AustLit

'Critics and readers alike have long commented on Charlotte Wood's acute ability to dissect sibling relationships in her novels. Life-long resentments, tensions, alliances and affections between brothers and sisters play out in her books to brilliant effect.

'Here, Charlotte brings her skills to an anthology of stories by well-known and new writers - Tony Birch, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Robert Drewe, Ashley Hay, Cate Kennedy, Nam Le, Roger McDonald, Paddy O'Reilly, Virginia Peters, Michael Sala, Christos Tsiolkas, Charlotte Wood - who have written about an element of sister/brother relationships, both in fictional and non-fictional forms.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Renowned novelist and creative non-fiction writer, Robert Drewe teams up with internationally acclaimed poet John Kinsella, to explore a common geography in poetry and prose.

'Sand is quintessentially Australian. It is a property from which many of our stories, assumptions and geographical reckonings are drawn. For Drewe and Kinsella, it evokes the memories - both personal and cultural - that inspire the writing in this book. Digging into its shifting foundations, the authors use their own lives to explore the importance of sand in the Australian psyche.' (From the publisher's website.)

'In The Best Australian Stories 2010, Cate Kennedy presents a seductive line-up of the year's most exciting short fiction, featuring the best work from publications around the country alongside pieces published here for the first time. ...

By turns playful, heart-wrenching, intimate and exuberant, these twenty-nine stories reveal the strength and variety of Australian fiction today. The authors include first-timers as well as established masters, and the result is a stimulatingly diverse collection. ' (From the Publisher's website)

'The long-awaited new collection of short stories from Australia’s master of the short-story genre.

'An artist marooned on a remote island in the Arafura Sea contemplates his survival chances. He understands his desperate plight and the ocean’s unrelenting power. But what is its true colour?

'A beguiling young woman nurses a baby by a lake while hiding brutal scars. Uneasy descendants of a cannibal victim visit the Pacific island of their ancestor’s murder. A Caribbean cruise of elderly tourists faces life with wicked optimism.

'Witty, clever, ever touching and always inventive, the eleven stories in The True Colour of the Sea take us to many varied coasts: whether a tense Christmas holiday apartment overlooking the Indian Ocean or the shabby glamour of a Cuban resort hotel.

'Relationships might be frayed, savaged, regretted or celebrated, but here there is always the life-force of the ocean – seducing, threatening, inspiring.

'In The True Colour of the Sea, Robert Drewe – Australia’s master of the short story form – makes a gift of stories that tackle the big themes of life: love, loss, desire, family, ageing, humanity and the life of art. '  (Publication summary)