Our Most Recent Favourites To purchase books from South Seasbooks, check out our online store Music and Freedom Music informs this novel at almost every level, central to its characterisations, narrative and plot, even influencing its structure and supplying its metaphorical qualities. Alice Murray, narrates her life in rural Australia and England in this beautifully written debut novel. Music alternatively liberates and imprisons her. A child prodigy, at the age of seven she… Author: Zoe Morrison Reviewer: Mark The Shepherd’s Life – A Tale of the Lake District This is a story told in seasons, generations and centuries rather than years. It speaks of tradition and timelessness, describing lives and the Lakes District landscape in terms of patterns rather than events. Despite such breadth of perspective, it is immediate and enthralling. For a man taught early that there was idleness and little of… Author: James Redbanks Reviewer: Mark The Hidden Life of Trees This ground-breaking book, enormously popular in the author’s native Germany, has been quickly translated into English, maintaining the wildfire spread of its (r)evolutionary thesis. That trees feel , communicate, have families and society has been captured often in fiction, memorably by J.R.R Tolkien’s giant Ents in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, this book… Author: Peter Wohlleben Reviewer: Mark Closed Casket This is the second book featuring the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, that Sophie Hannah has been authorised to write by Agatha Christie’s estate. Their faith in the author’s abilities to match the twists and turns of a Christie plot within the still wildly popular structure of the detective novel has not been misplaced. Hannah has… Author: Sophie Hannah Reviewer: Sarah Where the Trees Were A beautifully told story of landscape, history and art. Moving deftly between present day Canberra and a childhood spent on a farm in country NSW this is a memorable novel dealing with the role of indigenous history in our national museums. Author: Inga Simpson Reviewer: Sarah White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World Taking in a scattered series of quests for human immortality and elusive natural wonders, this thoughtful and erudite author explores how we inhabit space and time. Geoff Dyer draws broadly from the physical and philosophical meanderings of a peripatetic life to write of ‘experiences’ in places such as; New Mexico’s White Sands monument and Lightning… Author: Geoff Dyer Reviewer: Mark The Good People The award-winning author of Burial Rites has transferred her imaginative power and luminous writing to Ireland in the 1820s, delivering a story located in the liminal world between myth and reality, superstition and truth. Hard times have given Michael, a crippled and mute boy, into the care of his recently widowed grandmother amidst villagers ever… Author: Hannah Kent Reviewer: Sarah Goodwood Singer-songwriter Holly Throsby has situated her debut novel in a fictional small Australian country town in the early 1990s. She describes the idiosyncratic lives of the inhabitants of Goodwood through the eyes of seventeen year old Jean who has returned with her mother to this small town from the city. Jean narrates the circumstances of… Author: Holly Throsby Reviewer: Chris Lab Girl Lab Girl is a warm and personal memoir of an award winning geobiologist. It is a gifted love story to the life and importance of plants and a moving and memorable portrait of her lifelong friendship with her loyal and eccentric lab partner. Author: Hope Jahren Reviewer: Sarah Hold Still A remarkable account of the renown American photographer Sally Mann’s early influences and experiences. She is not only a great photographer but a wonderfully earnest and evocative writer. The book starts with Mann and examines her “ancestral boxes”, exploring notions of memory. Author: Sally Mann Reviewer: Chris The Buried Giant Beautiful and unusual. Set in an imagined post Arthurian Britain with the themes of the loss of memory both on a community and the effect on an aged couple. Wonderful. Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Reviewer: Sarah Dark Roots Cate Kennedy’s stories probe the uncertainties, vulnerabilities and duplicities of the human condition, providing clear-eyed snapshots of our small worlds with precise, beautiful language. Her name is worth of utterance alongside the likes of Hal Porter and Raymond Carver. If you don’t tend to read short stories, read these. Author: Cate Kennedy Reviewer: Mark The Storyteller and his Three Daughters Lian Hern weaves a gentle path through the Japanese and Korean plight wrapped in the social and family etiquette of an aged old tradition of the “Story Teller”. A beautiful read, warm and quiet. Author: Lian Hearn Reviewer: Caroline The Bird Artist A young artist who paints birds with the sureness of his “heart’s logic” reaches out towards his own potential within the confines of Newfoundloand early in the 20th century. This award winning Canadian novel deftly explores the fine development of the artist’s “small gift” amidst the duality, variety and infinite unpredictability of colliding humanity. Filled… Author: Reviewer: Mark Barbarian Days A surfing life well-lived and well-told, nimbly avoiding descent into the cliche with which surf-writing is littered. Eloquent and thoughtful, this autobiography from surfing’s “cracking fugitive patch” will appeal to those who wonder of surfing’s lure or to those who have already succumbed to it. Author: William Finnegan Reviewer: Mark Between a Wolf and a Dog The title refers to the hour between Dog and Wolf – twilight time when fallen darkness makes clear vision impossible; dogs might be mistaken for wolves, friends for foes. An extraordinarily beautiful story essentially told on a rainy Sydney day. A sad, tender exploration of family life and love. Author: Georgia Blain Reviewer: Chris The Dry This book is the love child of Tim Winton and Patricia Highsmith. Mystery, voice, place, small town, instantly recognisable Australia. The past comes back for us all. Author: Jane Harper Reviewer: Caroline Burial Rites Brutal, poetic, wonderful and disturbing. The story of the last woman executed in Iceland is a superbly well written novel by a young and talented author. Author: Hannah Kent Reviewer: Sarah When the Night Comes Another beautifully written novel by the author of Past the Shallows. Set in Hobart, the Southern ocean, Antarctica and a Danish ship called the Nella Dan. Based partly on true events this is a lyrical, moving and wonderful story. Author: Favel Parrett Reviewer: Sarah The Rosie Project Fun, entertaining and a great read. A love story with a difference Author: Graham Simsion Reviewer: Sarah Song for a Scarlet Runner A wonderful read. Exciting fantasy about a girl who is running away from her village when accused of bringing bad luck to it. On her travels she is taught the gift of storytelling which causes her to be trapped in a different world with an unpredictable sleek or scarlet runner as a companion. Author: Julie Hunt Reviewer: Sarah The Giver Set in a colourless world where all emotions have been removed. There is no war, suffering or unhappiness. Jonas has been chosen to be the new Reciever of Memory where he is given the history and collective memories of the village. As colours come into his life, along with pain, joy and fear he realises… Author: Lois Lowry Reviewer: Sarah The Mapmaker Chronicles: Race to the end of the World A fun and enjoyable read set in the world of the sea and exploration. The king has set a competition for the first map of the world. Four ship set sail on the race to find danger, monsters and unscrupulous adventurers. Author: A.L Tait Reviewer: Sarah The Knife of Never Letting go The first in the exciting Chaos Walking trilogy set in a world where all men can hear all thoughts called The Noise. At 14 Ben discovers his whole life has been built on a lie. This series explores the evils of war, violence and lies and the power of hope and truth. Author: Patrick Ness Reviewer: Sarah Red Rising One of the best fantasy books I have read. The first in a trilogy which begins on Mars. In this world all people are classified by the colour of their eyes and all are ruled by the Golds. The Reds are the lowest of society, living underground as miners and told the world is dying,… Author: Pierce Brown Reviewer: Sarah Annihilation The first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. This is a gripping and disturbing read a little reminiscent of John Wyndham but with a voice all of its own. Area X – The Southern Reach has been monitored by a secret agency for 30 years. 11 earlier expeditions of scientists have been sent in to… Author: Jeff Vandermeer Reviewer: Sarah The Lacuna A wonderful collection of interlinking short stories detailing the eccentricities of English village life. De Bernieres writes of his memories of growing up in just such a village with humour, tenderness and poingnancy. Author: Barbara Kingsolver Reviewer: Sarah The Mountain This vibrant novel spans 30 years of history in Papua New Guinea, from pre-independence to the celebrations, 30 years later. It is a love story of both the characters and the country, celebrating its beauty while highlighting the problems it faces. Author: Drusilla Modjeska Reviewer: Sarah Wolf Hall A richly detailed account of the rise of Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII. Evocative and gripping. Author: Hilary Mantel Reviewer: Sarah The Great Fire A beautifully written novel set in 1947, after the great fire of WWII tore through Europe and Asia. The characters portray the loss and loneliness of the chaos of the time and show how love and humanity are both their redemption and that of their world. Author: Shirley Hazzard Reviewer: Sarah The Cat’s Table The story of three boys on a journey from Columbo to England and from childhood to the world of adulthood. The boys are seated at the ‘cat’s table’ with a wonderful selection of adult characters. Their stories and development make for an enthralling read. Author: Michael Ondaatje Reviewer: Sarah Foal’s Bread Beautifully drawn characters, both confronting and wonderful. A love story set in a vanished time of Australian life. Author: Gillian Mears Reviewer: Sarah The Moon is Down A short novel set in a town in occupied Norway during WWII. Steinbeck’s wonderful writing encapsulates the resistance of a small, tightly knit town and examines, so movingly, the concepts of humanity and justice. Author: John Steinbeck Reviewer: Sarah My Family and Other Animals A charming and witty description of Gerald Durrell’s childhood in Greece in the 1930s. Truly delightful. Author: Gerald Durrell Reviewer: Sarah Love in a Cold Climate A satirical tale of Polly, the aristocratic heiress and the absurd consequences which follow her pursuit of love. A funny and engaging novel about a lost era of British aristocracy in the 1930s. Author: Nancy Mitford Reviewer: Sarah A Fortunate Life An incredibly humbling story of a man’s life, growing up in the outback to his time in Gallipoli and then his return to Australia. Despite his endless hardships he truly believed he was fortunate. A wonderful story of a way of life and attitudes of past Australia. Author: A.B. Facey Reviewer: Sarah Come Thou Tortoise Narrated in part by the quirky Audrey and in part by her absent tortoise, Winnifred, this is a charming and off-beat read. It is amusing, entertaining and insightful. Author: Jessica Grant Reviewer: Sarah Ransom Lyrically and beautifully written, Ransom tells the story of a section of the Illiad. Priam, the King of Troy, travels to his enemy, Achilles, to ask for the return of the body of his son (Hector). Malouf writes poetically about the themes of loss, love, forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption. Author: David Malouf Reviewer: Sarah The Member of the Wedding A delicate and insightful novel describing the burden of adolescence and girlhood as Frankie deals with her brother’s upcoming wedding. It is a sensitive portrayal of the dreams of loneliness and finally maturity of a young girl. Author: Carson McCullers Reviewer: Sarah Me Before You A witty and moving novel with characters that you will remember long after the last page. Romantic and a great read. Author: Jojo Moyes Reviewer: Sarah Z. A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald Told from the perspective of Zelda this novel is a fascinating and truly enjoyable read, describing the life of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the golden couple of the jazz age. This book shows their life in all its glamour, destructiveness and ultimate tragedy. Author: Therese Anne Fowler Reviewer: Sarah The Golden Age A shining gem of a novel. Set largely around a polio hospital for children in the early 1950’s, the lives, loves and losses of the people who intersect there are beautifully drawn. Author: Joan London Reviewer: Sarah The Art of Baking Blind An engaging and enjoyable novel about baking and women, their relationships with each other and within their families. Author: Sarah Vaughan Reviewer: Sarah Life After Life A riveting and moving tale where the heroine relives her life over and over again. Set against the backdrop of 20th century history, each time she dies her life begins again and follows the numerous paths her destiny could take when choices are taken. Author: Kate Atkinson Reviewer: Sarah The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair A book within a book, a page turning literary whodunit set in small town America. Very enjoyable. Author: Joel Dicker Reviewer: Sarah The Empress Lover This book is a finely turned novel spanning Chinese history from the 1940’s, 1980’s to the current times. Partly a novel, part memoir and also written as a historian it is an adroit telling of the past and it’s effect on the present. Author: Linda Jaivin Reviewer: Sarah The Prisoner of Night and Fog Set in 1930’s Munich with the protagonist a girl who grew up in Hitler’s inner circle. Part mystery and part historical fiction. An enjoyable read. Author: Anne Blackman Reviewer: Sarah Frog Music This novel is set in 1870’s San Francisco and tells the story of Blanche, a dancer and prostitute and her friendship with Jenny, an eccentric and frogcatcher who has been murdered. Both are historical figures and during a heatwave and smallpox epidemic Blanche tries to discover the truth of Jenny’s murder. Author: Emma Donoghue Reviewer: Sarah The Miniaturist Set in 17th century Amsterdam where trade and Dutch Trading Company rule all and yet the are coming into increasing conflict with a growing religious fervor in the city. This is a novel rich in historical detail of a marriage and a household full of secrets. Author: Jessie Burton Reviewer: Sarah Death Comes to Pemberley If you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice this is a delightful return to the world of Elizabeth and Darcy. P D James does a wonderful mimic of the style of the original with the telling of a murder mystery set at Pemberley. Author: P D James Reviewer: Sarah The Art of the Engine Driver Beautifully written and set on one Summer’s evening as the residents of a street in Melbourne are walking to a street party. Memorable and evocative. Author: Steven Carroll Reviewer: Sarah An Officer and a Spy A gripping account of the Dreyfus affair in France in the 1890’s and how the corruption and false conviction was uncovered. Author: Robert Harris Reviewer: Sarah The Day the Crayons Quit This is a beautiful picture book for children in the early years of school. My six and eight-year old children loved it so much they rewrote the story, with themselves as the owners of the rebellious crayons. Poor, naked beige crayon, his overworked stubby friend, blue, and the others appeal to Duncan, their owner, through… Author: Drew Deywalt (Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers) Reviewer: Caroline Seven Wild Sisters Seven Wild Sisters is described as a modern fairytale on its cover and that’s exactly what it is. My eight-year old daughter loved it and I caught my 10-year old son listening in as we read it too. This is a more mature fairy tale, where fairies can be dangerous and capricious. The other world… Author: Charles de Lint Reviewer: Caroline The Adventures of Nanny Piggins The wonderfully subversive and capricious Nanny Piggins is a fantastic character. She has no time for the children’s miserly father. She takes no notice of modern healthy trends – children need chocolate she says and she takes Michael, Derrick and Samantha on the most hair-raising adventures (but everything always works out in the end- even… Author: R.A. Spratt Reviewer: Caroline Wonder Wonder is being used as a year 7 text by one of our local schools and it’s easy to see why. It’s very well written and it tackles, with great humour and sensitivity, the themes of bullying, of fitting in when you are different, and of friendship. August is disfigured and has been from birth… Author: R.J. Palacio Reviewer: Caroline The Fault in our Stars This book made me cry, but in the best possible way. It is both achingly-sad and funny. John Green manages to encapsulate the world of Hazel and Gus and their world, so changed from that of an every-day teenager by cancer. They don’t ask for the reader’s sympathy and they don’t want it. In fact,… Author: John Green Reviewer: Caroline The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared Jonas Jonasson has created a wickedly fun story about a man who manages to escape out of the window of his nursing home, going on the run with an increasing number of people and a suitcase of money that was being held by an unlucky low-level mobster. As the story continues the reader finds that… Author: Jonas Jonasson Reviewer: Caroline The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden This novel is just as funny and entertaining as Jonasson’s previous book, The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. The characters are eccentric and the writing is whimsical. This would make a wonderful Book Club book. Author: Jonas Jonasson Reviewer: Caroline The Street Sweeper The Street Sweeper takes the reader through several stories, intertwined through the civil rights movement in America and the Holocaust. It paints the eras, and the pain and inhumanity in searing detail. You feel what the characters feel and it is impossible to remain unmoved, particularly as you read the scenes set in Auschwitz. This… Author: Elliot Perlman Reviewer: Caroline Black Swan Green If you grew up in 1980s Britain (or even in Australia as the child of a 10-pound pom as I did) the characters, the setting and the language of Black Swan Green will be instantly recognisable to you. David Mitchell is one of my favourite authors (Cloud Atlas is one of his best known books)… Author: David Mitchell Reviewer: Caroline NW Zadie Smith has a most wonderful talent for creating believably flawed characters. In NW she also brings to life the jostled, uneven and sometimes desperate world of Willesden, in north west London. Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan have all managed to move away from their childhoods on a council estate but they all find that,… Author: Zadie Smith Reviewer: Caroline The Bone Clocks This is vintage Mitchell. Wonderful earthy reality that transports you to the England of of the 1980’s and then jumps between the real and unreal. Author: David Mitchell Reviewer: Caroline Light Between the Oceans This book starts with a choice – the choice made has far reaching consequences and it makes a totally mesmerising story. The characters are complex, the landscape they are placed in is beautifully described and the author’s grappling of such a huge dilemma is balanced and finely executed. Author: M.L Stedman Reviewer: Anna The Snow Child This haunting story is set in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1900’s. Times are bleak for the pioneers of this isolated outpost. Despair has almost consumed childless couple Jack and Mabel until they discover that a snow child (a girl) that they build one evening seems to magically become real – yet is still… Author: Eowyn Ivey Reviewer: Anna Surfing Victoria: the ultimate guide Victoria has some great waves but it’s no fun surfing with Victorians. Take this book with you when you head east to get the jump on them on their own spots. Richard Loveridge’s intimate knowledge, affectionate description and intricate diagrams make this book a must on your next Victorian surfari. Author: Richard Loveridge Reviewer: Mark The Spoils of Poynton Henry Jame’s novel of fetishism and of intense, mannered competition of an ‘absolutely beautiful and delightfully dense’ man is wryly entertaining, tightly written and very relevant, at a time when consumerism is thought to be rife and flat screens revered. Author: Henry James Reviewer: Mark The Séance A truly suspenseful mystery contained within a free-flowing plot makes this Victorian gothic tale perfect winter reading. By one of South Sea’s earliest guest presenters. Author: John Harwood Reviewer: Mark The Sheltering Sky An existential, detached, abstract but resonant novel. Expatriates in Morocco, reminding us that, ultimately, we live and die alone. Author: Paul Boules Reviewer: Mark The Yellow Birds A deeply affecting first novel. This work of fiction switches between home in the Appalachian mountains and the Iraq war theatre, starkly demonstrating that the lives of those engaged in war are profoundly altered by that experience and it’s cost is far greater than it’s physical statistics. Poetic and brutal, paring back life and death… Author: Kevin Powers Reviewer: Mark The Cove This American novel set during the First World War in an evocative Appalachian location, describes humanity’s polarities, pitting love, hope and beauty against ignorance, fear and brutality in a young woman’s fight against loneliness. Author: Ron Rash Reviewer: Mark The Life A “Sound and Fury” of surfing’s drug filled 1970’s, fictionalizing the characters of that era. It’s earthy language evokes the Australian coast and the surf culture of the time in a way that brings memories surging back, double overhead. Author: Malcolm Knox Reviewer: Mark We are all Completely Beside Ourselves A funny but deeply serious heartbreaking story of a very unusual family. Based on animal experiments in 30’s America. Compelling and beautifully written, raising issues of animal cognition, animal rights and science. No happy ending but rather a reconciliation. Author: Karen Joy Fowler Reviewer: Chris The Book Thief Death narrates this moving story of a young girl Leisel who is the book thief. Set in Germany during World War II Leisel discovers the value of words and literature – the power to cause both peace and destruction. To be read by both adults and young readers alike. Author: Marcus Zusak Reviewer: Chris This is Australia A fabulous book by Czech author and illustrator Miroslav Zasek. He created a series of children’s travel guides, Australia 17th in the series. A delightful exploration of all states of Australia. A treat for the eyes. Author: Miroslav Zasek Reviewer: Chris Wonders of a Godless World A modern metaphysical fable narrated by a deaf mute – no dialogue. A crazy compelling story set in an asylum at the base of a volcano. When a new inmate arrives strange things begin to happen. A cautionary tale about earth, nature and the power of the wind. Author: Andrew McGahan Reviewer: Chris Dracula This is not just a gothic horror story….several narrators reveal the tale in a series of letters, journal and diary entries. A story of friendship and a view of Victorian culture. Forget Twilight this is a fantastic read. Author: Bram Stoker Reviewer: Chris
