peter Craven, World Today, ABC Local Radio Born in England but based for most of her life in Western Australia, multi-award-winning novelist and short story writer, Elizabeth Jolley was best known as an experimental stylist with a streak of black humour. As the back cover of Brian Dibble’s biography of her states, ‘She wrote about hope and love in families, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and boarding houses in which unlovely and loveless people survive as best they can.’ An example to late bloomers world over, her first collection of stories wasn’t published until she was fifty-three. A WA R D S & S H O R T L I S T I N G S Jolley’s awards included the prestigious Miles Franklin in 1986 for The Well; she was also shortlisted 1998 for Lovesong (Peter Carey won that year for Jack Maggs). She won The Age Book of the Year three times - for Mr Scobie's Riddle, My Father's Moon and The Georges’ Wife - and Mr Scobie’s Riddle also won the Western Australian Premier’s Award in 1983. Jolley was awarded the Order of Australia for Services to the Arts in 1988. In1989 she won the Canada/Australia Literary Award and in 1997 was named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust (NSW). A B O U T T H E AU T H O R Elizabeth Jolley (1923-2007) wrote 15 novels and four short-story collections. Her work has received numerous awards - some are mentioned above - and has also been adapted for the stage and screen. She was also an Emeritus Professor at Curtin University in Western Australia. A long time creative writing teacher, her students included Tim Winton. Her biography Doing Life by Brian Dibble, was published by UWAP in 2008. Her work has been translated into German, Spanish, French and Italian. TITLE LIST ( I N C L U D I N G E N G L I S H L A N G UAG E R I G H T S S O L D ) The Vera Wright Trilogy (My Father’s Mooon, Cabin Fever, The George’s Wife: US, Persea Books, 2010), Learning to Dance (2006), Off the Air (1995), Another Holiday for the Prince (1996), The Travelling Entertainer (1979), Five Acre Virgin (FACP,1976), An Innocent Gentleman (ANZ, Penguin, 2001), An Accommodating Spouse (ANZ, Penguin,1999), Lovesong (ANZ, Penguin,1997), Fellow Passengers (1997), The Orchard Thieves (ANZ, Penguin,1995), The Georges’ Wife (ANZ, Penguin,1993; US, Viking, 1993), Diary of a Weekend Farmer (ANZ, FACP,1993), Cabin Fever (ANZ, Penguin, 1990; US, HarperCollins, 1991; UK, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991), My Father's Moon (ANZ, Penguin,1989; Harper & Row, 1989), The Sugar Mother (ANZ, Penguin, 1989; Harper & Row, 1988/Penguin 1989; UK, Virago, 2000), The Well (ANZ, Penguin,1986; UK, Penguin, 2009; US, Penguin,1986), Foxybaby (ANZ, UQP, 1986; US, Penguin,1984), Milk and, Honey (ANZ, FACP, 1984; UK, Viking, 1984; US, Persea, 1984), Miss Peabody’s Inheritance (ANZ, UQP,1983; US, Penguin, 1984), Mr Scobie’s Riddle (US, Penguin,1983), Woman in a Lampshade (ANZ, Penguin,1983), The Newspaper of Claremont Street (ANZ, FACP1981; US, Viking/Penguin, 1987; UK, Virago, 2000;), Palomino (ANZ, UQP, 1980).

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