Nicholas Jose

The drama begins with a body dumped in south-western Sydney - skinned, with no face. Lewis Lin, taxi driver, photographer, recent arrival from Beijing, happens to be at the scene. With detectives Ginger Rogers and Shelley Swert in pursuit, Lin finds himself drawn into a deadly immigration racket, with a cast which includes a film-maker just in from LA, a Buddhist monk, a millionaire bachelor artist, a masseuse, a maniacal violinist, and a refugee assassin. Drawing its title from an ancient Zen koan, the novel traces the complicated manoeuvres by which people mask their identities, and the accidental pathways by which these hidden selves come to light.

Original Face

A seductive literary love story set in contemporary Shanghai, The Red Thread intertwines the lives of two pairs of lovers across the centuries. Shen, a young, American-educated appraiser in a Shanghai auction house, is captivated by Ruth, a self-possessed Australian artist who happens into one of his auctions. As they fall in love, Shen finds that their lives are strangely mirrored by those of the characters in a rare Chinese manuscript that is nearly two hundred years old, and of which the last two chapters have never been found. Shen's search for the final chapters goes from one of curiosity to one of desperation when he realizes that the future of their relationship, and the prognosis for Ruth's failing health, seem to be foretold in the missing pages. Interwoven in the novel and presented in red type are passages from the actual nineteenth century memoir Six Chapters of a Floating Life that illuminate the lovers' parallel lives. An elegant and multilayered novel, drawing comparisons with Memoirs of a Geisha and The English Patient, The Red Thread is evocative, moving, and unforgettable.

A Love Story

The Red Thread

Ideas of the Restoration in English Literature, 1660-71

Benjamin Madden

Antipodean China is a collection of essays drawn from a series of encounters between Australian and Chinese writers, which took place in China and Australia over a ten-year period from 2011. The encounters could be defensive, especially given the need to depend on translators, but as the writers spoke about the places important to them, their influences and their work, resemblances emerged, and the different perspectives contributed to a sense of common understanding, about literature and about the role of the writer in society. In some cases the communication is even more direct, as when the Tibetan author A Lai speaks knowingly about Alexis Wright's novel Carpentaria, and the two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mo Yan and J.M. Coetzee, discuss what the Nobel meant for each of them. The collection also includes writing by some of the best Chinese and Australian writers: novelists Brian Castro, Gail Jones, Julia Leigh, Yu Hua, Sheng Keyi and Liu Zhenyun, poets Kate Fagan, Ouyang Yu, Xi Chuan and Zheng Xiaoqiong, and translators Eric Abrahamsen, Li Yao and John Minford. In the current situation of hostility and suspicion between the two countries, this collection presents what may be seen, in retrospect, as an idyllic moment of communication and trust.

Reflections on Literary Exchange

Antipodean China

'A brilliant novelistic portrait of China on the brink of monumental change.' - Los Angeles Times. 'An authentic, gripping, disturbing tale of Beijing leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre.' - Advertiser. Beijing is a city of opportunity and danger when cancer specialist Wally Frith arrives there from Sydney. Chance encounters have life-changing consequences. As the doctor's journey spirals back into his own family story, memories and ghosts shadow the seductions of the present. AVENUE OF ETERNAL PEACE, a kaleidoscopic novel of healing and hope, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and filmed as CHILDREN OF THE DRAGON with Bob Peck and Lily Chen. This is a new, revised edition.

Avenue of Eternal Peace

The Possession of Amber

They wanted a love they could take into eternity.'In a small town on the Australian coast Penny grows up to marry the boy who has waited for her. Few know the truth about her birth. Her uncle Jack is one, for he shared with her father not only his childhood but also the horror of their wartime experience. Jack and Penny's special bond is as rare and precious as the beautiful nautilus shell they find washed up on the beach - entwined with its history are the secrets of their past and the tenacious passions of the other people who have had a stake in their lives.

Paper Nautilus

A brilliantly vivid tapestry of the Australian predicament, rich in possibility, but shot through with accident and revelation. Through it all breathes the ancient reality of the land: its red earth and bright air painted with the sure hand of a master.' - Simon Schama

The Custodians

Susan Trevaskes

Ye Sang

Tells the story of two extraordinary journeys, 3000 kilometres each, one in China, one in Australia. The author travelled by bicycle along the Old Yellow River and the Stuart Highway, in the never-never lands of each country, collecting stories of people and places. Includes a section of photographs of his family and early life in China. By the author, with Zhang Xinxin, of 'Chinese Lives', and the forthcoming 'The Year the Dragon Came'.

A Long March Through China and Australia

The Finish Line

This is a literary journey of an Australian writer's encounter with the culture and people of China, particularly its young writers and artists, and of the evolving influence of China on the writer's own work and life. Nicholas Jose is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. He was Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy, Beijing, between 1987 and 1990, and has taught Australian Studies in China.

Nicholas Jose

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