Jane Rawson

Winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and nominated for the Miles Franklin Award.A novel of strange and wonderful imagination, imbued with beauty and feeling, existential loneliness and a deep awareness of the interdependence of all life.When George Hills was pulled from the wreck of the steamship Admella, he carried with him memories of a disaster that claimed the lives of almost every other soul on board. Almost every other soul.Because as he clung onto the wreck, George wasn't alone: someone else - or something else - kept George warm and bound him to life. Why didn't he die, as so many others did, half-submerged in the freezing Southern Ocean? And what happened to his fellow survivor, the woman who seemed to vanish into thin air?George will live out the rest of his life obsessed with finding the answers to these questions. He will marry, father children, but never quite let go of the feeling that something else came out of the ocean that day, something that has been watching him ever since. The question of what this creature might want from him - his life? his first-born? to simply return home? - will pursue him, and call him back to the ocean once again.Blending genres, perspectives and worlds, Jane Rawson's From the Wreck is a chilling and tender story about how fiercely we cling to life, and how no one can survive on their own."The power of this singular novel lies in Rawson's ability to meld seemingly disparate narrative elements into a convincing whole that movingly explores themes of loss, loneliness and guilt." - The Guardian "This strange story of love and loneliness, which explores how we all long to belong, is simply wonderful." - Daily Mail "Striking...What Rawson has ingeniously forged with From the Wreck is something approaching an old-fashioned historical yarn spliced with Cronenbergian body horror." - The Sydney Morning Herald "Absorbing...Full of deep currents and lurking fears." -Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Children of Time

From the Wreck

It is 1997 in San Francisco and Simon and Sarah have been sent on a quest to see America: they must stand at least once in every 25-foot square of the country. Decades later, in an Australian city that has fallen on hard times, Caddy is camped by the Maribyrnong River, living on small change from odd jobs, ersatz vodka and memories. She's sick of being hot, dirty, broke and alone. Caddy's future changes shape when her friend, Ray, stumbles across some well-worn maps, including one of San Francisco, and their lives connect with those of teenagers Simon and Sarah in ways that are unexpected and profound. A meditation on happiness - where and in what place and with who we can find our centre, a perceptive vision of where our world is headed, and a testament to the power of memory and imagination, this is the best of novels: both highly original and eminently readable. 'A free-range and funny apocalyptic time-space road trip, with James M. Cain, J. G. Ballard, and Tom Robbins all fighting for the wheel.' Steven Amsterdam, author of Things We Didn't See Coming and What the Family Needed. 'I thoroughly loved this book. I know so much more about the present and the future. Melbourne looks great as a ruined tropical mega shanty town − I can't wait. This must be the first of a new genre-or it's the wrecking of a few old ones. Film-like, dream-like, life-like. Funny, and charming.' Dave Graney , author of 1001 Australian Nights

A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists

Winner of the 2015 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize Lives turned upside down by a bureaucratic error in this Kafkaesque work of neo-absurdism. 'Original, intelligent and compelling - a rare combination. Formaldehyde pulls off a complex narrative with frequent time and point-of-view shifts without ever losing the reader. For a novella that borders on the Kafkaesque, it has a good deal of heart. The interconnecting stories are handled adroitly - the clever structure never gets in the way of the writing, which is sharply observed, assured and witty. Smart but never showy. The most original novel I've read for some time.' - Graeme Simsion 'Immerse yourself in Jane Rawson's Formaldehyde if you like the seriously weird or the creepily wonderful. This story has small but persistent claws; under cover of its smooth, conversational narration you will be clasped and dragged into some tough, strange places. Let it take you there. Let it blow your tiny mind.' - Margo Lanagan 'Skipping across different times and genres, Formaldehyde is a wonderfully strange and inventive story of love, loss and severed limbs.' - Ryan O'Neill

Formaldehyde

Neal Bedford

Matt Warren

Sample the beers, taste the high life, feast on the architecture - and when you've had your fill, chill out in the spa towns, discover the fairy-tale castles and breathe deep in Slovakia's glorious mountain scenery. Whether you want to party in Prague or hike in the High Tatras, you can connect with the heart of Europe through this inspiring guide.

Czech & Slovak Republics

Ben Walter

Essays, stories and poems on Tasmanians' changing relationship with nature. This book is published to celebrate the Tasmanian Land Conservancy's 20th birthday

Essays, Stories and Poems on Tasmanians' Changing Relationship with Nature

Breathing Space

James Whitmore

Climate change has arrived, and it's not going away. In the absence of effective world action, global warming is certain to continue. The Handbook is not another book about climate change science or politics. Rather it is an intelligent guide, and a potential ground breaker, for all of us who feel helpless in the face of government disagreement, and want to know in a practical way what we can do now. Not only will The Handbook help you prepare for increased droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves, it will provide you with stories and advice from individuals who are already quietly doing amazing things. Jane Rawson and James Whitmore, previously Environment editors for The Conversation, look at how to establish your risk and face your fears; where to live and with whom; and how to survive heat, fire and flood. They investigate ways to provide your own food, power and water, make sure you can still get around, and get rid of your waste and sewage. They talk about new ways to think about home and possessions, the sadness of living through climate change, and how, for both individual and common good, we might positively change the way we live. The Handbook is both practical and philosophical. It can be read cover-to-cover, or dipped into when you need specific advice. It can help you plan and execute a strategy to deal with the effects of climate change. It might change your life. But it should also make you ask, does it really have to be this way?

Jane Rawson

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