UQP Modern Classics

This stylish reissue of one of Thea Astley's finest early novels is a classic story of small-town life. Two schoolteachers are drawn to each other by their concern for a lonely young girl. As long as Vinny Lalor could remember she had been on the fringe of things-in her family and at school. But as the final term of the year progresses, rumor and malice mount against Vinny and her two teachers, sweeping them toward scandal and, for one of them, disaster. A Descant for Gossips was Thea Astley's second novel, released in 1960 in England and Australia. In 1983 it was adapted for television by the ABC.

In this rollicking, irreverent tour de force, Kate Grenville rewrites the familiar past. Joan is a wife and mother of no great distinction, but in the life of her imagination she is on the front line of events, effortlessly subverting the solemnity of momentous occasions and cheerfully altering the course of history. First published in 1988, Joan Makes History was funded by the Australian Bicentennial Authority to celebrate 200 years of history.

Rediscover the dark magic of Barbara Hanrahan's visionary gothic novel. Nothing is as it seems in this twisted fairytale of moral ambiguity and corrupted innocence. Just as the tropical beauty of The Frangipani Gardens conceals its inherent menace, watercolour painter Doll lives a prim, respectable existence belying her wildest fantasies. But when her young niece and nephew come to stay, Doll's true self threatens to be exposed. Barbara Hanrahan was a prolific Australian visual artist and author, publishing fifteen books in under two decades. The Frangipani Gardens, first released in 1980, was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year, her second shortlisting for the award in as many years. Her bestselling semi-autobiographical novel The Scent of Eucalyptus remains in print.

Loving Daughters takes place in a small village in New South Wales and is a brilliant, unsentimental portrait of two sisters: one artistic and restless, the other houseproud and her father's favorite. The entry of an eligible young man into their lives creates a disturbing triangle of desire and rivalry.