This month's must read:
We Must Be Brave
Frances Liardet $35
A woman, a war, and a child that changed everything. Spanning the sweep of the 20th century, this is a luminous and profoundly moving novel about the people we rescue and the ways in which they rescue us back.
She was fast asleep on the back seat of the bus. Curled up, thumb in mouth. Four, maybe five years old. I turned around. The last few passengers were shuffling away from me down the aisle to the doors. ‘Whose is this child?’ I called. Nobody looked back.
December, 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, the city’s residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl sleeping, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband Selwyn had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all. But with the end of the fighting comes the realisation that Pamela was never theirs to keep... A story of courage and kindness, hardship and friendship, We Must Be Brave explores the fierce love we feel for our children and the astonishing power of that love to endure.
The Orchardist’s Daughter
Karen Viggers $33
From the author of the popular bestsellers The Lightkeeper’s Wife and The Grass Castle. Sixteen-year-old Mikaela has grown up isolated and homeschooled on an apple orchard in south-eastern Tasmania, until an unexpected event shatters her family. Eighteen months later, she and her older brother Kurt are running a small business in a timber town. Miki longs to make connections and spend more time in her beloved forest, but she is kept a virtual prisoner by Kurt, who leads a secret life of his own. When Miki meets Leon, another outsider, things slowly begin to change. But the power to stand up for yourself must come from within. And Miki has to fight to uncover the truth of her past and discover her strength and spirit. Set in the old-growth eucalypt forests and vast rugged mountains of southern Tasmania, The Orchardist’s Daughter is an uplifting story about friendship, resilience and finding the courage to break free.
The Age of Light
Whitney Scharer $35
“I’d rather take a photograph than be one,” says Lee Miller, shortly after she arrives in Paris in 1929. Gorgeous and talented, Lee has left behind a successful modelling career at Vogue to pursue her dream of being an artist. There she catches the eye of the famous Surrealist artist Man Ray. An egotistical, charismatic force, Lee is drawn to him immediately. Though he initially wants to use her as a model, Lee is determined to become Man’s photography assistant instead. As their personal and professional lives become further entwined, Lee is consumed by two desires: to become a famous photographer and to have a healthy and loving relationship. But as Lee asserts herself and moves from being a muse to an artist, Man’s jealousy spirals out of control, and their mutual betrayals threaten to destroy them both. Richly detailed and filled with a cast of famous characters, The Age of Light is a captivating historical novel about ambition, love, and the personal price of making art. In exploring Lee’s complicated and fascinating history, Whitney Scharer has brought a brilliant and pioneering artist out of the shadow of a man’s story and into the light.
The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers
Kerri Turner $32
Petrograd, 1914. A country on a knife edge. This is the story of two people caught in the middle – with everything to lose... Valentina Yershova’s position in the Romanovs’ Imperial Russian Ballet is the only thing that keeps her from the clutches of poverty. With implacable determination, she has clawed her way through the ranks, relying not only on her talent but her alliances with influential men that grant them her body, but never her heart. Then Luka Zhirkov – the gifted son of a factory worker – joins the company, and suddenly everything she has built is put at risk. For Luka, being accepted into the company fulfils a lifelong dream. But in the eyes of his proletariat father, it makes him a traitor. As civil war tightens its grip and the country starves, Luka is torn between his growing connection to Valentina and his guilt for their lavish way of life. For the Imperial Russian Ballet has become the ultimate symbol of Romanov indulgence, and soon the lovers are forced to choose: their country, their art or each other... The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers is a powerful novel of revolution, passion and just how much two people will sacrifice.
DID YOU MISS SOME OF OUR TOP CHRISTMAS FICTION SELLERS?
BRIDGE OF CLAY by Marcus Zusak • MILKMAN by Anna Burns
THE PEARL THIEF by Fiona McIntosh • A KEEPER by Graham Norton
PRAGUE SPRING by Simon Mawer • UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver
NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney • TRANSCRIPTION by Kate Atkinson
THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper • PARIS ECHO by Sebastian Faulks
THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER by Kate Morton
A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN by Therese Anne Fowler
LOVE IS BLIND by William Boyd • FRIEDA by Annabel Abbs
