Christie Nieman

"Seventeen-year-old Anna is running into the night. Fleeing her boyfriend, her mother, and everything she has known. She is travelling into the country, to the land and the grandparents she has never met, looking for answers to questions that have never been asked. For every family has secrets. But some secrets - once laid bare - can never be forgiven." -- Publisher's website.

Where We Begin

Liane Moriarty

Miriam Sved

Maggie Scott

Natalie Kon-yu

Maya Linden

'When are you having children?' 'Why didn't you have another child?' 'Well, I guess that's your choice, but...' They are questions asked of women of a certain age all the time. Beneath them is the assumption that all women want to have children, and the judgment that if they don't, they'll be somehow incomplete. And that's only the beginning... Being a mother, or not being a mother, has never been so complicated. The list of rights and wrongs gets longer daily, with guilt-ridden mothers struggling to keep on top of it all, and non-mothers battling a culture that defines women by their wombs. In this collection of fiction and non-fiction stories, Australian women reflect on motherhood: how it should be and how it really is. Their stories tackle everything from the decision not to have children to the so-called war between working and stay-at-home mums. Including special contributions by Rosie Batty and Deborra-Lee Furness, the stories explore every topic from infertility and IVF, to step-parenting and adoption, to miscarriage and breastfeeding, child meltdowns and marriage breakdowns, as well as giving a much-needed voice to those who won't ever be called 'Mum'. With its unflinching honesty and clear-eyed wisdom, Mothers & Others holds a mirror up to the most romanticised, demonised and complex roles women play: those of mother or non-mother, and daughter.

Mothers and Others

A bush fire, and its aftermath, links a Bush-Stone curlew and three teenagers experiencing loss, love and change.The fire was fast and hot ... only days after it went through, there were absolutely no birds left. I should have seen it as an omen, the birds all leaving like that. Robin is a self-confessed bird-nerd from the country, living in the city. On the first day at her new school, she meets Delia. Delia is freaky and definitely not good for Robin's image.Seth, Delia's brother, has given up school to prowl the city streets. He is angry at everything, especially the fire that killed his mother.When a rare and endangered bird turns up in the city parklands, the lives of Robin, Seth and Delia become fatefully and dangerously intertwined ... An intricate love story about nature, grief, friendship and life.Beautiful, poignant, with wonderfully original characters and a unique blend of time and place.MELINA MARCHETTA

As Stars Fall

In north-eastern Victoria, bush-covered hills erupt into flames. A Bush Stone-curlew escapes the fire but a woman studying the endangered bird does not. When Robin's parents split up after the fire, her mother drags her from the country to a new life in the ugly city. Robin misses her dog, her best-friend, the cows, trees, creek, bushland and, especially, the birds. Robin is a self-confessed, signed-up, card-carrying bird-nerd. Just like her dad. On the first day at her new school, Robin meets Delia. She's freaky, a bit of a workaholic, and definitely not good for Robin's image. Delia's older brother Seth has given up school to prowl the city streets. He is angry at everything, but mostly at the fire that killed his mother. When the Bush Stone-curlew turns up in the city parklands next to Seth and Delia's house the three teenagers become inextricably linked. Soon their lives are circling tighter and tighter around each other, and the curlew.

'An extremely important anthology' Tracey Spicer In October 2017, the hashtag MeToo went viral. Since then we've watched controversy erupt around Geoffrey Rush, Germaine Greer and Junot Díaz. We've talked about tracking the movement back via Helen Garner, Rosie Batty and Hannah Gadsby. We've discussed #NotAllMen, toxic masculinity and trolls. We've seen the #MeToo movement evolve and start to accuse itself - has it gone too far? Is it enough? What does it mean in this country? And still, women are not safe from daily, casual sexual harassment and violence. In this collection thirty-five contributors share their own #MeToo stories, analysis and commentary to survey the movement in an Australian context. This collection resists victimhood. It resists silence. It insists on change. Timmah Ball # Arielle Cottingham # Alison Croggon # Carly Findlay # Sarah Firth # Eugenia Flynn # Ginger Gorman # Jenna Guillaume # Liz Hall-Downs # Nicole Hayes # Shakira Hussein # Eleanor Jackson # Kath Kenny # Natalie Kon-yu # Sylvie Leber # Rebecca Lim # Jenni Mazaraki # Fleur McDonald # Christie Nieman # Greta Parry # Rashmi Patel # Fiona Patten # Ruby Pivet # Natasha Rai # Candy Royalle # Kerri Sackville # Simone Sheridan and Ailsa Wild # Maggie Scott # Harriet Shing # Miriam Sved # Maria Takolander # Heather Taylor-Johnson # Helen Thurloe # Kaya Wilson PRAISE FOR #METOO 'For the Australian #MeToo movement, this book feels like both war-cry and manifesto - a comfort, a realisation and a reckoning.' Maxine Beneba Clarke '#MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in positively transforming our workplaces, relationships, and wider culture.' Australian Book Review 'Pour yourself a glass of wine or a cup of tea and buckle up, you will be moved, and maybe to action.' Arts Hub Australia 'This is a brave book. It wades into all the difficult areas...' The Conversation

Christie Nieman

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