Eleven stories. Each like a matchstick struck to illuminate the darkness. Evocations of place ranging from a Bangla jungle to the deep, blue Danube to a winter beach in Melbourne excite and seduce. But what truly draws the reader in are the unexpected landscapes of people's lives, explored with rare sensitivity, grace and a fearless truthfulness. A lonely St Kilda chef invites a beautiful busker to use his spare room. A father sings a lullaby to comfort his young daughter who has woken from a nightmare. A taxi driver picks up an old-world gentleman who is reluctant to disclose his destination. A young immigrant boy growing up in the western suburbs of Melbourne daydreams of infinite possibility. Death, loneliness, passion and belief: Patrić takes on the big questions in life and writes about the small people of the world with stylistic verve and deep humanity. This collection of stories reveals the author, best known for his award-winning novels, as a true master of the short story form. ‘One of the most interesting and valuable writers working in Australia today.’ — The Australian

In his final novel, renowned author Alex La Guma explores the tensions of a South African town fraught with the desire for revenge. Out in the flat, featureless countryside, a small mining town in South Africa is refused access to water by their oppressors. Knowing that the rain is their last chance for survival, all they can do is wait... As the dry summer wears on, the white Afrikaner townspeople are unaware of the storm brewing around them as, deep in the bush, a shepherd recalls the riddle of the butcherbird. Glimpsing into precolonial days and the aftermath of the Boer War, Time of the Butcherbird is a powerful reminder of the communities that were wrecked by conflict and dispossessed of their own land. 'The greatest South African novelist of the 20th century.' The Times 'A central figure alongside Chinua Achebe [in] the making and consolidation of modern African literature.' Ngugi wa Thiong'o

This twenty-two volume set presents the appearance and behavior of thousands of species of animals along with species population and prospects for survival in a arranged alphabetically and easy-to-read format.

Australian Bird Names is aimed at anyone with an interest in birds, words, or the history of Australian biology and bird-watching. It discusses common and scientific names of every Australian bird, to tease out the meanings, which may be useful, useless or downright misleading! The authors examine every species: its often many-and-varied common names, its full scientific name, with derivation, translation and a guide to pronunciation. Stories behind the name are included, as well as relevant aspects of biology, conservation and history. Original descriptions, translated by the authors, have been sourced for many species. As well as being a book about names this is a book about the history of ever-developing understandings of birds, about the people who contributed and, most of all, about the birds themselves. 2013 Whitley Award Commendation for Zoological Resource.

An epic fiction drenched in reality. Devils Paintbrush tells the life story a young boy who grows up in a violent and abusive home within the Projects of Brooklyn, Baltimore during the 1960s. Then, as a young man, he once again finds himself in another hostile environment South Vietnam. Somehow he survives both worlds. Decades after receiving The Bronze Star in combat, Ken Callahans long suppressed memories and fractured emotions compel him to enter yet another threatening battlefield and engage a very different enemy a foe deadlier than any Viet Cong or bird-eating tarantula he ever confronted as a younger man. This new battlefield is the private office of the Veteran Administrations top PTSD clinician. His new enemy is himself. Within the relative safety of this clinicians office, Ken is reluctantly dragged-back in time to unearth decades of buried memories of war. Thats when the PTSD professional community becomes stunned as they discover Kens combat experience was not as lethal as the domestic violence and sexual abuse he endured at the hands of a disturbed older brother and sinfully wicked mother long before he even went to war. In short, Ken Callahans PTSD was deeply entrenched well before he stepped foot on the battlefields of South Vietnam. Discovering the truth about his own past proves to be challenging enough, but in order to accept such truth, Ken must cross a line from which there is no return. The man who ultimately emerges is not the same Bronze Star recipient who reluctantly enters PTSD treatment; nor are the people he touches along the way. Only the qualities of a Devils Paintbrush can provide the caliber of personal resilience needed throughout every step of Ken Callahans life-long journey. Readers of this fictionalized, true story will be either shocked and disgusted or enlightened and educated. There is no safe place between these two extremes.