The Untethered Sky is a new novella from Fonda Lee, the author of the electrifying Green Bone Saga. If you’re unfamiliar, that saga is an epic, action-packed magical-family-drama in a gangster metropolis. The Untethered Sky, by contrast, is a slower, high-fantasy tale that nonetheless demonstrates Lee’s vivid world-building, flair for morally grey characters, and glorious magic systems. Ester’s world is populated by vicious, human-devouring manticores and the gigantic falcon-like beasts – rocs – that hunt them. Rocs bond to the humans – the ruhkers – of the King’s Royal Mews, and Ester finds purpose in their leagues, though her bond with a fledgling roc is tenuous. Her family was brutally torn apart by manticores, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge them.

It’s a deliciously exciting novella, and Lee packs a LOT into 160 pages. It’s a great pick-me-up if you’re in a slump, or as a palate cleanser between fatter fantasy tomes. – Luka

In the nineteenth century, collectors and museum curators in Europe were fascinated by the antipodean colony of Tasmania. They cultivated contacts in the colony who could supply them with exotic specimens, including skeletons of the thylacine and the platypus. But they were not just interested in animals and plants. The belief that the original people of the colony were an utterly unique race and facing possible extinction had the European scientific community scrambling for human exhibits.

Many eminent colonial figures were involved in this clandestine trade, among them four colonial governors, several key politicians and even Lady Jane Franklin. In Britain, Sir Joseph Banks, the Duke of Newcastle and Professor Thomas Huxley were among many eminent men who solicited human specimens from the colony. Worse still, the men responsible for the care and protection of the few original people who had survived the ravages of disease and the infamous Black Wars were prominent in the trade.

Cassandra Pybus has uncovered one of the darkest and most carefully hidden secrets in Australia’s colonial history. It is time we all knew the truth.

‘Truth-telling is every Australian’s responsibility. Reading this book will help you to walk with us.’ – Thomas Mayo

‘A deeply ethical, and deeply disturbing, historical reckoning – a model of truth-telling for white Australians. In spell-binding prose, Cassandra Pybus reveals the continuing legacies of colonial dispossession …’ – Professor Warwick Anderson

‘Exhaustively researched and arrestingly told.’ – Professor Mark McKenna

The first micro memoir collection published in Australia, this eagerly anticipated anthology from Night Parrot Press is now available. Founded in 2019, Night Parrot Press is an independent, not-for-profit publisher of non-traditional works of fiction and non-fiction based in Perth.

Ourselves: 100 Micro Memoirs is a celebration of real life. One hundred authors give voice to the raw, chaotic and joyful spectrum of what it means to be human. Each micro memoir is unique in its scope, but the collection resonates with threads of shared experience across cultures and generations. In 750 words or fewer, these carefully crafted stories invite the reader into the histories we often edit—or don’t tell—about ourselves.

The collection includes writing by new and established authors including Zoe Deleuil, Barry Divola, Mabel Gibson, Seth Malacari, Shirley Marr, Donna Mazza, Susan Midalia, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Rashida Murphy, Gillian O’Shaughnessy, Maria Papas, Cindy Solonec and Ros Thomas, among many others.

This is a handbook for change. Because we all know ways in which life could be better. And it can be better. We can make it better.

We don’t need to wait for a leader or saviour. We don’t need to limit ourselves to comments and clicks. In this stunningly original comic-book tour of a serious topic, Jeff Sparrow and Sam Wallman explore 12 powerful ideas distilled from the history of struggle for better lives, better working conditions, and a better world. They show how solidarity can be built across growing divisions – without compromising our values.

‘Strife’ is just another word for making yourself heard. In fun, short, shareable chapters, 12 Rules for Strife shows how together we can change everything.

Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work.

How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed – then re-created, page by page and book by book, all in the name of love and art?

Allegorical and imaginative, Ghost Cities will appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and Italo Calvino.

 ‘A work of singular importance . . . balanced, original, human, accessible, and riveting’ – Philippe Sands, author of East-West Street. 

 The definitive account of the Tokyo war crimes trials of 1946-8, WWII and the beginning of the end of the European empires in Asia and the impact the settlement has had on post-war China and Japan, the wider history of East and South Asia – and of the world – to this day.

From the prizewinning author of the acclaimed The Blood Telegram, a landmark, magisterial history of the postwar trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals – and their impact on the modern history of Asia and the world.

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the victorious powers turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. To them, it was clear that Japan’s militaristic leaders needed to be tried and punished for their crimes. For the Allied powers, the trials were an opportunity both to render judgment on their vanquished foes and to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was no more than victors’ justice.

Gary J. Bass’ Judgement at Tokyo is the product of a decade of research, a magnificent, riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the postwar era in the Asia–Pacific.

A searing, deeply personal account of enduring a brutal attempt on his life, thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him – from internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize-winner Salman Rushdie.

On the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black – black clothes, black mask – rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. His first thought – So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey towards physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again.

These books are like weapons. And possession is power. . . With a perfect combination of dark magical books, unforgettable characters, and a storyline that grabs the reader and simply doesn’t let go, this is the heart-stoppingly exciting contemporary fantasy debut of 2024.

Because some doors should never be opened.

New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she’s doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message-

This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.

Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book – a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous – or dreadful and terrifying – things.

Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox who has a secret library of magical books hidden in the shadows for safekeeping, a man fleeing his own demons. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because this book is worth killing for.

Addictive, brilliantly written and utterly irresistible, The Book of Doors is the spell-binding, mind-bending, heart-pounding new adventure that is perfect for fans of The Binding, The Midnight Library and A Discovery of Witches . . .

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‘A stunning fever dream of a story.’ LEE CHILD

‘A beautiful, unputdownable love letter to books.’ BETH LEWIS

‘A real page-turner – incredibly ambitious and inventive.’ ROSIE ANDREWS

This book is a game changer! I can’t recommend it enough for anyone with, or suspects they have, ADHD. Chock-full of stats and research to satisfy my fact-loving brain, but brilliantly balanced with anecdotes that decode some of the more complex stuff – like the difference between dopamine and norepinephrine! Boseley clearly knows her audience; this book is bold and colourful, with bigger chunks of text made more accessible with dot points, summaries, diagrams, and bloody cute illustrations.

As a journalist, Boseley is a seriously skilled writer, and I can’t stress enough just how accessible and readable this book is – obviously very helpful for those with ADHD! Why does it seem like so many people are diagnosed with ADHD lately? Why have some adults with ADHD been missed? And in the future of ADHD education, who is being left behind? Boseley unpacks all these questions in detail, and offers substantial insight into the big question: how the bloody hell do you live with ADHD? -Luka

So… What Happened to Nina? My first foray into Dervla McTiernan’s catalogue; it’s good to know if I ever need a good crime-mystery, I have a new confidant in McTiernan! What Happened to Nina? is very, very hard to put down. It reminded me somewhat of Gone Girl – grisly missing-girlfriend crime-drama – in an era where ‘picking a side’ is fodder for brutal, rage-fuelled, click-bait algorithms. The mystery of what happened to Nina Fraser expands into a dark feud between the Frasers and the Jordans. The Jordans are certain their love-sick son (and Nina’s boyfriend), Simon, is being framed. The Frasers just want Nina back, at whatever cost. The rumour mill is a weapon, and between the two grief-stricken families, they stab true. It’s odd to call a crime novel ‘a great time’, but… I had a great time reading this. It’s seriously captivating. -Luka

‘I can think of no one better placed to tell the story behind The Beatles than Peter Brown.’ -Pattie Boyd Harrison

‘A revealing oral history of the forces that spurred the band’s breakup… drawing from a trove of never before published conversations. Beatles fans will be impatient to get their hands on this.’ –Publishers Weekly

All You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end. Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen.

In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines interviewed everyone in the Beatles’ inner circle and included a small portion of the transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now.

A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.

A revelatory new account of the magus – the learned magician – and his place in the intellectual, social and cultural world of Renaissance Europe.

At the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure- the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret codes to siege engines to magic tricks.

Anthony Grafton’s wonderfully original book discusses the careers of men who somehow managed to be both figures of startling genius and – by some measures – credulous or worse. The historical Faust, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are all fascinating characters, closely linked to monarchs, artists and soldiers and sitting at the heart of any definition of why the Renaissance was a time of such restless innovation. The study of the stars, architecture, warfare, even medicine- all of these and more were revolutionized in some way by the experiments and tricks of these extraordinary individuals.

No book does a better job of allowing us to understand the ways that magic, religion and science were once so intertwined and often so hard to tell apart.

From Sunday Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent and the Shadow and Bone series comes a highly anticipated, gorgeously written novel with a dusting of magic brimming with peril and dark deeds.

In a shabby house in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil. But when her scheming mistress discovers her scullion is hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to win over the royal court.

Determined to seize this chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of power-hungry nobility, desperate kings, holy men and seers, where the lines between magic, science and fraud blur. With the pyres of the Inquisition burning, she must use every bit of her wit and resilience to win fame and hide the truth of her ancestry – even if that means enlisting the help of an embittered immortal familiar, whose own secrets could cost her everything.

A black comedy, set in suburbia, about one woman’s struggle to be free.

When Winona Dalloway begins her day – in the peaceful early hours before her children, that ‘tiny tornado of little hands and feet’, wake up – she doesn’t know that by the end of it, everything in her world will have changed.

On the outside, Winona is a seemingly unremarkable young mother- unobtrusive, quietly going about her tasks. But within is a vivid, chaotic self, teeming with voices – a mind both wild and precise.

And meanwhile, a storm is brewing …

‘Darkly funny, astute, timely – Thunderhead‘s protagonist insists on being heard, and we as readers feel compelled to listen. To care. Such a fresh and lovely voice, full of humour, insight, and energy. I loved Winona – and her story.’
-Sofie Laguna

‘Thunderhead takes the brewing storm of domesticity and cracks it open with incredible vulnerability, generosity, and humour. At once Rachel Cusk, at once Jenny Offill, and altogether entirely Miranda Darling, this powerful, restless, irresistible novel is essential reading.’
-Laura Jean Mckay

‘Set over one fever-pitched day … It’s a daring book, adopting the aesthetics of Deborah Levy with the velocity of a crime thriller and an off- kilter voice, deeply internal, darkly comic, clipped and Woolf-ish … Thunderhead brims with magazine- style musings – all those dizzying top notes, that intertextuality, the style. It’s a strong, complex and self-aware voice, and it is the primary vehicle through which we gauge Winona’s resilience and determination. If The Catcher in the Rye were instead penned by a domestic violence survivor, it might read a little like Thunderhead. For fans of Melissa Broder, Elizabeth Hardwick and Edwina Preston.’
-Mel Fulton, Books+Publishing

Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers.

Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Populations of bats, frogs, and salamanders face extinction. In the Northwest, America’s beloved national parks are covered with the spindly corpses of whitebark pines. Food crops are under siege, threatening our coffee, bananas, and wheat-and, more broadly, our global food security. Candida auris, drug-resistant and resilient, infects hospital patients and those with weakened immune systems. Coccidioides, which lives in drier dusty regions, may cause infection in apparently healthy people. The horrors go on.

Yet prevention is not impossible. Tracing the history of fungal spread and the most recent discoveries in the field, Monosson meets scientists who are working tirelessly to protect species under threat, and whose innovative approaches to fungal invasion have the potential to save human lives. Delving into case studies at once fascinating, sobering, and hopeful, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world, and a lesson in seeing life on our planet with renewed humility and awe.

Alien Clay is a thrilling far-future adventure by acclaimed Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there. In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go?

If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well. 

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky: ‘Brilliant science fiction and far-out world-building’ – James McAvoy

‘One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction’ – Christopher Paolini

‘Tchaikovsky’s world-building is some of the best in modern sci-fi’ – New Scientist