Aussie Readers discussion

Hi Aussie Readers, and welcome to another bumper batch book giveaway! Enter to win one (or more) advance copies of our September books below!

A richly atmospheric Gothic mystery set around a ruined homestead in the NT's Top End.

Greta's partner Joel grew up with five brothers and a sister in a feisty household on an isolated NT property. But he doesn't talk about those days - not the deaths of his sister and mother, nor the origin of the scars that snake around his body.

Now, many years later, he returns with Greta and their three young boys to prepare the place for sale. The boys are quick to settle in, and Joel seems preoccupied with work, but Greta has a growing sense of unease, struggling in the build-up's oppressive heat and living in the shadow of the old, burned-out family home. She knows she's a stranger in this uncanny place, with its eerie and alluring landscape, hostile neighbour, and a toxic dam whose clear waters belie its poison. And then there's the mysterious girl living rough whom Greta tries to befriend.

Determined to make sense of it all, Greta is drawn into Joel's unspoken past and confronted by her own. Before long the curlew's haunting cry will call her to face the secrets she and Joel can no longer outrun.

Elizabeth Strout meets Marian Keyes in this wonderful, joyful, funny debut novel from Australian author Jacquie Byron.

Growing older doesn't necessarily mean growing wiser.

Gin in one hand, paintbrush in the other, Franny Calderwood has turned her back on the world, or at least the world she used to love. Having lost her husband, Frank, in tragic circumstances three years earlier, 65-year-old Franny copes the only way she knows how: by removing herself completely from the life she had before. Franny lives a life of decadent seclusion, with only her two dogs, Whisky and Soda, a stuffed cat, cocktails and the memory of Frank for company.

Then the Salernos move in next door. The troubled but charming trio - beleaguered mother Sallyanne, angry teenager Dee and eccentric eight-year-old Josh - cannot help but pull Franny into the drama of their lives. But despite her fixation with independence, Franny's wisecracks and culinary experiments hide considerable trauma and pain, and when her eccentric behaviour has life-threatening consequences she faces a reckoning of sorts. Yes, Frank is dead, but did the woman he loved have to perish with him?

A story about one woman, two dogs and the family next door, Happy Hour is a hilarious and uplifting insight into grief, loss, true love and friendship.

A widely researched and boldly argued work about reclaiming our bodies from shame from a key intersectional feminist thinker of a new generation.

"It occurred to me that the thing that made me the sickest, the thing that made me suffer most, was the fact that I felt so compelled to hide what had been done to me. Because I believed it was all my fault."

Lucia Osborne-Crowley didn't tell a soul when she was raped aged fifteen. Then, eighteen months after she was attacked, her body began to turn on her - and what followed were sudden bouts of searing, unbearable pain that saw her in and out of hospital for the next ten years.

At twenty-five, Lucia for the first time told the truth about her rape. This disclosure triggered an endless series of appointments with doctors, trauma specialists and therapists. Meanwhile, Lucia threw herself into researching the shadowy intricacies of abuse, trauma and shame.

In My Body Keeps Your Secrets, Lucia shares the voices of women and trans and non-binary people around the world, as well as her own deeply moving testimony. She writes of vulnerability, acceptance and the reclaiming of our selves, all in defiance of a world where atrocities are committed and survivors are repeatedly told to carry the weight of that shame.

Widely researched and boldly argued, this book reveals the secrets our bodies bury deep within them, the way trauma can rewrite our biology, and how our complicated relationships with sex affect our connection with others. Crafted in a daring and immersive literary form, My Body Keeps Your Secrets is a necessary, elegant and empathetic work that further establishes Lucia's credentials as a key intersectional feminist thinker for a new generation.

To enter, head to https://www.allenandunwin.com/reading... and fill in the entry form.

Entries close 30th August so don't miss out!

Thanks once again A&U - I've entered :)

Thanks A&U! Interesting choices again.

Happy Hour sounds like a interesting read

Thanks A&U, they look great :)

Thanks A&U. I won a book last month so not going to enter this time but do appreciate the opportunities you give us.

Thanks A&U! For anyone considering Happy Hour, I can recommend it.

Thanks A&U for the wonderful choices :)

Another collection of highly regarded reads that are all on my watch list.

Thanks A&U

Thankyou A & U

Excellent selection once again! Thanks so much.

Thanks A&U. They all sound great!

Always a good variety. Thanks!

Thank you so much for the chance I have entered :)

Some nice picks. Thanks A&U.

Thanks again A&U for an awesome giveaway, I have entered :-)

Thanks A&U - I have entered and I'm about to read the last book I won

Thanks all entered and perfect timing as I’ve just finished the last AU book I won

fingers crossed A & U

Thanks A&U.

I just received an email to say I was a lucky winner! Thanks A&U I am looking forward to receiving my book!

I also got an email. Thanks so much A&U

Yay, me too!

Thanks A & U I also received an email- very excited.

Another lucky winner here notified by A&U. Thanks so much.

I just got an email as well woohoo, thank you so much A&U :)