Showing titles in Australia, New Zealand & Oceania

King David Kalākaua introduces us to the people upon whom the legend of the Pele family is based. They departed Samoa as war refugees in the 12th century, settling in the foothills of Mauna Loa. As earthquakes and eruptions occurred during their interactions with the Hawaiians, this family of kahuna were accorded what the king described as “unique sanctity and power”. Pele was as mighty as she was beautiful. The tales of the volcano goddess earned the attention of Kamapuaa, the outcast son of the chief of Oahu who terrorized the island with his band of renegades.

The fifth and final volume of poetry by the author of Wild Cat Falling was originally published in India in 2013. There are 45 poems from the Master of the Ghost Dreaming, as he reels and sways through his long held interest in Buddhism and the Blues. While still writing about rejuvenation and the great cycles of Life, there is a strong awareness of finality, of passing on, of Death. Always lyrical, this is a wonderful offering from the award-winning poet.

If you intend on a new start, avoiding the fractal vise of old entanglements, Escaping the Timeline is a restorative collection of poetry exploring the path between doing no harm and taking no crap.

Spanning several centuries of history in the Pacific, The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People is a collection of Hawaiian stories that were preserved through the ages by oral tradition and documented for posterity by King David Kalākaua in 1887. This massive tome recalls the tales of chiefs and kings, explorers and pirates, prophets, sorceresses, and renegades. This is the first in a series of 22 parts.

Widowed and at a crossroads in her life, Sandra Porter knows she must find the courage to find her true self. Deciding it's time to push her boundaries, she makes a booking to trek the Larapinta Walk across the centre of the remote Northern Territory. Renowned nature photographer Graysen Hughes has come to the outback seeking solace after the death of his wife. Always a loner, Graysen isn't happy when the tour guide insists on the participants walking in pairs. After a suspicious accident and the sudden disappearance of their guide, the group struggles on.

Romance and adventure collide in Australia's exotic outback as a deadly storm and a deadly killer wreak havoc on the occupants of of an isolated toxicology lab cut off from immediate respite or rescue.

Unlike the other verse novels of C. J. Dennis, this collection of 13 poems is focused on political satire. The action is set in the society of an arboreal race, known as Glugs, and described by the author "stupid race of docile folk". Among the targets of Dennis's mocking scrutiny are free trade, social conformity, and extravagant bureaucracy.

Capturing everyday lives and exceptional dreams, Australian novels have held up a mirror to the nation, reflecting the good and the bad. Touching on colonial invasion, the bush myth, world wars, mass migration, the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and the emergence of a modern global, multicultural nation, Carl examines how these pivotal events and persuasive ideas have shaped some of Australia's most influential novels and how these books, in turn, made us.

The poetry collection called Firefly Zodiac has a focus on the big picture, our planet Earth, our galaxy, and constellations beyond. Fiona telescopes space and time into our view, giving a fresh perspective on everyday events. Surprise is an element of her poetry, as well as refreshment of the senses. Fiona is passionate about human relationships and the natural world. She transcends the boundaries between the seen and unseen, tangible and intangible. The listener becomes a space traveler. The poems hover between the terrestrial and the celestial.

Congo, 1964. Australienne de vingt-cinq ans, Anna Emerson retourne sur sa terre natale du Congo, pour se rendre au chevet de son père mourant, Karl, qu'elle n'a pas vu depuis dix-huit ans. Les retrouvailles sont brèves et, au lendemain de sa mort, un nouveau choc attend la jeune femme : Karl n'est pas son père biologique.

Life, love, and work intertwine with nature and a unique series of poems, in Tom's revised edition of his successful book of poetry. No matter what the day-to-day challenges are, as life unfolds, Tom shows us - through his poetry - that life is about enjoying what we can in every single moment.

Flloyd Kennedy's first collection of poems, songs, and stories have been gathered together in much the same way as she has lived her life - moving from place to place when the need arises, stopping to take note of the chaos and the kindness she encounters, and sharing her ideas with a dry Aussie sense of the ridiculous. She writes about her personal experience of life, not as memoir but as a means of making some kind of sense of life in general.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Azaria Poems.

From teenage memories of staying with a cross-dressing cousin in Sydney, to estranged siblings scattering the ashes of a family member, not to mention perplexing encounters in Jordan, these eight stories reflect on family, friendship, desire, and belonging in a queer world. Ashley Sievwright is the author of the novels The Shallow End (Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Novel) and Walter.

Une comédie romantique, cosmique et drôle. Les fans de "Love Actually" vont être ravis ! Comme tous les Verseau, Nick croit à sa bonne étoile : un jour, il deviendra un comédien célèbre. Il lui suffit, pour cela, de suivre à la lettre les recommandations de son horoscope. Ce qu'il ignore, en revanche, c'est que Justine, son amour d'enfance depuis longtemps perdue de vue, œuvre comme stagiaire au journal L'Étoile.

While We Wait is a collection of poems extracted from the author's blog of the same name and is largely inspired by her work, her faith, and the nature in and around Sydney.

This is is the second of the verse novels by C.J. Dennis and was published in 1916. It describes the adventures of Ginger Mick, a rough and ready associate of Bill, the major character of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. After starting life on the criminal fringes of the dubious neighbourhood of Spadger's Lane, Mick signs up for service in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, where he dies a hero's death.

Doreen is a verse-novel by renowned Australian poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). As one of the sequels to the 1915 verse-novel, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, it continues to follow the family capers of Bill and Doreen along with their young son. Originally published in 1917, Doreen is a classic work of Australian poetry.

L'éblouissant retour de l'auteure de "La Mémoire des embruns". Miki, dix-sept ans, vit coupée du monde depuis l'incendie qui a coûté la vie à ses parents. Sous le joug de son frère Kurt, un chrétien fondamentaliste, elle travaille comme serveuse dans leur restaurant et le soir, se rêve en héroïne de romans. Lors d'une escapade secrète en forêt, elle fait la rencontre de Leon, un garde forestier tout juste installé en Tasmanie. Les deux jeunes gens se donnent alors une mission extraordinaire : sauver les diables de Tasmanie de l'extinction.

The poetry was in the prose; it stayed and sprung its rhythms, chorded its ideas, concentrated its images. Every other novel claims to be written in 'poetic prose'; the real thing, when you come across it, is actually shocking. Nam Le takes the listener on a thrilling intellectual ride in this sharp, bold essay. Encompassing identity politics, metaphysics, the relationship between life and art, and the ‘Australianness’ of Malouf’s work, it is unlike anything else written about one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers.