THE LACUNA BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER, FABER & FABER, $23.99. A lacuna is a blank space, like the missing part of a jigsaw, and a title well-chosen for this fascinating novel and winner of the 2010 Orange Prize. It tells the story of dreamy young Harrison – son of a flamboyant Mexican mother and largely absent […]

THE SNOWMAN BY JO NESBØ, RANDOM HOUSE, $32.95. “Guaranteed cooler than Stieg Larsson,” says the cover sticker. Who could resist? Nesbø is Norway’s gun crime writer and with this – his fifth novel to be translated into English – he has broken big, proving there’s life in the old serial-killer genre yet. Distinguishing this one […]

THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER BY JOJO MOYES, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $32.99. The Last Letter From Your Lover is a perfectly executed love story. It weaves together two tales: that of present-day journalist Ellie and wealthy 1960s housewife Jennifer. Ellie is in a less-than-perfect relationship with a married man when she discovers a beautiful […]

THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE BY JULIE ORRINGER, VIKING, $32.95. Hate, war and the machine of corrupt bureaucracy take Julie Orringer’s finely drawn characters and fling them cruelly into the hands of fate. The Invisible Bridge begins in 1937, when sensitive student Andras Levi leaves Budapest to study architecture in Paris. His financial struggles and the difficulties […]

THE RED QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY, SIMON & SCHUSTER, $36. We all love a Tudor and since, for the time being, we’ve bled Henry VIII and his wives and daughters dry, we turn to his paternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort. At age 14, she gave birth to the last male of the once mighty House of […]

THE BOTTICELLI SECRET BY MARINA FIORATO, ALLEN & UNWIN, $32.99. A man and a young woman race to decode the secrets of a painting, while pitched against a powerful secret society and trailed by a freakish assassin. Yes, it’s all a bit The Da Vinci Code, but The Botticelli Secret is a lot more fun […]

WILDFLOWER HILLBY KIMBERLEY FREEMAN, HACHETTE AUSTRALIA, $32.99. “The worst mistake we can make about old people is to forget they were young once,” says award-winning women’s fiction writer, Kimberley Freeman. And so, in her latest novel, she heads up into the attic and opens up Grandma Beattie’s old memory box to discover a poignant chapter […]

HOMECOMINGBY CATHY KELLY, HARPERCOLLINS, $32.99. Seventy years after leaving Ireland, Eleanor Levine, now a famous psychoanalyst, returns to her homeland. She becomes drawn into the lives of three women: beautiful young actress Megan, who is in hiding after an affair became public; Rae, a pillar of the community with a secret past; and Connie, a […]

Hell On The Way To Heaven, BY CHRISSIE FOSTER WITH PAUL KENNEDY, BANTAM AUSTRALIA, $34.95. Chrissie Foster’s experience is almost beyond belief. Two of her three daughters were abused by a paedophile priest, leading to the suicide of one and the secret alcoholism of another, who was severely disabled in a drunken car accident. The […]

The Confessions Of Catherine De Medici, BY C.W. GORTNER, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $32.99. A riveting first person account of the extraordinary life of Florentine-born Caterina (Catherine) de Medici, 14-year-old bride of the 14-year-old Duke of Orleans, later crowned King Henry II of France, to whom she bore three kings among her seven children. In spite […]