AustLit

'On the goldfields of 19th-century Australia, two very different girls are trying to escape their past.

'1856, China.

'In the mulberry groves of the Pearl River Delta, eighteen-year-old Little Cat carries a terrible secret. And so, in disguise as a boy in blue trousers, she makes the long and difficult passage to Australia, a faraway land of untold riches where it is said the rivers run with gold.

'1857, Australia.

'Violet Hartley has arrived off the boat from England, fleeing scandal back home. Like the Chinese immigrants seeking their fortunes on the goldfields, Violet is seduced by the promise of a new frontier. Then she meets Little Cat, a woman who, like her, is trying to escape her past.

'As their fates inextricably, devastatingly entwine, their story becomes one of freedom, violence, love and vengeance, echoing across the landscapes of two great continents.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 1930s Malaya a sixteen-year-old girl, dreaming of marriage to her sweetheart, is sold as a concubine to a rich old man desperate for an heir. Trapped, and bullied by his spiteful wife, Yu Lan plans to escape with her baby son, despite knowing that they will pursue her to the ends of the earth. Four generations later, her great-grandson, Nick, will return to Malaysia, looking for the truth behind the facade of a house cursed by the unhappy past. Nothing can prepare him for what he will find. This exquisitely rich novel brings to life a vanished world – a world of abandoned ghost houses, inquisitive monkeys, smoky temples and a panoply of gods and demons. A world where a poor girl can be sold to fulfil a rich man's dream. But though he can buy her body, he can never capture her soul, nor quench her spirit.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Kimmi and Oliver are horrified when their parents make them move to a remote Pacific Island. Kimmi try to stay out of trouble but trouble finds her.' (Publication summary)

'Lou De Loco writes to the producers of the "Normal Australian Family" show, nominating his family to appear as the most normal family in Australia, if not the entire Southern Hemisphere. Little does Lou know that writing that letter would launch his family into the most important mystery adventure of their lives. Boofy has been kidnapped, and now it's up to the De Loco family to save him . . .' (Publication summary)