Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
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The Book of Longings
Sue Monk Kidd, $32.99
Ana is a rebellious young woman, a gifted writer with a curious, brilliant mind, who writes secret narratives about the neglected and silenced women around her. Raised in a wealthy family in Galilee, she is sheltered from the brutality of Rome’s occupation of Israel. Ana is expected to marry an elderly widower to further her father’s ambitions, but the prospect of this marriage horrifies her. A chance encounter with the 18-year-old Jesus changes everything: with his ideas and his passion, it all becomes intoxicating for Ana.
This is a new book from the author of The Secret Life of Bees, which has sold over eight million copies.
Therese Anne Fowler, $32.99 Valerie Altson-holt is raising her bi-racial son in Oak Knoll, North Carolina. The Whitmans, an apparently traditional family, move in next door with a secretly troubled daughter. All seems well, until the families fall out over an historic oak tree. As the neighbours fight, the two teenagers find romance, which will challenge both class and race in a small community. This budding romance could shatter everything.
THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE
Abi Dare, $32.99
Adunni at the age of 14 is removed from school in Nigeria by her father and sold as a third wife to an old man for four goats, two bags of rice, some chickens and a new TV. When unspeakable tragedy strikes her new home, she is sold into a wealthy enclave in Lagos as a domestic servant, where no-one will talk about the strange disappearance of her predecessor, Rebecca. But Adunni won’t be silenced, she is determined to find her voice.
THE LOST JEWELS Kirsty Manning, $32.99 This true story of the London Cheapside Hoard, which was dug up in 1912, is a treasure hunt with family secrets, woven between the facts of one of the world’s greatest mysteries. When a workman pickaxes through the floor of an old house, he uncovers unimaginable treasure that quickly disappears. We move to present day, where respected historian Kate Kirby peels back all the long buried family secrets. A story of thievery, sacrifice and hope.
LIBERATION
Imogen Kealey, $32.99
A remarkable novel based on Nancy Wake, one of the Second World War’s truly great heroines. To the Allies she was a fearless freedom fighter, special operations super spy, a woman ahead of her time. To the Gestapo she was a ghost, a shadow, the most wanted person in the world with a 5-million-franc bounty on her head. Known as the White Mouse, now, for the first time, the roots of her legend are told in a thriller about one woman’s incredible quest to save the man she loves, turn the tide of the war, and take brutal revenge on those who have wronged her.