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EExclusive extract from The Scandal of the Season (Random House Australia) by Sophie Gee. Arabella Fermor was looking at herself in the glass, considering on which side of her cheek the morning’s beauty patch should be placed. She stepped back so that Betty, her maid, could tighten the robings on her stays. Arabella’s lapdog, Shock, […]

Exclusive extract from This Way to the Sea by Gillian Nicholson. Bindi’s vanished, so Christo gives her a whistle. We hear her crashing through the bush before we see her parting a sea of tall grass as she runs to us. She throws herself onto the lawn at our feet, grunting and rolling and wiping […]

Exclusive extract fromShearwater(Viking) by Andrea Mayes. In that place, the birds come and go in great clouds, and the season turns at the rush of grey wings. Through spring and summer dusk falls to their rhythm, and in the winter, the land is bereft, hushed and waiting for their return. These are the shearwaters, mutton-birds, […]

Exclusive extract from Blind Submission (Allen and Unwin) by Debra Ginsberg. “Well, why don’t we sit down and get started?” Lucy said, gesturing for me to sit on the couch. Craig positioned himself on a chair next to me, holding a legal pad on his lap. Lucy sat down next to me, so close our […]

Exclusive extract from From Baghdad, With Love (Pan Macmillan Australia) by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman. I don’t remember exactly when I got to the house that served as our command post in the north-west sector of Fallujah, and I don’t remember exactly how I got there. I remember being exhausted, the tiredness weighing more heavily […]

Exclusive extract from The Consequences of Marriage by Isla Dewar (Headline). These days, the allotment, with its winding brick paths, small white picket fences and vibrant flowerbeds, was a little neglected. Weeds had pushed up through the cracks in the path, and the small shed where the tools were kept, and where Bibi sat by […]

Exclusive extract from The Valley by Di Morrisey (Pan Macmillan Australia). Dani was glad they were in Helen’s old station wagon as the back roads were dirt and gravel. She could hardly believe the beauty of the gullies and hills, and every so often a vista of green river. She took photos of old houses […]

Exclusive extract from Belly Dancing for Beginners by Liz Byrski (published by Pan Macmillan Australia). Gayle had cried so long and so hard that her face burned, her throat ached and her body felt drained by the intensity of her emotions. She had wept for the loss of her daughter, the yawning gap of the […]

Exclusive extract from Listen by Kate Veitch (published by Viking/Penguin). They were plump, meaty birds, Rosemarie admitted grudgingly as she shoved in handfuls of stuffing. The rich creamy-yellow colour of the plucked skin was testament to their short but happy lives, in a generous yard with good food and plenty of it, and they would […]

An exclusive extract from Three Bags Full(Doubleday) by Leonie Swann. ‘He was healthy yesterday,’ said Maude. Her ears twitched nervously. ‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ pointed out Sir Ritchfield, the oldest ram in the flock. ‘He didn’t die of an illness. Spades are not an illness.’ The shepherd was lying in the green Irish grass beside […]