Under-Earth by Chris Gooch

$52.99 AUD

Category: Comics & Graphic Novels

The inmates of an extensive underground prison struggle to build meaningful lives in a broken system, in the most ambitious graphic novel to date from rising indie star Chris Gooch (Bottled and Deep Breaths). Under-Earth takes place in a subterranean landfill, hollowed out to serve as a massive improvi sed prison. Sunken into the trash and debris of the past -- gameboys, iphones, coffee cups, old cars -- we follow two parallel stories. In the first, a new arrival struggles to adapt to the everyday violence, physical labour, and poverty of the prison city. Overwhelmed and alone, he finds a connection with a fellow inmate through an old, beat-up novel. While these two silent and uncommunicative men grow closer thanks to their book, the stress of their environment will test their new bond. Meanwhile, a pair of thieves pull off a risky job in exchange for the prisons' schematics and the promise of escape -- only to be betrayed by their employer. On the run with their hope for escape now gone, the two women set their minds to revenge. Yet as they lay their plans, their focus shifts from an obsession with the outside world to the life they have with each other. Equal parts sincerity and violence, Under-Earth explores humanity's inextinguishable drive to find meaning, connection, and even family -- and how fragile such constructions can be. ...Show more

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

$22.99 AUD

Category: History

Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia's past is required. ...Show more

Hold Your Fire by Chloe Wilson

$32.99 AUD

Category: Books by Neighbours

Dark and dangerous, brilliantly unsettling and chillingly funny, this extraordinary debut shows us what we usually deny - the uneasy truce we make with our ruthless desires and gothic fears, and how easily it can be broken. Prize-winning author Chloe Wilson's stories will pin you to the page. 'Chilling , funny, and razor sharp - a writer in control every step of the way. How I relished this extraordinary and original collection.' Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin winner for The Eye of the Sheep First published in Granta Magazine, the title story takes us into the cold war of a contemporary family: a missile-making mother doubts her husband's guts and the steel of her son, until a playground incident escalates and brings them into the most surprising of alliances. Needle sharp, effortlessly surprising and beautifully controlled, every story is transfixing. A young couple move into a house in which there's been a recent murder, and fall under the spell of their peculiar, commanding neighbours. Two sisters are determined to detoxify themselves into perfection. A diver pushes herself and those around her to higher and higher jumps.  Interspersed with these transfixing tales are lightning strikes of flash fiction: we glimpse a leopard in the apartment next door; plants grown out of a strange and miraculous soil; the spirit of a girl who's been thrown down a well. At each turn, Chloe Wilson offers a unique insight, a tear in the veil of our comfortable moral certainties. Hold Your Fire exposes the battles we wage beneath the surface. '['Tongue-Tied'] had me uncomfortably pinned by the end of the first paragraph, and squirming by the end of the first page ... add to that delicate balance an unusual point of view, two loaded relationships, and a sharp, subtle dose of humour, and I had to pick this story.' Rebecca Makkai, in choosing 'Tongue-Tied' to win the Iowa Review Prize. 'The stories in Chloe Wilson's Hold Your Fire are full of wit, intelligence, savage humour, and dark surprises. They combine the brilliant menace of Ottessa Mossfegh with the insight and control of Helen Garner; the result is a new Australian writer who made me feel less like a reader and more like a conspirator. I was transfixed.' Fiona McFarlane, author of Miles Franklin-shortlisted The Night Guest and The High Places 'These stories are wonderfully strange, complex yet funny; they are otherworldly and unearthly but at the same time an expression of how we live in the world right now. Chloe Wilson is the magician who by her art brings to light all we usually prefer to keep hidden.' Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the Animals and In the Garden of the Fugitives   ...Show more

Ostro: Good Food. Hand Made by Julia Busuttil Nishimura

$44.99 AUD

Category: Food

'My approach to food favours intuition over strict rules and is about using your hands, rushing a little less and savouring the details. It is food that slowly weaves its way into the fabric of your daily life - food for living and sharing.' Julia Busuttil Nishimura has gained a strong and loyal followi ng for her generous, uncomplicated, seasonal food. Her interpretations of dishes from Italy and the Mediterranean feel both timelessly familiar and altogether fresh and new. This is modern Australian eating with respect for the past.Julia guides us through the uniquely satisfying experience of making pasta or pizza dough from scratch, with recipes such as ricotta tortelloni with butter, sage and hazelnuts or taleggio and potato pizza. She also shares plenty of flavourful salads and simple meals for days when time is scarce, such as roasted cauliflower and wheat salad or tray-roasted chicken with grapes, olives and walnuts. Baking and desserts, too, needn't be overly complicated. As Julia shows us, some of the best recipes are those that have been passed down the generations and streamlined to perfection along the way, such as the perfect lemon olive oil cake. But we also need the odd show-stopper like a chocolate layer cake with espresso frosting on standby for special occasions!This is simple food that is comforting and generous in spirit. Slow down, take your time and enjoy it. ...Show more

The Orchard Underground by Mat Larkin

$17.99 AUD

Category: Fiction

An explosive, suspenseful and utterly brilliant middle-grade mystery for fans of Louis Sachar's Holes.  Not-quite twelve year-old Pri Kohli knows the town of Dunn's Orchard better than anyone. After all, he was the first kid ever to live there. He knows its mysteries (none), its secrets (also none) a nd the best ways to have fun in it (climb a big tree and sit there). So why can't he answer newcomer Attica Stone's simple question: if the town's called Dunn's Orchard, where's the orchard? As Pri and Attica go in search of forbidden fruit, they uncover stranger mysteries: a robot caterpillar, a mayor with a murky past, a Possibly Real Actual Boogeyman and a house made of doors in a haunted wood. But what will Pri and Attica do when they discover the biggest secret of all - that something truly magical is about to be destroyed, and the only way to save it could be by destroying the town itself? Mat Larkin's stunning debut is a big-hearted, wildly surprising and deliciously well-plotted mystery for readers aged 8+ about the joy of discovery, and digging just that little bit deeper to uncover the truth. ...Show more

Going Down Swinging #40

$35.00 AUD

Category: Books by Neighbours

Almost a Mirror by Kirsten Krauth

$29.99 AUD

Category: Fiction

Like fireflies to the light, Mona, Benny and Jimmy are drawn into the elegantly wasted orbit of the Crystal Ballroom and the post-punk scene of 80s Melbourne, a world that includes Nick Cave and Dodge, a photographer pushing his art to the edge. With precision and richness Kirsten Krauth hauntingly evo kes the power of music to infuse our lives, while diving deep into loss, beauty, innocence and agency. Filled with unforgettable characters, the novel is above all about the shapes that love can take and the many ways we express tenderness throughout a lifetime. As it moves between the Blue Mountains and Melbourne, Sydney and Castlemaine, Almost a Mirror reflects on the healing power of creativity and the everyday sacredness of family and friendship in the face of unexpected tragedy. 'Imagine a perfect pop song covered by a hard-core punk band - Almost a Mirror will get stuck in your head in just the same way. A fierce, elegiac dissection of nostalgia, longing and loss, the novel fearlessly explores the true Janus face of art: creation and destruction, rebirth and ecstatic annihilation, trauma and remaking. The poised restraint of Kirsten Krauth's prose makes everything else out there seem overwritten.' KIRSTEN TRANTER 'Kirsten Krauth is a damn fine writer of amazing insight and empathy. I don't believe there's any character she couldn't get me to empathise with, any story she couldn't make me care deeply about.' EMILY MAGUIRE SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENGUIN LITERARY PRIZE ...Show more

Kokomo by Victoria Hannan

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian Fiction

A stunning debut novel from the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. 'Hannan's Kokomo is a sharply observed novel of one woman's facade and how it falls; an undoing that is both ordinary and compelling. This debut heralds an exciting new Australian voice with a story of estrangement from kin, friendship, love, self and country - one that will be familiar to many, and surprising, for it is often a shock to see one's reflection.' - Anna Krien, author of NIGHT GAMES and ACT OF GRACE When Mina receives an urgent call from her best friend back in Melbourne, her world is turned upside down. Her reclusive mother, Elaine, has left the house for the first time in twelve years. Mina drops everything to fly home, only to discover that Elaine will not talk about her sudden return to the world, nor why she's spent so much time hiding from it. Their reunion leaves Mina raking through pieces of their painful past in a bid to uncover the truth. Both tender and fierce, heartbreaking and funny, Kokomo is a story about how secrets and love have the power to bring us together and tear us apart. ...Show more

Anecdotal Evidence by Gayelene Carbis

$24.99 AUD

Category: Poetry

Gayelene Carbis documents family obsessions, the enduring wounds of childhood, the familial shadows that pursue and possess us, and the subtle twists and shifts in human interaction that bedevil and fracture relationships. The result is an extended meditation upon loss and longing, and human fragility, tempered by moments of humour and beauty, and lines which leap out with radiant imagery and insight. Arnold Zable Nietzsche asserted that it is much easier to write nobly than it is to write lightly and Gayelene Carbis deploys this gift of quicksilver lightness like no other I can think of in contemporary Australian theatre or poetry. Marion May Campbell What I admire especially about these poems is their emotional honesty, their clear-headedness, their vulnerability and their range: how they marry the murderous and the marvelous, to use Seamus Heaney's words. These poems understand that each of us is flawed, and they forgive us. They have that courage, and they induce it. Mark Tredinnick ...Show more

Blue Milonga by Edward Caruso

$20.00 AUD

Category: Poetry

Blue Milonga is Edward Caruso's second collection of poetry. It is a companion volume to Di alture ed altre utopie (Of heights and other utopias, written in Italian), a further exploration of intercultural meeting points, both books written during a series of visits to Latin America. The language of Blu e Milonga - moods, colours and landscapes - captures emotions and deepening connections with countries such as Argentina and Chile. This collection opens with impressionistic perspectives of Buenos Aires and takes the reader through to the ruins of the 2010 earthquake in central Chile. ...Show more

Growing Up Muslim in Australia by Amra Pajalic; Demet Divaroren

$19.99 AUD

Category: Memoir & Biography

In this refreshing and fascinating collection, twelve Muslim-Australians - some well known, some not - reveal their candid, funny and touching stories of growing up with a dual identity.

If You're Sexy and You Know It Slap Your Hams by Eloise Grills

$25.00 AUD

Category: Books by Neighbours

If you're a snack-motivated sexpot with limited critical faculties when it comes to pop culture and a tendency to overshare, clap your ass. If you're dead inside and you're crying out to be woken up there (a la Evanescence) and you really want to show it; if you're sexy and you know it slap your hams ... and then read this book. This is a good book for bad people, no judgement. A good book for people who like a procession of dog's dicks, groundhogs, asses, nose picking, depression and bisexual innuendo. A poetry collection like nothing else but actually like a lot of other things. Like chicken soup for the soul, except someone misheard and they used chicken poop instead. And now they have chicken poop instead of a soul. ...Show more