'I was born into the war still raging inside my father.'
Ruth Clare's father came back from the Vietnam War a changed man: a violent, controlling parent and a dominating, aggressive husband. Through a childhood of being constantly on guard, with no one to protect her but herself, Ruth learned to be strong and fierce in the face of fear.
After escaping her difficult upbringing, Ruth went on to have a family of her own. Facing the challenges of parenting brought her past back to life, and she lived in fear that she was doomed to repeat her father's behaviour. Wanting to understand the experiences that had damaged her father, she met with other veterans and began listening to their stories, of war, conscription, returning to civilian life. What Ruth uncovered left her with a surprising empathy for the man who caused her so much pain and heartache.
Weaving a striking personal narrative with a revelatory exploration of the effects of war, Enemy is a bold, compelling and ultimately triumphant memoir from a hugely impressive new Australian writer.
'Ruth Clare brings history into the home with piercing intelligence, unflinching honesty and total, terrifying recall.' Clare Wright, author of the Stella Prize-winning The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka
'I was born into the war still raging inside my father.'
Ruth Clare's father came back from the Vietnam War a changed man: a violent, controlling parent and a dominating,…
Weaving together the uneasy meeting of two cultures,
The Pagoda Tree
is a captivating story of love, loss and fate.
Tanjore, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples of this ancient city in the heart of southern India. Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a
devadasi, a dancer for the temple. She is instructed in dance, the mystical arts and lovemaking. It is expected she will be chosen as a courtesan for the prince himself.
But as Maya comes of age, India is on the cusp of change and British dominance has risen to new heights. The prince is losing his power and the city is sliding into war. Maya is forced to flee her ancestral home, and heads to the bustling port city of Madras, where East and West collide.
Maya captivates all who watch her dance. Thomas Pearce, an ambitious young Englishman who has travelled to India to make his fortune, is entranced from the moment he first sees her. But their love is forbidden, and comes at enormous cost.
'Claire Scobie's seductive prose and immaculate layering of period detail capture India at her most exotic.' Susan Kurosawa
'Women's stories are rarely told in history, nor particularly honoured. The Pagoda Tree offers a powerful, sensual perspective on a time of great transformation in India.' Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow
'A rich and enthralling story handled with great skill by someone with a profound understanding of her material.' David Roach, screenwriter and film director
'A richly textured tale full of the sights, sounds and smells of India, with all its complex beauty and troubled history … ' Sydney Morning Herald
'A novel to be savoured … Its layering, the unravelling of the story, the subtext of the fortunes made and lost on cotton and silk, the evocative descriptions of saris themselves are all part of [its] tapestry.' The Age
'[The Pagoda Tree] offers new ways of seeing the past.' Canberra Times
'Scobie's prose is eloquent … a fascinating, unique plot representing an interesting era in [India's] history.' The Mercury
'A story told with great panache.' Country Style
'Claire Scobie travels a vast and exotic terrain in her first novel.' Weekly Review
'This first novel by Claire Scobie would make a spectacular film.' Goodreading Magazine
'A nuanced and sophisticated exploration of the socio-historical realities that are inevitable when cultures collide.' The Hoopla
Weaving together the uneasy meeting of two cultures,
The Pagoda Tree
is a captivating story of love, loss and fate.
Tanjore, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples…
Fred Scully waits at the arrival gate of an international airport, anxious to see his wife and seven-year-old daughter. After two years in Europe they are finally settling down. He sees a new life before them, a stable outlook, and a cottage in the Irish countryside that he's renovated by hand. He's waited, sweated on this reunion. He does not like to be alone - he's that kind of man. The flight lands, the glass doors hiss open, and Scully's life begins to go down in flames.
Fred Scully waits at the arrival gate of an international airport, anxious to see his wife and seven-year-old daughter. After two years in Europe they are finally settling down.…
It amazed me that they would imagine I would never walk again. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to break in wild horses and yell 'Ho! Ho!' and wave my hat in the air, and I was going to write a book like The Coral Island.
Every so often, there comes a story so brilliant and lively and moving that it cannot be left in the past. Rediscover the magic of our country's most memorable children's books in the Penguin Books Ltdtralia Children's Classics series of stories too precious to leave behind.
It amazed me that they would imagine I would never walk again. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to break in wild horses and yell 'Ho! Ho!' and wave my hat in the air,…
'Ruth Park . . . that steady glow at the heart of Australian literature.' Ruth Cracknell
Three of Ruth Park's best loved books – Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange – are brought together in this volume, tracing the saga of the Darcy family over thirty years. The story has its beginnings in the awkward courtship of dreamily innocent Margaret Kilker and unwilling hero Hugh Darcy in the dusty country towns of rural Australia. After their marriage, the couple moves to Sydney and raises a family amid the brothels, grog shops and run-down boarding houses of inner-city Surry Hills, where money is scarce and life is not easy. Here their daughter Roie grows up all too quickly, while younger daughter Dolour tries to make sense of a world in which loss and love go hand in hand.
Filled with beautifully drawn characters that will make you laugh as much as cry, Ruth Park's Australian classics take you from the barren landscapes of the outback to the colourful slums of Sydney with convincing depth, careful detail and great heart.
'Ruth Park . . . that steady glow at the heart of Australian literature.' Ruth Cracknell
Three of Ruth Park's best loved books – Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man's…
