The Girl from Moscow.
Julia Levitna. Pantera Press. $32.99.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In Moscow in 1983, 21-year-old Ella dreams of playing Natasha Rostova in War and Peace at the Moscow Theatre Academy. But when she meets her good friend Vlad at a city square, Ella finds herself in the middle of a protest and attracts the glare of the KGB. Labelled a traitor, she must withdraw from the academy and yearns to escape the Soviet regime. Her hopes of leaving are smashed when her husband, Roman, is sentenced to two years in a labour camp. As she looks for another way out, Ella is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a KGB general, who has the power to secure her freedom.
Pelican Girls.
Julia Malye. Hachette Australia. $32.99.
In Paris in 1720, the Hospice of La Salpetriere is overrun with "difficult" women. Halfway around the world, on the American frontier, French settlers are in want of wives. At the asylum, a list is drawn up: 88 women of childbearing age to be shipped to New Orleans. Among them are Charlotte, Genevieve and Petronille - a sharp-tongued orphan, an accused abortionist and a rumoured madwoman. They make the voyage over the ocean, knowing nothing of the harsh and extraordinary lives that await them, or how they will come to love and betray each other time and again in the wild and beautiful new land.
Empire of the Damned.
Jay Kristoff. HarperCollins. $35.99.
In this sequel to Empire of the Vampire, Gabriel de Len has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone. But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed - a truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.
All the Words We Know.
Bruce Nash. Allen & Unwin. $32.99.
Rose is in her 80s and has dementia, but she's not done with life just yet. Alternately sharp as a tack and spectacularly forgetful, she spends her days roaming the corridors of her aged-care facility, ruminating on the staff and residents and enduring visits from her emotionally distant children and grandchildren. But when her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose embarks on an eccentric and deeply personal investigation to discover the truth and exposes all manner of secrets - even some from her own past.
The Doctor of Hiroshima: His heart-breaking and inspiring true-life story.
Dr Michihiko Hachiya. Hachette Australia. $32.99.
This is the diary of a doctor who survived the atomic bomb in 1945 and treated the people of Hiroshima only 1500 metres from the centre of the blast. In immense shock and pain, he and his wife Yaeko dragged themselves to the devastated hospital building and what colleagues they could find. In time, they begin to heal, and start to treat the impossible numbers of patients - a small girl covered in burns, an elderly man with pneumonia, a young boy and his little sister looking for their parents. They also began to investigate the strange, unexplainable symptoms afflicting the patients.
Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and finding myself.
Crystal Hefner. Penguin. $36.99.
In 2008 the Playboy mansion became Crystal Harris's sanctuary - a shimmering vestige of opportunity. Within months she had ascended its hierarchy to become Hugh Hefner's top girlfriend. But her new home came at a cost. Forced to follow strict rules that governed everything from her appearance to behaviour, she began to lose her identity. By the time she married Hef in 2012, the mansion had become her prison. For years she suppressed the truth of what really happened behind the mansion's closed doors. Now she reveals the devastating impact that a culture of relentless objectification and misogyny had on her health.
Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality.
Venki Ramakrishnan. Hachette Australia. $34.99.
Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Ramakrishnan writes that giant strides are being made in our understanding of why we age and die, and why some species live longer than others. Examining recent scientific breakthroughs, Ramakrishnan shows how cutting-edge efforts to extend lifespan by altering our natural biology raise profound questions. Although we might not like it, does death serve a necessary biological purpose? And how can we increase our chances of living long, healthy and fulfilled lives? As science advances, we have much to gain. But might we also have much to lose?
Mine is the Kingdom: the rise and fall of Brian Houston and the Hillsong Church.
David Hardaker. Allen & Unwin. $34.99.
In 2023 the curtain finally came down on Brian Houston. The rock star of Pentecostalism, former Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, was acquitted of concealing his father's sexual abuse of a minor, but it was too late. His megachurch had disowned him. How had it come to this? Houston had taken his church worldwide, and had even made it into the White House. But it all dramatically fell apart when the church's dirty secrets came tumbling out. Behind the scenes a secret insurrection, led by young Christian women sick of the nepotism and emphasis on money, had mobilised and things would never be the same.