AustLit

'The fourth short story in Judy Nunn's Otto Bin Empire series is a heartfelt tale of love, tragedy and the universal need to belong.

'Down by the docks the homeless men and women who call themselves the ‘Otto Bin Empire’ gather together for companionship and support. But a recent newcomer always keeps himself to himself. Reginald, it turns out, is a poet and he simply wants to observe.

'Only two members of the ‘Empire’ dare to approach him: a vivacious teenage runaway named Sally, and the scruffy stray kelpie that hangs around the bins.

'Both the young woman and the dog are about to inspire Reginald’s life and work - in more ways than he ever imagined …'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Judy Nunn’s latest bestselling novel will take you from the cotton mills of England to the magnificent theatres of Melbourne, on a scintillating journey through the golden age of Australian showbusiness.

'‘So, Will, are you going to come with me and my team of merry performers to the sunny climes of Australia, where the crowds are already queuing and the streets are paved with gold?’

'In the second half of the 19th century, Melbourne is a veritable boom town, as hopefuls from every corner of the globe flock to the gold fields of Victoria.

'And where people crave gold, they also crave entertainment.

'Enter stage right: brothers Will and Max Worthing and their wives Mabel and Gertie. The family arrives from England in the 1880s with little else but the masterful talents that will see them rise from simple travelling performers to sophisticated entrepreneurs.

'Enter stage left: their rivals, Carlo and Rube. Childhood friends since meeting in a London orphanage, the two men have literally fought their way to the top and are now producers of the bawdy but hugely popular ‘Big Show Bonanza’. The fight for supremacy begins.

'Waiting in the wings: Comedy, tragedy, passion and betrayal; economic depression, the Black Death and the horrors of World War One…' (Publication summary)

'The third of Judy Nunn’s short stories featuring the citizens of the Otto Bin Empire is an inspirational tale of finding family in the unlikeliest of places . . .

‘I have no family,’ Adam said, the blue eyes in the baby face now ice-cold. ‘I have no mother and I have no father.’

'Adam is just fifteen years old when he stumbles upon the Otto Bin Empire, a community of homeless men and women who gather at the colourful wheelie bins down near the docks.

'The teenage runaway is fleeing from his violent, alcoholic father, and now has one goal: to stay lost.

'But parents can come in all shapes and sizes - as Adam is about to discover, following a chance encounter one winter night . . .'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It seems to have happened overnight, Val thought . How extraordinary. We’ve become a khaki town.

'It’s March 1942. Singapore has fallen. Darwin has been bombed. Australia is on the brink of being invaded by the Imperial Japanese Forces. And Val Callahan, publican of The Brown’s Bar in Townsville, could not be happier as she contemplates the fortune she’s making from lonely, thirsty soldiers.

'Overnight the small Queensland city is transformed into the transport hub for 70,000 American and Australian soldiers destined for combat in the South Pacific. Barbed wire and gun emplacements cover the beaches. Historic buildings are commandeered. And the dance halls are in full swing with jazz, jitterbug and jive.

'The Australian troops begrudge the confident, well-fed ‘Yanks’ who have taken over their town and their women. There’s growing conflict, too, within the American ranks, because black GIs are enjoying the absence of segregation. And the white GIs don't like it.

'As racial violence explodes through the ranks of the military, a young United States Congressman, Lyndon Baines Johnson, is sent to Townsville by his president to investigate. ‘Keep a goddamned lid on it, Lyndon,’ he is told, ‘lest it explode in our faces …’'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The second of Judy Nunn’s captivating short stories featuring the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks, is a heart-warming tale of friendship and community.

'For eight years now Oskar the Pole has been a widower. As a homeless vagrant, pushing a supermarket trolley through the streets of life, he cuts a lonely figure.

'But Oskar has a talent. He can play chess, and he can play it well.

'Every afternoon, at the giant chessboard in the park, Oskar becomes a star, a master, the undefeated champion . . .

'The second of Judy Nunn’s captivating short stories featuring the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks, is a heart-warming tale of friendship and community.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'On a barren island off the coast of Western Australia, a rickety wooden dinghy runs aground. Aboard are nine people who have no idea where they are. Strangers before the violent storm that tore their vessel apart, the instinct to survive has seen them bond during their days adrift on a vast and merciless ocean.

'Fate has cast them ashore with only one thing in common . . . fear. Rassen the doctor, Massoud the student, the child Hamid and the others all fear for their lives. But in their midst is Jalila, who appears to fear nothing. The beautiful young Yazidi woman is a mystery to them all.

'While they remain undiscovered on the deserted island, they dare to dream of a new life . . .

'But forty kilometres away on the mainland lies the tiny fishing port of Shoalhaven. Here everyone knows everyone, and everyone has their place. In Shoalhaven things never change.

Until now . . .' (Synopsis)

'Master storyteller Judy Nunn has now sold over 1 million books worldwide. In her spellbinding new bestseller she takes us on a breathtaking journey deep into the red heart of Australia.

'It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a long-lived vision to create the 'backbone of the continent', a line that will finally link Adelaide with the Top End.

'But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is Aboriginal land.

'Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure the Elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It's not easy to keep the peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never.

'When the paths of Jessica and Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback . . .' (Publication summary)

'The Otto Bin Empire: Clive's Story is a tellingly poignant short story from bestselling author Judy Nunn.

'To the members of the Otto Bin Empire – the homeless men and women who gather around the plastic bins near the docks – Clive is an enigmatic addition to their ranks. Intelligent, healthy and always well presented, even Clive struggles to understand why he finds himself at the bottom of the barrel. How did it happen?

‘I’m just a bloke going through a period of adjustment,’ he tells himself, ‘I’ll be back on my feet soon.’

'But as the weeks turn into months Clive slowly adjusts to his circumstances. He finds tolerance, acceptance and friendship and slowly begins to see humanity in its purest light . . .'

Source : publisher's blurb

'In 1881 ‘Big Jim' Durham, an English soldier of fortune and profiteer, ruthlessly creates for Elianne Desmarais, his young French wife, the finest of the great sugar mills of the Southern Queensland cane fields, and names it in her honour.

'The massive estate becomes a self-sufficient fortress, a cane-consuming monster and home to hundreds of workers, but ‘Elianne' and its masters, the Durham Family, have dark and distant secrets; secrets that surface in the wildest and most inflammatory of times, the 1960s.

'For Kate Durham and her brothers Neil and Alan, freedom is the catchword of the decade.Young Australians leap to the barricades of the social revolution. Rock ‘n' roll, the Pill, the Vietnam War, the rise of Feminism, Asian immigration and the Freedom Ride join forces to rattle the chains of traditional values.

'The workers leave the great sugar estates as mechanisation lessens the need for labour. And the Durham family, its secrets exposed, begins its fall from grace... ' (Publisher's blurb)

Floodtide 'traces the fortunes of four men and four families over four memorable decades: The prosperous post-war 1950s when childhood is idyllic and carefree in the small, peaceful city of Perth . . . The turbulent 60s when youth is caught up in the conflict of the Vietnam War and free love reigns . . . The avaricious 70s when Western Australia's mineral boom sees the rise of a new young breed of aggressive entrepreneurs . . . The corrupt 80s and the birth of 'WA Inc', when the alliance of greedy politicians and powerful businessmen brings the state to its knees, even threatening the downfall of the federal government.

'Each of the four who travel this journey has a story to tell. An environmentalist fights to save the primitive and beautiful Pilbara coast from the careless ravaging of mining conglomerates; a Vietnam War veteran rises above crippling injuries to discover a talent that gains him an international reputation; and an ambitious geologist joins forces with a hard-core businessman to lead the way in the growth of Perth from a sleepy town to a glittering citadel. But, as the 90s ushers in a new age when innocence is lost, all four are caught up in the irreversible tides of change, and actions must be answered for.' (Publisher's blurb)

'They Came To Change The Course Of A River . . . And Changed The Course Of Their Lives.

'It was a time when refugees seized with both hands the chance for freedom; a time when people of more than seventy nations gathered beneath the Southern Cross to forge a new national identity. From war-torn Europe, they came to the mountains of Australia to realise one man's dream, and in so doing realised their own.

'The mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, regarded by many as the greatest engineering feat of the 20th Century, was built with pride from the sweat and blood of displaced people. They were called New Australians. One was 'Lucky', a German Jew seeking refuge in Australia after losing his family in the horror that was known as Endlosung, 'The Final Solution' of Hitler's Third Reich. Another was Pietro, a young Italian immigrant in search of a new life in a strange country far from the mountains of his childhood which harboured a deadly secret. And then there was the woman from Israel, the woman with a past so steeped in horror that no matter how far she ran, she would never escape the nightmare of Auschwitz or the massacre of Deir Yassin.'(Publication summary)