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The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

Allen & Unwin are delighted to announce that Rohan Wilson has won the Fiction prize at the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for his superb novel To Name Those Lost.

Of the novel, the judges said: 'The writing is compelling and vivid, the use of language superb, and Wilson skillfully weaves the narrative through fiction and history to its awful conclusion.'

Wilson's first book, The Roving Party, won the 2011 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award as well as the Margaret Scott Prize, Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2013, and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2012, as well as being shortlisted for many other prizes.

Find out more about the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards


Spotlight:

Ralf

by Anne Crawford

From being an 'unmanageable' puppy with big barking problems and an uncertain future to one of the best-loved therapy dogs at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital - this is the inspiring story of Ralf.

Spotlight:

The Iron Necklace

by Giles Waterfield

Two families - one British, the other German - are united by marriage but torn apart by the ravages of World War 1 in a sweeping historical novel of love and courage amid the chaos of war.

Spotlight:

Emily's Tiara Trouble: The Anti-Princess Club 1

by Samantha Turnbull

It's hard being a ten-year-old girl when everyone wants to turn you into a princess. Welcome to the lives of Bella, Grace, Chloe and Emily...

Out now
Coming soon
Spotlight:

Zafir: Through My Eyes

by Prue Mason, edited by Lyn White

Zafir has a comfortable life in Homs, Syria, until his father, a doctor, is arrested for helping a protester who was campaigning for revolution. While his mother heads to Damascus to try to find out where his father is being held, Zafir stays with his grandmother - until her house is bombed. With his father in prison, his mother absent, his grandmother ill and not a friend left in the city, Zafir must stay with his Uncle Ghazi. But that too becomes dangerous as the city becomes more and more besieged. Will Zafir survive long enough to be reunited with his parents?

Spotlight:

Every Move

by Ellie Marney

Rachel Watts is suffering from recurring nightmares about her near-death experience in London. She just wants to forget the whole ordeal, but her boyfriend, James Mycroft, is obsessed with piecing the puzzle together and anticipating the next move of the mysterious Mr Wild - his own personal Moriarty.

So when Rachel's brother, Mike, suggests a trip back to their old home in Five Mile, Rachel can't wait to get away. Unfortunately it's not the quiet weekend she was hoping for with the unexpected company of Mike's old school buddy, the wildly unreliable Harris Derwent.

Things get worse for Rachel when Harris returns to Melbourne with them - but could Harris be the only person who can help her move forward? Then a series of murders suggests that Mr Wild is still hot on their tails and that Mycroft has something Wild wants - something Wild is prepared to kill for.

Can Watts and Mycroft stay one step ahead of the smartest of all criminal masterminds? The stage is set for a showdown of legendary proportions...

Praise for Every Breath: A smart, contemporary take on a timely classic that is sure to please Sherlock aficionados of all ages. - Kirkus Reviews

Spotlight:

The Exit

by Helen FitzGerald

Some people love goodbyes...

23-year-old Catherine is mainly interested in Facebook and flirting, but she reluctantly takes a job at a local care home after her mother puts her foot down - and soon discovers that her new workplace contains many secrets.

One of the residents at the home, 82-year-old Rose, is convinced that something sinister is going on in Room 7 and that her own life is under threat. But Rose has dementia - so what does she actually know, and who would believe her anyway?

As Catherine starts investigating Rose's allegations, terrible revelations surface about everyone involved. Can Catherine find out what's really going on before it's too late?

Spotlight:

Nobody Is Ever Missing

by Catherine Lacey

Without telling her family, Elyria takes a one-way flight to New Zealand, abruptly leaving her stable life in Manhattan, her home, her career and her loving husband. As the people she has left behind scramble to figure out what has happened to her, Elyria embarks on a hitchhiker's odyssey, testing fate by travelling in the cars of overly kind women and deeply strange men, tacitly being swept into the lives of strangers, and sleeping in fields, forests, and public parks. As she journeys from Wellington to Picton, Takaka, Kaikoura and onwards she asks herself, what is it that I am missing? How can a person be missing?

Full of mordant humour and uncanny insights, Nobody Is Ever Missing is a startling tale of love, loss, and the dangers encountered in the search for self- knowledge. It is a novel which goes far beyond the story of a physical journey and asks what it means to be human, to be a woman, and to be at the mercy of forces beyond one's own control.

Spotlight:

Passing Clouds

by Graeme Leith

Graeme Leith-electrician, Italophile and jack of all trades-joined Melbourne's theatre collective at Carlton's famously innovative Pram Factory theatre and said, 'Let there be light.' And there was: Graeme Blundell, Jack Hibberd, Max Gillies and many others produced over 140 new Australian plays in ten years.

Like many of his generation, Graeme left suburban Australia in the 1950s, bound for London and Europe. After a stint in Britain's atomic weapons industry he rode his Lambretta scooter to Perugia in Italy, where he had his first taste of 'ethereal' wine and fell in love.

But Graeme had also fallen for the idea of making wine, and in the mid-1970s he and his partner Sue Mackinnon established Passing Clouds, a vineyard in Victoria's Spa Country that produced award-winning wines from the beginning.

Then tragedy struck. In 1984 Graeme's beautiful and talented daughter Ondine and her boyfriend David vanished en route to the South Coast of New South Wales. Ten days later their ute was found in Kings Cross, where it had been abandoned by their killers.

Heartfelt and heartbreaking, humorous and hilarious, Passing Clouds tells of a life fully lived-a life embracing the experience of fatherhood, of triumph and disaster, of joy and tragedy, of ingenuity and sheer hard work and, above all, an unquenchable optimism.

Spotlight:

Girl in a Band

by Kim Gordon

Often described as aloof, Kim Gordon opens up as never before in Girl in a Band. Telling the story of her family, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, her music, and her band, Girl in a Band is a rich and beautifully written memoir. Gordon takes us back to the lost New York of the 1980s and '90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, and the Alternative revolution in popular music the band helped usher in - paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and many other acts. But at its core, Girl in a Band examines what partnership means - and what happens when it dissolves.

Spotlight:

The Chocolate Promise

by Josephine Moon

Christmas Livingstone has ten rules for happiness, the most important of which is 'absolutely no romantic relationships'.

In The Chocolate Apothecary, her enchanting artisan store in Tasmania, she tempers chocolate and creates handmade delicacies. Surrounded by gifts for the senses, in this shop chocolate isn't just good for you, it's medicine.

And then one day a stranger arrives at her front door - a dishevelled botanist seeking her help. She really doesn't need Lincoln van Luc to walk into her life, even if he does have the nicest blue eyes, the loveliest meddling grandmother and a gorgeous newly rescued dog. She really doesn't need any of it. Or does she?

Set across Tasmania, Paris and Provence, this is a glorious novel of a creative woman about to find out how far in life a list of rules will take her, with an enticing tangle of freshly picked herbs, pots of flowers and lashings of chocolate scenting the air.

Spotlight:

Goodbye Sweetheart

by Marion Halligan

A successful lawyer, bon vivant, loving husband and father, has a heart attack and dies while swimming in the local pool. A man apparently happily married, yet, with two divorces behind him and three puzzled children. In death it seems that he is not the person everyone thought.

As his extended family gathers to mourn, secrets and lies unfold uncomfortably around them. Those pornographic images on his laptop? An unexpected lover - is he still philandering? But somewhere in the turmoil of mourning each of them has to find an answer to the question - who was this man really? What mysteries has he taken to the grave with him?

Goodbye Sweetheart is a powerful novel of love, the desire for understanding, and the inevitable messiness of life.

Spotlight:

Daughter of the Territory

by Jacqueline Hammar

Daughter of the Territory is the amazing life story of Jacqueline Hammar. Born in Darwin in 1929, Jacqueline's childhood was spent in a succession of bush towns before she was sent to school in Darwin. With the outbreak of World War Two, she moved to Brisbane to finish her education.

Returning to her beloved Territory, Jacqueline met and married stockman Ken Hammar, and they moved to a vast property in one of the most inaccessible areas of Australia, transporting corrugated iron and cutting down trees to build a crude hut to live in.

With only a kerosene stove, scant possessions and a bed, Jacqueline lived a harsh and isolated existence. Her determination and courage helped her survive many hardships, including having to eat pigweed and sweet potato vines when food was scarce. Meanwhile, she supported Ken as he turned huge tracts of wilderness into a prosperous million-acre cattle station.

Daughter of the Territory is a testament to a life well lived. Reminiscent of AB Facey's A Fortunate Life and Sara Henderson's From Strength to Strength, Jacqueline's life story is remarkable.

Spotlight:

Bearing Witness

by Peter Rees

'Peter Rees has done what no one else has managed: read the vast Bean archive and get inside the head of the most influential figure in Australia's military history. Rees's superb book shows how Bean bore witness to Australia's Great War.' - Professor Peter Stanley

'Part sophisticated military history, part story for a nation, Peter Rees provides a warm and deeply moving portrait of Charles Bean, one of the greatest Australians of the twentieth century.' - Michael McKernan

Charles Bean was Australia's greatest and most famous war correspondent. He is the journalist who told Australia about the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front. He is the historian who did so much to create the Anzac legend and shape the emerging Australian identity in the years after Federation. He is the patriot who was central to the establishment of one of this country's most important cultural institutions, the Australian War Memorial. Yet we know so little about him as a man. Bearing Witness rectifies that omission in our national biography.

This is the first complete portrait of Charles Bean. It is the story of a boy from Bathurst and his search for truth: in the bush, on the battlefield and in the writing of the official history of Australia's involvement in World War I. But beyond this, it is a powerful and detailed exploration of his life, his accomplishments and a marriage that sustained and enriched him.

Insightful, unexpected and compelling, Bearing Witness gives rich personality to a remarkable life.

Spotlight:

Prince of Afghanistan

by Louis Nowra

Black parachutes fall from the sky: young soldiers - and a dog - on a rescue mission in a remote part of Afghanistan.

But the mission ends in chaos, and Mark and Prince embark on a perilous journey through enemy territory. They depend on each other to survive.

A dramatic and powerful story of war and the bond between a young soldier and a dog, from the acclaimed author of Into That Forest.

Spotlight:

The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex

by Gabrielle Williams

A rock chick.

An artist with attitude.

A girl with a past.

A party animal.

Four lives collide when one of the world's most famous paintings is stolen. It's a mystery that has the nation talking, but while Picasso's Weeping Woman might be absent from the walls of the National Gallery, in other parts of Melbourne the controversial painting's presence is being felt by Guy, Rafi, Luke and Penny for four very different reasons.

Life, love, art and one giant party intersect in this offbeat comedy about good intentions, unexpected consequences and the irresistible force of true love.

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